At every table, I'll save you a seat

Chapter 1

Pre-season testing: Sakir 2023

It felt great to be back, the breaks are always a bit weird when all you've been doing for the past 20 years everyday suddenly stops. Well the competition stopped, but it wasn't like his father gave him a break, he hasn't for years and was definitely not going to start now. So when Max got to Sakir for the testing and got to see the other drivers he had a smile on his face and it became even bigger when he saw Daniel.

Daniel was one of his closest friend, he had friends back at home sure, but racing made him busy and the fact that he was in a different country almost every weekend didn't help. He didn't see him during the holidays but Daniel regularly checked up on him to make sure he was okay.

Everyone on the grid and the teams had at least once witnessed his father parenting but nobody never said a thing, except Daniel. He always reassured Max when the words of his dad repeat themselves in his head saying that he was never good enough. He showed up at his hotel door and distracted him with jokes and FIFA every time his father left. His friend has such hatred towards his dad and ever time he had to console him it grew bigger and bigger. Sometime Max thinks that Daniel could start a hate club.

So when he saw his friend for the first time in months he couldn't help himself but to smile back.

"Is that my favourite word champion?" Daniel was now approaching fast his arm spread ready to hug his ex teammate.
"Don't call me that, it's just Max." He gave a quick hug and then they started walking together.
"I'm glad to see that you're alive and well." He commented.
"Now you're being dramatic." Daniel put both of hands up acting innocently.

They parted ways as Max had to put his racing suit on, came out of the driver's room and walked a bit to find Daniel. He was talking to the Lando, Carlos and Charles chatting about his holiday. Max approached silently, greeted them with a nod a and a smile not wanting to interrupt his friend's story. Lando gave him a little wave like a kid, Carlos laughed at it and gave him a smile. Charles now was next to him in the little circle they formed, he turned his head in his direction to face Charles green eyes. Compared to Max who spend his time training, Charles must had spent his holiday in the sun and his tan was proof of it. His racing suit fitted him perfectly and Max could get lost in his gaze. He had to stop himself from showing a grin when they locked eyes and Charles smiled.

Whoa, what do you think you're doing! Stop looking at him like that!

He quietly cleared he throat pulling himself back together, trying to focus on what Daniel was saying. He could see with his peripheral vision that Carlos and Lando were smiling, trying not to laugh.

The hell is their deal.

They got interrupted by the teams needing them in the cars.
The testing went great and the RB19 made him feel alive. The car was extremely fast and after a couple settings, on day 3, max was loving it, excited for the next weekend.

Race #1: Bahrain

Max went to Bahrain with Daniel who insisted that they take the same plane to catch up. He didn't had much to say due to his uneventful winter but accepted wanting to spend time with his friend. They arrived, check in the hotel RedBull had reserved for them and but their baggages in their room. The hotel was nice, as always, it had an old luxurious vibe and the view was beautiful.

The free practices were okay if you ignored how fast Alonso was going but overall it felt nice. The media was motivated as ever and it seemed like they spent their holidays stalking them and had now the chance to asked them about it. Like 'why the fuck are you asking me about that time I went to a store! I don't even remember it'. Max didn't like media duty, some were okay but most time they always seemed to appear when he didn't want them to. The journalists didn't had much interest about his uneventful winter and focused on racing questions. He was glad.

Max qualified P1 in front of Checo and both Ferrari, Charles in front, and felt pretty happy about the beginning of the season. He won the day after with more than a 10 seconds gap, that car was doing wonder. He felt confident and wanted to set the bar as high as he could, proving that he could live up to his titles. Since his first world championship, he's been trying to live up to his and the world's expectations about what a world champion should do.

He and the RedBull team celebrated the first results of the season, I mean P1 and P2 was something worth celebrating. So that's what they did and when the RedBulls in his system couldn't help his tiredness he said goodbye to Christian, Daniel and Sergio and walked back to the hotel rejecting any proposition of a ride. The hotel was minutes away and he wanted to walk anyway.

He came out of the club, put his jacket and admired the calm streets and soft fresh wind. When was now halfway there when he saw Charles sitting on a bench next to his hotel. Max felt bad, the Monegasque DNF after starting from the second row, he was now staring into the streets completely zoned out. The Dutch approached and sat next to him without breathing the silence.

After a few seconds Charles turned, finally noticing him. He looked like he felt, awful.

"Had fun?" It was sarcastic, even a little mean but Max didn't care he knew that if it was him he'd be way worse that that, they do call him Mad Max for a reason after all.

"Hey don't worry it's just a bad start and it's not your fault them put you in a shit box of a car." He tried to be as empathic as he could with the level of alcohol in his system.

"Well it didn't seem to be a problem for Carlos." He had hoped he wouldn't say that, Carlos finished same position as he stared, and Max didn't know what to say. He stayed there in silence try to find something comforting to say but his mind was already sleeping. So he gave Charles a few awkward taps on the back.

"You suck at comforting people, you know that?" He commented, laughing. That's what mattered, he was laughing, Max didn't care if it was because he was mocking him, he just cared for that beautiful smile on Charles face.

Focus, focus, focus, shit now I'm focusing on focusing.

"Well if that makes you laugh, then good." He smiled back. "Come on it's 1 am go get some sleep." They both stood up from the bench Max hand still on the Monegasque's back. They crossed the road to Charles' hotel.

"Thanks for cheering me up, I like how we don't hate each other anymore, goodnight, I guess I'll see you in Saudi Arabia" Charles walked in the hotel leaving Max standing, not moving. He never hated his rival, not even a little bit, he always wanted to make friend in karting, like Pierre and Charles. But at first it was the language barrier and then it was his father 'you're not here to make friends' he repeated.

FLASHBACK summer of 2014

Max wanted to talk to him, he was watching the Grand Prix that day. He was lying on his bed paying close attention to the drivers who he will be competing against the next year. He saw it all, the crash and the silence on the radio, his mind immediately went to Charles. Was he watching? Was he in the stands? Was he okay? Did he heard the news yet? He looked at his phone, he surely could text some people and find his number if he wanted to. But they weren't friends, not even close, so that would be weird and it's not like he'd know what to say. That day, he never got Charles number and he never texted.

He saw him a month or so after at a competition, Charles looked like shit. Well as much as he possibly can because Max doesn't think he could ever look bad, he had lost a few kilos and the dark circle under his eyes made him look way older than he actually was. He couldn't have spoken to him that day, even if he wanted to, due to his father escorting him everywhere. He did manage to throw a snicker bar in Charles' bag when no one was looking. He never knew if it made Charles smile or if he even ate it but he hoped so.

END OF FLASHBACK

Max came back to reality when the doorman asked him if he was okay. He must had been standing there long enough to cause the stranger to worry, he replied that he was just tired and walked back to his hotel. He remember unlocking his door and throwing himself on the bed without even changing clothes and falling asleep.

When he woke the uncomfortable feeling of his jeans made him remember that past night. He took a shower, dressed himself in the same RedBull merch as always and went to meeting after meeting none of them chasing the thoughts of Charles in his head.

He flew back to the Netherlands and caught up with his mom and sister, that's what usually do when he has a week break.