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imaginaryf1shots · 1 year ago

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My Girls (||) | Max Verstappen

Words count: 3072

Driver!OC X Max Verstappen

Summery: Cecilia Hansson daughter of a Swedish billionaire, a race car driver, with a dream of making it big in Formula 1. However she has a few secrets that may hurt her as women are disliked in the sport.

Series Warnings: cursing, child abandment, absent father, drinking, car accidents, Jos Verstappen, misogyny, Christian horner (tell me if i missed anything)

Masterlist

Series Masterlist

Max Masterlist

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A new beginning

Both Max and Cecilia followed each other’s carriers.

When Cecilia then got pregnant with her ex’s, Mathew’s, daughter she watched as Max made it into F1, she was jealous yes, she wanted to race to reach her dreams, she wanted to be the first F1 female champion.

“What do you want to do?” Her dad asked her as he watched his daughter hold his granddaughter. He never expected to have his little girl as a mother this young, her ex signing all his rights away before they baby was even born, leaving the father's name on the birth certificate empty. A single mother at the age of 18.

“Whatever you decide, we’ll support you.” Her mum told her holding her hand, her girl just gave birth after a long pregnancy, she looked tired but content.

“I want to keep her.” She whispered looking at her girl, she had wisps of blonde hair, the same hair Cecilia and her father shared. Already looking like her, she whipped her tears away and looked up at her parents. “And I want to race.”

“It’s going to be hard.” Her dad warned her, she needed to know the challenges facing her, if she decided to do that then it’s going to be one of the hardest things she ever did.

“I know, but I want to do it for her, I want her to know that she can achieve all her dreams, I want her to proudly say that I’m her mum, to never feel like any less because her dad isn’t in the picture, I want to do it for her.”

“And you will, we’ll work it out and help you as much as you need.” Her mum kissed her forehead and pushed her hair out of her face, her lovely daughter. Her sweet and strong daughter.

Once Cecilia was given the green light by her doctors, she was back on track and in gyms. Her family’s home gym was upgraded, she had everything she needed there. The only time the girl used her uncle’s connections was when he helped her get back into competitions, getting into F2 was easy once she showcased her abilities that improved in her time off. Mclaren’s junior team snatched her up and she drove for them for a year before she was set as the reserve driver for them in 2018, she raced for the team in a free practice in the Germany, a track she hadn’t drove in her carrier, the woman was on the sim everytime she could as she prepared for the race, she wanted to impress not only Mclaren who had her on yearly contracts for now, but also everyone else, women belonged in the motorsport and she’s going to show it. She wants more skilled females racing, she wants her daughter and all the young girls growing up to see girls like them racing and winning.

In 2019 she had her seat, driving for the first time in an F1 car that was made for her. Making it as the first female F1 driver since the 90s. Getting a place is one thing, keeping it is another thing, all the other females before couldn’t keep their seats for long but she planned to stay racing no matter what.

When it was announced you better believe it turned into a media circus. The female had gone through grilling PR and media training, going through every question she could’ve been asked. She’s ready to face the fire.

The season kicked off in Australia, once the media saw the Mclaren making its way to the park at the entrance they crowded the area, wanting to get a glimpse of the female driver or even her teammate. Mclaren is doing a lot of unseen things with two new drivers this year. When Cecilia got out of the car she was given for the week, she smiled at the cameras, she was sporting Mclaren merch with a pair of blue jeans, wanting to be as neutral as she could until the media got used to her, if she wore any of her clothes the team speculated that they’ll focus on that and take away from her abilities.

It’s media day and she had a lot of interviews to go through, making her way to the entrance. One of Mclaren’s press officers walked with her, there weren't that many fans of her around so she only signed a few things before she made it inside. Going to the paddocks where there was a quick meeting with her and Lando before they start their media duties.

Standing a little to the side she waited for the drivers doing the interview to finish before the new batch did theirs, her and Lando were split up for this section, thankfully she saw Charles coming her way, they both grinned when they saw each other, hugging the other tightly when he made it to her.

“Mon Dieu, tu m'as manqué.” She said in French, they pulled back Charles’ dimple evident on his face. (Oh god I missed you)

“Tu m'as manqué aussi, je suis si heureuse que tu sois là.” Charles replied to her they stood talking in French, Checo and Daniel walked in too they heard the pair talking in French they couldn't keep up with them so they left them talking after they greeted each other, the last to join is Max. (I missed you too, I'm so happy you’re here.)

When he saw her standing there he had to take her in, they’re no longer the teenagers they were when they used to Kart, gone the baby faced Cecilia and in her place stood a grown woman, hair longer and light makeup on her face, her hair loose, he only evers saw her in braids growing up.

It’s been years since Max saw Cecilia last, he knew she was the reserve driver for Mclaren, everyone knew, but they never ran into each other, both lived in Monaco but he never ran into her there either. He knew she’d make it into F1, it took her longer than he thought but she made it. His childhood rival made it into F1 to be one of his rivals, he can’t wait to race her on track once again.

There it is again, his heart speeding up, his eyes coming back to her every few seconds. He thought he grew out of his feelings for her, but evidently not. Once again she’s standing with Charles speaking in french his french isn't a match for the Monégasques. When Cecilia took her eyes off her best friend’s they fell onto the dutch driver.

“Max.” She called for him, he looked from Daniel to her, that smile she had when she was younger, he remembers the last time they talked and how rude he was to her, but that was years ago, a lifetime ago it seemed. “I haven’t seen you in years.”

They didn’t hug, like her and Charles, but her smile was enough for him. Cecilia couldn’t help but take him in too, she’s seen him on TV of course but the real thing is always different. She wonders how she hasn’t run into him before.

“Yeah, last time I saw you, you were almost as tall as I was.” Rolling her eyes at his joke, she’s taken her height from her mother, her father’s side of the family were all tall, leaving her the shortest of the bunch, she wasn’t that short but she always looked short next to her family members, she’s 165 not that short but whatever.

“Wow Verstappen, not all of us are born to be giants.” She joked back. “I’m not even that short, I’m average.”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

“You know Max is right.” Charles said with a teasing smile.

“Come on, not you too.” Cecilia groans and glares at the due.

“It’s the truth, Cece.” Charles said and leaned down a little to be the same height as her mocking her height, she huffed and exaggerated rolling her eyes. The men laughed at her antics, she crossed her arms and walked to the two other drivers.

“I feel bullied, I’ll go talk with the nicer drivers.” She shook her head as she heard them laugh at her, her hair swinging left and right, they knew she was only joking with them. She could always take a joke.

Complaining to Daniel and Checo about the boys, they patted her back in comfort. A minute later they took their places on the sofa in front of the journalists.

Cecilia got nervous once her feet hit the elevated platform, she’s been through all questions that could be asked, she’s trained until she could answer without a moment of hesitation. So why is it that the opposite happened, why is it that no one thought that the male filled room would agree to ignore her. They were all just too happy to take pictures of her walking into the circuit. It showed what they thought of her, she didn’t belong here, they didn't want her here, she’s only good to look at, a replacement for grid girls. The poor press officer tried to get people to ask her anything but they just ignored him. She had long since just leaned back and placed her microphone beside her, she was annoyed but she tried to act as if she wasn’t bothered. Was it working? Not 100%, people would debate whether she was bothered or not. They don’t know her well enough to go back for past experiences.

“Cecilia, what are you looking forward to this year?” Charles asked once he answered the same question, he turned to look at the female next to him, it wasn’t hard to understand what journalists were doing. Picking up her microphone.

“I’m mostly looking forward to showing everyone what I can do.” She looked at Charles before her eyes met the main camera, looking straight on, no jokes. “I’m going to prove to everyone that women belong in F1.” She smiled then and looked at Charles. “But mainly I’m looking forward to beating you and Max like I used to do when we were young.”

This did it, both men started talking at the same time making her smile. She wasn’t asked any more questions but she didn’t mind after that, her and Charles were talking to each other when he wasn’t asked anything. She nodded along with some answers. After what felt like forever they were done. Walking out of the room she pressed the Mclaren hat on her head, an arm wrapped around her shoulders.

“Show them what you’ve got, Cece.” Daniel said to the younger female, he hated how underrated she is and people already looked down on her. People were acting like they’ve never seen her drive, F2 was filmed and aired, she drove in a FP last year, and did well, not to say how good she did in testing.

“Planning on it.” Cecilia said with a grin, how real it is, she couldn't tell you.

Free practice, she didn't give her all, the team planned for her to surprise everyone on qualifying day. She was seen with Sebastian talking, the man was talking with her, giving her advice not about the race but about the media. He told her how the media can go from portraying you as a villain to a hero in a few seconds, telling her that once she gets in the car she should forget all of them and just focus on driving, the german driver had seen her drive before with his own eyes, he knows how good she can be.

When Lewis joined them, Cecilia couldn’t look him in the eye. He’d seen her last year, and they’ve never talked about it, he never asked and no news came out, but she was still scared. Plus, she looked up to him, always admired him.

“You were a badass on Media day.” Lewis said to the female, he knew slightly of what she was going through, F1 isn’t known for its diversity, while she had the money, he had his gender, both came into the sport at a disadvantage and Lewis knew she has big potential, Seb talked to him about her before, making him watch her races before. Hearing his words made Cecilia look at him, his smile made her smile as well, a look of understanding passing them.

Getting P9 in qualifying wasn’t bad for a rookie, on their first drive. Her team is proud of her place, knowing that tomorrow she’ll start at a good position to do even better. Even if she didn’t finish P9 then that’s some points won in her first race.

Cecilia planned to do better, if not for the helmet’s visor then people would see how the look in her eyes change the moment she starts a race. Gone is the smiley girl and in her place a woman on a mission.

At the first corner she went up to P7, her team encouraging her to keep the pace. Drivers know each other’s techniques and how to deal with them, but the new ones are always full of surprises, and Cecilia is indeed a surprise. The female is a skilled driver, no questions asked. Going up another position, she couldn't overtake Charles but she got the fastest lap, finishing at a strong P6 winning 9 points for Mclaren.

She may have not gained a podium but her team were shouting down the radio how happy they were.

Later that day Cecilia got a text from an unknown number, she was in her driver’s room, going over the race analysing every minute. A habit that she got, it’s one of the ways she got better, after a race she’d sit down, watch and analyse and try to learn from it and then never think about it again. She could tell from the number that it’s a Monaco based number.

Unknown number

Hey, I got your number from Charles, hope it;s okay.

Cecilia H.

Who is this?

Unknown number

Its Max

Verstappen

Cecilia H.

It’s okay

What's up?

Max

Lando said you’re still at the circuit?

Cecilia H.

Yeah, are you still here?

Max

Yes, mind if we meet up?

Cecilia H.

Sure give me a minute and i’ll be outside Mclaren

Max

Okay 👍

Closing the laptop she had on, still in her team kit with the cap and all, she walked out holding her packbag deciding to just leave after her talk with Max. Max was already waiting for her. The sun was almost down, only a few stragglers still there, all the media and fans already left.

“Maxy!” Cecilia cheekily called for the man, he turned to look at her, he looked like was about to scold his younger sibling or something, making her smile even more.

“Don’t ever call me that again.”

“Sure whatever you say, Maxy.” Cecilia teased him again, this version of Max is her favourite, the one who could joke and take a teasing. Definitely better than younger Max.

“I take it back, I’m leaving.” He turned to walk away before Cecilia held his bicep to stop him.

“Wait, wait, I’m sorry, what do you want?” She asked him quickly, he gave her a smile showing her that he knows she’d just joking. Thinking about what he wanted to say kind of made him shy, his cheeks were dusted with a pink glow and he rubbed the back of his neck for a moment. “Come on, it can't be that bad.”

“It’s not, I’m just embarrassed.” His voice dropped when he said embarrassed, just admitting that he’s embarrassed made him even more embarrassed. “You know the last time we talked…”

“Yesterday?” She asked him, frowning, trying to recall what happened yesterday, admittingly so much has happened. Maybe she said something rude without noticing or something, but nothing was coming to her mind.

“No, no when we were young, I wanted to apologise.” He said and decided to just get out and get it over with. “When you just wanted to congratulate me and I called you stupid and weird, I'm sorry about that, I didn't honestly mean it, not then and not now.”

“You scared me for a second there Max, I thought I said something.” Cecilia adjusted her hat so it won't cover her eyes as much so she’d be able to look at Max without raising her head that much. “I honestly forgot about it, we were kids, a lot of things happened since then, and you kind of forget about those small instances.”

“Still I felt the need to say I’m sorry.” Max was glad she was taking it lightly, he knew that she most likely would she hadn't held it over his head, or acted coldly towards him when they met again. “So what are you still doing here?”

“We had a post race meeting.”

“Lando left over an hour ago.” Max frowned; they both had their things and were slowly walking to the direction of the parking lot.

“Well, it’s just a little habit I developed. After a race I would watch the race and see where I went wrong, how I can improve and what the others, who did better than me are doing.” Max nodded to her simple explanation, that alone proved to all those haters online and misogynistic journalists who refused to ask her anything. On Mclaren’s promos and any pictures of the girl, it had a copious amount of hate under it, it’s baffling to see.

“You did great today.” Max commented and even though she disagreed she took the complement. Nothing much was said the rest of the way, and they split up going to their cars, and driving to different hotels.

Cecilia could only think about how much Max has changed, no longer the cold boy she met before. Yes on track he is the same, wouldn't want to piss him off on track but the man in a race wasn’t the same as he was talking to her now. And he wasn't bad to look at either.

Her phone rang, her mum’s picture popped up, answering the phone while she had it connected to the car, her daughter’s voice greeted her. Her little three year old voice met her ears, making her smile.

Next ->

#formula one imagine #f1 scenario #f1 x oc #my girls #max verstappen imagine #max verstappen one shot #max verstappen #f1 x driver!reader #f1 x reader #f1 imagine #f1 fanfic #f1dr

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dear-ao3 · 1 year ago

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who are the 20 f1 meow meows?

max verstappen (fast but an asshole on the track. lives in fear of his cats. winning everything.)

checo perez (might lose his spot. had two separate did not finishes in the same race. kissed another car at the hairpin)

sir lewis hamilton (fashion icon, classiest mother fucker you’ll ever see, knighted, just wants a comeback and to win his 8th world championship)

george russell (walking meme, looks like he belongs in the window of a tommy bahama, says crikey and blimey unironically, the most british person ever)

charles leclerc (the poorest little meow meow, is a millionaire but has a cracked back of his phone, either is fighting for the podium or crashes on the first lap, please dear god let this man win something he has the worst luck i’ve ever seen)

carlos sainz (smooth operator, dunks on everyone’s golf game especially landos, aparently doesn’t eat his pancakes with toppings, drives a volkswagen golf at least sometimes)

lando norris (usually getting told by carlos he sucks at golf, chronically online, has a blanket with george russell’s face on it, gets in trouble for being too sarcastic, please give him a win it’s been 5 years)

oscar piastri (has never once looked like he’s having a good time but almost did once while building a house of cards, hates horoscopes, almost got sued by alpine when he said he wasn’t signing with them after alpine announced he was signing with them, has an iconic mom)

fernando alonso (old man, retired and then came back for some reason, tad villain and he knows it, don’t mention taylor swift around him)

lance stroll (still waiting for his tennis career tbh, his dad bought aston martin to guarantee him a seat, rage monster)

esteban ocon (french, monster of a teammate aparently, once got beat up in the garage by max verstappen, besties with stroll and mick schumacher)

pierre gasley (also french, terrible awful haircut, did i mention he’s french, had his brain chemistry permanently altered by being teammates with yuki, photo dump king)

nico hulkenberg (looks like that one penguin with the weird hair from penguins of madagascar, dad, has raced in over 200 races and never been on the podium)

kevin magnussen (was kicked off haas because they wanted younger drivers only to reappear the next year after they fired one of the drivers for probably funding the russian ukrainian war, once fok smashed a door, has the cutest child)

valtteri bottas (unproblematic king, cyclist, makes his own alcohol, is ass out on netflix and has his own naked calendar called bott ass, mullet mustache man)

zhou guanyu (baby fashion icon, trying his best in a medium shit car, first chinese driver ever in f1)

daniel ricciardo (class clown, made the worst career mistake of leaving red bull and is now trying to get back in, from australia but is a texas cowboy, usually fucking shit up, just wants to tickle his scrotum and touch his nutsack)

yuki tsunoda (wants to chef, was forcibly moved to italy by his team cause he didn’t want to work out with his trainer, short king, usually gets sacrificed to the luck gods, cursed radios)

alex albon (so insanely barbie coded, filmed a cereve commercial in his hotel room with his girlfriend, definitely dyes his own hair with box dye, incredible oldest sibling energy, single-handedly carrying williams)

logan sargeant (what the fuck is a kilometer!!!! only american in f1, usually found in dead last or kissing walls, one of his essential items is heinz burger sauce, says mate with an american accent)

#f1 #not a tag #from saph #i need 1-3 business weeks to recover from vegas

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belladrawschstuff · 1 month ago

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When your shitty 13 colonies become the world superpower

General info

Nicknames: Ame, stars, the Phoenix (ThEn IlL rAiSe YoU lIkE a PhOeNiX) He's friends with a lot of people, he mostly likes you as long as you respect him. He really is just his dad.

HCs

Because he's older than most countries he's kinda known as a lot of peoples mentor and some see him as an older brother

Speaking of mentors America was taught by a lot of old empires. People like Prussia, Russian empire and all his uncles along with a lot of other countries who taught him about their culture and language. But America did learn how to fly because of Prussia.

He has a few gifts from people, the sunglasses were originally given to him by Scotland but when America was taking care of west Germany, he got weirded out about the fact he couldn't see his eyes, so he made them have an eye tracker, the guitar was given to America by Britain as a way to say sorry for the revolution and war of 1812

He loves fluffy and soft things which is why his coat is fluffy despite the fact he can warm himself up by his fire

His personality disorder is mostly the reason he acts differently in certain situations than others. Its not that he doesn't know how to act its just he needs to have that experience to know how to act. An example is when he 1st started to date Russia because the only affection he knew how to put on other people was to Either act like a child like he was when he was younger or act like a guardian because he was an older brother and also because he's a father. France had to explain to Russia to take it slow and show America what to do.

The choker around Americas neck is from when he was younger. Because he has fire powers, he's kinda allergic to water so he gets burned by it so Britain made a little gem to keep him immune to water, so now he can talk underwater with no consequences.

America is forces to go the presidential debates but he doesn't really care anymore cause he knows both of the people are gonna be shit so he just uses that time to make fun of them.

To torture America Canada makes him watch Hamilton. Like imagine there was a musical about reliving you least favorite time in your life and also the story of how your friends died.

He hates his singing voice so he'll go outside to the forest and play his guitar on the edge of a nice cliff and blast music through his headphones.

America has extreme Arachniphobia. every time Australia loses one of his spiders America says you better find that spider before it finds me.

When his siblings were younger he used to sing to them because he didn't want Britain and France to have to wake up and deal with it.

After 9/11 America has to wear a hearing aid because new York is technically his brain, he covers his ears because of it

Idk how I forgot this one but Americas eyes changes colors depending on his mood. Blue and red is normal, only red is mad or ticked off, green is protective or wary, yellow means he has his eagle wings out and purple means he's bout to nuke you cause he's really mad like lvl 5. His eyes show not only his mood but also which persona is in control at the time ( which I figured out is called split personality disorder

He can also talk to the ancients and dead countries, so he just talks to them when he's bored, Canada can do the same since he is a ghost. If America doesn't have pupils and it's just fully white or black he's talking to them, but its more his internal thoughts that talk to him. he doesn't just start mummbling luckily.

Hes immune to most of the different abilities of other people, he doesn't get frozen in time which came in handy during the cold war, he can still see Canada even if he is a ghost, though Britain can still use magic on him, bad magic like cursing him doesn't work, France can still see his memories, but its mostly because their his parents.

(I know I'm making him over powered but like you should've expected that, I do live in America and America does have the best military by a landslide, so L)

Oh also meme of the day ( don't expect this to be normal)

#countryhumans #artists on tumblr #country humans #countryhumans art #countryhumans america #head cannons #countryhumansrusame

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sageryuri · 9 months ago

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BANDAID, NISHIMURA RIKI.

pairing nishimura riki + afab!reader.

genre fluff, minor angst.

summary when it reaches the warmth of summer in australia, you and your friends go through the effort of making it as fun as possible before going back to your normal lives. it doesn’t feel so enjoyable when your friendship with riki becomes more confusing than before he left.

word count 10.4k (unedited).

warnings cursing, reader may seem a little irritating on her judgements of riki but i think her feelings are valid, alcohol, slightly intense kiss scene. no idols represented in this writing are not based on their real self.

an finally here!! my favourite fanfic genre tbh…

Australia's strong heat beats down onto your skin, but it's been so long that you're simply used to the feeling. You had always hated the cold, the feeling of having heaps on clothing on your body to keep you warm only leaving you angered and overstimulated.

Sunghoon complains behind you to Jay, he rummages around his bag and pulls out a pair of sunglasses. Since he had only moved to Australia recently after only visiting every few months for a week or so, he wasn't as used to the beating sun as the rest of his friends were.

You smile at Sunoo as he comes jogging to the rest of you, the last person to arrive onto the beach. Heeseung lets out a loud 'woop!' knowing he promised he wouldn't go into the ocean until everyone had arrived, he greets Sunoo before he along with Jake run across the hot sand to the water.

"They're so dramatic. It's only one PM, they have all day to go in there. I don't see why they enjoy it so much, I feel like I end up drinking most of the water." Sunoo states, taking a seat next to you on your lilac blanket — you always opted for a blanket rather than a towel, it was comfortable and you would use your towel if you decided to swim.

"That's kind of disgusting, Sun. I don't know, I guess it's relaxing when the waves aren't hitting. Look at Hoon, that man is dying, he probably needs to go in the water." You and Sunoo turn to look at Sunghoon, who has spread himself to take over his shared towel with Jungwon, who has already fallen asleep and has 10% of the surface area.

"Can we stop bullying me! It's not my fault I've only lived here for two weeks, give me time and soon enough I'll be as tanned as Jay and I'll handle the heat better than any of you." Sunghoon lifts himself, almost hitting Jungwon in the face but narrowly missing him. He goes to lay back down afterwards, but gets angry for a second time, "You know what, at least I'm not like Riki! He was- oh, oh- I'm sorry. Forgot I wasn't supposed to bring him up."

Oh, Riki.

"You're allowed to bring him up, he's still our friend. I just- I guess I'm just more sensitive about him than the rest of you were." Unconsciously, your arm goes to grab onto your necklace in discomfort at the mention of his name.

As a child, the size of the nursery could be compared to a sky-scraper in your eyes. Your tiny hands grabbed harshly onto your mother's blouse as her and your father take you towards the gate, "You'll be okay, baby. They're going to take care of you while daddy and I are working, they'll teach you lots of new things and you'll make lots of new friends!"

You let out a small whine as you are pulled forward slightly by your mother, and she takes you to a younger woman with chocolate brown eyes and dark curly hair.

"Hello! You must be YN, it's really nice to meet you. My name is Grace and I'll be taking care of you while you're here. Now, I know you're new here, and I have a friend for you who is new here too!" Behind the woman you noticed the boy that was trying his best to hide away from you, but after being mentioned he stepped out slightly, “This is Riki, he just started today too.”

When he offers you a small smile and wave, your friendship began to bloom.

The memory of your first meeting slowly dissipated, and your mind was back to the present, on the beach with all of your friends. Sunoo and Sunghoon appear to have been unaware of you spacing out as they argued with one another. Jungwon is still fast asleep and the other three boys have found themselves pushing each other around in the ocean.

Riki always felt like a missing piece of a puzzle.

You find yourself nestling into your blanket to sunbathe a little before the rowdier boys would come back and irritate you. When you close your eyes, Sunoo always begins to speak so that you don't fall asleep since it was so difficult to wake you up afterwards.

"Don't you have a shift later at Emma's Diner? You want me to pick you up so you aren't walking home by yourself?" You peel your eyes open to look at him, sunglasses now perched on his nose. You groan at the mention of the shift you would have to go to later.

You loved your job, being favoured amongst customers and having a lenient boss. It doesn't change that you would rather be on the beach with your friends rather than have them be irritating in a booth while you busied yourself making their meals and milkshakes.

"Yeah, I'm working the closing shift. So, please do come and pick me up. I know it's only a ten minute walk but it's so scary walking at twelve PM. Especially since they haven't fixed the broken street lights yet." Living in a small town meant that everyone knew each other, so it was unlikely anything would ever truly happen while you were out late. It didn't make you feel entirely safe though.

"Of course, I'll come a little earlier so you can make me one of those amazing mint chocolate milkshakes. Ugh, it feels like it's been so long since I've had one of those." Sunoo lets out a satisfied sound as he thinks about the diner milkshakes. At some point, you wondered if he was only friends with you for your milkshake-making skills (a joke, you had hoped).

"You had one two days ago!" You let out a loud laugh which causes Jungwon to stir in his sleep, not waking up but turning on his side — you put a spare towel over his so that he doesn't burn. You turn back to Sunoo who has diverted his attention to the boys in the ocean, who are carrying Jake by his arms and legs to throw him in.

"Yeah, but you weren't working two days ago. Don't tell anyone, but you make the best milkshakes out of everyone." Funnily enough, everyone already knew that you made the best milkshakes in town. You suppose that's why you still have the same job from when you were fourteen years old.

"I guess we're all lucky that I got that job." You continue to smile, thinking of all the fond memories you had made just in the small space of the diner.

"Well, you had more of a chance than anyone."

The longer you waited for the call back from the diner, the longer Riki would groan as he watched you take big strides around your bedroom — a place not made to take big strides in.

There weren't many career opportunities going around for people your age, but ever since your father fell ill and was unable to work, you wanted to provide some help for your family. The act of attempting to actually get a job had turned out to be harder than you anticipated, already being rejected from other places due to a late application and lack of spaces.

"Can you stand still? Or you know, take a breather? I think you're taking this a lot more seriously than it actually is. You don't even have to get a job, I mean, you're still in school. I haven't even thought about getting a job yet." There was not a moment in Riki's life where he seemed to feel an ounce of worry. Even now while you trampled over heaps of clothing on the floor of your room, he scrolls through Twitter on his phone.

"You, my friend, don't have a sick father who can barely move from the bedroom- and I know you're going to try and bring up the fact he's getting sick pay, but it's basically nothing. I just want to help out and- oh my god my phone is ringing." You're interrupted by the sound of you phone, the caller ID being displayed as 'Emma (my maybe future boss)' and you end up prancing around your room even more intensely.

Riki wants to pick up the phone for you as he's so sure you got the job and he doesn't want you to risk losing it.

"Pick it up! What are you waiting for stupid?" Riki is very quick to grab your phone and force it into your shaking hands, so you take in a deep breath and answer the phone before the call would disconnect.

"Hello! Yes, that's me. Of course, yes. Oh- oh! Thank you so much! Yeah, yeah I can absolutely make it tomorrow. Bye!" Your voice becomes higher pitched when you answer, Riki smiles as he acknowledges the habit that he had picked up on a few years ago whenever you were on a phone call; and he couldn't miss the smile which had appeared on your face when you ended the call, "I got the fucking job!"

"-Is she dead? I'm starting to think she might be dead. Jay, will you please begin preparing for her funeral? I would like for it to be dramatic and elegant and everyone must wear suits and gowns." You feel yourself coming back into your consciousness from the sound of Heeseung's obnoxious voice, so you open your eyes and look through your sunglasses to see him with his left hand on his chest.

"Oh my god, shut the fuck up. She's probably just ignoring you because of how annoying you are!" Sunoo hits Heeseung's shoulder, grimacing at him before giving you a loving smile.

"Sorry... I got a little caught up in my daydreams." You rub your eyes lightly and allow yourself to adjust to the sun again through your sunglasses. It had become a little dimmer outside, but still too bright to walk around sunglasses-free.

"Daydreams? You've been lay there without a word for over half an hour. I'm fairly sure you fell asleep, thank you for covering me with the towel by the way." Jungwon is up and awake now, and your eyebrows shape to show shock on your face as you wonder what on earth you had dreamt about.

Surely you wouldn't have dreamt of just Riki for that long? You were sure you had been awake this whole time.

"Fuck, really? I should probably head home before I have to go to my shift. I'll see you all tomorrow I imagine?" You reply, pulling out your phone to check the time. It had now reached 3PM (somehow), which meant you had about two hours to prepare yourself to work.

It was always busiest when you began working, so the first two hours always drove you insane.

"Of course, see you around!" They all say goodbye, some giving hugs and some opting for waves, though Jake had almost popped a lung when he cuddled you so tightly against his chest.

You arrive home, still living with your mother and father in their little apartment which gives you a perfect view of the ocean. When the streetlights came on, you liked to look from yout window and watch the waves move with elegance.

It had been a few years since your father recovered from his illness and had gotten back into working, he had stated that it was fine if you had wanted to leave the diner and relax for a little while. The diner had become a large aspect of your life and leaving it would leave something missing — you had already lost something when Riki left for Japan, the diner being somewhat of a reminder of him.

"Oh, good afternoon! Are you going to work soon?" Your mother is pondering around the living room with cleaning products while your father is sat staring at the television. You find it strange that's she's cleaning since it's Saturday, and that was usually her resting day.

"Why are you cleaning? You never clean on a Saturday, the living room wasn't even a mess this morning." You respond, ignoring her question, since she did know the answer to it. Jumping on the sofa next to your father, he lets out an 'oof' as you practically land on his leg that had been perched up onto the sofa.

He generally spoke to you when you got home, yet he was being strangely quiet. You were sure they were both hiding something.

"I wish you weren't so observant sometimes, you should be like your father." She rolls her eyes with a smile, but her eyes reveal that she's nervous about something. It makes your stomach churn with anxiety as you wonder if you had done anything wrong recently.

You go through every moment in the last week in your mind.

"I'm actually quite observant, I just don't say anything about what I notice. It's all stored up here." He doesn't take his eyes from the screen when he knocks at his own head, watching a show he's likely watched on repeat since the 90s, you were sure he'd seen this episode over five times now.

"Okay... Do you have something to tell me? You're both being weird which means you're trying to hide something from me, and it's causing heavy worry to run through my body." You reply, your mother sighs and sits across from you on the smaller chair, "Has someone died? This feels... serious."

"No, no. No one's dead. We do have something to tell you, and we only found out after you left. I was just a little worried to tell you about who came knocking on our door this morning." She sounds almost excited, a soft smile replaces the one she had previously held, "Riki's mother came this morning. He's back- for good that is. She said he wants to see you and everyone else."

Half of you feels morbid, you're angry. The other half fills with excitement and wonder as to why he had come back after so many years.

After deciding not to question them on the situation so much considering you were hardly processing it yourself, you nodded your head in shock before walking into your room and closing the door slowly. You leave an ominous message to Sunoo, asking him to bring Sunghoon along with him later and to come a little earlier.

"What? You're joking! How long has he been back for? And why didn't he say anything to any of us?" Sunoo drops the fry back onto his plate, his jaw dropped as you reveal that Riki is back in town.

The three of you were in one of the booths in the diner, you had locked up and moved the 'open' side onto the 'closed' side, even though it was unlikely there would be any other customers at this time. As you had thought, the two of them also had no idea that Riki was back.

"Well, it's not like we really stayed in contact with after a couple of months. It's been three years." Sunghoon retorts, he continues to eat the food you had made him. He had always been so sure that Riki wouldn't stay in Japan forever, therefore having a weaker reaction compared to Sunoo.

"I still don't get it, I mean- he moved away for a reason and now he's back, and his mum is knocking on my front door and he isn't." You're now irritated, but under that irritation you're counting down the minutes until your old best friend would be standing in front of you — and he would be different from all those years ago.

"He'll be nervous. The town hasn't changed but I'm sure we have and so has he. Give him some time." Sunghoon continues to eat and you allow yourself to take in his words.

You didn't want to be mad at Riki, you didn't want to see him for the first time again in years and not know what to do with yourself. Sunghoon was right, you were sure of it, but you also couldn’t help the way that you felt.

As your mother always stated, you had been as observant as she had been with the body language and habits of others, knowing if someone was acting out of the ordinary compared to their usual act.

On this day, Riki had left you feeling confused when he hadn't complained about you stumbling around his room.

To other people, this may not have been unusual; but Riki had always told you to sit down and stop walking around his room because it made him feel anxious. He always felt like you were nervous about something and that you were about to drop a bomb on him, thought it was just because you found it difficult to stay still.

"Are you okay? You haven't really said anything in awhile- and you haven't told me to sit down either." You jump onto the bed next to him, the bed creaking as you landed and bounced up and down.

"Sorry, I'm just feeling a little sick I think." You pout at his words, knowing that he's lying to you. He looks just as he does usually and he hasn't done anything that would insinuate that he had been ill.

"You look perfectly fine to me, plus you wouldn't invite me over if you felt sick. You can talk to me, we tell each other everything don't we?" You comfort him, he furrows his eyebrows and throws his face into his hands with a rough groan, and you can feel your heart beat faster at his clear distress.

Finally, Riki turns to look at you and his bottom lip is pulled between his teeth as his eyes begin to brim with tears. You reach forward to brush them away, he finds solace in your warmth and leans into the touch as your hands hold his face softly.

"I'm moving to Japan next week- my parents bought some land there and are planning on building up their business. They found a really good school for me to attend to finish my studies, and they want me to go to college and university there." Riki sighs, he looks at you with sad eyes, "I don't know if I'll ever be coming back. At least not for a long while."

"Oh... Riki why didn't you tell me earlier? When did you find this out?" You finally pull your hand away, though you feel a mix of negative emotions building up inside of your body as you listen to your best friend, "You should have told me."

"It's been a few months. I'm sorry, I just didn't want to worry you or anything." Riki seems to become quieter and quieter as he speaks, and his fingers wrap around yours while they tremble.

"Well, you can visit can't you?" You had made an attempt to make light of the situation, "You can tell everyone all about Japan- we don't leave Australia very often. It would be nice to know."

"I'm not sure." In his response, his voice becomes even more timid somehow. You know that you're upset at him for not telling you, you know you're angry that your best friend may be leaving you forever — but hearing his voice sound so broken left you wanting to hold him for the next week you had left with him.

The atmosphere of the room weakens and you barely share anymore words with each other.

When you had gone to visit him a few days later, he was already gone.

"I know he'll be nervous. I'm just angry that he never gave me a real goodbye. Then he talked to you guys a lot more than he talked to me. I just thought that he was my best friend, but it really felt like he didn't see me that way." You start to

stab at your meal with a pout, thinking about all of those years spent together just to be thrown like grains of sand.

Sunghoon and Sunoo look at each other, but you're too busy poking your food to notice.

"You ever thought he might have had a crush on you?" Sunoo mutters and you look at him with a raised eyebrow.

"No, I never got that impression from him- but he never really talked about relationships or anything to me so I wouldn't know how he acts around someone he has feelings for." You lean onto your hand, looking up as you think, "Even then, why would he ignore me if he liked me? Surely he would be doing the opposite."

"You were his best friend and I intend to believe that you still are. If anything, he was probably scared because of it. Going to Japan would have helped him get over you. That's if he did have feelings for you." Sunghoon is nonchalant, as he usually would be in situations such as this.

In times like this, Sunoo and Sunghoon would always be your go-to for advice and comfort because they would always help to reassure you that it isn't the end of the world — and if it felt like it really was, they were always your biggest supporters no matter the situation.

"As interesting as your theory is, I'm not sure." You stare at one of the old, blinking lights of the diner, as if it were an idea attempting to spring to the front of your mind, "I just want to see him again. I need to understand why he never explained why he wouldn't talk to me."

"He'll come around, he has to. Don't worry." Sunghoon reaches over and rubs your head soothingly with a soft smile, Sunoo giving a much larger one which comforts you just as much. You finish up your meals, after heading home you lay in your bed for another hour thinking about Riki.

You feel relieved when you wake up in the morning knowing that you have the whole day to yourself; no work, no chores, nothing at all. Waking up at ten AM instead of six feels great, just as great as it feels knowing the night is free for you too.

The group chat between you and your friends is blowing up, you blink your eyes to get used to the bright light of your phone screen. Everyone appears to be active, thought you're too tired to take in every single message, just getting the gist everyone wanted to go to the arcade today.

After a few minutes of being awake, your mother wanders into your room holding a hamper basket of clean clothing, beginning to fold it in the corner of your room, "Rise and shine, honey. You got any plans today?"

"Arcade I think. I'm not sure when, but probably around the same time I usually leave. I want to lounge around a bit first though, I love my spare days when I'm not working." You roll over to lie onto your stomach and she lets out a scoff, though you know she's only joking with you.

She knows you work hard.

"You'll have fun. Try not to let Jake spend all of his money this time please, his mother sounded absolutely gob-smacked when he told her how much he'd spent in that place." She chuckles under her breath and you smile at the thought. Mrs. Sim loathed spending money, but Jake seemed to find it to be his favourite hobby.

"I'm not in control how how Jake likes to spend his money, he's addicted to the arcade. I don't think he'd listen to me of all people." Your eyes are still closed as you bask in your last few moments of peace before you would have to go through your simple routine, you can feel the heat radiating through your window onto your back when your mother opens the curtains.

"Who knows. I know it might seem a little too soon for you, maybe you should see if Riki would like to come along." Even just by saying his name, your heart beats faster and you feel as if you had broken out into a sweat. He shouldn't be making you feel so anxious.

"He hasn't spoken to me yet." You know this doesn't surprise her.

"I know. I know he hasn't. And I know it isn't fair that he came back out of nowhere and you're finding it difficult to adjust to it." She sits down next to you, stroking your hair lightly on the back of your head, "He is too. It'll all be fine once you finally see each other again, just like when you were younger."

"Thank you." Finally, you turn around to sit up and give her hug before she would leave the room to carry on her endeavours — you would go ahead and make a ham and cheese toastie and get ready for the day ahead of you.

The arcade is just as packed as it tends to be, children racing each other around and occasionally apologising to teenagers and adults they bumped into and continuing their adventure with their friends.

It's sweet knowing that this was what you used to do when you were a child.

"You're such a fucking cheat! You can't throw shit at me to block my view, then start hitting the puck! Heeseung, I'm never playing this game with you ever again. In fact, don't talk to me ever again." Jungwon throws the jacket harshly back towards Heeseung, who is laughing loudly with Sunghoon after he wins the game for the third time.

"I don't see any rules that tell me that I'm not allowed to throw jackets at people whenever I desire. Hate the game not the player." Heeseung and Sunghoon high five each other and Jungwon rolls his eyes, Jay comes over and gives him a soft slap on the shoulder for reassurance that at least one person in the room has his back.

"No- no- I'm hating the player very hard at this moment in time. Sunghoon stop laughing, he'll do the exact same thing to you." Jungwon's voice raises louder, two children are giggling at him from behind the claw machine and it's unclear if that had calmed him down or frustrated him even more.

You begin to ignore the argument, looking around for Jake who should have been here twenty minutes ago. If anyone was ever late, it wouldn't bother you so much, though you had a strange feeling in the pit of your stomach that was starting to make you feel nauseous.

"I don't mean to interrupt your squabbling but where's Jake? He'd be here by now, you think he's okay?" The rest of them shrug at your worry, knowing that it was unlikely Jake was doing nothing but being fashionable late — something was beginning to really bother you, but you couldn't work out what it was.

"Jake has arrived! And, I'm showing up with a big surprise." Jake's voice booms through the arcade and everyone greets him before they notice the larger figure standing behind him.

He's gotten taller- taller than Heeseung now. His body is more toned and defined and he's grown into his features. His hair is styled rather than flopping over his forehead like you had remembered.

Riki coming back would be a lot harder to accept than you had truly anticipated, and you knew it would be difficult.

The boys crowd around him, picking him and throwing him around in happiness, ecstatic laughs ringing through out the building. You're stuck in place, watching his face contort through emotions.

You smile.

When the others are done parading around Riki, almost all of their eyes turn to look at you, apart from Jake and Sunghoon who were ready to put all of his cash into the punching machine. When Riki finally makes eye contact with you, both of your worlds appear to stop.

It's as if you had both been dropped into an empty box. His face changes expression, practically monotone, but you can tell that he isn't disappointed to see you. Slowly, he examines you from head to toe; you've grown up too.

"Hi." It appears to be the only words that can slip past his lips, and as you had expected, his voice had deepened to. This was still the same Riki you had known ever since you were a child, all the resentment you had held towards him faded away from your memory immediately.

You aren't particularly thinking in the moment, before you realise it your hands are around Riki's back and tears are streaming down your face, you feel the vaguely familiar hands of your best friend enveloping your body.

"Fuck, I really really missed you Riki." Your voice is undeniably shaky, the grasp you had on the back of his shirt tightens as you let out tiny sobs. Tenderly, Riki brings his hand to land on-top of your head and moves back and forth, "I missed you so much."

"I missed you too... I'm sorry for ever leaving you behind." He murmurs into your ear so that you're the only one who hears his words, knowing that the only person he truly wants to know this is you.

The two of you remember where you both are, standing in an arcade surrounded by your friends and heaps of children. It felt embarrassing, but anyone else would react the same way after so long. You feel him pull away from you, shivering at the loss of warmth that had been radiating from his body against yours.

"Welcome back, dude! We've got so much to show you- we have a fair and everything now! I can't believe you're back now..." Jay's arms hold onto the younger boys once again as he gives you one last look, being pulled away to watch Jake and Sunghoon argue after their punching machine adventures.

When the day comes to an end, you notice that talking to Riki doesn't feel the same anymore. At least you had felt so, the others were chatting with him as if he had never left. There were longing stares and banter, but something felt uncomfortable between the two of you, which you couldn't explain.

Heeseung offers to drive you home when he sees you rubbing your arm in the corner.

"You gonna tell me what's wrong with you?" The car ride had been practically silent up until this point, apart from the quiet music coming from Heeseung's radio, "You were moping in the corner for the last half an hour, that's not like you."

"I think I'm just a little lost right now, confused I guess." You answer, leaning your head against the window while you watch the houses passing by. Heeseung lets out a low chuckle, though not to make fun of you, just to show he understands how you're feeling from his own experiences.

"Is it because of Riki?" Heeseung had always been direct, you think it helps when trying to get people to talk about their feelings and give them advice. You sigh for maybe the twentieth time in the last two hours and let out how you feel to your close friend.

"I knew he was back, before today. His mum came to our house and talked to my family. I've been feeling nervous the last few days. Seeing him today made me feel better, but even after he hugged me it didn't feel like he missed me all that much." Your lips quiver slightly as you speak, just as your voice wavers, but you don't want to cry in front of Heeseung.

"He's probably just as scared as you are." It almost feels like people have been talking about your problems, everyone giving you the same answer you already had.

"Yeah, that's what everyone's been telling me, Hee. I know it won't go back to how it was straight away, but I would have liked if he'd talked to me more after our big, loving reunion." Hearing the same thing on repeat — Sunghoon, Sunoo, your mother and now Heeseung— only bothered you more.

"Do you want me to talk to him for you? I don't mind giving him a slap around the back of his head." He snickers, you turn your head away from the window to smile at him to show you appreciate his help.

Despite your feelings, you don't think Riki deserves a slap around the back of his head.

"It's okay, thank you. It'll be better if I talk to him myself." Though you value the help your friends and family try to provide for you in unfortunate times like this, it would be more effective to deal with it yourself. No one was better at explaining your feelings and morals than yourself.

Heeseung parks up in front of your house, the sun slowly beginning to hide behind the walls of your coral-coloured home. You bite your lip and give him one last meaningful smile, which he always returns.

"No worries- you know I'm always here when you need me." He responds, you leave his car and say goodbye before he drives off down the road back to his own apartment.

The diner is slow today. It's the same customers (as expected, it's a small town), except everyone seems unrealistically grumpy and a woman said you had put too much coffee in her coffee which was completely baffling.

You leaned on your palm on the counter, happy Emma wasn't in today so she wouldn't tell you to sit up because it drove away customers — it didn't, you doubted they cared that you were bored on the job as long as you actually did your job.

However, the universe would never allow you to have a boring, uneventful day; because the man who had been on your mind for years wanders through the doors of your safe place.

"Hey, sorry I don't mean to intrude. Sunghoon said this is where you worked." His deep voice rings through your ears and racks your brain, he looks almost too perfect to be real and you wouldn't be surprised if you were making this all up in your head.

"Yeah, it is." You try to quickly think of something to say before it manages to get awkward, "What brings you here? I make a pretty mean milkshake."

"Yeah, I remember pretty well." He grins at you, all too familiar to when he was younger and you had been practicing making the milkshakes for your new job.

Using a blender was not something that you had the pleasure of taking part in often. In fact, you were petrified that you were about to break your mother's very precious blender to practice making milkshakes.

"Did you press it in right? I'm not sure you pressed it in fully. It's gonna spew everywhere." Niki is sat on your kitchen counter and has given zero effort to try and help you use the blender — 'i'm not the one working' he says.

"You're annoying me! Yes, it's in right!" You angrily whisper-shout to Riki, trying your best not to wake up your sleeping father in his bedroom. Confused, you examine the blender, "Or at least I think it is..."

"I'm scared. I don't want to be covered is strawberry juice, milk and ice cream." Riki groans, a vibrant habit of his, though still not making any efforts to move if this were to go terribly wrong.

"Have some faith in me please." You whine, pouring the rest of the milk into the blender cup. After reassuring yourself you had done it successfully, you shut your eyes and clicked the button.

There is no feeling of cold liquid splatting onto your body, which feels like a positive sign. Cautiously, you opened your eyes at the sound of silence when it had finished, which Riki appears to have done too.

"Oh. You did it." The shocked sound residing in Riki's voice almost bothers you, he has no belief in your skills (he's your biggest supporter, he's just avoidant with his affection).

The milkshake looks perfect. It's a deep pink colour due to the grenadine you had decided to pour into it, in courtesy of the milkshakes your mother would provide for you that you were sure you had become addicted to since the day you took your first sip.

"Of course I did it." After pulling off the lid from the blender, you pour the liquid into the milkshake glass, passing it off to Riki to get another person's opinion, "Try it."

Riki is hesitant to take the glass from your hands, pulling his hand back and forth dramatically. You pout sadly at him with furrowed eyebrows, then he only laughs loudly before holding the glass in his hands and smelling the contents of it.

"This better not be disgusting..." You clasp your hands together in anticipation when Riki finally takes a sip through the straw, taking your bottom lip between your teeth when he pulls away and smacks his lips, "Oh- Oh wow."

That day, you found out that your hidden talent was making the most delicious milkshakes in town.

"You Okay? You're spacing out a little." Riki waves his hands in front of your face to get your attention back on his current self and away from his old self. Your face heats up in embarrassment and you focus your eyes back onto his face.

"Oh, sorry, I've been doing that a lot lately... So, want a milkshake?" You repeat your question, due to both being unsure as to what you could say and the need to relive apart of your past with Riki. Unsurprisingly, Riki had always been your favourite person to make milkshakes for, even after he had left.

"When do you get off work?" Riki asks, leaning himself onto the counter. You feel your heart drop, wondering if it was finally time for the both of you to spend time alone together as two grown adults.

"Uh... In about twenty minutes. What's up?" You're trying your best to keep eye contact with him, but his intense gaze makes it difficult, he has very pretty eyes and they're making you strangely anxious.

"I was wondering if you wanted to catch up, it's been a long while. Plus, I think I owe you an explanation." You both swallow a lump in your throat at the same time and Riki's hand gets closer to yours on the desk, "And I would love a milkshake by the way."

"Yeah, I think I could do with a catch up. You can wait in one of the booth's if you want." A small smile appears on your face which makes him grin at you also. He nods his head, taking a seat at the booth closest to where you were working.

With the feeling of his eyes on your for almost the whole twenty minutes, time moved slowly and you became much more cautious about your movements.

He takes you to the park that is a ten minute walk from the diner, the walk filled with small talk conversation and reminiscing of your past relationship as children and teenagers. Finally being able to speak with Riki is nice.

"How have you been?" You watch two children on the park push each other on the swing instead of sharing eye contact with Riki, though finally getting used to having him back in your presence again, "God, it still feels weird having you back. I'm glad you're staying."

"I've been pretty good, surviving. It was fun in Japan, but I always wanted to come back." He smiles but you don't notice, considering you have been avoiding looking at him ever since he had sat in that booth in the diner, "I wanted to apologise for how I was with you when we were at the arcade. I didn't mean to ignore you like that, but you know, you're different to the boys. You were- still are, my best friend. I'll admit that I felt a little awkward after so long, but I shouldn't have avoided you like that."

"I understand, I'll admit I knew you were back before we saw you at the arcade. I was kind of freaked out because it's been so long and I was really nervous, so I could have reached out to you beforehand but I just really couldn't bring myself to. So, I'm sorry for that too." Your palms become a little clammy and you begin to unconsciously twiddle your thumbs while spilling your feelings out,"Did Heeseung speak to you or anything?"

"You don't have to apologise for anything, I really think this is all on me. I really missed you." You decide that this was time to look at him. The light of the sun shines on him so perfectly, you feel as if you could get lost looking at him.

You finally had your best friend back.

"I really missed you too, I wish we could go back to how it was before you moved to Japan." Somehow, you still feel like you can be completely honest with the boy, the one you had dissipated away from so long ago. In your minds, you both knew that something between you was different and would never go back.

"How about we start over?" Riki suggests and you furrow your eyebrows in confusion.

"What do you mean?" The wind gets a little harsher with your words, forcing your hair to flow into your face — Riki reaches forward to move it away, then pushing his out in front of you chest as if he was waiting for a handshake.

"I'm Nishimura Riki, it's nice to meet you." He smiles brightly, like the way the sun had been shining into his deep brown eyes. Laughing, you take his hand into yours and shake it, introducing yourself to him as if this was your first meeting.

Riki feels a shiver down his spine as your smaller, warmer hands slip into his.

A smile had been plastered on your face ever since the previous day. Your mother had been adamant on you telling her what had got you so jumpy and ecstatic, but you would just say it was nothing and go skipping back to your room.

It has been repeating in your mind every moment, you could barely stay on your phone or read a book without closing your eyes and replaying the whole moment in your head that had your grin growing larger.

"Honey, Sunoo is here!" Your mother shouts from downstairs, her voice drags you out of your daydreams and you sit up from your bed. Sunoo comes bursting into your room, jumping onto your bed with a smile almost as huge as yours had been.

He looks at you expectingly, to which you give him a strange look.

"Well, go on then!" He pushed your shoulder and you only continue to look at him with the same baffled facial expression, nudging him back with your hand in return.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Sunoo's jaw drops at your response and you can only let out a loud laugh at this shocked expression — how could you have any idea what he was talking about when he gave you no information to stem from?

"You were with Riki yesterday! Tell me about it." He grabs your television remote and turns the TV off, interrupting your show that had been playing on and off since you had woken up. You scoff, taking the remote from him and placing it onto your rocky sidetable.

"How did you even know about that?" You laugh, turning your body to face him, crossing your legs on your bed. Looking up at the ceiling, you wonder what to tell Sunoo. All day, you've been daydreaming about it, but speaking it aloud didn't feel as exciting as your brain had been making if out to be.

"Because you're my best friend... I was with Sunghoon when Riki asked where you worked. I just assumed he was wanting to hang out with you. So, quick, tell me everything that happened." Sunoo's eyes are set on your face, he doesn't take a second to look away.

In your mind, you think about the conversation that you and Riki had. Sure, you told Sunoo everything. Other people's business was also your business when it came to gossiping with him; but the redevelopment of your relationship seemed a whole lot more personal, and you were going to be a hypocrite.

"We just apologised to each other, then he asked if we wanted to start over. It was quite nice actually." You shrug, wanting to keep the peaceful moment you had between you and Riki. Unsurprisingly, the boy sitting in front of you pulls a face of disgust at your response.

"Wow, you aren't even going to tell me all the details." His eyes roll, which you had expected from him — you know he understands thought, since he smirks at you when he thinks you aren't paying attention to him.

"I'm tired! I'll tell you another time. It isn't as exciting as you're anticipating it to be." You lie back onto your bed and Sunoo joins you on the left side closest to the window which brought in a cold breeze; he doesn't believe you'll ever tell him what happened that day, "Is that all you came here for?"

"Actually, I have something to tell you. Since Riki is finally back and Jay's parents are out of town, we're going to host a surprise welcoming party for Riki. Do not mention it to him! I've already had to calm Jake down about five times." Your pink-haired friends claps his hands in excitement.

It would be nice to have everyone around to join and have a good time to welcome Riki back. Half the town likely had no idea Riki was home and they would have missed him too, so a house party would be the perfect opportunity for the community to come back together.

"Well, I'm not Jake! I'm very good at keep secret. My lips are sealed." You pull your fingers across your lips to imitate a zip, turning your head when an idea pops into your head, "Do you want to watch Gone Girl?"

"Of course I want to watch Gone girl."

This would be the first time you and Riki were hanging out after deciding to 'start over'. When you were younger, you all would go to the summer fair in January to welcome the New Year.

"Get- get the fuck off! What is it with you and fucking jumping people? There's kids here! What if you knocked one over?" Jay tries his best to push Riki from his back, his angry furrowed brows making you giggle.

"I think that would be kind of funny." Sunghoon says under his breath, though it's loud enough for you and Jungwon to hear, which results in you both pulling a strange face in his direction.

"You're awful, man." Jungwon shakes his had at Sunghoon, but the way he's trying to hide his laugh contradicts his disappointment. Jay joins the three of you walking after he finally gets Riki off his back, now going over to bother Jake who lets out upset whines.

"I'm joking. Sorry for admitting kids falling over is a funny concept." Sunghoon's honest never fails to prevail in conversation, you've seen him laugh at children falling over with tears dripping down his face.

"You do realise admitting it's funny insinuates you aren't joking?" Jungwon raises his left eyebrow at Sunghoon, who shrugs and moves on to go and talk to Heeseung instead, who was more inclined to agree with his take.

Riki moves on next to you and drags you over to the punching machine which was enveloped by prizes of different prizes, all won through punch strength.

"Want me to win you a prize?" He asks and you miss the fact he was being completely serious, so you chuckle at him. You turn to look at the others who have taken to the water gun game and are loudly screaming as they shove each other away from their stations.

"What, on the punching machine? You can try but I'm not sure your muscles are big enough to even get that pack of candy." Feeling bold, your hand goes to wrap around his bicep through his jacket. A light blush litters over your face when he disproves your point without uttering a single syllable.

"Oh yeah? Maybe you should have more faith in me, I've been a gym rat for the last few years." He takes hold of one of his jacket sleeves and removes the jacket from his shoulders to reveal the vest he had been wearing underneath.

Yeah, he'd absolutely proved you wrong.

Riki pays the guy the price for the machine, then punches it as hard as he possible can. Unexpectedly, Riki pretty much matches the high score which directs his eyes to the ginormous teddy bear that he could afford free of charge.

Just for you.

For the first time in years, you remember that feeling you had been pushing back all those years ago.

This was the first time you had ever experienced a fake friendship with someone, a few weeks before Riki would be telling you that he was leaving.

Yuna was always a good friend of yours, she was slightly older than you, but she never treated you like you weren't as mature as she had been. She wasn't necessarily excluded from your friend group, but she had her own friends and really only hung out with you rather than your friends.

"It's honestly so weird. All of her friends are boys, don't you all think that's a little strange?" Yuna's voice is heard by you from around the corner and you decide to hide behind the brick wall and listen in before you say hello.

"I mean- not really? She's friends with you and I think she's really lovely. I don't think it's all that weird, Yu. You shouldn't talk about her like that." Her friend Chaeryeong replies, seemingly concerned with her friend's comment.

Weirdly, you have a strong feeling you know exactly who she is talking about.

"I think she's just a little, I don't want to sound mean but, desperate? I mean come on, there's seven of them. She must think at least one of them is going to have a crush on her. Easy." Her voice is filled with venom and you hear a few giggles come out of others that were around her.

Not wanting to hear what anyone else had to say, you find yourself hiding away in one of the isolated blocks in the school. Tears stream down your face and you shake as you question what you could have possibly done wrong for her to judge you so awfully.

If you had known she was simply jealous, maybe you would have felt less insecure. A squeak comes from the rusty door and you rapidly try to wipe away your tears before whoever walks in would see you in such a weak state.

"What are you doing in here? Why are your eyes so red?" Riki's face drops when he sees you, his dark hair falls in front of his eyes and bounces as he jogs over to lean down next to you.

Your first fall-out is Riki's first time seeing you so distraught, it tugs at his heart and he isn't sure how to deal with it. Sure, he's seen you mad and upset, but he's never seen you cry. If he realises anything while looking at you, it's that he never wants to see you cry again.

"It's- it's nothing. I don't want you to worry yourself." More tears fall down your soft cheeks and Riki moves his hand forward to wipe them off your face. He doesn't think someone like you should be crying like this and selfishly he doesn't think he deserves to see his best friend crying either.

"Of course I'm worrying. Are you okay?" He watches as you pull your knees up to your chest and you lean into your own touch.

"Do you think it's weird that I'm only friends with boys?" The way your eyes had become so wide when you looked at him broke him, you were taking all of him in, waiting for an honest answer. Riki couldn't believe that you were questioning your friendships over something so small.

"What? No. What kind of question is that? Did someone say something?" A crease appears between his eyebrows as they furrow, so lost in why this had become an issue for you. He can't help but to pick at the pout of your lips with the tips of his fingers to make you put it away.

When you don't reply, Riki doesn't speak either. He holds you in his arms like his life depended on it. That was the first moment you knew you felt differently to Riki than your other friends, that you wouldn't mind spending your life in his arms.

When you come back to the present, Riki is holding out this teddy bear to you with the most beautiful smile you have ever seen. You’re taking him again, you’re thinking about what it’s like go be in his arms forever.

It truly is your fault this time. You're the one taking everything back to square one and you've never seen Park Sunghoon so irritated with you before. He forgets ever having a soft spot for you when he looks at you with the angriest expression.

You hated to admit it, but after coming to the conclusion that you had romantic feelings for Riki, you had been avoiding him for the last three days. It wasn't your best decision in life though you had no idea what to do.

So, you turned to your straight-forward friend Sunghoon.

"You're an idiot, genuinely. What the hell is wrong with you? You're going to put him through hell, didn't you want to become friends with him again? What happened to starting over?" His feet take him around your living room aggressively and you sit staring at the ceiling, feeling too nervous to look him in the eyes.

"Instead of calling me names, can you help me out here? I don't know what to do, what if he doesn't feel the same and I mess it all up again?" Your hands fall onto your face with a loud slapping noise.

Finally, you look up at Sunghoon and his face tells you everything you needed to know. If you carried on ignoring Riki's existence, he wouldn't be your friend or a romantic interest. Either one is better than none.

"Look, I love you, you're amazing- but this is the stupidest thing you've ever done. The party is tonight and he's probably too busy wondering why you're suddenly paying more attention to Jungwon's ice cream rather than him." Once again, the man is correct.

After Riki had got you the teddy bear (which you were cuddling in your arms in that exact moment) you had become a blushing mess and could barely bring yourself to look him in the eyes. It wasn't hard for Sunghoon and Sunoo to catch onto, Sunghoon nudging your arm when you had started questioning Jungwon about unnecessary things while Riki was right next to you.

You were so, so scared. What better way to avoid your feelings by avoiding the one that had caused them to blossom?

"You are getting this sorted tonight. I don't care how it ends, you're both getting closure on whatever this is because I can't stand this weird tension going on between you both and I don't know how long it will be until you both crack." Sunghoon’s words simultaneously break your heart and make it beat 10x faster.

You had no idea Riki was sat in his room staring at his phone wondering what he had done wrong this time.

Jay's house is filled to the brim with party decorations, alcohol and people. You wonder how his parents would even allow this, then you question wether they even know about it. Honestly, you're sure you don't know some of the people here and you have no idea where they've spawned from.

You haven't seen Riki yet.

Sunghoon's words had been playing in your mind since he had spoke. In fact, you had been looking for Riki the whole time so you could sort it as soon as possible, tell him the truth, allowing him to enjoy the rest of the night even if his possible rejection could ruin yours.

You've downed a few drinks to release your nerves, soon finding the boys and a few others playing beer pong. They all don't seem too drunk,

on their feet successfully, until your eyes land on Riki who is stumbling all over the place.

Deep breath. You walk over to him.

"Riks, I'm sorry- talk to me." You pull him into a more isolated corner to avoid people listening into your conversation, though Riki pushes you away lightly and glares at you.

"Fuck off." He slurs and you step back in shock which causes you to bump into the wall. It's not like you had ever seen the boy drunk, for all you know something else could have bothered him, "I said- I think I'm gonna throw up.”

He turns around and makes his way upstairs and you follow closely behind him both to finish the conversation and take care of him. He leaves the door unlocked, so you walk in and see him leaned up against a porcelain bathtub.

Jay's parents liked their cute, but strange, antiques.

"Riki, please stand up. I need to get you home, you're too drunk." You're trying your hardest to pull the boy up out of the bathroom, but he only falls back down onto the side of the tub. You resort to giving up, sitting on the floor in front of him.

"You know I came back for you right? I- fuck I'm actually gonna be sick." He stands up, mostly stumbling, then sits down in front of the toilet instead with his back pressed against the wall. Turning around to face him, you've barely processed what he had said.

His eyes are beginning to fill with tears, he brings his arms up to rub them away.

"What do you mean you came back for me?" When you lean forward to rub the tears from his eyes, which he surprisingly allows you to do, you almost get deja vu.

"I could have stayed in Japan, I had everything I needed there." Like he had sobered up, he no longer needs to throw up anymore and theres no slurring in his tone, "But I didn't have what I wanted- you. I don't think you understand how much I think about you, every single day you were there in my head. It was torture knowing I couldn't have you and that's why I stopped talking to you. I put myself through so fucking much just because I fell in love with you and couldn't do anything about it."

"You can't do this to me."

"What? You've been ignoring me for the last three days and I can't tell you that I love you? I had to get it off my chest." He scoffs, going to stand when you try to drag him back down, "You know what-"

"I'm in love with you too. I was scared. That's why I was ignoring you. I thought pushing you away would stop it, but it just made me feel worse."

You let it all out.

Riki hesitates, but soon moves forward so that his face is only inches from yours. He looks at you in the eyes, both filled with love, desire and fear. The amount of alcohol you had both consumed only reduced the anxiety slightly, but it doesn't stop him from leaning forward to close the gap.

it's merely a small peck for a second and you both pull away from each other. The separation doesn't last long when Riki pulls you to stand up with him, his hand reaching for the back of your neck to connect your lips again.

Your back is pressed against the bathroom door, hands wrapping around the back of his neck and his falling to grip onto your hips. When you close your eyes, the mixture of alcohol and Riki makes you dizzy and your legs shake, though his hold manages to keep you standing up-right.

"I'm sorry for telling you to fuck off. I didn't mean it." He mumbles against your lips, pecking them one last time before pulling away from you. Though it doesn't make the warmth he gave you part from your body.

"It's okay. I think I deserved it."

The next morning, you wake up in his arms — where you had always wanted to be. This turned out to be one of your favourite things to wake up to.

"I can't believe I moved all the way to Japan when I could have just been in your arms the whole time." Riki's hand rakes through your hair softly, stopping every so often to move the hairs out of your face.

"You're so cheesy. Why were you never this cheesy usually?" You both laugh, you’ve been messing with the necklace he had been wearing for a few minutes, trying to fixate on something other than the nerves that had been building.

"I wasn't dating you back then. I'm not going to show the world that I have a weakness." He says, manoeuvring his body to face you, he was blushing just as much as you were.

"And suddenly you want to?" You smile, he smiles back happily.

He doesn’t respond, continuing to soothe his hand through your hair. For once, the two of you don’t need to communicate with words, something you both seemed to struggled with your whole life.

Like a scraped knee, you had always placed a bandaid over it instead of tending to it properly like you should — when you finally decide to, it heals a lot faster.

#enhypen x reader #enha x reader #ni-ki x reader #nishimura riki x reader #enhypen fanfic #enha fanfic #ni-ki fanfic #nishimura riki fanfic #enhypen oneshot #enha oneshot #ni-ki oneshot #nishimura riki oneshot

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preet-01 · 7 months ago

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Maxiel Political AU

Word Count: 864

Summary: Max Verstappen only had one goal - to be President. It's all he's wanted since he was just seven years old and all that he's worked towards. But bachelors don't get elected as Presidents, for the most part. Enter Daniel Ricciardo. Daniel's the ideal candidate for the country's most prominent and stressful unpaid job: the President's loving partner, a pretty bauble for the country to fall in love with and look towards. In secret meetings, contracts are signed and a marriage is arranged. Max and Daniel must convince the American people that they are a loving couple and perfect for the White House

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Chapter Three

Jos Verstappen didn’t often breach the boundaries that Max had set once he left New York for the House in DC. He attended the big events, posed for pictures, and didn’t run his mouth in the press – despite how much he wanted to talk about his difference in opinions with the current President or the Senate Majority Leader. It was a compromise they had found after many arguments over Max’s politics.

However, he’d heard from Victoria, by no fault of her own Jos was just nosy when it came to his son’s political career, that his new campaign manager for 2028 was suggesting a political arrangement of sorts. While Jos was no politician, he was a blue-collar working man who unlike his neighbors in the city had gotten no handouts from the government, he did understand how things in the world worked. A political arrangement of sorts was just fancy speak for marriage. Max’s lot loved their fancy speak when it came to everything, nothing was what they said in that swamp city.

He would have to make his way down to the hellscape they called their great nation’s capital to ensure his son doesn’t do something stupid and ruin everything before he even got to put his name in the running. Some hussy chosen by another political elite wasn’t going to be the answer. No, his son needed a good, normal American woman, not another political Jezebel more focused on her own career than Max’s.

The trip from Manhattan to DC is just four hours by bus. A handful of buses leave from Penn Station and head straight to Union Station in DC. Just perfect for his travels. No need to inform his son about his arrival or tell his daughter that he won’t be in the city.

_______

In California, however, Joe Ricciardo was cursing his father.

Joseph Snr. had great hopes for their family, just as his father before him had, and his father before him, and so on it went stemming from when their ancestors resided in Australia. Each man wanted more than the previous. Joseph Snr. had made himself a national figure and was one of the most respected men when it came to politics, but he had never made it to the White House.

Nor had his son, much to his displeasure. Joseph Jr. or just Joe as he preferred to go by in silent rebellion to his over-involved father, had only made it as governor of California. His presidential hopes had been lost when the children were still young. Sometime around Daniel’s eighth birthday, Joe thinks.

When Daniel was a child, Joseph had turned his attention to him in an effort to make a Ricciardo that would finally take the family to the White House. He had high hopes for Daniel, more than Joe would’ve ever put on his young son. And when Daniel’s carrier status had been confirmed, Joseph had pulled away that attention as if it were something small and irrelevant. Luckily for them, Daniel was more capable and mature than most men his age had taken his grandfather’s snub as well as one could by moving across the country and only returning home every other holiday.

But now, Joe thinks his father has gone too far. It was one thing to make a careless remark during dinner while his son was vulnerable, it was another to foist some strange man onto him in the hopes that said man would be President one day. Joe hadn’t meant to hear the conversation between Daniel and Grace – a weekly occurrence ever since Daniel had said he would be building a life for himself in DC and its surrounding suburbs instead of sunny California where the rest of the family resided.

Joe had never blamed Daniel for doing as such or held it against him, he had understood the desire to not be so close to the rest of the Ricciardos and their various political dreams of varying concerns about the state of the county. Grace hadn’t taken it as well. While she understood why Daniel wanted to live in DC, she did not like that her baby was so far away and demanded weekly calls to make sure that he took care of himself.

So Joe had not been the intended audience when Daniel said, “Grandfather has suggested another man.” Joe hadn’t even known that there was a first. “He is not bad from the looks of it and Seb seems to like him. I’m thinking of meeting him,” Daniel continued, relaying his thoughts to his mother.

So yes, Joe Ricciardo was cursing his father for being so focused on the family legacy and a tie to the Oval Office. Daniel shouldn’t be the one with the weight of generations on his shoulders where Joseph Snr. and Joe Jr. had both failed

But Joe also knew his son. Daniel was the pragmatist of the family. He was just like Grace in that regard. Daniel would meet with this man that Joseph Snr. thought would be President in a few years. Joe just hoped that Daniel wouldn’t share his grandfather’s opinion and would say no to the match.

________

This was technically supposed to be the chapter where Daniel and Max had their first meeting, but the dads needed their POVs. So the next chapter will be the first meeting now

#maxiel #political au #the beauty of their dreams

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bawbawbridgie · 6 months ago

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physically at home, mentally at the palace theatre watching 2 slytherins fall in love with each other <3

#what i would give to live within a 2 hour train ride to london #crying from australia #cursed child #hpcc #harry potter and the cursed child #albus severus potter #scorpius malfoy #albus x scorpius #albus potter x scorpius malfoy #scorbus #harry potter

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gatheringbones · 11 months ago

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[“Mom rage lives in the body. Fingers curl, cheeks burn, breathing quickens. Similar to road rage, mom rage bubbles up fast and hot. Mom rage is fury—mothers bursting with uncontrollable anger. Its release is often aural and physical: a rhythmic string of high-pitched curses; a booming trombone yell, so growly the mother’s throat is sore the next morning; hands slapping out a sharp beat on her own stinging thighs; a bass drum foot pounding out each word—BRUSH (stomp) YOUR (stomp) TEETH (stomp) NOW (stomp, stomp)!!

As mothers, we know we are supposed to be nurturing, patient, gentle; never rageful. We try to hide our wrath, hold it in, keep it quiet. Sheila, mother to a three-year-old and seven-month-old in Brisbane, Australia, admitted to me in an email, “I often feel the rage and would sometimes just LOVE to stab a mattress into pieces with a very sharp knife.” Sheila used to hide her rage by screaming underwater at her local public pool, but the pandemic robbed her of that covert release. When mom rage takes over, not physically hurting someone is an act of will. Joanna from Portugal told me, “I remember holding [my daughter] and biting down on her fluffy onesie to staunch something worse.”

Those on the receiving end of mom rage are often our children, but not always. The vitriol can be directed at partners, pets, men in general, the system, or everyone around us. Mom rage can also turn inward, manifesting in self-harm: substance abuse, cutting, punching our thighs, slapping our own face, biting the insides of our lips, cheek, tongue—anything that can feel pain. Moms who rage are in pain, even if we don’t know it.

That pain isn’t caused by a child not wanting to brush her teeth, or any of the other daily irritations of parenting. Its foundations go much deeper. Mom rage stems from the overwhelming stress and impossible expectations of modern motherhood, combined with a debilitating lack of support from within the family structure and societal systems.

The sneaky thing about the causes of mom rage is that we can’t see them. In their visual absence, all we see is an angry mom. On the surface, mom rage looks like simple cause and effect: a child drops a jar and it shatters, resulting in the mom yelling, hot-faced and wild. This explanation of mom rage is easy to comprehend—there was an action and then a reaction. Perhaps there are details that complicate the story and make the mother’s strong reaction easier to empathize with. Maybe before this happened, the mother asked the child repeatedly not to play with the jar. Maybe the jar was the mother’s only heirloom from her great-grandmother who escaped the Holocaust. Maybe the mother has a pending work deadline, and Grandma, who was supposed to babysit, just called out with a migraine.

If we imagine mom rage as a house, the cause-and-effect scenario is happening on the main floor—let’s say, in the kitchen, since that is where so much of mothers’ daily domestic work takes place. To fully understand mom rage, we have to leave the kitchen and descend to the basement to uncover what came before. By “before,” I mean what happened the hour or day before the mother screamed at her child, but I also mean history—the mother’s own personal history, and the larger cultural history that shapes the way we live, think, and breathe today. History, identity, social norms, power(lessness), and past trauma, in addition to current societal systems and attitudes, are all at work when a mom balls up her fists and roars at the people around her—often the people she loves most. In the mom rage basement, we locate how a lack of partner support stems from cultural inequalities.”]

minna dubin, from mom rage: the everyday crisis of modern motherhood, 2023

#minna dubin #currently reading #gender stuff #brainspace #cw abuse #cw self harm #cw genocide

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annebrontesrequiem · 3 months ago

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Dickens Dashboard Simulator

mrpesquire Follow

Hat fell into the street and I gotta get it back, hope the carriage drivers don't mind :)

mrpesquire Follow

hopital

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artfulurchin-deactivated18390105

Everyone's always like 'Oh child gangs are bad' and 'Crime is rampant in London.' No one ever asks 'How was the business today? The business seemed like a lot of fun.'

bookstands-r-us Follow

I hope everyone who reblogged this stupid post gets shipped off to Australia just like OP

#oh it's just a bit of fun! it's just a joke!! #get back to me when people are filching the handkerchiefs from YOUR patrons #you're all losers

128,347 notes

insearchoflostlove Follow

To commemorate my dear father and I...

numberonemadelinestan Follow

I hauve consumption

604 notes

mulberry-bush Follow

alordbyanyothername-deactivated18391130

We all know you got your ass handed to you by that child lmaoooo

mulberry-bush Follow

Say that to my face so I can slap it with a glove

alordbyanyothername-deactivated18391130

We all know you'd fire right into the sky

pikefish Follow

Guys, I think op killed him

80,563 notes

mrmalthus Follow

Christmas celebrators die challenge

15,455 notes

manofbusiness Follow

AITA for using my niece (young? I forgot her birth date) to try and reel in some rich business associates of mine? Yeah they're a little creepy, but like, money is money. But at the end of the night she left my house crying - just like my brother's child to do that - and I almost felt, bad??

numberonemadelinestan Follow

I'll track you down to the ends of the Earth to rectify the evil you have visited upon my sister and our family. You took in your only nieces and nephews in order to destroy and ruin them to benefit yourself. I hope you never sleep again at night. I curse your name and turn from you. If you were begging in the street I should be revolted by you and not give a single crust, I, in my infinite mercy should walk past you as you vanish into the shadows of obscurity.

urchinno1 Follow

Anyone in this thread smoke opium?

2,435 notes

whereislove Follow

Finally arrived in London! Anyone want to meet up?

artfulurchin-deactivated18390105

Sure! Address is:

Bill Sykes Lair Whitechapel Road, Whitechapel London, England

Me and my friend would love to show you around!

whereislove Follow

Yay!

4 notes

#dashboard simulator #charles dickens #books cited:#nicholas nickleby #oliver twist #the pickwick papers #a christmas carol #this took wayy too long #I'll make another when I read more dickens; maybe #ask to tag #bern speaks

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xtruss · 8 months ago

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US’ Double Standards, Hypocrisy Undermine Prospects For Lasting Peace In Gaza

— By Professor Victor Gao | March 15, 2024

Illustration: Chen Xia/Global Times

While the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip continues to deteriorate as regional conflicts drag on, the US military dropped food and water on Tuesday into the region. On the same day, it was announced by the Pentagon that the US army ships were also moving to the Eastern Mediterranean to build a pier to bring aid to civilians in Gaza. However, the US government is pushing itself into a quagmire, demonstrating a high level of double standards and hypocrisy.

On the one hand, the US has become the main lifeline behind the Israeli military, providing a tremendous amount of equipment, ammunition, weapons of all kinds, military intelligence, as well as money. On the other hand, the US has taken some actions seemingly aimed at providing more humanitarian support to the Palestinian people, alleviating their agonies, pain and suffering.

However, even before the ink dries on the US' pronouncement, the US military has stated that constructing the pier may require up to 60 days. This means that there would be a waiting period of 60 days before the pier could even begin to operate and receive supplies from overseas.

Currently, a war is raging in Gaza, and innocent lives are being lost. How can we afford to wait another 60 days or so? The US government should take immediate action by enforcing a cease-fire while simultaneously expediting the construction of the temporary pier. I hope this can be completed in a shorter time frame. Subsequently, the international community should be called upon to rush supplies to Gaza to alleviate the pain and suffering of the Palestinian people.

The conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza is not being contained solely between the two sides. Instead, it has the potential to escalate out of control. Yemen's Houthis are attacking ships bound for or departing from Israel. Moreover, the US and the UK are bombing sites inside Yemen. Other countries, including Iraq, Syria and Iran, are facing increasing crises and strategic bombings by Israeli or Western forces.

Therefore, this is a critical moment for the US to stand up and do the right thing, rather than being accused by future generations of failing to live up to their responsibilities. However, the US does not appear to demonstrate any genuine commitment or willingness to end this conflict. I don't think they really care that much about the civilian deaths in Gaza. They are not dedicating enough resources or attention to do the right thing.

The Gaza crisis seems to be rapidly becoming a pawn in the US' presidential election. Just look at how Donald Trump and Joe Biden talk about the crisis in Gaza and how to deal with the Israeli government or its defense forces. They probably do not want to solve the problem and the crisis immediately. They would prefer to gain more votes by playing electoral tactics, any way they can.

In the US general election up to early November, even though the Gaza crisis itself is one of the most significant and horrific human tragedies in history, attention will likely be focused more on domestic issues rather than international ones. However, the Gaza crisis will undoubtedly influence the election in several ways.

First, many Muslim Americans are expected to mobilize their efforts to urge people not to vote for Biden. They perceive Biden as having let down the US by failing to stand firm in defending peace and the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, as much as the US defends the legitimate rights of the Israeli people.

Second, they are frustrated by the complete failure of the US in helping end the tragedies in Gaza. They are dismayed by the fact that the US has repeatedly blocked resolutions in the United Nations Security Council calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza. As a result, they will likely be mobilized. Political activists will attempt to hold Biden accountable for the US' failure to promote a cease-fire in the Israel-Palestine conflict, a failure that has been demonstrated to the entire world.

However, while the American people may be paying attention to the Ukraine crisis and the Gaza conflict, their main focus is on domestic issues, particularly the outcome of the presidential election. Unfortunately, news about civilian deaths, atrocities and indiscriminate killings may be overshadowed by headlines about domestic affairs. This will be a tragic chapter for both the Palestinian people and Israel, as it undermines the prospects for lasting peace in the region.

This is a critical moment for the US to do the right thing and prevent a real crisis of lasting instability, hatred and confrontation between the Palestinian people and the Israeli people. The US should treat the Palestinian people the same as they treat the Israeli people. If anyone attempts to prioritize the political rights of the Israeli people at the expense of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, they will ultimately fail to serve the fundamental interests of the Israelis, as this is not how lasting peace for Israel can be achieved.

— The Author is a Chair Professor at Soochow University and Vice President of the Center for China and Globalization.

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gayf1hoe · 3 months ago

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Part 3

“Carlos wait” I say running after him, he's speed walking down the long corridor but with a light jog I manage to catch up to him. As I walk alongside him he ignores me and doesn't speak to me so I have to be the one to initiate the conversation.

“Tell me what I have done wrong” I demand, I pull his arm making him stop in his tracks.

“You have done nothing,” he says.

“Then tell me what's wrong because if anyone should be mad in this situation it should be me”.

He pulls a confused look like an innocent child would and he's obviously waiting for me to elaborate and explain why I am the one who is mad or has the right to be.

“I saw you and Lando kissing”

His face resembles that of someone who had just seen a ghost, I wait for his response but he can't seem to fathom any words to defend himself.

“Y/N - ”

“Save it, I was stupid to trust you and let you deceive me like that, but it's fine really”, I walk away from him leaving him standing in the corridor, alone with my words that are still lingering in the air.

Fueled with anger and embarrassment I walk back to my room and slam the door shut and take some deep breaths before regaining some composure and clarity. The urge to his both Carlos and Lando has crossed my mind one too many times but I somehow find a way to collect my erratically displayed thoughts and come to my senses as to why hitting Carlos and Lando would be a bad idea. It's only the first race of the season and my first race with Carlos and it has me wishing Nikita would come back because at least we never argued or had any bad blood. It was just me and his father who had bad blood.

With the Australian Grand Prix just in a week's time I don't feel the need to dwell on mine and Carlos' friendship or relationship when it's the least important thing in the back of my mind. I pack all the stuff out of my room that I want to be forwarded on to Australia and decide to return to the hotel as I'm flying out to Australia in the morning. On the way back I bump into Alex and Logan who offer to walk with me and we make general conversation about today's race but it takes an unexpected turn.

“So what's the deal with you and Carlos he didn't look very happy when you tried to speak to him” Logan comments.

“I don't think we will ever be the best of friends let's say” I reply.

“Is it the Nikita situation all over again?” Alex adds.

“Funnily enough the Nikita situation wasn't as complicated somehow”.

We arrive at the hotel and when I arrive at my room I quickly start packing so I can get some rest before the flight tomorrow. I'm one of the only drivers going over to Australia tomorrow but that's because I have been invited to some tennis tournament by some friends of mine so I eagerly agreed to go. The only other drivers going are Lando and Charles so hopefully Lando will be preoccupied and I won't run into him because sometimes I can't control my mouth evident on multiple occasions.

I twiddle around with my thumbs as I lay in bed staring at the ceiling contemplating everything that seems to be going wrong in my life, normally after a podium finish I would be ecstatic with joy and accomplishment yet both those feelings are alien at the moment, I can't help but wonder what was really eating Carlos up but also what made him perform much more slowly than me but I have learnt from previous teammates that's when I get caught up in their mess I normally end up in a much worse situation.

Night turns to day and I barely managed to get any sleep so I hope on the flight to Australia I can get some sleep but I don't bank on it.

My airport transfer is already downstairs waiting. I frantically rush out of the door, I quickly walk to the elevator and wait for it to come from the floor above as the doors open it reveals Carlos and Max. I curse in my head and put my best fake smile on and stand in the elevator facing away from them.

“Where are you going, Y/N?” Max enquires.

“I was invited to a tennis match in Australia”, with my reply the elevator doors open on the last floor revealing the quiet scene of the reception area, it's still quite early in the morning so it's really quiet and empty.

It's a complete juxtaposition to the airport lounge which is filled with an incoherent flutter of voices and laughter. I try to read some of my book but the sounds of people's voices keep on making me lose track. It doesn't take a prolonged period of time for my plane to start boarding and everyone starts flooding towards the gate whilst I give them a judgemental look for running for a plane that isn't going anywhere until everyone is on board.

Eventually the plane takes off after a long delay because some idiot passengers wanted to make a fuss about their assigned seats rather than just sitting down in them. But for the majority of the flight I manage to get some sleep, thankfully there is no layover so I don't have to disembark the plane just to get back on.

The morning skies of Australia greet me and as I look out of my window all I can see is lando surrounded by blue translucent water and it's a magnificent sight to see from above.

Without much delay I rush off the plane like one of those impatient idiots who push past everyone but unlike them I actually have a reason. I don't have time to go to the hotel and get rid of my luggage as the delay means I will more than likely be late to the match.

But with a quick taxi driver I make it just in time and I am quickly shown to my seat, unfortunately it's next to Lando however he doesn't speak to me, and he only smiles towards me when we both appear on the screen.

I don't really know the rules of tennis other than hit the ball over the net but as time goes on I slightly catch on to a few rules of the game. There is this one player who catches my eye. He has blonde hair and a really mischievous smile that I can see from the other end of the court.

The blonde haired boy wins the game and I eventually learn his name is Holger Rune (photo at the end) and he is from Denmark. After the game I'm given the chance to meet him and as I get up close and as I get up close all of his intricate facial features stand out more, he's slightly sweating yet he doesn't look awful.

“That was a good game out there” I say trying to sound like I have the most comprehensive understanding of tennis.

“Yeah it was, are you the formula 1 driver is talking about?” he asks

“Maybe, but there is another two here and they are more popular than me so probably not”

“I don't believe that for a second” he says

He offers to show me around the court and inside the building and once under the cooling of the air conditioning our conversation flows more freely.

“So did you want to come to the Grand Prix this weekend, I can get you free access” I say basically wishing he will say yes.

He replies immediately “of course”.

A smile becomes etched on my face after he replies and we exchange numbers to keep in contact.

After I say goodbye to Holger I head back to my hotel room to catch up on some sleep as the jet lag will catch up with me pretty soon.

I wake up to a text message from Holger asking me if I wanted to go out for the day with him so I quickly check my schedule to ensure I don't have any obligations today which to my relief I don't.

So I eagerly text back my reply informing him I would love to go out and I ecstatically jump out of bed and try and find the best outfit I have. I decided to wear the outfit I was saving for race day but I want to make an impression on him, maybe he is my rebound from Carlos but I genuinely feel something towards Holger and I know he won't go behind my back like Carlos would or did.

I contemplate what he sees today as, is it a date? Or is he just trying to get to know me in a friendly way? These questions exemplify why I am terrible at relationships and should just stick to racing.

I walk to the spot he has said to meet at and thankfully the blazing Australian sun hasn't come out yet so I'm spared the uncomfortability of the stifling heat, for now anyway.

Eventually he arrives and he's wearing some shorts and a t- shirt that's practically see through causing me to blush lightly at the sight but when he approaches me he hugs me and it catches me off guard but I of course hug back.

We decide to head to one of the many wildlife parks around the city. I have been stuck in England for the past 2 years so I could be close to the factory so the most wild animal I have seen is a seagull so it's great to see such exotic animals.

It's nice to walk around and not have cameras flashing in my face or being asked a million questions. Holger points out every little creature he sees and I would be lying if I said it wasn't really adorable.

After spending a few hours at the wildlife park he takes me out to a restaurant and we eat probably a little too much, but the best part is at the end of the day when we parted ways with a light kiss. It definitely took me by surprise but I couldn't help but concede to his natural charm.

Over the course of the week I have spent so much time with Holger much to the dismay of Gunther who said I should be focusing on the team and my performance rather than my social life.

Carlos has sort of distanced himself from me over the course of the week which hasn't felt as bad as I thought it would, his attention has been focused on Lando, which I am totally not envious about.

Despite being early on in the year it's really warm in Albert Park but luckily the garage is air conditioned, but I don't get to relish in the cool air for as long, as I go out into Q1.

Making it to Q2 has always been an easy task but making it to Q3 is a different story.

I do make it to Q2 and I only had to put one lap in however Carlos is struggling for pace and barely makes it to Q2.

Seconds in this sport count. So when in Q2 Carlos purposefully gets in my way I am rightfully pissed off.

“Is this guy for fucking real right now, I was on a fast lap and he just moved to get in my way” is all I say on my radio, whilst simultaneously sticking my middle finger up over the Halo as I pass Carlos.

“Standby Y/N we are talking to him.”

I do get another go at my fast lap and I make it to Q3 and to my surprise so does Carlos, however after that petty incident I don't really care about what he does.

At the conclusion of qualifying I secure P5 and Carlos secures P8 so it's a good result for the team but his actions have pissed me off behind all proportions, and I'm in no way willing to reconcile or congratulate him, his actions have me wonder whether Nikita was as bad as I though because at least he never ruined my performance he just ruined who ever was at the back.

Reporter: Y/N, Good result today for the team. How was the pace out there?

Y/N: It was amazing and a massive improvement from my P13 last year, we had great pace today especially in Sector 1.

Reporter: We saw Carlos impede your lap in Q2 and the stewards decided no penalty. But what was your take on it?

Y/N: Yes it was incredibly irresponsible and I think I might have said something on the radio and made a certain gesture towards him, but other than that I have nothing to say on the matter other than it was fucking reckless… sorry for the language.

Reporter: Going into the race tomorrow, what are your predictions?

Y/N: Well with our pace we anticipate a good race tomorrow but it will also be dependent on mine and my teammates performance in the car.

With the actions of Carlos still lingering over me the debrief meeting is tense with me and Carlos not speaking at all. Gunther has a little chat with him in private and from my experience it normally involves a lot of swearing and a disappointed look a father would give their child.

We have a quick look at the data but I don't really feel the need to have an in depth meeting about how I performed considering I did quite well.

Race day. The paddock is consumed by a tumultuous sea of people. All walking around and engaged in the thrill of motorsport. Holger is by my side which sends the paparazzi into a frenzy and I relish in their infantile excitement at the fact they can make a story that is more than likely untrue about us.

The race doesn't start for a few hours so I show Holger to hospitality and we take a moment to have something to eat and as we sit down Carlos walks in and gives me an indescribable glare that feels like it's burning through my soul. And when he starts to approach the table my heart begins to pound faster and faster.

“Don't forget Y/N we have a pre race brief and it's for team officials only”.

After he finishes making his snide comment he leaves and I see Lando standing outside.

“What's his problem?” Holger questions.

“I actually don't know we got on fine at the start and now he wants to act like a petulant child”

After we finish our food I take Holger on a hot lap of the track as the team said I could but when we got into the car Carlos was standing in the garage looking out into the pit lane with a gaze of pure anger. The man confuses me, he's willing to go behind my back and kiss someone else yet when I become friends with someone new he becomes obsessed and underscored with jealousy.

The hot lap is great fun and since the paddock is filled with a mix of F1 and tennis fans so me and Holger turn it into some competition to see who gets noticed more and not to my surprise it's me.

“Y/N, Garry told me to come and get you” I'm a tad confused as to why my engineer would send Carlos to get me given he knows how angry I am at him but I eventually decide it's best to just go and see what he wants. I leave Holger in the paddock area and the walk back to the garage is awkward and we don't say anything but as I'm about to go into the garage he grabs my arm.

“What are you playing at? Why did you bring him here?”

I pull my arm away from him and just head over to the engineer station where my engineer is sat.

“Y/N we have a slight problem, the FIA are taking the car for a full detailed inspection because they received a tip off that it has illegal parts”

I am actually stunned not because my car has been taken for inspection but because I know exactly who reported it.

“That mother fucker” I say as I storm out of my garage and into Carlos’ garage next door.

I see him standing by his engineer and I grab him by the shoulder and pull him into the back of the garage out of the coverage of the cameras.

“Are you really that fucking petty? Do you think I haven't been through this process with a teammate before and do you think I want to go through all this shit again?”

He is stunned. “What are you talking about?”.

“You reported my car to the FIA”

“Do you think I'm that petty that I would report you to the FIA over some personal issues?”

“Well if it wasn't you who was it?”

“I don't know but it's not me so go and find someone else to wrongly accuse”

Seeing that it clearly wasn't Carlos I head over to the stewards office and don't bother to knock and instead blurt “Who reported my car?”.

One of the officials who I had spent too much time with last year for the same reasons stands up out of his chair and in a much calmer tone than mine says “Y/N you know we can't tell you if it was a private report, if it was a team that reported you I would be able to tell you but it wasn't”

One thing I have learnt about the FIA is that they aren't very discrete and what he doesn't know I could see clearly what was on his screen which gave me all the information I needed to go and commit a murder.

I once again storm out of their office and head to the McLaren Garage.

I see Zak standing around admiring his cars which I have had no trouble keeping up with so there isn't much to admire.

“Where is Lando?” I ask bluntly.

“He's in his room” before he can say anything else I squeeze past the mechanics and head into the back of the McLaren garage surely leaving faces of pure confusion behind me.

I eventually reach his room and don't follow the common courtesy of knocking when I enter. He's sat in a chair but he stands up when he sees me.

A feeling of pure rage comes over me and I see pure red when I see him I walk over and push him against the wall and for a moment there is silence before I eventually gather what to say.

“Why the fuck did you report me? Don't deny it, I saw the document.”

“It was payback for making Carlos feel like absolute shit”

“That wasn't my fault it was yours and his, he went behind my back not the other way around”

“What about that tennis player whatever his name is”

“There is nothing going on between us”

“So that's why Carlos saw you two kissing”

“Shit” I mumble “It's none of his business or yours and thanks to you my car is being inspected”.

By now I am out of breath and still holding Lando against the wall but amidst the silence he does something I could never have expected. He kisses me. I don't know what to do for a moment but for some reason I kiss back, knowing I will come to regret this later.

After a few minutes we break apart and my brain doesn't know what is going on. I'm so confused about who I like now Carlos? Holger? Lando? It's giving me a headache thinking about it.

I walk out the room and lean against the closed door for a second breathing heavily.

“Everything alright Y/N?” Oscar asks walking past.

“Great” I answer.

I enter my garage and see my car has been returned and given the team atmosphere I take it they found nothing wrong.

I see Holger in the back being shown around by one of the engineers and I quickly apologise to him for running off and I go and get changed into my race suit.

After getting changed I give Holger and the team inside the garage some brief hugs and fist bumps and head to the track where my car is waiting. Through the sea of people I eventually reach it. I am all too eager to hop in my car, as I'm sitting in my car I see Lando on the sidelines putting his helmet and balaclava on and he looks at me with a bright devilish grin.

And as I become transfixed on his eyes and his smile I am snapped out of my thoughts:

“Y/N radio check”

“Yep all clear” and once again I can't help but avert my gaze towards Lando who's car is positioned right next to me.

Today the team is envisaging a great race. We had great pace in Quali and we have been changing settings left right and centre.

And as the 5 lights go out I get a better start than Lando and Checo.

Lap by Lap my engineer coaches me through each corner and I work my way up to P2 but chasing Lewis in a Ferrari is no easy feat especially when you have Max Verstappen behind you.

“Y/N Safety car, Safety Car, mode SC”

This is the best thing that could have happened to me.

“Box, Box”

I manage to get ahead of Lewis on the pit stop as I exit first, and I am sat behind the safety car constantly looking in my mirror seeing the bright red Ferrari edging closer and closer each time.

“Safety Car in this Lap”

I begin to immediately accelerate and as there is only 10 laps to go I focus on driving defensively rather than progressively. I count down the laps every time I cross the line.

“Y/N final lap, Hamilton 0.9 behind with DRS”

“Hamilton 0.6 behind”

“Hamilton 0.8 behind with DRS”

“Last corner Hamilton behind 0.9”

The lack of gap between me and Lewis is nerve wracking everytime I see him. I am almost certain he will pass me and I brace for the disappointment but somehow my defence is actually really good to my genuine surprise.

“Y/N you have done it, you are a grand prix winner for the first time, excellent work”

I let out a roar of cheer into the mic with a tear falling down my cheek and soaking into my balaclava alongside all of my sweat.

In parc ferme I sit in my car for a while crying uncontrollably, last year a grand prix win seemed impossible. Lewis came P2 and Lando P3 in the race and they are both now standing by my car. Lewis comes over and fist bumps me. I can't really fathom how any of this is real right now.

Eventually I gather the emotional strength to pull myself over the halo and get out of the car. I quickly go over to the scales and get weighed before Lewis and Lando give me a hug and congratulate me. The hug with Lando lasts a while and he whispers something in my ear.

“See something good happened after we kissed, maybe I provide luck”.

I get a run up and jump into the sea of Haas mechanics who are overwhelmingly happy with the team's first win. Gunther and Gene are also here and they are both acting like excitable children.

Being on the podium feels weird especially being in the first place spot but it's sensational I see so many of my friends outside of F1 in the crowd, I see Holger and the entire team cheering me on and as the national anthem of my country plays I feel an endearing sense of pride and gratitude for everyone who helped me get here.

Reporter: Y/N first F1 win and certainly not the last, how does it feel.

Y/N: Sensational. You know the team and I have worked so hard for this accomplishment and I can't wait for more wins to come our way.

Reporter: Now we saw you had great pace but your teammate Carlos wasn't so lucky securing 9th. What can you tell me about his pace?

Y/N: erm I don't think it's a pace issue. I think Carlos is still adapting to a new car and new settings so he's bound to take some time.

Reporter: Now we have a quote here from Christian Horner who said “We have had our eye on Y/N for a while because he is a great driver and he is clearly championship material so we are obviously considering signing him next year”. What do you have to say about that? Are you ready to leave Haas?

Y/N: I… I think that if I have to think about a car that will help me win a championship I don't think it will be a Haas but for now my contract is with Haas so my pure focus is on them.

Reporter: We saw you share a pretty heartwarming moment with Lando Norris. How would you like to be his teammate?

Y/N: I don't really focus on who my teammate is because their performance doesn't affect mine, last year is a prime example of that. But Lando is a great driver and it would be an honour to have him as a teammate.

After some more interviews I follow the rest of the grid to the celebration party which for me is going to be an incredible night.

There is alcohol everywhere and I am supplied with a new drink every time I finish the one in my hand and by 2 am I am inebriated. Everything from then turns into one massive blur.

Arising to the sound of the sounds of people screaming outside as they jump into the pool a wave of nausea hits me alongside a pounding headache, I open my eyes and see that when I got back to my room last night I didn't close the curtains so the room is filled with sunlight but then as I look at the bedside table I realise I'm not in my room.

I know I'm in the same hotel by the room service menu that is on said table but the room has a different layout. I turn to my right side slowly and see something that shocks me, a sleeping Lando.

I carefully lift the covers and see that neither of us have clothes on.

“Oh shit”

#Carlos Sainz #Male reader #Carlos Sainz x Male Reader #F1 #Haas #Red Bull #Carlando #Lando Norris #McLaren #Lando Norris x Carlos Sainz

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