Connie woke up early the next morning to find Olaf gone. She glanced towards her roommate's bed and softly smiled at what she saw. Throughout the night Gunnar had moved onto his back but was turned in towards Julie who was sleeping on his chest with their arms wrapped tightly around each other.

Then she heard water running from the sink in the bathroom. Sure enough Olaf soon stepped out, shirt on thankfully, and paused at seeing Connie wide awake.

"Sorry for falling asleep," he mumbled.

Connie relaxed against the headboard, "You were pretty tired and nothing happened, don't worry about it Olaf."

He nodded and came to sit on the edge, taking his time to look at her and ask, "Do you want to get breakfast with me?"

She grinned up at him, "I'd like that."

He returned her smile and soon the two left leaving their sleeping friends to themselves. It was quite a while before Gunnar finally woke up, he was happy to see that he held onto his beautiful Julie all night. No wonder he felt amazing and well rested. Watching her sleep while laying on him brought a content smile to his lips. For half an hour he studied her as she slept until he felt her body start to stretch against him.

"My little kitty, kitty," he whispered in her ear and was rewarded with a smile pulling at her soft lips.

"Meow," she managed out and blinked open her eyes, "Hm, I think I like waking up and the first thing I see is you."

He moved and cradled her head in his arm as he leaned over her, "The first thing you see," he kissed her eyelids, "first thing you smell," then her nose, "and the first thing you taste," his mouth captured hers for a drawn-out kiss.

"Gunnar," she breathed out his name, "I love you."

"And I love you," he pulled up and stared into her deep blue eyes, "so beautiful."

Julie felt his free hand trail over her forehead, down her cheek and around to her neck before bringing his mouth down to hers. Their lips opened and tongues met with matching need. Her hands roamed across the expanse of his chest and abdomen until settling around his hip and pulled him closer. Gunnar groaned into their kiss and moved to fully cover her, his knee slightly parting her legs. Her back arched automatically and in the back of both of their minds knew things needed to slow down and soon.

But this felt so good. Gunnar felt every soft plane of her amazing body under his and with every touch he lost more and more control. Their mouths explored one another and he savored the feel of her wandering hands. His lips roughly sought out her soft neck as her nails lightly dug into him in response. Julie let out a small moan and Gunnar forced himself to sit up to put distance between their bodies. Their eyes were connected and intense on one another and both were breathing hard.

"Gunnar?"

His gaze softened when he saw she was thinking that he didn't want her, she could not be more wrong. He shook his head and returned to lying beside her before saying, "When we make love for the first time, I won't leave the country afterwards."

Julie's flush was immediate as she realized just how much control she'd lost in their kissing and touching, "Sorry, I didn't mean to get so carried away. This is not something I want to rush."

Gunnar pressed a kiss to her lips as he continued to calm them both down, "Don't apologize for how you feel. When the time is right and we are both ready, we'll know."

Julie blinked up at him, "How did you make what should have been a very awkward conversation sound completely normal, romantic even?"

He laughed and she pushed at him playfully before sitting up. He joined her and said, "Because it is us and nothing should be awkward between us, not anymore."

She sighed, stood up and fully stretched out her back. Gunnar searched for his shirt, finding it he quickly pulled it over his head. Then he turned on the television and sprawled out over her bed again. Blushing, Julie told him she was taking a quick shower and he winked at her.

She re-emerged from the bathroom dressed in her USA Ducks track-suit and was pulling her hair into a braid. Julie had to meet up with her team in an hour to hit the track. Gunnar led her down to the lobby and got them some bagels for breakfast. They lounged around in the common area talking quietly and making plans for the evening after she returned. He wanted to take her out to a nice restaurant and maybe get her on a dance floor somewhere. She deserved a nice night out after her spectacular performance the previous night, despite the fact it was his team that was on the losing end of her brilliance in the net.

Olaf and Connie entered the hotel looking out of breath and nothing short of worried. When they spotted their two friends they rushed right over.

"There you two are," Gunnar teased them with his arm around Julie's shoulders, "getting an early morning workout? Surprised you're not dead on your feet Olaf."

But the tall blonde just let out a deep breath and shook his head, then gestured for his female companion, "Show them."

Connie quickly handed the newspaper to Julie and right there on the front page was a picture of them kissing after the game yesterday. She then read the title aloud, "Star Crossed Romance or Double Crossed Doom for Iceland?"

Gunnar frowned as he removed his arm from around her shoulders and read the article to himself, "Coach will hate this. It talks about what happened last year and suggests our relationship began before then and that's why I didn't get the tying goal in the shoot-out. It goes on about your shut-out yesterday and that I won't let my team win against you. This is ridiculous."

"It's all over the place," Connie shared with them, "local and national papers."

Gunnar sighed and caught Julie's eyes, "It will be okay, we didn't do anything wrong."

"You did nothing wrong!?" Stanssen appeared before them with an equally angry looking Bombay. "I told you to keep your hands to yourself! Do you understand how this looks for our country? You are captain, Gunnar! Everything you do reflects back on your team!"

"Then what, will you bench me for the rest of the series?" Gunnar asked with cold eyes, they all knew Iceland couldn't afford to lose their best player. His gaze moved over to the deeply frowning Gordon Bombay, "Will USA put in Goldberg and sit Julie?"

"I'm considering it," Coach Bombay admitted with hard eyes.

Julie looked up at her coach with hurt clearly expressed on her face. Gunnar's eyes narrowed, he placed his hand on her knee and glared at their coaches, "So we get punished for falling in love? How is that fair?"

"Calm down Gunnar," Olaf suggested, he knew how his best friend could get when truly pissed off, "surely there is something else we can do to spin this around."

"He's right," Connie agreed thinking it over, "let them be interviewed and get the truth out there. Trust me no one will doubt their feelings when they see them together."

"And what is this!?" Stanssen demanded then cursed in his native tongue, "Another one of my players has fallen for an American Duck?"

Both Connie and Olaf quickly pulled their hands apart and blushed, they hadn't realized they'd been holding on to each other. If was Olaf who cleared his throat and spoke, "The interview idea, will that work?"

Bombay sighed, "It might. We have a training session and can set it up afterwards."

It seemed everyone was in agreement and Julie ran hard at the track to get things off her mind. She was so happy with Gunnar and it hurt that strangers were making him look like the bad guy. They would see that it wasn't like that at all. Her teammates tried talking to her about what was going on but she was too angry about it all to get into it.

And what was worse was the fact that Dean had been glaring at her the entire time. She could feel his eyes burning into her back. So she knew he was really going to be out for Gunnar's blood in the game tomorrow. While Stahl did a good job with evading a direct hit from the bash brother, she would still warn him.

Just before meeting with a few of the more respectable news reporters, Gunnar calmed her down by simply holding her for a while. Their coaches went over a few things and remained in the room where the interview was taking place. It went rather well as Gunnar and Julie took turns speaking about the truth of their relationship. Gunnar made it very clear that his team lost because Julie was that good. He told them to go back and watch the tapes of their games and everyone will see he and the Vikings did everything they could to get the win. Julie told them that they respected each other enough to not hold back when facing off on the ice. They respected themselves, each other, and the game they loved.

Gunnar could tell Julie was not feeling up to going out when it was all over, so they met up with a majority of their respectable teammates at the pool and relaxed for a while. They had another game the next evening, so they both headed to get some sleep and time to collect their thoughts before heading into another game day.

When Connie returned to their room she saw that Julie was already asleep. It was a shame too because she needed to talk to someone about what was going on with Olaf. Everything was just confusing between her feelings for Guy and her increasing attraction for the Icelander. She didn't want to like the tall, muscular blonde but he was making it more and more difficult with every second they spent together.

Over night the reports written up after the interview with Gunnar Stahl and Julie Gaffney were finally putting the honest positive spin on their unique situation. And by morning everything had been cleared up with the media masses. And before the couple could even wake up they had a large fan base who found two rival players falling in love simply romantic.

Even though it really wasn't anyone's business.