BACKGROUND BUSINESS → LUCY BRONZE
𓆩♡𓆪 pairing: lucy bronze x lioness!reader 𓆩♡𓆪 blurb: euros camp is going great, really. there's successful training sessions, good camaraderie, and even fun online challenges. unfortunately, sometimes those challenges catch unwanted things in the background. you and lucy learn this the hard way. 𓆩♡𓆪 word count: 3.5k 𓆩♡𓆪 warnings: accidental relationship exposure, two curse words but it's mainly fluff/bad humour
The lounge area of camp is a hubbub of activity as always, especially after your win against the Netherlands. Everyone knows they can’t afford to relax just yet, with one group game still to go, but there is a much more pleasant atmosphere than after the loss to France. It feels like the whole team is gathered in the lounge area, spread amongst the different tables as they loudly chatter amongst themselves. Most of the noise fades into the background to you. You’re fairly used to blocking out the chaos around you and honing focus on whoever is in your direct vicinity. In football, that’s a skill you have to build.
So, whilst you’re sure something interesting is happening in the corner from Tooney’s screams of delight, and the laughter that floats over occasionally, you give your full attention to the current conversation at your table.
You’re relaxed on a sofa against the wall, Lucy next to you as she remains in deep discussion with Beth and Georgia on the chairs across from you. They’re discussing penalties, statistics and mathematical decisions you don’t particularly understand. You’re mainly there for the company and to add in the occasional exclamation about great goalkeepers you’ve faced – the maths side means nothing to you. It was never a favourite subject of yours; in fact you would have been quite happy if you never had to face a maths equation again. Even if it was two plus two.
It excites Lucy, though. That goes without saying. Beth mentions probability, and Lucy launches into it, an excited grin on her face as she raises her hands in motion.
You turn your head to the side, watching how Lucy’s eyes crease with excitement over the statistics she knows, and your heart swells at the sight. The two of you could not be more different in your opinions on the subject, but you don’t care. You could listen to your girlfriend talk stats all day (something she utilises whenever you’re at home in London).
By now, after near two years together, you’re plenty used to Lucy going off on one of her famous tangents. It doesn’t matter if it’s in the worst possible time, you would never interrupt her. You may not like math yourself, but hearing the woman you love get excited over her passions and interests? That you like.
Lucy barely passes a glance your way as Beth enthuses about statistics from your recent game, but she casually lifts her arm in an invitation that allows you to settle under it. You waste no time shuffling into her embrace, and Lucy’s hand settles just below your shoulder with a practiced ease. Her fingers immediately start to trace small circles against your exposed skin, yet the conversation doesn’t dull.
Georgia doesn’t care much for the maths side either, but her voice breaks through when Lucy mentions the percentage divide in shots on target “Hey! It’s not my fault De Almeida is like a brick wall to get past on that right-hand side!” She sits back with her arms crossed, a pout on her face although it’s playful in nature, “If I remember correctly some of us were being run in circles by Baltimore.”
You finally gasp, piping up in your conversation in defence of your girlfriend “Sandy is like a rocket when she runs down that side, catching her is like trying to lick your own elbow-–” Beth cuts you off with a cackle at that odd analogy “How much coffee have you been drinking, Y/L/N?”
“She’ll tell you only two cups, but I saw her sneak a third after lunch.” Lucy teases, her arm tightening briefly around your body. You glance up towards her with a pout that matches Georgia’s, but Lucy only grins at Beth as they slip back into an easy conversation. “Statistically–”
That’s all you really catch. The second numbers are thrown out, you once again allow the conversation to fade into the background. Or, at least, that is what your excuse would be. The truth is somewhere down the line, you lose track entirely. Percentages are thrown around the group, voices grow louder, and suddenly Lucy’s voice is changing.
It happens sometimes when she's excited. Even after two years, living together for six months of that, it still catches you off guard. Her accent shifts and changes until suddenly it’s like she had never left Northumberland in her teenage years. You imagine this is how she’d sounded as a child, thick Northern twang lumped on to the end of every sentence. Every few words, something intelligible passes through, though to you, it’s mostly just accented jumbles. You give a helpless look across the table to see if Beth and Georgia are struggling as much as you, only to find them hanging onto every word.
Without thinking about it, you turn her chin towards you with a gentle touch and plant a kiss on her lips. It’s short, barely a second long, but it’s enough to make Lucy stumble in her tracks and look at you with a cheesy grin. “What was that for?” she mumbles, clearly fighting the blush rising to her cheeks.
“You were getting too Northern.” You admit with a slight shrug. “It was the only way to stop you.”
Lucy’s sheepish expression shifts into something more smug. She closes the gap, nuzzling her nose against your cheek as she whispers “I can think of a few other ways.”
She wasn’t quiet enough, it turns out, if the gagging sounds from across the sofa are anything to go by.
–
Esme is sitting in bed when her phone buzzes on the side.
Then it buzzes again.
And again.
It’s practically vibrating away from the bedside table by the time she reaches over to pick it up.
The source of the notifications is quickly clear, her notification centre listing quite a few actions on TikTok. Of course, she had expected a few, but the video she posted a mere thirty minutes ago seemed to be gaining traction quicker than she usually expected.
Intrigued, Esme loads the video and clicks onto the comments. Her voice blares out the speakers in the background, but it’s all passing noise as she focuses on the most popular comments that appear at the top. They all seem to follow a similar theme.
One user has commented, all enthusiastically in large letters ‘ESME DID YOU MEAN TO POST THIS 😭’. Another has simply left a bunch of question marks. Esme frowns, fairly certain the video she had recorded that morning was nothing but a little bit of fun. One comment catches her eye more than anything, a tad more direct than the ones before. @/user3506: did lucy and y/n know they were in the background of this???
Esme frowns to herself, but clicks off the comments and restarts her own video. It starts normally, another random TikTok challenge she had convinced her teammates to get involved in. The video starts with Esme introducing the challenge, a simple intuition game to say the same thing as your partner on the count of three. The first duo in the video is Lauren Hemp and Esme herself, and their attempt is as chaotic on the rewatch as Esme remembers it being at the time.
Next, the camera turns to Alessia and Ella to attempt the same thing. For a moment, Esme is distracted by the fit of giggles the duo descend into on screen when their answers are wildly different.
Then she sees it.
As Ella laughs, loudly and without inhibition, she practically folds over herself. Her shoulders move to centre screen, and behind her in the shot is Lucy and Y/N.
That would be fine on any other day. Lucy’s arm is around Y/N’s shoulder as she talks to their teammates, but that isn’t an uncommon situation around the Lionesses camp.
What is a little more uncommon is Y/N leaning in to land a kiss on Lucy’s lips.
Ella moves back into position then, and the duo in the background disappear. The damage, however, is already done.
Esme drops her phone when it buzzes again, this time more consistently. The screen lights up with a name; it’s only Leah, but she knows exactly what it is about.
She is so doomed.
–
Staying up past curfew hours during camp was a bad habit of yours, but it is always hard not to be awake for hours when you’re rooming with Hannah.
Hannah reminded you of a younger sibling, which made nights together in your shared room feel more like sleepovers where you were hiding from the adults. Most nights you ended up in one bed, cuddled under the sheets as you watched some Disney movie quietly and sang along under your breath. If Sarina or one of the coaching staff had heard, they would surely reprimand the both of you for staying up far too late.
It was why they had paired you with Hannah in the first place, hoping that the two of you, fairly new to each other’s company, would bring out positive habits in one another. They hadn’t roomed you with Lucy on purpose as they knew the two of you would be a fitness coach’s nightmare.
Little did Sarina know that on the first night sharing a room, Hannah and yourself had grown closer than you were with anyone else in the Squad.
Well, besides your girlfriend of course.
By now, the clock fast approaching two in the morning, you were almost certain you’d be the only two awake in camp. Which is why it was such a surprise when your phone buzzed in your lap.
Hannah looked over at the sound, her eyes wide. She’d had the same thought as you it seemed; that one of the coaches had walked past your room and was now reprimanding you for being awake.
You only picked the device up when it buzzed a second time, scowling in confusion when you saw that the notifications were actually from Esme.
esme m: PLEASE DON’T HATE ME
esme m: IT WAS AN ACCIDENT I’M SO SORRY
“What’s she talking about?” Hannah asked. You turned with a shrug to find her looking at the text over your shoulder.
You look back at the text thread with equal parts confusion and concern “I have no clue.”
Just as your fingers hovered over the letters to respond, a knock came on your door. You and Hannah looked at each other at the same time, a slight ominous atmosphere filling the room.
It took a moment for you to drag yourself out of bed. Your feet hit the floor with a gentle pad, and you could feel the dull ache in your heels from that day’s training session. Once you were gone, Hannah seemed to pull the covers further up towards her chest if that was even possible. You didn’t blame her, this whole situation was very out of the ordinary.
Creeping as slowly as you could, you made your way to the bedroom door. A part of you thought that if you took your time, the mystery visitor would vanish before you arrived. Something, an energy, told you that this wasn’t the case.
You had barely lowered the handle before the door pushed open with the force of someone leaning on it and a figure stumbled inside. In the chaos and dim lighting it actually took you a moment to recognise your girlfriend.
“Lucy?” You questioned as she straightened up, looking at the TV screen first before coming back to you “Is everything okay?”
Lucy took a second to recover, her brain clearly still processing your alertness in comparison to her own groggy demeanour. It was clear whatever the disturbance was, it had woken her up.
When she didn’t respond, you prompted once more “Hello? Earth to Lucia-”
“Have you not seen?” She blinked down at you, confused. The TV glow cast a slight shadow over face, accentuating what you could only assume were frown lines from the situation.
Your words came out slowly, careful as you gauged the situation “Seen what..?”
Hannah had clearly filled herself in on the situation, for there was a gasp coming from the bed. She practically leapt over to stand between you and the defender. Her phone was being thrust in your face, screen recordings from a TikTok video that had clearly been deleted, but fans were already sharing on Twitter.
You yelped when you saw it. You and Lucy, kissing in the background. It was a clear image as well, you wouldn’t even be able to blame it on bad angles or lighting. Your heads were both turned to the side, and the camera had a perfect view of your interlocked lips. The kiss had been so small, so fast in your memory, but the video seemed to make it stretch out for hours.
Glancing down at the name of the original poster, it all suddenly made sense, and you had never been more torn.
On the one hand, you wanted to scream in frustration. You and Lucy had worked so hard to keep your relationship a secret. Dynamics within football, and within teams especially could become complicated. Football was inherently political, and the two of you had wanted the privacy to figure out your own things. By the time your relationship had blossomed into something consistent, Lucy had transferred to Chelsea, and that gave a new level of why you didn’t want the relationship being exposed. Playing for Arsenal yourself, you had never wanted situations to arise where coaches or high profile club members used you against one another for their own gain. It was something you and Lucy had always been very adamant about. In fact, the only people who really knew about your relationship were your national teammates and coaching staff and your families.
On the other hand, your heart ached for poor Esme. You could practically picture her sitting in her own room, a shaking ball of anxiety. The thought made you sigh as you looked back up at your girlfriend.
Lucy was a private person, that much was obvious. She had never particularly been one to show off her personal life beyond Narla, and you had always agreed on that. Despite this, you knew that she didn’t have as much to lose as you considering how hard she had already fought to make a name for herself. You were up and coming, and something like this could shift the way the public viewed you if you weren’t to handle it correctly.
And so, when you met her eyes you could read her thoughts clear as day. She wasn’t bothered about the video coming out for her own sake; she was concerned for you. The way she watched you said it all, her expression screaming the question: Are you okay?
You took a deep breath, the air around you feeling too warm under her concerned gaze. All you could do was take a step back and sit on the end of your own bed. Lucy followed you immediately, opting not to sit but crouch down in front of you. For a moment you nearly forced her back up, worried for her existing leg injury, but you knew you would be foolish to try and stop her from fretting over you.
Hannah remained where she was, and when you looked back over at her, you saw her creeping away with a timid, yet knowledgeable smile. Somewhere in the madness, she had grabbed some personal items from the side, mainly her phone charger and book. Through the silence she whispered “I’ll give you guys some space.”
Lucy nodded, but she didn’t turn her head away from watching you. She simply offered “LJ is alone now in our room if you want to go there” and then focused all of her attention on your expression.. You assumed Hannah nodded at that, but all you heard was the door closing before Lucy’s hands were taking your own and your brain was shutting down. “This is okay, right?” You mumbled, scared to speak too loudly to break the solace of the space. Lucy simply pursed her lips, letting out a heavy breath “It is if you want it to be.”
You considered her for a moment. Crouched down in front of you almost as though she were in worship. Looking into her eyes that were filled with so much care and concern made your heart stop. Every time you and Lucy looked at one another, you thought it was impossible for her gaze to ever appear more loving than the time before. You were always wrong. Every relationship you had been in before had never made you understand what people meant when they called it the ‘look of love’. How could someone express so much just with their eyes, after all? Lucy taught you how. You knew she loved you before she even said it the first time, all from the way she watched you.
The way she held your gaze now made all of the tightness in your chest melt away.
So, instead of freaking out like you had wanted to moments ago, you simply reached your thumb and forefinger up to tap her chin. Lucy responded with ease, allowing you to tilt her chin further up. With the new angle, you were able to lean forward and down, kissing her like your life depended on it. Which sometimes you felt like it did. Lucy moved fast, stretching up onto her knees until she was level with you. Her hand snaked from your knee to the back of your neck, leaving a trail of goosebumps along your pyjama clad skin. When her fingers tangled in the hair at the back of your neck, you were tugged closer to her body; further into the kiss. You welcomed it with a content sigh into Lucy’s mouth, the action being met with a small tug to your hair.
By the time you broke apart you were breathless, and it seemed your girlfriend was too. She leaned her forehead against yours, hand releasing your hair but slipping around to cup your chin.
The two of you stayed there like that for a while, before you broke the silence with a whisper. Whether quiet or not, you were certain of the one thing that made everything easier. “I love you.”
Lucy pulled back slightly, looking you in the eye with a hesitant smile. You could see her cocked eyebrow though, questioning how you had gotten here from your previous panic.
“I just realised that it doesn’t matter if the world knows or not,” you offered, a quiet confidence moving through your shoulders “I love you and that’s all that does matter.”
Your girlfriend watched you quizzically, then with amusement, and finally with a sort of disbelief. “You’re so fucking cheesy.”
“Good job you’re not lactose intolerant–”
“Get out!”
“This is my room!”
Then she was kissing you again, this time through a smile that you shared. It made the action a little harder, more teeth than anything as you both giggled into it, but you could care less. This time, when she pulled away, you both knew the answer to how you were going to handle it.
“At least this means I can post photos of you and Naz now.” Lucy offered, and you had to laugh over that being the first thing on her mind.
You smiled anyway, tugging Lucy up to sit on the bed with you. She did so with some effort, clearly feeling the ache in her leg although she would deny it if you asked. It didn’t stop you from placing your hand on her thigh with a gentle massaging motion, though.
Suddenly you froze, straightening up “God–I need to go speak to Esme! She must be so panicked!”
Somehow through your fear, you had started making moves to leave the room, but Lucy’s hands linked around your waist to stop you. Instead of tugging you back to the bed, she managed to angle you into her lap.
“She’s okay, don’t worry,” Lucy chuckled, the sound vibrating close to your ear, “Lauren is with her. I’ve said we’ll talk about it in the morning.”
That placated you at least, and you allowed yourself to go limp in her arms, not bothering to give a full response. “Although I reckon we should have some fun with her.” Lucy perked up again, an idea clearly popping into her head “We could pretend it’s made us fall out–”
“No!” You cut off immediately, laughing at the way Lucy’s eyes sparkled with mischief. You wouldn’t think she was the oldest on the team sometimes from the way she acted. “We are not doing that to the poor girl!”
“Oh come on, not even a little prank?”
“No, go to sleep.”
Lucy looked around the room, acutely aware of the now empty space, and you in her lap. She’d only gotten halfway through the eyebrow wiggle and a “Well, if we’ve got the place to ourselves…” before you picked yourself up from her lap and walked around to the bedside with a groan.
“You’re gross and insatiable!”
“What? I was suggesting we finish The Lion King, you know it’s my favourite. God get your mind out of the gutter woman!”
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a/n: hello hello. did i create a whole new side blog for this just because the idea has been running around in my mind for the last month? maybe. oops. more to come. live laugh lucy bronze. all that.
