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It had been a couple if long months since Sasha had left Spain, running away to immerse himself in his career after the young woman that he loved had chosen his brother. In a moment of anger and jealousy, he had promised his older brother Milan that he wouldn't give up on Aimée Kroos. He would fight until he could win her love. But that wasn't the problem. She loved both of them, but she had decided that she would be better off with Milan, a person she had the same career as, a person who she would be able to see every week if she wanted to.

Sasha hardly contacted Aimée, thought it was very hard for him. He watched her matches online and spent the next few months writing more music. His period of broken hearted lyrics were past him and now his songs were upbeat again, and they mostly  talked about how he loved a woman who he hoped would realize he was the best thing for her.

Each time Milan listened to his brother on the radio, and he was in the car with Aimée, he would switch it off in anger and just about wanted to tear his ears off. 

He had definitely made an effort to patch things up with his younger brother, but that didn't change the fact that Sasha was still in love with Aimée. 

Soon it was summer time and Milan was given a month of vacation before the pre-season games and friendlies would fill his schedule. FC Barcelona planned to have a tour of the Unites States, as they did almost every summer, because they always had great attendance at their games on American soil. He used that month of free time to support Aimée who had gotten on the women's national team for Spain, after debating with herself for weeks as to which side she wanted to choose. 

Since she was Spanish, German, and Irish, she had three teams to choose from. In the end her heart went with Spain, which had been the country where she loved most of her life.

His girlfriend had gotten picked for the twenty three woman squad that would represent the country at the women's world cup that would be played at home. Elionor had also been called to represent Spain, and Milan wasn't sure how the two girls would react upon seeing each other on the pitch again, this time on the same team. The media pitted them against each other, already aware of the drama between them, and Milan knew he would need to talk to the two of them and ask for them to patch their relationship.

The country was soon ready for the opening match against Spain and Portugal, who had been placed in the group along with the host country. 

From the moment the game started, Milan kept his eye on both girls. Neither of them would pass the ball to the other and Spain missed several opportunities to score because of them. Aimée shot Elionor glares every few minutes, and Elionor did the same. On the bench, their coach was quickly getting tired of their attitude towards each other because it was bringing negative results from the team. He stood at the edge of his area, yelling commands at each of them, asking them to pass the ball to each other, but neither would listen. The people in the stands angrily chanted bench! bench! and everyone knew they were talking about Aimée Kroos and Elionor Bartra. Their coach didn't want that, they were two of his greatest players on the field who came from the best teams in the country. He would first have a serious talk with them during the half time break.

After an agonizing first half in which it was a miracle that Portugal hadn't been able to capitalize off the host's mistakes, Spain retreated into the tunnel for their half time break. The moment the two girls stepped off the pitch, their coach caught up to them, his face red with anger. "For fucks sake, girls. What was happening out there? You two didn't give a single pass to each other the entire first half." He asked them.

"I refuse to play alongside Kroos." Elionor crossed her arms over her chest defiantly.

"Then bench her." Aimée suggested.

"I'll bench both of you if you don't stop this childishness. Your personal problems with each other have no place on this team. Have at least an ounce of professionalism and get your shit together right fucking now before you continue to make fools of yourselves out on the pitch." He threatened, raising his eyebrows at them before he stormed off to talk with his assistant. 

Aimée heaved a sigh and placed her hand on Elionor's shoulder to stop her from walking. When the dark haired Catalan turned to her with a glare, the blonde asked, "Why are you still so upset with me? I picked Milan." Again, she suspected that maybe Elionor was so upset because she was in love with Milan. 

"I'm mad because it was too late." She spat with venom dripping off every word. "You hurt Sasha, and now he won't talk to me because he thinks I was mean to you for no reason. And Milan won't talk to me because he's convinced that I'm on Sasha's side, which is totally untrue. I can't take sides between the two of them." She let Aimée know exactly what Sasha had said to her. "Do you know how fucked up that is, Aimée? Milan and Sasha are like my brothers, and they're so blinded by you that they think I'm the villain here. You were the one playing with their feelings."

"I wasn't playing, when will you understand that?" Aimée argued, her eyes looking to the heavens. "I liked both of them. And--" She offered, hoping it would patch things up with Elionor. "I'll talk to Milan and explain that you're just looking out for him. He'll understand."

Elionor heaved a sigh. "The best I can do for now is actually pass you the ball. But I'm still peeved at you."

Aimée shrugged her shoulders. "That's good enough for now."

The second half transpired much more smoothly than the first. It had been like an entirely new set of players had gone out to the field, even if no modifications had been made. With the two girls working together now, Spain had been able to score one goal to win the match with a minimal advantage, but the Spanish side celebrated it euphorically.

In the stands, Aimée saw Milan with a Spain jersey. He also had two flags wrapped around him, the one of Spain and the one of Catalunya.

Once the game ended and the stands cleared, the families and friends of the players had been allowed onto the field to congratulate them. Milan was the first to make it onto the pitch of the Bernabeu in the capital of Spain to congratulate his girlfriend. It wasn't his idea of the ideal venue for the first victory of the tournament, but it would have to do. He ran towards Aimée and Elionor, pulling both of them into his arms for a tight hug.

"Dammit Milan!" Elionor complained in mock annoyance, pushing him away. "I always feel like you're gonna break my rib cage when you hug me."

"Shut up, noia." Girl, he called her in their native language of Catalunya. "You love when I hug you."

They really were like brother and sister, Aimée thought to herself.

"Lies." She laughed.

He hugged Aimée next, in an embrace of her own and kissed her softly on the lips. His movements with her were far softer and gentler, while with Elionor they were a bit rougher, the way siblings often did with each other, whenever they were trying to annoy their sibling. "Great game, hermosa." He told her with a grin before he kissed her again.

When Elionor was standing there awkwardly, Milan suggested something to her, "Aimée's older brother Leon came with me. Why don't you go keep him company?" Milan winked at the dark haired Catalan girl who was his childhood friend.

Elionor crinkled up her nose. "Madrid boys? I'll pass."

"Hey!" Aimée complained playfully, shooting Elionor a raspberry. "Leon isn't super annoying like most brothers are. I think you'd like him."

But instead of staying there with the two of them and continuing to third wheel, she actually went to sit by Leon Kroos who was in the stands, clicking away on his cellphone. He hadn't wanted to go congratulate his younger sister just yet because he knew that she would be too busy kissing Milan to pay him any attention. Aimée's parents thought the same and waited until they could visit her at the hotel where the team was staying, or at open practices. They wanted to give her the time alone with her boyfriend.

They were talking about the game, with Aimée critiquing what could have done better, when Milan's phone vibrated with a notification. The Catalan drew his phone out of his pocket to check what it was from. His eyes narrowed into thin slits as he saw a twitter badge on his screen.

Sasha had posted a video and tagged him in it, but he had also tagged Aimée.

The blonde immediately noticed the way Milan's mood had changed and asked him, "What's wrong, amor?" She placed a hand on his arm to draw the phone near to her and that was when she saw the notification.

Milan clicked play and they watched the video together. "Congratulations to my cuñada Aimée Kroos on winning her first game at the women's world cup with the national team!" In the video he wore a red Spain jersey with her name and number on the back, and with him was a young woman who hadn't said anything through the entire video. But Aimée's heart dropped because now everyone would be able to connect that she was the Aimée from Sasha's songs, and that she was dating Sasha's older brother Milan.

And Milan wasn't exactly happy about the video either because it meant that Sasha still cared about Aimée.

-

there are two more updates before this story ends. thank you all so much for reading and supporting this story. i'll try to have the updates posted by the end of this week so that i can focus on some of my other stories and finish those as well.

have a great week!

-clary xx