Little Maxie

Chapter 29

Going out of the room, Maxie tightened his grip ono Brad's hand, feeling his heart hammer in his chest. Self-consciously, he took his thumb out of his mouth and resisted the urge to try and get out of headspace. Not that he could right now, but he would be able to try and probably start inbetweening.

Swallowing, he followed Brad to the elevator, looking around to see if it was just the two of them and managing to almost trip up with his attention scattered.

"Careful there," Brad said, stopping and looking Max over, "you're okay? Did you hurt yourself?"

"No, no owie," Maxie said softly, feeling a bit embarrassed. They hadn't even managed to walk towards the elevator and he was already doing stupid things like that, "sorry,"

"It's okay, it happens. I'll try not to go too fast," Bradley said with a smile, taking the handle of the luggage in one hand, and Max's hand in his other. This time, Maxie made sure to look at his feet, not wanting to trip over again and worry Brad needlessly.

The man had slowed down a little already, and Maxie was glad because it was always more difficult to walk when he was in his little space. It made him feel rather unbalanced, but now he was scared that they would be late because he couldn't walk like a normal person.

They reached the elevator without any further mishaps, and Max breathed a sigh of relief when Brad minutely let go of the luggage and pressed the button towards the parking lot. Somehow, it made him happy that Brad kept a tight hold on his hand even when they were standing still.

Waiting while the elevator went down, Max nervously wiggled on his feet, tugging a bit on the bottom of his shirt in an effort to keep his hand occupied and not put his thumb in his mouth. He knew that was icky, and he normally only very rarely did it, only when he wanted the extra comfort and security, and only when he was 100% sure no one could see him.

He never had done it very often, because Maxie knew that it would create a habit, and those habits sometimes carried over to big headspaces. Everyone had seen Lando suck his paci in public even when he had been big, and Max was just scared that he would accidentally pop his thumb in his mouth, and everyone would notice what a icky baby he was.

But now, that wasn't so bad, right? Dad would say it was gross, but Bradley seemed to be okay with him being small. Of course, sucking his thumb might just be a bit too far. Max wouldn't like it if anyone would touch him with their wet fingers.

The elevator stopped, pulling Max from his thoughts, and Bradley once again pulled him along.

"Let's go get to the car," Bradley said, and Maxie nodded, holding tight. Once again, he made sure to concentrate on his steps, keeping his gaze fixated on the floor.

He could hear footsteps echoing in the parking lot, and each time the approached, he pressed himself closer to Brad. Maxie was so focused keeping his steps even, that he didn't even notice when Bradly tried to pull him to the side a little.

A sharp tug on his hand made him look up, but it was too late to avoid the the person who standing with his back aimed to them.

"Oof," Maxie, said when he bumped, almost losing his balance again.

"Oh, watch where you're going," Fernando said, turning around to see who had bumped into him. The look of slight annoyance quickly disappeared when he saw Maxie looking at him with big eyes.

The little suddenly felt nervous, standing in front of the older driver in the grid. Fernando had always defended him even when he was 17 years old and ready to tackle F1 and no one gave him even gave him the benefit of the doubt.

Would he be like his dad, and believe that littles have no place on the grid? Standing still in front of the man, Max tried to pull himself up and at least look a little older then he did now.