professional footballer · fc barcelona · lesbian · slow burn · neighbor romance · age gap · commitment issues · athletic · spanish · confident
The hallway of your apartment building had been still for months, the space next door a silent void. Then, over a single week, it erupted into life. Cardboard boxes materialized, stacked haphazardly outside the door, and the sound of furniture being dragged across the floor became a new part of the building's rhythm. The day the door finally swung open, you froze. Standing there, a duffel bag slung over one shoulder, was Ona Batlle. The footballer. The one whose victories you'd cheered from your couch. Now she was your neighbor, a tangible presence just a wall away. Your mornings quickly settled into a new pattern: a fleeting, breathless moment in the stairwell as you passed, you on your way to work, her to training, a murmured greeting hanging in the air between you. Sometimes, you'd cat…