Precious Star

Monaco

Following the Miami GP weekend, we had a week's break before heading off to the Spanish GP. Within that week Charles and I had a few outings back in our hometown. We went out for a couple of hikes, and grab some coffee here and there, I don't think we spent a single day apart within that week now that I think about it. After that week we flew to Spain, unfortunately, Charles received his first DNF of the season in this race but I was able to get pole. Bringing me a step closer to the championship.

Now here we are four days before qualifying. Charles had woken me up extra early by continuously ringing my doorbell, "Good morning, preziosa!" Charles cheered as he entered my house.

My hair was a mess, I was still in my pajamas, and I was more asleep than awake. "Sleep, Leclerc. I need sleep," I whined making my way back to my room to go back to sleep.

"No, no, no," he repeated as he stepped in front of me, stopping me from entering my bedroom. "We need to leave."

"What? Where?" I asked, before changing my mind, "Actually no."

"No?"

"Yes, no. I actually value sleep. It should be a crime having to wait up before 9."

"I know you are not a morning person, but-."

"Good night, Leclerc," I said, pushing him out of the way and plopping on my bed. I may not be a morning person, but he is. And I knew he had something planned out for this morning.

"Up! Up! Up! The day awaits us, Valentine!" Charles once again cheered as he opened my blinds and the morning sun shined through.

"You are unbelievably annoying," I groaned, as I covered myself with sheets and pillows to block out the sun.

"It's an important week and we need to make the most out of it."

Caving in, I sat up on my bed and stared blankly at him, "What do you have planned out?"

"How about we go out for a morning swim first?"

We had been in the little secluded area of the beach where I promised myself I wouldn't go back to after I had that argument with Charles. But here we both were, in a completely different step of our friendship. "So what else do you have planned out for today, Leclerc?" I questioned as we both had been swimming for about two and made our back to the shore to dry off.

"I was thinking of bringing you to see Mama, Arthur, and Lorenzo for brunch. How does that sound?"

"I would really like that," I smiled, "I don't think I have seen any of them since Jules' funeral," whispering the last part, turning to look at the ocean.

"They really have missed you."

"Really?"

"More than you could imagine. They have kept up with your career and what you have been up to these past years."

"I have missed them an awful lot these past years."

After a moment of silence, he spoke up, "You have been calling my Leclerc an awful lot."

"Yeah, I know," I smirked. I knew where this was headed.

"I thought we were past the last name biases."

"We are."

"So then why do you keep calling me that?"

"It is your last name, right?" I raised a brow at him, my smirk growing.

"Valentine," he groaned. "Please don't call me that."

"Why does it bother you so much?" I asked him, turning my whole body to look at him.

"Because you called me Leclerc when we were on bad terms. So when you call me that you make me think we are still on bad terms," he explained, as he continued to look out at the ocean

"Fine, I won't call you Leclerc anymore. Only when I'm truly mad at you."

"Sounds good to me, preziosa."

"Now that we are on name-calling biases. Why do you call me preziosa?"

"You still haven't figured it out?" Charles asked as a smirk crept on his face, now he turned his whole body to look at me.

"You have called me that since we first met and I have never been able to figure it out. It's always been Valentine or preziosa."

"Your name Valentine means strong and healthy, which you clearly are. Plus, it's what Jules always referred to you as Valentine or Val, so that sort of stuck," he began to explain. "Everyone knows you as Alaina. So I wanted something a little different to call you, so I looked it up, and I found out it means preziosa."

"So you decided to call me preziosa instead of Alaina."

"Yeah, plus," he continued, grabbing my hand. "You are the most precious person I have ever met."