#class of 92

[thedeparted2006]

alex ferguson, my autobiography / beckham (2023) ep3 / clementine morrigan, INCEST: PART FOUR / the class of '92 (2013) / sophie lewis, abolish the family

[carravillage]

All their holiday jumpers are super adorkable!!!

[player1064]

"It's amazing to think that I was still playing with Scholesy twenty-five years later. I can't say we clicked straight away, but we became great mates."

[2dareis2do]

[gufettodue]

Class of '92 as the Losers Club from IT.

Sorry, Phil.

Also, they can't have Roy Keane.

"So, what happened in the sewers?"

"Well, I don't want to go into too much details but this creepy clown is what? 6'7 and it started having a go at Gary Neville..."

[whatsacomposer]

Old but I'm actually howling

[macybeckham7]

These two have my heart🥺🤩

[mrs-fridrick]

This is an, unfortunately, unfinished Gary/David, Gary/Carra fic which is also kind of a character study?!? It’s basically Mancs written by a Liverpool supporter who is a bit too young to have consciously witnessed their early playing days. Oh, and it is the first piece I’ve ever written in English… so yeah, I have been reluctant to post this for a while now. But the sun is shining and (not liver) birds are singing and I suddenly felt the urge to share this with you. So, here we go!

Mirrors and construction kits

“Relationships never go the way you think they will. Gary Neville learns that in the most beautiful way possible”

If you asked people about soul mates there were usually two different points of view.

The ones who believed soul mates were like mirror images of each other. That they were meant to be together because they had as much as possible in common. Sharing everything from something as small as favorite colors to things as important as their major life goals. Those people believed that the more you had in common the more you were destined to go the same way in life.

The other half of people believed that soul mates were like construction kits. That they needed to differ in their strengths and weaknesses, that they should have different personalities to complete each other. Those people believed that with the right amount of difference you would fit together perfectly. Just like the single parts of construction kits.

The truth, as with many things, could probably be found somewhere in the middle. There were mirrors and there were construction kits and both could work perfectly.

To be fair Gary Neville never wasted too much thought to the topic. He had a great family, an annoying brother, an amazing best friend, all his football mates and football itself. He was happy and content with his life and if love came one day that would be nice too. However Gary always believed himself to be the mirror image type. Off the pitch he was rather introverted, calm and collected, someone who didn’t like trouble and change too much. Someone who would constantly challenge him and make him question stuff and try new things? That just didn’t sound much like him.

And yet, when Gary Neville fell

In love for the first time, it unexpectedly was in the construction kit kind of way. David was his best friend and the exact opposite of him. Where Gary was dark and moody and had a touch of weasel, at least according to opponents, David was golden and joyful, a poster boy even at his young age.

At first Gary didn’t understand why the universe had matched them both. David was an extrovert, loud and outgoing, constantly trying new things and searching for new challenges. Gary was… not that. But he came to realize pretty quickly that he only had to dig deep enough to find quite a few important things in which they were alike. They were both children of Manchester, boys born and raised in the city. They both loved football with a burning passion and Manchester United with all their heart. They both dreamed of playing for the first team and were willing to sacrifice a lot for that. But most importantly: they both loved each other.

Surrounded by their mates they grew through the youth teams together, always side by side, loving and supporting each other. Their relationship was in no way what Gary had imagined. The constant trouble he had been afraid of never came. Instead of struggling with their different personalities they completed each other. David made him more outgoing and curious and showed him how to enjoy life off of a football pitch whereas he calmed David, made him more serious and teached him how to be alone without being lonely. They made each other stronger, better prepared for what life would throw their way be it professional or personal.

What neither of them expected of course was that they themselves would turn out to be the greatest challenge for that strength. When David told him he would leave for Real Madrid Gary was furious, shocked and hurt. Before their relationship he would have shut David and everyone else out, he would have pulled back into himself dealing with his emotional conflict all by himself. But not anymore. David and their relationship had changed him. Much to his own surprise Gary even yelled at David, something he would have never done before off of a football pitch.

Later they sat down and talked about it. It became a long evening with them sitting on David’s couch, holding hands and talking all seriously about their future. To their own surprise they came to agree that although they still loved each other very much they weren’t in love anymore. They had had 12 amazing years together in which they had given each-other everything they could.

They had loved and accepted, bettered and changed everything about each other that they could and now their shared path came to an end. Of course that wasn’t easy for either of them but it also wasn’t as hard as they expected. They had always been close even before their romantic relationship and shared a bond and trust between them that couldn’t be broken. Apparently not even by themselves.

To Gary’s surprise the people around them were hit much harder by the news, something Gary didn’t understand at that time. Of course their families and friends loved them but it was their life and by that their decision to make. It was only much later that Gary understood why it had hit them so hard. If David and him were the single pieces of a construction kit then those people were their constructors. Starting with their families who had taken the other in from a young age with open arms, his brother Phil who had always rooted for them and provided countless alibis in their youth to their best mates Paul, Ryan and Nick who had had their backs no matter what. Seeing something fall to pieces for which construction their were partly responsible must have been hard. David and him never expected the end of their relationship to prove such a challenge to the friendship between the five of them. Luckily in the end their bond was strong enough to last through the challenge.

So in the end both parties of people had been somewhat right. David and him were construction kits that fitted perfectly together, still did in a non-romantic way, but they weren’t mirror images meant to go the full same way together.

The second person Gary fell in love with years later seemed to be one of the construction kit type again. Which is why Gary was very reluctant about it. He knew from his own experience how great those relationships could be, but he also knew they could end and the challenges that came with it.

Jamie Carragher, a former Liverpool player and now his co-worker, was the complete opposite of him once again after all, or so it seemed at least. But Jamie was stubborn and determined, unwavering in his pursue and Gary really, really liked him. Which is why he did what every reasonable, grown up person would have done: he flew to Valencia. His short stunt in Spain was a desperate try to get away from Jamie, to get some room for himself to think and clear his mind. Of course that didn’t work in the way he expected it would.

Gary came back pretty much with his tail between his legs. He had been thoroughly beaten at Valencia in every way and now he had to try to fit back in somehow. People were… strange. His parents treated him, a grown up man for gods sake!, like he was made of glass, his brother still was in Spain and his mates rarely had time for him. When they had some time to spare they very obviously avoided the topic of Valencia although they usually talked about everything. And to be quite fair: Gary WANTED to talk! He needed to explain the situation, to understand it himself, to find closure for it.

The only one acting normal around him was Jamie. Gary had been afraid of returning to work with him, had been afraid of Jamie’s comments and his banter. But to his surprise they never came. Jamie welcomed Gary home with warmth, kindness and open arms. He didn’t treat him like a glass doll but he also didn’t pressure him. He was simply… there, omnipresent and always comforting.