Mon Chéri // Lestappen [🧑‍🦽]

One - Bahrain

Max' pov

Bahrain 2018, the start of the season. I hope I do well this year, it's only my second year at Red Bull but I think the car is one of the fastest on the grid.

Yesterday evening my friend's and I all hung out after not seeing each other for a couple of months.

Daniel, Carlos, Pierre and I just had a fun night gaming in Daniel's hotel room, we ordered pizza and talked a lot.

During that night I also discovered that a new driver will be joining us this season.

I heard about it last season but I completely forgot about it.

I make my way to the pit and while walking there I spot someone, someone I haven't seen before.

It's a tall, muscular guy with black hair. It must be the new driver. I decide to go up to him and get to know him a little, make him feel welcome.

"Hey man, Max Verstappen, glad to have you on the grid this year." I stick my hand out for him to shake.

Shit that sounded so serious, like I was forced to talk to him or something.

"Hey I'm Charles Leclerc. Nice to meet you, I've seen you a lot in the news the past few years."

He talks with a heavy accent, I'm pretty sure he's french. The accent makes him kind of cute, if I'm being honest.

We walk together towards the pits while I talk to him a bit about the other drivers.

*After the race*

...

I let my team down, I let everyone down. I could've avoided crashing in turn 8. I finished 17th.

I didn't go easy on my tires at all, I was too focused on overtaking Lewis in front of me.

My engine was having a hard time and in turn 8 my tires gave up which caused me to crash into the barriers after only 12 laps.

I saw Charles drive, he was behind me in the first 10 laps before I crashed, he's actually pretty good.

Looking at how he drove when he was behind me, he will probably get a few offers in other teams for next season.

Standing in front of the podium, I see Hamilton entering the stage, then...Charles? In the end, Sebastian won the race.

It's his first race and he won against a 4 time world champion with a gap of 10 seconds??

If he keeps this up, he will definitely get some offers.

After the race I congratulate him with his podium and we start talking while heading to his hotel room. We talked about the race, how he felt joining F1 and if he plans to stay at Sauber.

"My biggest dream is to drive for Ferrari but I don't think I'm good enough for such a big team..." Charles quietly admits.

"Don't underestimate yourself, I saw you drive when you were behind me and you're actually really good, plus, you beat a 4 time world champion with a gap of 10 seconds!" I told him

He seemed to light up when I said he drove well and he started smiling. That smile made my chest feel...warm?

"Really? You think so? You think I drove well?" He asked, his smile growing bigger.

"Yeah definitely, I saw a replay of you overtaking Lewis and it was really impressive."

"Thank you, means a lot," he says, as he pulls out his card to open the door to his hotel room.

"Wanna come in?" He asks shyly while opening the door.

I don't have anything to do to tomorrow so I agreed.

*Later that evening*

Charles' pov

We had such a fun night, we had a drink, ate dinner and put on a movie.

After the movie, I looked over at Max and he was asleep. He looked so cute while sleeping.

I didn't want to wake him so I put his legs on the couch, put a blanket over him, tugged him in and walked to my bedroom.

I switch the lights off and start thinking. It feels like I've known him for years when in reality I've known him for only a day.

I crawl into my bed and after 30 minutes I fall asleep.

. . .

"Help me, help me!!" I hear my brother Lorenzo scream.

"Charles I'm here, save me!" Arthur yells from beneath the flames.

Our house in Monaco was on fire, my parents weren't there. My brothers were getting burned alive.

I try to run to them as fast as I can but I stay in the same place. I can't run towards them, no matter how hard I try.

The flames are getting bigger, the screams are getting louder. Until there is a big explosion.

Everything stops.

I jump up in my bed, hyperventilating, I've had these nightmares for a full month now and I don't know why.

I look at the clock and see that it's already 9am.

I walk over to the living room and see Max still laying there, sleeping.

Max' pov

I wake up to see Charles sitting besides me. "Good morning, how'd you sleep?"

"Pretty good, what about you?"

He thinks before speaking. "Okay," he smiles, "what do you want for breakfast? I'll order room service."

"I don't eat breakfast," I say while yawning. he stares at me with a shocked face. "Just order an orange juice for me." I end up giving in. 

"Oh come on, you gotta eat something!"

"Fine, I'll get a pancake." I roll my eyes at him. "Sorry for falling asleep yesterday, you should've woken me up."

"I could never, you were getting your rest, you needed it after the race. How do you feel about yesterday anyway?" Charles says with a caring tone. 

"I made a mistake, I should've spared my tires. If I don't do better there will be consequences." 

"It's not your fault, your team should've let you know how bad your tires and engine were doing. You couln't have known about the engine" Charles says, cleaning his hotel room a bit.

"I still should've gone easy on my tires, I knew very well that I had soft ones..."

I pick up my phone and start scrolling on Instagram. "Shit," I mumble under my breath.

"What's wrong?"

"The internet is full of the way my dad looked at me after the race, they say he looked at me with disgust but— he was just a bit pissed that's all." I say while reading the missed messages from people on my phone. 

"Call your dad and talk to him about it so you can tell the press that wasn't what happened?" Charles asked, a bit of worry in his voice.

"I can't, I failed yesterday so my dad won't speak to me until I prove myself to him in  the next race."

"What? Has he always been that way?" Charles asked, shocked by that information. 

"Yeah, he just wants me to perform well, it's a father's job."

"No it's not, a father's job is to support his son, not to push him 24/7 and not to not offer any comfort," Charles says sternly.

"It's the way Jos is and nothing will change that, he—" my sentence is cut off by a knock on the door.

"Room Service!"

Charles and I smile at each other as if my dad was never brought up.