"Zarine," Cristiano kissed her shoulder.

She smiled, "Hmm?"

"What would you say-"

"Wait, before I forget, I got something for you," she stopped him and lunged towards her purse.

"Gifts? Yayyyy!" he said with anticipation.

She finally got it out and looked at him with a shy smile, "Here, catch."

Cristiano caught with a curious frown and his eyebrows shot up as he stared at the small square box in his palm.

"It's a promise ring," she said, trying to sound nonchalant, while her heart beat painfully loud, watching him open the box.

He fingered the simple silver band and looked towards her, "Oh my- Thank you, Zarine, this-" He cleared his throat and put it on, "It's just so-Oh my God, I love you so much." He walked to her and just stared for a couple of seconds too overcome by emotions to do anything else and then finally, pulled her close, his lips seeking hers, kissing her, caressing her.

As they broke apart, she gave a small smile, "I know we're still figuring things out but I just wanted to let you know that I always have, always will, love you and I just-I'm cheesy and I'm sarcastic, sometimes I am difficult to talk to, and oh my gosh I ramble, a lot, but I am just so lucky to have you because you and I...we fit, you understand me, I understand you and it's weird because this, this comfortable feeling that I have around you...I just haven't ever felt it with someone else. So, this is a promise for, for us, for the future. We'll make it, you and I. Oh God, say something!"

"I-it's so unfair that you get to be so eloquent while all I can do is try and tell you how much I love you and these moments when we get to spend time together, how I love the way you sprawl across the couch with your books and hum absent-mindedly, how your hair sticks up all over the place, how you say Cristiano fucking Ronaldo under your breath, how you lose everything and find it a minute later, how you put your heart and soul in whatever you do, how you are because you, you're perfect to me. You are an inspiration and I feel like a idiot standing here, wearing your promise ring, and not having something to symbolise my promise to you so I'll just say it, no matter how un-eloquent I sound, I'll just say it. I promise that you and I are forever and I won't let anything change that."

She blushed and ruffled his hair lovingly, "Yeah, well, I'm fabulous."

He nudged her playfully, "Of course you are."

"Sooo," she smiled, "what were you going to say when I interrupted you?"

"What...I can't really remember anything before that kiss, you know..." he grinned.

"Criiiisss," she pushed him.

"Okay, okay, I wanted to ask whether you'd like to go to Colombia for a couple of days?"

She turned, "Colombia?"

"It's this country in South America," he started.

"I know what it is," she rolled her eyes. "Are we going or are we just speculating? Because seriously, you just won the Ballon D'or, I reckon you deserve some time-off."

He gave her nose a kiss, "Did you check your phone?"

"No," she reached for it. "What is it? Oh, I have a text from James...He's throwing a party for you?"

Cristiano nodded slowly, "I know we hardly got any time to spend together lately so I get it if you just..."

"Are you crazy? Of course we are going! I mean look at how cute this invite is." She read aloud, "You are invited to Cristiano's Ballon D'or After Party hosted by his one and only hot and sexy BFF JAMES RODRIGUEZ. RSVP. Absolutely no pineapples allowed. See ya, homies. (Only inviting a select few so you should feel lucky and bloody well come)." She laughed, "We should go. It'll be like a nice vacation. Plus, this is some legit #Crismes right here."

"Okay, then," Cris got up. "Pack some stuff and let's go."

"What about our tickets though?"

"Babe, you're dating a guy who owns a private jet, you gotta catch up."

"Sometimes your sparkle is just too blinding, honey."

"Oooh," he whistled, "calling me honey now. Warming up, huh?"

She patted his cheek, "Leave the sarcasm to me, babe, you kind of suck at it."

"Well, it's a good thing, then, that I'm good at so many other things," he grinned mischievously and pulled her towards himself, enveloping her body in one of his characteristic hugs.

***

If you asked Cristiano or Zarine, they would tell you straight away that long distance was not just tough, it was heart-wrenching. There were, still are, times when they just want to get home and look at the other one. Except they have to make do with calls, videochats, texts and old conversations. Every moment spent together feels as if it's snatched from time. And yet, they're going strong.

It's only been a few months, it's true, since they went truly official with their dating. Cristiano's Mum couldn't believe her son was dating someone from another continent and nearly had a fit when he told that he would actually ask Zarine to marry him one day since she hadn't even met the girl yet. Zarine's mother, Firoza, came to know through a newspaper article and gave her daughter a lecture on the ill effects of dating.

Then of course, both the families didn't get along well the one time Cristiano and Zarine had arranged for them to meet. And yet they were going strong. It was true they did have arguments now and then but they never fought. Once had been enough to teach them that a serious fight could destroy them and they were never going to risk it again.

So what if they were often separated by thousands of miles? They found weekends to spend together. If they had a week off, they would go off somewhere, enjoying travel and love together. They'd found their home and it was there, together. Distance didn't matter because each second, every moment just drew them closer.

Right now, travelling on a plane to James' villa, was another one of these beautiful moments which they treasured so much. Cristiano was sleeping, his head has slipped onto Zarine's shoulder while his arms lay crossed across his chest. Zarine had been reading aloud from Roald Dahl's The BFG and the book had slipped from her hands as she had drifted off to sleep too, her head resting lightly on his. It was so quiet and peaceful, you could hear yourself dream in such embraces.

Because these two...they were here for the long run.

***

"Welcome, guys, welcome to my sweet and magnificent abode," James opened the door and let them inside.

"James, you look awesome," Zarine greeted him with a hug. "And oh my gosh, you own a villa."

James hugged her back, "I might like you even better than my pet cat, you know. And Cristiano, my man, please tell me you brought the golden ball?"

Cris smirked, "Of course."

Zarine snickered, "Golden ball."

"My dirty sense of humour is corrupting you," the Colombian shook his head.

"Let the love guru decide who gets to eat the last piece of pizza!"

"Is that Alvaro?" Cristiano asked, looking inside.

"Yeah, some of the gang arrived half an hour ago from Madrid so I got pizza for them. Ahoy, you pigs, leave some for Zariano please!"

"Woah, the whole squad is here," Cris laughed excitedly, as they entered the living room, and high fived his teammates. "Wait, where's Gareth?"

"I don't know, maybe he was busy?" James remarked innocently.

Zarine was meanwhile going through a very silent and yet very, very powerful burst of fangirling because HOLY SHIT SERGIO IS SITTING SHIRTLESS AND PLAYING UNO. Those swimming boxers are very very short. Omg IS THAT ANGEL BECAUSE I NEED HIS AUTOGRAPH!! These guys are so chill. How do I even behave normally around them?

"Hey, Zarry," Sergio waved. "You okay?"

She waved back awkwardly. Um how about you put on a fuckimg shirt and then ask the questions?

Marcelo winked, "Still no sister? Oh well. By the way, I don't think you've met Angel here? Angel, this is the famous Zarine who stole our Cris's heart and Zarine, this is Angel Di Maria, he's in PSG now but we called him anyway."

Angel gave a shy smile, "Hello."

"Yeah, yeah, I know-" Oh, man, Marcelo, stahp, that was a horrible intro.

The bell rang and James groaned, "Man, I just sat down."

"It's okay, I'll go check," she volunteered, happy to escape from the room full of hot dudes.

She opened the door and sighed in relief. "Gareth, thank God, you're here," she smiled and hugged the tall guy.

Gareth was wearing a huge hat and knee length shorts. His off white thin tee was sticking to his body and he looked totally done with the whole place. "I'm sorry, I'm sweaty. My taxi broke down and then James didn't tell me how to reach this place. Bloody arsehole totally ignored my messages. Then my driver misunderstood my Spanish and went off without me."

"Come in, come in, I'll get you some water," Zarine said, feeling sorry for the poor guy. "Just leave your backpack here. I'll look for the kitchen. The guys are in the living room playing Uno and umm, Sergio is shirtless for some reason which is very distracting...yeah, I'll go look for the kitchen."

She looked around the house and bumped into someone as she rounded a corner, "Oops, I'm sorry."

"It's okay, I wasn't really looking."

Zarine looked up, "Hey, I'm a bit lost, looking for the kitchen."

"Oh hey," the tanned girl smiled back, "I'm Rosa."

Rosa must have caught Zarine's confused expression because she added, "I'm James' cousin. My friends and I are here for the vacations...well, we were until James barged in and announced a party. I suppose you're here for it too. Since this is a family villa, we decided to split the place into two halves. He gets the front and beach for one week and we get it for the next. I wouldn't have agreed but he said he was inviting over Cristiano and can you blame me for not wanting to miss the opportunity to meet the hottie? But I digress, what's your name?"

Zarine grinned, "I'm Zarine."

"That's a lovely name and I can show you to the kitchen," she gestured to her to follow. "Wait," she suddenly stopped, "not THE Zarine?"

"Umm," Zarine didn't really know how to respond to that. A part of her wanted to say, HELL YES THE ZARINE FUCKING HASAN because she hadn't ever really interacted with other fangirls as Cristiano's girlfriend but the saner more modest part of her reined the excitement in, feeling kind of miffed because I want to be known for my own achievements.

"Wow, that's just WOW!"

"Babe, where are you?"

Zarine turned and replied, "Back here, Cris."

Cristiano appeared, looking somehow hot and adorable at the same time like he always did, "I thought you drowned at the beach or something!"

"Is Toni's pessimism wearing off on you?" she laughed. "By the way, this is Rosa, James's awesome cousin."

"Hola, Rosa, cómo estás?"

Rosa turned red and nodded, "Er good, I gotta er go. See you later." She whispered to Zarine, "Shit, I think I'm going to be sick. He's just gorgeous," and ran upstairs.

"What did I do?" Cristiano looked confused.

"You were too gorgeous, man," she patted his shoulder, trying not to laugh.

***

"I can't believe you came uninvited," James whispered angrily to Gareth.

"Oh don't worry, Hamburger, I knew we were too close to do invites anyway," Gareth retorted calmly.

"Hamburger? Hamburger? Seriously? You suck at sassy nicknames, you fucking pineapple-trespassing-tree!"

"Fine, Ha-mess, stop creating a fuss at your own party."

James narrowed his eyes, "I get it, you're trying to get revenge for all the times I've called you names. But, excuse me, do not refer to me with anything with a "mess" in it. That's low."

"Ooh," Gareth said shrewdly, " should I add an "I" to it too?"

"You think you're being smart but seriously that jungle on your face is a mark of your stupidity to everyone around you."

"You're just jealous of my beard!"

"Grumpy Gareth came to spoil my party, huh," James stuck his tongue out. "I'm so glad I didn't answer your messages,"

"I had to walk two kilometres!"

James snorted, "You were getting fat sitting on the bench anyway."

"Look who's talking," Gareth said.

"Guys, guys, I have a problem," Cristiano walked over to them, the bonfire reflecting hazel in his eyes.

James and Gareth turned towards him, reddening at realising that they were actually having a whispered argument at the evening beach party surrounded by people. At least no one seemed to be paying them much attention.

"What's up, bestie?" James batted his eyelashes innocently.

Gareth put his arm around Cristiano's shoulders, "As long as you have me, you needn't worry about problems."

Cristiano, completely unaware that his best friends were having yet another fight, told them about how Zarine had given him a promise ring but he hadn't given her anything. "I feel so bad, I should have brought something to give to her. It just happened so fast, I was unprepared. Hell, I didn't even know promise rings were a thing."

"I didn't know either," Gareth said, genuinely clueless.

"Well, I knew about them," James smirked. "And I know how you can give her one by tonight."

"I'm listening,"Cris said, hopefully.

"There's this department store fifteen minutes from here. It has these cool cheap souvenirs and I'm pretty sure I've seen some okayish rings there."

"Department store rings? Seriously?"

James looked at him, "Dude, Zarine is an awesome girl but you gotta realise you can't leave her hanging. She must be expecting a promise ring too. Better give her a cheap one than give her nothing right? She might get bored of you and run away."

Gareth frowned at him, "She won't, Cris, we all know that."

"Ugh, I was being melodramatic, okay? Of course, she isn't going to leave you ever. Leave the promise ring business to me. I'll fix it."

Cristiano watched warily as James hurried off in the direction of what he assumed was the department store, hoping his friend wouldn't go overboard.

Two hours later, a very drunk and elated James who was totally enjoying the party wheeled up the cake, winked drunkenly towards Cristiano and announced, "Gather around, guys, Cristiano is going to cut the golden cake. Get it, golden cake, hehe."

After they had all celebrated the cake cutting, James offered to distribute the cake amongst the guests. He didn't want to waste a slice on Garry, the pineapple tree, but had to and finally, he gave the last slice to Zarine who was fangirling over Özil and Khedira who had come fashionably late.

James walked over to Cris and smacked his shoulder, "See that cake Zarine is eating. The promise ring inside it is going to surprise her so much."

"WHAT!? James, she could choke!" Cris said, beginning to walk over to his oblivious girlfriend. "Zar-Oh my God, she finished the slice!"

"Oh shit, she ate it?"

A violent bout of coughing and choking to their right made them look at Gareth who had been discussing constellations with Rosa and Jese. He was clutching at his throat while Rosa and Jese looked helpless and scared.

"Oh no, you gave my ring to him, James!" Cristiano ran over and crouched beside the kneeling, purple-faced Gareth, "Spit it out, vomit it out, Gareth, do something!" He tried to rub Gareth's back and seeing that it was not helping, he banged his back two times and finally the stuck ring came out covered with pieces of cake and spit. Gareth coughed and breathed in huge gulps of air, croaking, "I'm...I'm going to kill him!"

The rest of the guests cheered at Gareth's recovery and went on partying while James decided that this was a very good moment to disappear towards the bar with Toni and Sergio.

It was way past midnight when a very, very drunk James lurched over to where Gareth was dozing on a beach chair after his narrow escape.

"Oi, Garry, Garry, Garry, my lil pineapple tree head jerk," he cooed and then tripped over Gareth's long legs.

Gareth groaned and opened an eye, "Why must it always be you?"

James settled beside him in the sand, "Man, it's good you didn't choke on that ring."

"Oh," Gareth mumbled sleepily. "I didn't think...you'd care."

James lay back, "I don't want to be convicted for a murder. I have a long and successful career ahead of me."

"Oh."

"But yeah when you were choking, for a second, I thought you'd die and," he sniffled slightly, "that was scary."

Gareth stared at the stars overhead, "You are so melodramatic."

James stood up and swayed slightly, "Ugh, I hate our non-existent bromance."

"Me too," Gareth yawned and got up, "but you're going to fall down in some hole if you try to walk like that so let me give you a hand."

"You don't want me to fall in some hole, aww," James cooed again. "You're such a gentleman, Garrykins--oops."

Gareth closed his eyes and sighed, "And you've vomitted on my feet now. Great."

James giggled, "Oopsie-daisie" and passed out.

In the end, Gareth had to half-carry, half-drag James to bed. He scowled all the way but when James was in bed, he made sure to pull a blanket over him, "Sleep tight."

"Garry," James mumbled without opening his eyes. "Man, you're my favourite arch-enemy."

Gareth's lips twitched into a smile, "You're my favourite arch-nemesis too."

James turned over and mumbled, "Fucking Brits and their big words."

***

Out on the beach, Cristiano stood with an arm around Zarine, watching the waves rise and fall, letting the water swirl around their feet every time it hit the beach.

"This is nice," he whispered.

"I love this," she whispered back.

He dipped his hand into his pocket and took out the now clean ring, "So, this was supposed to be my promise ring to you but then Gareth swallowed it, nearly. I've cleaned it now, though."

She smiled hugely and took it, "Thanks, this is so cool because it's not only a promise ring but a symbol of my ship #CRISTALEFOREVER YASSS."

"Of course," Cristiano deadpanned.

"Ooh why does it have a creepy skull on it?"

He gave a sheepish grin, "James bought it from the department store. They only had skull rings."

"I like it."

"I love you."

"Oh shit, you love me."

"No need to sound so surprised about it, babe."

"It's a lot to take in," she stood up on her tiptoe and kissed his cheek, "I mean, there I was, just a fangirl messing around Omegle and then you had to budge in."

He blushed, "Imagine how it was for me, just a footballer trying Omegle for the first time and meeting this miracle of a girl. You're right, it's a lot to take in."

"I love us to be honest," she said, looking at him.

"To be honest, I love us best when I'm kissing you."

"Smooth, Cristiano, smooth."

[ Now you know why it took us so long, it was so tough writing the last chapter :') We were crying half the time because HOLY SHIT OMEGLE IS FINALLY COMPLETE and #Zariano is perfect and writing#Crismele (YES WE MADE THAT UP, THIS IS NOW A THING!) was so amazing.

We have another surprise coming up for you guys. For it we need some fake and humorous relationship problems and questions (not related to Zariano). So comment some. It can be serious also, just keep them coming.

Also, how about an Omegle hunt next weekend? Tell ussss!

AND THANK YOU FOR 210k reads on this LIKE WOAH YOU MAGICIANS!

Don't forget to vote and comment, comment, comment! Love ya xx

P. S. Go check out thefootballproject exciting things happening there. If you want a review/reads+comments/shoutouts for your books, you can request there!]