Not My Sister - Charles Leclerc

Chapter 19

She fell asleep in his motorhome not long after she looked after his wounds and woke up to an empty room. Charles must've left for the press conference and here she was alone, again.

Sighing lightly, she stood up and gathered her stuff. She just felt like going home at that moment, so she hailed a cab quickly to go back to the house. When she got home, it turned out the family watched the race through a television broadcast and they told her they weren't disappointed with Charles' race at all. All that matters was he came back safely in one piece.

"Dear, Charles told me that he's going straight away to Canada after this." his mom said to her.

"Yes, I've heard as well." he didn't directly tell her. In fact, she found out from his managers. He didn't even tell her in person, but... nevermind. She brushed off the thought.

After a long day, Clarisse decided to continue her short nap back at the motorhome in her bedroom. She got into the duvet and closed her eyes. In merely seconds, the sleep overtook her.

----

Through a blurry vision, she could see the tunnel. It was dark and lonely with dimmed lights. The air felt strong and it brushed through her skin like needles. At the end of the tunnel, the light blinded her into a slight downhill and the chicane came into view.

This was the Monaco race track. The red car with number sixteen flying past the chicane like a bullet. She blinked once and the next thing she saw was a wreckage... and a ball of fire.

Everything turned into silence around her. Was that.. Charles?

It can't be..

After seeing something moving so fast suddenly halted into a complete stop in a wreck right in front of her eyes, it made her feel so sick. She waited as the marshall in an orange uniform dragged a body out of the car. Jules? Charles? Her thoughts raced uncontrollably.

Her eyes snapped open and she stood up abruptly. Breathing ragged, hands desperately trying to find the light switch on her bedpost. She ended up knocking some stuff onto the floor. But suddenly a pair of hands catched hers.

"Hey, hey, hey, what's going on?" the voice groggily asked.

"Charles..?" her eyes brimmed with tears as soon as she heard his voice. He propped on his elbows to sit up next to her. Why was he on her bed? "Is that really you.." she was still shivering from the memories of her dream. It felt so real, it's horrifying.

"Yeah, it's me. I'm sorry for coming here so sudden-" he didn't even get the chance to finish his sentence when Clarisse flung her arms around him and hugged him tightly. "I'm sorry, I just-" she sniffled mid-sentence. "I got this really weird dream."

'Weird'? It must be a really bad dream, he thought. Charles just hummed calmly and brushed her hair slowly. "You can talk to me," he said.

Clarisse shook her head. "It's very random.. Don't worry about it." she brushed it off. "Wait, aren't you supposed to be flying to Canada right now?"

Charles brought her back down onto the soft surface again while still holding her in his embrace. He let out a relaxed groan, realizing she's not crying anymore. "The weather suddenly got bad and the team decided to wait for the delay."

"So, when are you going to leave?" she asked silently. "I don't know yet... maybe I'd like to spend a few days here first before I leave. If you don't mind," Charles added that at the end. "Of course not, you silly." she giggled. "Welcome home."

"Well, thank you and let's get back to sleep, princess."

Charles ended up spending three more days before leaving Monaco for Canada. His mum surely was pleased and happy that his son was home even for just a short period of time. Charles was also glad with this decision because he got all the support from his family and friends that he never knew he needed. He felt grateful.

"I really wish you'd be there as well," he hesitantly said to Clarisse while putting on his stoic face, but failing miserably. Clarisse snickered at him while washing the dishes. "Oh, are you that desperate?" she teased him.

He stopped whatever he was doing and looked her dead in the eye, "Do I have to kiss you to shut your mouth?"

Clarisse frowned. "But then you'll get an answer from me."

"Not that I need one," that cocky attitude of his was back. "I can just kidnap you, put you in the luggage and bring you with me to Canada."

She ended up flying with him to Canada in a private jet, but not before saying goodbye to the family, of course. Arthur was the one driving them to the airport. The flight was long and exhausting, but Charles made sure that she got everything that she needed and was comfortable.

"So what do you think about the Gille Villeneuve Circuit?" she asked him when she figured that he was bored. Clarisse noticed that Charles spent the last hour just watching the clouds from the plane window with empty eyes.

His eyes suddenly lit up at her question. "So you have finally picked an interest in this thing, huh?" he asked her back. Clarisse rolled her eyes lazily. "Well, the least I can do is know the circuit's name. So, what are your thoughts?" She dodged him like that, but deep inside, she's actually starting to get interested for real though.

Charles spent the last hour talking about what the circuit looks like, showing her some images and also how many turns were there. She seemed to picked up things pretty quickly and even asked about the great "Ferrari masterblan" for this race.

Charles leaned back at his seat and sighed. "I see, you've watched the memes then."

Clarisse copied his gesture and crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Well, some say that one of the best ways to learn new things is through memes."

There was a long silence between them.

"Please don't say it," he warned her.

"Pronto.."

"Don't..."

"Pronto, Charles."

"No."

"Sbinalla."

A/N:

Oh. my. Fkn. God. I almost forgot to continue to write about this story. Please forgive me :") I'm slowly recovering from my back injuries. Thank god, it's getting waaaaaay better now than 2 weeks ago. I am so surprised seeing the notification on this fic! Thanks for the kudos and comments, it really kept me going :") I thought nobody's gonna read this fic yo, i'm mindblown that it hits 1.8k on AO3 and 3.4k on wattpad like WHAT THE HECK?! you are all precious and I love you. I'm gonna bring you updates for sure. I'm going to speed run writing this to make it up to you guys.

And also, this story already has an ending so don't worry. I'm not gonna leave you guys hanging.