SILENT (MV x CL)

11. LIKE

Of course Max had won the tournament. It was only 16:00, so Carlos and Lando decided to continue playing.

They were again playing a very competitive match. Max had sat down on the bed still feeling a bit off because Charles and he were not able to really talk.

He received a message.

Charles: Are you okay?

Max took a quick look at Charles who was still sitting behind Carlos and Lando, focussed on his phone now.

Max: You threw that thing pretty hard.

Charles looked back at Max who had dramatically rubbed his hand over the place where the controller had hit him. Charles rolled his eyes before turning his attention back to his phone.

Charles: You deserved it.

Max leaned foreword a bit to whisper in Charles ear.

"You are sexy when you're angry"

Charles choked on his own breath, hearing that.he coughed a bit. This earned a satisfied grin from Max.

Charles: You need to be more careful, if you don't want anyone to know.

Max: They aren't paying attention to us anyway.

Max secretly placed a kiss in Charles neck after sending the message.

He was right, Carlos and Lando were fully hooked on the game, occasionally screaming and grunting. It was still 0-0 which was an accomplishment for the younger of the two. Lando normally always lost, he was even worse than Charles.

Charles looked back at Max again and attempted to wink. Max let out a laugh. Charles was a terrible winker. Always pulling up an entire half of his face in trying.

Max: We should not play FIFA against each other anymore.

Charles: We definitely shouldn't

"YESSSS!!" Lando screamed, as he had scored a goal in the 90th minuted. He won the match with this.

"Do you guys wanna play?" Carlos asked them. They kindly replied that they weren't exactly interested in playing again. Charles suggested just talking for a bit instead.

After having a simple conversation, about the championship, new car, the gala tomorrow and many more, it was time for dinner.

"Do you guys wanna go out to eat or order roomservice or something?" Max suggested.

Not long after he asked the question they were sitting in a small, cosy and poorly lit restaurant. Charles was sitting opposite of Max, the other two were sitting besides each of them. They had continued to joke around, keeping the talking point as light as possible. At the same time the two 24-year-olds were constantly seeking contact with each other. That meaning that Charles' feet were now on top of Max's.

Charles made it hard for Max to concentrate on what Carlos was saying. He was now rubbing the instep of his foot against the inside of Max lower leg.

"So, that's exactly why Ferrari will be champion next year!" Carlos finished his story. Max hadn't listened to any of it.

"I totally agree." Charles said proudly as if he wasn't making Max feel all sorts of things.

"What do you think, Max?" He added only to tease him.

"Uhm, I don't really know actually. Next season can go in many different ways I think." He replied while lightly kicking Charles underneath the table, in order to make him stop. Charles couldn't hide the disappointment in his eyes.

"Yeah, sure you don't know. You just don't want to spill the Redbull secrets" Lando said making Max laugh.

"That's also true" Max confessed. With that answer the conversation switched to their holidays and winterbreak. They continued about that for the rest of the evening.

Max was now lying in bed.

Charles is going away, and so am I, we would not see each other in 3 weeks. A lot can happen in 3 weeks.

Max had trouble getting some sleep, because his mind was on the young Monegasque once again. To distract himself he got his phone. Went on discord until he fell asleep.

Charles had woken up that morning totally relaxed. Finally it was a normal morning for him. No phone-calls, no snoozing, no nightmares, no headaches and no hurrying this time. There only was the thought of that beautiful man, creating butterflies in his stomach.

Thinking back of how he had teased him under the table last night made his toes tickle again. He had agreed to take it slow, and he was totally on board with that idea. He however wondered now, alone in his bed, how long he could stand to keep his hands to himself. Especially if he remembered the heavy breathing and the feeling of his lips in his neck.

Damn...

He looked him up on instagram, knowing it was wrong to stalk Max at this point. He clicked on the tagged photo's and scrolled through. When he saw a shirtless picture of Max he paused to look at it. He wanted to scroll on, but  almost got a heart attack.

He had accidentally double clicked the post, liking it.

Oh no...

He unliked it very fast, but deep down he knew there was no point in it, the owner of the fan-account had most likely already gotten the notification.

I ruined it. I fucked up. I am stupid.

That was it for the perfect morning.

Max had just arrived at the meeting with Redbull's PR team. They needed to talk about tonight. Talk him through the event and the way to receive the trophy. It was more or less protocol. Max didn't think much of it and wasn't really paying attention.

That was until someone put a computer in front of his face.

"Look at this" Vicky said laughing.

An article of a B-list journalist site was opened on the desktop.

F1 driver Charles Leclerc like a shirtless photo of his rival Max Verstappen.

Max had read the title, smiling a bit before continuing to read.

    Earlier this morning the owner of the instagram account @maxforthewin received a like from a very unexpected person. Charles Leclerc, driver for Scuderia Ferrari, liked a post of the fan account dedicated to Max Verstappen, A Redbull racing driver. The post in question concerns a photo of Verstappen, enjoying a day at the beach, only wearing his swimming trunks. As expected this calls for a lot of questions. What could this mean?

Lets go back in time to look of their relationship over the years to figure this out.

Charles, oh Charles, you naughty man.

Max had decided not to read on and started laughing a bit.

"This is the most ridiculous bullshit I've ever seen." He said to the head of communication, still standing next to him.

"That's what I thought" Vicky replied. "But why did he do it though? If it is true I mean."

He pulled his eyebrows up and let the corners of his mouth go down. "I don't know, probably on accident." He said even though he knew the like must have been on accident but he was sure that Charles had been looking at that photo.

"Well we just let it slide, I wonder wat Ferrari is going to do." Vicky explained.

Max: You naughty motherfucker.

Charles: Ugh

Max: You know you can just ask me if you want to see me shirtless.

Charles: Shut up Verstappen.

Max: See you tonight ;)

°°°
Funny how we are already on chapter 11, but the story is only a week on its way. If I continue like this we are going to reach 100. Hehe.
I just rewatched the Belgium GP 2021, five and a half hours only 5 minutes of driving, however it was a quite amusing broadcast...