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As soon as they are allowed to leave, the drivers all disperse to their various pack rooms for a little bit of down time at the end of the Bahrain filming day before testing starts up in the morning.
Max is followed by more rookies than he was expecting.
Liam makes sense, even if he’s done half a season and doesn’t technically qualify as a rookie anymore. Isack also makes sense, as he’s part of the Red Bull Family. Gabi following Max is also not a surprise, what with their work in Team Redline. Jack does surprise him, Max would have thought the Aussie might have followed Pierre back to Alpine, but instead he trails at the back of the pup pack with Liam. Then there’s Kimi, which Max cannot rationalise.
Of course Max lets them all into his den anyways.
There’s a moment where Max just stands there, staring at the pups.
He doesn’t want to fuck this up.
“I haven’t had the chance to organise, but the back corner over there is 2015-2016 pack, and that pile is my family, so please don’t touch it, but other than that…Yuki made a pup nest earlier if you all just want to fall into that. It’s been a long day, I know. Make yourselves at home.”
And away they go.
Isack drops into the nest, and Liam tugs Jack in there as well. Gabi takes a little longer to settle, but he eventually flops just outside of the nest, resting his head on one of the exterior pillows.
“I–”
Max approaches Kimi carefully.
“I thought Ollie would come with us. He said he’d make me a nest today. Instead he went with Charles.”
Five seconds in and Max already has a problem he doesn’t know how to deal with. Great.
“Well Charles is his Dad,” Liam tells Kimi.
“I know…”
Max rumbles at Kimi softly. “It’s going to be okay. I know it’s not an Ollie nest, but Yuki makes some pretty good nests too. How about this, I’ll text Charles and invite him and Ollie over after they’ve had a chance to decompress, hmm?”
The young Italien nods. “Okay.”
Yuki chooses that moment to enter the Red Bull Pack Room. “There are three extra pups.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Kimi cowers slightly.
“Ah! Sorry! I did not mean it like that. Why?” he asks softer this time.
“It’s pup time,” Max says simply. “Pre-season, get to know everyone, that kind of thing.”
Yuki nods. “Do you not like my nest?” he asks Kimi bluntly. “I am no Charles, but Max cannot make nests. He is good at hoarding materials, but that is it. He will lay on the floor in between his piles if you let him,” he whispers conspiratorially.
Max huffs both in defence and in relief. Whatever Yuki is doing is doing wonders for Kimi. The pup’s scent is softening, and he’s even darting his eyes to Yuki’s nest hopefully.
Max gives him a little push towards Yuki, while thanking the omega with his eyes.
It’s hard being the Red Bull Pack Alpha. Especially for Max when he has had zero mentors, zero experiences with Pack Alphas to draw upon.
Lewis was, in short, terrible when Max was a rookie in 2015, and then within the Red Bull organization Daniel was an omega and Dani was a beta. Mark Webber was technically the Red Bull Pack Alpha still, but he wasn’t around for all of the races. Carlos was technically older, but he was a rookie just the same as Max, and then Max got promoted to Red Bull and suddenly he was also being promoted to Pack Alpha at eighteen.
Daniel was a great Pack Omega, and he did a good job teaching Pierre, and they both made sure that Yuki was prepared and ready for everything; even if soft comfort is not exactly the Japansesman’s thing.
“We should invite the pack over,” Yuki tells Max, dropping down next to him on the floor next to his meager Hulk-Jenson-Mark-Britney stack. “Then the pups won’t notice that their Pack Alpha is hiding from them.”
“I’m not hiding.”
“Yes you are.”
Max levels Yuki with a look.
Yuki sends him one right back.
“I don’t want to fuck this up,” Max admits.
“Then stop hiding. Invite everybody over. The pups are settled enough to meet everybody in a casual setting.”
Max closes his eyes.
“We also have not done our pre-seaon ex-bull cuddle pile yet.”
The Dutchman ignores him. He knows that Yuki is right. He wants the pups to have a community around them. He knows what it’s like to have nothing but perfunctory bonds on the grid; what it’s like to be abandoned by your elders; what it’s like having to carve your own space in the world on your own.
Max may be worried about fucking it up, but if he continues to hide back here, then he’s just doing the same thing.
He pulls out his phone.
FIA Formula 1 Grid Pack
Max
My den, ten minutes, bring yourselves.
Yuki snorts.
“I’ll work,” Max defends.
Yuki’s phone pings. “Yeah it will.”
Figure 1: Fanart I dew of my own series, but if everybody were cats. This is the situation in Max's Den when Charles and Ollie show up. Not pictured: Lewis, Nico, Fernando, and Lance having their own little get together.