Chapter Text
August 21st
5:15 pm
Charles has gotten into this weird habit of listening to the radio station during Max’s hour. The music that people recommend when he’s hosting is really good, and he has the bonus of hearing Max’s voice most days of the week. The strange part of it all wasn't the fact that Charles even listened to it. He was changing things in his schedule just so he could listen to it. Bending his life around Max's stupid radio hour. A little while ago, he had missed one of the sessions and spent the whole night thinking about what could've happened during it. Thinking about what songs could have been played and what Max even talked about. Who even does this? Charles thinks he is losing his mind to Max, which probably isn't even false. Max doesn't even talk that much during the show, but still hearing a little bit of his voice was comforting to Charles for some reason. Probably because he's so head-over-heels in love with this man.
Something more alarming is that he and his new flatmate have never spoken a single word to each other, and Charles is moving in today. Charles really hopes his new flatmate isn't some sort of slob, he's seen horror stories online of people with roommates who have left dirty dishes and full trash cans inside their flat for maddeningly long periods. Charles is really trying to guess the type of person his roommate will be, but he is having no such luck from a three sentence bio that was very concise and to the point. At least Charles didn't have to question that his roommate was actually Dutch. He had stayed in a hotel for a couple of days while his stuff came over here from Monaco, not that he is bringing over too much, because the flat listing online said there was already a bed in the extra room, and the rest of the flat was lived in. But god is he glad to finally be moving in, the bed in that hotel may have been the worst mattress ever. Charles got basically no sleep the night prior. He thinks that literally any other mattress would be better.
The flat was in a nice building, it looked like it had been built pretty recently and was modern, with a lot of windows. From the outside, it looked like all of or most of the flats had balconies. The building was somewhat near a nice park and close to the university campus. Charles is carrying his only two boxes of things, the rest staying with his parents at home in Monaco, and a backpack full of his stuff as well. He then puts the boxes down to open the door and then picks them back up, kind of doing this whole dance until he gets through the entrance. The guy at the security desk was fast asleep, which was a little disturbing, but Charles just went on his way anyway.
Then he starts to make his way up to the actual flat, which was easier said than done. The elevator had to be broken, just his luck, so he has to walk up 4 flights of stairs. The price he pays for wanting a nice little balcony, he supposes. Thankfully, the door leading to the staircase was a push door, so he could push his stuff and himself against the door to get through. Before Charles starts his ascent into madness while climbing these stairs, he puts the boxes down and takes his backpack off his back. He fumbles with a zipper for a second, which leads to a small pocket so he can grab his AirPods so he can listen to Max’s radio hour. He connects the AirPods to his phone and presses play, then picks up the boxes and starts climbing.
Moving feels strange after living with his family for so so long. But everyone has to leave the nest eventually anyway, right? A new city, a new building, a new university, and a new routine. It was almost overwhelming, but maybe his flatmate will help him get accustomed? Plus, he can always talk to Lando, even if he hasn't been the best friend lately, and should probably catch up with him too..
After what Charles considers human torture, he finally made it up to the top of the staircase and into the corridor. The hallway was quiet, save for a television playing a little too loudly in his new neighbor's flat. He walked down the corridor to find flat 316. It started with a 3 despite it being on the 4th floor? This flat building was weirder than he thought, but whatever, at least it was nice and kept a roof over his head. At the door, he sees some sort of note saying,
"So sorry! I had to be at work and couldn’t get anyone to cover my shift. But welcome to the flat, my phone number is xxx-xxx-xxx, text me, and I'll tell you where the spare key is! I would just write it here, but the security in the building is very.. interesting :p"
Charles found his new roommate's handwriting to be strangely familiar. He also had a familiar tone of voice. He can't place his finger on why this was, though. At least the little face at the end was somewhat reassuring..? Charles paused for a moment before typing a message on his phone and hitting send.
August 21st
5:30 pm
Max’s new boss is a dick. He also still doesn’t know his boss’ name, he should probably ask Lando. His new flatmate is moving in today, and this guy won’t give him the hour off or at least let him work a bit earlier so he can help out. The even greater part, nobody can cover his shift, and as a result, he’s stuck here. For some reason, it’s all he can think about while working, probably because he has zero clue who this new guy is besides the fact that he's a transfer student from Monaco. The same place his old academic rival was from.. why’s he thinking of Charles? So many different people are from Monaco. It’s probably not even Charles. He’s too smart to go to this school; he probably goes to MIT or something super prestigious with his family’s connections. Anyhow, enough about his ex-rival or whatever. Max had to leave a note on the door, of all things, to say where the 2nd key was and where he even was. He probably looked like an asshole to his new roommate because who doesn’t get work off to help them move in? Horrible first impression.
Then suddenly he gets a text from...Charles? Charles Leclerc.. He forgot he had that number still saved. Though Max knows Charles probably doesn't know it's him since he had to change numbers after high school, since his last phone broke. The thing is, he and Charles haven't spoken since before their last school test. They didn't even speak at graduation. This feels random until Max realizes what this text probably means. Charles is his new flatmate. The flatmate who probably hates him right now for being at work instead of welcoming them into their new home.
Charles
Hey!
I'm your new flatmate
Where can I find the key?
Max
Hi
The key is under the potted plant
Again sorry for not being home
My names Max btw
Charles
Thanks mate
Also no worries about it
I'm Charles
Max
Nice to meet you Charles : )
I will be home at around 6:15 btw so feel free to get settled in
Charles
Okay
See you soon : )
Max read their exchanges again and again while the current song played. Over and over. Their conversation was painfully mundane and boring. Charles was either incredibly stupid or didn't want to say anything about their high school years, Max thought. Charles has all the information that Max is, in fact, Max Verstappen, but said NOTHING about it, which was mildly infuriating to him. But maybe Charles has moved on since then? Become more mature? Max shouldn't have expected a fight or anything, but acting this civil makes him feel weird. Their rivalry was huge back then, and it's not like Charles just magically forgot about it! Max doesn't know why this is bothering him. Back then, they spent a lot of their time fighting over scores and marks, trying to beat each other in everything. Even during games in PE, they would be scarily competitive. There was even this one incident while they were playing rugby, where Charles had insisted that Max had cheated when he very much did not! Charles was just bad at the game and a sore loser, but it made Max have to sit out of playing the next class. Nobody batted an eye at Charles and his claims. Ever.
Max absentmindedly taps on the armrest of the chair to the beat of the song; the current song still has 2 minutes left, which is plenty of time to think about things other than, well, his job. But still, they never actually hated each other. It probably would've been easier if he did. Charles was always annoyingly nice. Even if he did get Max disqualified from some games and would get one or two points higher than Max on a test, he would always then give him helpful tips on how to improve. Which was so fucking irritating. A rival should at least have the decency to be rude or mean, but Charles was never either. Max was sometimes borderline mean to him, but truthfully, it was never on purpose. Max realizes that he was way too easy to anger back then, and how he acted was wrong. He needs to apologize for that at some point, even if he's stubborn and doesn't really want Charles to win by saying sorry.
He also doesn't know why Charles, of all people, had to be his flatmate. Out of anybody in London, anybody who transferred to their university this year, it had to be Charles. The chances of this happening were low, and annoyingly, it still happened. Fate is playing a messy hand. Then the song changing in his headphones snapped him out of his thoughts again. He was working. Right. Charles can be dealt with later, when he doesn't have to think about which song to queue up next. He chose The Adults Are Talking by The Strokes, subconsciously remembering that that song was Charles' favorite back in school.
Charles grabbed the key from under the potted plant. He couldn't believe that his flatmate wasn't home, but whatever, it's fine, nothing he could do about it anyway. He unlocks the door and steps inside, putting his boxes and backpack down next to the door. The room smells like coffee, in a nice way, similar to a cozy rainy morning in a coffee shop. He sees a pair or two of shoes by the door, just your basic sneakers. Then he sees two cats. Not any cats, but Max's two Bengal cats, Jimmy and Sassy. And then he saw a Red Bull hoodie on the couch. Max. How did he not realize that his Max was his flatmate sooner, while they were texting? He said that he was working 5-6 pm, and Charles knew he was Dutch and an engineering major. It shouldn't have been hard to put together. Well, Max is, in fact, who he's living with. The cherry on top of all of this is that Charles' all time favorite song had started playing. This couldn't be worse because what are the odds that Max knows his favorite song? Fate is absolutely ridiculous.
Maybe they can be more civil now that they don't have to fight for teachers' approval anymore? Maybe they could even start to be friends?
Charles remembers a memory from a couple of years ago. It was late at night, and they were both studying the night before for some random test at the library. They ended up being the last two there, but since it was a 24 hour library, they weren't forced to leave. He remembered Max getting up from his spot in the corner with all his stuff. Charles thought that Max was calling it quits for the night, but Max had actually sat down next to Charles. They had both looked at each other and gave each other a half smile and half grimace, being all like 'this is what we really put ourselves through?'. Charles ended up calling it a night an hour later, and this was the important part: he heard very quietly, spoken so quietly that maybe it wasn't supposed to be heard,
"Maybe in some universe we could be friends."
At the moment, Charles didn't know why he had said that. They were academic rivals, but nothing was stopping them from being friends, right? At that time, he also didn't know why Max would spend so much time studying away from home. All of this happened way before Charles started getting close to Lando, who told him a bit about how bad Jos was when Charles asked why Max was always out of the house. Now Charles knows why. He knows all about it from years of being near Max (and subsequently around Jos) and being close with Lando, who needed an outlet to share this information with. Because Charles knew that Lando couldn't just let this knowledge of one of his best friends' situations fester in his head. Maybe it was never the wrong universe but just the wrong time.
Charles decides to look around the flat a bit before putting his stuff in his room, trying to get a sense of how Max lives. The living room was the room the door had opened into, and it ended up opening into a small, albeit nice, kitchen. There was a fruit bowl on the island, full with a banana and a couple of apples. Then he snooped into the fridge, which had a shelf full of Red Bull, probably enough to keep a small nation awake for a week, a box of takeout kebabs, and nothing else.
"Mon dieu...Pourquoi? Où sont les vraies bouffes?" (My god.. why? Where is the real food?) Charles muttered under his breath, very disappointed in Max's food choices. He will have to talk to Max when he gets home because why are there no actual groceries in this house... Charles knows he probably shouldn't be very surprised since Max has been drinking Red Bull since he started high school, and his diet probably hasn't changed. But Max needs sustenance!
After closing the fridge, he wanders over to the hallway where the bedrooms and bathroom are located. One door was Max's. He wasn't about to snoop in it. Really, he wasn't. That's where he draws the line, Charles supposes. The next door over is Charles' room; they share a wall. Between the two doors is a memo board with various things hanging up. A random receipt from somewhere, to-do lists, and class sign-up deadlines. Then his eyes lock on a certain photo. It was from their school years, a group photo of them and some schoolmates after an academic competition. He recognized some faces, and three people were standing between them. Charles saw himself looking over at Max in the photo like he hung the moon or something. It was super cringey, and Charles still had remnants of his Justin Bieber haircut. Why does Max still have this? Charles definitely thought Max would've moved on from these years by now. Even Charles hasn't seen this photo in years, but he does remember taking that photo like it was just yesterday. Back then, they weren't really friends, but somehow and for some reason, Max kept the photo.
Max has probably changed since the last time they spoke. It's been over a year, and his father isn't as controlling from afar, right? People change, especially with freedom. Maybe Max had calmed down, less quick to anger. Maybe he'd become less stubborn (probably not, though). Maybe he'd become less competitive and desperate for his father's validation.
Charles then checked the time: 6:02. Max said he would be home at around 6:15. This means Charles has about 13 minutes before he sees his childhood rival for the first time in over a year. Suddenly, unpacking his belongings seemed way less important.