#fic: off to the races | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

analogwriting · 3 months

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Star-Crossed

Chapter 18: Core

Donquixote Rosinante x gn!reader word count: 3.5k a/n: uh, sorry it's been so long. life's been wiiiiild lmao first|next

Time went by quickly. The staff operated as if nothing happened - as if they hadn’t just been out for over a week. They were acting like it was just another run of the mill day and you were grateful for that.

No one tried to get in contact with this side of the hospital. Well, one person did, but it was just a check in that was easily faked. It was also only a couple of hours, so it wasn’t like you had a lot of time for things to happen.

It felt too easy, but if Corazon was right, your father was banking on you being out for the count for a while. So unless Doflamingo were to somehow get ahold of him, he'd be none the wiser. The man must've thought he could take you on his own and didn't notify anyone you were here earlier. Good thing he had such a massive ego. It worked in your favor.

“Alright, get ready. It's shift change,” you said to one of your staff members. “Gather up a few more and we'll head over. I'm going to keep watch to see who comes in.” After all, you didn't want to get any innocents involved.

You watched the screens, making note of who came and went. It seemed like it was a lot of your normal night staff, but with some of your father's men sprinkled in. Probably only about a handful. Nothing you couldn't handle.

“Ready?” You looked over as one of your staff members poked their head in, you nodded. “There's about five of my father's men. The rest are normal staff.” They nodded as you headed towards the door.

“Follow my lead. Just like before. We should be able to take care of this quickly.” Unfortunately, however, it was going to be a bit harder. You didn't have a series of tunnels on that side of the hospital, so you dressed in scrubs, including a mask and bouffant cap. You couldn't risk anyone recognizing you. Your staff could get by in just normal scrubs luckily.

You and three other staff members went with you to the front side of the hospital. You went in through the main entrance, acting like you were rolling in for your shift.

You were greeted by the night receptionist. You waved at him, heading further into the hospital. You and the three others you were with spread out. You had debriefed them quickly on who was on this side that didn't belong. “Make sure to report to my office in an hour,” you muttered to the three of them. They all nodded and you went your separate ways.

“Doctor, you're back?” You tensed, moving quickly. You grabbed whomever it was, pulling them into the storage closet, covering their mouth. It was Nico Robin. She didn't look scared or startled by your actions, however.

“I can't let anyone know I'm here,” you said quietly.

She nodded in understanding and you removed your hand from her mouth. “Sorry about that.”

“It's quite alright. I knew something was up when you and Marco stopped showing up. Along with the boys. All of us staff did. Then new people rolled in, claiming new management. Glad to see you back.” She had a relaxed smile and you wondered why the hell she was so calm. Most people would be freaking out by now.

“We're not as in the dark as you think, doctor. Not anymore at least. The newcomers aren't bright and talk very loud. And you know this place is a hub for gossip.”

You couldn't help but smile from under your mask. “Well, it's nice to know people were still willing to stay.”

“Of course we did. We all knew you'd come back for us. Even if it took some time. Besides, they mostly left us alone and let us operate how we usually did.” She shrugged, folding her arms across her chest.

That was good. You had been worried that they'd completely overturn the place, at least they seemed to have trusted your staff on the front side to keep things operating. Though, Robin and your staff’s trust in you coming back meant the world to you. You had no idea they held you in such high regards. Everything was slowly being put into perspective for you.

You owed everyone so much at this point. You were already planning on giving everyone some extra vacation days and some gifts because this was insane.

“There is one girl who is going around barking orders, but she doesn't seem to know the first thing about being a doctor.” Robin gave an amused laugh, shaking her head. “I think her name was Trinity? I'm not sure. I never paid much attention to her. However, she's out today.”

You felt your blood boil at the mention of her. Not necessarily at her, though. She was a victim and barely even an adult. Your blood boiled because you still couldn't believe your father. You couldn't believe he completely sired and raised a child all this time without you knowing. That he specifically kept it from you as well.

You shoved those thoughts away. “Sorry again, Robin. Thank you for everything. I'll let you go.”

Robin just smiled her easy going smile and nodded. “It's quite alright, just like I said. Good luck, doctor.” With that, she left.

You stayed there a moment longer, taking a deep breath. It was absolutely nerve wracking right now. Plus, how the hell did Robin immediately recognize you? You thought you were completely covered. Maybe Robin was just really good at recognizing people. That's what you hoped anyway. You somewhat banked on that hope.

After recollecting yourself, you headed out of the storage closet like nothing happened, continuing back towards your office. “Is it just radio silence over there?” You heard a voice coming from your office and you slowed down, sticking close to the wall as you listened from around the corner.

“Yeah. I haven't been able to get ahold of anyone for a couple of hours. I figured they were busy, but I'm starting to get worried. They did check in, but nothing else. Which isn’t normal.” Ah, shit.

From the sounds of the voices, it was your father's right hand men, Daniel and Gabriel. You felt your chest tighten. These men were practically your uncles, they helped raise you, but they treated you just as coldly as your father did now.

You took a deep breath before quieting your racing heart so you could listen.

“You don't think they're back to take over the hospital, do you?”

“Nah, that's impossible. The boss made sure to crush their spirit. Besides, they signed the papers. Even if they tried to take things back, in the face of the law, the hospital isn't theirs anymore. I'm sure they're busy fixing someone up. I heard there was a shootout earlier today anyway.”

You felt your blood boil even more. So, Corazon was right. Your father was banking on psychological warfare. How could you do such a thing to your own child? You still couldn’t believe he’d go so far. It was disgusting honestly. All this for what?

“If they would've just stopped with their stupid fantasyland, we wouldn't be in this situation.” A sigh could be heard. You felt your eye twitch.

“That's true. They have no one to blame but themselves.” A laugh. “For a doctor, they sure are dumb.” Both of them started laughing.

Oh, you were going to fuck them up royally. You didn't care that these men helped raise you. These weren't the caring uncles you grew up with. Those men were dead - fake.

“Wait, what's that on the camera? Is someone listening?” Shit. Well, there was no hiding now. You ripped off your mask and bouffant.

You rounded the corner, pulling out your gun, training it at them and they did the same to you. You shot once, getting one of them in the leg. Daniel cried out, kneeling on the ground. With one hand he covered the wound, with the other he pointed his gun at you.

“What are you doing here?” You could hear slight fear in Gabriel's voice. It was true. Your father’s men did fear you. At least a little bit. You glared at the both of them.

“What the fuck does it look like? I'm taking my hospital back.”

“You can't. You signed it over.”

“Did I?”

You let another gunshot fly, getting Gabriel in the arm. He dodged, the bullet only grazing him. Shit. You heard another gunshot, dodging and rolling to the side. You shot the doorstop, making your door close so that no loose bullets could hit innocent passersbys. At least they had been smart enough to have silencers, so there wouldn’t be too much noise.

Your office was a good size, but it wasn't exactly a good size for a shootout. No place indoors would be. You needed to end this quickly. Right now it was a stalemate. The two of them behind the desk and you in front. You had to think. What to do… There were two of them and only one of you. Then an idea popped into your head.

With a deep breath, you shot at your metal cabinet, the bullet ricocheting and shooting behind the desk. You heard one of them cry out and a gun skitter to the floor. Luckily, they hadn’t been standing so the gun didn’t accidentally go off. “Gabriel!” You stood up quickly, pointing your gun at the otherside.

You saw Gabriel laying there on the ground, crumpled. Daniel was shaking him, but the man wasn’t moving. “He’s dead, Daniel.” You didn’t have to look to see. The rapidly accumulating blood on the floor told you enough. Must’ve gotten him in the neck.

The man looked at you with rage in his eyes. He turned, aiming his gun at you and just shooting blindly. Never shoot when blind with emotion - your father taught you that. First lesson. Luckily, you were able to predict that he was going to react like that, quickly ducking back behind the desk while the bullets made their way into your ceiling. They stopped in the softer tiles instead of bouncing off of them.

“How could you do such a thing, y/n?” You could hear the distress in his voice and you couldn’t help but roll your eyes. “Says the man who was just shooting me,” you mumbled.

“We’re supposed to be family. Does that mean nothing to you? Gabriel even helped teach you how to drive a car. How could you treat him so coldly?” You sat there, astonished.

Was he really trying to guilt you right now? That was fucking rich.

You rounded the corner of your desk and before Daniel could even turn, you sent your fist into his face. The shock alone was enough to loosen his grip on his own gun and you snatched it out of his hands like taking a toy from a toddler.

You took him by the collar and pulled him in closer, glaring at him. “Are you really trying to use that on me right now? The two men who treated me like a stranger when I came to visit? The two men who just tried to kill me? The two men who were just banking on my mental breakdown to keep me from coming back?” You shook your head.

“Family means nothing to the likes of you. That much is clear.”

“Y/n, please. Don’t do this. Think of all the good times we’ve had.” You acted like you were going to think about it, standing up and letting him go. He went to reach for Gabriel’s gun and you shot him in the head with a sigh. “Pathetic.”

Your therapist was going to be going into overtime. You were going to probably pay them extra these next few sessions. Maybe also get in a couple extra sessions. You had a lot of things to work through.

You closed your eyes, taking a moment. You were trying your best to keep it together right now, but you honestly felt like you were about to explode. This was the worst. Everything turned out so shitty. Everything had fallen apart so fast but…

Your mind shifted to what you did have. Pops and Marco. Corazon. Your staff. You just regained control over your hospital. Everything would sort itself out. You were sure.

After a moment of internal crisis, you glanced over to the desktop, checking the cameras. It seemed everyone else was apprehended as well. You saw them all knocked out and tied up in one of the conference rooms that was currently closed off.

“There’s still one missing.” Your staff came into the office. Had it been an hour already? Shit, time was flying. “I’ll go look for them. Someone keep an eye on the others, one patrol the halls, and the other stay here and keep an eye on these two. They’re dead, but mostly make sure no one else wanders in to see them - and keep an eye on the cameras.” The three of them nodded and you turned to head out first.

You headed down the hallway. Everything was pretty quiet for the most part. It was late enough in the night that most, if not all, of the patients were asleep. It was a skeleton crew of staff as well. It was calm, eerily calm. Even though you had just murdered two men in cold blood in your office, things were oddly serene and it made you uneasy. You were just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

You suddenly felt someone yank you into an empty room and hands around your throat. Oh sweet fuck. You struggled for a second, clawing and trying to get them to let go. You saw it was another person from your father’s crew, the one you had just been looking for. Well, you found them at least.

Black started to encroach on the edges of your vision as you started seeing stars. Fuck, fuck, fuck. You decided to drop your weight, startling them into loosening their grip and you gasped, beginning to cough and rolling a away from them to give yourself space. You felt them run over to you, stepping over you to straddle you but you didn’t stop moving long enough to let them succeed and you shoved them backwards as you sat up, sending them tumbling.

You quickly darted over to them and before they could gather themselves and stand up, you brought their head down onto the floor, knocking them out cold. You were panting as you sat down on the floor next to their unconscious body. Fuck, that was close. You rubbed your throat, just knowing it was probably going to bruise. Any longer and they probably would’ve done some serious damage to your windpipe too.

You closed your eyes, flopping on the ground to catch your breath. Man, this was exhausting. You just wanted to sleep.

You let yourself catch your breath before taking your assailant and tying them up, sticking them with the others. At this point, it was starting to get light outside. You didn’t even realize that much time had passed. Maybe you passed out for a minute there without realizing.

Now, everything was running like it used to. You called in all the staff you had from the underground side of the hospital. They were stationed on both sides, keeping an eye on things. You would probably have to keep security up for the time being until you would resolve this issue once and for all.

With Doflamingo out of commission for the most part and Crocodile straight up out of the picture, you weren’t sure there was really much else to do besides confront your father. You just weren’t sure how you were going to do that.

“So, you really did it, huh?” You turned around, seeing Marco walking into your office. You’d long since cleaned up the mess you made earlier. You felt weirdly numb about everything. Maybe it hadn’t fully sunk in yet. Some things still felt like a bad dream.

“I suppose I did,” you responded in a monotonous voice. You were painfully exhausted. Going from a hermit and depressive episode straight into action and fighting wasn’t exactly easy to do. Your entire body ached and you longed for sleep. “Wait, what are you doing here?” It just dawned on you - you didn’t call him.

“You should head home and get some rest,” Marco said with a frown as he examined you, ignoring your question. “Oh, that looks rough.” His eyes were on your neck. “That bad?” He nodded in response. You had been so busy making sure everyone else was okay and that the intruders were taken care of in a discreet manner that you hadn’t even had time to look at your own injuries. You know your had a few grazes from bullets as well that you hadn’t tended to just yet either.

“There’s still so much for me to do.”

“Well, run it over with me and I’ll take over. We can hold it from here.” You just looked at Marco, debating on whether or not to do just that.

Marco shook his head. “Sorry. I phrased that like you had a choice. I’m telling you to do it and that you are going to go home and rest after.” You were honestly so exhausted that you didn’t even argue with him.

For the most part, everything was taken care of. The intruders had been disposed of. Doflamingo was taken care of and sent back to his people in the terrible state he was stuck in. You had also made sure he knew that the hospital was still in your name. They had no legal hold in the issue.

Right now, it was just making sure that no one else tried to take things over. It was a waiting game for most things to blow over. You weren’t sure if the families were going to try to retaliate or not.

You filled Marco in on everything, walking him through things as he patched you up. You had called in all your staff and even called in some older staff that had retired. Just to see if they’d help watch over the hospital. Luckily, they were all willing to help and you had extra security around the clock. At least for a little while.

Now, it was your turn to rest. You almost just collapsed in the breakroom, but you knew that Corazon was probably worried about you right now. Marco had mentioned something about him wanting to come but Marco had talked him out of it.

“I told him that you would need motivation to go home and he’d be great motivation.” That had only made your face turn bright red. He wasn’t wrong, nothing was more enticing than the thought of curling up in bed with your boyfriend right now…he was your boyfriend, right? You two didn’t officially say anything, but you assumed as much.

Fuck, you were two tired to think.

You weren’t even fully there on the way home either. You blinked and you were in front of Pops’ house. Did you drive here? You were behind the wheel so you guessed you did. Maybe you really just zoned out. At least you didn’t get hurt and neither did anyone else.

You weren’t going to do that again.

You slowly climbed out of the car, the adrenaline leaving your body. Everything felt like it was made of stone and you were sluggish in your movements. Not too much further. You yawned, stretching. As you stepped towards the gates, they opened, revealing Corazon. He immediately took your face in his hands and kissed you hard. It was now your turn to make a noise of surprise.

He picked you up, spinning you around in excitement. “You’re okay!”

Oh, sweet jesus you were going to throw up. “Oh fuck, please put me down. I’m going to hurl.”

“Oh, sorry.” He put you down with a frown. You shook your head. “It’s okay. Not your fault. I already felt like shit.” You took a deep breath, shaking your head. “I’m good now.” Corazon frowned as he seemed to notice the bruising on your neck. His fingers lightly traced the skin and you felt your breathing hitch.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” he mumbled.

Before you could say anything, you felt the hair on the back of your neck stand up and you shoved him through the opening of the gate. “Get down!” You heard two gunshots go off and a car speed off before pain immediately seared in your back and shoulder. It was so intense that you weren’t even sure where it was originating exactly.

The world began to spin immediately as your body started growing cold and numb. Oh fuck. It wasn’t your spine. You were sure it was your shoulder and maybe your waist. Nothing too damaging - you hoped. Not that you were able to think much before your entire world went black.

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ferrarihamilton · 8 months

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STORMCHASER?? 👀

this fic has been ruminating in my head for almost a year..... it's a chalex au where charles stopped racing after winning gp3, and alex's family moved to the US when he was young and he visits every summer break just before storm season starts.

Charles texts him at 3:18AM on a Saturday in the middle of July: Alex! I hope you are dreaming sweet dreams. I will be in Dogwood in a week! Can I stay with you?

Alex smiles when he sees it in the morning. Charles asks the same question every summer, and he’s always so polite about it. Like Alex hasn’t seen him throw up on himself after drinking a box of wine, and hasn’t been opening his house to Charles for four years now. Like he doesn’t know how the first thing Alex does upon waking is check the forecast. He might not have the fancy equipment that Charles has, but he can see the cartoon of a little raincloud with lightning as well as anybody else. They’re promised high winds at the beginning of August. Alex had already prepared the spare room.

He replies, Hey charlie. What day would you be arriving?

The typing bubbles appear immediately, and a second later a string of kissy faces come through, followed by Hmmm thursday I think

Alex thumbs up the message, and then sends a photo of his view of the sunrise for good measure. In the foreground, there’s his windowsill, littered with various trinkets that Charles has brought before, and then below, the cafe's porch awning, and the sprawling fields for miles to see. Even without opening the window, the air feels fractious, hot.

Alex knows Charles understands, because he sends back four emojis: a battery, an electric plug, a thermometer, and a satellite. Alex smiles again, helplessly, before tucking his phone into his back pocket and heading out start his day.

Chloe is already starting to make breakfast. She turns as she hears him come down the stairs, and smirks when she sees his face. “Charles due soon?”

“Shut it,” he says. Chloe just smirks wider as she hands him a bowl and a carton of eggs.

+++++

Dogwood, Oklahoma, population 300, sits on State Highway 39, and the township’s economy is mostly fuelled by the tourists heading north to Kansas. It’s completely unremarkable, utterly boring, and the perfect place to spend three weeks of summer when your day job normally consists of multiple timezones a week.

His mum had bought the house and the attached cafe soon after they moved to the US: Albon's, a classic tourist trap place with cheap sandwiches and coffee, morphed into half a farm slash petting zoo when Luca wouldn’t stop rescuing animals and plunking them firmly in their backyard. The tourists kept asking about the donkeys wandering around the picnic tables, and Zoe had said eventually, “Well if they’re not going away, we might as well make some money.” They’re proudly advertised as family-owned and operated, which is supposed to make the people feel good about spending their money there, but mostly gets brought up through gritted teeth whenever Zoe and their mum argue about finances.

Alex tries not to get involved. Even though he makes more than enough money now for them to not need the cafe, he thinks it keeps his mum happy, to be reminded of the first life they'd had that was completely theirs.

And the cafe is how him and Charles are still friends. Alex had been furious when Charles told him he wasn't continuing with racing after winning GP3. Alex would have given everything to have beaten him, and here Charles was, acting like it didn't mean anything.

But Charles had followed him to Oklahoma that winter, instead of going home. He'd helped out at the cafe, and the night before his flight back to Monaco, he'd told Alex that he'd enrolled at Oklahoma State, tentative major in mech-E. Later, Alex will think that he probably had wanted to be an astronaut. Instead, when Charles' prof in sophomore year had taken his class out in the middle of a thunderstorm, and Charles had dragged Alex along with him, Alex had had the almost religious experience of watching Charles’ face as the sky crackled with lightning.

They’re still good friends; they text fairly frequently, but it’s been a year since they’ve seen each other. Charles is a proper stormchaser now, galivanting around the country on grant money from the college. He looks happy in every photo he posts on Instagram, writes long blog posts using words like isobars and Doppler effect and mobile broadband MNVO. And without fail, he stays at Alex's family home for a week before the storm season begins in earnest, and Alex sends him off to run after tornadoes, like a wife watching her husband leave for war.

+++++

Charles arrives in a flurry, bringing with him a battered Jeep fitted with mods Alex isn’t entirely sure are legal. As she does every year, his mother comes out to stand next to him on the porch as they pull up, and her eyebrows are thoroughly unimpressed until Charles’ smiling face hops out.

“Oh Charles!” she coos. “He was always such a good boy,” and then Charles is kissing her on both cheeks, saying hello and how she looks as beautiful ever, before he turns his attention on Alex, and even though Alex is twenty-six, he feels himself flush.

“Alexander,” Charles singsongs, and then mushes his face into Alex’s collarbone as he hugs him. Alex huffs out a laugh, wraps his own arms around Charles.

“It’s good to see you too,” he tells him. Charles beams at him, and Alex hasn’t followed Charles on one of his tornado chases since he was twenty, but under his gaze, he feels supercharged, electric.

Charles insists on helping out around the farm, because Alex absolutely puts his foot down when Charles offers to pay them for his week stay. This would be useful, because it’s the busiest part of the tourist season, if Charles were not completely useless. He takes nervous steps away when the animals approach him, clumsy with the dirty plates when clearing tables, and even though Alex knows that Charles can operate software with GIS overlay and the college’s ham radios that tune into Skywarn frequencies, he stares at their cash register with the same trepidation most people approach large spiders. And despite all of that— he charms all the little old ladies that come though the café doors, even when he messes up the orders. He makes Melina laugh, which in turn, lets Zoe get on with the bookkeeping undisturbed. He also brings in a shitload of tips. Alex hides a smile, watching Charles flit around and somehow be totally out of place and completely at home all at once.

It’s hard not to be charmed by Charles, his quick hands and the way he looks when he’s concentrating. Alex was a lost cause when he was eighteen; he sees no reason why that might have changed now.

+++++

Alex is always worried that Charles will get bored when he stays. Usually, he’s a doer, not a worrier, but he still has a training regime to keep up, so it's not like Alex can skive off to entertain Charles.

But they do have one tradition, and there’s nothing else to do on a Saturday night. So Alex takes the pickup truck they usually use for moving animals, cleans the hay and muck out, and drives Charles out to the fields. It’s a clear night, and they can see the stars, and he spreads out the blanket over the truckbed, throws down a couple of pillows, and leans back to look up at the night sky.

“Tell me about your year,” Charles demands, once they've settled in.

Alex shrugs. Anybody can find out how his year is going from every sports website under the sun. He nudges Charles. “Tell me about your year.”

But Charles shrugs too, even though he’s smiling, and starts telling him about clouds instead. “Cumulonimbus,” he says. “Cumulus means ‘heap’ in Latin and ‘nimbus’ means storm cloud. They mean a storm is coming— air currents care carrying the water vapour up. When they develop, they have this dome.” He cups his hands into shape. “And then they can become supercells.”

Alex knows about the team that Charles is going with this year: Lewis, who used to work for the National Weather Service but now he’s a storm spotter for fun; Seb, a professor of climatology and technically their team lead; Daniel, who looks like he’s only there because he’s an adrenaline junkie and a good driver.

Alex knows from reading the captions on Charles’ Instagram posts that storm season starts in August, and the café is the first stop. For the next two months, he’ll follows the weather patterns as they shift and morph on radar displays, driving into fields, into wide-open terrains of grass and dirt and lakes with no roads and a cloudless sky, and waiting for the winds to pick up before they go.

He knows their time is limited, so Alex drinks in the sight of Charles and all the ways he’s changed in the time they’ve been apart. He tries not to wish for anything more.

At the end of the week, two more Jeeps roll into the driveway, Seb, Lewis, and Daniel all get introduced in quick fashion, and then Charles kisses Alex high on his cheek, and waves at him the whole time they’re driving away. Alex watches him go, waving, sore.

+++++

August turns into September, and the season picks up again. Williams has a solid midfield car now, and it's good, seeing the fruits of his hard work, having a team around him that listens to him, takes him seriously. Him and Charles continue to text, infrequently, as they always have. Charles tells him about amazing tornadoes, sends photos of himself at the World’s Largest Ball of Twine in nowhere towns on the side of highways, miles and miles of cornfields.

In return, Alex sends photos of the track, some terrible coffee they make him try for a marketing challenge, Luca screwing his face up at his maths homework, the crowd of fans at Singapore.

This is why it’s particularly insulting, that Alex finds out from fucking Lando of all people, that Charles got struck by lightning.

“What,” he says. His hands are clammy where he’s clutching his phone.

“Yeah, Max mentioned it to me. Guess Daniel told him. They’re having one of their weird on again things again.”

Alex couldn’t care less about whatever drama Lando has embroiled himself in. He’d known, logically, the risks of storm chasing. Except it was Charles, who has always seemed bigger than it all, exempt from the rules of physics and karma and everything else that made the rest of them mortal.

He checks Charles’ Instagram after Lando hangs up. The last post is still there, from a few hours ago. Alex had already seen it, liked it, thought nothing of it. A photo of a long stretch of highway, Daniel’s exaggeratedly frown. Location tagged Humboldt, Tennessee: stuck here for a few days with an upside down smiley face.

There’s a shiver running up his spine, a tense, live wire. If he touched anybody right now, he’s be unsurprised if the venom of it ran straight through them.

That feeling only intensifies in the twenty-four hours between Landos call and him pulling up outside the only motel in Humboldt. He stands outside the car feeling angry and frightened as he figures out what to say to Charles. This is greatly ruined by how Charles stumbles out ten minutes later in socks and slides, and stops dead.

“Alex?” He blinks. "You're supposed to be in Austin."

Alex is; it's Wednesday, race week. He has media duties in the paddock tomorrow.

“Did you get taller?” Charles asks, when Alex still doesn't say anything.

“I don’t think so,” Alex manages to get out. He's still feeling that sickly furious feeling, and Charles must see it on his face, because he huffs.

“Fucking— I’m fine, the car is ruined but it had to happen at some point.”

“Does it?”

Charles squints at him. “Is this a trick question?”

"Charles," Alex says, but he's stopped by movement in the motel. harles glances back. A door is open, and Seb is lounging casually against the door frame in sweats. Alex didn’t know it was possible for a man wearing a headband to look so frightening.

“Let’s go for a drive,” Charles says.

+++++

Charles directs them back onto the highway. He riddles with the radio, turning the dials until it crackles into a frequency that’s giving a weather report. Alex has to keep his eyes on the road to drive, but he knows what Charles looks like even without turning his head: lips pursed, hands twitching like he’s looking for a notebook before his thoughts fly away.

"Here," Charles finally says. It’s a dirt road turn off that looks like it leads nowhere, but Alex turns off all the same.

“You’re here,” Charles says wonderingly, even before he's killed the engine. Alex takes a deep breath, turns to face Charles. Seeing his face, whole, open, looking at Alex in that way lets the last of Alex’s worry melt away.

“Okay,” Charles says, and Alex leans forward and fists his hand in the collar of Charles’ shirt, and kisses him.

#jo writes fic #chalex #this one is actually kind of good........ maybe i'll give it another crack #i was going to explore all the 'what if' possibilities of drivers choosing not to be drivers. what life could have been !!!#& esp coming off the back of alex's 2020/2021 years - how it would feel to watch charles do something equally adrenaline inducing #and be really really good at it. but ultimately alex choosing to go back to racing bc he loves it #and therefore him being better at racing for the resolve in that choosing #ALSO HI KAY !!!!!

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