The Little Princess

20

When Y/n woke up after surgery, she opened her eyes to see her whole family standing around her. "What's going on?" she rasped out, "Why is my throat so sore?" "Probably because there was a tube down it 2 hours ago" Arthur muttered, only to be hit by his mother. "My Little Princess, we are in the hospital. You had a stomach ulcer that burst and you were bleeding internally." Pascale said reaching out to her daughter. "Charlotte told us what's been going on." Charles said through gritted teeth. "What" Y/n yelped. "That when you get into really anxious states, you stop eating and start exercises too much, because it's your way to control everything" Charlotte said re-entering the room. Y/n let out a sigh of relief. "Why didn't you tell me this was going on?" Arthur said, playing with his fingers. He and Y/n had the same nervous ticks. "I should have noticed you were going through something" he said looking at Y/n's hand that were picked raw. "I'm sorry, it never normally goes on this long." y/n muttered. "How long? How long since you haven't eaten?" Charles said angrily. "Tuesday night" she whispered. "What!" Lorenzo exclaimed. He started shouting at his two younger brothers. "She hasn't eaten in a week and you idiots didn't notice" Y/n reached out and grabbed his hand, "What do you mean a week? It's only sunday." Lorenzo immediately soften, sitting on the edge of her hospital bed. "No, it's not sunday, baby sister." He sighed, "It's Tuesday, you've been asleep for two days". Y/n weakly shook her head, about to argue, when Arthur pulled out his phone, showing her the date. "Oh" was all she could muster. "I stayed back in the paddock to get your stuff, but I couldn't find your phone anywhere" Charlotte said. "I broke it" the young monegasque girl whispered.  "How long do I have to stay here?" she asked looking up at her family. "I think the doctors said a week from when you wake up. Then you're on bedrest for a week. They said you could come to Singapore and Suzuka but no working." Charles said roughly. "And seeing as you aren't leaving my side ever again, you are coming to Singapore and Suzuka and you are going to stay in the Ferrari Garage or attached to my hip. I am not letting this happen again." He was harsh, but Y/n understood. "Charlotte and I have already said we will go, and we will stay by your side. No more disappearing, we can't make it to Suzuka though so Joris will be your minder" Arthur said patting her foot. 

Two weeks had passed and Y/n had finally been released from the hospital. She was sitting in her family home in Monaco. Charlotte was sitting with her as everyone else was out, helping her set up her new phone. "Pierre has been messaging me, asking how you are" Y/n turned to look at Charlotte. "What did you tell him?" she asked slightly panicked. "The truth" she replied. Y/n understood why Charlotte did what she did, but she didn't want Pierre worrying, or thinking she was crazy. "He wants to see you" Charlotte said quietly. "What, when?" Y/n asked frantic. "Now?" asked a french accent from the door. "P, what're you doing here?" Y/n asked trying to get up, but whimpering in pain. "I'm gonna go to the other room" Charlotte announced, getting up and leaving. Pierre sat down next to Y/n, "I'm so sorry, Y/n this is all my fault." Y/n leant into him. "No it's not, I should have told you what was going on." she muttered quietly. "No, that night you came to my room crying, I should have known something wasn't right." Pierre said, clearly he had been beating himself up about it. "No, how could you have known, you hardly know me" Y/n said, holding his hand but he pulled it away from her. "What, don't say that" He said clearly hurt. "Pierre, it's true, we've only known each other a month, you couldn't possibly know every sign that something was wrong." She said honestly. "I know that, but you can't say that I shouldn't have noticed. I care about you so much and I didn't truly notice you were struggling" Pierre said, pain and guilt behind his eyes. Y/n kissed him softly. His hand went to pull her in closer, but he accidentally nudged the almost healed incision on her stomach. She grimaced and whimpered in pain. Pierre recoiled like he'd been burnt, "I am so sorry, fuck, why can't i do anything right." She held her hand to his face. "It's okay Pierre, I'm okay". Charlotte suddenly sped back into the room. "Pierre, you have to go!" she shouted. "What?" Y/n asked confused. "Charles is on his way back" the other girl replied. "Oh shit" Pierre muttered jumping up. "Are you coming to Singapore?" he asked looking down at Y/n. She nodded, "But I'm being guarded there and in Suzuka. The only time I will see you is with Charles, I'm not allowed to leave the garage without him." Pierre frowned "So I won't be able to come close to you for two weeks." Y/n nodded. Pierre leant down, "One last kiss then?" The small girl nodded again. "Pierre, you really need to go, he'll be home any minute!" Charlotte shouted again. "I'm going, I'm going. I'll text you baby" and with that he was gone. "You guys seem like you've been together for years!" Charlotte said, sitting back down next to Y/n. "We aren't even together, Lottie". Charlotte put an arm around the younger girl, "Let's watch a movie, that'll take your mind off things."

Y/n actually enjoyed being at a race weekend without having to work. Her and Charlotte explored Singapore on Thursday and Friday, only going to the paddock for Quali on Saturday and race day on Sunday. She had only seen Pierre once with Charles, but the pair had been texting. On the monday after the race, Y/n, Arthur, Charles, and Charlotte wandered around, Joris taking photo of them as they went. Charlotte and Arthur had to fly home on Tuesday, while the others flew to Tokyo on the Wednesday. They met up with Carlos that night and took the train out to Suzuka. "So how are you feeling, baby Leclerc?" Joris whispered to her while Charles and Carlos were laughing in the seats in front of them. "Still quite sore, but I'm managing. And how many times have I asked you not to call me that" Y/n grumbled. "I have earnt the right to call you that, I've known you since you were in diapers." he laughed. "Not by my own choice" she huffed. Joris faked offence, "seeing as you didn't choose me, you obviously don't want the book recommendations I brought with me for you to read?" Y/n eyes went wide, followed by her sayin "gimme, gimme, gimme". "Okay ABBA" Joris laughed, digging into his bag, pulling out three books, "seeing as you'll be bored all weekend." She smiled and thanked him, taking the books and opening the first one. "No reading now, Y/n, we're almost there, also Ferrari asked if you would be my partner for the youtube video we're filming. Don't worry, you will just be sitting down. It's a general knowledge quiz vs Carlos and Caco" Y/n nodded "I have nothing better to do".

It was Thursday afternoon and Y/n and Caco were sitting next to each other, with Charles and Carlos on either side of them. "Hello guys, and welcome to another video, today we're doing a Sainz vs Leclerc quiz." Charles said confidently to the camera. "On one team will be myself and my cousin," Carlos said patting Caco on the back, "And on the other team will be Charles and his sister." Charles then began explaining the rules, displaying how to use the buzzers etc. "Before we start, I just want to say how unfair I think this is, Y/n is literally a genius" Carlos said huffing, earning a shove from Caco, "Just hope there's some subject she doesn't know". Unfortunately, Carlos did not get his wish. Y/n answered every question right, except for one about Carlos' dad's career, which Charles said was unfair and rigged. Charles even forced Y/n to show off her singing abilities, as he no one else knew the words to the 'finish the lyric' questions. This prompted Carlos to say 'Is there anything she can't do?'.

Friday made it glaringly obvious that everyone was trying to distract her from what happened at the track in 2014. It was in the back of her mind constantly, but she didn't really have time to dwell on it. Joris made sure she was in Charles' driver room reading a book anytime they weren't in the garage. Charles hadn't mentioned anything to Y/n, but she knew he'd given Joris a heads up.

Saturday wasn't Y/n's best day. Netflix had released a clip from the new season of DTS. It was along the lines of 'familiar faces you love' and 'new faces you soon will'. They included the clip of Y/n and Charles, where he had her over his shoulder. Unfortunately, you could see her underwear. She wasn't to bothered until she passed Pierre in the paddock on her way out, when Joris and Charles were distracted talking to Xavi, Charles' engineer. "Yuki knows" he whispered. "What". Pierre pulled out his phone, showing Y/n a series of texts he had from Yuki.

Yuki

Oh my god!

The girl you're fucking is Y/n Leclerc

I would recognise that arse and sexy underwear anywhere

Netflix just enlightened me LOL

I can't believe you're fucking Charles' baby sister!

"Oh shit" Y/n muttered into her hands. "Are you going to talk to him? Tell him to keep his mouth shut?" Y/n looked up at Pierre. She was confused when he looked offended. "Why, I don't want to hide it anymore. I want to be able to hold you in public. I want to be able to call you my girlfriend. I want to show everyone I love you for fucks sake." He whispered harshly at her. Y/n just looked at him stunned, unsure of what to say. "Whatever, I'll go talk to Yuki" he said angry and walked off. "What was that about?" Joris asked as Y/n made her way back to them. "He was showing me a photo of him, Charles and Esteban from when they were younger." Joris laughed. "Did he tell you about his new contract?" Charles said rejoining the conversation as they headed towards the paddock gate. "What new contract?" Y/n asked confused. "He signed for alpine next year," Charles explained, "They announced it this morning." Y/n only nodded, looking up at the sky. "I don't like this weather. It's the same as it was in 2014" she muttered softly. Charles and Joris both stopped to stare at her. "I'm scared of losing someone else" she said looking into her brother's eyes. He put his arm around her, "You won't little princess. I'll be extra careful". What Charles didn't understand was that it wasn't him that she was worried about, she knew he would be extremely cautious around this track in this weather. It was the angry frenchman who had just stormed in the opposite direction that she was really worried about.