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He was sitting at the campus restaurant when he first felt his burning blue eyes analyzing his face. He was eating fish and chips- the only thing he could stomach in England-while the latter was eating, rather, ignoring a chicken salad in opposition of staring at Cristiano, writing on a piece of paper while his eyes darted back and forth between the 2.
When Cristiano finished his food, he confronted his peer about the uncomfortable exchange, on his part anyway. The guy was now eating, his closed notebook poking out of his bag.
“Is there a reason you were staring at me?” Cristiano asked. The man met his gaze with unwavering eyes, not angry or embarrassed like any other’s would have been.
“You looked very picturesque over there by the window, I’m taking art classes at the request of my mum. Obviously you’re used to having people look at you, you’re a good looking guy.”
“Well if you’re drawing me I should be able to see should be able to see it now shouldn’t I?”
It was a messily drawn line drawing of him, the face was finished and detailed where the rest was just outlines of body parts, objects, and shadows. It was good, he liked it a lot, maybe he would have this guy draw another for him or his mother.
“I’m Gareth. Bale.”
“Cristiano Ronaldo, you can call me Cris.”
They went to the movies together a lot, they watched movies together for their psychology class, they broke into the pool after hours and nearly got caught. He painted with Gareth, they made abstracts on cardboard and canvas, he would pose for Gareth and Gareth would draw him without looking at his paper, the image coming out as a beautiful jumble of lines and shapes.
They went to dinner together and they ate lunch at the campus restaurant constantly, Cristiano would make Gareth Portuguese food in exchange for drawing portraits of his family for his mother and father and they set bottle’s on top of the garbage can on campus and threw rocks at them, trying to break them and knock them into the bin. They went their separate ways during the summers, visiting their families in their country of origin but they kept in touch. Cristiano came back from vacation with a girlfriend, her name was Irina. She was with them when they did anything, when they went to parties or get together’s, when they went to movies. She was always there. There were few occasions when she was not there, like when she got sick and Cris and Gareth decided to sneak onto the roof of the dorm buildings and look at the stars together and whenever they went on break and neither Cristiano and Gareth had enough money to visit their respective homes and Irina was in Russia seeing her family.
Gareth enjoyed those times, Irina was a real kink in his neck at times and he found himself feeling no so himself whenever she would show up when it was just supposed to be Cris and he. They would sleep in each other's dorms or sleep in the entertainment room on campus, nobody was there anyway. They always woke up in the same position, Cristiano was always nuzzled into Gareth’s chest and Gareth always had his arms around him. They would always act like they didn’t wake up like that but they stopped caring after a while, nobody else saw them.
It was graduation, Gareth was receiving a Master’s Degree in physiology and applied kinesiology, Cristiano received his Master’s in maths and sciences. They received their diplomas and everybody threw their caps in the air, when celebration began to ensue, Cris tried to find Gareth.
He knew where Irina was and that she was waiting for him but he wanted to find Gareth, he was his first friend in college, it felt right that he was the first person that he celebrate with. He was searching around the quad where the graduation ceremony, he looked in the bathroom and back in the quad. A genuine sense of worry was brewing in his gut. His palms felt sweaty and he walked quickly through the hallways of the campus. He saw the back of a head in the art room, the arms and hands of the body stippling and splattering black paint to an orange and red painted canvas.
"Gareth?"
"Hey Cris." the reply came but he never turned around. He continued to paint, a royal blue now swirling around the canvas. This wasn't like anything he'd seen Gareth paint before, most of his movements and techniques resulted in short quick burst of vibrant yellows and oranges, he was painting slowly, lingering before removing his brush.
"What's wrong?" Gareth dragged a light blue down the center of the canvas.
"It's over." was all that came out of Gareth's mouth for a while. "You're going to go back to Portugal and I'm going god knows where. We're never going to see each other again."
"Why do you say that? You, me and Irina we'll-"
"I don't want to be around Irina. I want to be with you." Gareth looked straight into his eyes.
"Then we'll see each other when we have time! We can take time off from whatever, I won't bring Irina!"
"Cristiano you aren't understanding..."
He stared at Gareth, gears grinding in his head. Gareth stood and dumped his dirty paint water into the sink, he grabbed his canvas and threw his paint palette out, stuffing his paint brushes into his backpack.
He was about to walk past Cristiano when he put a hand on Gareth's chest stopping him from moving.
"You've wanted to be with me?" Cristiano asked rhetorically. Gareth blinked in response.
Cristiano grabbed Gareth's face and kissed him. Gareth was a lot different from a woman, his face was angular almost as if it had been chiseled out of stone, his chest was not small and soft but it was broad and muscular.
Gareth pushed Cristiano back until the back of his legs hit a desk. They could hear the sounds of music coming from the football pitch where everyone was celebrating but it was being drowned out by the sounds coming from the backs of their throats.
Groans filled the room after Gareth's leg moved in between Cristiano's thighs. The rest of their graduation night was spent in the art room before slipping back to Cristiano's dorm at 1 in the morning.
Cristiano broke up with Irina the morning after. She told him she could tell that something was going with all the small glances that they had shared and the unnecessary touching that they did.
They moved 4 years after graduation, Gareth got a small apartment next to Cristiano's family before Cristiano asked him to get a house with him, they settled on a large apartment in New York.
Gareth was working as a physiotherapist, or a physical therapist as they call it for an MLS football team in New York City, well 'soccer' team. Cristiano was a substitute teacher at the high schools in the area and worked at a restaurant as a chef every other week.
Cristiano admired Gareth for his determination in his career, it was something he would never have. He was basically married to his job, he had to stay while Cristiano went to went to Portugal for his cousin's wedding. He tried many times in many different ways to get Gareth to join him but he couldn't be moved on the matter.
Cristiano got back after a long week, he missed his boy. When he got home Gareth was on the phone with Aaron.
"Meu amor! I missed you baby!" he cooed after Gareth hung up, he seemed startled but he kissed Cristiano.
"I missed you too Cris. I drew you a couple of times."
They had made their way to the bedroom after that, Gareth seemed distant and Cristiano didn't understand what was wrong. Gareth was never this cold to him, especially after sex.
Cristiano began to run through drastic conclusions in his head, Gareth was fired, somebody was threatening Gareth, Gareth was cheating on him...
He didn't want to think like that.
He had looked into their office and saw the abstract Gareth was currently working on, he was in the kitchen at the moment grabbing a drink at the moment though.
It was shades of grey and red, mostly hand smearing and lazy brush strokes, made by an unfocused hand. This was the second time he's seen Gareth's abstracts differ in technique and color.
Next to the abstract was a picture of Cristiano, the date was from while Cristiano was in Portugal but the picture looked exactly like Cristiano. Gareth was not cheating on him, he loved Cristiano. He knew that something was wrong though.
A week later Cristiano found a hospital bill in a pile of junk mail. It just said $1000 and was addressed to Gareth Frank Bale.
"Cristiano what are you doing?" Gareth's voice came from the doorway, he'd just gotten home from work.
"Gareth, what the hell is this?"
Cris held up the hospital bill, Gareth's face dropped. His smile had completely vanished from his face in an instant. He looked like he was about to pass out, Cristiano suddenly felt bad for confronting him about whatever was going on but he was curious. Gareth took a seat on the couch next to Cristiano.
"Cris, I wanted to tell you but I didn't know how. I've been having aches in my knee, right above it at the base of my femur, I mean at first figured it was because of the football, well soccer team that I play with every Sunday and the fact that I'm getting old but when I stopped playing it still hurt. So I was walking through the front door after I dropped you off at the airport when my leg just gave out on me." Gareth stopped there, he looked like he was going to puke.
"Baby, are you okay?"
"So I went to the hospital, just to see if I was okay and they wound up taking ct scans and and MRI's on my lower body before the gave me a room."
"...And? Did you break something, tear something?" Cristiano was upset, whatever had happened clearly phased Gareth badly.
Gareth took a deep breath.
"I have Osteosarcoma. I have cancerous tumors in my bones, Cris."
That was it Gareth broke down into tears and Cristiano held him, in shock from what he just heard. He didn't understand why it had to be Gareth, why it couldn't have been him.
"They said... that they could... remove it. Not the tumor... my leg." Gareth made his best attempt at speaking through sobs. Cristiano hushed him, he had no idea how to respond.
Gareth's leg was amputated from the knee down, he had some hard times but they got through them together. Their families both visited them in New York after the amputation.
Gareth wasn't the same for a while but he got through it after a couple of years.
There were many times when Cristiano had to hold him while he was crying himself to sleep, trying to remind Gareth of the good things he still had going on in his life like, that he was in remission, he still had the job he had wanted his whole life, that he had Cristiano's love and support along with both of their families.
Cristiano had a breakthrough after everything happened with Gareth, especially with the fact that Gareth's salary paid for almost all of his amputation.
Life was delicate and you had to take it seriously, so Cristiano got a job teaching at an elementary school. He started to model on the side of everything, being an easy source of income for him.
Gareth relapsed when they were 36. There was nothing that could be done about it and Gareth had become terminal. He could barely walk anymore so the doctor made him use a wheelchair.
It was terrifying knowing that his soulmate would die in due time.
His class of 2nd graders always asked why he was missing so many days and why he was leaving at the beginning of the next month. He told them that his boyfriend had cancer so he wanted to spend time with him. He was glad that not of the kids had looked at him funny when he told them he had a boyfriend, they just told him that they were sorry and all group hugged him before they left for the day.
When he got home he found Gareth sprawled on the tile floor of the kitchen. He was crying, not able to lift himself up. He was saying that he wanted to die and how useless he felt. Cristiano picked him up as soon as he could get over to him.
Gareth wouldn't talk to him about the things he said when he didn't know Cristiano was listening. He wouldn't admit that he was depressed, he wouldn't talk about anything related to to how he was feeling emotionally.
On his last day of the year Cristiano sat in the classroom at his desk. He looked at the cards the kids had drawn him the day before when they had a substitute. They all told him that they would miss him and that they are sorry about his 'husband'. They made him cry, everything was going so horribly just when it was supposed to get better. He was supposed to grow old with Gareth, they were supposed to get married and adopt a kid.
"Gareth... Gare, wake up honey."
"What?"
"Hey, I know you're tired but I made dinner for you, it'd mean a lot to me if you would join me in eating it."
"Okay." he agreed, he stuck his arms out for Cris to help him into the wheelchair. He wheeled himself out to the dining room table.
He had made chicken salad for Gareth and fish and chips for himself.
"This is what we we're eating the first time we met." Gareth commented, Cristiano turned slow music on and they ate in silence.
"They played this song at my cousin's wedding that you missed. It was what they danced the first dance to, I had to dance with Avozinha." they listened to the song for a bit-it was called Dois Corações Unidos-before Cris spoke again. "Would you dance with me, meu amor?"
"Cris, I can barely stand on my own."
"Put your arms around my neck." He said leaning down next to Gareth to give him easier access.
He did as Cristiano told him and Cris stood, putting his arms around Gareth's now frail waist to help him up. He placed Gareth's feet on his and danced slowly around the room.
They were laughing and crying together, it was the first time Cristiano had seen Gareth truly smile since his relapse. It broke his heart that his love could not be happy.
He sat Gareth on the couch and walked into their bedroom before returning.
"I'm sorry." he said to Gareth.
"There's nothing you can do, Cris."
"You know when we first meet I figured you were just some weirdo staring at me for no reason. I was right about half of it, you are definitely a weirdo," Gareth laughed at that, "But I'm glad we met like that, if we just met at some party we would have been the type of friends you just called to see a movie. If we met in class we would've just been the type of friends that use each other for note copying. We wouldn't have been so close so fast. You know you were my first friend in England, all my friends were back in Portugal carrying out their family business."
"I'm glad we met like that too. Honestly I thought you were gorgeous when I started to draw you. I never had realized i had feelings for you until Irina came along."
"In some way I feel like I knew you were the one I was going to love for the rest of my life, but I got a girlfriend as a way of subconsciously denying it. The night you told me you wanted to be with me and we had sex in the art room really made it become clear to me. I was in love with you and I didn't know it. I felt a giant weight lift off of my back when you told me you had feelings for me. When you moved to Portugal to be with me was when I knew that you were the one. I thought about our future, anywhere, getting married and adopting kids together. I was still waiting for the right time to tell you that I was in love with you."
"It really sucks that we can't have the future you dreamed of."
"We can have part of it, meu amor." Cristiano got on one knee, he pulled out a box and held it in his knee before he continued speaking. "Gareth Bale, I love you so much, truly and wholly. You deserve so much more than what you've been given. You are the purest of hearts that I have ever met in my entire life. You deserve to be happy and I know that you aren't. Life hit us with a few sucker punches and I never got the chance to ask you this because of all the shit happening but I want you to be able to have what everyone should be able to have. Will you marry me?"
Gareth broke down into tears, he had his face cover and trying to hold back sobs.
"I can't walk properly... I-I can't do anything by myself, I- have been a dead weight to you," Gareth had to stop for a minute to try and stop crying and whimpering, "I've been whiny and snappy with you... my hair's falling out due to unsuccessful chemo that you are having to pay for, I'm a co-complete mess and you still want to give me the world, even more than you already have? Most people in the world are as lucky as me to have someone love as unconditionally of you, what kind of idiot would I be to tell you no?"
"I love you my darling, I love you so much more than I can try to describe."
"I love you too, Cristiano. I don't what I did to deserve you."
"Same to you."
Cristiano had called Gareth's and his own families while Gareth was sleeping. When he told them that he had proposed to Gareth and that he wanted to set up a wedding in Spain They all pitched in for plane tickets and the ceremony.
He took Gareth to the airport when he told him that they were going to the hospital. Gareth was surprised to say the least when they arrived at the airport and Cris told him that they were going to Spain to get married.
The ceremony was held in Madrid. It was beautiful, Gareth was helped down the aisle by his father and his best man, Aaron. He walked the entire way and stood on a crutch at the altar. He was still gorgeous to Cristiano, his pale blue eyes still held the same intensity as they had when they first met.
Gareth died in the hospital a year later. They had a funeral, everyone that was at the wedding was there, Irina even showed up and told Cristiano how sorry she was that this had happened. Cristiano didn't cry during the funeral, that was saved for the many nights he cried himself to sleep after staying at Gareth's grave, telling him about his day.
He was teaching at the same elementary school. A lot of the kids he had taught when Gareth relapsed visited him and asked him how he was, he told them that they had married a before Gareth passed away.
He decided to adopt the kid that he and Gareth would have adopted together before he had his amputation and his relapse. He didn't want to have anyone else after that, he had already experienced his true love, now it was his time to experience a different kind of love, a parental love.
Life was not at all how he imagined it to be after school but he was glad it turned out the way it did, he only wished Gareth was still with he and Junior to experience it.