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Language:
English
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Published:
2025-07-26
Words:
480
Chapters:
1/1
Comments:
6
Kudos:
28
Bookmarks:
1
Hits:
274

Bend it like Chloe Kelly

Summary:

Nick takes his daughter to watch the Lionesses.

(Basically I'm a massive lesbian who's obsessed with women's football so I wanted to write about supportive Nick inspiring his daughter)

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Work Text:

“Come on England! Come on England!”

Nick chuckled, gazing lovingly down at his daughter who was shouting herself hoarse. When he’d suggested to Charlie the idea of taking her to see the Lionesses, Charlie had been supportive but faintly sceptical. Their girl, while always keen to run around relentlessly in the garden until night fell, wasn’t the most extroverted child you could meet. Neither parent could really imagine her fitting in at a stadium full of wildly passionate football fans. But they couldn’t have been more wrong.

“Daddy, do you think Chloe Kelly looks like me? Even a little bit? I think she does. We have the same hair, and we can both run really fast! I’m already the fastest in my class. Do you think I’ll be as fast as her one day? I want to make big runs down the wing like Lauren Hemp too! Then- and then score a goal like Michelle Agyemang! Do you think I can, daddy?” she babbled, skipping excitedly on the way home, bundled up adorably in her brand-new England scarf.

“I’m sure of it, darling. You can do anything you set your mind to, and if you want to be a Lioness one day, there’s no-one in the world that can stop you,” Nick replied immediately, meaning every word. His daughter stared up at him, wide-eyed.

“Really? Really and truly?” she squeaked.

Nick knelt down and looked at her seriously. This conversation was important. Throughout the women’s Euros, the internet had been plagued by legions of men telling the players not to bother, that no-one cared about women’s sport and that it would never be on the same level as the men’s. As a primary school teacher, he saw the way that girls started out in PE lessons full of enthusiasm, which gradually faded as they became more and more aware of the expectations surrounding them, and what was deemed appropriate. All he wanted to do was protect his girl from all of that, to let her blossom in her love of activity without boys and grown men ruining it for her.

“Sweetheart, every day I watch you playing in the garden. I see you run like the wind and kick balls like they came out of a cannon. And I won’t lie to you darling, there are people in the world who won’t understand how amazing you are and how much you love it, and they might say hurtful things. But what matters is that you love what you do. So don’t ever let anybody take that away from you.”

His daughter went silent for several minutes after her papa finished talking. She chewed on the end of her scarf as they walked, barely seeming to notice when they arrived at their front gate. Then she looked up at him again.

“Daddy?”

“Yes darling?”

“Can I join the girls’ football club?”

Notes:

It's coming home, people. And it's a group of iconic queer women doing it.