Apex | Charles Leclerc

Chapter 49

Hello! Important author's note here.

There are scenes in this chapter that may be triggering. Just like before, I have placed warning signs before this part. For those who wish to skip it, the event will be mentioned at the end of the chapter.

tw: sexual assault

*****

September 07, 2025 - Italy

The tifosi are crazy.

It's the kind of crazy that's absolutely wonderful. As soon as we arrived in Italy, it was like every single person was aware of who Charles was. We arrived early since he had to go to Maranello where the factory already had a crowd of fans waiting for him outside. He took his time taking pictures with them and signing any merch held out in front of him. I could see it in his eyes that the support made him a bit emotional and he shared with me later that day that it's always like that and he wouldn't exchange it for anything in the world.

The past two days of the race weekend were spent seeing most of the stands covered in red. The practice sessions alone felt like it was race day with how the fans cheered every time they saw the red cars.

Since this was Monza, Ferrari showed up with a new design for the car. The first time I saw the pictures that Charles sent me, I felt chills travel down my spine because of how it looked.

The car screamed power. They used a mix of black and red this time, the only yellow evident on the car was the Ferrari logo. It didn't hold the usual bright red color palette of Ferrari and instead, they used a darker shade this time. I thought that was all there was to it until I found out the boys would be wearing black racing suits to match it.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Charles asked me as we stood in the garage while he fixed his race suit. He was due on the grid in ten minutes where they would have to finish preparations before the formation lap.

"Like what?" I asked, my eyes briefly glancing over his figure before meeting his eyes.

"Like you want to pull me in my driver's room and have your way with me." He smirked and I couldn't help but laugh. I moved closer to him and zipped up the front of his suit as his hands moved to my waist. I fastened the velcro of his collar before patting his cheek.

"Ten minutes isn't enough." I winked before taking a step back. Charles grinned at me as Andrea passed him his gloves and balaclava. Before he put on his helmet, he gave me a kiss on the cheek, whispering I love you in my ear.

"I love you." I replied back and despite not seeing his lips as he put on his helmet, I knew he had a smirk on his face. "Give them hell, yeah?"

"Always."

Charles didn't disappoint. I watched all of the practice sessions and qualifying yesterday and I've decided that Monza is a track that never fails to entertain. I witnessed a lot of overtakes between drivers in the middle of the rankings, feeling pride when I saw Max make a move on Esteban as he regained fourth place. In front of him, Charles was being hunted down by the two Mercedes cars, having to do it all on his own since Carlos was behind in sixth place and trying to get past Esteban. He's been leading the race ever since the lights went out and I could hear the commentators talking about a potential grand slam. Upon hearing the term, I asked Andrea what that meant and he explained that it was what they called when a driver holds the pole position, leads every lap of the race, wins it, and gets the fastest lap as well. So far, the purple time stamp has only been showing Charles' name.