Chapter 24 -- Some BIG things go down!

[tempered-rose.livejournal.com]

Title: The Eternal Heartache, Chapter 24 of ???
Characters (this part only): Iker Casillas/Cesc Fabregas
Rating: PG-13
Words: this chapter is 1,702 ; new total is 62,956
A/N: Some big shit happens… and its remarkable I was able to write this at all seeing as I was COMPLETELY distracted by a certain muse of mine… melj1213 I’m LOOKING AT YOU BB! =-P {dedicated to her, as always <3}



Last part here. All previous parts listed here.



From The Last Chapter: Guti writes a letter to Raul and leaves the restaurant for good. Raul and Pep have a romantic interlude that gets interrupted.


Like a giant glass prism, the building rose from the glass imprinted concrete and tiled sidewalk below. The front of façade was impressively modern and showed that the clientele was definitely in the wealthy end of the bankbook. The elaborate apartments were encased in a large glass box with only supports of industrialized steel to hold them together. The buildings to either side were of the same distinctively modernized air, just in different tints of glass. For the average pedestrian’s view, it was just another building in the modern district and it was simply another building that housed people with a bigger paycheck than most.

However, as the boy got out of the chauffeured car and bid thanks to the driver who disappeared to park the car in the garage, the building was so much more than just a building. It was something more powerful, something deeper, that kept him coming back to see the man that lived inside. Cesc wasn’t sure what that something was but he knew that he was timidly afraid of it. He felt like a boy playing with matches; the potential disaster at stake and yet the strange pleasure from watching something smolder and burn was too great to deny.

He waited impatiently for the elevator to arrive from the fifth floor and hurriedly got inside when it did emit its passengers. He jabbed at the floor where Iker’s apartment was, the topmost level, and waited with growing impatience for the metal box to climb steadily upwards. He was nervous; he had been ever since El Classico. He hadn’t seen Iker since the week before and it was starting to get on his nerves to the utmost degree of annoyance. When the doors finally did open, Cesc rushed out and called out Iker’s name. He only had to wait a few moments before Iker’s dark head appeared in his line of sight.

Cesc moved forward and quickly put his arms around Iker’s waist and held tightly to him. Iker’s arms automatically went around the boy’s waist while he lowered his head enough to kiss Cesc’s head. Cesc inhaled Iker’s cologne deeply and let the smell of him calm his senses enough to refocus his mind. No, Iker wasn’t the one he had seen in the Camp Nou. He couldn’t have been; Iker really didn’t even like football at all anyway.

“What is it Cesc?” Iker asked after a few moments of the boy just holding on to him tightly. “Why did you call me in such a state?”

Cesc shook his head and looked up at Iker through wide eyes. “It was something stupid really, it wasn’t anything important.”

Iker gave him a look. “Clearly that isn’t the case. You would not be so upset if something hadn’t happened.” Iker ran a finger down the side of Cesc’s face. “Tell me what it is, I can help. I’m sure of it.”

Cesc put his arms around himself and stepped away from Iker’s warmth. He didn’t want to bring up his insecurities; he was sure that there was no foundation for them and that he was simply being an immature teenage boy.

“What is it Cescito?” Iker repeated his question softly.

“I-I went to the Camp Nou for the Classico. And at one point, I thought…” Cesc laughed humorlessly. “I thought that I saw you with a lady.” Cesc turned around but didn’t look Iker in the face. “But I suppose that’s ridiculous, you don’t even like football.”

Cesc was about to ask for a confirmation on Iker’s absence from the legendary stadium when he looked up. For one brief moment, a horrible voice in the back of his mind sneered ‘did you really expect anything different? You are no more special to anyone than a bug under someone’s shoe.’ The bigger part of his mind tried to rationalize the look on Iker’s face away. It couldn’t be true, it could not be true. Iker wouldn’t…he couldn’t…

“Iker…please, please tell me I was mistaken…” Cesc stared at Iker, silently willing for the other man to say the opposite of what his worst fears were already conjuring up inside of his mind.

Iker exhaled sharply and ran a hand over his head. He waited a moment longer as he watched Cesc in front of him. Finally, he opened his mouth and spoke.

“Her name is Eva.” Cesc closed his eyes tightly together and prayed that it was all a horrible dream. He felt his heart breaking into shards of fragments and with Iker’s next words, his world shattered entirely. “She’s my fiancé.”

Cesc exhaled sharply. His voice was nothing more than a trembling whisper. “Your what?”

Iker swallowed and watched as Cesc kept his eyes clenched tightly shut. “My father has had us engaged for ages, it was only in the summer that he pushed for us to get married. It wasn’t until last month that he set an official date.”

“How long have you known?” Cesc shook his head. This was a lie, it was all a bad joke that would end soon. Iker would change his mind and then hug him close and tell him that he had just been kidding around. There wasn’t anyway that this could actually be happening; Cesc wouldn’t know what to do it if it were true.

“Not since the last time I saw you.” Iker replied honestly and leaned back against his leather couch. “I didn’t know how to tell you.”

Cesc opened his eyes and the amount of hurt inside them would have knocked Iker back if he had been standing at attention. “Were you ever going to?”

“Yes. I’m not a liar Cesc.” Iker leveled a look in his direction.

“No, but you’re not exactly honest about things either!” Cesc felt his temper rising. It had not been this high since he had been younger and had wanted to yell at Cristiano for hurting Bojan to the point of dislocating his shoulder. This time he could not hold his anger and hurt back. “You never tell me anything about you but you expect me to follow you along like a little puppy!”

“Cesc…” Iker stood up straight and held his hands out wide as if he were trying to calm a wild animal.

“No, no I won’t be your puppy anymore. I won’t let myself be used this way!” Cesc moved to go past Iker but the bigger man caught him before he could go two steps to the door. “Let me go, don’t touch me!”

Iker felt Cesc hit and try to kick at him but he held him close. He could not keep his own sadness out of his voice. “Let me explain, please. I’m begging you Cesc…”

“No! Let me go. I hate you.” Cesc’s words scratched Iker’s heart deeply and his arms opened on reflex. Cesc shoved out of Iker’s embrace and started for the elevator with increased pace.

“You don’t mean that…” Iker started.

Cesc spun on his heel and glared at Iker with dark venom in his eyes. “I hate you.” Cesc’s eyes blurred with tears of anger and betrayal but he turned and got in the elevator before Iker could recover enough to come after him. The last look he had of Iker tugged at his heart but it was nothing compared to the horrible feeling of the utmost betrayal of his trust, the betrayal of his heart.


Cesc hailed a taxi outside the building and got in. He barely managed to give the driver his uncle’s address before he lost himself in his newfound world of misery and pain. His mind had tortured him with scenarios of this exact situation since it had happened. He had thought he had been prepared for this devastating reality but now when the actual calamity had occurred, he realized that he was horribly unprepared.

He was completely oblivious to the strange and curious looks that the driver was giving him as he was completely uncaring of the amazing views of the city that were breezing past the window. He did not care about the cityscape or about anyone else’s curiosity.

The pain shot from his heart with every beat and flooded his bloodstream with agony. His head was encased in torture as the memories and fictitious scenarios played across his mind’s eye as if it were a film that he could not look away from. Thoughts of how?, what?, when?, and most importantly, why? would not leave his conscious no matter how much he desperately wished they would.

Iker…engaged… It seemed like too horrible of a dream for him to believe that it was true. Cesc begged God and all the saints he could think of for it to be a lie.

By the time the taxi pulled to a stop and Cesc had all but thrown money at the driver, Cesc had worked himself into a state of darkness. The house was empty—Pep had gone to visit Raul while the legendary chef worked on his bookkeeping skills and Bojan had gone to hang out with Leo, Alexis, Sergio, and Silva. He had been invited to tag along but had pulled back because of the trip to Iker’s.

Cesc slammed the door and paced the hallway while he ran his hands through his hair and over his face. His breathing was nothing but heavy gasps; his lungs searched for air but could not pull in enough to satisfy the need in time for the next deep gasp. Tears streaked down his cheeks in wet hot trails but he did not care. His chest heaved with silent sobs.

It couldn’t be true, it just couldn’t be true. Cesc repeated over and over in his mind hoping that if he said it enough that it wouldn’t be.

He found himself sliding down to the floor until he was on his knees. He couldn’t breathe while the sobs wracked his body but Cesc could not think of a way to get them to stop. As darkness entered the perimeter of his eyes, the last thing he was aware of was the door opening and two sets of feet walking inside.

Then everything went completely and utterly dark.