L O C K -U P | c. leclerc

20| New Blood

I nearly laughed out loud. Jasmine and I kept in touch with calls every now and then, but they were mostly from her. I'm terrible at any social interaction.

I would consider her as a friend but racing life is just very busy so our interactions were minimal. Charles looked at me with a raised brow and teased, "I thought you didn't have friends."

"She's an acquaintance Charles, I just love racing with this girl back in F1 academy," I commented and Jasmine smiled and said, "Yeah, same here. Artemis and I are acquaintances but ya know, I'll be with you guys for the rest of the races so if you guys want to race, none of you better get an injury...otherwise I'm taking your seat."

Charles paled and Fred just gave him a look telling him to speak up. Charles stupidly blurted, "Never thought I'd see the day where there'll be two versions of Artemis."

"Excuse me," Jasmine snapped, "I am my own self, and Artemis is her own self." Still she latched onto me and I was starting to feel a little concerned with the amount of contact. Charles then teased, "Jasmine's like your very own little Lando Norris!"

Jasmine immediately piped up, "I love Lando! I'm a very big fan of his!"

Charles gave me a look then said, "Interesting."

"Alright kids," Fred cut our conversation short, "It's off to your planes you go, we're going to Melbourne."

____

"Tell me why, Lando somehow roped all of us to be in the same private plane to Melbourne together with no other people but us and the plane staff," I questioned and Charles just shrugged and said, "He said-."

"FRIENDSHIP BONDING!," Lando screamed as he entered the plane followed by an amused Pierre and a tired looking Max, both carrying a decent amount of luggage.

"I'm here for the drama and gossip," Pierre said with a wink, and Max said, "I'm here to avoid Carlos, he thinks he's Jesus. Well actually, it's because he thinks wine is water and that's all he's been drinking. It's a hot mess, thanks a lot to your relationship drama."

Charles gave him a look and I flipped Max off but then suddenly Jasmine piped in as she entered the plane, "What relationship drama?"

To all of their surprise I said, "By the way guys, I hope you don't mind I brought our new reserve driver at Ferrari. This is Jasmine, I've known her since my F1 academy days and I'm glad to have her here. Thought it would be nice to introduce her to you all."

Lando's eyes widened. He blushed a little and that was interesting but then he said, "So you're saying I'm not your first friend Artemis? How dare you?!"

"Hey! You got a problem with that!," Jasmine yelled, why does she look genuinely offended?

"Alright please, Lando no. 1 and Lando no. 2, sit down so this plane can finally leave and we can finally arrive at Australia,"  Max scolded, immediately slumping into his seat. Pierre looked at him with concern and asked, "What's gotten into you? How are you going to be a 4-time world champion if you're going to be like a potato sack hmm??"

"Oh forget that, I can always try and win next year, I've had enough dealing with Christian and Carlos drama, those two are at each other's throats all the time," Max said as he slumped even further into his seat. I just chuckled and settled into mine next to Charles.

He immediately offered his shoulder to which I rested my head as he held my hand. Pierre rolled his eyes and said, "Please! Can you love birds stop this? It's making me miss Kika."

"Wait-," Jasmine exclaimed as she took the seat next to Lando, "YOU GUYS ARE DATING?! OH MY GOD TWITTER IS GOING TO BE SO-."

"WAIT DON't JASMINE!," I immediately yelled, "We're trying to keep things private okay?"

"But why?," she asked, "Have you seen Twitter? The whole fan base is already rooting for you two?"

"I just don't want my career to be defined by dating the most sought after man in F1," I explained, "I want to be known for me, but behind closed doors, he's all mine."

I clung to Charles like a gecko to which Lando just smiled and said, "I'm such a good Cupid, when you guys get married and have kids, I shall be the godfather."

"What do you mean when, don't you mean if?," Pierre asked and Lando shook his head, "Nah, I think these two are in it for the long run."

"Alright, alright, enough banter, Max looks stressed just listening to us," I scolded and Max was just furiously typing on his phone. Pierre snatched it off him and said, "Enough! Just close your eyes and rest mate, we've got a long flight."

"Hey! I was texting Kelly to reassure Penelope that I was going to get her the Bluey and Bingo plushies when I get to Australia," Max said and I asked, "Bluey?"

"It's this Australian kids show that Penelope found on Disney plus and she fell in love with it," Max explained, "And honestly I don't blame her, it's a pretty solid show with really loveable characters who all happen to be talking dogs."

"Oh my god Max, you're such a dad," Pierre teased and Max shrugged then replied, "Penelope is like a daughter to me."

"Man, I need you to replace my deadbeat dad Max," I joked and Max replied, "Sorry, I do not want to father a grown woman, I have enough stress as it is. The whole team drama at Red Bull is driving me nuts. Christian is just always pissed because of Carlos and Carlos is pissed in a drunk way, UGH!"

And the conversations went on and on until it was just Charles and I who were left awake. He gave me a peck on the lips and a kiss on the forehead. I smiled and snuggled closer to him.

We both heard light snores and saw that Lando and Jasmine had fallen asleep on each other. Charles chuckled and said, "Are we going to tell them that happened?"

"Nah," I said as I took a picture of them, "It's too cute. Let's just let the natural course of time happen."

Charles squeezed my hand and gave it a light kiss, then he started to stroke my hair as he said, "Just be careful at the upcoming race okay?," he said and I joked, "No, you should be careful before I overtake you."

"No seriously, just be careful alright? I nearly had a heart attack when I heard that you spun out of the race at Saudi," he explained and I nodded and said, "I can only promise so much, you always have to be ready for whatever happens on the track...even if it's going to claim your life."

"That's what I'm worried about," Charles said, his eyes growing tired with the long flight. Then finally he fell asleep. I kissed his forehead and let him sleep on my shoulder.

Fuck what have I gotten myself into?

How can I drive like I always do on the track when I know you're so worried about me?