ˏˋ°•*⁀➷
Sweltering heat lay among the Italian Mountains, citizens and visitors fanning themselves with anything they could find to relieve themselves of the humidity. CHANEL LECLERC sat in the car of her personal trainer with the aircon on, gently tugging her shirt away from her skin and rippling it to cool herself down.
Her hair was braided into two separate french plaits to keep it out of her face as much as possible, and for the first time in a very long time, her face wasn't covered with makeup. Chanel always felt obliged to wear makeup to cover up any blemishes, terrified that the boys she raced with would make fun of her.
Her entire life, Chanel had been surrounded by racing. Growing up in Monaco meant she got to watch the race from out of her own bedroom window and it made her entire family want to have what they had. Her eldest brother CHARLES LECLERC had already achieved his dream of Formula 1, driving for Sauber for one season before getting into Ferrari alongside Sebastian Vettel.
Her first F2 racing season had gone rather smoothly, after signing with the Ferarri Driver Academy at the back end of 2019, she swapped over from the ART Grand Prix team to Prema to partner alongside MICK SCHUMACHER for his second season.
Prema were more than happy with their 2020 lineup, having a famous name such as Schumacher and having one of their first female drivers, they had a lot of press and sponsorships coming their way. Chanel had been more than happy to sign with Prema, wanting her older brother and one of her biggest idols to be proud of her for following in his footsteps.
Her relationships with her brothers were... difficult. She and LORENZO LECLERC were just like your regular pair of siblings, never fought but occasionally had that disagreement that would put them into a bad mood. She and Charles were like two peas in a pod, he was always checking on her and making sure she was alright, pretty much just looking out for her because he only wanted the best for her.
And then came ARTHUR LECLERC.
Despite being twins, she and Arthur were at very different stages in their lives. They had started karting at the same time, but it became clear to Arthur after a few months that his sister had a lot more of an understanding about this stuff. She'd been in F4 way before him, promoted to F3 after two seasons, won the F3 championship in her first season and was now well on her way to winning the F2 Championship in her first season too.
Arthur had become jealous of her over time, often making hurtful remarks or just rude comments about the successes she'd had. He hated that she got so much more attention than he did, and he absolutely despised the attention she got from Charles.
It felt like favouritism to him, he would often be at home with his family and notice how Charles would take the seat beside Chanel or would always laugh at her stupid jokes, even if they weren't funny. In a way, it felt like he was competing with her for their brother's attention, which was ridiculous because they didn't need to.
Chanel never really knew what had happened, she was never rude back to him and never made those same hurtful remarks out of spite, she would just shrug and smile at him. It hurt her a little that she and Arthur went from the best of friends to practically strangers all because of a hobby they decided to pick up together.
Her mind switched away from the topic of her twin brother when her trainer, ALICE RODRIGUEZ, pulled up outside of the Prema factory and parked her car. They were greeted by the receptionist when they went inside, a few mechanics and engineers welcoming the girls back after their Summer break.
"It smells like... sweaty boys." Chanel breaths in, breathing out a laugh soon after. One of the older lads on the media team took Alice and Chanel through to the room where she would be for the next few hours filming videos for the Prema Youtube Channel.
"Did you enjoy your summer break ladies?" ANGELO ROSLIN questions his driver, listening to the sweet hum they both made.
"We spent the entire break in Monaco, this one has been missing home." Alice beams, poking the young girl in her side.
"Don't you even dare try to say I made you stay, you're the one dating my brother." Chanel quips back, looking a the red-headed girl with raised eyebrows, mirroring the look on Alice's face. Both laughed, Chanel moving to sit down so she could prop her phone up against the wall and put some sort of makeup on for filming.
"How many times have I told you that you don't need that?" Mick questions as he walks in taking the angled brush she was using on her eyebrows out of her hands.
"You tell me every time you see me doing it before a race and yet somehow, Mick Schumacher, you're yet to convince me. Now please can I have that brush back because I have half an eyebrow." Chanel shakes her head, leaning back and taking it out of his hand before he could put his arm up high.
"You're too quick." Mick pouts.
Grinning with a cunning smile, Chanel looks into his ocean eyes with a glint of mischief "Is that what you say over the radio during a race?"
Alice and Angelo both laugh at her remark, enjoying the banter-filled conversation the F2 drivers were having whilst the media team set up for the videos. Since she'd joined the team at the beginning of the season, every conversation she'd had with Mick had been full of laughter and happiness, even when they were going wheel-to-wheel in races.
No matter the race outcome, they were always sympathetic with one another. For example, Mick's first race of the season didn't exactly go to plan as Chanel's did, but after the podium, she went down to his driver's room and sat with him for over an hour assessing his data to see where he could improve.
They truly were the sweetest teammates anybody could buy, it was just something so relaxing for Angelo that his drivers weren't at each other's throats constantly. His favourite moment of the season was how Mick congratulated her when she won her home race, watching how he embraced her with an excited smile and celebrated the win like it was his own.
There was definitely something special about his driver's alright.
"J'ai quelque chose dans l'œil!" Chanel exclaims, slapping her hand over one of her eyes as the other people in the room look at her with confusion. Before Alice could even conjure up the thought of going to help the Monegasque, Mick walked over to her and took her hand away from her face carefully to see what it was.
"You got an eyelash right... there." Mick says, gently taking it away from her face and keeping it on his finger. He looks at her, watching as her lips curled up into a smile before she lightly blew it off of his finger and made a wish in her head.
"Merci."
After waiting another 15 minutes for Chanel to finish her supposed 'light' makeup, she and Mick sat down on the black sofa in their Prema shirts, both displaying the Ferrari Driver Academy badge proudly. Mick sighed loudly as Chanel got up to make sure her hair looked alright, the girl laughing at his impatience when she finally sat back down.
"I'm going to start telling people that you're not as nice as you let on." Chanel looks at him, almost getting lost in his baby blues.
"Maybe I should tell people that you spend forever getting ready then." Mick shrugs, neither of them realising they were already being filmed. Chanel laughs again, moving her hair behind her shoulder as they were both given a bell each and some question cards.
"Hi Guys, let's do the 5-second challenge." Mick introduces, not being able to keep the smile off of his face when Chanel looks down at her hands silently laughing.
"What's so funny about that?" Mick questions when she bursts into laughter, shaking her head at his question. He shakes his head with a small laugh as she finally calms down, the Monegasque playing with the ends of her braids as she moved the bell onto her knee.
"Name 3 things you have to unwrap." Mick reads out one of the cards, looking at Chanel who narrows her eyes for a second.
"Kebab, uhh...." Mick begins, "Kebab, you unwrap kebab?" Chanel intervenes. "Yes you unwrap a... burger" Mick continued before being interrupted by the media personnel.
Chanel laughed at something they were saying before she looked at Mick, watching his hand press down on the bell a few times before he takes out another question.
"Name 3 accents you can do."
"Uh... Bonjour mon ami, Il mio nome è Chanel and uh... I like to eat pasta." Chanel answers quickly, speaking French, Italian and English before hitting the bell.
"That was French, Italian and my worst attempt at sounding like Adele." She grins, looking at Mick who had a bright smile on his face.
"Hello my name is Chanel, I come from Monaco." Mick attempts her French accent, looking at her with hopeful eyes before she laughs at him.
"That does not sound like me, maybe Charles, but definitely not me."
Chanel shakes her head at him with a cute smile before leaning over him to get one of the questions out of the pot, unaware of how he immediately tensed at how close she was to him. He was slightly praying that it wasn't noticeable on camera, but then again given the way everyone notices he sometimes just looks at her and forgets to look away, it's probably going to be talked about.
"Name 3 things you would never want to find on a plane." Chanel questions, turning her torso to face the German.
"A bomb, a knife, a serial killer." He swiftly answers, dinging the bell with a smug smile on his face. Chanel furrows her eyebrows at his answer, tilting her head slightly to the side like a golden retriever puppy wanting a treat.
"I mean that comes all together so..."
Chanel laughs at the follow up along with the other people in the room, Mick joining in with a grin on his face that she found him rather amusing. He adored hearing her laugh, or basically anything that came out of her mouth, she spoke one of the most beautiful languages on the earth and it was like a sweet melody anytime she would talk to him.
The questions continued, a lot more laughter and smiles being thrown around the room until eventually they were finished. They spent the rest of the day filming more videos together, having a laugh and possibly the most fun they'd had together all season before it was the end of the day.
As Chanel and Alice were about to exit the building, the call of the Monegasque's name stopped her from shutting the door. Shielding her eyes from the sun, she turned to look back inside to see Mick and his trainer JOCK CLEAR missing every other step on the stairs to catch up to them.
"Do you guys have plans tonight?" Mick questions when he finally gets to her, breathing heavily to catch his breath. Alice responds with a simple 'No, why' as they all left the Prema building, throwing Chanel her sunglasses so she could stop using her hand to protect her eyes.
"Would you ladies like to go for dinner?" Jock questions as he knew Mick was too nervous to ask. Alice and Chanel looked at one another before looking at the two fellas, nodding their heads in sync like the creepy twins from that one horror movie.
"That was slightly creepy." Mick jokes. He and Jock walk to Jock's car conveniently parked alongside Alice's, Mick telling Chanel that he would text her a time and a place before the two boys disappeared.
Alice smirked at the soft pinky colour on Chanel's cheeks and teased her about it the entire way home, knowing that she and Mick had indescribable chemistry they needed to act upon. The red-headed girl had seen the chemistry since the first time they'd met, and she wanted them to realise their feelings before it was too late.
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷