Chapter Text
Charles was lounging on his couch in his apartment when the text came through from Lando. “We’re coming over, let us in in 10” he groaned loudly at the unexpressed company, but moved off the couch to let them in when the buzzer rang.
“How’s winter break treating you?” Oscar said as him and Lando walked through the door.
It wasn’t unusual for the alpha and omega pair to pop in every so often, catching up over games of FIFA while the season was on break. As they settled down to play a match, conversation drifted to the other drivers.
“Have you heard from Max?” Oscar asked, looking over the top of his omegas head as Lando lounged between his legs.
Charles breath caught a little in his throat at the mention of Max, the way they’d left things at the end of the season was tentatively friendly, but Charles pined for Max in a way that was frankly not reflective of that friendship and at this point? A little unhealthy.
“Last time we spoke was at the awards ceremony, he said he was spending Christmas with Sophie, Victoria and the kids and then back home to Monaco for New Year” Charles replied.
“That’s weird, we haven’t heard from him at all, and we didn’t see him out on New Years Eve, you’ve really not heard from him at all?” Lando asked, nestling his head into his alphas chest as his pheromones turned slightly sour.
Oscar stroked the back of Lando’s head to comfort the young omega, purring gently to sooth the distressed notes in his scent. Charles looked away for a minute, his heart clenching just a bit at the sight in front of him. There’s not much he wouldn’t give to have Max in his arms like that, comforting and soothing him whenever he needed it, but Max had made no inclination as to being interested in that with Charles anymore, barely being able to stand a gentle touch of their hands on the podium steps. He’d long accepted that if friendship was all him and Max could have - that no matter how painful - he would have to accept it, and he had. Kind of.
“We’re not really that close” Charles murmured “I don’t think he’d reach out to me anyway” he continued looking away from Oscars raised eyebrows.
Oscar had been called to him in a moment of weakness in Abu Dhabi, and Charles had confessed everything, the feelings he’d been harbouring for Max and the anguish over not being able to care for him. They’d sat in his drivers room for hours as the celebrations had raged outside, the other alpha had saved him from himself as he spiralled over the thought of not seeing Max for months. He hadn’t even realised how he’d gotten so attached to the omega that seemingly could bare to be in the same room as him for longer than was mandated by celebrations or meetings. The hole in his chest at the idea of not seeing Max had resulted in a crash out of fairly epic proportions the likes of which had his trainer ringing Oscar for help.
He’d tried to organise to see Max when they sat together at the FIA gala but he’d brushed him off, stating some excuse about commitments with his dad, it sounded made up to Charles - but he was in no position to question it - so he’d stayed quiet the rest of the night, slipping out at the earliest convenience. The last he’d seen of Max was a shared look down the line of sleek black cars waiting to take people home; he’d held eye contact, offering a small smile to the omega until Max finally turned and left.
“Have you tried messaging him? I texted him last week about a game of padel but he never got back to me, I thought maybe he was still with his family” Oscar said, rearranging Lando on his lap as the young omega started to fidget.
Charles could smell that tell tale signs of preheat on Lando, probably a few days away yet, but his heart clenched again at the site of the couple comforting each other. His mind wandering to thoughts of Max, of who he spent his heats with, if he had someone to hold him and scent him, to steal clothes from to help build his nest. He shut those thoughts down as soon as he started imposing himself into that role. Max had made it clear; he wanted nothing to do with Charles.
“I don’t think he’d reply even if I did, have you tried speaking to Daniel? See if he’s heard from him” Charles replied, not missing the look the couple sat across from him gave each other as he spoke.
“I’ll talk to Daniel, but please text him, I’m worried that no one has heard from him” Lando said, pulling his face from his alphas neck.
As the conversation moved onto other things, they moved onto watching a new Netflix movie, settling down for the evening. Charles’ mind was occupied with thoughts of texting Max and when Oscar and Lando left for the night, he lay in bed for hours typing and deleting a text before finally passing out as the sunlight started to creep around his curtain edges.
When he finally woke, it was to his phone ringing. As he slapped the bed to find the offending noise he pressed accept with his eyes still closed. Letting out a croaking “Hello?” As he rubbed his eyes.
“Afternoon, did I wake you up?” Oscars voice came through the phone.
“Yeah, long night, what’s up?” Charles replied, sitting up slowly in bed and rearranging himself as his brain came online.
“I spoke to Daniel last night after we left, he’s away in Italy for the winter, but he said he’s had three unanswered texts from Max, and no one else has heard from him either. I’m starting to get concerned that somethings happened. I spoke to Martin and he said Max got back to Monaco on the 29th, that’s two weeks since anyone’s seen or heard from him” Charles could heard the agitation in the other alphas voice, feeling much of it himself.
“Maybe he’s just resting after being with his family, you don’t know that somethings wrong” Charles tried to reason.
“Okay, look, I shouldn’t be telling you this because it’s not my story to tell, but 6 months ago Jos re entered Max’s life, and he’s been kicking up a lot of shit again over Max being an omega. I’m worried that something has happened with his dad and no one knows, and he doesn’t feel like he can reach out because of what we all think of Jos. We need to help him Charles, we can’t let him suffer.” Oscar said, Charles’ stomach dropped as soon as he mentioned the name, mind spiralling back to the last interaction they’d had.
Jos had caught Charles coming back from the podium, him and Max had celebrated together, laughing and joking in the cool down room with Lando. The vitriol Jos had spewed to Charles about his son was something that had shaken Charles to his core, how someone could talk about their own child like that was beyond anything he could comprehend. It hadn’t evaded Charles that since that incident, Max had pulled away, getting more and more distant until it felt like they barely knew each other anymore. But then Jos had left, going back to rallying and Charles thought things would get better, that Max would come back to him and they could continue whatever it was that they were doing; but he hadn’t, and it had nearly killed Charles.
After the phone-call with Oscar, he stress cleaned his apartment, Oscar had agreed that he and Lando would go over to Max’s and see if they could talk to him. When his door buzzed he jumped, scrambling to let whoever it was in. As Carlos wandered up the stairs he calmed a the sight of the older alpha. Carlos was like a big brother to him, and he new of Charles’ feelings towards Max, being one of the first to work it out after sharing one too many cooldown rooms with them and being exposed the Lestappen yap sessions as they had affectionately been named.
“I spoke to Lando this morning, he said he was worried about you, thought I’d come and check in” Carlos said, settling down on a kitchen island stool as Charles grabbed them beers from the fridge.
“I thought maybe with space that things would get better, he obviously doesn’t want anything to do with me, but I can’t stop thinking about him. He’s there in my brain from the minute I wake up, to the minute I go to sleep, I can’t escape him, I’m consumed but worry about what he’s doing and if he’s happy and safe and if he needs anything” Charles responded, taking a swig of his beer.
“Lando said they were going over there today, did you not want to go with them?” Carlos asked.
“I didn’t think he’d want me there, Oscar is an alpha, he can give him anything he needs, and Lando can scent him and be in his nest if there’s something really wrong” Charles replied offhandedly, like the pain of knowing he couldn’t go hadn’t been eating him up all day.
Carlos levelled him with a look then, in the way he so often did when Charles was being an idiot, but he chose to ignore it in favour of making dinner. They talked about training camp and the upcoming season for the rest of the night, Charles only half heartedly conversing, thoughts sidetracked by the fact he hadn’t heard from Oscar yet. By the time Carlos finally left, the sun was setting. As he made his way out onto his balcony, phone in one hand and glass of wine in the other, he let himself think of the omega that had everyone so worried.
Sometimes the only way to settle his restless thoughts was to indulge the fantasy in his mind, the one where Max is curled into his side, in a nest made of their clothes, their hearts beating as one. Wine glass drained and blanket pulled over himself, Charles settled to watch the last of the daylight slip below the horizon until there was nothing left but ocean darkness and the twinkling lights of the water front.
And then the phone rang.