POV: You Love Charles Leclerc

6. Villain Era

913 words

Charles was a very calm, golden retriever kind of person, cute and chill. Even in the car he never really got stressed. That was until this season. He was now potentially in the running for the World Championship and was pushing against Max every race and he was feeling the pressure. You saw this unfolding slowly over time as Ferrari started to let him down more and more with their strategy. You knew Charles had what it took to be World Champion but Ferrari as a team didn't and it you could see it frustrated the hell out of him. He was working harder than ever and 'the zone' that he never had before swallowed the old, cute Charles whole every race weekend. If you were honest, angry Charles was kind of hot (he is 😁) but it was pushing you away and you hated that. He was definitely more irritable on these weekends but you were always there to support him like you had promised all those months ago.
This weekend he had to defend. It was a pivotal moment as Max would go on to win the Championship if he won this race. All weekend had been tense. On Sunday, you went with Charles to the track to prepare for the afternoon as usual. However, the unusual thing was that he had said nothing to you all morning and had shown no affection, just a fixed, concentrated expression. You saw he was focusing too much on this instead of enjoying driving like he used to. "Charles, listen to me for a minute." You sat down in his room in the hospitality but he continued to stand, not even looking at you. You sighed and continued. "You're focusing on winning too much, what happened to the Charles I knew before- passionate for racing and just going out to enjoy it? I know the pressure is a lot right now but I'm going to be proud of you no matter what. Just relax a little."
"That Charles is gone, Y/N. You don't understand! I have to get them! I have to beat them!" He shouted, before leaving to the garage. You just stayed there, stunned. He had never snapped like that and it came as a shock to you. This Charles scared you, he would go to any extent to do what he wanted in this mindset.
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Later, during the race, you were watching on with the engineers, headphones on, listening to the radios. After his second pit, he was still doing well, almost making moves on Max in front but he was looking too strong. This was the final push, new tires gave him an advantage on Max, who was still on old ones. "Okay Charles," his engineer began, "final push, we are looking at a P1 if you continue like this so keep it up." You smiled, he was going to do it.
"Yes, copy. Now shush and let me do it!" Charles snapped impatiently on the radio. All the engineers exchanged glances at this out of character outburst but they did as told. "Copy." The engineer said and left the radio to return to watching the stats.
However, 7 laps from the end, something on the car started to smoke. It wasn't looking good for the end of the race and you knew Charles would be beyond frustrated as it was out of his control. "I'm losing power guys! It's slow!" Charles sounded desperate and pained.
"Okay, copy. We are looking at an engine failure. That's an engine failure. Stop the car. Stop the car." The engineer responded calmly.
"NO!" Was all the response that was given from Charles. You felt the frustration in his voice and it broke you.
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When Charles arrived back at the garage, his pit team and engineers congratulated him on a great drive before the engine failure. You just watched as he walked straight through them into his room where he shut the door. You let him cool off for a while before attempting to see him. You knocked twice. "Charles, baby, it's me. Can I come in?" You were cautious so as not to make him more angry about the race. You heard no answer so you repeated in case he hadn't heard. "Charles, je peux entrer? (Can I come in?)" Still no answer. "I'm going to come in okay?" You wanted to see him so you entered. You shut the door behind you for a bit of privacy. Charles was sitting on the small sofa on one side of the room with his head in his hands. You felt for him, you could only imagine the frustration he was feeling right now. "Hey." You said softly, hoping to get an answer from him. "You did really well today. I'm very proud of you." You smiled to show him you really were. You placed a hand on his back and rubbed it gently, attempting to calm him a little. "You shouldn't blame yourself, it was completely out of your control and I know that's the hard part but this is something that happened today and next weekend is a new race so we can just take a moment to be frustrated on this and then move onto preparing for next week, yeah? I'm proud of you." You hoped your words would help a little. He said nothing, his expression still hardened, so you decided to give him space to process today's race. Hopefully he wouldn't be too hard on himself.

A/N: this is sort of what I expect villain era Charles to be like. It doesn't feel like I wanted it to so maybe I'll edit it and make it how I wanted it but I had a bit of writer's block (I think, I just couldn't think of how I wanted to word it) I think that Charles needs to enter his villain era ASAP because 1. It would be a good look on him 😁🔥 2. I can edit this 😂 and 3. (Most importantly) he will be able to tell Ferrari what they actually need to be doing to help him because right now they are definitely not.
Anyways, remember you are loved and strong and beautiful ❤️
-A