TWENTY FOUR

Max Verstappen had kissed Larissa Cohen.

Accidentally.

He hadn't actually meant to kiss her, but he had ended up kissing her after he went to kiss her cheek and she had moved her face, meaning that their lips connected for a mere second before he had blushed uncontrollably whereas she acted as if it was a normal occurrence.

In truth, it gave her immense butterflies but she just didn't want the Dutch boy to be embarrassed.

Max had ran off to avoid embarrassing himself, since all he was wanting to do was to pull her against his chest and kiss her properly but he doubted that she would consent, and he would never kiss her without her consent.

So, with nothing else to do, the Brazilian decided to annoy none other than Nico Hulkenberg.

"NICO HUUUUUULKENBERG!"

"Brazil, how long are you here for?" Nico Hulkenberg smiled brightly as the young girl sat in front of him in the Renault garage.

She wasn't exactly allowed to be in the Renault garage, but everybody loved the Cohen kid, so they didn't exactly mind.

"For as long as you can put up with me."  Larissa smirked at the German, seeing him tilt his head back as he laughed loudly.

"I'll get you a double espresso then, because you're going to be here all day." Nico winked.

"If you're sure that you can put up with me for that long."

Nico shook his head with a small smile. "Daniel visits me often, and you're much less annoying than him."

"Have you met me?"

"Indeed I have, Brazil. You're the little rocket." Nico chuckled at her confused face. "I know you have heard that before, it's okay that you do not remember me."

"Remember you? I don't-"

"Little rocket, you can't win!"

"I win Hulkie! I win!"

A young girl cheered, bouncing up and down in glee at having won in a race with a blonde German that was not her Uncle Sebby.

Nico Hulkenberg smiled, ruffling her hair as she stuck her tongue out at him, wrinkles forming around his eyes as he stared at the child.

It was 2007, and it was her fathers first race of the season, and whilst he and his best friends were doing practise, she was being looked after by a babysitter, since Jean Todt had wanted to make sure that the child didn't get lost.

It was how she ended up with the test driver of Williams, whose name was Nico. He had looked after her, only once before but he was quite fond of the child.

"Little rocket, you won." Nico smiled at the child, high fiving the girl.

"Fick dich, Hulkie!" Larissa Cohen laughed as the young Hulkenberg man ruffled her hair.

"Wow thanks, Brazil."

"Hulkie?"

Nico Hulkenberg smiled brightly as the Nineteen year old Larissa Cohen remembered him, the name that she had called him when she was a child slipping off her lips.

He didn't mind that she had not remembered him, even though the pair had interacted multiple times since the start of the season, because he knew of her struggles to remember parts of her childhood, since her uncle Sebastian Vettel had informed him that she as a result of her father's death, that her brain had forced her to forget a lot of her childhood memories.

It was always down to pure luck if she remembered people or not.

It's also what she recieved after watching her father burn alive at a close distance.

"You okay there, Brazil?" Nico watched her with a look of sympathy as her face drained of color as she remembered meeting the German as a child.

"Oh my god." Larissa whispered, her eyes shooting to his face to see his face showing a large smile as he stared at her.

"About damn time, Brazil. I thought I'd never be able to beat you in a race."

____________________________________________________

"Maxie!"

Ignored.

"Querido!"

Max Verstappen couldn't ignore her a second time, turning to face her as she ran through the paddock towards him.

"Querido, I need your help with something." Larissa Cohen breathed out heavily, before she felt a calming hand placed on her back to help her.

"Where do you need me?" Max smiled at her, seeing her eyes sparkle as she looked at him.

"Trailer."

Max Verstappen walked with Larissa Cohen to her driver trailer, with the pair collecting their go to coffee orders on the way.

As soon as they stepped in to her driver trailer, the Dutch boy noticed how she locked the door behind her, causing him to furrow his eyebrows together in confusion.

"Is everything okay, Lieve?"

Larissa gulped thickly, shaking her hands in anticipation. The Dutch boy watched as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, before opening her dark brown eyes once more.

The Dutch man froze as her lips softly pressed against his, his heart immediately pounding in his chest.

She pulled back before his body could catch up and respond, with her stepping back and leaning against the counter in her trailer.

Before he could even think, he was moving closer to her to pull her in to a kiss, one that he didn't freeze from or run away from this time.

His hands shot to the back of her neck, pulling her lips to his, finding her immediately kissing back, as her hands shot to his chest with her fingers scrunching up his shirt as she tugged him closer.

His hands soon moved to her thighs, lifting her and placing her on the counter, their lips not breaking apart despite the both of them needing oxygen.

Max thought that he was dreaming, Larissa thought that she was hallucinating.

It wasn't slow and soft like her kiss with Charles was, it was fast and rough and filled with desire and lust and completely different to the kiss that she shared with the Monégasque.

But she didn't mind.

A knock sounded on her trailer door causing the two to separate immediately, the both of them quickly taking the time to tidy themselves up, by fixing their hair and scrunched clothes.

She scrambled to the door as the knocking continued, pulling it open to see a very surprised Esteban standing in front of her, his eyes on the Dutch man behind her.

"Oh, well I was not expecting this."

Esteban began to smirk, his eyes glistening as he stared at his friend, before the Dutch boy mumbled an apology before kissing her cheek and leaving the two friends alone.

"I never knew that Dutch men were your type." Esteban wiggled his eyebrows, seeing her roll her dark brown eyes.

"Tête de noeud."

Esteban released a laugh, his head rolling back as he did. "You know, sometimes I forget that you speak French, since you tend to speak any language except for French."

"Well, even if I speak French, you wouldn't understand me because you're a dumbass, so I'd rather speak my other languages." Larissa watched him carefully seeing wrinkles form around his eyes as he beamed.

"So, the Brazilian and the Dutch..." Esteban teased, expecting to see her facial features giving something away and became surprised when her face remained stoic.

"Oh, you wanna play that game, huh?" Larissa rose an eyebrow at her friend.

"I do indeed."

"How come Zahra was leaving your hotel room at 3am?" Larissa leant back against her trailer, seeing her French friends face become red, almost like a beetroot.

'I- I-uh." Esteban stuttered in surprise, having not known that Larissa was aware of the incident.

"When you are able to tell me, that's when we'll talk about my taste in men."

Larissa smirked as she locked her trailer door, patting his shoulder and walked away and out of the garage, leaving the Ocon boy frozen in his spot.

"Touché, Lar, Touché."

____________________________________________________

"You're not running from me this time?"

Lucy Appleton rose an eyebrow as the Cohen girl arrived for her training session.

"Not yet."

Larissa smirked as Lucy released a laugh, before she began clapping her hands at the Brazilian.

"We have a sixty minute workout today, followed by a sixty minute run."

"My training sessions are usually only an hour, why not today?" Larissa frowned.

"Because I think your stamina needs to be higher." Lucy informed her. "You'll need to be, if you're to be outrunning your Grandfather more often."

Larissa froze in her spot, her eyes widening massively as she stared in shock at her trainer, who was folding her arms in front of her chest.

"You think I didn't know?" Lucy questioned, shaking her head dismissively.

"How?"

Lucy laughed, rolling her eyes. "Who do I arrive with to work every morning?"

The Brazilian released a groan. "Sebastian."

"Yes, 'Sebastian'. I do care about you and your wellbeing, you know?" Larissa smiled softly at her trainer.

"I wanted to be your trainer even before you signed with Toro Rosso, Larissa." Lucy spoke sternly. "If you didn't sign for them, I would have quit and become your trainer at a different team."

Larissa Cohen was incredibly confused. Why would Lucy want to train her from before she had entered Formula One?

'For someone so clever, you can be incredibly stupid." Lucy cackled, seeing the confusion on her face. "I met my husband because of your father, Larissa."

Time seemed to stop as the words left her trainers lips. Lucy knew her father?

"Your father was to my husband, what you are to me." Lucy smiled softly.

"He trained my dad?" Larissa questioned, confusion in her tone as she was trying to remember her father's trainer but failed.

"He did. Your father brought him to meet his friends, and it was where I met him."

"How?"

"I spent a lot of time with a certain German driver, and he helped me get a job in Formula One, with some help from your father, of course." Lucy smiled fondly at the memories flooding her brain of the older Cohen.

"I train you, because your father got me this job. I like to think that I'm paying him pack, that I'm returning the debt."

Lucy was surprised when Larissa Cohen barrelled in to her, hugging her tightly, but began to hug her back at the knowledge that Larissa felt like her dad was still here and looking after her, because she was here.

Luiz Cohen was the reason Lucy had got the job in Formula One. He was the reason that she met her husband. He was the reason why she was prepared to quit her job when Franz wanted to take Larissa's seat away from her.

Without even realising, she had become a mother figure to the girl, purely by admitting her friendship with her father.

And she vowed to always protect the girl, from everything harmful in the world, to return the debt to the late Luiz Cohen.

Because she owed him everything.

____________________________________________________

"Carlosssssss!"

Carlos Sainz Jr laughed as he ran, holding on to her legs as she was sitting on his shoulders.

She was really starting to hate it.

Carlos Sainz and Daniel Ricciardo had seen her doing pull ups in the gym and had grabbed her before she could touch down on the ground.

With some help from the Australian, the Spanish man had been able to get the Brazilian on his shoulders and ran out of the gym, despite the fact that he had almost completely forgotten about his Australian friend running to catch up behind him.

"CARLOS!"

Carlos ran in circles to annoy her as much as possible, and he would have continued to do so, if Larissa hadn't allowed her body to fall backwards, tipping him off balance and sending both of them to the ground.

Larissa stood to her feet first, seeing the bright smiling face of the Spanish man staring up at her in awe.

"Eres tan feo/a que hiciste llorar a una cebolla." Larissa insulted, hearing his loud laughter echoing around them.

He slowly stood to his feet, seeing her eye him up as if she was waiting to get revenge.

She shoved at his chest, causing him to stumble backwards slightly. The pair began to bicker, swearing and insulting each other in Spanish, since because of her Uncle Nando, she was fluent in the language.

Daniel Ricciardo appeared behind her, slapping at the back of her head to distract her, causing her to turn to face him, allowing Carlos to grab her around her waist and pull her against his chest.

"CARLOS!" Larissa squealed as she tried to free herself from his iron grip, hearing his giggles and laughs in her ears.

She looked to Daniel for help, but found him using one hand to cover his eyes and the other hand as if he was using a stick for the blind.

She'd make him blind in a second.

The pair smiled brightly as they teased her, seeing her constantly attempting to wriggle her way free from them and their grip.

"Auta minua!" Larissa yelled upon noticing Valterri Bottas walking past them, seeing him smile upon taking notice of the situation that she was stuck in.

"Sorry, I choose life." Valterri winked at the Ricciardo man before leaving, walking away from them with a bright smile on his face.

"Nobody is helping you, Lara." Daniel smirked at her, hearing her giggles from trying to flee.

"Tell us that you love us and we'll let you go." Carlos teased her, winking at the Australian beside him.

"Never!"

"Oh now that's a shame, it appears like you're going to be stuck all day." Daniel laughed loudly, not noticing how Larissa had spotted another potential savior.

"STOFFEL!"

Stoffel Vandoorne smiled at the girl, waving slightly as he had just exited his garage, and made his way over to her.

"Hey, Cohen. I was coming to find you actually." Stoffel greeted both of the guys that were holding her with either handshakes or a pat on the shoulder.

"You were?" Daniel rose an eyebrow in surprise.

"Yeah." Stoffel nodded his head. "Mclaren want to speak to you about the possibility of driving for them, either as a driver or a reserve for next year."

Carlos released the girl immediately, helping her tidy herself up so that she didn't look messy if she was going for a meeting about a possible new seat.

"Oh damn." Larissa's eyes widened.

"Come on, I'll take you there now." The Vandoorne man wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her away from the men and out of their sight before he released her.

"You okay?"

Larissa laughed as she realised that the Belgian had actually made it up on the spot just to help her. "Yeah, I'm guessing Mclaren don't want me next year?"

Stoffel smiled at her, ruffling her hair. "Oh they do, but they know that you're not interested. Which is a shame, because both me and your uncle Nando, wanted you to take our seats at Mclaren, but I know you refused Nando's so I know that you'd refuse mine."

Larissa patted the man's shoulder with her hand. "I appreciate it, but I'm looking to go higher up the table, not lower."

Stoffel burst in to laughter. "Of course you are."

____________________________________________________

"Lis, how the hell did you know about the whole Esteban thing?"

Zahra Bailey ran to her best friend, seeing the Brazilian burst in to laughter as she sat in the Mercedes garage eating food given to her by Toto.

Whenever she couldn't be found, she was always in Mercedes and she was always eating food given to her by the Wolff man.

She hadn't realised just how much time she spent in the garage, or just how fond the Mercedes team principal had found her.

"Why should I tell you?" Larissa's smirked at the frantic look on her best friends face.

"Because I'm your bestie and you love me!" Zahra whined, her leg bouncing up and down frantically in worry.

"I mean, I do, but that doesn't mean that I'll tell you."

"Please, pretty please? Pretty, pretty please?" Zahra clasped her hands together and gave her best friend her best puppy dog eyes, even going as far as sticking her bottom lip out in to a pout.

"His hotel room is opposite Kevin's." Larissa admitted nonchantly as she ate a quiche.

"Kevin's? He told you?" Zahra gawked.

"Nope, I was in Kevin's hotel room." Larissa hadn't even noticed how that sentence had sounded, until her best friend squealed, jumping up from her seat so much that her seat fell to the ground.

Zahra hadn't actually noticed that her seat had fallen to the ground, so upon trying to sit back down, fell to the ground herself as there was no seat for her to take.

Larissa wheezed, her eyes watering as she laughed at her best friend falling, her hand shooting to her ribs as she was laughing so hard.

"Help?" Zahra laughed.

Larissa couldn't even get words out from how hard she was laughing, all she could do was shake her head to signal that she was not helping her best friend up.

"So, Kevin?" Zahra coughed, trying to change the subject away from her fall as she pulled herself up and placed her chair upright so she could actually sit down without falling.

"What about him?"

"Are you sleeping with him?" Zahra eyed her cautiously, before she flinched as Larissa spat out her drink in surprise.

"NO!" Larissa's eyes widened massively, before she began to cough from accidentally spitting her drink out.

"I drink with him! I do not sleep with him!"

"Sleep with who?"

"SHIT!"

"Hey, Lew, it's a lovely day today, isn't it?" Zahra bit back her smile as both Larissa and herself were trying to hold back their laughter.

"Uh, yeah, it's not too bad, I guess?" Lewis Hamilton smiled confused, having only heard the last few words of their conversation.

"Oh that's great, I wonder where Daniel took Coco, I hope he hasn't kidnapped Roscoe too." Zahra looked around, hoping to distract the Hamilton man.

"You don't sleep with who?" Lewis crossed his arms in front of his chest as he smiled brightly, seeing his little sister squirm in her seat.

Larissa's eyes widened as she attempted to think of something to say, without mentioning Kevin since it would make it much more awkward.

"Uh, George." Larissa admitted.

Zahra released a snort at the name, causing Larissa to stamp on her best friends foot to shut her up.

She did not need her brother to know about that.

"You don't sleep with him?" Lewis frowned.

"You say that like it's a bad thing." Larissa furrowed her eyebrows together. "Did you want me to sleep with him?"

"She did that already." Zahra coughed out, which thankfully Lewis didn't hear.

She would never hear the end of it if she did.

"I don't want you sleeping with anybody." Lewis' face scrunched up in disgust.

"I'm your brother, it's my job to make sure that you don't go anywhere near boys." Lewis spoke protectively.

"Well you've already failed with that one." Zahra muttered under her breath.

She could only yelp as her best friend stamped on her foot to shut her up once more.

____________________________________________________

A/N

thankyou for the birthday messages, I did indeed get very, very drunk. (Kevin Magnussen vibes, just saying, if you know what I'm talking about, I love you)

Anyway, here is this one, I wanted to bring Lucy in a bit more, and set up more friendships and relationships with others, so enjoy!

-RUBY