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The sea breeze off set the sticky humidity of the French Riviera, gentle waves lulling the yacht like a lullaby. The laughter of children could be heard amongst the general chatter of adult voices.
Away from the prying eyes of the press the families of the current F1 grid were relaxed. What started out as an invitation from the Verstappen’s to Sainz’s suddenly spread its way around resulting in an outside of work hours gathering between co-workers who blurred the lines as family.
Sitting in the middle of the padded outside seats of Unleash the Lion was a small blue plastic paddling pool, filled with sea water. Doriane sat splashing in the pool, her giggles echoing as she played with her pool toys; a variety of plastic sea creatures and a replica of her Papa’s race car.
Supervising her from upon the padded chair was her Dada George, who currently cradled against his bare chest was his youngest child Andrea, whom everyone affectionately referred to as Kimi. Kimi sucked greedily at the formula bottle in his mouth, eyelashes fluttering as the gentle rock of the yacht and his increasingly full stomach lulled him to sleep. George rocked the baby to help him settle to sleep, dropping a kiss on his forehead after gentling removing the nipple of the bottle from Kimi’s mouth. He placed the mostly empty bottle down next to him.
“I’ll watch Dori while you put Kimi down.” Charles offered, looking up from where he was recording a video of his son Oliver playing with his sunglasses on his phone.
With a thank you George wandered into the cabin of the yacht, past the kitchen where his husband Max and Charles’ husband Carlos had stationed themselves in charge of lunch under the watchful eye of Fernando who was making sure the lunch would be edible and to the taste of everyone else. Standing quietly at Max’s side was his and George’s oldest child Fred who was sneaking cubed pieces of cheese and crackers.
In the quiet and dark bedroom in the corner lay a small portable crib, George placed Kimi down gently not to disturb the baby, he turned on the ceiling fan and grabbed the baby monitor.
Back on the main deck lunch had been brought out a variety of food had been laid a mix of both trainer approved and non-approved foods drew the crowd of drivers over. Lando playfully threw his arm around Oscar’s shoulders disrupting him as he picked up a bread roll to make a burger with.
Doriane at the sight of her older brother shot out of the pool, leaving little puddles in her wake to bring Fred over to the pool to play.
“Time to eat.” Max says as he scoops his daughter into his arms, blowing a raspberry into her chubby toddler cheek.
At the food Max was creating a plate of lunch for Doriane who was perched on his hip with her arms wrapped around his neck. At the suggestion of any fruit other than strawberries Doriane stuck her tongue out in disgust. Approaching his husband from behind George peered over Max’s shoulder at the food on the table.
“Try this schatje.” Max offers George a piece of watermelon without evening turning around, taking the piece of fruit out of his fingers with his mouth, George hums his approval at the sweet fruit.
“That was sweet but not as sweet as this moppie.” George says before plastering kisses all over Doriane’s head, causing her to burst into a fit of giggles she then tries to move her head under her Papa’s chin to hide from the attack of kisses.
“Dada I need help.” Fred says pulling lightly on George’s swimming trunks.
“Of course my love, what do you need?” George looks down at his eldest son, who is blinking up at him.
“I want a burger.” Fred points to the stack of cooked burger patties on the table to high for Fred to reach. Grabbing his plate out of his hands George places a patty on Fred’s plate.
“Anything else bub?” He asks looking down at his son, who shakes his head up and down and points to the bottle of ketchup.
“On the side or on the burger?” Georges asks grabbing the bottle and giving it a quick shake.
“Side please Dada.” Fred responds hands out ready to grab his plate. George squirts the sauce on an empty spot on the plate, Fred grabs his plate and races off to sit next to Oscar who was currently debating with Charles and Lewis over the best sauce to dip fries into.
George quickly looks at the baby monitor in his hand; on the screen he could see that Kimi has rolled himself from his back onto his stomach and has stuck his index and middle fingers in his mouth to suck on. When Kimi was born he and Max had decided to forgo dummy’s as they had a hard time weaning Fred and Doriane off them – with Doriane only stopping using them five months prior at twenty-five months old.
“George come eat.” Max beckons him over to the free space next to him on his right side. On his left side sat Dori her legs spread out straight in front of her balancing her plate on top of her legs, showing off every piece of fruit she puts into her mouth to Carlos who nods in approval at piece of fruit being shown.
“I got you food.” Max tells George as he sits down next to him.
“A man after my own heart.” George replies kissing his cheek and taking the plate from Max’s hands, on it was a burger made exactly the way he likes it, a small side salad and a few pieces of watermelon. His diet these days was a bit more relaxed after he retired from racing with two world championships under his belt and the birth of Fred he pivoted his career into becoming a pundit, a very similar path to former Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg. Nico was supposed to join his partner Lewis on the yacht with them but unfortunately had been struck down by the flu and was stuck at home. Lewis was encouraged to go ahead and spend time with his god children.
“I better be the only man after you heart.” Max grumbles gently bumping the side of his head into George’s temple.
“I think you’ve got some competition.” George wiggles his eyebrows suggestively and tilts his head over to Fred who was showing Oscar how he liked to dip his burger into the sauce and eat it. Oscar being the good sport he is tried it out too.
The three Verstappens eat their lunch occasionally stopping and commenting on something they see, usually something Doriane was showing off.
“I bet Alex is fuming right now.” Lando says as he slides next to George getting really close and shoving his phone screen in their faces snapping a quick photo before sending it presumably to Alex. George lets out a confused noise at the sudden picture before shoving Lando off the chair next to him.
Doriane lets out a loud gasp capturing everyone’s attention “No pushing Dada, not nice.” She says firmly scrunching her eyebrows together as best she can at two and a half. This exclamation causes everyone to burst out laughing.
“Yeah not nice Georgie.” Lando says copying Doriane from on the floor where he landed after being shoved. Without letting his children see George flips him off. Lando lets out his own gasp and dramatically gets up and throws himself into Oscar’s lap causing Fred to let out a series of giggles at his uncles’ dramatics.
“Are you ready for your nap?” George asks Doriane as he picks her up and places her onto his onto his hip, she shakes her head side to side disagreeing whilst letting out a big yawn. “Say night night to Papa.” George leans down to one side to let Max give her a kiss, he then after giving her a kiss on the cheek rubs his stubble across her cheeks causing her to giggle.
A few “Good Night Doriane’s” are called out as George makes his way back to the bedroom. He changes Doriane into normal nappy and into a pair of shorts and a shirt all bearing the Mercedes logo, a gift from his former team. He sits them on the bed and gently brushes her wind tussled hair, he quickly ties them into two little plaits.
Doriane flops onto the middle of the bed, onto her stomach and sticks her thumb into her mouth. George spreads her favourite blanket over her, ironically a Max Verstappen themed blanket from his merch line, after tucking her in George lies down next to her patting her back and humming the tune to a Dutch nursery rhyme he has heard Max sing to the kids hundreds of times before.
After a few minutes Doriane drifts off to sleep, getting up slowly George sits ups. From the cot in the corner he could hear some shuffling, as he sits up fully and turns to face the cot; two big brown eyes are peering at him from inside.
“Hello baby boy.” George whispers making his way over to the cot, Kimi stands up holding onto the bar wiggling up and down with a massive gummy plastered across his face, chubby cheeks making his eyes crinkle; excited to see his Dada.
“Lets change you shall we?” Picking Kimi up, George makes his way over to the change table. After changing Kimi’s nappy the pair head outside to see what the others are doing.
They pass Charles inside the cabin near Max’s sim set up gently bouncing an asleep Ollie in his arms.
“Go borrow Kimi’s cot.” George tells Charles voice lowered as to not disturb the sleeping baby.
“Merci.” Charles thanks him and heads towards the yacht’s bedroom.
Stepping outside on to the deck he could see Fernando and Lewis engaged in a game of chess. Carlos and Lando had ventured out into the water Carlos was on the foil board and Lando paddling around his laughter reverberating around the area. Oscar enjoying sometime to himself was reclined on a chair near Fernando and Lewis’ match reading a book, most likely a suggestion from his manager Mark.
Max was with Fred near the paddling pool applying sunscreen to the boy. Fred may almost be a complete carbon copy of George but he unfortunately inherited Max’s prone to burning pale skin.
Their three children were a very good blend of George and Max, three little blondes. Doriane and Kimi both inheriting their dark eyes from their Oma however. When all three children were next to George the resemblance was outstanding, always leaving Max to laugh about how he is glad the kids look more like George than they do him when the little old ladies grocery store comment on the children’s looks.
Once Fred makes his way into the pool, George passes Kimi to his Papa and heads to the kitchen to grab some lunch for the baby. Max thoughtfully has set aside some food for the boy.
With the plate in hand George heads back out on to the deck. Fred is now in the small pool making the race car crash into a toy shark.
Sitting infront of Fred on the chair was Max, he had Kimi lying down on his back on his thighs and was rubbing sunscreen in circles onto Kimi’s cheeks who between coo’s to his Papa with his chubby fist kept grabbing at the finger rubbing sunscreen on to his face and bringing it to his mouth.
“Stop trying to eat my fingers darling, the sunscreen is yucky.” Max mutters to his youngest in Dutch. He pulls the boy up into a sitting position.
“Hungry bubba boy?” George asks as he sits down next to Max, Kimi in his excitement waves his fists in the air almost hitting Max in the process, he dodges quickly to avoid being hit.
The pair take turns feeding the boy and keeping an eye on Fred and commenting on his play.
When Kimi finished his food they discarded the plate on a small table next to chairs and brought the boy to the pool to play with his older brother. They played together as a family for about an hour, splashing in the water, with Max occasionally splashing Fernando disrupting the man each time it was his turn during the game he was committed to.
“You behave worse than your own toddlers.” Fernando curses him in Spanish annoyed at the constant disruption, this elicits some laughs out of Lewis and Oscar.
Max very lovingly flips him off when Fred crawls behind him to grab a toy starfish that has floated away.
“I’m going to check on Dori.” George says and uses Max as a perch to help him stand up. Max nods to show he had heard him and continues to gently splash water at Kimi who was creating massive waves with how much his arms were waving up and down.
He passes by Charles who was napping on the sofa inside of the cabin, taking advantage of not having toddler hanging off him.
Opening the bedroom door he could see Doriane lying on the bed mostly awake, very reminiscent of her Papa who often just lies in bed processing being awake.
“Dori baby, good morning.” He whispers as he picks her up from the bed, like a little octopus she wraps her arms and legs firmly around George and tucks her head into the crook of his neck. “Let’s change nappy and see your brothers.” He says giving her a quick wiggle on the word brothers.
With a fresh nappy and seemingly more energy Dori sprints out of the bedroom and onto the main deck. Following behind her slowly George follows with hooded towels in hand for the children.
Georges sits down back on the plush chairs, putting the towels next to him. At the sight of his Dada, Fred hops out of the pool shivering slightly and makes his way over.
“Cold?” George asks. Fred nods his head up and down quickly, George grabs one of the towels from next to him and pulls it over Fred’s head and settles it on his shoulders quickly rubbing him up and down to help him dry off. Once dry Fred climbs into George’s lap and rests his head right above George’s heart.
Seeing that his eldest has had enough of the pool, Max decides it’s time for his youngest to hop out of the pool too. Grabbing another lion themes hooded towel he wraps Kimi up into and sits next to his husband.
Sitting in his lap, Kimi achieves his earlier goal and sticks one of Max’s fingers in his mouth chewing on it with his gums.
“I want a tuddle too!” Doriane yells out from where she was standing with Fernando and Lewis having stole all the knights of the chess board and playing with her two uncles knocking about the other chess pieces. She abandons the piece on the floor and sprints over to her Dada and Papa, before she could crash dive into Kimi; Maxs lifts him out of the way as Doriane crashes into Max’s legs and climbs into his lap.
He pushes Doriane onto one thigh and on the other he supports a now standing but wobbly Kimi.
“Papa I made your car get eaten by a shark.” Fred looks up at Max, at this confession George lets out a loud series of laughs.
“Thanks mate.” Max grumbles at him before sticking his tongue out at him.
From the other side of the deck Lewis sneakily captures a picture of the family all cuddled together.