Fifth Light (Sebastian Vettel)

Chapter 10: China

He studied her face and bit his tongue inside his mouth, something he did subconsciously whenever he had no idea what to do. Control yourself, he thought. He followed her lead and let her go, putting on a smile.

"Alright. D&M over. Come on," she motioned to the door, "Something, something, you need to eat all the time and Heikki's probably in a flap about it somewhere."

Seb raised an eyebrow, "Have you been reading his mind?" he joked.

She laughed and jutted her chin toward the door, "I just don't want you passing out in P2 and me feeling responsible."

He grinned and turned to open the door, leading the way out. From there, they casually walked back to the cafeteria together, chatting comfortably about the session ahead and pushing the whole media debacle out of their minds.

Casey squinted at Evan as they approached their seats. She could tell there was evil on his mind. His face was always a drop-dead giveaway. She gave him her best 'Don't Even Think About It' look before taking her seat and grabbing an abandoned magazine that was lying nearby.

Seb sat down next to her and dug into his lunch eagerly, striking up a conversation with Jacob as Evan listened on between them.

Casey flipped to a crossword and pulled a pen out of her pocket. As was her habit, she stuck the pen in her teeth as she studied the first few clues. More people joined the conversation with Jacob, while Seb averted his attention to Casey instead. He watched her sit quietly at his side, filling in the crossword slowly.

She seemed stuck at number 8. He reached over and ran his finger down the page, reading the clue thoughtfully. "Pen?" he asked, taking the pen from her hand and roughly scribbling the letters into the boxes with his left hand. She immediately laughed at his writing, "What are you? Six?" she giggled.

"That's my left hand, it's doing its best!" he protested, finishing the word. He let her take the pen back and they continued the puzzle together. Seb found his eyes following the pen each time she put it between her teeth.

After a while, Evan snorted across the table and Casey immediately looked up to see him staring directly back at her. "Do you have something to say, Ev?" she hissed, feeling very aware of Seb hovering over her right shoulder, still intent on solving the clues.

The blonde bit his lip and shook his head 'No' for about 5 seconds before changing direction to indicate 'Yes' as he looked between her and Seb with glee. She gave him a warning look before Seb took the pen from her again to fill in another word. He seemed either completely oblivious to Evan's display of immaturity, or he was very good at pretending not to notice.

Eventually everyone in the room began to stand up, indicating it was time to get back to work. Casey dropped the magazine and shoved the pen back in her pocket before following suit. They all walked back down the halls together towards the garage. As they walked, she caught the eye of Gemma who was just ahead next to Christian. She winked at Casey and glanced at Seb walking nearby. Casey's heartbeat quickened uncomfortably. Well, apparently the team had seen Twitter now too. What would they think of her? She kept her head down for the rest of the walk back. As they turned the corner into the garage and Seb parted from them, Evan and Jacob instantly were at her sides with big, stupid looks on their faces.

"Stop it," she hissed, her face flushing.

"Where did you two go?" Evan whispered.

"He just wanted to say he was sorry about it."

"And?" Jacob pressed.

"And nothing!" she replied.

"Bullshit," Evan continued.