exposed // maxiel

exposed

before starting I want to put a trigger warning out this one shot contains abuse, panic attacks and homophobia. I always want to mention that this is all fictional even though the people mention in this story are real people nothing else in the story is real and is all made up.

Daniel POV

Daniel had always known that there was something more to max Verstappen than what the Dutch man showed. Yes he was quite outspoken and he had an anger issue, but when behind closed door, when there where no cameras on the man he was quite, he didnt talk more than necessarily and one thing Daniel knew for sure max his dad Jos was no good, but Daniel never really knew to what extent. Daniel knew that max his dad was rude, homophobic and overall a hypocrite and was trying to make max into a mini him. There where multiple occasions where Jos tried to intimidate Daniel, scare him off and even threatened him. But Daniel never knew that Jos was abusive behind closed doors, but this all changed after Baku 2018.

Max and Daniel crashed into each other on track during the race what ultimately led to Daniel his retirement from the race. To say that Daniel was pissed was an understanding, he was livid, he didnt attend the debrief but flew immediately back to Monaco, wanting to blow off steam and to forget. That next day max showed up on Daniel his doorstep with beer and an apology but Daniel was still to mad, he took the beer but told max that he didnt want to see him for a bit. Daniel could clearly see the disappointment in max his face but he knew that if ma stayed that it would only become even more ugly.

But the look on max his face was eating away at Daniel. He felt guilty for turning max away, he felt guilty for not letting max explain properly. So later that day Daniel made his way to max his apartment. As max his teammate and closest friend Daniel had a spare key to the apartment. But once at the apartment Daniel could hear shouting coming from max his place. The shouting was in Dutch so Daniel didnt understand much of it, but he could hear it was Jos and he also could very much hear that he was angry. Daniel unlocked the locked door and walked in quietly. He didnt see max nor Jos so he went the way the shouting was coming from. Once close to max his bedroom he could see max and Jos clearly. He knew both man hadnt noticed him but he could see clear. And what he saw was something he didnt like, max was on the ground bruised on his face. He wanted to walk away until he saw Jos pulling max up by his shirt and slamming him against the wall, screaming at him. He raised is fist and punched max in the face, Daniel assumed again. He couldnt watch anymore so I walked away quickly and quietly.

Things started to fall in place from Daniel, max his anger issues, him always being extremely tensed when Jos was around, the random bruised max had ( he always said that they came from sporting or him falling) and why is always was so quite when there was no one around. Daniel was angry he wanted to run back to max his apartment and punch Jos in the face but he knew this would only make things worse, so I did the next best thing, calling Cristian and asking is Jos could maybe come to the next view races, of course Daniel couldnt tell the real reason so he made one up.

And since that day Daniel sworn to himself that he would keep an eye out on max, staying over at his after a bad race so Jos couldnt get to him, looking for bruises on max and simply being there for him as a friend things seemed to clear up, max didnt show up to races with bruises on his body and Jos wasnt to be found in the paddock as offend. Daniel hoped things would stay like this.

And brings us to today 2021 Daniel had long left redbull, wanted something new and wanting to get away from the toxicity of Jos, but Renault turned out not being the best choice, so I signed with McLaren what has worked out quite well up until now, he like Lando as a teammate and being back on the podium felt nice. Max had, had 3 new team mates since Daniel left, Pierre and Albon being demoted after poor performance, Daniel could only assume that both boys couldnt handle the pressure of Jos Verstappen and cracked. Max his current team mate was Nico Hulkenberg and things seemed alright, that was until the Bahrain GP. Max made a big mistake and had to retire the car, max was mad at himself and Jos was livid. Daniel landed in Monaco a day after max did due to some of media things. He went straight to max his apartment and heard shouting. Daniel feared for the worse and waited until Jos left before rushing into max his apartment. And here was max sitting on the ground against the wall of his bedroom, shaking, crying, bruises everywhere and blood dripping from his nose. Daniel rushed over to him and dropped on his knees Infront of max. holding the Dutch man.