EIGHTEEN

Charles Leclerc woke up in the middle of the night to a scream coming from the room next to his in the hotel.

His sleepy figure climbed out from his warm bed, his hands rubbing at the sleep in his eyes as he checked the time on his phone and seeing that it was only three in the morning.

He was only in his boxers, so he grabbed a grey pair of sweatpants and pulled them on quickly before he opened his hotel room door, seeing nobody around. He wasn't even bothered if he was without a shirt, he just wanted to make sure that the person who screamed was safe.

His knuckles lightly tapped on the hotel door, as he heard shuffling sounds heading towards the door. The door was pulled open slowly to see an exhausted looking Larissa Cohen rubbing at her eyes.

"Ma princesse, are you okay? I heard you scream." Charles spoke quietly in the hope that his voice was not too loud.

"Coração, I'm okay. I just had another nightmare, nothing to worry about." She smiled tiredly, seeing his face soften.

"Another? These happen often?" The Monégasque frowned in worry for the Cohen girl. His hands were by his side, shaking slightly with anticipation as he worried for her.

"About three or four times a week. It's no big deal, I'm okay, you can go back to sleep, and I'm sorry for waking you." Larissa apologised as she released a yawn as she brought her hand up to cover her mouth.

"Ma princesse, you do not ever need to apologise to me, I care about you and I'd happily be woken up by you." Charles smiled sleepily at the Brazilian, watching as she seemed to ponder on something in her mind for a second, until she pulled the door open wider.

"Want to watch a movie with me until one of us falls asleep?" Larissa smiled softly as him, the exhaustion evident on her face as she looked at him.

Charles' heart began to beat faster at the invitation, gulping rapidly before nodding his head. He stepped in to her hotel room cautiously, before he felt her small hand intertwine with his own making his cheeks flush pink.

She climbed on top of the sheets of her hotel bed and smiled as the Leclerc boy followed suit. They laid down beside each other, on top of the sheets before they clicked on a movie of Charles' choice on the smart TV and settled down for the movie.

"I can't believe you like, 'the fault in our stars', I expected something completely different." Larissa spoke quietly as Charles chuckled to himself.

"It's a good movie." Charles whispered quietly.

He watched as she turned to face him, her soft brown eyes staring at him as he tried to watch the movie, but with a beautiful brunette watching him, which he could see in the corner of his eye, he forgot all about the movie and was focused purely on the beautiful princess in front of him.

He noticed how her eyes seem to sparkle, and often gave her a look of a Disney princess, with a look of innocence that he thought suited her perfectly. Her hair seemed to sprawl out all across the pillow, and to him it made her look magical.

Larissa to him was the most beautiful woman that he had ever seen and it upset him whenever he saw her sad, or crying or in pain, because he knew that she did not deserve it. All he wanted was for her to be happy. Even if it wasn't with him.

He used to have a crush on her when they were racing against each other as teenagers, but he never built up the courage to speak to her or approach her since he was so nervous because she was always surrounded by super famous drivers, even though he didn't know who her father was, it did make sense.

His friends never told him about her, and when they did, it was always as if he was a journalist for a gossip magazine. All they told him was rumors, and made up stories, and it was only George that had tried to help him talk to her by dragging him in to one of their conversations, but because he was so shy, he froze and just stared at her. It was so embarrassing, that he ran to his family and hid from the shame of running away from her.

Since getting to know her properly since she also came up in to Formula One in the same year that he did, he realised that he should not have been so shy as a child, but it still did not stop him from getting butterflies every time he saw her, or heard her, or that she was mentioned in a conversation by people.

His little brother, Arthur, mocked him for always stuttering around her, and staring at her and remembered when he had tried to ask his older brother, Lorenzo, for help in getting Arthur off his back, but found that his older brother agreed with the youngest sibling.

"You're staring, coração."  Larissa giggled softly as she whispered to the Monégasque boy, having seen his eyes glaze over whilst he was looking at her.

"Sorry, ma princesse." Charles blushed as he noticed her teasing smile.

"Are you sleepy?" She spoke in a hushed tone, as she stared in to his eyes, of which she found that she always felt safe when she looked in to them.

"A little."

"You keep yawning." Larissa rose an eyebrow at the boy as he smiled sheepishly.

He was very sleepy. He just didn't want to admit it because then his body was bound to start falling asleep, which would then mean that he wouldn't be able to look at her anymore. And he didn't want that.

"I'm not tired." He lied.

"Hmm, sure." She smirked, knowing that it was a lie.

She began to turn her body away from him so that she had her back to him but found a hand shooting to her waist to pull her back to face him.

"You can't do that." He frowned sadly, his lips sticking out in a pout which made his facial expression looking like that of a kicked puppy.

"Why not?" She giggled softly, before placing her hand on his cheek. Her thumb grazed over his cheek and his forehead until his took a hold of her hand and kissed her palm softly.

"Because I was looking at you." He whined as she again attempted to turn away from him, his arms shooting out to pull her back to him and against his chest.

Their eyes met as she was pressed up against his chest, his toned arms holding her there and showing no sign of letting her go. Pink crossed over both of their cheeks as they gulped nervously, the distance between them barely there as their hearts beat rapidly as if there were stampedes inside both of their chests.

"Um..." Charles hummed nervously.

"Ca-can I kiss you?" He stuttered nervously, licking his lips in anticipation.

He noticed how the Brazilians head moved up and down, and took a deep breath before slowly moving forward, closing the small gap between them to press his lips to her soft plump lips.

Their lips moved against each other slowly, as if the world was in slow motion. Charles' held on to her tightly as one of his hands moved from her lower back to the back of her neck, pulling her face closer to him and deepening the kiss that he couldn't even believe was happening.

Larissa's right hand was pressed flat against the Monégasque's chest as the other was just below his jawline. Her heart was threatening to escape her chest, violently beating away as the slow rhythm of the kiss took her breath away.

It was so slow, so magical, so loving.

She wished that she could stay with him, like this, forever.

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Larissa Cohen couldn't quite believe that she had kissed the Monégasque, and so the morning after, she decided to distract herself by working out with Pierre and Carlos.

A workout became a competition as the three drivers ran on the treadmill, seeing who could last the longest on the highest setting, and it was definitely not Pierre.

"I'm dying! Oh my god, I'm dying!" Pierre panted as he ran, sweat pouring down his forehead as he heard laughter from the other two.

"How are you still going?" Carlos spoke with raised eyebrows as she ran on the treadmill, barely struggling.

"I swear you always run and hide when you workout with Lucy, how are you alive right now?" Pierre frantically spoke as he tried to keep up with the pair.

"Just because I hate running, doesn't mean I'm not good at it." Larissa laughed as she was trying to control her breathing.

She was very close to giving up and she was not good at it, but she had a great poker face and was hoping that they would both give up soon, because if not, then she would definitely be in need of a lung transplant.

"I am out, I'm not dying because she's insane." Carlos shook his head with a laugh as he slowly turned down the treadmill until it was a walking pace. He eventually turned it off completely, seeing Pierre's face fill with relief.

"I'm taking a loss." Pierre backed out, turning off his treadmill.

"Oh thank god." Larissa breathed a deep sigh of relief, turning her own treadmill off before jumping off it, and crouched to get her breath back. "I'm never doing that again."

"What happened to being good at it?" Pierre frowned as Carlos tried to hide his laughter behind his hand.

"I lied. I am definitely not good at it and I am wanting to die because my lungs are dead." She panted in order to get her breath back, as her team mate handed her a bottle of water and rubbed her back in comfort.

"You still won." Carlos winked at her, seeing her face light up in to a bright smile. "I could have won, but I thought I'd be nice."

"Much appreciated, I'm dying here." She sighed, as Pierre pulled her to her feet. "I'm going to run to Mercedes-"

Pierre and Carlos gave her a pointed look.

"Okay, I'm going to walk to Mercedes, and grab some food from Toto, so I'll see you both later." Larissa corrected herself with a soft laugh. She kissed the cheeks of both men, before grabbing her bag and leaving the gym, as both men watched her leave.

"I could have easily beat you both." Pierre spoke as Carlos released a snort.

"Yeah, of course you could have."

"I could!"

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"Larissa Cohen, I have your food here, are you eating it on the way?"

Toto Wolff smiled at her as he handed her a plastic bag filled with multiple food items inside, since he had taken on the roll of giving her the correct amount of food that a driver should have, regardless of their gender.

"On the way, if that's okay?" Larissa smiled as she accepted the bag of food.

"Of course, where is it that you would like me to take you?" Toto asked as the pair walked towards the man's car.

"Here." She handed the man a slip of paper, seeing him unfold the slip of paper and took note of the scribbled writing written in black pen. He nodded as he made sure to remember the address as they climbed in to the Mercedes.

"How is it going with Franz?" Toto asked the girl cautiously, since she had told him and his wife all about the situation at Toro Rosso.

"He's not talking to me, only when he needs to and even that is at a minimum." The Brazilian admitted as she began to dig in to the food given to her by the Mercedes team principal.

"I can speak to him if it helps." The man offered as he soon arrived at the address given to him by the Cohen girl.

"Thank you for the offer, but I think the army of people that wanted to kill him, will do for now." She smiled softly at the man. "You don't have to wait for me, I may be some time."

She slowly exited the vehicle as soon as he nodded, closing the door and allowing the Wolff man to drive away and slowly stepped towards the gates of a large industrial warehouse.

She made her way in to the building, seeing a man smiling at her expectantly, his arms open wide as if he was expecting a hug.

"Minha florzinha, shall we get the plane prepped?" An ageing man with greying hair smiled softly at her as she stepped in to his open arms, allowing him to hug her.

"Thank you for letting me do this, Vovô. I know it was last minute." She smiled, feeling uncomfortable but shook it off.

"You are my granddaughter, it was no worry. Your mother won't know, I promise." The man smiled at her, as they made their way towards a small plane.

"Let's go and say hello to your papa, shall we?"

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"Hey, papa."

Larissa Cohen sat in front of a small gravestone, away from the rest of the graveyard, with small flowers resting over the grass in front of the stone.

She released a deep sigh as her fingers grazed over the writing on the gravestone. The last time that she had visited her father's grave, was just after she had discovered that she was going in to Formula One.

She had planned to visit the day after her father's birthday, but the crash at Shanghai had ruined that for her.

"I'm sorry about not coming to visit you for your birthday." Larissa spoke quietly as her hands rested in her lap. "I was going to, but I crashed, and it was a really bad one, I'm so sorry."

She tried to hold back the tears as she curled herself up in to a ball on the ground in front of the gravestone, but failed as they ran down her cheeks, like a waterfall.

"I miss you, daddy." She whispered, her voice sounding broken and quiet. "I don't want to be here, not without you."

A gust of wind blew around her, warming her cold skin up as the warm air eloped her, almost making it feel like a hug from the wind.

"I'm trying to make you proud, but it's not the same. I just want you to be there at my races, and hug me whether I do bad or good, like everybody else does with their parents." She sobbed quietly, with her eyes squeezed shut.

"I just want to join you, to be with you, but every time I try, somebody always stops me, why can't they just let me be with you, daddy?" Her voice cracked, as she tried to remember a time back when life was truly good.

"Baby." Larissa's eyes shot open at the sound of her mothers voice, seeing her crouched in front of her with a worried look on her face.

"Baby, you can't talk like that, he wouldn't want you to talk like that." Sara Cohen placed her hand on her daughters cheek to wipe away the tears.

"How would you know?" Larissa spat in anger. "You were never with him, you were always out, at the spa, at the shops, at fashion shows, in someone else's bed, you were never there! How would you know he wouldn't want me to talk like how I'm feeling?"

Her bottom lip began to tremble as she became closer to a full breakdown, she didn't want to break down in front of her mother, the woman who was never there for her, but it seemed like she didn't have a choice.

"Oh baby, he loved you so much, he would never in a million years want you to be in this state. You were his entire world, Larissa. Don't do this to him, don't beat yourself up. It's not healthy."  Sara spoke softly, her heart breaking for the little girl that she raised.

"Neither is crying yourself to sleep as a child or not sleeping because of nightmares that won't go away, but you never cared when I had them." Larissa scowled at her mother, seeing a look of hurt spread over her mothers face.

"I know, and I'm so sorry. It was wrong of me and I admit it, but I'm here now." Sara soothed, running her fingers through her daughters long dark hair.

"That's the thing, I don't want you here." Larissa spoke, almost too quiet for the other woman to hear. "I want my papa."

"I know you do, baby, I know. I can't force you to listen to me, but I need you to drive careful in Canada, okay? Driving is dangerous, especially when you're emotional. Look what happened to your father."

"Don't use that on me, it's not fair." Larissa shook her head softly, as strands of her hair stuck to the damp skin on her soft cheeks.

"Monza was supposed to be his last race, baby. He was supposed to retire." Sara released a deep sigh as the words left her lips.

"What?" The younger Cohen's voice broke once more, the word barely sounding like a whisper.

"He was supposed to retire after Monza, Ferrari didn't want him to, but he said that he was done. He was driving emotional, and look what happened, I can't have the same with you."

Larissa stared in betrayal at her mother. Why would she tell her that?

"I'm not quitting racing just because you don't want me to race."

"No." Sara denied instantly. "I'm not telling you this because I want you to stop racing, I'm telling you this because I don't want to lose you the same that I lost your father."

But her mothers words didn't seem to register with her at all, because her mind was stuck on one thing.

Her father was supposed to retire after Monza.

Had Ferrari deliberately sent him out with no brakes knowing that he wanted out?

Had Ferrari murdered her father?

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