Work Text:
(Y/N) POV
I sighed as I laid on my couch watching Christmas movies. It was weird. In just a couple of days, I would be spending my first Christmas alone. I hadn’t thought that I would be spending Christmas without my parents so soon. Maybe when I was a lot older than 19, but that wasn’t the case.
I hadn’t mentioned it to anyone on the national team that I wasn’t going to be celebrating Christmas this year. They all had their own families to celebrate with. After how busy we had been this year with the World Cup, I didn’t want anyone else to not have to spend time with their families. I didn’t want the team to feel like they had to do something for me anyways.
I was broken out of my train of thought by a knocking on the door. I furrowed my brow as I looked over at my door. I wasn’t supposed to be getting any visitors. I supposed it could have been the mailman bringing me one of my many Amazon packages. But he could leave that by the door.
My phone dinged. I sighed and grabbed it off of the coffee table from in front of me. It was from Alyssa which was kind of weird considering we didn’t spend that much time together. Before I could even read the text message, Sonnett’s face popped up on my screen. I accepted the call.
“(Y/N), open the door,” Sonnett demanded before I could even say anything. I was just even more confused. I had no idea what she was talking about.
“What door, Sonny?”
“What door? Your front door! We’re the ones knocking, you idiot. It’s freezing out here!” Sonnett claimed. I heard others echoing her statement around her. I shook my head but got up to open the front door.
I was surprised to see all of my teammates standing outside. Before I could say anything, Alyssa and AD were dragging me inside of the house so the other women could follow them in. Once they were all inside of my house, Alyssa sat me down.
“It’s cold out there, (Y/N),” Alyssa said. I knew that that’s why I had stayed inside where it was warm. “It was cruel to ignore us.”
“What are you guys doing here?” I yawned. We hadn’t made plans for them to show up at my house. Especially not this close to Christmas.
“Are you tired? It’s like noon,” Tobin pointed out. I rolled my eyes at her because I hadn’t gotten that much sleep. “Even I’m up by now.”
“I didn’t go to sleep until like 3 this morning,” I shrugged. I knew that it wasn’t ideal since I got up early to workout. “I haven’t been sleeping that good. Being a World Cup winner and playing college soccer means there’s a lot of pressure and I have to pass all of my finals.”
Some of the women threw me understanding looks. I had been traveling a lot this semester between my national team duties and my college team duties. On top of that, I wasn’t allowed to get behind in my classes.
“So, why are you guys here?”
“Well, we were talking about Christmas traditions and I told Lindsey that I wish my family would do a cookie exchange with each other,” Rose admitted. I lightly smiled at the old tradition my parents had started when I was a kid. “Lindsey pointed out that you probably wouldn’t be doing that this year cause of the car crash. So, I called everyone else and we all made cookies to do a USWNT family cookie exchange.”
“And I hope you haven’t sent any of us presents,” Kelley butted in. I hadn’t. It seemed too impersonal for me to just send their presents in the mail. “We all brought you your presents.”
“Where’s the tree? We have to have a tree to put the presents under,” Sam cried out. Everyone turned to look at me.
“I didn’t put it up this year,” I shrugged. Some jaws dropped and suddenly I had different voices telling me that I should have a tree up. “It’s just me! Okay?” The voices stopped and I took in a deep breath. “I’m in college and I haven’t had that much time off. I went from US team duties to college team duties. On top of that, it’s just me. My Mom and Dad, they’re gone. So, I didn’t plan on celebrating Christmas with anyone. I didn’t have a reason to put to a tree up.”
Silence filled the space around us and I had to bite my lip to keep it from trembling as I kept the tears at bay. I had found myself not wanting to celebrate Christmas at all this year. I was taken back by surprise when a pair of arms wrapped themselves around me. Before I knew it, it was just one big group hug.
“I get that your parents aren’t here anymore, but we are still your family. Okay? We became your family the moment you showed up for your first camp,” Christen said. I wrapped my arms around her as she was the first one to me. “I get it. I know, it’s hard. Never forget this group of women right here, we are your family no matter what anyone else says.”
We stayed in the hug for a few more minutes before people slowly started to break from the hug. I smiled at Christen when she pulled away. Maybe having Christmas with the girls was just what I needed.
“Hey, (Y/N),” Julie called out. I turned to look at the midfielder. “Where are all of your Christmas decorations? Don’t act like you don’t have any, I know you do. I’ve seen them in the pictures.”
“We’ve always kept them in the attic.”
“How do we get to it?” Julie asked.
I grabbed onto her arm and started to pull her back outside. Julie started to fight against my grip, but I only grinned and continued to pull her with me. Once we were outside, Julie groaned but I pointed up to the hatch.
“Attic’s up there,” I smirked at Julie.
“I hate you.”
“You love me.”
I headed back inside and Julie followed me. She recruited some of the others to help her while I was dragged to my kitchen. I was surprised to see Alex and Ali both looking around in my kitchen. I wasn’t sure what they were looking for, but I knew that they probably wouldn’t find it.
“What are you guys looking for?” I asked.
“You have nothing in this kitchen,” Alex turned to look at me immediately. She looked disappointed. “Why is there nothing in your kitchen? No Christmas food. No hot chocolate. How are we supposed to have Christmas dinner with you?”
“Hot chocolate costs too much for me to keep all the time. Food for Christmas isn’t cheap either,” I pointed out. I didn’t exactly have it easy with my situation. I had been lucky that my parents paid off the house and left it to me. “Besides, I’m spending Christmas by myself so why would I spend a lot of money on food if it’s just going to be me?”
I was surprised when Becky snatched the list off of the fridge that held my normal grocery list. I hadn’t even realized that she was in the kitchen. Becky scanned over the list before grabbing a pen and adding stuff to it.
“AD, Alyssa, come on!” Becky yelled out for the two goalkeepers. It didn’t take either long to get into the kitchen. Becky turned to look at me. “We’re going to the store. We’re getting hot chocolate and everything we need for Christmas dinner tonight. We are also getting you stuff to make your cookies.”
“You guys don’t have to do that,” I said as they started to leave. Becky turned around to look at me as they continued to walk out. “I can do that.”
“Too late.”
I turned to look at Alex and Ali. Neither of them looked impressed with me. I wasn’t sure what I had done now. There was no telling why they didn’t look happy with me.
“What?”
“You shouldn’t let yourself run out of food,” Ali scolded.
“I’m not out of food,” I defended. I opened one of the cabinets and smiled at the two Orlando players. “See? I have Ramen. College student’s favorite.”
“It isn’t real food,” Alex scoffed. I sighed because I knew that I shouldn’t just eat Ramen, but I couldn’t help it sometimes. “Not the real food that you need. Look, you just take a nap. We all know that you need it.”
“But the cookies.”
“Becky, Alyssa, and AD went to get you the stuff to make your cookies. You can make them after you take a nap,” Alex assured me. I sighed but headed to my room.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When I finally woke up from my nap, I was surprised to find that a majority of the house had been decorated. Presents were stashed under the Christmas tree and I was a little surprised that they had found the presents for them as well.
“Look, sleepyhead is up,” Allie teased. I shook my head at her, but before I could say anything, I was directed to the counter.
“You have cookies to make,” Ali reminded me. She motioned to the stuff that was laid out. “You can make your cookies and then we’ll get started on the sides.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“You think I would take Alyssa and AD to the store with me without getting a turkey and a ham?” Becky asked. I turned to look at her. I didn’t think that she would get that much.
“Besides, we’re making Christmas dinner,” Carli added. My jaw slacked in surprise. “That means, that you and all of the youngins are gonna stay out of the kitchen while we fix the meal.”
“So, get started on your cookies,” Ali said as they left the kitchen.
I shook my head but got started on the cookies none the less. It didn’t take me long to get the cookies into the oven before I pulled them out to let them cool. It wasn’t until I was putting the icing on that someone came into the kitchen. I grinned at Rose as she kept her eyes covered.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m trying to get some water, but I don’t want to see your cookies incase I get them,” Rose explained. I smiled at the pale midfielder before grabbing one of the cookies that I had already decorated but made for the girl. I placed a hand on her shoulder before turning her the other way. I pulled her hand down and Rose looked at me.
“Here,” I held the cookie out to her. Rose hit my shoulder after she looked down at the cookie. “It’s for you. You remembered that my family and I did a cookie exchange for Christmas. I wasn’t going to do it with anyone this year, so thanks.”
Rose hesitantly took the cookie before getting into my fridge and getting a bottle of water. I gave her a small smile when she looked at me again. Rose looked down at the cookie and actually looked at what was on it. My cheeks started to warm up. Rose pressed a quick kiss to my cheek before heading back into the living room.
I watched her as I was sure that my face and ears were red. I shook my head and turned back to continue decorating the cookies. It didn’t take me too long to finish, but I did have to wait a little bit before I could put them into the tin container. I added them to the pile of tin containers that was sitting on the island.
Once I joined the group that was in the living room, I wasn’t too surprised that some of the older players left. We ended up playing a few card games and talking and goofing off until the vets yelled for us for dinner. We ended up using the kitchen just to get our food before we all piled into my living room to eat together. Most of our meal was spent goofing off and laughing at each other.
Eventually, we all picked out a tin of cookies. I smiled when I saw that Rose got my tin. Rose sat down by me.
“You spoiled me with the first one.”
“Maybe I wanted you to pick my cookies,” I shrugged as I looked away from her to see whose tin Kelley would choose.
“The rose on the first one was a nice touch,” Rose admitted. I felt my ears begin to heat up.
“It’s nothing. My Mom taught me how to do it when I was a little kid,” I shrugged.
Rose went to say something else, but she didn’t get the chance when Sonnett crashed into the two of us. I quickly realized that Sonnett was really just trying to get to the presents under the tree. She was immediately stopped by Tobin. The whole team ended up taking a picture around my tree with all of our tins of cookies and the presents around us.
Tobin finally allowed Sonnett to the presents. The defender was quick to hand them out before someone shoved a random present in my hands. For every present I opened, whoever had gifted it to me was the next person to open their’s up. To Sonnett’s displeasure, her’s ended up being the last one I opened.
We all ended up wrapped in blankets with cups of hot chocolate while we watched Hallmark movies together. I ended up with a smile on my face as Rose cuddled into me with the blanket wrapped around us.
“You know, you could come and spend Christmas in Ohio with me,” Rose whispered causing me to look down at her with my brow furrowed. “When I told my Mom that I had gotten the team to come and celebrate Christmas with you because your parents had died in the car crash, she told me that I should invite you to come to Christmas with my family.”
“I don’t want to intrude,” I softly said. I would love to celebrate Christmas with people, but I didn’t mention it to any of my teammates because I didn’t want them to invite me to spend it with their families because I didn’t want to get in the way of their family traditions.
“You won’t be,” Rose shook her head. She played with her sleeve. “I would really like it if you would come.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, it could even be the first of many Christmases that we spend together if you go out on a date with me,” Rose looked up at me. I felt my cheeks heating up, but I smiled at her none the less.
“I’d like that,” I assured. I couldn’t deny the crush I had on Rose. “Maybe we can go on a date in the snow when we get to Ohio.”
“I’d love that,” Rose smiled. She gave me a quick peck on my cheek before turning her attention back to the movie.
Maybe I would slowly start to heal now. Besides, with my current situation, I couldn’t think of any better way to spend my Christmas. Spending Christmas with Rose’s family could become a new tradition. And I had my weird, dysfunctional family to celebrate with me and that was all that mattered.