then you flashed your green eyes at me || Charles Leclerc

chapter twenty-four

They ended up sitting by the sea, on the sand of a small, unknown beach a few kilometers outside of Monaco. She didn't remember how she found it, but it was like she had always known it. And for some reason she wanted to share it with him.

"Congratulations on the race, by the way" she smiled, feeling the breeze through her hair and on her face.

"Thank you for the motivational speech" he said.

"Nah, you had that in you" she said, eyes closed. "I just digged it up" she shrugged.

"Still" he said. "Thank you for digging it up"

Silence fell between them, filled only by the waves breaking on the near by rocks.

There was something magical about the sea breaking apart. It stubbornly crashed against the surface, breaking into a million drops, but it systematically came back as one. Like people did.

"What are you thinking about?" Charles asked, turning to look at her.

"Stuff" she smiled, her eyes still closed.

"Stuff?"

"Yeah, stuff" she giggled.

"And what does this 'stuff' include?"

"The sea"

"Mhmh, and what else?" he smiled, laying down on the sand and looking at the stars. She felt him move and opened her eyes, then followed his movement, not caring about the sand that would've ended up in her hair.

"The sky"

He nodded, looking at her in the eyes. "And?"

"My favorite color" she smiled.

"Which is?"

"Green" she simply said, moving her gaze to the sky. He smiled to himself, trying to hold in the unexplainable happiness that was spreading in his chest.

"Anything else?" he asked.

"Should there be anything else?"

"I don't know" he shrugged."Can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead" she nodded, still looking at the stars.

"Why did you ask me to leave the party with you?"

She turned her head to look at him, lightly shrugging. "I don't know" she said. "You were there, I needed a way out. You're not terrible company so...I just rolled with it"

"Makes sense"

"Why did you come with me?" she then asked. He turned to look at her.

"Because you asked me to" he simply said.

She had never been so thankful for the darkness, as she could feel her cheeks turn red. He looked at the sparkles that were shining in her eyes.

"What's your favorite thing in the world?" he asked, feeling like a kid.

"I don't know" she said, thinking about it. "The smell of rain maybe"

"Why?" he asked, curious.

She sighed, not knowing if she wanted to say it or not. She decided to share her thoughts.

"When I was younger I had a lot of problems with my parents - let's just say they weren't very nice. On rainy days, they had the habit to stay together, drinking tea and leaving me alone. So I had this thing where I would sit by the window, open half of it and smell the rain. The noise it made when it hit the window, or the floor, or anything for that matter has always been able to calm me down. There is something soothing about it" she said. "I want to be kissed under the rain one day" she stayed, without thinking.

"How's your relationship with your parents now?" he asked after a minute of silence.

"I haven't seen them since they got arrested" she shrugged. He widened his eyes, but before he could ask any further questions she said "That's a story for another time though"

He simply nodded. "It will be the sunrise in about half an hour" he said.

"Shall we stay?" she asked.

"Why not" he answered. "And then we could have breakfast together"

She smiled widely. "We could" she said. "We should" she then whispered, catching him smiling from the corner of her eye.

They laid there in silence for the next half hour, before sitting to watch the sun rising. The soft light looked like a hug on their skin, reflecting in their eyes like a million little fireflies.

They left not long after, directed to the supermarket, with the intention of going to Charles' apartment to cook breakfast together.

They picked up flour, sugar, eggs, milk and yeast. Then they got chocolate cream, honey, syrup and fresh fruit as toppings - they didn't know what to choose or what they would've wanted to eat, so they picked out everything at once.

While they were walking to the register, Lya spotted a packet of candies - the kind that her parents never let her have. He saw how she was looking at it, and when she passed them he walked back to pick them up. She didn't notice.

When they got home they laid on the table all the ingredients and took out the tools they would've needed.

"Are you sure you're not gonna burn down the whole building?" she asked, jokingly concerned.

"Fuck off" he laughed. "If it happens it was your fault"

"Hey! That's not how it works!" she said, faking being offended.

"I think it's exactly how it works" he cockily smiled, pushing the tip of her nose with a finger. Thing is, he had put the finger in the flour. So now her nose was white.

She gasped, as he started running around the house. She got flour on her hands, starting to chase him around.

"You're going to pay for this, Leclerc!" she giggled, as she spread the flour on his back. His shirt turned from blue to white in no time.

They kept chasing each other, laughing. At some point though she hit a bowl, which broke falling on the ground. They stopped to look at it, Alya panicking about it.

"I'm so sorry I'm gonna clean it up" she said, in a rush. He stopped her before she could hurt herself - she wasn't wearing any slippers. "I'm sorry"

"Hey, hey it's okay" he grabbed her by her shoulders, trying to stop her from apologizing.

"But your bowl...I'm so sorry Charles"

"I can buy another one, ten, a hundred bowls like that one. I could buy the factory that produces them, for that matter. I don't care. It's just a bowl" he smiled softly.

She couldn't stop the tears from coming. "Let me clean it up I can do that"

"I know you can, but you don't need to"

"Yes, yes I do" she said, her breath shortening. "I need to do it, I need to control this I'm sorry I just" she stopped, unable to catch her breath.

He started worrying. "I don't want to risk you hurt yourself, please let me do that" then he guided her to the living room, trying to make her sit on the couch. She slid to the floor instead.

"I need...I need to stop breathing" she said. "I'm losing control I don't want to lose control" she cried.

"Do you want me to suffocate you or something?" he said, worried. She tried to laugh, her breath not collaborating. Then she got serious, trying to look at him in the eyes but unable to actually see him - her vision was blurry, her hands trembling.

Trying to control the shake of her voice, she tried to talk. "Kiss me" she whispered .

"What?" he asked, not understanding what she was saying.

She worried she might have had a wrong idea, but she repeated the same thing.

"Kiss me" she said.