If you asked him, Checo could easily count his blessings.
He had good health, a great family, an amazing boyfriend, loyal friends and a decent job that sometimes seemed worth the pain in the ass and struggle. He had a great life.
But God in all its glory really was making him want to jump off a ten feet platform as he said once.
As if life wasn’t already treating him like sinner in church, now there was another aspect of his life that was being affected by the same bullsh*t he had been dealing with for now a few years, the same bullsh*t people had been saying he was “lying” about.
Max and his car.
So, apparently, lately the garage had been slacking in BOTH their performances and they had to fight wind and ocean to make average results; of course people were sh*tting on him at first but now that the down fall had reached Max, suddenly people aren’t as talkative anymore.
But alas, the Dutch GP was finally over, the result wasn’t what expected once again for them but at least Max had achieved a second place; which given the circ*mstances, was a more than welcome result. Of course, the day couldn’t come to a satisfying end because that meant they would’ve been happy.
Everything would’ve been fine for Checo if it wasn’t for a certain british driver, a certain social media admins and a certain media pen question that drove his patience to the very edge.
The mexican man had jumped out of his car on the sixth position, as he walked down parc ferme he saw the silhouette of his boyfriend jumping out of his own car in the second place park space, as he took off his helmet and got weight, his face showed the disappointment he was feeling on the inside, but as the stoic and strong man he was, he still gave his fellow rivals and podium pals a bright smile and a congratulatory pat or comment, it sat well in Sergio’s heart to see how much the blond man had matured and grown this last years, after 2022, he thought everything was over, but somehow the two of them managed to fix the situation with a lot of communication (forced by Christian who put them through couples counseling) and honesty. Their eyes interlocked from the distance and Checo gifted him a small yet sweet smile that was answered back the same way, a bit more comforting than expected but he wasn’t going to complain.
The man walked towards the garage when his brain of thoughts was interrupted by the winner of the race, who was giving his speech to the audience, crowd going crazy but also a lot of angry dutch fans. He had nothing against Lando, he was happy he was actually succeeding now, he considered him a talented driver.
But the boy’s personality…well, that was a whole other story.
Checo has been witness of many particular behaviors the young man had every now on then and it made him ick a little; especially on the whole ‘ethical, ethnical, racial’ aspect, he didn’t wanted to call him names, but sometimes it was just SO hard to not see the clearly bigoted behavior he or his personal friends had.
Man wasn’t dumb, he had twitter, he could read.
Anyways, something on the brits voice tone made him kinda bitter and pissed him off once again. Checo looked at one of the screens of the garage as he changed his shirt getting ready to go to the media pen, the repetition of Lando’s victory was on, hearing the boy say Max’s winning phrase really gave him a bad taste that he could physically feel in his mouth, the sarcastic way he said it was the most bitter part of it all, as if he was mocking Max for ending twenty two seconds behind him.
He needed to cool down right now.
With a deep breath and a cold bottle of water, Sergio made his way to the media pen, he decided to give a quick look at his socials before entering.
Oh man, he shouldn’t have done that.
The black haired man stopped on his tracks making Alice stop too with a confused face “what’s wrong?”
”Hijos de la chingada-“[motherf*ckers-] Checo’s frown got deeper the more he scrolled through the page. He entered the F1 IG profile after seeing many posts about him from said account.
Not even an hour and the page was FLOODING with posts about Lando’s win. Praising him, showing him off.
What the f*ck?
Back when his boyfriend was doing the same great performances, he would get a post or two, and very PR-ed ones; now Lando wins another lousy race and he gets, what? About nineteen posts? That’s f*cking hilarious and not in a funny way. Admin was either biased or a brit as well.
Whatever the reason, this only made his blood boil even more than before; he took, yet, another deep breath (maybe even deeper than before), told Alice he was okay and walked into the room, quickly being directed to the microphone for Fox Sports.
Positive side, he could speak spanish for it.
The questioning started and he gave his best, most convincing and careful opinions to each and one of them.
That util a certain comment popped up hitting his last nerve.
“…Sí, se vio por la diferencia con la que gano Lando, casi un pit stop sobre Max…”
“…Yes, it was clear from the difference with which Lando won, almost a pit stop over Max…”
Well, he’ll be damned.
The mexican felt the anger raise inside his chest, it was almost burning him alive as if he was about to self-combust because of the infuriating feeling. He took a VERY deep breath, looking down as he tried to compose himself in front of the camera, he looked up and it was DEFINITELY obvious how pissed he was now. He continued his interview the best he could and then walked away; after a few more insufferable interviews, he was able to walk away in one pice, no incidents.
That until he ran into not other than Lando himself.
There he was along side Daniel, Carlos, Charles and none other than Max, who, by the way, looked as f*cked and tired as he did.
At least he could share the misery later with his loved one.
Checo wanted to walk past them and just pretend he didn’t saw them and apologize at another time. But Oh Lord, the universe had other plans. Carlos waved at him being joined by Daniel and Charles, which made it impossible for him to walk away without looking like an ass, so taking what it seems to be his hundred deep breath of the day, he put up his best fake smile and walked up to them.
They talked a bit about the race and stuff and Sergio almost believed he could make it out alive from that conversation but then a comment was thrown out from the winner boy that just made the mexican man finally snap.
“Well, it definitely was a simply lovely race, ‘ma right?” Daniel was visibly still as Carlos and Charles looked at each other and then all eyes laid on Max, who looked way to done with all this sh*t to even try to deal with his “friend”.
But Checo wasn’t.
“Don’t you get tired of being a little sh*t?” Now all eyes were on him, all surprised and almost as if they couldn’t believe what had come out of the latino man’s mouth. Lando blinked a bit fast letting a chuckle out.
“W-what?” Sergio’s look was all but friendly, the usual nice and polite spark was buried under pure and darkened rage.
“Are you deaf or just stupid?” So, the cat was out of the bag “so? you won a race, congrats, you don’t need to be so co*cky about it” he rolled his eyes “Carlos has done more with less and you don’t see him brag about it”
The brit seemed too stunned to speak, still, he frowned at the older man as he crossed his arms “is there something you want to say to me?” He raised an eyebrow “last time I checked, you couldn’t catch up to a Haas, right?”
Oh, oh he went there.
The man chuckled as he put his hands in his hips, clearly annoyed “well, with your car, I would’ve already won more than two races against a Max that wasn’t vulnerable on a sh*t car” Lando’s co*cky smile dropped as he frowned again, some of the cameras were starting to catch up so Checo had to do this quickly “You’re not him Lando” he smiled “saying his catch phrase won’t make you him, you’re not Max, you will never be, so do us a favor and find yourself a personality of your own…being a ‘kiss ass’ clearly has out grown you” the shock on the brit’s face was almost laughable, the rest of the drivers were perfectly still. Checo’s frame grew darker as his smile dropped into the most intimidating expression you could imagine, he lowered his voice “so let this be the last time you make fun of him, say sh*t about me all you want, I don’t give a f*ck-“ he faced him, making him give a small step back “but mock Max one more time…so help me god, I will pay the consequences for whatever I decide to do with you” Lando’s eyes were perfectly open in shock and fear, he mouthed a little trying to answer back but it was like all that sarcastic and bold frame from before had been taken away from him leaving him with nothing but a stunned look.
That said, the mexican started to walk away, not caring about what was happening behind him, his anger was just too strong in that moment that he couldn’t even be aware of the thousands of cameras that had recorded the incident.
He was going to be in big trouble.
___________________________________________
So, what it seemed to be about five hours and a half of yelling from his PR team, Alice, Christian and the marketing team; Checo was finally free from his duties and arrived to his boyfriend’s place, they were on the man’s country and he had acquired a property there to be close to his family’s place whenever they raced there, he opened the door to be welcomed by a very pissed but very worried Max.
“Hey there amor”
“Are you out of your goddamn mind?!” The blond yelled as he walked to the living room, the cats following behind.
He sighed. Round two.
“Max-“ his voice was kinda whiny, he was quickly interrupted.
“Oh! Oh no sir! Don’t ‘Max’ me!” The man crossed his arms, still gesturing with one hand “what were you thinking?! Calling Lando out like that in front of EVERY media platform known by men! Do you want to get fired?!” Max was visibly upset, Checo just couldn’t figure out what of all the things that happened that day was the reason why “you know that at least four sports channels got you RECORDED intimidating Lando?! What is wrong with you?!”
“For the love of God, stop talking!” Max went mute with an offended expression, Sergio put himself together before his dumb ass said something that would get him kicked out of the house and sleeping with the dog in the back yard “Max, listen; I know it was stupid from me to do that-“
“Very stupid” the dutchman added
“Yes” he sighed “but- gosh! I just couldn’t take it anymore!” He walked from one side to the other as the blond sat on the sofa “the weekend was sh*t! Massively! And then today’s race just made it even worse and God knows, oh he knows I tried! I tried to bite my tongue and bot say sh*t, but f*ck! It was like everyone wanted me to explode or something!” He moved his hands “first the haters, then the media, then that little bitch you have as a friend that, by the way, doesn’t treat you like a real friend would-“ he stopped in front of the blue eyed man who’s gaze was glued to him “I just- can’t I- why I-!” Frustration took over him making him groan angrily, he threw himself on the sofa at Max’s side, covering his face with one of the pillows, scaring one of the cats away and into his owners lap.
“Checo?” The mexican lowered the pillow as he huffed tiredly.
“I just want to be able to let out some steam without people judging me, okay?” Sergio fixed himself on his seat, hugging the pillow close to his chest “I can’t say out loud everything I want to, I can’t have a reaction without people telling me how am I supposed to react; so just for once I want to be able to speak my mind like you and everyone else does” he looked at his boyfriend, the young man looking softly at him, any trace of anger was gone; Checo moved his hand to cares Max’s cheek making him smile a little “I want to be able to defend you in front of the entire world, but for now putting people in their places will have to suffice” the dutch laughed at that throwing his head back, moving so he could sit on Sergio’s lap, the mexican resting his hands on his waist as the blue eyed covered his mouth with his hands.
“My god, Lando was so pale when you left, I thought he was going to pass out; Daniel wasn’t even breathing and Charles had to help Carlos to take him out of his trance” they laughed as Max sighed, resting one hand on the man’s chest and the other one caressing his stubble, eyes looking at him with tenderness “still…you shouldn’t have risked so much for me…it’s not worth the trouble”
“Mi amor, you are ALWAYS worth the trouble” they smiled at each other “plus I needed to get that out of my system or else someone else would’ve been my poor victim so it worked out for the better” Max pushed him playfully as the older man pulled him into a kiss.
A kiss so deep it erased any left over annoyance from both of them, bringing them into the light of their undeniable love.
Max hummed satisfied as he ran his fingers through Sergio’s dark curls, not moving far away from his face just enjoying the closeness, Checo leaving small pecks on his lips “gosh, I love you so much…like, so stupidly much” the Mexican chuckled as he looked at the icy blues he knew all too well “also, you’re so f*cking hot when you’re pissed, it’s amazing” Checo couldn’t help himself from laughing while he blushed as Max joined him “I’m serious! god liefje! It’s so dumb but it really turned me on!”
“I thought you were angry!” Max shrugged
“I was, but still…” his voice took a seductive tone as he pulled his hair a bit making his blood go south a little bit “…it was so…manly and protective” he smiled giving him a short but passionate kiss “couldn’t help myself~” he sighed as he stood up taking the cats with him “anywho! Don’t risk your ass again like that! I mean it!”
“For f*ck’s sake, Verstappen, you’re a tease!” Checo groaned as he felt his jeans a bit too tight on himself hearing Max’s giggles.
“Come to the bedroom and teach me a lesson then”
And Checo couldn’t remember the last time he had gotten up from a sofa that fast.
Still, he had to deal with some of the consequences of his actions later.
