"Nice shirt," whispered Ricky to Y/n as they left Mattia's office. Y/n widened her eyes and realised that she had swapped her shirt with Carlos's, so she wondered if Carlos was wearing her tshirt or had realised it too late as she did.
*CARLOS POV*
As soon as y/n left the room, Carlos waited a few minutes before leaving in turn, so as not to arouse too much suspicion. They had decided to keep this matter private and no one was to know what was going on between them. Carlos was actually quite conflicted. He had always been a very private person, little was known about his private life, and he liked it that way. He could concentrate completely on his work as soon as he crossed the threshold of Maranello or entered any circuit. He hated the spotlight and felt safer being able to guard his feelings without anyone intruding or spoiling his peace. In this sense, when he and Y/n had decided to embark on a relationship after London, it was important for Carlos to keep their story safe, whereas now he loved this state of secrecy for another reason for sure. The fact that they were meeting secretly, that they were continuing their evening's work in a completely different way than the others drove him crazy, in a good way for sure.
Knowing that they could see each other and enjoy themselves secretly from everyone, that palpable tension between the two of them wherever they were, those furtive glances, those forbidden messages, were something Carlos had never experienced before and he loved it all.
On the other hand, however, there was something that did not make him entirely satisfied. It was true that he liked all of this, that they had decided to keep their relationship on an exclusively physical level, but on the other hand Carlos missed the time in London terribly and he missed them all the times he looked Y/n in the eyes, all the times he lingered to observe her lips or her breathing when she slept next to him.
It was not a thought that lasted long, to be honest, but it happened often, much more often than he expected. Yet there it was, ready to leap to his mind, overriding the physical desire to have her body in his hands, to make her scream with pleasure. That feeling of longing always resurfaced, enraging him. It unnerved him. It made him nervous not to have the situation totally under control, to have these thoughts popping up randomly in his mind and not make him enjoy the moment to the full. Carlos hated himself for it, because every time it led him to question the choice he made about Y/n and he didn't want to think about it. It had to be just a physical thing, not become an affair of feelings and philosophy. And he was quite sure she noticed him staring at her, not to mention the time he instinctively held her hand last night while sleeping.
And then there was another thing that made him nervous. He knew there was nothing more between Y/n and Max, yet seeing them talking together at the gala had annoyed him a lot, maybe that's also why they had ended up having sex in the bathroom of the villa. He had never been jealous of Isabella, not that it meant he loved her any less, no. It was his character, he had never considered himself a jealous guy, he had always trusted his partner. Yet Y/n had managed to make him experience also this feeling. Little use had been made of Lando's words that night, actually Carlos had barely heard them.
He didn't like the fact that Max was approaching her again after what he had done to her, he couldn't believe that there was no payback on Max's part or, in any case, he didn't believe that Max was approaching her again to rebuild a friendship that had in fact never existed between them, according to Y/n's words. Carlos was quite convinced that Max liked Y/n very much and that he was somehow trying again with her and he did not like it at all. Caught up in his thoughts as he was, he didn't realise he was wearing Y/n's shirt and headed to the pits where Charles was talking to some mechanics.
"Did your shirt shrink in the washing machine, Carlos?" Charles had already figured it out and loved poking his teammate. He would not stop until Carlos confessed to him what was going on between him and Y/n. After all, Charles is a big nosey, it was his best friend, Pierre's, fault. Carlos looked at himself and realised he was wearing Y/n's tshirt. He turned back to Charles who was already snickering and without saying a word went to change his shirt in his locker room. When he returned to the pits, he found Max talking to Charles and immediately looked around to see if Y/n was there, but he didn't see her anywhere so he approached the drivers.
"Hi Max, what brings you here?" his gaze was fixed on Max's.
"Nothing, I wanted to have a chat before the race."
"There's the drivers' parade to have a chat" Carlos' tone of voice boomed through the noisy pit walls. Charles looked crookedly at his teammate and elbowed him.
"You're right, I'll see you on the bus then" Max walked away leaving Charles and Carlos alone.
"Bad moon today?" Charles took a sip from the bottle filled with the mineral salts and headed inside the pits, hoping Carlos would follow him to spill the tea.
"We're high in the championship and I don't want any outside distractions" effectively Carlos followed Charles, it was as if he felt he had to justify his behaviour.
"No outside distractions of any kind?" at that very moment Y/n popped up and walked towards Riky and they both watched her walk past, then Carlos looked at Charles. The two were silent for a few seconds, then Charles smiled mischievously and Carlos walked away huffing. Now Charles had proof of his suspicions. He was happy for both of them but deep in his heart he knew that Y/n deserved better than a fuck buddy.
The pilots' parade began and Carlos took care to stay away from Max, although there had been a few cross looks between the two, which Charles had immediately interrupted with some jokes to Carlos. For his part, Carlos didn't laugh, on the contrary, he had seen a different look in Max, one that was far too fixed on him to be normal eye contact. For a second he was intimidated, but he wasn't afraid, more like he couldn't understand what was going through the Dutchman's mind. Max was probably jealous of him too. That was the only explanation Carlos had managed to come up with and, all in all, he didn't mind at all.
'Radio check, Charles' said Y/n on the headphones
"Loud and clear, Y/n" Charles started in pole position and Carlos in second, while Max was just behind Carlos. This made things even more tense and everyone could feel it, everyone knew it. Charles had managed to keep some distance from the rest of the pack while Max and Carlos were engaged in a battle for second place that had been going on for more than half of the race. Max was very frustrated indeed, not being able to overtake Carlos had made his hackles rise and team radios with his engineer were increasingly nervous and frequent. The Sky commentators couldn't help but notice and wonder what the world champion would come up with to overtake the Spaniard. The days of Max daring to overtake dangerously were long gone but his survival instincts got the better of him and as soon as he had DRS on Carlos he attempted a dangerous overtake.
Max squeezed Carlos too tightly and the two cars touched. Carlos' car skidded and crashed into some panels. The Ferrari number 55 immediately caught fire but Carlos did not get out of it. Immediately the cameras pointed towards his car. In the pit wall everyone become alarmed and Ricky tried hard to get in touch with Carlos, but no answer came from the track.
Y/n's eyes were wide, she was not breathing, her body was paralysed. Her muscles could not move and her gaze was fixed on the monitors in front of her framing Carlos' car.
"Please get out of there, please move" Y/n repeated over and over again in a low voice, afraid of being heard by someone beside her.
"red flag" popped up in the steering wheel display of the other cars.
"What happened, Y/n?" asked Charles on a team radio "Y/n? Can you hear me? Why red flag?" Charles had no idea what had happened because he was way ahead, but it took very little to see that from the rear-view mirrors there was no Carlos or Max. From the boxes however, Y/n was not answering Charles' questions, she had not even heard him speak.
"Charles, it's Mattia here" Binotto said seeing Y/n paralysed "Carlos has had a bad accident"
"How is he?" his voice muffled by the helmet and fatigued by the effort of the race still failed to disguise the fear and concern towards Carlos.
"We don't know it yet, he's not responding to Ricky. Go back to the pits."
In the meantime, the paramedics and firemen had already approached Carlos' burning car, while Max had just got out of his own a few metres ahead of Carlos' and was taken away by a track marshal.
Charles parked his car at the garages and immediately ran towards the pit wall to get some news of Carlos. Ricky and Mattia turned towards him while Y/n was still motionless watching the images from the screens.
Moments that lasted an eternity.