Nicknames
No one knew what was going to happen, because Lily did not give any sign of life as soon as she left the plane in Italy. Neither did James. He was actually in Como. He owned a house there near the lake. He did not spend a lot of time there since he was in a different country almost every two weeks. His parents left Singapore earlier than him and went to Monaco. He had to be in Italy. He waited for Lily to call him to go to Maranello. But it seemed like she wasn’t about to do that.
James enjoyed the silence and his own company just for a day. He struggled with jetlag and he actually hated being alone. He felt like he was missing something all the time. Or maybe someone. He wished he stayed with Sirius in that hospital. He could facetime him, but time zones were different and James wasn’t so good at dealing with them, so he talked to his parents only. They were so excited about the rest of the season that James started feeling some pressure. He was a rather chilled out person, but now… he really had a chance to achieve something big.
Finally, the third day after they came back, Lily called. It was something around nine in the morning. She asked James to come to Ferrari’s headquarters as soon as possible. He had to go to the garage and get his red car ready. He was a bit scared. Will Regulus be a good teammate?, he wondered.
Same wondered Remus whenever Formula One crossed his mind. He just couldn’t not think about it. He really should start separating his work life and the private one. That was not easy because he spent so much time with Sirius who was a literal legend. He wasn’t mad, though.
After Sirius’s hospital discharge, they went straight to the airport. Since the private jet left three days before, Remus booked tickets for them in the first class on public airlines. Fortunately, they did not have to change. It would make the journey more exhausting than it already was. Remus had to call the airlines to ask if they had enough space inside the plane for the wheelchair. He took care of everything to comfort Sirius even a little. Sirius was about to show his medical report to the doctors in Milan and stay under their supervision for the rest of the healing.
“Do you want to sit next to the window?”, Remus asked Sirius as they got on the deck. After the words left his mouth, he felt stupid. It was a night flight, so he wouldn’t be able to see anything anyway.
“Nah, you can sit there. I’ll sleep anyway”, Sirius shrugged.
As soon as they took off, Sirius in fact fell asleep. Remus, on the other hand, didn’t want to go to sleep. That was probably stupid. He’d be exhausted by the time they got to Maranello, but it was so noisy in the plane that it would take him three hours to fall asleep. He had to rest in complete silence. There was too much noise at his job, so he had no other choice but to enjoy a few moments of silence.
Remus decided he would catch up on the new episodes of his favourite TV show. It was stupid and embarrassing to admit, but he loved “The Vampire Diaries”. He hated both Salvatores, but he still continued to watch it. Everyone has some guilty pleasures.
When he finished the eighth episode, he was in need of going to the bathroom. He hated plane’s restrooms. He felt like he could only pee comfortably while being on the ground. Besides that, he felt a little odd because he had to go over Sirius who had his legs straightened. He didn’t want to wake him up.
By the time Remus was analysing options on how to leave his seat, the flight attendants began to serve meals. There were few dishes to choose from. It was the time that Sirius had to be woken up. He could probably sleep until the end of the journey, but it would be better for him if he ate anything.
“Sirius”, Remus hissed as he patted him on the shoulder.
Black didn’t move, so Remus tried again. Finally, after the third attempt, Sirius opened his eyes.
“Are we already in Italy?”, he asked and looked round. He couldn’t see if it was dawn outside, because every window was covered.
“No, but I thought it would be nice if you ate something”, Remus explained. “Sorry if that bothers you”.
“No, don’t think like that”, Sirius replied. “I’m glad you thought of me. Actually, I’m starving.”
“That’s great, because we have some good food for you”, the flight attendant came with a trolley. There were some lasagne, chicken dish with rice and some Asian food that Sirius didn’t know how it is called, and neither did Remus. “What may I get for you, gentlemen?”
They took the chicken dish, lasagne and something to drink. It was not anything fancy, just some sparkling water because they both didn’t like alcohol so much. Remus enjoyed his meal. The rice that was put next to the chicken was a little dry, but it wasn’t that bad. He finally made his way to the toilet too.
Meanwhile Sirius was trying not to get dirty all over the face by the tomato sauce. Unfortunately when Remus came back, he saw some reddish smudges close to Sirius’s mouth.
“You’ve got something on your face”, he said and pointed to the area on his own face to give Sirius a clue.
“Tell me something I don’t already know”, Sirius gasped. Then he took the napkin and started rubbing his face. He was doing it on the wrong side just as he didn’t understand the instructions Remus gave him.
“Not there”, Remus said and took the napkin out of his hands. “It’s here”, he put the napkin on the table as he finished.
He felt Sirius’s sight on him. It was penetrating and kind of judgy. After Remus looked at him, he smiled.
“You can still tell me something I don’t already know”, he blurted out. “I want to go back to sleep, but it'd be better if I had a story to listen to."
“Okay, so. Do you know that Australia is wider than the moon? The moon sits at something about 3400 km in diameter, while Australia’s diameter from east to west is almost 4000 km.”, Remus didn’t have many fun facts prepared for occasions like this. He would rather listen to someone saying stuff than actually come up with different topics.
“I’m pretty sure you said when we were in Australia”, Sirius yawned.
Remus in fact, did say that. He thought Sirius wouldn’t remember that. He was busy winning that time.
“Fine, I’ll tell you something different and then you’ll let me watch my show”.
“What are you watching?”
“Just some random TV show”, Remus shrugged.
“Can we watch it together?”, Sirius offered.
“Do you know that I actually changed my name because I hated being French?”, Remus began to talk as fast as he could.
“You did WHAT?” Sirius's eyes went wide.
“I was born in France, and my mom named me Remy.”, he explained. “Then we moved to Italy and I was really sad because every boy had a fun name and mine sounded like a rat. Also I didn’t feel welcomed there since my Italian wasn’t perfect.”
“There is this Disney film with a rat named Remy”, Sirius said. “I guess that doesn’t help”.
“That’s where my reference came from”, he laughed. “In school I learned about the founders of Rome and I decided to become Remus after it”.
“And your parents use this name?”
“Nah, I’m still Remy for them”.
They sat in silence for a while. Some guy sitting behind them started snoring.
“Is it uncomfortable for you when I call you Remu some time? It sounds a bit like Remy but pronounced differently.”
When Sirius said that, the plane rocked. Remus’s muscles braced. He put his hands on the armrests and pressed his fingers to the navy material which covered this piece of furniture. The juddering only lasted for a few seconds and no one was actually bothered by it besides Remus. Shaking on a plane was normal, he knew that. But shaking could lead to some issues and eventually to fall down. Fuck, he started thinking about plane crashes again.
Even without that kind of thoughts, Sirius’s question made him feel different. He felt numb. The fact that Black cared about that sort of thing put him in a disbelief. They were just colleagues from work, they shouldn’t even have had this conversation. Remus has never said anything that personal since the graduation of high school. He felt too comfortable while talking to Sirius. They cared about each other, as the driver and his race engineer should do. But this seemed so weird to Remus. Just as if he cared and shared a little too much. When he had started thinking about that, it was more terrifying than the actual plane crash.
“Are you alright?”, he’d heard Sirius’s soft voice before he came round.
“Yeah, I kinda freaked out," Remus replied. He shook his head as if he was letting the bad thoughts go away. “Not a big fan of flying”.
“That’s why you’re in Ferrari, not Red Bull”.
“What?”
“Red Bull gives you wings and all that commercial shit”, Sirius explained. “You chose us because you just don’t like flying”.
Remus laughed. This was a silly explanation, but it kind of took his mind to the right place. The joke itself didn’t seem so funny to him. He laughed to reduce the tension in his head. Or maybe it was just this level of panic that everything was funny to him. He didn’t know exactly.
They talked a bit more. Eventually, Sirius wanted to stay up for the rest of the flight and with that being said, Remus wouldn’t be able to watch “The Vampire Diaries” peacefully. He decided to go to sleep. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a neck pillow so it wasn’t particularly comfortable.
James wasn’t feeling comfortable either.
He drove for over two hours just to sit on a red couch in the Ferrari’s headquarters and stare at a wall. Lily was supposed to pick him up because they were about to shoot something in an area of the building that James wasn’t familiar with. They just couldn’t risk him getting lost.
He was about to get level three hundred thirty tree in Candy Crush Saga, someone said his name. It was Mary Macdonald, the team’s social media girlboss. She was the one to provide the best content to the fans all over the world.
“Come on, James. We have so much to do”, she said with her specific accent. James wondered where she or her family came from. Her sepia brown skin made him believe she had roots somewhere in Central America or North Africa. He didn’t ask though. He thought this was a type of question that could be interpreted as rude. It was too personal. Besides that he just had to work with her, not be besties.
James followed Mary to the fourth floor. He had never been there before. Lily’s office was located on the second floor and that’s where he would probably be if he were in headquarters. Besides that, filming anything usually took place on the first floor, so he was confused about this whole fourth floor thing. He also wasn’t in the mood for being in front of a camera today.
Mary opened the white door with a red horse on it. Inside there were some special lamps for filming, tripods, a big red couch with some yellow and black pillows. There was also a little white table that looked like some cheap Ikea stuff. Besides that there were two clothes stands full of Ferrari’s merchandise.
James wasn’t sure he could sit, so he just stood next to the closed door.
“So, welcome to the new social media creating centre!”, Mary said cheerfully. “How do you like it?”
“It looks professional”, he murmured. It was just a normal room, they could probably film in different places in that building, too.
“It has soundproof walls, so we wouldn’t have to worry about noise cancellation during editing”, she explained. “Take a seat, I guess we have to wait a bit…”
She didn’t finish because the door opened. It was Regulus and Lily. She had a relieved look on her face. That made James believe everything went the way she planned. Regulus on the other hand looked kind of excited. He definitely didn’t look like someone whose brother had a near death experience. This was probably an overstatement, because Sirius was fine after all, but it was frightening when you watched it live.
“Hello”, Regulus said after he closed the door. His voice sounded different than James remembered. Or maybe Regulus was just a little sick back then.
James met Regulus for the first time more than a year ago. Regulus at that time was a rookie in Formula Three. They saw each other many times in the paddock or garages, but barely talked. When Regulus came to talk to Sirius, James usually disappeared.
He was too embarrassed to look in Reg’s face because of their first meeting.
It was the first Formula 3 race of the season in Bahrain. Formula One drivers had already started their season in Melbourne. Sirius was leading the Championship; it was the season he won the main trophy. Everyone was talking about the magic of Ferrari in Australia and that led to overall excitement about the second race.
James was not that excited. He didn’t finish his first race ever in F1. He was a bit embarrassed. He wanted people of his country to be proud of him. Now everyone looked at him as if he was a pay-driver who changed nationality for sponsors.
He arrived way too early to the track, because he wanted to look at people from other series racing. Maybe they would show him what he shouldn’t do there. He thought he’d just collect some information.
James went to Prema’s garage. It was actually a Ferrari’s garage, but they lent it to the other team for the time of their competitions. Everyone seemed to know him. There were some mechanics as well as the engineers. Not a sight of the drivers. Besides Regulus there was a Spanish guy, and James on that day had a very strange urge to speak some Spanish. He hoped he could find Fernando and catch up with him.
It turned out the training was about to start in half an hour. James began to walk around the garage. He talked to a bunch of different people for a while and then left to use the restroom. He was so stupid he didn’t knock first. He just pressed the door handle.
Unfortunately, it was busy.
People who were there were busy too. Regulus was kissing Barty Crouch Junior in a fucking restroom in a Ferrari’s garage. He didn’t even have his shirt put on. James saw their cheeks rushed with blood and Regulus’ naked torso. He cleared his throat and closed the door as his face was getting hotter. He was so embarrassed.
James couldn’t move for a while. Something weird happened to him just like he was frozen. He could not have gone to the toilet. It was all so strange because he only wanted to pee. Fuck, he wanted to do a normal thing and yet now he was analysing all the mistakes he made through his life.
This was weird. He did not know how to feel about it all.
Barty left the toilet a few minutes after the incident. Or maybe it was just a few seconds? James wasn’t sure. He felt like he spent a year standing there in front of the red toilet door. Barty didn’t say anything, but him leaving made James come round.
He still needed to pee.
He knocked three times. Regulus opened the door with a slight of anger and embarrassment on his face. He was dressed now and his hair was pinned up.
“Couldn’t you just find a different toilet?” he asked, raising a brow.
“Lo siento, pero… err, sorry…” James really didn’t know what he should say. He got so worried he couldn’t say anything in proper English.
“Come in, I’ll tell you something”, Regulus insisted. James listened politely and came inside. “Listen, you did not see anything going on here. Act like nothing happened”. He looked at James who still had a little trouble with managing his muscle cramps. “Oh my god, you don’t act like nothing happened”. Regulus shook his head.
“Yeah, that sort of threw me off guard”, James scratched his neck. “But I won’t tell anyone”.
“You promise?”, Regulus looked at him. His gaze was full of hope and his eyes shined like two stars. With their blueish colour they seemed more like some form of nebula than a particular star to James. “Hey, listen to me! Do you promise?”
“Claro que sí”, he replied as he moved his eyes from Regulus’s eyes to his hair. “Can I just use this stupid toilet now?”
“Oui”, Regulus murmured and left. Before he closed the door, he asked James once more not to tell anyone.
James was not that kind of person to seek vengeance. Besides that Regulus didn’t do anything harmful to him. But if he had ever dreamed of doing something bad, James would have had some answer to show him where his place was.
James didn’t know if Regulus and Barty continued to do what they were doing back then, but now he clearly had an ace up his sleeve. He didn’t know if he was going to use it. This idea didn’t seem right to him. He wanted to win, not to cause a scandal.
“Guys, we have a lot of work to do so please get ready”, Mary said while placing her camera on a tripod.
Regulus sat next to James who sat right in the middle of it.
“James, move, I need to sit between you two”, Lily ordered.
“I wonder what we are doing.” He said as he moved.
“A video for our dearest fans”, Mary explained. “Lily, I need you to put some powder on your face. You can use mine, it’s translucent”.
Lily stood up and Mary gave her the powder. The room was silent; Regulus was tapping his lap and James was just staring at Mary who lit all the lamps. She didn’t give them any script of the video they were about to film. James was a bit worried about that. They always planned every filming session ahead, gave some tips and a brief recap of what they were doing; today everything was rushed as if someone was holding a gun next to Lily’s head and demanded some social media content with a new driver.
“Shit”, Mary hissed looking through the camera. “James, Regulus, please put on some Ferrari clothes”.
James came to the clothes stands first. Regulus followed him with a slight grin on his face.
“Em… what size do you wear?”, James asked him. He was already looking for a T-shirt his size, but they were only small ones that would fit Sirius. Black was skinnier and smaller than James.
“Medium”, Regulus answered. James began to look for a medium sized T-shirt then, and he finally found something.
“There you go”, he handed it to Regulus.
“Thanks”, he smiled politely. It wasn’t a fake smile though. James couldn’t really tell, because he has never seen Regulus’s smile until this moment. He felt like a genuine and trust-worthy person. “Do we have to get changed here or is there any other room?”, Regulus asked and then James realised he was still holding a piece of red fabric. He turned back and looked for a T-shirt in his size.
“You can go to the toilet if you want, or stay here. We won’t be watching”, Mary said. She was still dealing with the camera and the light. Lily was helping her out by just sitting on the couch, because her hair was looking out of colour with this light setting.
Regulus looked at James who had just found a T-shirt in extra-large size. The Colombian driver removed his daily shirt, but he didn’t think about his glasses. They fell off his face as he took off the T-shirt and hit the floor. Regulus squatted and got them for James.
When he got up, the first thing he saw was a tattoo on his chest. James was well-built but the tattoo didn’t fit him. It was a small deer on his ribs. It looked a bit like Bambi’s father.
Regulus handed glasses to James and looked at his own T-shirt. Then he got changed as fast as he could.
Red probably didn’t fit him well, he’d rather see himself in navy or black. His racing suit was red too, even in lower series, but he still thought it just didn't look good on him. James on the other hand was made for different scarlett and maroon shades.
They got back to the couch where Lily was waiting. Mary asked them to sit more close to each other because she didn’t want to move the camera as it would ruin the great light. It was all tighten-up and they finally made it.
One video. That was it. Only Lily was talking in it. She was announcing Regulus as a new driver and he waved at the camera as she mentioned him. James was there just as the background. He was getting bored and hot; the lamps were giving so much light and too much heat to the room.
“Thank you guys, I’d better get going”, Lily said as she got up.
“Are we free now, too?”, Regulus asked before James did.
“No”, Mary and Lily replied at the same time.
“We’re filming one more video. Something like ‘get to know us’”’, Mary explained. “People don’t know much about Regulus, so I thought it’d be nice. I prepared questions for you”. She reached into her bag and gave them a few pieces of paper.
They started reading it.
“Okay. You guys stay here and make this video. It will be posted on our YouTube channel soon, so please, James do not say any bad words. We don’t have time to censor everything”, Lily pointed at him and he raised his brows.
“I’d say the baddest words if I don’t get anything to drink. I’m dying of heat here. It’s hotter than the Canary Islands” James tried to sound overdramatic.
“Actually, there’s no word like ‘baddest’”, Regulus interfered.
“Actually, there is”, James looked at him frowning.
Regulus was about to answer, but now Lily spoke again to stop the drama.
“Fine. I’ll get you water”, she said and left.
“Let’s start, shall we?”, Mary looked at them. “James reads question, Regulus answers and then you switch and do it all the way round until the last question. You can say as much as you want, is everything clear? Okay. Action”.
Both of them were confused at that moment, but she engaged them to start talking. James looked at the paper and read the first question.
“Who is your biggest idol?”
“In F1 I’d say it’s my brother and Michael Schumacher. In different sports, that would be Michael Phelps. I wanted to be a swimmer when I was younger”. Now Regulus looked at his paper and smiled at the first question. “Do you have any nicknames? If not, what do you think people would call you?”
“Some people call me Prongs”, James answered when Lily entered the room. She handed them three bottles of water, gave Mary an apologetic smile and left.
“You were saying?”, Regulus started after he drank a little from the bottle.
“Prongs. That’s my nickname”.
“No one calls you that”, Regulus frowned and Mary laughed quietly.
“Your brother does but okay. What nickname would you give me then?” Regulus settled down when Sirius was mentioned and began to think. James’s tattoo crossed his mind.
“Bambi”, he said without hesitation.
“What?!”
“B-A-M-B-I”, Regulus spelled.
“I know, but why?!”, he was confused. He looked at Mary who was having the time of her life. The good thing was she couldn’t laugh out loud because she’d have to edit much more.
“I don’t know… you seem too good to be a big scary deer. You’re more like Bambi. Young, full of hopes and considered cute”, Regulus explained. It sounded stupid and it wasn’t probably a good idea to say the cartoon deer’s name in the first place. He was glad he didn’t mention his tattoo.
“I’ll take that explanation, but don’t call me that ever again”, James looked him in the eyes and hoped he would do what he had just told him.
Regulus just nodded and they continued. It took them more than thirty minutes to record all of it. Mary was very pleased with the outcome. She would probably make a five minute video from all the materials. James hoped she would cut out the Bambi part.
The other questions were typical - something you could ask people you don’t know that much, for example what their favourite song or food is. James learned that Regulus liked cheese and Twenty One Pilots.
James changed his clothes and left the building. He got into his car, preparing mentally for another over two hours ride. It was airless inside so he opened the window. He looked in the mirror as he changed to the back gear. He looked again to check if he could drive, and saw Regulus right on his way.
James rolled his eyes. Regulus approached the car from the driver’s side.
“Hi”, he said. “I wanted to let you know that I will not call you Bambi”.
“Er… Thank you, I guess?”, James was screwed. The Bambi thing will follow him until his last day. It was a nickname he and Sirius came up with when they got drunk after their first double podium. James called Sirius “Padfoot” back then, because he got too excited over some dog troops printed on a bottle of champagne. It was their thing, but James didn’t mind other people calling him “Prongs” since he had a deer obsession when he was like twelve.
“But I think it really suits you. It’s adorable” Regulus smiled.
“Well, if you don’t mind, I’d better get going”, James said with a soft smile as his cheeks were getting red. He felt embarrassed by this nickname. He left with a picture of Regulus’s genuine smile in his head.