"Happy Birthday Little Princess!" The whole Leclerc family seemed to be surrounding Y/n's bed. It startled her, but she smiled, before putting a pillow over her face, and rolling over.
"Guys, it's like 6am, can a girl not sleep in on her birthday" Y/n moaned.
"Correction. It's 11am, and if the birthday girl would like presents, she has to stop being such a brat."
"Arthur, don't call her a brat," Lorenzo chastised.
"If you don't get up soon, you won't have time to open your presents, or get dressed, or go to the beach, or get ready to go out clubbing tonight". Arthur was right. There was a lot planned for Y/n's birthday and she didn't want to disappoint the others. They always went all out for her birthday, just so she didn't feel the absence of their father. They didn't want her to notice what they were trying to do, she did though, and she appreciated it.
"Okay, okay, enough! I'm up, I'm up. Take me to my presents!" She held her arms up,only to be grabbed by all three of her brothers and hoisted over their heads. "Guys, this is not what I meant! I did not want to crowdsurf for my 21st birthday".
She didn't really care about the presents, all she cared about was spending the time with her family. She got through opening her presents, and went upstairs to pull a bikini out of her suitcase to get ready for the beach.
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"CHARLES MARC HERVE PERCEVAL LECLERC PUT ME THE HELL DOWN!! RIGHT NOW! OTHERWISE FERRARI WILL ONLY HAVE ONE DRIVER AFTER THE SUMMER BREAK. SPOILER ALERT, IT'LL BE CARLOS !!!!" Y/n screamed, slapping her brother on the back.
"MAMAN! Please make him stop! I'm too old for this, seriously!"
"Sorry my sweet. I'm TOO OLD to stop him"
"ENZO, ARTHUR, any help" Y/n called out to her brothers. They just laughed at her.
"Cha, put me down, please. I'm still your little princess okay. I'm not too old to be called that. You can call me that until you die"
"Little Princess, what does that mean?"
"I'm smarter than you, younger than you, and prettier than you" Y/n rolled her eyes. "Of course, I'll live longer than you dummy."
"Whatever you say, Little Sweet Baby Princess" Charles said kissing his sister on the cheek and pulling her into a hug.
"I'm going for a swim, I'll be back", Y/n announced to the rest of the family.
"Okay. Be safe" said in unison.
As she walked down towards the water, she thought about those three words. It was something their father started when Lorenzo, Jules and Nico were karting. It was just a throwaway comment back then.
As the waves lapped over her legs, she thought about what more it meant to them now. After Jules died, Y/n thought about whether it was her fault. She had been the last person to speak to Jules before Suzuka. She wanted his advice because Arthur had called her "Little Princess" at school, and now everyone was teasing her about it. He was the one who got her to calm down, everyone else didn't understand why she was upset. "Y/N/n, you need to calm down, you know it's just a term of love. He didn't mean to upset you or get you teased. He may be your older brother, but he's still just a kid."He had said but Y/n had interrupted "Julio, you don't understand, everyone laughed at me". Y/n could hear people talking to him in the background. "My sweet, I'm really sorry I have to jump in the car now, I'll wave at you from the podium and ring you straight after, okay". Y/n was selfish, "But Jules, please, I have no one to talk to". "Y/n/n, I'm so so sorry, I'll ring you as soon as I can, Salut ma puce". That was the last thing he said to her. She'd never told her family about the guilt she felt, for not telling Jules to be safe. And then her father had gotten sick, and she couldn't find it in himself to tell him to be safe. Because how could he be safe, when he was dying in-front of her. She just said "Je t'aime papa", kissed him on the head and watched as he went to sleep for the last time. Her sun had finally gone out. Everything she revolved around. Her entire world was gone. So she never took those three words for granted and nor did the others. It was a declaration of love. i was a goodbye, just in case. It was everything important, in three words.
Y/n dove head first into those waves. They felt like the waves of grief in a physical form. She loved the ocean, but it was the stars she truly loved. Herve was in love with astronomy, and she was the only child that inherited that trait. Stars, planets, moons, comets, you name it, they loved it. She was her star princess. The girls middle name was Aurelia(Golden) Etoile (Star). She was always her Daddy's star princess.
She walked out of the water, back towards her family. She could see them huddled around something, all speaking very quickly, eyes darting towards her and back to whatever was in Pascale's hands. "What're you all muttering about?" Y/n questioned. Pascale shoved something into Charles' hands. "There is one more present for you my sweet princess," Pascale said stepping forward and placing her hand around he daughter, "It's from your father" she said choking up, looking to her eldest son to explain. Lorenzo started to "When Papa knew he wasn't going to get better, he organised this for you. You were the love of his life, aside from Maman, you two had a special bind and he never wanted you to forget that. Charles, can you give her it please".
Charles handed Y/n a small box, with her full name embossed on it. She opened it up and inside was a delicate signet ring, it was gold, with diamonds and engraving, designed to look like a solar system, on the inside it said "To you, I am the sun, but to me, you are the whole solar system. Love Papa". A tear slipped from Y/n eye. "I miss him" she whispered. No one said anything, but Charles lunged forward and held his sister while she cried, not longer after followed by Arthur, then Lorenzo, and then Pascale.
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"Arthur, does this look good?" Y/n called out
"Yup" he looked at her very quickly "Let's go, the other two are ready"
"Where are we going?" Y/n asked as they walked down the stairs together
"Ushuaia"
The car ride to the club was hilarious. All of them laughing and singing along to old school tunes. It felt like they were just little kids again, without the weight of what they lost or what the have to prove on their shoulders.
The four Leclerc siblings were out, dancing together, having fun. Drinking champagne and celebrating the youngest child finally turning 21. Arthur and Lorenzo were dance battling while Y/n and Charles tried not to wet themselves from laughing. For what seemed like the first time in forever, the 3 boys noticed that Y/n was completely unburdened by her pain. She seemed like that care free Little Princess who didn't care what people thought. They noticed her smile was all the way to her eyes, they noticed she was laughing from her belly, and they noticed their was not a single thread of anxiety in her demeanor.
What they did notice were the groups of photographers and fans taking photos of them.
============
Y/n woke up the next morning with a headache. Standard. Making her way down the stairs in dire need of coffee.
What was making her headache worse was the sound of her brother angrily shouting in italien. Y/n's italien was not great, but she could make out words like "my sister" and "what do i do".
"Maman, what's going on" Y/n asked her mother
"Charles is on damage control" She said back.
"Damage control? What do you mean?" Y/n was even more confused.
"You haven't seen" Y/n stopped leaning against the counter, looking at her mother, forgetting about the coffee filling up on the machine.
"Seen what"
Pascale handed her the phone
YOU ARE READING
The Little Princess
FanfictionY/n Leclerc was 14 when Jules died. She had never been to races anyway, only ever watching on TV, so it wasn't hard for her family to keep her seperate from that life. But when Herve died, Y/n fell apart. Pascale thought it would be best to send her...
