⌞ the chain ⌝

⌞ ten : thoughts ⌝

Well, Lula. It's a pleasure to finally meet you.

_

I watched as he walked away. After everything I heard about him, I was surprised to see that he was... understanding. I didn't know how long we talked, it couldn't have been longer than the line. But it seemed like we had known each other for longer. I knew that Charlie knew him. They raced together as kids in kart tournaments. I had never met him until today.

I took my things and sped and walked back to the Mercedes garage. Qualis were about to start and I wanted to make sure I didn't miss it all. I set the things down in Nico's driver's room before making my way over to the chair I usually sat in.

Toto smiled at me, patting my head. I brushed his hand off as I put on the headphones. The buttons in front of me had changed but I watched the people around me for a few minutes. It took a bit but I figured out what they meant. I switched over so I could hear Lewis.

"-and if there is any issues, I swear I will send the tiny French kid after all of you."

I snorted and Toto rolled his eyes, giving me a dramatic look. "The 'tiny French kid' can hear you, Lewis."

"Hi, Lu!" I could hear his smile through the headphones.

I clicked the button that turned on my microphone. "Hi, Lew!"

"If I don't pole, you okay with beating up someone for me?"

I giggled into the mic. "I don't know, Lew. Those reporters are looking for a reason to put me on the front page."

"Crazy daughter and sister of Formula Two driver beats up Mercedes engineers over bad qualifying for Lewis Hamilton."

"Don't give them the headline!"

We both laughed and Toto gave me a look to let me know it was time. I nodded.

"Okay, Lew. Do well 'cause I don't wanna have to beat anyone up."

"Anything for you, darling daughter of mine."

_

It was the last few laps. Dani was out in front followed by Nico and Lewis. I watched, messing with the bracelet I was given by a fan a few years back. It had seemed like a lifetime ago when I was given the bracelet but I pushed past those thoughts, switching between radios.

Lewis was focusing on keeping Nico back. There seemed to be some tension between them but I couldn't assume what it could be. From what I remembered, they were close. I had assumed they were together. But this. There was so much anger between the two of them. And from Nico's radio, it seemed that it was one-sided.

"Bloody hell, what is he doing?"

"Nico, focus."

"I can't with this asshole driving in front of me!"

I switched from that radio, over to Lewis.

"Nico needs to back off. He's going to make me lose this position."

I turned them both off, walking away from my chair. I couldn't watch it. It felt wrong to see my fathers arguing like this. I knew that races could get tense but this felt different. There was so much tension between the two of them and for some reason, it felt like everything was falling apart. Roman put a hand on my shoulder and I looked up at him. I didn't even realize he was down here, but to see him, calmed me. I knew that his job was more than just watching after me, he was a grounding force during this chaos.

After a moment, I turned back around to see that Dani got pole position. I decided to meet him over there, letting Roman know with a nod. I jogged over and when Dani noticed me standing there, he grinned. I waved and he pointed at me.

"Get over here, girl!"

I ran over, jumping into his arms. He hugged me and it felt nice.

"I missed you."

"I missed you too, kiddo."

_

I walked into the diner, watching the grid chat. It was nice to see them, all of them. Daniel was chatting with Nico and Carlos, who I hadn't had the chance to meet yet. He was racing for Torro Rosso, the other Ferrari team. I couldn't bring myself to walk near that garage, either of them. It felt too close to Jules. Nico and Lewis were having a hushed conversation and I didn't want to interrupt whatever that was. Kimi and Seb seemed to be totally engrossed with Fernando Alonso and Valtteri Bottas. Jenson was talking with Kevin Magnussen and some other people I couldn't remember names for.

The only person that seemed completely free was... Max. He seemed to catch my eyes, smiling and pointing to the open spot next to him. I thought about it for a second and just decided to throw all caution to the wind. I could be social.

"Hello again."

"Hi."

"You look like you're a bit uncomfortable."

I shrugged. "I'm used to talking with my family."

He nodded. "I see. You are welcome to talk to them."

I looked around again and no one seemed to notice that I had shown up. "Yeah, maybe later."

"I hope I can be conversation enough for you."

"Feel like talking about your qualifying results."

"No."

I chuckled at his quick response. He looked so similar to Arty whenever he pouted. It warmed my heart.

"Fair enough."

"What about you, do you race?"

"Oh, no. Not like this. I street race. Which is technically illegal but it's fun, I guess."

He raised an eyebrow. "Charles said that you were quite good, why don't you?"

I paused. I knew that they were friends but Charlie never said he talked about me. Everything was about him. Especially when it came to racing. To see, or rather hear that he was talking about me, it felt weird. And I had never really raced. I just trained with him.

"Uh- I guess I never thought about it."

He raised an eyebrow. "Maybe think about it."

"Why?"

He shrugged. "No use wasting talent."

"You haven't even seen me race?"

"Maybe not. But others have," He gestured to my grid father. "And those are world champions. They won't just talk to talk. And, I have a feeling the grid is going to change. For the better."

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a/n: short and sweet but we're getting there people hehehe. also more max content because i like him. as always, love it or don't :p