The Right Time (Lestappen)

Welcome to Miami

"Well howdy there partner" Daniel was doing his best American accent. It was awful.

They were currently in Miami. Max was one hundred percent sure he hadn't heard a single person talk like that the whole time they had been there, well apart from Daniel.

It was the inaugural Miami GP and all the teams had seemingly gone into PR overload, hoping to capture some new part of the market. For Max, it was the final day of filming for the American sports special: Red Bull V Alpha Tauri mini series. They had already taken part in baseball, basketball and ice hockey and today it was time for American football.

Daniel was as hyped up as ever and was pacing back and forth in the locker room as they waited to get kitted out. Pierre seemed casual about the whole thing but his younger teammate Yuki looked somewhat terrified. Max didn't blame him. This was a contact sport, Daniel was full of enthusiasm and boundless energy, and Yuki was about a foot shorter than the rest of them. Max just hoped that in all Daniel's excitement he would remember to play nice.

Once they had finally been kitted out in the right gear Max actually felt pretty good, although he wasn't entirely convinced about the compression shorts. They were pretty tight and didn't seem to leave too much to the imagination. He decided to take a quick photo and send it to Charles seen as Charles had enjoyed the photo he had sent of himself in his basketball gear earlier in the week. On that occasion he had purposefully waited until the end of filming when his hair was a little messier and his cheeks a little flushed from running around the court, he thought Charles would appreciate that more. The two men had spent most of their days texting back and forth, waiting for the evenings when they could be alone together. They each had separate hotel rooms but one of them would always find their way to the other's room for the night. Every time Max would open the door and see Charles there he would feel a warm glow throughout his body.

"Come on y'all lets get out there" it seemed Daniel had not yet given up on the accent. Max knew it would only get worse when they returned to Austin Texas later in the year.

Much to Yuki's joy the session had been more about technique and running some drills with some sort of yard kick competition to finish off. Max wasn't entirely sure about the terminology but he was also happy that there had remained minimal physical contact.

Back in the locker room Max slipped off his jersey and pads and was just about to throw a jumper on when Daniel stopped him.

"Who gave you that?!"

Max checked himself out in the mirror and noticed the huge unmistakable love bite on his collarbone. His mind instantly flashed back to Charles nipping and sucking on the skin, laughing about leaving his mark. He felt his face go red and threw his hand over the mark but it was already too late.

"Looks like someone has been having some fun Mr Verstappen" Daniel teased.

"Leave him alone Daniel" Pierre laughed. He tried to keep it casual but he could see Max getting nervous. Pierre was almost certain he knew who had left that mark. Charles had definitely spent at least one night with Max, he was sure about that. He had wanted to ask one of them about it but it never seemed like the right time and he figured it wasn't really any of his business. He just hoped that when his friends were ready they would tell him.

"It was just a one night stand, I don't even think I got his name" Max lied.

Pierre wondered if Charles had been a one night stand or if there was more going on. 

Luckily for Max, Daniel's attention had now returned to more important matters. Red Bull had won the Red Bull versus AlphaTauri competition and in true Daniel Ricciardo fashion he had decided to take off his shoe for everyone to drink from. There was no champagne so he poured the rest of the lukewarm water from his drink bottle into his shoe and passed it around. Max and Pierre took a very small sip but Yuki had gulped the water down and was currently retching in the corner, much to everyone else's amusement.