Chapter Text
Tires screeched painfully against the road, bringing displeasure to Lily. She's been watching her brother practice for hours on end. She wanted to motivate him, he was becoming very frustrated and nervous as the race came around. He's never got like this when a race is near, but then again he's human too, but man the tire screeches were getting to her.
As Florians car came to a stop, Lily ran over to it, not wanting to miss a chance to talk to him.
“don't you think you've done enough today? Let's head home…!”
When she spoke loudly enough for him to hear as she approached the car. She could see Florians head on the wheel, gripping the wheel tight.
“Florian?” She said with a concerned look, and perhaps that broke whatever dam he built for himself to seem unbothered and unaffected by the stress in life.
“If I don't win this race I don't know what I'll do. I have to win for the sake of that boy and to finally shut that damn rich guy up. I can't afford to lose- not yet.” He let out a frustrated huff and turned his head to look at his sister, annoyed. It was an odd look, it didn't look right on someone like Florian, who was always happy and smiling as if nothing bothered him.
“I can take you home if you want but I need to keep practicing. This is stupid, this race is stupid, Orpheus is stupid, and that pretty Matthias boy is stupid, everything feels stupid. Why did I have to act so impulsively..” he banged his head on the steering wheel repeatedly, but not hard enough to hurt him harshly.
As Florian continued to rant, Lily in all honesty didn't know how to help him. She never saw him like this, he always wore a grin and was filled with positivity and confidence…never like this, so, she really felt useless after all she was never good at comforting people in general.
As she was going to say something, he cut her off with a small mutter of “hop in”. She guessed she was going home like she wanted but that didn't ease her concerns for her brother.
The drive was starting off quiet, and she was still thinking of what to do until her thoughts were cut off with loud music.
“What's with the frown Sis? Todays a nice day” She turned to look at Him, to which he had a wide grin as if everything that happened before didn't exist. It creeped Lily out to say the least, he switched up so fast…was he even okay still?
“Right…” She mutters and looks away from him uncomfortably.
The rest of the car ride was quiet if you ignored the music in the car. It wasn't until they pulled up to their house, noticing Richard from a distance. What was he doing here? Lily wanted to ask but got her answer without even needing to ask. Richard raised a hand at Lily as a small gesture to greet her, to which she replied with a small hi and a confused look as she watched Richard approach her brother, a small smile remaining on his face.
There's no way Richard could have known her brother longer than she had. So why did it feel like she was practically a stranger to her own brother when Richard pushed past Florians now known fake smile to comfort him. She didn't like the way she felt, she knew her brother, they were close and were always together since the accident with their parents. So why did she feel like she didnt know him at all. This left a nasty bitter like taste on her tongue.
Richard hadn't even known Florian longer than she did, so why does he know Florian better than her? It didn't sit right at all, but at least she didn't have to worry…since Richard is comforting him. Richard originally, well supposedly came to give Florian a spare part that could help his car, but here he is patting Florian on the back and giving him encouraging words. It seemed to help too. Florian gave a determined smile in return and this time not a fake one.
…..
Ever since that incident, Lily tried to catch Florian whenever he was down or off from how he usually was, hell she even asked Richard for advice to which he had told her not to worry or dwell too much on the issue. She couldn’t tell if that statement was the one to plant a seed of annoyance for Richard or not. Why did he know him better than her? In a way, it kind of made her feel hurt, after all he was all she had so why does she feel distant towards her own brother.
To tell the truth, Richard had once caught Florian during one of his crash outs before, it was after Florians losing streak against him. Instead of being determined like he usually was, he was gripping his steering wheel with a bitter face that no longer held his cheerful self. It made Richard concerned and when he asked Florian about it, Florian snapped at him. From the past years of needing to hold every negative feeling in for the sake of Lily’s happiness, everything finally came tumbling down.
That day Richard made a promise to himself to look after the two, after all from what he have seen, Florian needed someone to fall back to when he couldn’t handle his own emotions, and so Richard decided to be that person. This made life a bit easier for Florian thankfully and it also made Richard feel glad to be there for the siblings since life was hard enough for them.
…
As the race was mere minutes away, Florian grew nervous and anxious for what's about to come. If he can manage to win for Matthias and crush the rich prick’s ego, life would feel like it’s never felt before.
The time flew by quickly and next thing you know,both racers were in their cars with cocky grins on their faces and egar looks from the crowd. Matthias on the other hand, looked worried and kept his eye on Florian as he remembered Richard's words from the last race Florian had with Orpheus.
As the two flags were in the air, the two cars zoomed past the poor referee , leaving him startled from the loud sounds both cars made. Both racers were tire to tire, putting in all their efforts to not lose,and by all means if it meant playing dirty then so be it. You see, moment’s before the race, Orpheus, being the rich guy he is, paid someone to sabotage Florians vehicle. He couldn’t afford for some low life like the blonde racer to ruin his reputation, not after all he did to earn his title as the best racer in town.
Florian kept his eye on the road, not wanting to make any mistakes, although he could hear Orpheus shout something at him as they were about to make a harp turn. As any person would, Florian stepped on the brakes to do a perfect drift, only to be met with panic as his brakes didn't seem to work as well as it did during the practice rounds he had with Richard earlier. This had led the car to almost lose control and swerve, but luckily for Florian, he managed to get everything under control before anything major had happened. The crowd had been on the edge of their seats when they saw this happen, on the other hand, both Lily and Richard were worried for Florian’s sake. The race had gotten to the point even Lily wanted to stop the race for the sake of her brother, she was horrified she’d lose him just like how both her and Florian lost their older brother. At the moment only Richard was there to comfort her instead of Florian comforting her as usual despite Richard also being quite concerned for Florian as well.
Now with the knowledge of his brakes not working, Florian had to play his cards carefully. He couldn’t risk losing but he also couldn’t risk his car to end up like a junkyard car either, if it got damaged it would mean the end to his passion. So he knew he also had to play it safe as well. Orpheus had managed to gain a great amount of distance from Florian’s car. Now it was only a matter of time before Orpheus took the win once again.
The blonde had grown bitter, he had to play it safe for the sake of his broken brakes, but that also meant he couldn’t race to his full potential and would have to throw the match and take the L. As he looked at the road, he could see sharp turns and tricky twists and turns. He was sure he was going to earn an earful from Lily after all of this was over.
Going too fast would be suicide and possibly murder for nearby folks, but going to slow would also be suicide. This was stressful for sure, he could feel a bead of sweat roll down his face in his helmet…how did his brakes even break in the first place? They were perfectly fine earlier… he can’t exactly stop in the middle of a race to fix them either. As he approached another sharp turn, he squeezed his steering wheel and stomped on the brakes, a rather dumb way to test if they were truly broken or just stuck mind you.
Florian’s car jolted and caused a drift, successfully and questionably safely completed the turn, he was catching up finally. Maybe this race won’t end up as bad as he thought it would. The race was near its end and Orpheus was already declared as the winner, grinning proudly at the finish line. Orpheus hadn't bothered to pay attention to the other racer and where he was exactly, he guessed that he was off tumbling down a hill or something to which he wasn't that far off. Florian managed to lose control of his car and spun into circles at one point somewhere through the race.
…
Florian parked his car besides Orpheus’s and stepped out avoiding looking at everyone around him. Ultimately he was upset at the unfair loss and cocky laughs coming from Orpheus and his friends, he didn’t even listen to Lily when she ran over to him scolding him for something he couldn’t even control. Even Richard went up to him asking him what happened as if he knew. He was close to snapping at them until Orpheus came up to them with Matthias following behind.
“Even though you’ve lost, I’ll be generous enough and give you him out of pity” Orpheus had then grabbed Matthias and shoved him forwards towards Florian, causing the scarred man to stumble a bit and before he can lose his balance Florian keeps him from stumbling by grabbing his arm. After the way Matthias was manhandled as some doll being cast aside and also from how the race went, Florian glared at Orpheus with such bitterness.
“What are you trying to say?” Florian said with much distaste. “I want a rematch. I was clearly at an obvious disadvantage. I’ll race you for him again.” Florian had let go of Matthias, lightly pushing him a bit towards Orpheus’s direction, but it was obvious Orpheus wasn’t going to take back what he already had given away.
“Whatever, I’ll agree to another race with you, but do as like with the puppet. I have no use for him anymore” and with that Orpheus had walked off, leaving a pissed off Florian and Matthias who didn’t exactly know how to handle this situation or what to really do anyways.
With a huff, Florian walked off, needing some time alone leaving Lily and Richard with Matthias…
“Come, I’m just going to assume you were staying with Orpheus, but since you’ve been practically kicked out, you can stay with me once Florian figures things out” Richard said as he glanced at Matthias over his shoulder. Matthias had only nodded and followed along, he’ll talk to that Florian guy later perhaps…
And with that Lily had left with Richard and Matthias, giving Florian the space he needed. After all, he’ll come around sooner or later anyways,