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Both Milan and Sasha had become upset with their friend Elionor after they saw the two girls nearly get into a fist fight on the field. The two brothers had thought it was a dirty tackle on Elionor's part, and that Aimée had every right to be mad. Neither of them knew--or had any idea--that the real reason the girls had gotten into a fight was over the two of them. Aimée liked the two of them and didn't know which one to date, while Elionor wanted her friend to back off because she didn't want the brothers to get hurt in the end. 

Elionor tried to explain to them what had happened, but both of them were too upset at her to even listen. That drove an even deeper wedge in Aimée and Elionor's frienship, which their parents weren't very happy about.

Aimée's mother Valerie had been friends with Elionor's mother Ashley since they met at the university. They became quick friends and were still the best friends even after more than twenty years. Never did the two ever think that their daughters would end up in a fight like that, and no one really knew the reason for their spat.

It was a few days later when Aimée finally cooled off and realized that Elionor had been right. In stringing them both along, even though she was interested in both of them, she was only hurting them. She was tearing the two brothers apart and she needed to come to a decision. 

After hours of thinking about it, she finally decided on Milan, and felt as though she had made the right choice. Sasha was a world famous artist who would be touring the world and meeting all kinds of people while she would stay in Madrid taking care of her own career. She saw it as more plausible that Sasha would soon forget her once he got himself more immersed and distracted with his music and world tours. With Milan, she saw a relationship working better because distance wasn't going to be a big issue for them. He played for FC Barcelona, which was only a few hours of a flight away from her home town. She also considered that it would be more difficult to avoid Milan because he was so close.

Aimée liked both of them just the same, but in the end she decided on the one she felt more safe around. Milan was a footballer just like her and came from a world she already knew. Sasha was from an entirely different world that she wasn't sure if she would be able to fit in.

She asked to meet up with Sasha in person, as this was something she didn't want to do over the phone. They met up at her house and he arrived with a smiling face, in hopes that his querida had chosen him. But upon arriving, he saw the serious look upon her face and his own smile dropped into a look of worry. Aimée led him silently into the living room of her house and asked him to sit on the couch where she sat right next to him. 

"I'm assuming you'll give me some bad news." Sasha guessed, biting down on his bottom lip nervously.

Aimée gave a nod of her head. "Sasha, I've really enjoyed talking to you these past couple of months. But I thought things really hard and I realized that I love Milan, and I want to be with him." Her voice got smaller as she had finished her sentence and her blue eyes burned with tears.

He sat there frozen, with no response at first. And then an inner pain flashed in his eyes. He looked like he wanted to say more than he did, and the only words that left his lips were, "I understand." He told her with a nod, and he slowly picked himself back on his feet and walked toward the front door to the house.

She wanted to stop him, but there really wasn't much more for them to say to each other. The blonde broke out into tears as she heard the door close behind him. She had chosen Milan because it was the most comfortable choice, and she loved him just the same. But knowing that she was losing Sasha made her heart ache. He had been so good to her, and he didn't deserve the pain she was causing him. Aimée knew it was for the best. She needed to come to her decision before everyone ended up hurt. 

She sat on her living room couch, crying into her hands.

-

Instead of going back to his parents house, where he would be staying for the week, Sasha went instead to his older brother's house. He stood outside the apartment door, hitting the doorbell button to get him to unlock his room door. When Milan did, Sasha made his way expertly up the stairs that led to Milan's flat.

The older brother opened the door with a smile, glad to see that his brother had returned from another business trip. But instead he was met with a hostile glare, which was uncharacteristic for his younger brother Sasha. He was always so happy and optimistic about everything. It was hard to imagine him upset at something. But there he was, standing out in the hall blue eyes filled with a glare that if looks could kill, Milan would have dropped dead the moment he opened the door.

"Why'd you have to do that, Milan?" Sasha accused, his words full of hurt.

"Do what?" Milan wondered, stepping aside to let his brother into the flat. He sensed that there was an argument about to unfold and he didn't want it ventilating to the heavens where people would spread gossip about him all over the tabloids.

Sasha pushed past his older brother and stepped into the living room area. Once the front door was closed behind them, he clarified, "Take the girl I wanted. I really liked her, Milan, and I know how you are with girls. You don't take them seriously, you just want to have your fun with them. Why her? Why'd you have to do that?"

Now Milan knew that this was about Aimée Kroos, though he should have figured all along. 

"This is different, Sasha. You don't understand." Milan explained with a sigh. "I really like her."

"But I saw her first." Sasha argued, his bright eyes darkening with tears that wanted to escape. He was truly feeling betrayed more by his brother than by Aimée Kroos. "And you're my brother, my best friend, the only one I could trust--or thought I could trust. You should have backed off."

Milan gave a shake of his head. "I liked her since we were kids and I used to tease her about her pig tails. It was all to get her attention. Then she and her family moved away and I thought I'd never see her again."

"I asked her out first." Sasha pointed out, trying to make his brother see how betrayed he was feeling. "And then you went and started talking to her behind my back. That's low, Milan, even for you. But-" He paused for a moment before he continued, swallowing the lump in his throat. "I'm gonna do the same to you. She may be your girlfriend, but I'm never gonna stop talking to her and letting her know how much I like her."

The older brother scoffed. "She chose me, Sasha. Do us all a favor and get over it, stop humiliating yourself."

Sasha pointed an index finger at his brother menacingly. "You've been warned."

Then he stormed out of the apartment. Just like Aimée and Elionor's relationship, the one between the two brothers was broken.

-

It was a week after Aimée had chosen Milan and Sasha had long since left Spain. He had apparently moved to Valencia for a few months while the final details of his tour were arranged so that he could put some distance between himself and his older brother who he was no longer speaking to, and in that week that had passed, there were already rumors of another album by Sasha. 

Aimée and Milan were driving around town on a weekend together when they heard a new song on the radio being announced, "Just months after his album El Meu Amor, which has been a total success in Spain and Latin America, as well as with the Spanish speaking USA population...Sasha brings us yet another album titled Las Fatigas del Querer! The Fatigues of Love will feature the hit song Aimée, Pt. II. And we have it here today for you folks! You won't hear it anywhere else but on Catalan radio today!"

Aimée felt her heart ache when she heard Sasha's voice echo in Milan's car.

"Aimée," The song started as though he were in the very same car as them. "I've noticed that you...have no mercy on me." 

Before she could hear the rest of the song, Milan reached over, suddenly in a bad mood and turned off the radio. He snarled, "My brother suddenly turned into the male Taylor Swift." Aimée had only heard of that singer before. She had been famous when her mother was young, and she was known for writing music about how her exes were terrible guys. But she had looked up the rest of the lyrics for Sasha's song and none of them spoke negative things about her. His lyrics were filled with nothing but positive things about the person who had hurt his feelings. If anything, they were mostly about his hopes that they would be together one day.

His voice had sounded so defeated and melancholy that it almost brought a fresh wave of tears to her eyes.

As much as it hurt and as much as she was the reason for his pain, she still stood by her choice. 

She was happy with Milan.

-

i think as of now there are four more updates for this story to be wrapped up. then there will be a part two to this called 'barca girls', and that one will be about little leon kroos (all grown up of course), and his soon to be announced love interest. 

i hope you have all liked this story and have found it interesting. i have certainly found it very different when it came to writing it because i had to take many things into consideration.

but thank you all for reading and supporting this story.

-clary xx