Work Text:
Exhaustion. That’s all that George felt, he hadn’t slept in the last three days — putting his focus towards his race data; towards improving his performance.
He knew that it was stupid to force himself to stay away for so long — surviving mainly off of the endless RedBulls that Max kept stored in their fridge — but, he couldn’t disappoint the team. Couldn’t disappoint Toto.
"Baby?" The front door of their apartment swung open, Max had been away for the past few days dealing with things for RedBull — attending meetings, galas, among whatever other things the team had wanted him to so. Therefore, he hadn't seen the state that George had pushed himself to.
He was used to seeing George sleep deprived after a bad race weekend, maybe losing a few hours of sleep — but, he had never witnessed the other man actively stopping himself from sleeping. Which is what he had been doing the past few days.
"Schat? You in the living room?" Max left his suitcase by the front door, frowning softly at the lack of response from his boyfriend. Usually, George would be ushering him into the house — urging him to drink some tea, have something to eat. But, today, George was nowhere to be seen.
Again, Max was met with silence, he felt a little unsettled — he was as used to at least some noise, such as the cats running around, but even they seemed to be silent. Was something wrong? Was that why the cats weren't even coming to greet him.
Slowly Max made his way through the apartment, wondering where George had gotten to — maybe he was locked away in his (Max's) office with the cats, getting some work done. Or, maybe he was tracking his speed on the simulator that they shared.
"Baby, you in here?" Max carefully pushes the door to his office open, peeking his head in — the room was dark, apart from a soft glow coming from a laptop screen. There, on the plush black sofa, George was sat hunched over typing on his laptop.
He looked a mess, his hair was drooping forwards into his eyes — clearly in dire need of a haircut — and he had large bags under his eyes. He looked like he hadn't slept in a week, Max hadn't even been gone that long yet George looked like he had taken a horrific hit to his overall health.
"Schat. What the fuck?" Max's jaw practically dropped, he had never seen George this bad before — he had always been around to stop it getting this bad. But, now that he had been gone, George had just not cared. He hadn't looked like he had showered in days, something he would probably feel disgusted by when he was more logical.
George glanced up from his laptop, a soft frown gracing his lips — Max wasn't meant to be home yet.. or was he? George couldn't quite remember his schedule anymore, though he knew that he had meant to go and pick Max up from the airport..
"Max?" His voice came out hoarse, most probably due to a lack of use; it just made Max cringe harder — the sight of his partner looking the way he did right now made his heart clench.
"Baby.." stepping closer, Max cupped George's cheek, watching the way the other man nervously chewed on his bottom lip — his eyes casting back towards the laptop screen, as if what he was currently doing was more important. Max sighed softly, rubbing his thumbs against George’s cheek bones, George’s face looked gaunter than Max had previously remembered. Clearly, he hadn’t been eating.
“I didn’t realise you would be home yet.. I would have come and picked you up from the airport.” George frowned softly, his eyebrows furrowing as he flicked his focus between Max and his laptop — what the fuck was so important that it had left George looking like a shell of himself?? Max wouldn’t be surprised at all if it had something to do with Toto Wolff.
“Schat. What is so important on that laptop that you seem to have to look at it every five seconds. Hm?” Max slammed the lid of the laptop shut, ignoring George’s whiny protests as the device was turned off — a petulant pout gracing his lips as Max removed the thing he had been obsessing for so long from him.
“I was doing work..”
“For what baby? What work?” George just pouted again, his tongue jutting out to wet his chapped lips as he attempted to conjure up a response to Max’s question that wouldn’t potentially upset the other man.
“It was just my race data.. I just— Toto thinks I can do better, and I want to prove that I can so.. I’ve been going over it,” George didn’t look Max in the eye, ashamed over just how obsessive he had become towards the race data; proving Toto that he could be his first choice instead of Kimi.
“Schat, you need rest and food. I don’t care what that idiot man wants from you. I refuse to let you neglect yourself any longer.” Max sighed, moving to kneel in front of George, just wanting to hold his partner tight in his grasp. He planned to not let the younger man leave their bed for the next coming days.
“No, no I need to make sure that my race stats are perfect. I can’t lose to Kimi again, otherwise I will be sidelined as the second driver!”
“Baby. They already sideline you. No matter how much you beg, plead, that man will not care for you. He is a manipulative asshole.”
“No, you don’t understand.. he does care about me.. I’m simply just not doing good enough!” Max leant his head against George’s knees, he knew trying to sort through George’s messed up thoughts while he was this sleep deprived was pointless — instead, he would have to wait until the other man was well rested before he could properly have this conversation with him.
“I’m going to make you some soup, and run you a bath.” Max didn’t wait for a response, heading straight to the bathroom — he ran the bath, filling it all the way up with scorching water, that way once he had finished making the soup it would be lukewarm.
The soup wouldn’t take him long anyway, all he had to do was stick in the microwave — no, the toughest thing would be getting his sleep deprived boyfriend into the bath tub. Patiently, he waited for the microwave to beep, pulling the hot bowl out and carrying it into the bathroom, carefully putting it on the counter.
A soft sigh left his lips, he would now have to attempt to drag his boyfriend into the bathroom — he knew that it would probably take a few attempts, especially with how attached George had seemed to that computer not too long ago. Though, he became more confident when he stepped into his office once more.
“Schat, the bath is ready for you.” Max kept his voice soft, not wanting to irritate George — he already knew the other man was bound to have a pounding headache, and he did not wish to make his condition worse. Approaching his boyfriend, Max wrapped his arms around his waist, the man looked to be drifting off already.
“Mmh..” George whined softly, just slumping against Max — his previous focus on his computer torn as he tried to get as close as possible to his boyfriend. Carefully, Max hooked his arms under George’s thighs, lifting him up and carrying him to the bathroom.
It was a little bit of effort trying to get the other man undressed, seeing as George was being uncooperative, just remaining against Max — not even attempting to be helpful. Not that Max cared, he loved to look after his boyfriend, even if he could be a little complicated sometimes.
“Baby, I’m putting you in the bath now.” Max slowly lowered George into the tub, smiling softly at the way the younger man clung to his neck — clearly not wanting to let go just yet. It was cute. Max sighed, deciding to take his clothes off and climb in behind George, pulling George against his chest.
“Mh.” An almost purr left George’s throat as he snuggled back against Max’s lap, his head leaning back against Max’s shoulder — his eyes shut, already drifting off against his boyfriend. Max was glad George was finally sleeping, his hand slowly slipped into George’s hair, tugging at the knots in his hair.
“I’m gonna wash your hair baby, okay?” Max didn’t get a proper verbal response from George just a soft shift of the taller man in his lap — Max moved his other hand to George’s hip, rubbing his thumb along his hip bone. He placed a soft kiss to the back of George’s head, before standing up to grab the shampoo and conditioner that always made George’s hair smell magnificent.
He manoeuvred with precision, trying to ensure that George wouldn’t fall back into the water — seeing as he looked close to being fast asleep, Max slipped back into the bathtub, his arm coming to George’s waist to pull him back up slightly.
Slowly, he poured shampoo over his hands, carefully wrapping his legs around George’s waist in order to keep him upright, kneading the shampoo into George’s scalp — another sort of soft purring noise escaped George’s throat, clearly he was enjoying Max’s fingers in his hair.
“That good Schat?”
“Mhm.” Max slowly massaged George’s scalp, kissing the back of his neck every so often — once the shampoo was significantly coating his hair, Max grabbed a small cup (he had no clue where it had come from but it was very helpful) and poured water over George’s head, washing out the shampoo.
“You still need to eat the soup baby..” Max began putting the conditioner onto the ends of George’s hair, scrunching it up before washing it out again — he cleaned his hands on a towel, and grabbed the bowl of soup, positioning George so that he could feed him the soup.
Parting his lips softly, George swallowed the soup, the liquid making warmth spread through his body — he leant a little bit forward, his head against Max’s shoulder. Max moved him off, trying to feed him more soup.
“Jus’ wanna go t’ bed.” Whining, George just continued to let Max feed him soup, his eyes drooping as he yawned — Max just watched him with a soft look a small smile gracing his lips as he finished feeding George the soup.
“Hm. We can get out now Schat, and you can go to bed. You need the sleep anyway.” Max stood up, pulling George up with him — picking the man up to carry him once more, grabbing a towel to dry him off, being slow and careful with the younger man.
“I’m going to put the bowl in the dishwasher, why don’t you go to our room and put some pyjamas on?” George paused, moving to brush his teeth before he left the bathroom, whilst Max pulled the bath plug; heading into the kitchen to dispose of the dirty bowl.
George leant against the sink, brushing his teeth slowly, his eyes closing slightly — a soft yawn was pulled from his lips and he finished brushing, wiping down his mouth and heading into the bedroom. He fished out a pair of boxers from his drawer, and pulled one of Max’s hoodies out of the wardrobe.
He lied down on the bed, curling up under the duvet, drifting off already — though, he knew he probably wouldn’t be able to fall asleep until Max was in the bed with him.
A while later, Max finally came back into the bedroom, putting on a clean pair of boxers and lying down beside George — his arm coming to wrap around George’s waist, George just responded by wrapping a leg around Max, his nose coming to nuzzle against Max’s neck.
“Go to sleep now baby. We aren’t leaving this bed until you have had several hours of sleep.” Max peppered soft kisses to George’s forehead, hoping it would lull the other man to sleep faster.
“Mmph. Shhh, ‘m gonn’ sleep.” Max chuckled softly, his thumb rubbing up and down George’s waist, whilst his other hand came to the back of George’s neck to play with the hair there.
“Mhm, I know you are Schat.” Max just grinned against George’s head, placing another kiss to his forehead — rolling his eyes at the whine it pulled from his lips, he loved how vocal he got when he was tired.
Luckily, it didn’t take long for George to drift off — soon enough, max following him. The two of them curled around each other, fast asleep. Neither of them planning to leave the bedroom for the next week straight.