St. Georges Park
England Camp — June 2025
The hardest part about England camp wasn't the football.
It was the leaving.
Leah stood beside the boot of her car outside St. George's Park pretending she wasn't emotionally spiralling while England staff carried bags inside around her.
Players arrived everywhere.
Music blasting from cars.
Media already waiting near the entrance.
Tournament summer officially beginning.
And suddenly Leah felt it again.
That shift.
England captain mode.
Pressure sliding back onto her shoulders one careful layer at a time.
"You're doing the jaw thing."
Leah looked over immediately.
"What jaw thing?"
"The one where you pretend you're fine while internally catastrophising."
Rude.
Very rude.
But unfortunately true.
Elle stood in front of her in oversized sunglasses and one of Leah's old Arsenal hoodies despite the summer heat.
And God.
Leah already missed her.
Pathetic honestly considering she hadn't even gone inside yet.
The last few months together blurred into something dangerously wonderful.
London.
St. Albans.
Lisbon.
Menorca.
Normal life woven between football chaos.
Now suddenly England camp threatened to pull Leah back into that isolated version of herself again.
Elle noticed immediately too.
"You okay?" she asked softly.
Leah thought about lying automatically.
Then didn't.
"I hate tournament camps."
The honesty in her voice softened the whole moment.
Because Elle understood what she really meant.
Not football itself.
The separation.
The pressure.
The feeling of belonging more to a country than herself for six straight weeks.
Leah looked down briefly before speaking again.
"It feels like disappearing a little."
God.
That sentence nearly broke Elle's heart.
Because maybe before her, Leah had disappeared during tournaments.
Into responsibility.
Into leadership.
Into survival mode.
Elle stepped closer immediately, hands settling gently against Leah's waist.
"You know I'm not vanishing for six weeks, right?"
Leah looked at her carefully.
Interesting.
Very interested immediately.
"What?"
Elle smiled softly.
"I already checked the schedule."
Of course she did.
Hopeless.
Absolutely hopeless.
"You have family days," Elle continued casually. "And I can fly in for matches."
Leah blinked once.
"What?"
"I've got work in Paris, London and Germany during group stage anyway." Elle shrugged lightly. "Switzerland's easy from there."
Silence.
Real silence.
Because suddenly Leah's entire posture changed.
Hope.
Pure visible hope.
"You'd do that?"
The vulnerability hidden inside the question settled heavily between them.
Because Leah still sounded slightly surprised every time someone chose her loudly.
Elle touched her face gently.
"I'm not missing you captain your country for a second consecutive Euros."
God.
That sentence landed directly in Leah's chest.
Because suddenly this huge terrifying tournament felt slightly less lonely already.
"I can come on family days too," Elle added softly. "So you can escape football for five minutes."
Leah laughed quietly under her breath.
"You think I need supervised emotional recovery?"
"Yes."
Fair.
Very fair.
Then quieter—
"I know what these camps do to you."
The softness in her voice stripped every remaining layer of armour away immediately.
Because Elle had seen it before.
The exhaustion.
The pressure.
The way Leah carried responsibility like it physically belonged inside her bones.
Leah looked down briefly before admitting softly—
"I'm scared I won't be able to balance it properly."
"What?"
"This." Leah gestured vaguely between them. "Us. Football. Everything."
There it was.
The fear underneath it all.
Not losing football anymore.
Losing herself inside it again.
Elle stepped even closer then until their foreheads rested lightly together outside the entrance to England camp while players and staff moved around them unnoticed.
"You don't have to choose one or the other anymore," she whispered softly.
Silence.
Then slowly—
Leah nodded.
Because maybe that was the biggest change of all.
Football used to consume her completely.
Now there was love beside it too.
Something steady enough to survive distance and pressure and tournament chaos.
Then suddenly a car horn blasted nearby.
"OI CAPTAIN!"
Georgia Stanway leaned out her car window grinning like a menace.
"STOP FLIRTING AND COME TO WORK."
Leah physically closed her eyes in pain.
"England camp is a hostile environment."
Elle burst out laughing.
Hopeless.
Absolutely hopeless.
Leah looked back at her one final time then.
And suddenly the goodbye felt different this time.
Still hard.
But not heavy.
Because now they already had plans.
Flights.
Family days.
A way back to each other built into the tournament itself.
Leah kissed her slowly outside St. George's Park while summer sunlight spilled across England shirts and suitcases around them.
And softly against her mouth—
"Love you."
Easy now.
Natural now.
Elle smiled instantly.
"Go win the Euros, captain."
God.
The way she said it.
Like belief instead of pressure.
Leah smiled helplessly before finally stepping backward toward camp.
Then pointed once.
"You better actually come to Switzerland."
Elle laughed softly.
"I'll be the one emotionally screaming in the stands."
And watching Leah disappear toward England camp carrying both captaincy and expectation on her shoulders, Elle realised something quietly certain:
this summer might belong to England—
but Leah no longer belonged only to football.