Under the helmet | Charles Leclerc

~Chapter 34~

I slowly blink my eyes open and check my phone, saying it's a Tuesday. I also notice the Charles is still laying beside me, asleep on his back. His face looks so precious when he's asleep, his face looking delicate and peaceful, which is hard to see often when your an f1 driver. His eyes blink open and the sun from the apartment window hits his face perfectly making it glow. While my mind replays last night, not wanting it to end.

"Good morning, cherie." He tightly shuts his eyes before opening them again, his voice sounding deeper, only accentuating his accent more.

"Good morning, Charles." I respond, he sits up and kisses my head gently.

"Do you want anything to eat? A drink or anything?" He asks, getting out of bed and putting on a pair of joggers.

"I won't stay long as Rosa is probably at my apartment, but I'll have some water." I respond to him, he looks back at me and nods.

I stretch my arms up and over my face, and tightly shut my eyes. I sigh opening my eyes when my muscles are stretched accordingly. Charles then comes back with some water and puts it on the bedside and throws me one of his hoodies from his wardrobe. Which, I intend to keep.

"You never told me you had a tattoo..." He starts, looking at the floor, and my mind turns to panic mode. I kind of thought no one would see my tattoo, considering where it is.

"Yeah- umm." I manage to let out, which makes him look up at me, worry in his eyes. He must've seen my tattoo on my inner thigh.

"Who did that to you?" He asks, less supportively, more stern, like he'll get revenge. I swallow a lump in my thought, he puts his hand on my thigh rubbing it with his thumb.

"No one, no one at all, Charles. I'm safe now." I look up at him and put my hands on his shoulders, he doesn't accept my response.

"Maeve. I know what that tattoo means, who did that to you?" He puts his other hand on mine, which still rests on his shoulder.

"It doesn't matter Charles..." I try to look at him, pleading him not to pry, I don't want him to worry. "He disappeared a long time ago, Charles, I'm fine." I continue to plead him, desperation in my eyes.

"I'm here if you ever need to talk about it, Mae." He kisses my forehead before pulling me in, holding me tightly as if I'm about to slip away, but I only hold him tighter.

"I know, I know, amore." I respond back to him, muffling my voice into his shoulder.

Reassuring him, I place a kiss on his cheek before getting ready to leave, I get up and head to the front door and he stands right behind me. I look up at him and put my hand in his messy brown hair and mess it up a little bit more. To which he pulls me in for a kiss before I leave, as a way of saying goodbye.

When I get to my apartment, Rosa gets up from the barstool she is sat on.

"Maeve! Hi! Where were you-" Suddenly her question is cut quickly, and as she strides towards me, she stops. "More like, who were you with?" She raises her eyebrows and changes her tone of voice to mock me, while I only roll my eyes, sarcastically.

"Charles, if you must know. But how did you?-" I ask, not knowing why she changed her question.

"Well, firstly, your neck is an odd shade of tan, called purple. Secondly, your glowing, like literally. Thirdly, where would you have spent the night." She explains to me, making me rush to a mirror. She quickly follows.

"Charles Marc Herve Perceval Leclerc." I emphasise every one of his names, only face palming at what I see on my neck, which makes Rosa laugh.

"Someone had some fun last night?" She giggles at me.

"Have you seen Daniel yet?" I shoot back. Now I'm the one laughing.

"No, but I'm going to surprise him today, he's had his training cut short, he doesn't know why, but I spoke to his trainer." Rosa proudly admits.

"Good, I'm glad your here, relaxing and seeing Daniel. He really likes you, you know?" I try to hint to the oblivious introvert, but she only beams and nods at me innocently, not catching my clear message.

"Yeah, he's always really nice to me." I face palm and she gives me a weird look, so I walk straight past her to the bedroom where all my bags still are, packed.

I start unpacking my things and put all my clothes in the wardrobe and start to make myself comfortable and make myself at home. Rosa also lends me a hand with unpacking my stuff, some of which I have to watch she doesn't steal. Underneath the pile of stuff on the bed I hear my phone vibrate under. I decide to check it, and I notice it's a message from Charles about tonight, with the 'date' which I'm excited about, and still mock him for.
___________________________________

Perceval:
Dress fancy for tonight, amore.
___________________________________

Is all he says, making me feel nervous as to where we might be going, somewhere fancy? Not that I can't dress fancy, but I put my feelings aside, I'll dress fancy. I put on a short black dress that perfectly hugs my body and makes me look elegant. I add some matching black heels and a small black handbag which I manage to fit my perfume, phone and key in. Suddenly the door knocks, I hear Rosa get up.

"It's probably Charles, tell him I'll be on minute, just finishing my hair-" By the time I finish saying the sentence, I feel a pair of hands on my shoulders, his thumbs rub my shoulders gently.

"You look stunning, amore." He says, swivelling the swivel chair around making me face him, as he holds out his hand. 

I smile and take his hand and I say goodbye to Rosa, who is getting ready to surprise Daniel, we walk down into the lobby hand in hand, completely surprised by the amount of paparazzi with the bright flashes and loud shuttering and reporters trying to ask questions and shoving microphones in our faces. Our hands don't break while we quickly walk to the car, desperately trying to get away from the sea of cameras and microphones. Charles' hand slips out of mine as he opens the door for me and he goes around to his door. He drives carefully out of the car park due to the crowd of people.

"Gosh, that was crazy, how did they know we were here already?" I ask Charles who is concentrated on the road.

"I have no idea, we are the first team here, which may have something to do with it." He responds once we get out of the car park and onto the road.

I look over at Charles who is concentrating on driving, he is in a suit that fits him so perfectly and he has styled his hair a little bit differently. I know this place is fancy just by the way he looks. We drive down the streets of Barcelona and I admire the city view with all the lights and little narrow alleyways and all the people. The buildings too make me wonder where we are going and what it's going to look like.

I glance over at Charles to notice the red traffic light is illuminating his face, highlighting his features, he looks over at me and chuckles nervously, I give him a warm smile before his eyes are back on the road and he accelerates at the green light. When we start cruising down the road at a nice pace he places his hand on my thigh and gently rubs it up and down my thigh. We eventually reach a littler road than the past few we've been on and he turns into a fancy parking lot.

"We are here." He says parking the car.