Xena had been immensely pleased about how the team had been improving since the bonding event. Her unending debt to Aphrodite was only growing. Her axe throwing idea was great and her suggestion of social media posts with Gabrielle had done wonders. It had helped Gabrielle's confidence, talk about her among the pundits, and knowledge of her among the fans. And though Xena had not looked herself, Varia told her a certain subset of the fans were already excited about seeing more of Xena and Gabrielle together.

With all of that, Xena was excited when the last day of training came around. Or at least the morning of it. She reached for her phone on the nightstand and scoffed at the time. 4:30 a.m.

Fuck it, she thought to herself, in a much different light than she did the first time in Tampa.

She had lightly jogged from the hotel to the training facility and the field with the track around it. She smiled as she at the young blonde going through drills on the far corner of the field.

Xena sprinted the length of the track until she reached her. She slowed to a stop and raised an eyebrow. "Have you been out here this early every morning?" Xena questioned through labored breathing.

Gabrielle shrugged. "Did it pay off?" She kicked up the ball nearest her feet to her knee bounced it up and sent it over to Xena.

The older forward gave an approving nod. "I'd say it did," she replied as she juggled the ball a few times and sent it back.

Gabrielle juggled it a few times and then caught and balanced on her right foot. "Thank you," she said before she flicked the ball to Xena.

Xena chested it down to her knee and then caught it on her left foot. "For what? I didn't do anything, Gabrielle."

Gabrielle laughed. "You did," she told her seriously.

Xena noticed her blushing and shrinking nervously into herself as she had at the start of camp. Xena juggled the ball a few times and then initially sent it high so she had to shuffle backward to get a head on it. She was then able to chest it to herself and get it to her feet and send it over to Xena.

"Maybe you didn't notice," Gabrielle said, attempting to shrug off her previous statement.

Xena flicked the ball from her knee to her chest and caught in under her arm. "Hey," she told her shaking her head.

"You were nice to me, Xena when you really did not have to be," Gabrielle admitted. "And you put me on your social media and now I have almost 8,000 Twitter followers."

Xena shrugged. "Aphrodite suggested I do that."

Gabrielle laughed and nodded at her. "I know," she told her. "I've followed you for years. But thank you anyway."

Xena stepped closer to her so she could slap a hand on her shoulder. "You've done good, Gabrielle. I'm proud of you. You'll be killing it by the time we face Panama."

Athena ran through the final practice with her normal serious, no nonsense style. But, with about an hour left Aphrodite and media team arrived.

"Must we do this?" Athena griped at the peppy executive with her arms crossed tightly across her chest as she peered at her team from the sideline of the training pitch.

Aphrodite removed her large sunglasses as she sighed at her former national team teammate. "Show the team being fun and relatable. Increase interest, increase CONCACAF's tickets sales, increase revenue. It is all one step closer to equal pay."

"You cannot believe it is that simple," Athena grumbled.

"Of course not, sweetie. But it isn't the 90s anymore, social media can be our greatest tool," Aphrodite stated while peering at the team.

Athena shook her head and gave in. "What you would like them to do?"

"Ending with a scrimmage?"

"Yes."

"Good," Aphrodite replied as she patted her on the shoulder. "I'm just going to tell them to get a bit excited about it," she added as she walked onto the field.

The video of the 6-on-6 scrimmage started with Ephiny booting a long ball up the shortened field to Varia, who got her head on it and set it past a driving Amirace. Varia back pedaled away from her teammates to do and land a perfectly executed backflip.

"Show off," Eve called as she ran past her.

There was then a series of tightly matched one-on-ones quickly cut together. Eve nutmegged her way around Ephiny and Minya to slot a ball past Amirace's backup Satrina. Eve turned to run at Xena and jumped onto her. Gabrielle pushed forward, did a give-and-go with Yakut, juked around Paulina and shot at goal. Amirace got a hand on it but Ephiny came crashing in and forced it into the goal. The veteran called at the sky in delight as she ran toward the two younger players.

The video eventually — and fully intentionally — dissolved into nonsense. Xena and Ephiny came sprinting at and past the camera as Minya, known for the being the slowest on the team, struggled behind and intentionally collapsed at the edge of the camera's view. Cyane and Yakut, while wearing gear from their rival club teams in the Pacific Northwest got into a fake boxing match. The video ended with Amirace leading the entire defense in a group dance. As everyone either broke into laughter or fell behind, Gabrielle kept up and Amirace moved in closer to her. The video ended with the goalkeeper excitedly pointing at the new right back.

It was posted to all the national team social accounts two days after everyone had left for their week-long break before the Panama game.

"Not too bad," Joxer said to Gabrielle as he handed her phone back to her. "It seems they like you."

Lila nodded at him and then turned to Gabrielle. "And not just your teammates. The team as a whole, which is very good," Lila reassured her sister.

Gabrielle shrugged awkwardly as she looked out from their spot under the largest tree on their family's land. She took another drink her from her wine glass as Joxer pulled more of the food out of the cooler beside them. "I don't know," Gabrielle stated.

Joxer shook his head dramatically. "You made Xena's Twitter, she seems pretty friendly with you in that video, and there was that 'hold me closer' post."

"It was an Elton John lyric," Gabrielle shot back.

"I think she has the hots for you," Lila stated.

"What?" Gabrielle called, nearly choking on her wine. "Xena? The most popular soccer player in the country? The I still have a poster of her on my dorm's wall back at Stanford? No, way," Gabrielle told her certainly.

Lila shrugged.

"No," Gabrielle said more calmly, shaking her head.

Xena heard oddly familiar upbeat and synth heavy music playing when she reached the door of her apartment, having arrived with the Giordano's pizza she had gone done to the lobby to collect.

"Aye, aye," Xena called at Lao Ma, who was leaning onto the arm of her coach clearly watching something on her phone. "What is that?"

Lao Ma looked up at her and warmly smiled. "Nothing, Xena," she told her with a small shrug as the music continued.

Xena set the pizza done the coffee table and dropped onto the couch beside her. Lao Ma turned her phone toward her.

"Would you want me to reset it?" she asked.

Xena groaned to herself. "Could you? I haven't seen it yet."

Lao Ma warmly laughed. "There is no reason to be embarrassed, Xena."

Xena shook her head as she slid her arm around Lao Ma's shoulders, and she laid her head back against Xena. "It ain't that. I want to see how Gabrielle is portrayed. I'm worried about her."

"Gabrielle?" Lao Ma asked raising her head.

Xena nodded, trying to ignore that blush rising on her face that she could not fully explain. "The new right back. Terries' replacement."

"Oh," she simply replied.

"It ain't nothing like that," Xena told her. "She's just a young, nervous kid that had a bit of trouble fitting in at first. But she seems all good now."

"I was not saying I am jealous, Xena," Lao Ma stated. She peered at Xena and they locked eyes in silent for a moment. Xena felt her own passion rising in her chest, but Lao Ma seemed cool and collected as always. "And even if I was…" Lao Ma began. "Well, I guess I would not know what that would mean for us in our current situation."

Xena exhaled and nodded. She leaned closer to her ex-wife and reached up to place a hand on the side of her neck. "I don't know what this is or what we're doing, but right now I also don't really care."

Lao Ma closed her eyes nodded and leaned into the kiss Xena was reaching for.