written in 2020

MAX VERSTAPPEN

„So do you know anything about how your life is gonna look like after summer break with the virus being still all over?", Ashley asked, as she let herself fall on the sofa right next to me. She moved her head towards me so her beautiful black curls fell perfectly on her shoulders. She was just so beautiful, I couldn't even put into words how I loved her hair. Some say Daniel was a Player. Some say Daniel was a Flirter. Some say Daniel was still not over his breakup with Jemma and had just sex to feel something. Max wished non of this was true, but honestly he didn't know the real answer. Despite the fact he has known Daniel now for almost half a decade, he still haven't figured out Daniel and his relationship to girls. Still it seemed like that wasn't something of importance for his heart, because he fell for Daniel anyway. He didn't know when but someday he passed Daniel, greeted and hugged him and just knew he was desperately in love with one of his colleagues and closest friends.
„You are really not listening to me, do ya?", Daniel asked a little grumpy as he didn't get an answer from Max. Max shook his head and turned towards Daniel, who was sitting right next to him. Maybe a little too close, because his leg was pressed against Max's and with just shorts on he could feel the warm skin of the Australian, which definitely didn't help to concentrate more. His body gained his whole attention by trying not to do or say something stupid because Daniel was so close and still so beautiful.
„Sorry, I was thinking about the race!", he lied to Daniel as an excuse. The Australian rolled his eyes.
„What are you worrying about? You're starting from P2 and you gonna end on P2. It's no big magic happening on the track lately, at least not on the podium. It's as always: You get 18 points, I get zero. Perfect!"
„Don't say that. You don't always get zero points. I mean, yeah the last two races wasn't great but still you are in the top ten of the championship!"
„Yeah, I'm tenth. Just a matter of time until someone beats me, but let's not talk about that shit because I spend the whole day talking about f1. I looked for you because I wanted to talk about other things!", Daniel changed the subject and started to smile towards Max, as he always did so, when he didn't know what to say. Max smiled as well.
„Okay, gonna do that favor for you!"
„How cute!", Daniel laughed and leaned against Max so their shoulders brushed. They were sitting somewhere in the paddock, as they both got some free time left until they had to go back to the hotel. Daniel placed his head on Max's shoulder and started focusing on the yellow gravel on the ground.
„So what did you say before? I wasn't listening!", Max interrupted his silence, just so he didn't pay as much attention to his racing heart as he did now.
„I talked about Australia and said that you should come and visit me again. It honestly got boring during winter break!"
„Don't you have some friends to come over?"
„I do, but they bore me as well. I need some fresh blood in Perth and someone who's a dignified competitor when it comes to racing or tennis. They're all just idiots!", Daniel explained his problems, making him and Max laugh. Max knew that wasn't the truth but just something Daniel have always done. If you mean much to Daniel it always means he's gonna joke about you. It was just a habit of Daniel and Max got used to it. He did these things as well, even though he definitely does it more often since knowing Daniel.
„I promise you, next time I'm visiting again!"
„That's all I wanted to hear!", Daniel grinned and lift his head up from Max's shoulder.
„And what about today's evening? You're in for some Netflix?"
„You wanna watch Netflix with me?"
„Yeah. I mean, we're definitely not doing Netflix and chill, but we can watch people doing Netflix and chill!", a dirty smile crawled on Daniel's lips and made Max forgot his short-term heartbreak, as Daniel said no Netflix and chill for them.
„I'm in for some Netflix without chill!", he than answered.
„Great, so I'm gonna come over at nine, ten?"
„Nine should be fine!"
„Perfect. I'm looking forward, cause the evenings bore me as well, just so you know!"
„Everything bores you! It's just part of your character!", Max laughed.
„Might be true. Still you are my friend and friends should make each other feel good, so I hope we have some fun later on!"
I not only want to make you feel good, I want to make you feel perfect, Max thought to himself and got lost in the deep brown of Daniel's eyes.
They got interrupted by one of Daniel's mechanics, who needed Daniel to come back to the garage.
„Nine o'clock at your room!", Daniel said, as he stood up from the bench.
„I'll wait!"
—
It was half past eight as Max arrived at his hotel room, after a busy afternoon on the paddock with some solved problems on his cars, that kept him there. He couldn't wait for Daniel to come and he knew Daniel so well, that he knew the Australian was likely to come a little bit earlier than agreed. So he cleaned up his room as good as possible, even though he knew how messy Daniel was and that he didn't mind a untidy room, but anyway.
At quarter minus nine somebody knocked on the door and Max immediately knew it had to be Daniel. He opened the door and was greeted by a big smile and a Bag of crisps, which rustled.
„I drove past a servo!", he explained and than raised his second arm with even more crisps.
„You mean gas station!", Max corrected the Australian accent.
„It looked too tasty to just buy one!", he continued, without commenting Max's words. Max laughed and than stepped out of the doorframe so Daniel could come in.
„You look tired!", he said and pointed to Max's eyes. The younger man shook his head.
„I'm fine. It was just a little hectic in the end, nothing some crisps and a good movie can't make up."
„And a good chat with your lovely friend Dan, don't forget me please!"
„How could I?"
Danny laughed and than jumped on the bed, as Max was just about to close the door.
„Take off your shoes!", he warned Daniel.
„Make me!", the Australian laughed, which Max just commented by rolling his eyes. Daniel was sometimes sort of a bitch if it was about rules in households or even hotel rooms.
„Better if we don't start the evening with a discussion, mate!", he said, as he sat down next to Daniel. He opened one eye and squinted to Max, before he sighed.
„Just because I love you some much!", he said and than got up from the bed again to put his shoes in the right way.
I love you to, but not in the way you love me, Max thought to himself and couldn't help than to watch Daniel's arm muscles, as he took off his shoes.
„Now move over. I wanna lay down, I spend like the whole day running around."
Daniel shooed Max away to the other side of the bed and than lay down right next to Max, who grabbed his iPad to open Netflix.
„You never watched Prison Break, right?", he asked Daniel, who shook his head.
„Alrighty!"
„Ha! You said it as well!", Daniel pointed to Max, who looked up confused.
„You all make fun of me, cause I say alrighty but you do it as well! Here we go!"
„Another proof I spend way too much time with you!"
„Oh shut up! Danny time is funny Time!"
Max rolled his eyes and than started the first episode of prison break, even though he has watched the series around a thousand times already.
He saw Daniel out of the corner of his eyes, grabbing one of the pillows and putting it underneath his head and than moving a little closer to Max. The Dutch was sure it was to get a better view on the display, still he felt the hard bumping in his chest, as Daniel almost snuggled against him. They both watched the first two episodes with some stupid chats about the character and Max, who was trying not to spoiler anything and Daniel being helplessly lost with the whole chemistry thing.
„I heard Charles and Pierre went out to the city. You didn't want to go with them?"
„I could ask you the same!", Daniel answered and than looked up from the pillow, with his hair being all messy on his head. Max shrugged: „I'm normally not the one to go out anyway, so the question is more dedicated to you!"
„You want me to go?"
„No, no, no! I just thought you maybe prefer spending time with them, than to watch prison break!"
„You're the only person, I want to be with tonight! I wouldn't have asked you, if I would have liked to go with Charles and Pierre. So don't you dare to even think like that!"
Max started to smile and feeling a warmth growing in his chest, as he heard those words. He didn't want to admit it, but there were moments he was jealous of Charles. Daniel and Charles got really close last year and Max felt a little fallen back on Daniel's friendslist, so it was good to know that the Australia still liked to spend time with him.
„And I could ask you the same with Alex. You two spend much time together. What about him, do you rather want to be with him?", Daniel than asked half as a joke half as truth, because he feared to be replaced by Alex, which was easily made. They both started as teammates as well so who said Alex and Max couldn't become as good friends as Daniel and Max or even better. The Dutch didn't answered, which confused Daniel. He wanted to say something, as his phone made a noise. He took it out of his pocket and saw it was a message from Max.
„Honestly? Digitalization going that far?", he asked while opening the chat of them two, just to find a gif of a brown bear holding up a poster with the message there's no place I rather be written on it.
„You're such a dork!", Daniel laughed.
„That was meant to be romantic. At least I try to create a good atmosphere!"
„I'm always trying to create a good atmosphere!"
„Pfff, didn't saw the proof today!"
„Oh shut up!"
Daniel took his pillow and hit Max with it, who started to laugh. The next time Daniel tried to hit him, he caught the pillow and pressed it back to Daniel, so it was on his face.
„Eyeyey!", he shouted, moving arms and legs and making Max laugh with these moves.
„You started it. Should've known I would push you back!", he laughed and pulled the pillow from Daniel's face.
„Asshole!", Daniel whispered and looked to Max, who was lying right next to him with not even place for a piece of paper between them.
„You ruined my hair!", Daniel said, as his fingers run over his curls.
„Oh come on, it was ruined before!", Max laughed and moved his fingers to Daniel's curls as well, pushing them back. He just understood what he was actually doing, as he felt Daniel's hot breath against his face. He looked down and realized how close he was now to Daniel. If he would move a little bit to the right, their noses would touch.
„You're damn close!", Daniel whispered and tried to be funny, but somehow he couldn't sound funny right now.
„Yeah", was the only thing Max could say, as he got again lost in the deep brown of Daniel's eyes, which he could now see clearer than ever before. He suddenly felt a warm hand on his cheek and with nobody else in this room it had to be Daniel's hand, who carefully stroke his cheek, moving over the stubbles of his beard right over to his lips.
„I'm in love with you!", Max confessed, not really knowing why but it felt right in that moment. Daniel's lips curled up, but didn't said anything. Instead he moved his head up from the mattress and finally pressed his lips against Max's. There was not really action in the kiss, until Max realized what happened and started to return the kiss.
„I love you too", he heard Daniel saying against his lips.

———
Definitely not my best os, but it was written right after a crappy school day so yeah. Here we go. I hope some of you like it anyway.

I shook my head to give her an answer to her question and not getting tapped by staring at her hair. It would be really strange. It would look like some kinky stuff, which I was really not into.
„You're a journalist, right?", she asked further. I wiggled my head from right to left and back again.
„Kinda Yeah, kinda no", I said than. She was a little bit confused and pulled her eyebrows closer together. I saw the imaginary question marks in her eyes and decide to put her on the current state of affairs. I explained to her that yes I studied to become a journalist but explore throughout my way a love for writing completely own storys and that I want to train and later be a writer for trauma storys, which are read by therapists during their therapy sessions. I knew it was a strange job, but the daughter of my mother's best friend does the same and she was really excited about her job and told me everything about it. I soon found out that it was also the perfect job for myself.
„Shit, so corona really fucked up all of your plans, didn't it?", she asked disappointed like I was. I nodded: „Yeah, I couldn't enter university because of that and had to stay in the editorial staff because of that. I hope next year is gonna get better, because I honestly want to leave my job. It's just nothing for me!"
„I see your point. For me it took about five jobs until I found the right one for myself, so yeah. I hope your dreams come true, even with the virus making life hard!"
I nodded in response and than sighed. Corona couldn't happened more inappropriate. My eyes flowed to the ocean right just about five meters in front of us. The beach was almost empty recalling that it's 2 in the morning. But it was great. I spend the whole day on a full beach with people's asses almost on my face, no safety distance.
Alice, my best friend and roommate, celebrated her birthday right now. We could call it party if we wanted to but it clearly was more a getting together with some friends. Many people of the Red Bull staff were here, since Alice was working there as well. Therefore Max was also here. Max and she had a close relationship, being both at the beginning of twenty. Through her I got to know Max, but Max und I clearly weren't just friends. We started dating last year, but with corona setting the world into a lockdown there was no way for me and Max to catch up, because he was most of the time in Monaco and I was stucking in germany. The first couple of weeks we chatted every day and called often but than we just lost touch and now he seems kind of a stranger to me. I don't know how to call the thing between us, if there is even a thing between us. It's weird and sad at the same time because I really felt like Max and I were made for each other. We just fitted perfectly. Max and I did talked a little today but it was more of a „Hey, how are you? What are you doin'?" chat not getting deep into anything at all. And now he was talking to his colleagues the last two hours not really paying attention to me, which I'm not mad about because I didn't payed attention to him either. I talked much to Ashley or to Alice, so I wasn't alone either. It was just, that I wished Max and I would have had the clarifying conversation.
„Ash, you wanna go? I'm kinda tired!", I heard Alec asking, who was Ashley's boyfriend and at the same time Alice's brother. I knew Alec for almost my whole life Since Alice and I become best friends in second grade. He was such a nice guy and Ashley and him made the perfect couple. They got together with 17 and never broke up since than.
„Yeah, let's go!", Ashley answered firstly looking at him, before smiling at me again.
„Always nice to meet you, Katja. I hope everything is gonna be fine", she said as she stood up from the sofa.
„Yeah, hope so too", I answered and then winked at them. They said goodbye to the rest of the group before they left the small cafe we were in. I waited for some minutes, before clapping my hands, so everyone looked at me.
„I think I'm gonna go as well", I told them.
„Can't you wait for about half an hour more, so we can go home together?", Alice asked, moving out of Thomas' arms. Thomas was kind of her Boyfriend but just when they were meeting up. It was something between friendship + and love, K couldn't really give it a name, Alice couldn't either. But who was I to judge her? As long as she was happy, I'm fine with that and she really seemed to be happy.
„You don't have to go, just because I want to leave!", I laughed, thinking it would have been clear from the start. Alice sighed.
„Yeah I no, but there is no way, I allow you to walk through Den Haag in the middle of the night on your own!", she said than. I saw her point, since den Haag was a big city and big cities never had a reputation of being safe, especially not during the night, but I felt like sowas strong enough to handle that risk. It was not like I wanted to conquer the whole city. I would just go to therapy station and from the car to the hotel. No big deal, but Alice was always acting like my big sister, even though there were just two months between us.
"Don't you worry. I'm gonna make it home!", I told her with a little smile. I said goodbye to all the people, who sat around the table but as soon as I got to Alice, she grapped my wrist.
"Honey, I won't let you go. It's dangerous!", she warnes me. I rolled my eyes and wanted to say something, as Max interrupted me even before.
"I can bring you. I wanted to leave anyway", he said. Alice started to smile widely: "Great, that's perfect!"
I looked in surprise at Max, who just ended our eye contact, as he made his way to tell people, saying goodbye to everyone. I wanted to protest, but than again I wanted to spend time with Max, so that could be the perfect time.
"Let's go", he said to me and pointed towards the distance, where the street is and where he parked his car. I followed him, leaving some place between us because I honestly didn't know how to react towards him. We got to his car and I sad down on the passenger seat, as he moved himself in front of the wheel. The radio music and our breaths were the only noises during the drive, even though I wanted to say so much to him, but I just couldn't. If we were friends, if we were more than friends, if he loved me or if he met someone else. My mouth was completly dry and my head empty.
"That's your hotel, right?", he asked, as he stopped the car next to the side walk on a parking space. I nodded, but than felt stupid for saying nothing at all, so I said "Yes". I felt some courage flowing through my body as it was now or never. I moved my head towards him.
"What's between us?", I asked him. Max eyes got wide in surprise.
"Didn't thought you gonna asked me tonight, after that evening", he laughed, but I just couldn't even smile, because I was so scared of the answer. Do I even want to know it? I drill my fingers into the leather of the car door, while still looking at Max, who understood, that I wanted an answer.
"I don't know. Do you have a new one?", he asked than. I immediatly shook my head and made him smile with that action: "Good to hear. Me either!"
"So if you want to, we can continue where we stopped before corona", he added. I started to smile, as my heart almost jumped out of my chest because that was exactly what I wanted to hear.
"That would be awesome", I said and quiekly moved my head forward to kiss Max on the cheek.
"Perfect", he answered.