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Sometimes Max isn't sure if people really respect him or fear him. When he's in his human form he doesn't consider himself threatening at all, and when he's a lion usually the only thing he cares about is finding a good spot in the sun to take a nap. But people always seem to hesitate to walk near the RedBull garage when they hear a lion growling (in fact, he's snoring while sleeping in his motorhome, but not everyone knows).
Truth be told, being a lion carries a menacing presence. Max doesn't really try, but he confesses that sometimes it's fun to scare some unsuspecting people. Anyone who really knows him knows that he is friendly, like a cat. He's just too big to fit on someone's lap.
That's why the public relations team deserves the salary they receive, because it's not easy to make a lion look funny or cute. With dogs, on the other hand, it is a very easy task.
He's lucky when some videos or photos of him and Charles go viral, his media image always improves when he's chatting with the other driver. He once thought it was all thanks to the other's dog personality, but his interactions with Lando or Checo don't have the same effect.
Charles manages to win over the public in both his human and animal forms, the only difference is that when he is a dog people want to carry him around. There were people who said that being a small dog made Charles a bad driver, that he didn't give any credibility to his efforts because of his adorable appearance in his dachshund form.
For some reason, these same people were no longer seen around the paddock after walking near the RedBull garage. Weird.
Anyway, it's no secret that Max is a supporter of Charles. The only difference between him and a tifosi is the uniform. But the blonde justifies all his 'non-obsessed' behavior by saying that he has known Charles for a long time, even though they were never on the same team or were really close friends, they share a bond.
For the lion, it makes sense to have some… feelings for someone who was present, even if indirectly, at important moments in his life. It made him want Charles to be there in all of moments, and when the other driver finally entered F1 he felt that might be true.
Currently, Max believes they are more friends than they were last year. He is proud to say that he can talk about things other than racing, listening to Daniel's recommendation the other day to change the topic sometimes so as not to make Charles bored.
One day, during the Miami GP, Max recorded some videos with his team and was released hours later. Being a lion has its advantages, thanks to this he escapes situations that makes him to feel like an idiot who needs to please his sponsors and from greeting people he would be better off not having met. Is that James Char-?
Anyway, Max is the type who prefers to arrive, do his job and leave. Being exposed like an animal in the zoo makes him nervous and hinders his running performance. Luckily, he just has to tell that his animal side isn't in a very good mood and he gets the rest of the day off.
Max walks quickly among people, which gives the impression that he is late for an appointment. No one tries to talk to him or interrupt his commute, and he is grateful for that. It's a hot day and he has plans to lie down on the grass, roll over and take a long nap until someone has the courage to wake him up.
“Charles! Give it back!”
Max's ears perk up when he hears the name of his favorite subject and he stops walking, looking around for the green-eyed man. But instead he finds Andrea, from Charles' team, looking angry and tired about something.
“Give it back to me- Charles! Joris, do something!” the man continues to complain, chasing something on the floor that Max's eyes haven't yet reached.
“Don’t worry, I already know what to do” Joris replies, taking something out of his backpack. Max, frustrated at not having a complete view, moves closer to the scene and watches carefully.
Charles, or rather, in his form as a small golden dog, runs in circles between the legs of the two men who try to grab him. He holds a cell phone in his mouth, which Max thinks belongs to Andrea, and happily plays at stressing the other man.
One thing that mainly fascinates Max between the human Charles and the dog Charles is that the human Charles tries to appear more well-behaved in front of the cameras, being called the golden boy of public relations. While the dog Charles is a real little devil, which reminds Max a lot of when they were children.
"I got him!" Joris celebrates, grabbing Charles' small body and putting something on him. Andrea lets out a long sigh as he retrieves his phone.
The RedBull driver can't help but laugh after watching the scene, Charles always manages to cause a fun mess. He watches the little dog growl and try to break free of something, and that's when he sees it.
Max is sure his eyes are deceiving him the first time he sees it. But then he pays closer attention, without noticing the smile appearing on his lips, and understands that it is real. Charles is wearing a collar.
Looking exactly like a house dog, Charles tries to run away but the collar stops him. Joris laughs evilly.
“Sorry, mate. But it’s the only way we can keep an eye on you.”
“Don’t be sorry, he never felt sorry for- Hey!” Andrea exclaims, taking a few steps back when he notices the small dog biting his pants. “Stop biting me!” he points a restraining finger in front of Charles' nose, who happily tries to bite it.
Andrea snorts, defeated “Let’s go back to the hotel, this day is getting too long”
Joris waves, walking with Charles on a leash “Come on, terrorist” and Charles follows happily.
Max watches them leave, fascinated.
***
The next day, Max walks through the paddock with slow and calculated steps, knowing the exact effect his presence had when he entered the red team's territory. He spotted Charles talking to some mechanic and felt that luck was on his side as the mechanic quickly disappeared after making eye contact with him.
“Hey, Charlie!” called him, offering a cup of coffee that he carried for many meters until he got there and holding his own in the other hand. “I thought you might like some coffee, two spoons of sugar, right?”
“Max!” Charles showed a pretty smile when he saw him and accepted the coffee, then he furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. “How do you know what kind of coffee I like?”
“Anyway” Max ignores the question, slightly bending his body towards the other man. He doesn’t do it on purpose, and Charles doesn’t move away “I came looking for you because I noticed something interesting yesterday.”
"Really? What?"
The blonde man has never been good at masking his emotions, so the reason for the crooked smile and carefree look Charles has is because of the stupid face Max is making. He has no idea what the lion man knows.
He almost feels bad about revealing it like this, after all, no one has ever commented on seeing Charles parade around with a leash before. The Ferrari driver must keep the secret for a justifiable reason.
Again, he almost feels bad.
“I couldn’t help but notice that Joris and Andrea were having a problem getting out of the paddock while pulling a dachshund by the leash…” As the words left his mouth, Charles’ face turned from confused to surprised, with eyes comically wide-eyed (green like a kiwi, if you ask Max). Then he laughed nervously, shaking his head to hide his embarrassment.
“Ah… you know, it’s normal for dogs to wear collars” Charles justified himself.
Max got a little closer, a mischievous gleam in his eye “Yes, domestic dogs. I’ve never seen Checo or Lando wear a collar, actually.”
“Lando doesn't need a collar when he has Oscar's arms around his neck all the time” Charles realizes he responded defensively and quickly composes himself. Max thinks that if he were a dog now he would have bitten his nose “I mean… well, it was an idea that came up and we decided to put it into practice. Apparently I'm a bit difficult to control” he laughed.
'Don't say that', Max thought, holding a sigh in the back of his throat.
"But you like it?"
"What?"
“The collar… do you like it?”
Charles opens his mouth and closes it a few times before responding, Max waits patiently.
"It's interesting…"
“Interesting” the blonde repeats.
“Yes, sometimes it’s fun too”
"Funny?"
“Yes, you know? I always need to behave well in front of the cameras, and when I'm a dog I feel like I have more freedom to make a mess and bother others. The collar stops me from running away and I confess that I miss making Andrea chase me, but I ended up finding some fun in trying to get away too” Charles laughs “This is the third collar they bought because I figured out how to free myself from the last two” he confesses, his face a mix of amusement and embarrassment at admitting those things.
Max purses his lips, trying to control the emotions inside him. He expected to hear a funny story, honestly, but he struck gold in the end. Something inside him wants to know if more people know about the collar or if he's special and Charles trusts him because he values their friendship, but since the answer is likely to be 'oh no, other people besides Joris and Andrea know' so he don't want to know.
“I understand… well, I don’t want to take up too much of your time. It was nice talking to you and… if you need help with anything you can tell me.”
“Help with what kind of thing?” Charles asks, tilting his head to the side. Max wants to put his finger on top of his upper lip-
“Anything” he responds strangled, turning his back and taking a few steps away. In the first trash can he finds, he throws away his coffee cup. Charles makes a confused noise watching the scene, giving him a questioning look.
“Ah” Max shrugs, a crooked smile on his lips “I don’t like coffee, I just bought it to have an excuse to talk to you”
Then he left. And no, he didn't run, Charles's eyes did not see well.
***
Weeks later, the tension in the RedBull garage was palpable. It kept raining and a lion was in a bad mood. Christian tried to talk to him a few times, but Max didn't want to hear more than the sound of breathing coming from the other man.
Everyone was cautious, they knew that Max just needed to stay in his lion form for a while and relax. Meanwhile, they did their best not to stress him and worked in silence.
Max was lying near his garage, his feline eyes half-closed as his tail swayed from side to side, signaling his mood. The mechanics and engineers exchanged apprehensive glances, keeping their distance.
Suddenly, Charles Leclerc appeared, happily running around in his dog form. Running away from someone. He was wagging his tail and seemed completely oblivious to the heavy atmosphere. Someone shouted a few meters back.
“Charles, come back here!” Andrea, always the victim of Charles' antics.
Some RedBull members tried to stop him from going any further, but the little dog easily escaped the hands that tried to grab him.
“Oh no” some mechanic says, standing in place like the others, when they realize where the dog was going.
Max's eyes opened slightly when he felt Charles' presence approaching. A low growl reverberated in his chest, but he made no aggressive moves. He just watched the small dog approach with a curious and slightly irritated look.
Charles stood in front of Max, his tail still wagging happily, as if to say 'Hey, big guy, why's that frown on your face?'
Max sighed, as if to say 'Just a bad day'. And wanting to show that his mood was not at all good, he growled again to show that the dog should move away.
Charles completely ignored the warning, jumping and playing around Max, who watched with a mix of exasperation and affection. Charles found his goal when he saw the lion's tail swaying from side to side and began to play with it.
The other people watched carefully, fearing the moment when Max would lose his temper and throw Charles away. Andrea stopped nearby, not knowing whether to interfere or not. But they were surprised when they saw the lion purposely wag its tail for the dog to jump to try to reach it.
They stayed like that for a while, with the dog running around the lion without tiring, until at one point the feline instincts took over and Max pulled Charles closer and held him with his paws, so he could then lick his golden fur to clean it. Charles protested at first, but soon allowed the lion to take care of him because he quickly understood that it would make Max feel better.
And then, when Max judged that Charles was thoroughly cleaned, he released him from between his paws, granting him freedom again. But Charles didn't move away, in fact, he blinked his eyes slowly and settled down to take a nap with the lion, who accepted the offer, feeling better than before.
Andrea took his cell phone out of his pocket (a cell phone full of dog teeth marks) and took a photo of the scene in front of him, and said to no one in particular “I need to show this to Joris, Charles never sleeps like this”
***
When Max wins a race, he likes to talk about his performance with the other drivers. When Max wins a race and Charles is on the podium, he likes to talk exclusively to Charles.
As they walked together to receive their trophies (Checo a few meters behind, purposefully staying away for the sake of his emotional health), Max gestured excitedly as he shared his thoughts on the race. His eyes sparkled with passion and enthusiasm as Charles listened intently, a soft smile on his face.
"So when I turned the corner, I knew I had to risk everything" Max continued, arms moving energetically "It was either that or lose the position. And, mate, it was incredible! I felt the car respond like never before... "
There was something captivating about the way the RedBull driver expressed himself, how he lived and breathed every moment on the track.
However, as Max continued, he suddenly stopped, a look of guilt crossing his face "Sorry, Charles" he said, looking away "I always end up talking too much about the races and I must bore you because I can't change the subject." he muttered, mentally cursing himself for forgetting Daniel's recommendation again.
Charles laughed softly, shaking his head. He didn’t understand why Max was bothered by this “No, please keep talking. I love hearing you talk” the words escape his mouth uncontrollably.
The two men stop walking and Checo also has to stop a few meters behind, not understanding what was happening. The Mexican man looks confused at an FIA official who doesn't seem happy to see that the three drivers have cut him off.
Max stares at Charles, who seems as surprised as he is by the words.
"Serious?" he asks in a low voice, wanting to be sure.
Charles nods “It’s always interesting to hear what you have to say. I like… listening to you”
Max felt his heart speed up. There was something in the way Charles spoke, in the sincerity of his words, that made him feel something deep. He hesitated for a moment, but decided it was time to be honest. After all, when has Max Verstappen not been direct about what he was saying?
“Later, when we’re done here, do you want to… go get some coffee?”
Charles laughed “A coffee?”
“Well, yes, I want to do something you might like. And take you out on a real date, of course.”
“But you don’t like coffee, Max.”
"But I like you"
Charles smiled tenderly and placed a hand on Max's shoulder, looking straight into his eyes (blue like the winter sky, if you ask Charles), and said, "I think we can do something that we'll both like, because I like you too"
Max looked at Charles, his eyes meeting his, and in that moment, all uncertainty disappeared. He wanted to lean over at that moment and kiss Charles, but the FIA official was about to grab his arms and force them to walk again.
“Deal” the lion man replied with a huge smile.
***
Max is sure that the people who respect him are also a little afraid of him. When he was younger and more impulsive people had reason to be wary of the young lion, but now he has matured and won't threaten to bite anyone again. Oops, Ocon.
Even so, he likes to scare some people for fun, just when he's bored. He has built an image for himself so significant that he doesn't even need to be in his lion form to scare someone.
Max passed a group of engineers who immediately tensed up upon seeing him, then the driver showed his unfriendly face as if those engineers had interrupted a moment in which he was rambling happily with his boyfriend.
The engineers visibly backed away and Max smiled, belying his non-existent anger.
“Sorry, guys. It was just a joke”
It was always like that, irritatingly.
While walking, enjoying people's reactions, Max saw Charles in the distance. He tried to maintain his threatening air, but his facade began to crumble immediately upon seeing his boyfriend.
Charles walked over, completely oblivious to what was going on around him "Hi, Maxie!"
Max tries to maintain his imposing posture, but the sight of Charles always disarms him "Hey, Charlie," he replied, his voice softening without him meaning to.
Charles noticed the tension around "Are you scaring people again?" he asked, arching an eyebrow.
Max shrugged, trying to look nonchalant, "Just a little. It's fun"
Charles laughed and shook his head "You know, you don't scare me at all"
"Oh, really?" Max asked, leaning closer, his face just inches from Charles's "Not at all?"
Charles looked straight into Max's eyes, not backing down. "Not in the slightest" he replied firmly.
The blonde man moistened his lips, feeling the uncontrollable desire to kiss his boyfriend grow inside his chest. “Were you looking for me?”
"Oh yeah. In fact…” he reached out hid hands, fixing the collar of Max’s shirt without really needing to “I came to find out if you’d like to come to my motorhome for us-”
“The answer is yes” Max interrupted, placing a hand on Charles' back and guiding him along the path to Ferrari territory. The brunette laughs at the other's reaction and speaks again when he sees the door of his motorhome.
“I thought you needed to meet with Christian to discuss the car after scaring people.”
“I don't want to kiss Christian, I want to kiss you” they enter the motorhome and, now that they are in a safe space and away from prying eyes, Max presses his lips to his. The kiss lasts a few moments, their hands hold each other anxiously, as if they've been waiting all day for a chance to be like this.
Max likes to do many things with Charles, falling in love with the other driver made him see love in a simple gesture of agreeing who will make popcorn and who will choose a movie. He loves talking about anything and everything because Charles likes to listen, and he actually pays attention to what the blonde man says. But as much as he loves talking, his favorite quiet moments are when they're in bed together, when they've just woken up, and when they're kissing.
They stay together in Charles' motorhome for a while, enjoying the opportunity to be able to touch and hug each other without fear, while discussing plans for the upcoming weekend.
“I've been meaning to visit Milan,” Charles says, playing with Max's hair between his fingers.
“Yes… oh! Maybe we can go to that ice cream shop you like and buy some vanilla ice cream” Max responds with his eyes closed, enjoying the feeling of his boyfriend's fingers on his head.
Charles mutters, then pauses. “How do you know which ice cream place I like to go to?”
“Uh… you said that once”
“I’m sure I never-”
“For God’s sake, Charles! When will you realize that my favorite hobby is learning things about you?”