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starzzach · 5 months

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again? again. i have several problems this might be the solution.

read part one, part two, part three and part four!

Charles tries a thing – a joke, really. Carlos sees right through it. Alocasia does, too.

—

Charles has a plan.

Well, he has half of a plan. Actually, he has no plan at all, but his dimples and eyes have been known to be razor-sharp weapons, as is the tiny child he has bundled in his arms.

Speaking of the tiny child, Charles peers over his tiny baby. She is the cutest baby in the entire world and Charles knows this because he has told this to the entire world and in classic Tifosi fashion they had all agreed with him, despite never seeing her very cute face much to Carlos' firm boundaries.

Which brings him back to the point of the matter. Alocasia had come nearly three months too early which had led to Charles screaming bloody murder in the delivery room and saying some not-very-nice things to Carlos while also crushing the bones in not one but both of his hands, rendering him quite useless for work for quite a while, and while Charles had taken a vindictive pleasure in it, Carlos hadn't even remotely agreed with the sentiment.

And, yes, shortly after all of that Charles had started to feel a little bad. If it was because they had fallen out of their dating-not-dating stage into a period of co-existing and co-parenting their daughter instead. Alocasia is very, very cute and a very, very good distraction but it's been months and Charles has never exactly been known to be patient.

So. He has a plan that will come into being as soon as Carlos walks through the big white doors of the house he had built (built!) for them and Alocasia.

It will. It definitely will. It's how most things go, really. There's nothing in Charles' brain until there is. And it's (usually) a good plan, really. One can hope.

And the door does open, and Carlos does walk in. But the idea does not come, and now might be the time for Charles to start feeling a little panicked. "How was, um," he starts, pretending he's in the mood for good conversation, "work?"

Carlos grunts mildly in response, shrugging off his coat and draping it neatly over the back of a chair, in heavy contrast to Charles and Alocasia's clothes strewn all around the room, tossed haphazardly over the couch and piled on the counter. "Ran into Fernando," he says, a soft smile spreading over his face as he approaches Alocasia (and additionally, Charles). "Hi, baby," he coos, making her cute little face scrunch up in laughter. "He asked me how Alo is doing."

"I tried to convince him the other day Alo is not for Alonso," Charles grumbles, thoroughly melting at the sight of father-daughter bonding. "He is not-- he will not believe me."

"But Alo is for Alonso," Carlos points out, lifting Alocasia out of his arms, and grinning at her shriek of answering laughter. But then he frowns slightly, turning back to Charles in confusion. Alocasia seems to be judging him with her father and Charles is suddenly feeling very cornered. "When did you meet with Fernando?"

Charles' neck and face heats up a little, and he turns away back to his laptop in an attempt to escape. "I have emails."

Carlos slams the lid of his laptop shut, ignoring Charles' indignant yelp, holding Alocasia with the arm that's not on his hip in judgment. "You're supposed to be resting, you know. You're lucky I let you–"

"You let me?"

"You know what I mean."

Charles pretends to frown, feigning offence. "I only live with you. She's my daughter. You don't get to let me do anything."

Yes, maybe Charles is grasping at straws here, but Carlos seems to fall for it pretty easily, so he must be doing something correctly. "Charles, I– wait, no," he stops himself, and Charles curses himself internally. "When did you leave the house, Charles? This close to your–"

"I didn't even go that far," he mutters. "I went to see Pierre. He showed up with Fernando. They are terrorising Esteban together or something, I guess."

Carlos' palm is warm on the small of his back. "Next time you want to leave you tell me, or at least text me or something." He sounds sad, and Charles feels the guilt of the past few months pressing down on him like a weight. "You know I worry. About Alo but about you, too." His hand inches more and more around Charles, tentative in its journey. "I never stopped worrying."

God. It's a stupid plan, really.

"I want to retire," he blurts out.

Alocasia babbles, hitting her tiny ineffectual fists on Carlos' chest and Charles takes her back, letting her nibble on his fingertips. Carlos' hand falls from around him and lets out a heavy groan. "I thought it was something serious, joder, Charles!"

"What, I'm serious!"

"No you're fucking not," Carlos tells him exasperatedly, his eyes flickering unmistakably towards their calendar.

Now it's Charles' turn to complain. "Come on! It's in a week! I even took suppressants because that stupid doctor you hired can't speak English!"

"She speaks better English than you!"

"You think you speak better English than me," Charles huffs. "And that is a lie, Carlos. It is not the truth which means it is a lie."

"You know she speaks Spanish," he replies crossly. "Papa is being annoying, no, Alo?" Carlos asks, tickling her stomach. "Isn't he? Isn't he the most annoying?"

"I never should have you let name her," he complains. "I should have known you'd name her after your stupid idol."

Carlos just snickers at him. "And you would name her what? Senna?"

Charles' tone turns quiet. "I wanted to name her Jules," he says.

Silence falls, but it's not uncomfortable, so to speak. It never really is. "We have alocasias all over the house. It's her name."

"Of course it's her name," Charles says quietly. "The next one can be Jules."

"Next one?" Carlos wonders out loud, but doesn't make a further comment. Charles is thankful for it. He knows they're hardly getting by with just one, as cute as she is. "So you're okay?"

Charles shrugs. He was never really too bothered to begin with. It wasn't like he had totally rejected the name prior to her birth, and Carlos was right, anyway. It was her name. "Wedding wouldn't hurt," he says, mostly as a joke. He doesn't actually want to get married. Probably. He thinks.

But Carlos' expression changes, as if he's holding something back, a weirdly smug smile on his face. "Can I?" he asks, referring to Alo, and Charles hands her off to him, confused. "Come, Alo, present for Papa, let's go find it."

Charles follows them after a moment, nearly tripping in his haste to go after them. "Where are we going?"

"Do you think Papa will like it?" Carlos says, still talking to her. "Hm, do you? Do you?"

Charles follows him to the bedroom, confusion growing and Carlos opens a drawer and starts rummaging. "Where did I put it, querida? You remember when I showed you? Didn't you like it, Alo?"

"Like what?" Charles asks, desperately confused.

Carlos ignores him. Goddamnit he is infuriating. Charles could never survive being married to him right? "Ah found it," Carlos is saying and then passing Alocasia back to him. "Now you hold her."

"What's going o–" he starts but then his mouth falls open because Carlos is on one knee and–

"Marry me," Carlos says, and he's grinning so wide his eyes are getting crinkly. "You always say you hate it when I talk for so long for no reason. So. I'm just going to--"

"You're doing it again."

"Joder," he replies, but it's teasing, and Charles knows his stupid smile is probably reflected in his own. "Marry me?"

The second time is shy, less sure, more Carlos. Alocasia giggles happily in his arms, and of course of course of course they would have a proposal like this. They'll probably elope, too. Charles can see the pictures already. "Charles," Carlos says, breaking his train of thought, in that soft ill pronounced way of his. "Marry me."

Third time is the charm, he remembers Arthur telling him a few years ago. Carlos is a little pleading, now, even though they both already know the answer.

"I thought we were already married," Charles says instead, referring to the time before Zandvoort in 2022, the pact they'd made, both tipsy but both equally serious. God. It seems so long ago and yet not at all.

["Mate, this is like a marriage contract," Charles realises, entirely too giggly for his liking. Carlos seems to enjoy it, though. He's only ever seen two marriage contracts before, his parents' and one of his friend's. But the memories are clear in his mind. "Are we getting married?"

Carlos looks at him like he's hung the stars, and this is dangerous. They both know it. "Yes. Sure."]

"Let's make it real."

Charles rolls his eyes, hauling Carlos off the floor. "You'll ruin your knees," he mutters, smoothing down his shirt. He pretends the great big ball of warmth in his chest isn't burning him from the inside. "Yes, of course," he adds quietly, and he didn't think Carlos' smile could get any bigger, but.

Carlos cheers and suddenly the floor vanishes from underneath Charles, and he makes a strangled noise as he's lifted into the air. Alo seems to enjoy being smushed in the middle of them, shrieking happily in that adorable way of hers, Carlos attacking his face with feather-light kisses.

Well, Charles did say he had a plan.

—

alocasia is the name of a plant :)

#can u tell i was stretched thin for baby name ideas #i hope u cant #me writing - shocking events #something about charles making important decisions on a whim seems so canon to me i am sorry #haha he's definitely not surviving this marriage amiright #zach writes #charlos abo #in the LOOSEST sense #charles leclerc #carlos sainz jr

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