Shadows Between Us - Max Verstappen

eight - the hungarian grand prix

The car stops right beside the private plane and Amelia steps out of it, taking her carry-on bag with her. She sees Max next to the steps talking to someone from the crew, and when he sees her, he quickly shakes the persons hand and walks to her, taking the bag from her hand.

"Hi," He says, motioning her to take the stairs. "We have to go, we can't be late." Amelia smiles and enters the plane. She takes a window seat and waits for Max to sit on the seat next to her.

"How are you?" Max asks as soon as he sits next to her, a big smile on his face.

"I'm good, excited to see your world," Amelia says, and Max's smile couldn't get any bigger, but somehow it does. The seatbelt sign turns on and the captain starts speaking. Amelia starts getting nervous, as she locks her seatbelt. Maybe this was also why she didn't travel much. She looks out the window, watching the plane starting to slowly move, clenching her fists on her lap in an effort to not panic.

"Hey, you ok?" Max notices, making her turn her gaze to him.

"I don't like flying very much," she says, forcing a smile. Max grabs her hand, intertwining their fingers and she feels slightly calm.

"You can squeeze my hand as hard as you need," Max says, making her laugh.

"You will regret that in a few minutes," Amelia says, and just in a few minutes, as the plane is starting to ascend, Max understands why she said that. Amelia squeezes his hand so strongly, he can barely feel it anymore, but he doesn't dare move it. Max lets Amelia squeeze the blood out of his hand if she needs to, only for her to stay calm.

When the plane is in the air and Amelia doesn't feel as panicked, she stops squeezing Max's hand but doesn't let it go just yet. She feels comfortable with the way his hand fits in hers.

"Do you like chess?" Max asks, when the seat belt sign turns off meaning the can roam around in the plane.

"I do. I don't play much though," Amelia says. Max gets up and goes to the back of the plane, coming back with a chess board and a box with the pieces. He sits on the seat in front of her and sets the game on the table between them.

"If we get bored of it, we can always play another game. I make sure to have a few games to entertain me in here, specifically in the longer flights," Max says and she nods, watching as he sets the pieces in their respective places. Amelia can't imagine what it's like to travel as much as they do. She too would need some games to entertain her or she would go insane. Now she doesn't have to imagine what it is like because she'll be doing it for the next 4 weeks.

When Max is done placing the pieces, he turns the board giving Amelia the white ones. She smiles. What Max doesn't know is that Amelia had lessons her entire childhood and that she's actually very good at chess. In the first moves, she plays it easy so that Max doesn't understand how good she is. But almost an hour later, when there's more of her pieces on the board than his, Max understands how much he underestimated her.

"You don't play much, huh?" Max says, his eyebrows furrowed and his hands intertwined under his chin, trying to figure out his next move.

Amelia smiles and shrugs, "It's true, I haven't played in a few years. That doesn't mean I'm not good at it."

"Interesting," Max says, grabbing one of his pieces, but stops before moving it. "If I move this one, how many moves until you win?"

He was testing her. She looked at the board, pretending like she didn't know already it would only take two moves for her to win. She finally says, "Two."

He responds with a 'hmm' and sets the piece back where it was. He looks at the board for a few more minutes before letting out a big breath and laying his king down. Amelia smiles.