Teach Me Something // LH44

Chapter Thirty-Six

"Ah, I'm so glad you're here," Lewis grins and wakes me from my dopey haze when he walks through the door of his hotel room to find me near comatose on the sofa. Despite a not so great qualifying session, I could see even through my blurry eyes that he was smiling the relaxing sort of smile as he pressed a kiss to my forehead and collapses next to me on the sofa.

Despite having spent almost ten hours on a plane, the time difference meant it was only midnight now and as much as I might want to sleep, I'd been given instructions by Lewis to stay awake to avoid too much jet lag when I went back to the UK and also consider the fact that the race was at a different time. Given this was a flying trip (literally) I was inclined to take his advice. So when I'd arrived to our room, I'd had a delightful bath as I watched qualifying and Lewis's interviews to try and help myself feel more relaxed about the cameras I had seen in the hotel lobby as I'd come up. I didn't think they'd noticed me, I was without Lewis's entourage and a rather ordinary person so easily able to fly under the radar. Still, it had definitely made me question whether I'd made a sane decision by being here right now, some sort of post or statement probably would have been enough.

Still, we were here now... and this would be fun.

"I'm glad I'm here too but gosh... I am about to drop Lew. I slept a lot of the flight... but before that it was a long day and I've been awake for the last four hours," I inform him, my words as jumbled and nonsensical as my mind as I hold out my hand for him to take. He accepts, reaching his hand up to meet mine and interlacing our fingers slowly as he catches my eyes with his, entirely distracting me from the TV which was now playing a different sport for us to ignore. I look at the clock to see that it's now two am but Lewis coos at me lightly, pushing my hair behind my ear as he lies down on the sofa and pulls me to lie on his chest, cementing that I made the right decision by being here.

Like Baku, like after Silverstone, like a hundred other times we had been blessed to experience together... the world melted away as I melted into him.

"I'm sorry, I came back as soon as I could... I'm sorry you couldn't come to the track," he tells me, stroking my back and I nod against his chest, my eyes quickly closing. "Baby, try and stay awake a little while longer. Just thirty more minutes..."

"You're lying to me... if I stay awake thirty minutes, then you'll make it another fifteen, and then suddenly it's two hours later and I'm ready to kill you right now. Who knows what I will do if you make me that sleepy..." I tell him, my eyes practically glued shut as I revel in his warmth, revelling in the way his body moulds around mine like the most perfect pillow. "Also it's okay... the track has the people and the people would be scary right now," I tell him and feel the vibrations underneath me as he laughs and kisses the top of my head.

"I'm not lying... I just think in thirty minutes you might not feel so tired anymore," he places one hand on my ass as though trying to tempt me awake and while it might normally work, now I'm so tired my bones feel like they have weights in them and I have to just shake my head.

"Too tired..."

"Okay... well, have you eaten food? You should eat something," he reminds me and I try to think about any food I've eaten but come up empty, shaking my head. "Okay, sit up, I'm ordering you some food and then we will sleep, I promise - you said you'd watch an episode with me when you got here anyway," he pouts and I whine as he sits us up and I force my eyes open. "Here's some chocolate," he passes me as a temporary place holder while leaning for the room phone and so I grab the TV remote, putting on Disney+ as I roll my eyes at him. I only hope that putting the TV show on will act as enough of a distraction that he will let me fall asleep without realising.

The food is at the room within ten minutes and as I eat, I feel my energy come back as Lewis tunes into the briefing meeting he had skipped by leaving the track early to come back to me. His hands are gently massaging my feet throughout the call and I don't realise that my shoulder is in view of his camera until he nudges me to wave at the engineers who he's on the call with. I go as red as I did back in Silverstone and wave at the camera, hearing a chorus of hello's on the other end as Lewis disconnects his headphones and plays it through the speakers before hanging up.