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They were not good days for the Barcelona football club, after the dismissal of Xavi and the Laporta board for failing to win a title in its second consecutive year. The club fell into the hands of the Roselista group with the help of impatient fans and the Madrid media.
Despite improving the game and the results. The fans had little patience and would pay for it in the following years by destroying the sports project and the only directive that could save the Club from ostracism.
August, 2025
Tuchel didn't get much, he didn't have the players he needed, they didn't even enter champion positions and the premier league kept the best players. It was when the most toxic fans in the world realized their mistake. They called out to Laporta and because of the sole affection that he still had for the club of his life, he agreed to apply for the third time after only two years of his unjust motion of no confidence.
The numbers did not add up and exits through transfers were a necessity to avoid becoming a limited company or falling into the hands of a sheikh.
The first to leave was Ansu Fati for 50 million euros, then Balde was sold to Arsenal for 60 million, followed by Araujo for 80 million and then Pablo Torre for 35 million. But it was still not enough, one more sale was needed for the survival of the club and they had to choose between one of the two greatest talents in world football.
...
Pedri was watching the news and heard the sound of his door. He opened it and found Gavi standing in front of him with a suitcase in hand. Silence dominated and that was when Gavi said the words he feared. He knew that one of the two would be pierced, only they did not know who. Both did not want to leave but they loved the club more and would accept the decision if it would allow Barcelona to survive due to the departure of one or the another.
"I'm going to Liverpool". "how much?" Pedri asked with a broken voice. "170 million" Gavi replied coldly.
"They decided to bet on you even though City offered 200 million" he said, taking the Canarian's shoulders.
"My flight is today" he finally whispered with a broken voice that a few seconds ago was safe.
They both knew it, they had known it for a long time and it was no longer necessary to hold back any longer. Their tear-stained gazes made both of them close in for a big hug and a wild kiss. They entered Pedri's room between kisses due to the urgent need that they would not see each other again for a long time. They made passionate love on Pedri's bed, they fucked on the desk an one hour later again two hours before Gavi's flight.
Pedri took him by car to the airport as in the early years when they were just young boys. Still they were. When he was about to get off the green minicooper that Pedri still had, Pedri held his arm, begging for a long-distance relationship. They had the selection to see each other and the winter and summer vacations. But Gavi denied the idea.
"This is the real world, we have to accept it" "No one should know what happened between us" was the last sentence that Gavi told him between tears. And he left breaking Pedri's heart twice on the same day by despising him.
June, 2028
Laporta managed to save the Club, stabilized the economy. Xavi returned in 2026 as a coach. Even Leo Messi returned as the club's technical director a year ago and bet heavily on the quarry and some strategic purchases without inflated prices. And this is how Dembele, Eric and Pedri were the only survivors of Xavi's first Barca. They were doing better and had won the Spanish Super Cup.
For his part, Gavi was the star of Liverpool along with Bellingan. They had won the Champions League and everything was happiness for his former best friend.
And it is that they did not talk much, only the first year of Gavi's departure and the few times in the national team and now Pedri was watching the celebration of the victory of Gavi's team and that is when he saw something unusual, a beautiful girl young blonde with light eyes and a slender figure was carried in the arms by the Sevillian sharing a kiss in full view of the whole world.
It was the third time that Pedri's pieces fell. He still believed that behind all that indifference was hidden the longing for his return. He cried under the sheets in his room and it was as Gavi had told him. This is the reality.
December, 2029
Pedri watched the delivery of the Ballon d'Or with Musiala, he became his friend after arriving as a free agent from Bayern. And it was when he saw Gavi enter the podium as third. Liverpool had managed to be a finalist this time and that is when he saw the blonde again with a slight weight gain and an engagement ring.
It was the fourth time he had heard his heart scream.
December, 2031
Barcelona achieved a new sextet, after a long process and a lot of patience, Xavi brought out the excellence of the team. They had even won the Champions League against Gaurdiola's City. And so he was in front of the entire public receiving his first Ballon d'Or from his mentor and former captain Lionel Messi. And he saw him again and that's when his happiness ended. He saw Gavi applauding him with his two-year-old daughter in his arms and his wife beside him. They both exchanged glances... Pedri reminded him of the same day they said goodbye 6 years ago. The sad look filled with longing from both of them and he saw his pretty daughter on his lap. She is brown like him, green eyes and many little moles on her face and that is when a genuine smile appeared on Gavi's face. And now Pedri had understood Gavi's words. He was aware of reality but he never accepted it because he was still clinging to the hope that one day Pablo would knock on his door and ask him to finally be together.
Instead Pablo continued, he just stalled.
Seeing the little girl awakened in him an unknown longing. He held up the award giving a half smile to the person he had loved so much.
This was the beginning of his story...
February, 2032
He didn't know how or when, but Pedri had an appointment with a traumatologist from the technical staff, maybe he was always there and he simply decided not to look.
January, 2035
Gavi had left his wife, pretending to love a person he didn't want for so long made him explode, confessing all his love for his former teammate. He had been threatened for the moment by his wife to take him out of the closet in a press. He didn't care in the slightest and he took a direct plane to Barcelona. He knocked on the door already known to him very well. The apartment where he spent much of his youth.
The door opened but he did not find exactly who he was looking for. He was a young man his age practically. Slightly wavy jet black hair, blue eyes covered with glasses, bushy eyebrows and a pale skin like his and about four inches taller than him.
In the face of the confusion... he did not avoid wondering if Ferran had lied to him. "sorry, do-"Gavi managed to vocalize
"I know who you are and who you're looking for" said the stranger with the coldest tone he'd ever heard in his whole fucking life.
" Pedro!" the stranger called into the apartment and then pierced him with his eyes.
"Why are you yelling Marco?" gavi heard the tone of voice that he had missed so much.
Gavi saw him appear behind the threatening figure, he remembered him as always, the years did not seem to have taken their toll on him. Only his beard had grown a little longer, but whoever didn't know him would say that he was 24 years old. The age Pedri was when they had fucked three times In a morning. The age when He left Pedri alone.
Pedri looked disconcerted by his visit, he had waited for this scene for so many years, but it was too late. Pedri was madly in love with the person who had helped him put together the pieces of him. He gave his boyfriend a kind look for him to leave him alone.
Gavi looked with desire at the radiant figure of the boy he never stopped loving.
"I'm going to divorce my wife" he was direct, not asking to wait to take Pedri.
"I'm so sorry" he replied.
"Don't do it, I never loved her" and that was when he said the wrong words when he received Pedri's icy look for a second.
"I came for you" he whispered as if they were muffled words "because I lov-"
"Don't say it Pablo" Pedri cut short the beginning of his confession "it's no use anymore, I... I don't feel the same anymore. I really love Marco." Gavi did not believe what he was hearing, there was no rumor of Pedri with a partner and even less with a man. He looked around like he was being filmed for some ridiculous comedy show.
"It can not be true"
"it is"
" I never stop loving you!"
"me neither...until recently"
"Is this a punishment?"
"no" "it's just reality" "but I can still be-"
"friend?!" "Fuck you Pedro!"
"Okey" he said with downcast eyes closing the door leaving the shorter adult with the word in his mouth.
Gavi lunged for the door only getting a light blow against his forehead . "Pedri... no! Please forgive me" played for several minutes until Marco came out enraged. "he doesn't want to talk to you, he'll do it another time" "just... shoot yourself " and he closed the door in his face.
He got up off the ground, wiped his knees and walked down the snow covered path until he fell back on his knees crying out the name of the person he had lost recently between sobs. He received curious looks from people who was passing by.
He cursed himself and Pedri was right, this was the reality. Not the world he had built around a lie.
And it is that of the two, one had nothing to regret and the other had been a complete coward taking the easy way.
Summer, 2040
Pedro retires from professional football after winning a sextet, and one more champions league and his second Ballon d'Or, in addition to becoming the youngest coach in the history of Barcelona.
And Gavi kept waiting for his chance...