Notes: This is a treat for Chocolate Box written to the prompt they support rival sports teams (bonus if the team is a soccer team) I love rebelcaptain and football, no way could I have resisted this prompt!

Of course, once I had lost my heart to it I realized I didn't have a recent World Cup game to base this on, and my football lingo isn't all that good in English, so we end up with a vague group game for 2018.

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Carded

"You don't even like football unless you're programming your robots to play it," Jyn groused as she handed Cassian a bottle of beer and joined him on the couch, one leg tucked under her body. She took a sip from her bottle and put it down on the table. Thanks to the time difference between Mexico and Russia, the game was on at noon for them, and thus far too early to be drinking, but Jyn had insisted they needed to make an exception for the special occasion. Cassian had given her that look that meant he secretly laughing at her.

The table, much like the rest of the room, had been properly football-themed for their personal match of the year.

Mexican and English flags were draped over the back of the couch in peaceful harmony – an illusion of harmony which Jyn did not expect to last past the first goal. Which would be England scoring. Naturally.

Cassian gave her a mock offended look before wrapping an arm around her waist, and pulling her close. "It's the World Cup, Jyn! That's different."

Jyn's lips twitched. "It must be, if you're actually willing to have fun for once." Unlike the words, her tone of voice was gentle and affectionate. Cassian lived for his job as an intelligence analyst, while she was still adjusting to living a normal life and a foreign country after all these years of aimless drifting. Time spent just having fun together was rare, and precious.

On TV, the reporters discussed the strengths of the Mexican team, and how to get past the English defense.

Jyn huffed. "We don't have a history of shit goalies!"

"Of course not," Cassian droned in a far too indulgent tone of voice. He didn't even try to hide his smirk. "That's why you went home without a win last time."

She turned her dirty look on him, but then her fiancé's lips against hers made her forget all his completely untrue goalie slander.

Cassian's hands slipped under her white jersey, and Jyn grinned against his lips. This was exactly why she had insisted on watching the game alone, at home. Well, this, and neither of them feeling comfortable in crowds. But it was more fun alone anyway.

It wasn't until the Mexican anthem started playing that they were pulled out of their own little world.

The ribbing picked up again once the game began, interspersed with cries of, "You call that a foul? He didn't even touch him!" which soon turned to mutters of, "Should have kicked him harder!"

Although it was just a group game the teams weren't pulling any punches, and the competitive atmosphere quickly gripped the couple in front of the TV.

"That wasn't offside!" Jyn howled, nearly leaping off the couch in her outrage and whirling around to turn all that indignation on Cassian. "I dare you to look into my eyes and say that was offside!"

He shrugged. "It was offside."

She sank back into the couch, and shoved her feet under his legs. "Liar."

Cassian waved a little paper flag in front of her face. He looked so smug she couldn't decide if she wanted to slap or kiss the smirk away. "The referee agrees with me."

"The referee's blind as a bat!"

He affected a look of polite surprise. "That's what I said when we should have gotten the penalty. That wasn't a foul, it was attempted manslaughter!"

Jyn snatched the tiny paper flag out of Cassian's hand and threw it at his face. "Keep it up and I will slaughter you!"

He chuckled. "I wouldn't be surprised. English fans have a reputation for violence."

Her jaw dropped. "That was low, Andor!"

"The word you are looking for is effective. But going by the way your team is playing," he nodded at the TV, "your team doesn't know that word either."

Jyn gave him a haughty look, and popped a cracker into her mouth. Angrily. "Shut up, you. I'm not talking to you anymore."

And she did not. For a full minute. Until, "Oh come on, he didn't even touch him!"

The End