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At this point, it should be deemed a sabotage. Yes, Lewis had hit him which led him to spin out, but his battery was dead. His team had told him that the issues had been fixed, yet here he was sat in a dead car. He was out, of course he was.
Their main aim for this year was for Kimi to win, to rip George's dream away from him. It had been going so well, he had been winning, and then the car started to have issues. It had to be done on purpose. They'd fixed Kimi's car after Silverstone, yet his car was still malfunctioning.
He had been with this team for almost a fucking decade, yet they still were treating him like he was the driver that they could just throw away and ignore. He was honestly fed up with it by now.
Though, he couldn't say he wasn't proud of his teammate, I mean the kid had the chance to be the youngest world champion in F1 history. But, Mercedes — and Toto's — greed towards this idea was costing them a fair fight. At least max got in third, that probably meant he'd be out celebrating late, and wouldn't be back to their hotel until the earlier hours.
George didn't care, he didn't need comfort anyway. He was used to it — even if his chest ached while he watch from the paddock, disproving that point entirely. He was being dragged into countless interviews, and didn't even bother to hide his emotions — he could over hear a few reporters talking about how he looked to be on the verge of tears, which he was.
“So, how do you feel towards this sudden exit from the race today George?”
“It’s stupid. They said they had fixed my vehicle, but they haven’t. It’s dangerous and they’re just ignoring that.” George couldn’t hide the disappointment, the pain, in his voice. He also, unfortunately, couldn’t help the tears brimming in his eyes — he just hoped that he could hold them in long enough that he wouldn’t be caught on camera crying like a baby.
He pushed past a few people in the crowds, putting on a brave face as he bumped into a few fans — who looked equally as , if not more, devastated as he was. He just wanted to get back to his hotel room and wallow in his self pity, maybe even get drunk in order to forget about the hell that today had been.
As soon as he was out of eyesight, the tears began. He couldn’t help it as he hiccuped and sobbed — glad that nobody could hear him as he walked all the way to his hotel room. He ignored the buzzing of the phone in his pocket as he wiped aggressively at his face.
He didn’t want to read the pity messages that his friends and family were sending him — about how he could do better next time, and that it had been entirely out of his control. He knew it was out of control, because the team didn’t give a fuck about him. And, that just made it worse.
They weren’t even trying, every time something was wrong with his car it took them weeks to fix it. He just kept going out of races, constantly, yet Toto was out there celebrating the podiums with Kimi. Maybe, it was time for him to retire.
It’s not like Mercedes would let him have his dream, he’d never get it if they didn’t want him to. They were the ones in control, not him, with one flick of a switch he could be out of the race in seconds.
Finally, he arrived at the hotel, his vision blurry from the onslaught of tears — as soon as he had started crying, he just couldn’t stop. It was like he had finally broken, everything he had been bottling up finally breaking free.
He pushed into his hotel room, knees hitting the floor as he sobbed violently. He didn’t stop it this time, just letting his emotions out for the first time in months. He was so, so god damn tired. And, his phone was still vibrating relentlessly — someone trying to phone him. Not that he cared who right now, he would much rather be alone.
After the vibrations didn’t give up, he finally pulled the phone out of his pocket, hitting answer without bothering to look at who it was — he didn’t care right now, either way he’d tell them to fuck off.
“What!? What the fuck do you want that you need to call me over and over again!?” He didn’t care that he was snapping, or being harsh, he just couldn’t control it anymore.
The other side was silent, all George could hear was his own heaving breaths and the racing of his heart in his ears. Everything was just too overwhelming right now, he really wanted to get black out drunk.
“Schat..” great, it was max. Of course it was, the man was probably going to tell George that he was being such a bad boyfriend for not being there at his podium, for not celebrating with him.
“What do you want max.” He could hear the dissatisfaction in his voice, the exhaustion — just the pure defeat caused max to go silent. George was getting bored of hearing nothing but the cheers in the background from max.
“Schat, where are you? Everyone has been talking about—”
“What? About the fact I’m not there to cheer you and Kimi on? I can’t do this today max, I really can’t. My team doesn’t care about me, I don’t know why it’s taken me so fucking long to realise, but they really don’t. And, I don’t think I can be there to celebrate with you, I’m sorry if that makes me a bad boyfriend. But I — I just can’t max.”
“Schat—” George ended the call before max could say anything more, he didn’t want to be berated right now, of course he was proud of max, but he was currently having his own breakdown.
He threw his phone onto the bed, running his hands through his hair. He didn’t know what to do with himself, it’s not like he had much — if any — Alcohol in the hotel room, but he didn’t really want to go to a club either.
That was unfortunately currently looking to be his only option, he’d just have to hope and pray they no other formula one drivers would be at the same club as him, he would much rather face pity from fans than the people that he races against.
After debating it for a good ten minutes, George left the hotel room — his phone completely switched off in his pocket, and his wallet and keys in hand. He decided to just enter the first club he came across, not caring what it was as long as he could get wasted.
As soon as he was let in, he headed straight for the bar — planning on buying the strongest drink he could find. Not that it would really matter as he is rather light weight anyway when it comes to alcohol.
Unfortunately for him, he wasn’t even two drinks down by the time he was found by another driver — or well, two drivers. He felt a tap on his shoulder, and was surprised to see Lando and Oscar behind him, both looking rather worried — George had no clue why, maybe it was due to the fact he was currently dancing with another man, the two of them practically grinding against each other.
“George, what the hell are you doing??” Lando hissed, but there was no anger in his tone, his eyebrows were instead creased with worry, he looked about ready to drag George away — who simply waved the other man off and made his way back to the bar.
The couple trailed behind him, evidently being his watch dogs for the evening — he wouldn’t be surprised if max had sent them so he could party. He ordered three drinks, planning to offer the other two to Lando and Oscar — however he was quickly refused. Shocker, Lando wasn’t being his usual chaotic self for once.
“Why exactly are you two here..?” His words were slurred from the extent of alcohol he had consumed, making him feel a little sick already. He knew he shouldn’t have drunk as much as he did, but right now he really didn’t care.
“Because you’re out here getting absolutely wasted? That isn’t like you..” George rolled his eyes, shoving past both Lando and Oscar, hoping to find the man he had been dancing with earlier — he didn’t expect to be suddenly grabbed by the bicep and pulled out of the club.
How rude.
He allowed himself to be pulled towards a car, before he was pushed into the passenger seat — Oscar and Lando getting into the back. He didn’t pay any attention to the driver, his head coming to lie against the window instead. God, he felt like he was going to vomit everywhere.
“Schat.” He frowned at the pet name, the driver also had a very sexy Dutch accent, one that was actually better than Max’s maybe he should date this random man instead.
“I’m not sure if I should be offended or not?” The Dutch man chuckled softly, George having evidently said all of that out loud. Well, at least the man knew that George thought his voice was sexy I guess. But, he had no idea why this random Uber driver was using pet names on him — it’s a little weird.
“Schat, can you look at me?” George just frowned again, why did this strange Dutch man want him to look at him? Was he that attractive that George would just fall to his knees and swoon after one glance?
“God, baby, you are wasted.” Baby. George didn’t like being called that by anyone other than max, this stranger had no right to call him such an intimate name. Finally, he decided to cast his eyes towards the Uber driver — maybe if he was hot enough, he would let him off from this bizarre behaviour.
Oh.
“Oh.”
“Yes, oh, you silly man.” His ‘Uber driver’ was in fact his boyfriend Max Verstappen — he was a little confused by that, why was Max here instead of partying? He’d won a podium position after all, he should be celebrating with his team, but picking his boyfriend up from a random club.
“What are you doing here.. shouldn’t you be celebrating your podium win?” George couldn’t help the pout that graced his lips, his eyes following Max’s thumb as it came to softly pet at his expression — his cheeks flushing slightly at the action.
“I didn’t want to celebrate it without you my love, and clearly you’re having a hell of a day. Everyone has been very worried about you, they’ve been saying you were crying during your interviews?”
“I wasn’t..” George felt a little embarrassed that his emotions had not been as hidden as he had previously perceived them to be.
“You know, you’re so pretty when you cry baby.” George look max in he eye, the loving look there making heat pool in his gut.
“Ew, can the two of you get a room!?” Lando fake gagged, pretending to put a finger down his throat as he observed his two friends practically eye fuck right in front of him.
Oscar hit him softly on the shoulder, Lando was being rather over dramatic after all — they weren’t that bad, plus George deserved the compliments with how bad his day was clearly going.
“Shut up Lando. Now, what were you saying about me looking pretty when I cry?” George batted his eyelashes at max, trying to gain more compliments from the man beside him.
Max chuckled softly, taking his eyes off of the road for a moment to observe his boyfriend — his cheeks were tearstained from the earlier crying fest, and his eyes were glassy from the alcohol in his system.
“You are the most beautiful man I have ever met, you know you could take up a career in modelling if you wanted to?” He grinned widely at the bashful expression his words brought to George’s face.
“Shut up, you know flattery will get you everywhere.” He practically purred, which made Lando make loud gagging noises in the back seat again.
“You two need to stop being all flirty, it’s gross I don’t want to witness that.”
George just glared at Lando, rolling his eyes, before going back to looking at max. His expression softening once more.
Eventually, they arrived at the hotel — Oscar and a Lando apparently in the same one as the two of them. Lando and Max helped George up the stairs — the man much too unstable on his own too legs to do it himself — whilst Oscar trailer behind the trio, just hovering slightly out of worry.
“Thank you Lando,” max nodded, taking all of George’s weight to dry and pull him into the small hotel room. George waved to the couple as the door slowly shut behind him and max.
“I still don’t get why you aren’t out celebrating.”
“Because you’re here, having a breakdown, and I don’t like that.”
“Oh.” George shrugged out of Max’s hold, making his way over to their suitcases — both of them stacked together, as they had already packed to leave in the morning.
Instead of going for his own clothes, he went through Max’s suitcase, pulling out a pair of boxers and a RedBull shirt. Max watched him with slightly hungry eyes, loving how his boyfriend looked in his clothes, it made him feel extra possessive.
“Wearing RedBull now are we?” He moved closer, his arms coming to wrap around George’s waist, his mouth coming the the man’s neck — placing soft, open mouthed, kisses there.
“You’re such a freak, I hope you know that.” George rolled his eyes, taking the clothes with him into the bathroom — he wanted to clean the dirtiness of the club from his skin before he got into bed.
“Don’t act like you don’t like it.” Max called out, getting dressed into just a pair of clean boxers, climbing into bed whilst he waited for his partner. George was probably going to take a while, he loved to have long showers after all.
Max was drifting off by the time George finally came back out, moving to give the younger man space in the bed beside him, his arm instantly coming to wrap around George’s waist.
“You smell nice baby.” Max pulled George down against his chest, kissing the crown of his head as he rubbed his thumb up and down George’s hip. The two of them just lied there for a moment, not speaking, just relaxing.
“So, what happened today? Hm?” Max continued to place soft kisses to George’s hair, waiting for a response from his partner. He wasn’t too forceful, not wanting to push George to speak.
“I crashed out of the race, that’s what.”
“Yes, well I know that Schat, but you didn’t get this worked up last time, so why now?”
“It was because my battery ran out, my car is fucked and they’re doing nothing to stop it. They’re actively sabotaging me.” George turned onto his belly to look at max, who cupped George’s Jaw, soothing him softly.
“I’ve always hated Toto, he’s a piece of shit.”
“They want Kimi to win, so they can claim that they have had the youngest world champion ever, and they’re literally sabotaging me so o have no chance to go against him.”
“I know, would you like me to speak to him?” George gnawed on his bottom lip, unsure of what to do, maybe Toto deserved to be yelled at — especially by the one driver he loves most of all.
“Yeah, could you? It probably wouldn’t make much difference, but I guess it’d be better to try get him to see what he’s doing.” Sighing softly, George leant further into Max’s touch, needing any form of comfort at this period of time.
“Of course I can baby. He deserves to be yelled at for once in his life, he’s an asshole.” He placed soft kisses to George’s face, placing a small kiss to the man’s lips. George smiled softly at his boyfriend, laying down on top him, his face nuzzled against the man’s neck.
“You’re so clingy today.”
“Shush. I’m tired.” Max just smiled, his fingers coming up to run through George’s soft curls, he would do anything for this man — and couldn’t wait to berate Toto for how stupid he had been acting towards George.
It was unfair that the team weren’t even giving George a chance, especially when they knew just how good of a driver George is.
————————————————————
The next morning, Max woke up first. The older man observed his boyfriend, watching the way the sun shone through the curtains straight across George’s face — it made him look almost heavenly.
Max didn’t want to wake the man, he looked so peaceful, instead he moved George’s hair from his eyes — just smiling softly at how calm George was in the mornings. Unfortunately, the man began to stir, squinting up at max.
“Mh. Morning.” His voice was raspy, deep from exhaustion, it made max even more attracted to him than he previously had been.
“Morning schat..” George glanced up at max, already hearing the deep tone to his voice — he grinned, he loved witnessing just how in love his boyfriend seemed to be with him.
“We don’t have anything to do today, do we?” George had a cheeky glint to his eyes, which max knew meant he wanted to get up to something. He wasn’t sure as to what yet.
“Not till this afternoon, I am going to speak to Toto like I said I would.”
“Mh. I’m going for lunch with Alex and Lewis, they kept texting me all worried last night.”
Max leant forward, kissing George on the lips — George practically climbing into his lap to deepen the kiss. Max laughed softly, moving his hands to George’s ass so they could kiss deeper.
George moaned slightly into Max’s mouth as the older man broke the kiss and began to trail his lips down George’s jaw and neck instead.
“Max…”
“Yes Baby?” Max didn’t stop his movements, biting down on George’s neck in order to leave hickeys — he loved being able to show people that George was his. Leaving his mark on the younger man, the ones that George always refused to hide.
“Can we.. can you..” max snorted softly, loving the way that George stumbled over his words, probably both due to him being half asleep and quickly becoming desperate for more from his boyfriend.
“What would you like doll?” George bit down on his bottom lip, grinding down slightly against Max’s lap.
“You.”
“Mhm?”
“In me..”
“Oh, you’re extra desperate this morning aren’t you?”
“Shut up.”
Max smirked, kissing George on the lips, his hand moving to George’s thighs in order to flip them over — George let out a soft squeal when he was suddenly turned onto his back, his legs wrapping around Max’s waist.
“God, that’s so hot, no matter how many times you do it..”
“Oh I know.” Max slowly pulled George’s boxers down, his thumbs coming to the waistband of George’s pants in order to do so. George watched him, chewing on his bottom lip, anticipating what was soon to come.
“You’re so patient, aren’t you doll.” Max smiled at his boyfriend, deciding to take it as slow as possible, just in order to work him up.
“Max… p—please..” George whines, pulling max closer in order to kiss him on the lips once more. Max finally pulled his boxers down, then took his own off too. George, again, just watched him.
“You’re so patient aren’t you love?” Max moved his hands to George’s hips, stroking his thumb up and down. George had been patient enough, so he slowly moved his hand towards George’s hole, keeping their eyes locked as he did so, not removing his concentration.
He hadn’t expected just how loose George already was, though it shouldn’t really be that surprising when they had been having sex a lot more often these days..
“You’re so prepared already love, want me inside of you yet?”
“Hurry up, yes I need you in me!” George whined, bratty as ever in the mornings. Max loved it, loved how vocal George could be for him.
The two of them lied on the bed together, sprawled out with their bodies drenched in sweat. They should probably clean up, but George looked much too blissed out to even move, so max just carded a finger through his hair instead.
“Shower?”
“..hm?”
“Should probably shower schat, we’re both .. dirty.”
“..’kay.” Max rolled his eyes when he realised that George would not be moving any time soon, so he decided to do it himself — he picked the man up, his arms hooked under his thighs, and carried him off to the bathroom. The two of them slowly cleaning themselves — George still mostly half asleep.
“I need to head off for my meeting with Toto, I’ll be back later though so we can go to the airport together, okay?”
“Yeah, sounds good. I won’t be out for long anyway, so I’ll probably be back before you are.” Max wrapped his arms around George’s waist, as the taller man leant down to place a soft kiss to his lips.
After a few more shared kisses, max finally pulled away, smiling softly before finally leaving the hotel room. He was going to tear Toto Wolff to shreds, that idiot didn’t know what was coming for him.
Whilst max did that, George went out for lunch with Lewis and Alex — still adorned in Max’s clothes. He didn’t really care if people got photos and made comments about it, he and max were planning on going public soon enough anyway.
“George! Hey.” Alex waved his childhood friend over, sharing a knowing look with Lewis as they noticed the fact that George was wearing Max’s shirt — and probably his sweatpants too. Sitting down, George grabbed the glass of water that had been placed in front of his seat, sipping on it slowly.
“So did you and max have a good morning?” Lewis piped up, causing George to choke on his drink — coughing and spluttering, the two man opposite him laughing softly.
“You bastard you can’t just—”
“We can tell mate, you have that post sex aura to you.” Alex giggled, he always enjoyed bullying his best friend — it was funny to see just how red the man’s cheeks would get.
“Shut up, both of you.” George crossed his arms, feeling the most embarrassed he had ever felt in his entire life — he hated how easy it was for the two in front of him to make fun of him. It was annoying how well they both knew him.
“How come did didn’t tag along? He usually does.”
“Oh, he’s gone to .. speak to Toto.”
“Hell yeah, someone needs to put that twat in his place.” Alex scoffed, he had never really liked Toto, especially not when he’d had to comfort George on some of the worst days of his life because the Austrian man was being so harsh to him.
“He’s always treated you like shit.” Lewis had always felt a little guilty for not saying anything about it when he had been George’s team mate, but he was glad that George had someone like max who is always there to support him.
“Max is going to obliterate him..”
“As he should, that man is the worst person in this goddamn sport.”
“Yeah, he is annoying.”
“Bet you’re mad you can’t see max yell at him. Would probably give you a right boner.” George went bright red, he could feel just how hot his neck and cheeks had gotten at Alex’s words.
“Shut up—! I wouldn’t you absolute weirdo.” George scoffed, crossing his arms, trying to ignore just how hot and bothered he felt toward the idea of watching max yell at his boss.
“You know I’m right.”
“Still.. shut up.”
George spent the rest of his morning yapping with the two of them — he always loved these lunch meetings that they had agreed to, it always made him feel much better. Plus, it meant that he wasn’t skipping out on meals either..