TWO

"Charlie, why do you look so skinny? There's nothing on you, kid."

Sakura Aoki questioned as she came face to face with the young Ferrari Formula One driver that was Charles Leclerc.

"I haven't eaten much today." Charles smiled at the team principal of AlphaTauri, seeing her immediately furrowing her eyebrows together at the words that had left his lips.

"You're my guest now, come with me." Sakura took a gentle and mothering hold on to the arm of the Monégasque, carefully pulling him in to her garage, despite the glances that she was recieving.

"All of you get back to work. I'm just feeding a stray."

Charles released a deep sigh as the Aoki woman scolded her staff, before he was brought over to where there was a lot of food in front of his eyes.

"Where does all of this food come from?" Charles gasped, having not expected to see so much.

"Some of the food is what I have made, the rest is Red Bull." Sakura smiled, whilst holding a plate in one of her hands and using the other to place different food items on to the plate so that she could give it to the boy.

"Can I try what you've made? I always like your cooking." Charles smiled sheepishly at the woman, since he did not want to seem like he was begging for food.

He had been avoiding the Ferrari garage due to the fact that he had been scolded for messing up in qualifying.

He knew that Sakura wouldn't judge him or scold him.

"Of course you can, Charlie." Sakura smiled reassuringly at the boy, very well aware why he had not been in Ferrari.

She had walked past the garage when she had heard the team principal yelling at the Leclerc boy, and whilst she knew that she couldn't walk in and defend him, she knew that he didn't deserve being yelled at like he was.

It had been a very small fault, but in Ferrari's eyes, it had been almost career ending.

The team principal of AlphaTauri knew that he would be walking around the paddock like a lost puppy to avoid the team that he was driving for, and vowed to take him in to make sure that he wasn't on his own.

"Do you think that I can hide here for a while? If I'm allowed to, obviously. I-I just don't want to go back to Ferrari just yet." Charles chewed on his bottom lip as he hoped that he would be allowed to hide in the woman's garage, despite the fact that he was a rival.

"Pierre's trailer is open for you. If Ferrari look for you, I'll say that you went to see your brother." Sakura gently placed one of her hands on to the cheek of the Leclerc boy, seeing the sadness in his face.

Charles Leclerc gleefully accepted the hug that the Japanese woman was giving him, wrapping his arms around her waist.

"Thank you." The Monégasque spoke quietly, before he felt the softest of kisses to the top of his head.

"I'll bring some more food for you later, go, hide and play on Pierre's PlayStation if you need to." Sakura smiled before quickly ruffling his hair, watching as he ran to enter the garage of one of her drivers.

Sakura sadly shook her head from side to side as she began to walk to meet the boss of the Red Bull team, Christian Horner, knowing that the young boy did not deserve the treatment that he was recieving.

"Have you seen Charles?"

Mattia Binotto spoke to the team boss of AlphaTauri as she was walking out of her garage, since he knew that she was close with the boy that was driving for his team.

"No. But he's probably visiting his brother, so I'm sure that he'll be back soon, don't worry." Sakura gave a false smile to the Ferrari boss, seeing him nod his head up and down a couple of times.

"Thank you for your help."

"Don't mention it."

____________________________________________________

"Hey, Sak."

Daniel Ricciardo grinned as he quickened his pace of walking so that he could walk alongside the woman that he called his friend.

"Hey Danny, how's life treating you?" Sakura gave the Australian a smirk, seeing how he was trying not to laugh at her choice of words.

"Oh, you know, absolutely great. I can't wait to win a championship in my Mclaren." Daniel laughed, seeing the Aoki woman laughing along with him.

"Get your ass back to Red Bull, I can take Christians job and get you a championship." Sakura winked, hearing his chuckle leaving his throat.

"You wouldn't leave Yuki and Pierre and you know it." Daniel shook his head from side to side, knowing just how loyal to her boys she was.

"I can easily take charge of two teams, everybody knows that I'm practically doing that already." Sakura laughed, as she smiled upon noticing that the Ricciardo man was walking with her in to her garage without realising it.

As she walked in to her office, she noticed how the Australian halted abruptly in his steps, his eyes widening to the size of saucers.

"I'm in the wrong garage." Daniel spoke as his brain caught up to his feet, having realised that he had absentmindedly walked in to the AlphaTauri garage.

"Or are you in the right garage?" Sakura winked playfully at him, seeing his grin growing once more.

"Nice try Sak, but I can't be in here." Daniel smiled, knowing that his friend was trying to tempt him back to the world of Red Bull Racing.

"Course you can."

"Sakura, we need to discuss our-"

Christian Horner stopped in his tracks as he noticed the Ricciardo man standing in the middle of the garage, his eyes wide in surprise.

"I-I- hi Christian." Daniel stuttered out in surprise, wondering how he was going to get himself out of trouble for being in a different teams garage.

"Hello. Why are you in here?" Christian gave the man a fake smile, because whilst he liked the man, he was not one of their drivers anymore.

"He came to check on me." Sakura smiled at her boss in confidence, knowing that he was suspicious of having the Mclaren driver in the garage.

"He did?"

"Yeah, I mentioned how I wasn't feeling great, so he came to check on me and to see how I was." Sakura noticed the relieved look that she was recieving from the Australian since she was clearly lying, and gave him a soft smile.

She always had been a good liar.

"And how are you feeling now?" Christian questioned in concern, since he knew that she did not often feel unwell.

"Much better." Sakura, who was stood in her office doorway, subtly reached for her bottle of water that was laying on her desk and held it in front of her. "The bottle of water that he gave me helped a lot."

"Oh, that's good. Thank you Daniel. It's good to see you, and Sakura, we'll discuss what we need to talk about later on, once you are feeling better." Christian nodded to the two of them, before walking out of the garage, not noticing the grins that the two others were sharing.

Daniel grinned, whispering as he over-exaggerated his mouth movement's so that she could understand what he was saying.

"You. Are. Amazing."

____________________________________________________

"Hello Sakura."

Toto Wolff smiled at the Japanese woman that he knew to be the team boss of Red Bull's sister team.

He noticed how the woman was carrying a stack of heavy folders in her arms, whilst somehow also carrying her phone, a water bottle, her bag and some food.

"Ah, hello Toto." Sakura Aoki smiled politely at the Mercedes team principal, coming to a halt in her steps despite the fact that she was needed in the Red Bull garage.

"How are your boys doing?" Toto smiled, knowing that she called her drivers her boys, as if they were her sons.

He swore that both Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly saw her as their mother.

"They are doing very well, how are Lewis and Valterri doing? Not getting in to any trouble, I hope?" Sakura smiled at the man, not bothered by the fact that she would be late to the meeting.

She liked talking to Toto.

"No no, they are doing perfectly fine, though they do get in trouble with you a lot, don't they?" Toto chuckled, watching as the woman laughed, her brown eyes sparkling in the sunlight as she did.

"Of course they do, they get in the way of my boys getting wins." Sakura smiled, before she was forced to push her gaze to the ground in order to hide the slight blush that had suddenly appeared on her cheeks.

"But so do about twelve other drivers." Toto laughed, knowing that she would always make up excuses knowing that they weren't valid ones.

"Yeah, well that's not the point." Sakura shook her head from side to side as she laughed, before she chewed on her bottom lip as a feeling invaded her body.

She was getting butterflies around Toto.

Oh no.

____________________________________________________

A/N

She'll deny feelings for a while, but we shall see how that plays out.

What do you think?

Please do check out all of my other books because I feel like they deserve some love and some comments.

Also please check out my meet my ocs books, CALMNESS OF THE MIND has my current ocs, whereas CALM BEFORE THE STORM, has my ocs for the books I have set for 2023 in, so you can see what books I will be releasing and who the characters are

Anyway, I hope that you all enjoy this 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