Red past | Charles Leclerc

Mario Kart

"I totally called it," Julia yelled through the phone, even though she was still in Monaco, she kept up with the gossip.

After hanging out with Kika and Pierre, me and Charles decided to just relax in mine and Arthur's hotel room so it ended up with Charles and Arthur playing Mario Kart while I called Julia.

"There was no guarantee that I was going to say yes," I exclaimed, my tone deadly serious.

"You do remember that I am right here?" Charles sighed, not allowing his gaze to fall from the not at all competitive game.

I flashed a smile in his direction even though I knew he could see me.

"Oh please, even I knew that the second you saw that picnic, there was no chance in the world that you would have said no," she laughed.

I didn't argue with her, there was no reason to. At some point Arthur would join in while Charles just ignored what was going on while still trying to beat Arthur in Mario Kart.

"How did you know about that?" I laughed while slightly puzzled, Charles also sent a confused look in my direction.

"How do you think?" She had a flat tone.

I dramatically turned my head to face Arthur. He smirked at me and then turned his attention back to the game, Arthur was leading by almost a lap while Charles kept on driving into bananas.

"No offence Charles, but your doing shit."

"I'm doing fine," he scoffed, getting taken out by a shell.

I let out a chuckle, meeting Julia's smile through the phone, she knew just as well as I did, how bad he was at Mario Kart.

~

As I stood in front of the hotel in Budapest waiting for Charles's Ferrari to appear, my mind was working, thinking about the coming week. It was Austria or RedBull Ring to be exact, the one race of the season that the whole team feels the pressure. Even if there was still a week until I was to drive out of the pit lane onto the racetrack with hundreds of thousands of eyes watching my every move, my stomach still twinged with nerves.

As I saw the red of the Ferrari turning towards me, I shook the thoughts out of my head, focusing on Charles and Max's qualifying.

"Good morning," I greeted him as I climbed into the passenger seat.

"Good morning Mila," he smiled, giving me a kiss on the cheek.

Before driving away from the hotel, he took off his hat, placing it on my head while giving me a pleased look.

I kept my gaze on him as he concentrated on the road, slight dimples grew on his face when he noticed me looking at him. I couldn't blame myself for staring, his piercing green eyes alone could make someone completely hypnotised by him, that's excluding his fluffy, deep brown hair that seemed slightly curlier than usual.

I laughed at myself, realising how overcome I was by him, his presence alone made me feel immensely safe and comfortable.

~

"I'm going to ignore that thing on your head because I enjoy seeing you happy, but it definitely is not becoming a permanent thing," My brother laughed, pulling me into a hug when I got out of the car.

I hadn't seen Max since the race in Montreal, I had spent a week in Monaco with Charles and Arthur before we flew to Hungary on the Wednesday evening.

I laughed back at him, wrapping my arms around him in reciprocation, I could hear Charles familiar footsteps making their way towards us.

"Hey Max," Charles muttered just as I pulled away from my brother.

We began walking towards the paddock, mine and Charles's hands interlocked with Max at the left of me.

I didn't care about the cameras, I just wanted to live my life, they could say whatever they wanted about me and Charles but I couldn't give two shits about what they think of my relationship.

"Did you know that Julia is here?" Max asked, looking down to meet my eyesight.

"No, where is she?"

"Ferrari garage," he replied, smiling in Charles' direction like he knew what I was going to do.

I picked up my pace, pulling Charles along with me. Max fell behind, smiling at the sight of Charles sticking his middle finger up at him as we walked away.

"I doubt that she is going anywhere, you can slow down," He whispered quiet enough that only I heard.

"I will let go of your hand and walk off," I threatened, a smirk growing across my face.

He didn't reply, only shook his head in defeat.

"Julia," I shouted when she came into view, releasing Charles' hand to wrap my arms around my best friend.

"Hey, Nika," she giggled, hugging me back.

After pulling away, we drifted off into conversation. I was so focused on Julia that I didn't notice Arthur and Charles whispering beside us.

"What are you two gossiping about?" I giggled.

The second I opened my mouth, they stopped talking and gave me a guilty looking expression. That look itself told me to just mind my business but luckily Charles didn't give me the chance to push further into it.

"Nothing, don't worry. I've got to head to a meeting, I'll se you later," he whispered to me, giving me a quick hug.

"Bye Julia," he shouted back at us as he started walking away.

I gave Arthur a look that said "do I need to ask?" And in response he shook his head.

He flung his arms around mine and Julia's shoulders leading us to the hospitality, where he planned on sitting until qualifying started in an hour.

Kika and Lily were sat near the entrance laughing to one another, when we came into there view, both of them ran to us, pulling me and Julia into hugs leaving Arthur awkwardly standing between us.

They grabbed hold of our hands, pulling us towards their table, luckily I was able to grab Arthur's hand before he was out of reach.

"Your coming too," I smiled, winking at him before laughing along with the girls.