lemon and mint | Charles Leclerc

7.

August 2012

Jules had to smile when he looked into his rear-view mirror in his car. Ferrari asked him to come to Maranello for a day, and he decided he'd take Charles and Pia with him. Well, he wanted to bring only Charles from the beginning, but he was begging him to take Pia with them. He reasoned that Genoa was on the way, anyways, so why not take her? So, there he was with two teens on his backseats playing I spy.

He always dreamt about having a family one day, but since he found out about his sexuality, he knew it wouldn't be that easy. Obviously, he knew that adoption is an option, but in France, you have to be over 28 years old to be allowed to do that. So, he was fully aware he wouldn't have a family any time soon.

"So, Angela will take you on a small tour around the factory while I'll be driving," Jules announced to the teens in front of him. They were holding hands, and he just thought how sweet they were.

"Okay, but can we go see you driving for a bit after the tour?" Charles asked, and Jules just nodded. He knew he would be in the car for an hour and a half, and they would get bored quickly, so he prevented that from happening by booking them the tour.

Angela took them to see the museum on Ferrari first. She assumed they would get impressed by F1 Ferrari cars from the Schumacher era, and she was right about that. Both kids were taken back by it.

"One day, there's going to be a car with my name underneath it," Charles said to Pia while she was admiring the Ferrari F2002. This car was a beast that dominated the whole season. She was astounded by this perfect piece of machinery.

"I have no doubts about it." She could imagine them standing here in their forties looking at Charles' Ferraris. He definitely had the potential to become a Ferrari driver. "There are talks in the paddock that he'll leave after this season," Pia revealed to him. She was fully aware of the fact that Hamilton would replace him for next season in Mercedes. She just didn't know whether Michael would find himself a different seat or leave the sport for good, but everything seemed like he was ready to depart.

"Do you think it's true?" he asked her while thinking. It would be so weird to see a race without Michael.

"Well, Mercedes is replacing him with Lewis. So yeah, I think this is his last season." All these kinds of rumours were the other reason why Pia loved to go between the trailers. It was funny how no one could keep their mouth shut.

When they were finished with the tour around the museum, Angela took them to the factory itself. It was so pleasing to see their interest in every single component. Those were days when Angela loved her work.

"Seb is gonna be so jealous that I was in the factory of Ferrari. I honestly cannot wait to tell him." Pia said excitedly to Charles while they were watching Jules. Fiorano was a short circuit, therefore, they could see Jules almost every minute driving past them.

"Well, what can I say? Your dad just got him to sign with the wrong team," Charles said, making Pia annoyed.

"At least they're winning," Pia pointed out. It wasn't anything new that even this seemed to bother people nowadays. She always had to ironically laugh when she heard one of the dirty remarks about him from Mark Webber. Oh, how she did hate that man. He was always vocal about unnecessary things. Seb and Pia didn't call Mark Whinging girl for anything.

"Yeah, you're right about that," he agreed with her words because he didn't want to argue. He was sure that Pia didn't share the same opinion. Pia loved Seb, so it was lucid she was on cloud nine when he was winning. She didn't see Seb's dominance as a problem, and most likely, she didn't even see his arrogance. Charles didn't understand how they got so close, but there were plenty of things he wasn't aware of that glued his girlfriend and the double world champion together.

"Oh, Caro, I just wanted to ask. Does Jules have a girlfriend?" Pia had this question in her mind ever since that Friday in Germany. She just wanted to know if Charles knew about Jules' orientation.

"I don't think so. Why?" Charles replied. It confirmed Pia's assumption that he didn't know about it.

"No reason. I'm asking because I saw him with one girl in Germany. I thought she was his girlfriend, so I just wanted to ask," Pia came up with a brilliant cover story for her question without hesitation. It was something she inherited from Anthonie. They were both perfect liars.

---

"Jules? Do you think we could possibly stop at my home, please? I forgot to pack my Nintendo," Pia begged Frenchman while they were on their way to Monaco. They were just half an hour away from Genoa when she remembered she wanted to bring her game console with her to Tenerife.

"For sure," he quickly nodded while focusing on the road again. Pia thanked him while still looking at him. She was sure that women needed to throw themself on this handsome Frenchman. He had to be the dream boy of every girl, sweet, kind, sensitive, funny... Pia could go on and on. It was a bit funny that it was Daniel Ricciardo who stole the heart of this man. He certainly deserved that, but she just couldn't imagine them getting together. Daniel was outgoing and all over the place. Meanwhile, Jules was his total opposite, but maybe that was what brought them together.

"Okay, we are here," Jules' voice got Pia out of her thoughts. Her cheeks flushed when she realised, she zoned out for that long. She quickly got out of the car and unlock the front door of her home.

"Hey, mum," Pia greeted her mum when she saw her in the living room. Gianna was surprised to see Pia since Jules said he would take her from Maranello straight to Monaco since Pia was leaving on holiday with Leclercs family.

"What are you doing here?" Gianna asked her daughter, and then she noticed Charles and Jules in the background. "Oh, hey boys," she greeted them as well.

"I forgot my Nintendo," Pia explained why she was there. She wanted to continue speaking, but she was interrupted by another voice coming from the kitchen.

"Gia?" She recognised that voice immediately. "Should I open-" Sebastian pulled up in his motion when he noticed Pia.

"Oh, hey, Seb. What are you doing here?" Young Italian was surprised when she saw the confident German at her home. He shouldn't be here. He was always going here to see her or her father, but Sebastian knew that Pia should be away for these two weeks, and he clearly couldn't be here to see her father because apparently, Anthonie was in Switzerland to meet Seb. It was funny how his own lies caught him, but Pia didn't know about that.

"I came here to see you, but you weren't home," he quickly made up an excuse. Charles and Jules were taken back by the scene in front of them. Both Italians acted as if it was normal to have a double world champion at their home.

"The older you're, the worst your memory is. I told you I'm not going to be home for the first two weeks of August." Pia joked on his account. She seemed to believe his excuse without any problem. It wasn't the first time he had forgotten that she would be gone, after all.

"I really must've forgotten, Twinkle. I'm an old man by now," he laughed out. "Well, what are you doing here then?" Sebastian asked. Charles seemed to finally, at least for a bit, understand why they were so close. If he didn't know who Pia's father was, he would say it was this German. He was behaving like her father and Pia seemed to accept it without any problem.

"I forgot to pack my Nintendo, and I think I'll get tired of Charles soon," she laughed. She loved to tease Charles as much as she loved to tease Seb.

"We both know it isn't true," Charles said to her when she headed to the stairs to get to her room.

"Oh, boys, sit down. Do you want to stay with us for dinner?" Sebastian acted like he was home here. Perhaps he was since he was there more often than Anthonie.