lemon and mint | Charles Leclerc

~ THE END ~

Italy, December 2019

The Italian was lying on the couch, in the living room covered by a warm blanket. She had a book in her hands, but she wasn't really able to focus on the words in front of her. She was lost in her thoughts.

Her eyes wandered to the shelves in the living room. They used to be quite empty, but now they were full of Charles' trophies. There were his books on the bookshelf, his shoes in the shoe rack, his clothes in the walking closet, his toothbrush on the basin. The house in Genoa felt like home again.

For some reason, this felt like a much bigger step than moving to Monaco to him. This felt real. This felt like they would really eventually have children together. It felt serious in a somewhat overwhelming way.

Sometimes she felt like things were moving a bit too fast, and it made her feel sick, but she always reminded herself, that this was all she ever dreamt of. She and Charles - happy together, living together. It was all too perfect which made her anxious from time to time, but she knew this was right.

The soft hum of the coffee machine interrupted her thoughts, and she heard Charles moving around in the kitchen. It was something she needed to get used to. Genoa, for a couple of years, was a place where she was almost always alone, so having someone here every day nowadays felt a bit odd. Right, but odd.

Charles appeared in the doorway, holding two steaming mugs of coffee. He offered her a warm smile, and she couldn't help but return it. He walked over and handed her a mug.

"Lost in thought?" he asked, settling down beside her on the couch.

Pia nodded, taking a sip of the coffee. Its warmth spread through her, chasing away the chill of the winter morning. "Just thinking about us and all of this," she gestured to the shelves filled with his belongings.

Charles glanced around, his eyes lingering on the trophies and the traces of his presence throughout the house. "It feels right, doesn't it?" he remarked.

"It does. With you always," she smiled at him and leaned her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes. Before she even realised it, his hands were wrapped around her.

"I've invited my mum for the 27th," he said after a while.

"We could've come to Monaco," his fiancée turned to him.

"She insisted. She wants to see what's so special about this place that it got me to abandon my motherland," the Ferrari driver explained. It was true. He suggested that they would come to see her, but she was rather persistent about seeing them in Italy. She felt that Charles was really happy there.

"And what's so special about this place?" The Italian asked curiously.

"It has nothing to do with the place, but rather with the person living here," the Monegasque explained. "It has to do something with that girl who stole my heart years ago, and she still keeps it. And I'm glad she does."

"Such a thief," she commented.

"Yeah, she is. She steals my clothes as well," Charles laughed carefreely.

"Oh, does she?" the Italian asked playfully.

"Yeah, she has my hoodie on right now," her fiancé said with a smirk, gesturing towards the oversized hoodie Pia was currently wearing.

"She's paying for it with kisses," Pia tried to defend herself in their little banter.

"Really? She's rather late with her payment today," the Ferrari driver said since he was still a bit offended, that he hadn't gotten his good morning kiss.

Pia chuckled, "I'll make it up to you, promise."

---

"You know I was thinking about something," the Italian said to her dad as they were cleaning the kitchen together. Pia wanted to do it alone, but Sebastian insisted to help her. He always did.