#martin odegaard

“I’ve been at the club since 2021 and I love it here, and I knew Y/n would too. I’ve been trying to get her to move with me since my first day here” Martin laughed.

“So, what finally got you to make the switch?” A reporter asked as Martin gave you a teasing look. He knew your answer already, as did most reporters in the room.

“Martin has told me great things about Arsenal since he moved here. It’s good to be close to him now after being apart in Germany and Spain” you nodded with a smile, but everyone was looking at you as if they expected you to say something else.

“Så, ingenting å gjøre med at forloveden din også signerer for Arsenal?” Martin teased, although he said it into the microphone, causing the reporters to raise their eyebrows, not understanding Norwegian.

“Uh, for any of you that didn’t get that, Martin’s ego is a bit dented because he thinks I moved here to be with my fiancée and not him” you patted his shoulder. “And he’s right” you laughed as he playfully sighed.

You and the English star girl, Alessia Russo, had been engaged for around a year or so. You’re not even sure how you and her came to be really, it seemed to happen so naturally and fast.

You first met at the Under 17’s euros, her competing with England, and you playing for Norway. You were both staying in the same hotel and started speaking briefly when you’d pass each other in the lobby. Your teams hadn’t met each other in the tournament yet and once the tournament path was created, you’d only meet each other if you both made it to the final.

You eventually both exchanged your social media and began texting from your rooms, scheduling to meet up rather than just hoping you’d bump into one another. You’d go out for walks, or sneak into each other’s rooms to watch a movie or something. Anything you could come up with to spend time together.

You suffered heartbreak in the semi-final, but Alessia was moving on with a chance to win the entire tournament.

You were in your room, packing your things, getting ready for your flight in the morning when there was a quiet knock on the door. You shuffled over to open the door, a bit taken aback when you seen the English girl on the other side. You hadn’t spoken to her since you got knocked out earlier today. You’d seen her text when you got your phone back, but you’d yet to reply to it.

“Can I come in?” She asked as you nodded.

Your roommate and best friend, Ingrid, was downstairs at physio. Your English was definitely better than Alessia’s Norwegian, of which she had none, so you always opted to speak English to her.

“Are you okay?” You asked as the girl shook her head. “Did something happen?” You added, placing your free hand on her waist, weirdly naturally.

“You” Alessia mumbled and you frowned at her. “I know this sounds stupid, but I really like you and I don’t want you to go home” she blurted out so quickly you couldn’t comprehend what she said.

“But I have to go home, we lost” you shrugged. Your English wasn’t that good to pick up on subtle hints, so you took it very direct.

“No, I mean” she sighed, before she finally looked up at your confused face and bit the bullet.

She leaned in and pressed her lips to yours and after the initial shock, you kissed her back. You dropped the bundled up socks in your hands on the ground, to put them on her lower back.

“Oh” you chuckled when you both broke away from the kiss. “I don’t know how we do this. You live in England and I live in Norway” you shrugged, but you were still yet to release her.

“I think we could make it work” she nodded, leaning in to kiss you again.

“Ew, Hva gjør du?” Ingrid teased from the door. You hadn’t even heard her come in.

“Faen av, Ingrid” you rolled your eyes at your best friend.

“Så lenge jeg kan være æresdame” she winked and left the room after grabbing some tape.

“Sorry” you whispered to the blonde who shook her head to indicate it was fine.

“Come here” she giggled, pulling you in again.

-

You and Alessia went long distance for a year and a half, until you both went to study and play football in America. A lot of couples after going from long distance to living together, mixed with the stress of studying, probably would have fallen apart, but not you and Alessia.

When you left college, you moved to Wolfsburg in Germany and she went to Manchester United. It was a tough conversation to go long distance again, after living together for three years, but it was the best thing for both of your careers. She moved to be with her best friend, Ella, and you moved to be with yours, Ingrid.

It was difficult when Alessia got seriously injured that you weren’t there, but you tried to be in Manchester at any given free minute you had. Sometimes, you flew over just for a day to do things in the house for her, even though she lived with Ella and Millie.

It was when she’d made her return from her long injury, that you’d taken the trip to Manchester to be there when she stepped back onto the pitch again for the first time. It was that night in her cosy Manchester home that you proposed, and she obviously, said yes. You had convinced Ella and Millie to go elsewhere for the evening, and they had decided to stay with Mary.

Until finally, here you were. Both of you were now settled in London, having signed for Arsenal right after the World Cup. You were both exactly what Arsenal needed right now due to long term injuries in the team. A proven striker, Alessia, and a solid centre back, you.

You and Alessia moved into a home near some of your team mates in St Alban’s and you both had to admit, life had never been better. You had your fiancée all the time, Alessia’s family were close by, and so was your brother. Even the football was great, you were both playing really well and Arsenal had gotten off to a good start to the season, which was desperately needed after last season.

You couldn’t get over the crowds that Arsenal could manage to bring in. You’d never experienced anything like it before during your time in Wolfsburg, except for big champions league nights, of which the biggest one you had was against Arsenal in the Emirates.

-

You were heading into probably the biggest game of the season today at a sold out Emirates against your biggest rivals, Chelsea. The atmosphere as you ran out to start warming up was already electric. You felt like you could hear each individual person in the stadium.

“This is Sinnsyk” you shouted to Alessia as she smiled at you and squeezed your cheeks before she pointed up to a box.

Up there sat the entirety of Alessia’s family, along with your brother and his girlfriend. You both gave a brief smile and wave before she ran off with your centre back partner and college friend, Lotte, to start warming up, while you went with your international team mate, Frida. You were just passing the ball back and forth when you felt a pain in your knee and winced, causing Frida to frown and jog towards you.

“Går det bra?” She asked, placing her hand on your shoulder.

“Yeah, just a bit stiff. Jeg har det bra” you nodded unconvincingly. It wasn’t really sore, it was more so uncomfortable. You’d gotten the physio to tape it up before you headed onto the pitch for the match.

You felt like you blinked and you were already winning 3-1. Alessia had already scored twice and there was only twenty minutes left to play, with a two goal cushion.

You and Lotte were both two very tall centre backs and had been since your days in college together, using it to your advantage all the time. It meant in the air, the two of you were the biggest threats when it came to corners.

The ball went out and Beth jogged over to take the corner, pulling her left hand up to indicate where she was going to place it. Lotte dropped to the back post and you ran towards the front one as the ball left Beth’s foot.

Whoever was behind you, took your knee out of it and sent you flying into the front post as Lotte sunk the ball into the back of the net to make it 4-1. Everyone was too busy cheering and pulling Lotte into a hug, that nobody even noticed you were lying still on the ground. Beth was the first person to spot you, due to her being at the corner flag and took off on a sprint running towards you. She’d seen your head smack straight off the goal post and watched your big frame drop to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

“Y/n, Y/n” Beth shouted, frantically shaking your shoulders. “Lessi” Beth screamed as Hannah walked out of her goal to get your fiancée’s attention.

Despite the rivalry, Hannah wasn’t going to let her international team mate stay blindsided as to what was going on.

“What?” Alessia frowned, looking around, eventually settling her eyes downwards to see you lying on the ground, not moving.

She had thought it was weird you weren’t in the huddle for the celebrations, but you often had a tendency to sprint all the way back to Daphne in goal so she wasn’t alone.

The Physio’s ran on to the pitch as Alessia sunk to her knees beside you, both her and the physios were trying to speak to you, but it was no use. You were out cold.

If there was any silver lining to any of this, you didn’t feel the pain in your knee when your ACL ripped. You had cut your left eyebrow and there was a solid stream of blood oozing from the cut. Alessia was pulled up to her feet and into a hug by Lotte as she sobbed against her. You hadn’t came around yet, still, after a few minutes, so you were carried off and taken to hospital.

Reneé subbed Alessia off too, as she quickly grabbed your jacket instead of hers and wrapped it around her to head down the tunnel after you. The crowd clapped the both of you off, and maybe if Alessia could look anywhere but the ground she’d have noticed the worried faces in the stands too.

Once she got down the tunnel, she was anxiously looking for where they were loading you into the back of an ambulance when she heard her name being shouted. She quickly spun around to find your brother, many steps ahead of his own girlfriend and Alessia’s family.

“Where is she?” Martin asked as Alessia tried to shrug but forgot how her limbs were meant to work. The two of them got on so well it was laughable sometimes.

“I’ll find her, you wait here” he calmly said, squeezing her shoulder empathetically.

“Oh love” Alessia’s mum pouted, looking at her daughter’s tear stained eyes. “It’s okay, she’ll be okay” she reassured her. Alessia’s dad placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, allowing his wife to continue squeezing her.

“Lessi, over here” Martin shouted from a fire exit as Alessia rushed off, to get in the ambulance with you.

“Sorry, family only” the paramedic shook his head.

“That is her wife” Martin frowned as the man stepped back to let both of them in, uttering a quick apology.

She wasn’t your wife yet, but he didn’t need to know that. The Russo’s had agreed to bring Martin’s girlfriend home while both of them went with you to the hospital. You were still unconscious, but the doctors had reassured Alessia and Martin you were in a stable condition. They had been in the waiting room up until that point, but after the news, they were allowed to go to sit with you.

Martin had just slipped out to call your parents and give them an update, as they were still in Norway, when Alessia noticed the tiniest of flicker in your eyelids. You groaned for a minute before you opened them and she shot to her feet instantly. She was careful not to startle you or speak too loudly, knowing full well that you were going to have a serious headache.

“I’m right here” she whispered while she placed her hand over yours.

“Kneet mitt” you mumbled, incoherently by the seems of it. Alessia could understand a good bit of Norwegian now, but all mumbled, she couldn’t even get close.

“Hmm?” She pouted, noticing you were in a severe amount of discomfort.

“Kneet mitt” you repeated, a bit more coherently. Alessia rattled her brain, trying to translate.

“Kneet? Knee? Your knee?” She asked after it clicked with her.

“Mmm” you mumbled in agreement.

“Is it sore?” She frowned, looking at the knee that looked like it was fine.

“Bad” you groaned.

You weren’t sure if you were referring to your head or your knee when it slipped past your lips. They were both as bad as the other.

Alessia left your side briefly, calling a doctor and informing them you were now awake. You could vaguely make out two blonde girls standing at the door, and knew one of them was your soon to be wife.

“Y/n? How are you feeling?” The doctor who had just been speaking to Alessia asked.

“Shit” you grumbled.

“Your wife said your knee was bothering you? Would you mind if I took a quick look?” She hummed as you tried your best to nod.

“She’s not my wife” you mumbled as you winced again in pain.

“Really? You decide that’s what you want to point out right now?” Alessia laughed at how stubborn you were before sitting back down in the seat beside you.

She poked around at it for a few seconds, studying your face to see if you were in any way reacting. She called in another doctor and began whispering to him, while Alessia stood beside you and distracted you. The pain in your face had led her to stand up again to be beside you. Her eyes remained planted on the nasty stitching dressing that was covering your eyebrow.

“Ms Russo” the doctor beckoned her over and explained something before she nodded and headed back towards you.

“I just need to put this on your knee, okay?” the doctor stated, producing a strapping to keep the knee straight and in tact.

“Broken?” You mumbled.

“No, no, baby. It’s not broken” Alessia shook her head. “Don’t worry” she tried to smile, but she knew it was worse than your knee breaking.

“Kan jeg sove?” You asked, worrying the doctor that your condition was way worse when you practically were speaking gibberish to her.

“Can she sleep?” Alessia asked your question in English, to the doctor who frowned as she pondered the question.

“No more than an hour, I’ll get a nurse to wake her” the doctor said.

“It’s fine, I can do it. I’m not going anywhere” Alessia informed them and squeezed your hand. When the doctor left, you finally croaked out a response to your fiancée.

“Min kjærlighet, you don’t need to stay”

“I told you. I’m right here” she smiled, gently stroking your face, careful not to touch the scar or any bruising.

-

When you came to your senses and the concussion symptoms wore off, Alessia was the one to break the news about your knee. You’d done scans on the knee while you were high on painkillers, so you barely remembered them. You were on concussion protocol for another week or so, and once that had finished, you then had to go straight in for surgery on your knee.

It was a rough few weeks, between the injury happening and up until you had your surgery. You’d barely left the house or seen anybody as you needed to keep tucked away to help your concussion heal. You’d been off your feet then again for a couple of days after the ACL surgery, but you had started to find a bounce in your step again. And that bounce was getting you to everywhere you needed to go. Your bedroom, the bathroom, and the kitchen.

You’d gone from being an enthusiastic professional athlete, to an accomplished professional sleeper within such a short space of time. It was depressing watching Alessia get up and leave to go to work every day and knowing you had nowhere or nothing to do. So you just slept all day, every day, until she got home, and then you’d drift off on the couch again. It was also frustrating Alessia, because for a couple that had been through long distance for a huge portion of your relationship, you could not have been more distant than you were from her at the minute, despite living together now.

Which is why, when you got the call from the physio’s at work to come to start your rehab, Alessia was delighted.

She’d just came back from work, sighing at the silence in the house that she was all too familiar with this past while. She headed straight up to your bedroom to wake you, like she had done every day this past week, but only, you weren’t up there. She’d already had a shower after training, so she decided to quickly get changed before going to find you probably asleep on the couch. She got changed and headed downstairs into the living room, but you weren’t there either.

“Y/n?” she shouted, a frown forming on her face struggling to struggle to comprehend where you could be.

“Yeah?” You shouted from the kitchen, as her frown sunk deeper and she wandered in to find you in there, making you both dinner. Your brace was off now and you didn’t need the crutches anymore, but you still had a support and bandages on your knee.

“To what do I owe the pleasure of having you awake?” Alessia teased, wrapping her arms around you to kiss you softly.

“I can go back to work next week” you shrugged as her smile grew wider. “I’m sorry I’ve been such a shit girlfriend lately” you pouted as she shook her head.

“You haven’t been a shit girlfriend” she reassured you, kissing your forehead by stretching up on her tippy toes. “You’ve certainly been a shit fiancée” she smirked, making you roll your eyes at her teasing tone.

“Jeg inviterte Martin og Helene på middag i kveld. Er det greit?” You asked.

“Are you asking me something in Norwegian so I will just agree?” She quizzed as you shook your head.

“You understand what I said don’t you?” You challenged, knowing the girl wouldn’t have with how fast you spoke.

“Obviously” she shrugged, moving to get cutlery out of the press, picking up two knives and two forks before stopping herself.

“Martin and Helene, dinner. Do you mean tonight?” She asked.

“You’re getting better” you chuckled, pulling her in for a kiss that she melted into.

She was so happy you seemed back to your usual self. Prior to your injury you were usually always joking around and laughing and she’d missed the sound of your laugh this last while.

When your brother and his girlfriend came over, the four of you fell into a conversation completely aside from football. You had all planned to go away during the Winter season on holiday together back to Norway and were mostly chatting about that. Alessia and Helene had walked into the living room with their glasses of wine, chatting about something neither you nor Martin could hear.

“You okay?” Martin asked as you nodded.

“I am back at work next week” you smiled as he reciprocated it immediately.

“That’s great” he exclaimed, standing up to pull you into a hug.

“You’re happy?” He smiled and you nodded at him. “It will be tough, but if anybody can do it, it’s you”

“I just hope that when I come back, they still need me” you shrugged.

“Don’t say that, of course they will” Martin frowned, his hand falling on your shoulder.

“It’s more complicated for us than for you” you stated, although he knew how privileged he was in comparison to you. He nodded in sympathy, but there wasn’t much more he could do.

“Trust me” he smiled, pulling your shoulder towards your girlfriends in the living room.

-

When it rolled around to next week, Alessia was like an army general the morning you were set to go back to work.

“Let’s go, on your feet” she shouted as you grumbled tiredly. Her tone being that little bit more harsh you knew meant she had been calling you for the last few minutes to no avail, and was starting to get fed up.

“Vennligst, vær stille” you begged with a groan as she shook her head and whipped the covers off you. She winced looking at your bandaged knee before snapping out of it.

“No amor, please. We need to leave in half an hour” Alessia said softer this time, leaning over to kiss you gently. “God morgen”. Alessia would be always fit to kill you in the morning when you wouldn’t get out of bed, but she would always kiss you to wake you up.

“Good morning” you smiled tiredly, kissing her back. Every ounce of anger or frustration about being woken up left your body when you felt her lips against yours. “Jeg gleder meg til å gifte meg med deg”

“I can’t wait to marry you either, but I will be the one to object if you do not get out of bed” she sighed playfully, looking at you still in bed. “Please amor, I can’t pull you”

“Okay, okay. I’m up, look” you grumbled, waving your hands around playfully like you’d just performed a magic trick.

You got ready while Alessia rushed downstairs to make sure both of your bags were ready and tossed them in the boot of the car. She filled both travel mugs and stood at the bottom of the staircase as you made your way down. Her eyes glued to your feet, ensuring they hit each step on the staircase safely.

She drove you both to the grounds, as you held both travel mugs in your hands, handing her the mug to her anytime she made grabby hands for it. She had her country music playlist on that you wholeheartedly despised. She answered a call from Leah as you were just pulling into the ground.

“Hey Lee, I’m just pulling in” Alessia shouted.

“Okay perfect. Is the big Viking with you?” Leah laughed as Alessia giggled.

“Yeah, she’s here” Alessia eventually got out.

“Slutt å kall meg en viking” you groaned.

“She asked you to stop calling her a Viking, in Viking language” Alessia laughed as you spotted real life Leah now in her car laughing too, with Lotte sitting in the passenger seat. Alessia parked beside them and Lotte immediately got out to help you out of Alessia’s car.

“Good to see you” Lotte whispered as her help turned into a hug. “I missed you”

“Missed you too” you smiled. “Sorry for pretty much ignoring you, just-”

“No, don’t worry” Lotte shook her head, stopping your apology.

“You alright, Øde?” Leah asked and you nodded with a smile, letting her hug you too.

“Jeg kan ta vesken min” you shouted towards Alessia.

“You sure?” She asked and you nodded. She handed you your bag and slid her hand into yours.

“So impressive you can understand that Less” Leah laughed.

“Well I mean, I can speak Italian, English and Norwegian now” Alessia laughed.

“Yeah, me too” you smirked.

“And I speak English and Dutch” Lotte piped in.

“Okay, sorry. I didn’t know this was a contest” Leah frowned, stomping in ahead of you all as the three of you laughed at the competitive English defender, who was still mumbling about “stupid fucking different languages” as you made your way in.

You ate breakfast at the ground, allowing everyone one by one to hug you, much to Alessia’s approval. She’d been the only one really that had seen you so sad the last while that she was so happy you were both at a club where you were both loved by your teammates, and you really needed to be shown that right now.

When they headed for training, you kissed her goodbye as a physio swung by to get you and bring you down to the medical room. You hopped up on the physio bed as they removed the dressing from your knee. You chatted with them for a little bit before you got into some routine exercises to check the condition of the knee, so they could map out your rehab programme.

You had a fading scar on your eyebrow too from the cut, but it didn’t cause you any bother anymore. The physios were happy with your current condition and told you that all things going well, you would be back for the European qualifiers with your international team in July.

July.

It sounded like great news to them, but to you, that was a lifetime away. You were a bit deflated, and sore, from the tests done on your knee when you met Alessia for lunch in the canteen.

“Everything okay?” Alessia whispered as she slipped into the seat next to you.

You had been frantically speaking Norwegian to Frida who had been eyeing at Alessia for the past few minutes to come over. You were known to have a little bit of a temper, but you were an easy one to calm down.

“They said I won’t play until July” you groaned.

“Hey, that’s amazing. That’s quicker than we thought” she smiled, squeezing your hand. That stopped your spiralling angry thoughts when you realised she was right. Initially, they presumed it would be September or October.

“Yeah, true” you nodded, feeling her lips connect with your cheek.

“I don’t know how Alessia does that” Frida chuckled. “She shouted at me for twenty five minutes without taking a breath”.

“They’ve been so in love with each other for as long as I can remember” Lotte smiled, remembering being at the tournament you first met, on top of being with you both in college.

“Are they going to set a date for the wedding soon?” Leah asked as Lotte shrugged.

-

It was later, after Martin had left, making a quick pit stop over to your house to check you were okay after your first day back, that Alessia called you into the kitchen.

“Yeah?” You asked, noticing the food on the table was the answer to your question. “Takk skal du ha” you pressed a kiss to her cheek and flopped into your chair.

It was after a few minutes of silence that you pushed your barely touched plate away. Usually, at dinner, you couldn’t get Alessia to stop talking and now she wouldn’t speak at all.

“Is something wrong?” You asked, frowning a little when she didn’t even seem to notice you’d spoken. “Alessia” you said, placing your hand over hers as she startled a little.

“Sorry” she sighed, starting to play with her food again.

“Something wrong?” You repeated.

“I was just thinking” she began but was yet to finish her sentence.

“About?”

“Do you want to get married in August?” She asked as your lips ticked upwards.

“August?” You smiled wider.

“Yeah, just if they’re saying you’ll be back for July we could get married in August”. She was yet to meet your eyes, too caught up in her own thoughts.

“That would be lit” you smiled.

“Lit? Was Kyra in physio with you today?” Alessia giggled.

“Yeah? She said it meant great” you frowned.

“Yes, but adults don’t use that word” she squealed, placing her hands on your cheeks.

“Oh” you laughed. “Well then, August sounds great” you reworded.

-

Physio sessions continued to go well, and with your upcoming wedding in your mind, you stayed on track with your plan. You wanted to be able to walk down the aisle, so you didn’t push yourself further than what the plan needed you to do.

Once everything was booked and sorted, you had called Ingrid, and Alessia had called Ella to fill them both in on the plan and of course, asking them to be your bridesmaids to which they both agreed. You both then called your families, who were thrilled. Your parents, aunts, and uncles all booked their flights straight after the phone call.

On the next day that you were both at the training ground, you and Alessia left an envelope on all of the girls cubby’s with their invitation. You both got in early to make sure you could avoid anybody while you dished them out.

“What’s this?” Lotte frowned at the envelope.

“I have one too” Leah said, ripping it open. A few others chiming in to say they also had one.

“Holy shit” Lotte shouted, scanning the room to find neither of you were in here.

As everyone came to the realisation of what the contents of the envelope contained, like a pack of wolves, they hunted the pair of you down.

“Oi” Katie shouted as the group found you both in the canteen.

“Here we go” Alessia giggled. The group all congratulated the two of you, pulling you both into tight hugs.

“I think this calls for a night out” Kyra declared as the room erupted again. “Y/n, what type of night are we going to have?” Kyra asked with a smirk.

“No, you’re not allowed to use that word” Alessia warned as you laughed. “Steph, I left my fiancée with your child for twenty minutes and she answered my question about getting married with the word lit”

“You pest” Steph sighed, shoving Kyra’s arm as the younger girl couldn’t stop laughing.

-

When it rolled around to July, you were ready. Ready to play and ready to get married. You waited and waited for a call from your international manager to call you into the squad. Thankfully, the call came and you were packing to head to Norway.

“I’m so proud of you” Alessia beamed when you hung up the phone on your manager. “I’m sorry I can’t be there” she sighed, having to report to her own international camp.

“It’s okay” you smiled.

“Our fixtures don’t clash, so I will be watching” she added.

Managing your minutes was key, due to you not playing any since the Chelsea game. For both games, you got the last ten minutes plus added time, and that was enough, you felt, for now. But the minute the final whistle in the second game went, you were of course happy that you’d secured qualification for the Euro’s next year.

However, the first thought that popped into your head was, the next thing you had planned was to marry your best friend and the love of your life. And that’s exactly what you did, a month later.

You stood at the top of the aisle, holding her hand and couldn’t wipe the smile off your face as you said your vows, and listened to hers.

“So, Y/n” the celebrant said.

“Yeah, I do” you smiled as everyone in attendance laughed.

“And Alessia?”

“jeg gjør” Alessia giggled, and repeated herself to avoid confusion. “I do”.

Despite everything, this had been the best year of your life and it had been topped off for the beginning of the new season when you got your new shirts.