Chapter Text
The photos were the original problem. George can’t help it — he’s chronically online and likes to know what everyone is doing during summer break. It has never caused any problems, it’s just a way for him to not feel too homesick from the whole Formula 1 world. You know, keeping tabs on what his friends are doing and all that.
It’s perfectly innocent.
Until, of course, Kimi started posting about his summer break.
For George, Kimi has always been this sweet little rookie, all bright-eyed and nice to be around. He’s funny, sweet and eager to be a part of the team and to bond with George. So, it has always been easy to be teammates with him, even friends now.
Naturally, he has never looked at Kimi from a different point of view other than the older teammate, or even the big brother everyone talks about so much. Until — again, the bloody pictures.
Why is he so tanned all of the sudden? And why does he look different now? And has he always been so stacked or is that the off-season effect too? George doesn’t know anymore. He’s being haunted by images of shirtless Kimi in his dreams. He feels like he’s going insane.
I mean, that can’t be normal, right? Kimi is barely nineteen, for fucks sake. There’s a “teen” right next to his age, he’s way too young for George to be that affected by him. And only because of a couple selfies, too. George isn’t a teenager anymore, he’s not supposed to have silly crushes on a nineteen year old rookie with curly hair and tanned skin.
Fuck, the tanned skin. The abs. The arms. The broad shoulders. George has seen Kimi at the gym before, he knows exactly how much weight he lifts and how effortlessly. Kimi could easily manhandle George as if he’s nothing but a light feather.
Wait, does George want that? Is George actually attracted to Kimi?
Oh no, that’s it, isn’t it?
George sighs, closing his Instagram and tossing his phone across the bed. Summer break is basically over by now and he has zero chances to act naturally around Kimi if this doesn’t stop. If he doesn’t stop this.
How the hell is he supposed to stop this madness, anyway? If things are this bad already over a few pictures and the graphic images that George’s brain insists on conjuring all the time — then it’s going to be even worse when they come back, because George is going to be forced to watch Kimi walking around looking like a damn three course meal all weekend long. And, oh God, he’s going to be shirtless there, too.
“Fucking hell,” he whispers to himself, thinking of all the times he caught Kimi almost naked in the past. It was nothing back then, just average sports dude stuff. Perfectly fine.
Not now, though. It’s definitely not going to be perfectly fine now. Not for George, at least. Kimi still gets to walk around with his shirt hanging on his shoulders like it’s no big deal, as if he’s not destroying George’s entire world in the process.
This is a completely made up scenario, by the way. There’s still a few days before George has to actually see Kimi in person, and he’s already losing his mind, already freaking the fuck out.
How?
Why?
What is so special about this boy all of a sudden that George just can’t be normal about him?
I mean, he used to be teammates with Lewis Hamilton and he wouldn’t nearly combust like this. Lewis would walk around shirtless a lot of time too, and he also posted lots of selfies, especially thirst traps. And it was alright, George was cool about it. He’s not blind, of course. Lewis is an incredibly attractive man, but he’s just not exactly George’s type.
Wait, does George have a type? Is Kimi George’s type?
Shut. The. Fuck. Up. He tells his brain, trying desperately not to fall deeper into that very specific spiral about his age inappropriate teammate. It doesn’t work. Nothing seems to work.
He retrieves his phone from the foot of the bed, opening WhatsApp and scrolling down to Lando’s chat. He types out a message.
What would you do if you had an inappropriate silly crush on your controversially young teammate?
But as his finger hovers on the green button, he pauses. Lando is a great friend, yes, but he wouldn’t be really helpful in this situation. After spending several minutes laughing, he would most definitely tell George to do something dumb about it.
So, he deletes the message and thinks about it more carefully. Who would be a good person to talk to about this? Who could offer him actual good advice? Because, see, if he gets bad advice, he might follow it. He’s clearly not thinking straight, he needs someone to ground him in reality and tell him everything is going to be alright and that, no, he’s not going to spontaneously combust next time he sees Kimi.
“Alex!” he says out loud, typing out the A and clicking on the first option that comes up. Sure, Alex might laugh about it a little, but he would know what to say.
After typing out the same message, he hits send.
Read.
Typing...
Immediately. Huh, weird. Alex always takes his sweet time to reply to his messages.
Then, George’s eyes drift to the contact name and he freezes. Antonelli.
Of course. Of course his messed up brain would pull something like that on him. When, exactly, has he become such a stupid idiot? He changed Alex’s contact info a few weeks ago, so, naturally… The first option would be Antonelli’s contact.
“No, no, no, no”, he says out loud with a horrified look on his face. He thinks about deleting the message but it’s too late, Kimi has already replied to it.
Antonelli
wait, what???
are you talking about me???
GEORGE DO YOU HAVE A CRUSH ON ME???
This has to be a nightmare. Or karma. Or hell. Or all of them, together.
George calmly locks his phone and places it on the nightstand. He gets up, walks towards the mirror and looks at his reflection. “You're so stupid,” he tells himself, running a hand through his hair.
Honestly, that's on him for not trusting Lando. If George had just sent the original message to him, this wouldn't be happening right now. Yes, he would have to deal with his friend being insufferable about it, but at least he wouldn't have 3 unanswered messages from Kimi sitting on his phone.
Seriously, how did he let this happen?
He laughs when a specific TikTok audio plays inside his head. Yup. That’s me. You’re probably wondering how I ended up in this situation.
Not that any of this really matters now, though, the mistake has already been made and there’s no going back anymore. Kimi is not stupid, he instantly clocked that George was talking about him.
He takes a deep breath and walks back to his bed, hearing the phone buzzing one more time before unlocking it again.
Antonelli
are you freaking out rn? 🥺
Of course Kimi is going to be a little piece of shit about it.
George tries his best not to smile at the message, though. Because this is extremely on brand for Kimi — to be cute while annoying George. Ever since they started to get closer, Kimi has been showing more and more about his personality, and this is the trait that annoys George the most. It’s the fact that he’s incapable of being mad at Kimi because he knows precisely how to be cute enough to get away with everything.
He reads the messages again and sighs. What is he supposed to answer, anyway? As stated before, there is no way out of this, Kimi already knows. There’s no time to ask for help either, because Kimi is online right now waiting for an answer.
God help him, but he’s going to have to trust himself on this.
George
Are there any chances you could pretend this never happened?
It’s worth the shot, come on.
As expected, Kimi replies immediately.
Antonelli
nope
but you knew that already, didn't you georgie? 🥰
Yeah, he’s doomed. Absolutely doomed.
Wait—
George
What the hell does that even mean?
Read.
Typing…
Typing…
Offline.
Oh, for fucks sake.
George stares at the screen for way too long, waiting. And mentally collapsing, obviously. Did Kimi lose signal? Was he purposely ignoring George to just be insufferable about it? Was he busy? Did George say something wrong?
Ugh, it’s something worse, isn’t it? Is Kimi sending screenshots to his friends showing how pathetic George is? Is Kimi on his way to HR right now? Is George going to receive a call from Toto in a few minutes?
Just as he thought his contract was secured—
Then, his phone buzzes again.
Antonelli
[photo]
means i’m gonna have a little fun with it ;)
Shit.
That’s not at all what George was expecting, to say the least. The photo was taken as a selfie, and it shows Kimi lying on his bed with just a thin sheet covering from his waist below. Only half of his face was visible, and he was biting his lower lip, his free hand making sure the sheet was hanging as low as possible without showing too much. His abs were fully on display and so was his bicep, and George’s brain just went completely blank while staring at it.
Well, that escalated quickly. So quickly that George was having a hard time getting his hands to cooperate and write something back. Anything.
As if he read his mind, Kimi started typing again.
Antonelli
did i break you georgie? 🥺
That’s enough. Seriously. He needs to get a grip.
George
Let's not get ahead of ourselves, alright?
It's just a silly crush.
Antonelli
come on georgie
i know you
and we both know that if you had to send that message to someone it means you were freaking out about it
Now that's just unfair. Kimi is not supposed to read him so well. He's not supposed to clock George’s lies so easily. I mean, he's nineteen. Shouldn't he be all innocent and naïve?
“Bloody hell,” George whispers to no one, rubbing his forehead like that's going to help him get out of this situation somehow.
There's got to be a way, right? For him to get out of this with at least some of his dignity left.
Right…?
George
I'm not freaking out.
I was just making a joke.
Alright, that's a good one. That might work.
Except… George already admitted it's “just a silly crush”, so Kimi will probably not believe that lie either. Come on, why is this so hard? Why can't his brain just work properly? You know, with useful words and all that.
As expected, Kimi reads his mind again.
Antonelli
you're not fooling anyone, baby
just admit it and then we can do something about it ;)
WHAT?
George
WHAT?
For sure, Kimi can't possibly mean what George thinks he meant. This must be just one of Kimi's weird jokes to mess with him. The kid has a very specific sense of humor that George sometimes just doesn't get.
But what if he does mean what George's thinking? Could they…
His train of thoughts is interrupted by another message.
Antonelli
you can play dumb if you want
or…
you can let me call you so i can tell you what i wanna do to you ☺️
Oh.
Oh, no.
George is fucked. Like, his life is about to be ruined kind of fucked.
The whole reason he didn’t want to send the original message to Lando is because he knew he would get bad advice and he would follow it. Lando would definitely tell him to do something stupid and he would. Because — and that’s not even a secret anymore — he wants to. Desperately.
If George would allow himself to be honest about what he wants, he would tell Kimi to call him right now.
But, someone has to try being the voice of reason, and that person has to be him. He's older, more experienced, more responsible. He needs to set the standard for Kimi, and so far he has been doing a terrible job at it.
George
I don't think that's a good idea, Kimi.
It physically hurts him to send that message because just once he wishes he could be stupid and reckless about something. And of course, the one time he wants it the most, it has to be with his rookie teammate.
“What the hell is wrong with me?” he whispers to himself, taking a deep breath and staring at his phone intently.
For sure Kimi is going to keep pushing and flirting with him, and then George is going to lose his mind in the process of convincing him — and himself — that this is a bad idea.
Fucking hell, Kimi is probably going to send another picture with some stupid caption. How is George supposed to survive that? It's going to be impossible to keep up with the responsible older teammate act.
As if on cue, the phone buzzes again.
Antonelli
thats a shame :(
Huh. That's… not what George thought he would say. It's… disappointing, actually.
Somewhere inside his brain, George has been trying to come up with excuses for when he falls. Not if, when. Because Kimi sending another picture would mean that George’s self control would crumble — but it wouldn't be his fault. It would be Kimi’s fault, because he sent the picture.
Great, now on top of everything, he's also a coward. Hiding behind some lame excuses and blaming it on others instead of himself. It's always if Lando said something, or if Kimi sent another picture, and never I want to do it.
But you know what? Fuck it. He's not a rat. He's George Russell, and he can damn well make his own stupid and irresponsible decisions.
With that in mind, he presses the “call” button next to Kimi’s name. It rings two times before he picks it up.
“Changed your mind that fast?” Kimi asks with a chuckle, and George almost regrets making the call.
“Can you not be a little bitch about it?”
The sound of Kimi’s laugh does make George rethink his decisions, but it’s definitely not enough to make him hang up. Especially when Kimi follows with, “Absolutely not,” his voice dripping with confidence in a way George has never heard before. “Do you have any idea how long I’ve waited for this?”
Well, that’s a whole new revelation, and a whole new way to fuck up his brain. There’s a lot of things George wants to ask, but he settles for the easiest one. “How long?”
Kimi’s voice drops and his accent gets thicker when he answers, “Ever since I met you.”
George instantly freezes, feeling goosebumps spreading all over his body. He should’ve guessed that Kimi was going to hit him with something like that. But still — who says that to their teammate?
Not that George can say much about teammate etiquette or anything, it’s his fault that this is happening after all.
“You can’t just say something like that,” he says after a few seconds, and he absolutely hated how breathy his voice sounded already. His grip on the phone tightens, as if he’s afraid he might drop it. “It’s not fair.”
What he meant is that it’s unfair the way this makes him feel — how much it affects him — but he has the feeling that Kimi doesn’t need him to say much to understand it.
Kimi laughs again, but it’s different this time. It’s not a ‘haha, this is funny’ laugh, no. It’s a sound that screams ‘I’m going to ruin your life’ in the worst and best possible way.
“I just answered your question, baby.”
Again, not fair how this makes him feel. He’s not sure if it’s the voice, or the accent, or the way Kimi calls him “baby”, but damn it. It’s not fair. Kimi is not supposed to make him feel those types of things. Worst of all, he’s not supposed to feel that way about Kimi, because his body keeps reacting to everything that comes out of Kimi’s mouth, but his brain is still yelling at him about how it’s a nineteen year old on the other end of the line.
It’s not fair.
The silence probably stretched out for too long, because soon he’s hearing Kimi’s voice again.
“Don’t stress too much about it, George,” he says with a calm tone that instantly shuts down George’s unwanted thoughts. “I know you’re always overthinking stuff, but it’s alright.” There’s a brief pause, and Kimi’s voice drops again. “Let me take care of you.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
It’s so over for him.
“Fucking hell, Kimi,” George whispers, throwing his head back and running his hand through his hair. Whatever doubt he had left, it’s gone now. He’s gone.
George can hear the smirk on Kimi’s voice when he asks, “Is that a yes?”
“You didn’t ask me any questions,” George replies, trying to regain some of the composure and control he never really had in the first place.
“Alright, if that’s how you wanna play it,” Kimi’s voice sounds so filthy that George instantly regrets his attempt at a joke. “Are you gonna let me take care of you, Georgie? Are you gonna let me make you feel good?”
Honestly? Kimi can do whatever the fuck he wants with him at this point. Not that George would ever say that out loud, though.
“Y-yes,” he stammers for the first time, cursing himself mentally for it. “That’s a yes.”
There’s a brief pause from Kimi’s end, and George can hear his uneven breath and he wonders — not for the first time — what he’s doing. And more than that, what he’s thinking.
Just when George was about to say something else, Kimi speaks again, “Are you in Monaco?”