I'm not going super deep into the dynamics of the World Cup, but just so you can follow along: the initial 32 teams are divided into eight groups of four called 'stage groups'. Those four teams all play each other, and the two teams that do the best advance to the next stage, or the bracket play. At that point its single elimination where winners play winners until there is a final winner.

So in honor of this smutfest of a fic coming to an end, enjoy a little more smut in the last chapter. I just couldn't help myself. It wouldn't have been a true FotP ending without it XD

Chapter 39: A Bitter Sweet End to the World Cup!
Eren

The roar of the crowd is loud in my ears, a familiar sound that I haven't heard in quite a while. I missed that sound, and now I find that I'm really looking forward to the start of the next MLS season when I get to watch Levi and the Scouts rise though the ranks again. But right now, there are other matches I need to focus on.

The United States had been placed in Group E, with Uruguay, Italy, and Japan. Currently, the United States is playing Italy, and with only a few minutes left in the match, it looks like the United States will win. And with the other five matches of the group stage already finished, it looks like the United States and Uruguay will advance to bracket play of the World Cup.

Levi had been taking it a little easy during the group stage matches in order to not strain his ankle too much before the more difficult matches begin. He hadn't had any problems with his ankle during the training before coming to Europe, but now that they're playing so many matches in such quick succession, Levi is holding back in order to last through to bracket play. At least, that's what I'm assuming, because he's definitely not playing at one hundred percent.

Levi dribbles the ball up the center field, passing it off to his left winger. The soccer ball pinballs back and forth between Levi and his other four forwards as they drive it down the field. The ball makes it back in front of Levi, and a quick, complicated spin that makes my breath catch has him at the goal with no one but the goal keeper in the way. In the blink of an eye, Levi positions the ball, plants his left foot, then launches the ball through the air and by the goal keeper's outstretched fingertips. It slams into the back of the net and the stadium roars. I cheer as loud as I can, applauding for my husband- it's been two weeks but the word still sends my heart into an excited flutter- and his team.

The ball is set back into play, but with only forty seconds left in the match and the score four to one in favor of the United States, all they have to do is keep the ball away from the Italians until the buzzer sounds. And that's exactly what they do. The United States manages to keep Italy in their half of the field, and when the end of the match is signaled by the buzzer, the team celebrates. They'll be moving on to the round of sixteen.

I've learned by now that following all the matches and practices, the team always takes at least an hour to meet and discuss… well, whatever it is they discuss. On their way to the locker room, Levi finds me sitting in the front row and offers me a wink and blows a kiss. The scream of a bunch of girls right behind me scares the shit out of me, and Levi laughs as he jogs towards the locker room with the rest of his team.

I hurry from the stands, pushing my way through the heavy crowds. Once Levi finishes his meeting, I know he'll want to celebrate. So I rush back to our hotel room to get myself ready to celebrate with my husband.

Levi

The after-the-match meeting takes longer than it did the last couple times, but two hours later I'm stepping off the elevator onto my floor. I know Eren is waiting for me in the room, and I'm eager to be with him. The adrenaline rush from the win is still flowing through me, despite a cold shower and a two hour long meeting. A smile is pulling at my lips as I key open the door and enter the hotel room.

"Sorry it took so long, babe, the coach-"

As I step into the room, Eren whips around with wide eyes, his head tilted back slightly and a wad of tissues pressed to nose. "Don't freak out," he tells me immediately, his tone slightly nasally from the firm press of the tissues.

"What happened?" I ask him as I cross the room towards him.

"It's just a nosebleed!" he laughs, tipping his head back all the way as he tries to brush me off.

I immediately put my bag on the dresser and rifle through it for my phone. "I'm calling that doctor."

"No!" he argues, snatching the phone out of my hand. "It only started about five minutes ago and…" he pulls the tissue away from his nose and we both hold our breath as we wait. Despite his nose being covered in red, I can tell that it's not bleeding anymore and I breathe a sigh of relief. "… see? Nothing to worry about. I'm fine!"

I stare at him a moment longer, watching to see if the bleeding starts up again. But with no signs of bleeding, I nod and head into the bathroom to wet a towel. Eren sits on the bed as I clean up his face with the towel. It's only then, after the initial panic has died down, that I notice what he's wearing. I had never considered myself a panty guy, but seeing Eren in a lacy black thong that hugs his cock perfectly makes me second guess that consideration.

I only realize that I'm staring when Eren's hand pulls the towel from my own. When I snap my eyes up to his face, he's smirking. He tosses the towel onto the ground and pushes me back onto the bed, swinging a leg over my waist to straddle me.

"Do you like them? I was a little nervous about them, but I'm sensing some positive vibes," he teases, his voice a murmur as he leans over me to trail his lips along my neck. "They were a wedding present from Hanji, so you'll have to thank her if you like them."

I wrap my arms around his waist and roll us over so he's on his back. His smile grows and I quickly cover it with a deep kiss. His hands pull at my shirt and I let him remove it. I let my fingers trail down his stomach to the soft lace, hooking a finger under the band and running it along to his hip.

"I'll definitely be thanking her when we get back," I say into his chest.

"I'm just glad we didn't open the wedding presents in front of my parents. There were some other very… provocative things in that box," Eren tells me with a giggle. "I think my mom would've fainted."

I smile into his stomach, continuing to trail kisses lower and lower. My lips find the lace and hover over the growing bulge there. Eren inhales sharply as I run my tongue up the shaft of his cock, over the top of the panties. His hands fist in the sheets and I can feel his hips shaking from fighting the urge to buck them up into my tongue. I mouth at the head before pulling the band down to release his flushed cock. I don't remove the thong though before taking him in my mouth. I'd like to leave those on as long as possible.

Eren moans loudly, one hand coming up to fist in my hair. A hard suck on his cock turns his moan into a sharp gasp. I take a long time teasing his cock, drawing it out until the precise moment I feel he's about to come, then I stop. He whines, but I quiet him with a deep, tongue delving kiss as I fumble through the drawer of the nightstand for the lube. Once my fingers are adequately slicked, I slide them down to his entrance. Pulling the thin strap of the thong aside, I circle his entrance, then push inside. His breath hitches, and he slowly exhales with a moan into the kiss.

After I've thoroughly prepped him, I kick out of my shorts and run some lube over my aching cock. Eren moves his arms to wrap them around my neck. He buries his face into the crook of my neck, sucking at my skin as I position myself between his legs. I slowly push into him, a moan of my own leaving my lips as his tight heat envelops me.

"I love you," he pants, his fingers digging into my shoulders.

"You are my world," I breathe in response.

I thrust deep into him and he gasps. His gasps turns into moans as I find my rhythm, thrusting in and out of him. His soft noises of pleasure fill the room and are music to my ears. I've heard a lot of wonderful noises in my life, like the wild cheers of a full stadium, the loud ring of a buzzer when my team has just won a match, the song Eren and I had our first dance to at our wedding…. But the sounds of Eren's pleasured moaning as I make love to him tops the list.

"A-Ah Levi!" Eren cries, his body arching into mine. "I'm… I'm going to come!"

I thrust hard into him once more before he releases across his stomach. I can feel my own orgasm approaching and I mash my lips into Eren's, my thrusts losing all semblance of a rhythm and I ride Eren through his orgasm and quickly into my own.

We lay beside each other, Eren's head resting on my bicep and his finger tracing over my abs, as we both come down from our bliss.

"How's your ankle?" he suddenly asks, his fingers stilling as he looks up at me.

I stare back for a moment, trying to figure out where that question even came from. "What?" I finally ask.

"You were favoring it," he says. "All three matches, you were favoring your ankle. It isn't still hurting you is it?"

"I was not favoring it," I argue.

He lifts himself up onto an elbow, looking down at me with a raised eyebrow. "You totally were," he insists. "I've been watching your matches religiously since you were recruited into the Scouts out of college. I know how you play like the back of my hand. You're a… charge-in-head-first kinda guy. You don't hold back. You go all out. And if there was ever a time to go all out, it's now, on the world stage. But you weren't. You weren't pushing yourself. I was wondering if it was because of your ankle. It reminds me of how you were playing in practices after the initial injury."

Now that he points it out, I realize that he might be right. Maybe I wasn't leaving everything out on that field like I thought I had been. I hadn't been as tired as I usually am while stepping off the field after a full match. I hadn't even realized I was doing it. "My ankle isn't bothering me. It's not even hurting. I'll make sure to give it my all in two days when we make Germany really work for their win."

He smacks me on the arm with a disapproving look before laying back down, pillowing his head on my chest. I move closer to him, pulling him into me with an arm wrapped around his waist. "Don't just assume you'll lose because you're playing Germany. If you guys really work hard, then… you might… have a chance…"

He starts giggling in the middle of his sentence, and I can't help but laugh with him. "There's no way we're going to win. But I will give it my all. I promise you," I murmur into his hair.

"Good," he hums, his fingers walking up my abs to my chest. "Besides, the more effort you put into the matches, the more… vigorous you are after, and the better the sex is."

I pull back to look at him with a raised eyebrow. "Are you saying I didn't satisfy you tonight?"

"No I did not say that," he answers immediately, pushing himself up to straddle my waist. His member is growing hard and hot against my stomach. "I'm just saying you have this… excited energy after your more intense matches. It's like the more into the matches you get, the more into the sex you are. I don't know babe, it's hard to explain."

I wrap my arms around the small of his back and sit up, pulling his chest flush against mine, rolling my hips into his so he can feel my growing erection. "I feel like I need to redeem my manhood," I growl into his neck.

He exhales sharply. "You have nothing to redeem! But I definitely wouldn't mind you trying."

...

I shake out my arms and roll my head on my shoulders one more time as I stand with the rest of the team just inside the tunnel to the locker room. The announcers are announcing the start of the round of sixteen, and this particular match. They're announcing Germany right now, and across the field, I can see the red, black, and yellow of their uniforms entering the field. Once Germany is on the field, the announcers begin to announce us, and I follow the captain and the rest of the team out of the tunnel and onto the field to join the German team.

After the greeting and sportsmanship crap, and the teams are instructed to take their positions on the field, I glance over to the stands, looking for Eren. I see him in his regular seat in the front row, his camera gripped tightly in one hand and waving at me with the other. I smile, then focus back on the match that's about to start.

The German team is a force to be reckoned with. They always have been. Aside from Brazil, they have the most World Cup titles of any other participating country, and the United States has yet to win a single title. The United States has yet to even make it to the final round. But aside from this knowledge that every one of my team members know, aside from the very high possibility of failure weighing on all our heads, every one of us plays with everything we have. We don't leave a single doubt, a single regret out on that field. Despite the likelihood of failure, we give it our all and leave no 'what if's to wonder on in the future.

The German team doesn't make our effort easy though. They're an incredibly powerful team, with individual and team skill levels that shouldn't be possible. Every time I think I've managed to break through their defense, I'm stopped last minute before I can make an attempt or before I can receive a pass. As the ninety minutes of the match comes nearer and nearer to the end, I've managed the only attempt for the United States, which resulted in a failure, and Germany has racked up three goals. It was expected from the beginning, but now it's becoming apparent the results of this match. We're not going to win. But none of us get disheartened. None of us give up. We all plow forward at full strength, with one hundred and ten percent determination, and just before the final buzzer sounds, a well aimed pass from my right winger lines me up perfectly for an attempt on goal that manages to sail past the outstretched fingers of the goal keeper and into the back of the net.

The celebration that flairs up amongst my team could easily be mistaken for the celebration of a winning team. Despite our three to one loss against Germany, a score that knocks us out of the running for the World Cup and sends back to our home country with our hands empty, we're excited that at least we made Germany work for their advancement. At least we gave everything we had. There are no regrets, there are no doubts, there are no pained 'what if's. We left everything out on that field, and we know it. And we even managed to get a goal off of the German team before the end. And that's enough for us.

The team all gathers on the sidelines as the coach talks us down and we prepare to move our team meeting to the locker room. Not a single tear is shed, and for the most part only smiles can be found on the faces of my teammates. We tried our best and we know it, so there's nothing to be upset over.

"I'm proud of you," the coach starts by saying. "Every single one of you. You played better against them than I could've ever hoped for."

Nods circle around the group, all of us agreeing with what the coach is saying. The coach opens his mouth to continue, but then hesitates and dismisses whatever he had been about to say with the wave of his hand.

"Let's take this into the locker room. I can hardly hear myself think out here."

We follow him into the locker room and circle around for the rest of his speech. It's a lot of 'thank you's, and a lot of him expressing how proud he is and what an honor it was to work with us. He tells us that he couldn't have picked a better team than this one, and that he hopes to see us all again in future World Cups. After a heartfelt round of hugs and high fives and many competitive remarks concerning the upcoming MLS season, the team is dismissed and disperses throughout the locker room to take showers and pack up their things.

Mike's locker is next to mine, and we start to pack up our things in silence before Mike breaks it.

"Are you heading straight home?" he asks.

"No, Eren and I will stay here another week or two, however long we feel like. We haven't done hardly any sightseeing yet, and I know Eren is excited too." I laugh at my next thought. "This hasn't been much of a honeymoon yet, so I need to do something to turn that around before I take him home."

"I don't know about that," Mike argues, pausing in his packing to look at me. "You do remember how the two of you met, right? You met at a Scouts match. Him as a huge fan of yours. You don't think he loves that his honeymoon was a couple of weeks at the World Cup?"

It's my turn to pause as I think over Mike's words. I hadn't even considered that, but he's right. I know how much of a soccer fan Eren is, and that he must be more than enjoying having front row seats to all of these World Cup matches.

"I guess you're right…" I murmur.

"Of course I am. Your entire relationship started at a soccer event, and now your marriage is too. I think that's something Eren will cherish and appreciate for the rest of your lives together." Mike closes his locker and turns to face me with a smile. "I'm not trying to talk you out of staying in Europe a little longer, I think that's a great idea to go see new things, but I just don't want you undervaluing what you gave your husband by bringing him to the World Cup for your honeymoon."

I offer an appreciative smile and a nod to Mike, grateful for his assuring words. He hitches his bag over his shoulder and starts to leave the locker room.

"I'll see you stateside, Levi. I'll see you at Trost Stadium, ready to kick ass and win ourselves another title," he calls over his shoulder.

I smirk, a competitive determination washing over me. But before then, there's still a lot of time. The season won't start for another couple months, and in the meantime, I have a new marriage that I need to focus on and explore. The nature of my smile shifts as I finish packing up my things and close up my locker.

Eren is waiting outside the locker room, in the nearly completely emptied stadium, and he smiles as he sees me emerge from the tunnel. He reaches out a hand and I take it eagerly in mine. Mike's words are still ringing in my ears, and I look out onto the empty soccer field. When I first picked up a soccer ball as a freshman in high school, I had no idea that it would eventually bring me here. Not only to the world stage, but with the hand of the man I love more than I ever thought possible tucked into my own. It didn't just bring me a stable career and a life of fame. It brought me so much more than that. I squeeze Eren's hand in mine, feeling the metal of the wedding band on his ring finger, the symbol of my love for him.

"You ready to go?" he asks me, that dazzling smile pulling at his lips.

I nod, taking the lead as I lead him off the field and into the rest of our life.

"Let's go."

Well, that's it guys, that's the end. I almost can't believe this fic is over. After fifteen months and nearly 200k words, I feel like I'm ending a huge part of my life. This is by far the most time I've spent on a single fic, and it is 60k longer than any other fic I've ever wrote, so it's kind of a relief that I was able to make it through to the end and finish it. Phew! I know updates were rocky and slow towards the end, but I'm so grateful to all of you who stuck around to see this through to the end. I love you guys. Anywho, I won't make this more emotional or dragged out than it needs to be, so thank you to everyone who read this fic! And a special thanks to those who left encouraging comments, whether here or on tumblr. Hope to see all of you in any future fics!