ONE

"I'm not gay but if I was, I'd go for Charles."

Orion Hamilton spoke casually as he sat beside his friend as he drove to a small little cafe that they liked to drink at when they couldn't sleep, which was most nights.

"That's totally not disgusting."

Hala Alasid released a small gag at the mere thought of her friend dating the person who was practically her brother. She didn't want to picture that.

"Come on, give me a break! Just because he's your team mate and you've got a super close relationship, it does not mean that I'm gonna ignore how fine that dude is!" Orion let a grin light up his face, knowing that everytime they had this conversation that she would always react the same.

It was their thing.

The pair had raced together for a little over eight years now so they had bonded to the point where he saw himself as the annoying older brother or favorite cousin type.

Sometimes though, he could tell that Hala was seriously debating why she had ever bothered being his friend. Sometimes she questioned his sanity.

"You do your thing, I'm just gonna sit here and mind my own business and dissociate until we reach the café." Hala let a small chuckle leave her lips, with the Egyptian woman just staring out in to the night, soon losing track of time.

The Hamilton man blabbed on, talking and talking until they reached the café because whilst knowing that she wasn't listening to the actual words that he was saying, he knew that the mere sound of him talking was actually making her a little bit more sleepy than before.

They both struggled a lot with sleeping, Orion was always having a very broken up sleep, only forty five minutes to an hour at a time, whereas Hala just couldn't sleep at all.

"Come on girl, we're here." Orion nudged her lightly, clicking his fingers in front of her face exactly three times, snapping her out of her trance.

"You're ordering a hot chocolate? What happened to Hala 'I only drink coffee' Alasid?"

"I don't only drink coffee, I have an entire cupboard full of different herbal teas, I only drink coffee when I'm with you, because you talk so much that I need the energy."

"You love it when I talk."

"Well I don't know, I've never experienced you not talking." The Alasid woman teasingly rolled the dark of her eyes, seeing the black man in front of her faking a scoff which made a chuckle leave her lips.

"Rude."

Orion smirked as he watched his friend, his dark eyes taking notice of how tired she looked, which was a lot more than usual. She didn't look cold, no in fact she looked very warm wearing a long sleeved shirt which was a Stark contrast to him and his multiple layers of clothing, since he was always cold.

He blamed it on the fact that he was living in Monaco and not a country which was often very warm, like Jamaica.

Monaco was nice, of course, it was absolutely stunning, but it still wasn't perfect. It rained a lot, and sometimes was very cold, and Orion was jealous that he didn't live somewhere in the Carribean.

Maybe he would move there when he retired.

"What's your thoughts on the lineup this year? I know that you were happy about a few changes." The American found himself asking his friend, who was known to be a rising star in the world of Formula One.

She entered Formula One when she had just turned eighteen and had spent three years with a very low team before working her way to better teams until two years ago when she finally got a seat that was worthy of contending for a world championship, a seat at the iconic team, Ferrari.

She had been supposed to go to Red Bull, but that was scrapped when she had cut off one of their drivers on track and made them lose out on the constructors championship.

"Well Aston Martin is no longer owned by the Stroll family so that's definitely gonna be different, I can't blame Lance for wanting to step back and have a career in tennis. If I didn't have racing, I don't know what I'd have, so it's nice that he's got the fall back." Hala spoke as she held her cup of hot chocolate, remembering all of the changes this season in comparison to last season.

"Hulkenberg, Bottas and Perez retired so some drivers got second chances that they deserved, I'll miss cutting Perez off though, I had way too much fun doing that."

"And Mclaren?"

"What about Mclaren?"

"You think that I don't know what you did for Oscar?" Orion laughed, wrinkles forming around his dark eyes as a smile began to form. "You recommended Oscar for the Mclaren seat, that was nice of you."

"Well Osc is a nice guy and a really good driver, he deserved a chance to race." The Ferrari driver smiled as she thought of her Australian friend, happy that her suggestion was listened to which allowed him to get the seat that had become empty due to Carlos moving to Audi.

"Now let's get to the good stuff before we head back." The Hamilton man grinned as he slapped his hands together in excitement.

"If you pay me five hundred thousand dollars, I will spend my entire season getting in Max's way so that you can get your championship."

"Deal."

"Really? Damn, I didn't think that would work."

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"Turn One!"

A loud female voice shouted as she walked up to the Ferrari garage where her best friend was sat patiently waiting for the track to be cleared so that she could go back out.

"How did I manage to crash out at Turn One!"

"By not turning your steering wheel?"

"You're not helping."

Najah Eysy shot a fake glare towards her best friend since the Egyptian was sporting a very cocky grin, whereas all Najah was nursing was a headache.

Not from the crash, but from the abuse that her team principal had just verbally thrown at her, criticising her even though it had not been her fault, her car's steering and brakes didn't work.

Which, obviously was not needed in a car.

"It's not your fault, Haas created a shit car and thought that you wouldn't notice... but guess what? You noticed." Hala gave her best friend a small hug, since she could tell that the Jordanian girl was struggling with being back in Formula One.

She wouldn't be struggling if she had a decent car, but she just had to put up with it.

"I just want to prove that I deserved my second chance, but what sort of second chance is this?" Najah released a sigh in defeat, sitting on top of a stack of tyres.

"You'll be great! One crash doesn't mean anything, you're a great driver and everybody knows it." Hala spoke in confidence, giving some very much needed reassurance to her best friend.

Najah had lost her seat at AlphaTauri when the team had decided to replace her with Liam Lawson, which caused a lot of drama for the pair... because they had been dating at the time.

It had caused them to break up and distance from one another, so now it was painful to see that they were pretty much strangers.

"You're lucky that Fred managed to poach Newey from Red Bull this season, you'll have the much better car."

"I hope so, I'm sick of them being so far ahead." Hala released a small groan, remembering how Max Verstappen was always over twenty seconds ahead of her in the previous season.

She liked Max but he was her biggest competitor and what was blocking her to getting a championship, so she was really hoping for a change to come.

All she had dreamt about since she was a child was winning a championship title in Formula One, and now that she had a good car, good boss and a great team mate, she was the closest to that dream that she had ever been.

"Hala! Track's clear, let's go!"

Charles Leclerc shouted as he ran towards his car, seeing his team mate nodding her head and pulling her fireproofs back up.

"Do me proud, okay?" Najah let a small grin light up her face, her brown hair slightly blowing in the wind, dark eyes sparkling with pride as she stared at her best friend.

"I'll do my best." Hala chuckled, hugging her best friend who would not be able to restart the race due to the damage of her car.

"I know you will." The Eysy woman blew a kiss to the Ferrari driver, just as she ran towards her car, pretending to catch the kiss with a smile upon her face.

"Kick ass, Alasid!"

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"I'm sorry, Hala, I didn't want to."

Charles Leclerc spoke as he apologised to his team mate, since he had been ordered to overtake his team mate even though she had the better pace, meaning that she had just missed out on a podium.

The Leclerc man attempted to give his friend a hug but found that she just shook her head from side to side, sadness leaving her body.

"I know, it just sucks because I was so close, you know?"

Hala Alasid released a groan, running her left hand over her face in exasperation, sweat beading on the tanned skin upon her forehead, some of her curly brown hair sticking to it.

The Monégasque boy took a seat beside her in an attempt to offer comfort and his apologies, having refused over the radio, until he was told that he had to.

The order didn't come from Fred either, who was also very confused as to why it had happened in the first place.

"I know, look is there any way I can make it up to you? I don't like it when you're mad at me." Charles spoke with guilt flooding him, with it evident all over his face.

"I'm not mad at you, Habibi." Hala lightly patted the boy on his shoulder, a deep sigh leaving her body. "I'm mad at whoever ordered it, and disappointed that they thought I needed to be overtaken."

She had been so close to opening her season with a third place podium, but instead she settled for fourth, having to watch as her team mate celebrated on the podium instead.

She was happy for him, of course she was, but it could've and should've been her, and yet it wasn't.

"Can I still make it up to you? I don't like it when you're sad, either." The Leclerc boy furrowed his eyebrows together in concern for his friend and team mate, before it eased a little bit as she released a small chuckle.

"You can buy me some dinner, I'm starving."

"I'll buy you a whole banquet if it means that you're not sad."

"Don't say that, otherwise I'll be deliberately sad."

____________________________________________________

"I came to cheer you up since we both had disappointing races an- oh! Charles is here!"

Najah Eysy stood in the doorway of her best friends hotel, her dark eyes wide and full of surprise, her mouth slightly dropped open since she hadn't expected the other Ferrari driver to be here.

"I took her out to dinner to make up for the team orders being stupid."

Charles Leclerc smiled as he waved towards his fellow Formula One driver, who lightly waved her hand back even though it was holding a brown paper bag.

"That's great, well I brought some snacks for a movie night, if you don't like any then I can go and grab some more." Najah explained as she walked further in to the hotel room, placing the brown paper bag down in front of the team mates.

"Are they Halal snacks?" Charles questioned with intrigue, since he knew that both of the women in the room with him were both Muslims.

"They are."

"I'll be okay with these. I'll try whatever snacks that you both like." The Monégasque grinned as he heard the two women release synchronised squeals of happiness.

He guessed that they weren't used to people openly accepting and trying their favorite snacks and food.

To his knowledge, only four or five drivers on the Formula One grid openly tried Halal food when with the girls, which was a low number so he wanted to help raise that number.

He knew that Orion Hamilton would try whatever the girls had, even if he had wanted to eat Pork, he would always eat something different when with the girls, he would avoid alcohol, he would always eat Halal food when with the girls, since he wanted them to feel at home.

Mayra Banegas did it too, she didn't drink alcohol anyway, but she would try any food and drink that they would have, since the two women would often bring snacks and homemade food with them on media days and qualifying.

Najah's team mate at Haas, Kevin Magnussen did it. He would drink alcohol and a lot of it, but he would always try Halal food.

The only other people who he knew would try Halal food was the duo at Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton and Mick Schumacher.

Charles wanted to try whatever the girls liked to eat that was Halal, to make them feel like they weren't alone, that they were accepted, plus he figured that the food would be really nice.

"Okay, well help yourself, Habibi! Najah, grab a blanket! I'll put on the movie!" Hala grinned, rushing forwards to grab the television remote so they could watch a movie.

"Which movie?"

"Najah loves Cairo Time!"

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A/N

Introduction chapter here we go,

This is an idea I had help with, so thanks to one of my besties Mariam, danielricsupermercy

What do you think?

Lando appears later, as I'm showing friendships AND this is a mix of multiple seasons, so some things from this season are in it, last season and others so please don't be alarmed by the mixing of stuff!

Anyway, I hope that you all enjoy this Introduction chapter and I'll see you all soon for the next one,

I'm so proud of all of you, my loves

Love you all,

-RUBY 🇵🇸🇨🇩🇸🇩