Abu Dhabi and the aftermath
He started on pole. Lando next to him, Logan and Daniel behind, then Charles, Lance, George, Esteban, Oliver and Lewis. One last race for this year. Next year would be fresh. A new start, reset to zero.
The lights went out and they sped away. The first turn came up and his tires locked up completely. He saw Lando and Logan speed by, then felt a massive hit from behind, throwing his body forward and his car forwards, off the track, where it came to a halt and didn’t move anymore. Rear suspension, rear wing.
“Max, are you alright?” he heard GP.
“Yes. I’m out, I’m sorry, guys.” Max said. He waited for further instructions. There was a yellow flag, safety car, then he was allowed to get out of the car. He saw them drive by. Logan, Lando, Charles, Lance, Daniel. Then he saw a car standing a little further down. Lewis walked up to him.
“I’m so sorry, man, I didn’t see you lock up.” Lewis told him.
“It’s alright, I’m mostly mad at myself, who locks up in the first corner?” Max asked, they quickly slapped each other’s shoulders and made their way off the track. “Fucking hell, what a year. Now I know how you felt in 21.”
“Weeell, you waited until the last race to completely beat my ass.” Lewis said “But yeah, it’s fucking crazy if you see someone catching up like that.”
“While it seems like you’re in the same place, tires turning without grip.”
“And there is nothing you can do, your car is in it’s best shape, you are as well, but somehow, that little fucker just takes it.” Max grumbled, although not in vain.
“Yeah, that sums it up pretty good.” Lewis said, laughing.
The rest of the race was fast and clean, although they fought tooth and nails for every point.
Lando ended up winning, Charles and Logan with him on the podium. Lance, Daniel, George, Yuki, Oliver, Esteban and a surprising Nicholas got the rest of the points.
“Alright guys, an end to an eventful season! I want to thank all of you for sticking together, especially for me as it’s my rookie year as a team principal, I’m sure we can build something here, we had a good start, let’s make this the first step on our ladder to greatness.” James Vowles lifted his little cup with soda in the garage “We’ll have a rookie in his first full season next year, our Liam” he nodded towards Liam at that, who lifted his cup back “and Alex will be staying with us as well.” He lifted his cup to Alex, who lifted his cup back.
“Now let’s get ourselves a good car next year.” Alex said, taking a sip, irritating a lot of them. Yes, they weren’t playing in the big leagues again, but they had a good season, built a foundation to work on. It was their best season in years. Liam looked at Alex questioningly. “What?” Alex asked.
“Nothing” Liam said, drinking his soda and walking to the engineers. When he turned around shortly after, Alex was gone.
The afterparty in the hotel was massive. The teams had agreed up front to make it one huge party.
Oscar and Lando went to their room after a couple of hours, people keeping to spray around alcohol.
Alex and Carlos weren’t at the party.
Fernando and Sebastian were dirty dancing in the middle of the floor, next to Charles and Max, who had his hands under Charles shirt.
Liam, Yuki and Oliver sat at a table, playing poker for goldfish while drinking beer.
Lewis and Valtteri were at another table with Valtteri’s new girlfriend Tiffany, talking about whatever.
Daniel, Zak, Lawrence, Toto and Nico stood outside on the balcony, smoking cigars.
Pierre, Esteban and Logan just came from the bar.
“Hey, you guys up for a” Yuki started yelling at them, but got distracted by George and Lance stumbling through their line of sight and towards the elevators, kissing and pulling at each other’s clothes “game?” Yuki finished lamely, Ollie and Esteban staring after them.
“I’m in” Pierre yelled and walked over.
“We’re not.” Logan said, pulling a still shocked Esteban towards the elevators.
George opened his suite, pushing Lance in front of him, lips attached and tongues entwined with another. He pushed him to the bedroom, pulling Lance’s shirt over his head, followed by his own while Lance opened his belt. George pushed him back onto the bed, face first, pulling off Lance’s pants and stepping out of his own while grabbing some lube out of the nightstand, slicking himself up before laying down, Lance spreading his legs for him. He kissed him again, George trailing down a little, leaving some hickeys on Lance’s neck before going back up, entering him, seeing Lance’s jaw go slack, mouth falling open. George started thrusting, Lance’s hands gripping his pillow. Lance let out a staggering breath. George sped up his thrusts, their skin slapping together while he pressed their mouths together, swallowing Lance’s moans before letting his lips wander to his neck. He placed his elbows above Lance’s shoulders, hardening his thrusts and letting Lance’s body move against his elbows, keeping him in place. Lance choked on his own breath, trying to hold on. He moved his hands into George’s hair, pulling hard, making George groan and speed up his thrusts even more, pushing Lance over the edge before following him just a minute later.
George woke up the next morning, the sun blending his eyes. It was silent while he blinked the sleep out of his eyes. He stretched his arm over the bed. It was empty. Had Lance left? He let his hand wander and cut himself on something. He looked over, seeing a letter on the bed.
'Let’s keep this between us. It’s better this way. L.'
“George, you’re awake?” he heard Toto yell from the living room and quickly hid the letter “Our flight is going, you’re going to be late.” Toto said while knocking against the open door, carefully sticking his head in “Wow, it smells like sex in here.” He huffed “Our taxi is leaving in half an hour, you should really take a shower.”
Then Toto left, not waiting for an answer and George fell back on the bed.
Maybe he fell asleep to quickly afterwards? Had not shown enough care? Should he have asked after? Maybe he said something disgusting in his sleep? Maybe he didn’t like it after all? Maybe he didn’t like him after all?
“George!” he heard Suzy yell and he shook his head, looking at her “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, yeah.” He said, looking out of the private plane’s window again.
“Do you want to talk about it? Or just with Toto? I can sit somewhere else with some music on or stuff, if-“
“I don’t want to talk about it.” George said, a little more forceful than necessary “I’m sorry, I’m just – not now.”
“Okay, whenever you’re ready” Suzy said “But never yell at me again.” She said with a stern look.
“I won’t.” George said, looking out of the window again.
“So, Penelope, what does uncle Lando look like?” Max asked his daughter in his living room. Penelope wandered around, holding up her arms and shouting, resembling something like cheering.
“I don’t look like that.” Lando tried to defend himself.
“You are in pretty much every tv show, pictured like this at the moment.” Oscar said with a laugh.
“P, what does uncle Oscar look like?” Max then asked with a smirk and P took her arms down, huffed loudly, stuck out her belly and rubbed it, huffing again.
“You’re the devil and I’m not like that.” Oscar said while Lando laughed. Oscar took his legs off the couch, preparing to get up and let out a loud huff, which P repeated instantly. Oscar started walking slowly.
“Where are you going?” Lando asked.
“Tinkle tinkle” Penelope let out, followed by a loud huff. Max and Lando laughed even louder while Oscar looked at the smiling Penelope for a moment and then made his way to the bathroom.
Their appartement was ready to move back in the next day, the smell of fresh paint now gone. The children’s rooms got painted in pale green at the bottom before being broken by a strip of wallpaper with all kinds of animals, the upper part of the walls and the ceiling painted yellow. The lamp was formed like a cloud on the ceiling. They had decided on off-white furniture. It was a couple days before Christmas and up until now, the genders of the babies had been only known to them.
On the 23rd, Adam, Cisca and Cissy would fly over from England, celebrating together with them, Nicole, Chloe, Julia and Daniel. Flo wanted to celebrate with her new boyfriend and his parents. Max and Penelope would celebrate with Max’s mother and his sister’s family in the Netherlands.
Esteban and Logan would celebrate in Switzerland.
The few gender-specific things they bought were in the back of the closets. The appointment for the caesarean was set. The last week of April. Only a little more than four months to go.
Result of the Abu Dhabi GP:
24-Abu Dhabi
NOR478
LEC254
SAR270
STR146
RIC138
RUS125
TSU101
BEA76
OCO65
LAT1
LAW6
HUL8
ALO20
SAI237
ZHO2
ALB43
BOT12
GAS13
HAM42
VER357
Championship results:
NOR478
VER357
SAR270
LEC254
SAI237
STR146
RIC138
RUS125
TSU101
BEA76
PER69
OCO65
ALB43
HAM42
ALO20
GAS13
BOT12
HUL8
MAG6
LAW6
ZHO2
LAT1
DEV0