behind closed doors

six

charles dies the moment maya explains her day when he gets home from the track on saturday. he does say he's proud of her which totally doesn't make her cry at all. they go to bed early because of race day and maya finally lets the stress of her embarrassment float away.

she wakes up to a leg in her stomach and a hand across her mouth. of course charles is still trying to kill her in his sleep. as much as she would love to wake him and potentially try and hurt him back, she gives him grace because todays race matters. sazuka is special, the 17 on the side of charles helmet is special, and no matter what place he gets she knows she's going to cry when the race is over.

she lets him sleep until his alarm which is in an hour because he wants to honor jules today. she would never take that away from him, never stress him out more.

so she carefully removes his arm and leg from potentially breaking a rib and suffocating her, slides on her shoes and ends up going for a way too early morning walk.

the hotel itself has a beautiful pathway behind it, so she heads there.

and who does she meet there?

you know.

"ah maya hey" she hears the accent ring out and she's genuinely contemplating running but she doesn't. she is a civilized normal person.

"oh hey maximo" she stops and he catches up to her while they talk about the weather and the most boring small talk maya thinks she's ever endured.

"so why are you up this early?" the soothing dutch accent rings. not soothing like weird it's just nice for the morning, don't make it weird she does not. think of his voice like that.

"well sir perceval tried to kill me in my sleep so i tried to find some peace out here. what are you doing up you have a race today maxilia"

she sees his smile hidden behind the eye roll, he's really not good at hiding these things.

"i take walks on race mornings to calm the nerves"

"you. mr 3 time world champion who only loses to like two people, are worried?"

"just because it doesn't happen often doesn't mean it doesn't happen at all. i'm still allowed to be nervous"

at this point she kind of feels bad for making it seem like the dutchman wasn't allowed to have feelings or worries even though she knew she had worries about everything possible.

"yeah i know im sorry for implying you couldn't be nervous"

he shakes his head dismissively, obviously wanting to change the subject, "so you pay attention to me when we race?" his face goes from hesitant to smug way too quickly.

"no i don't im just not an idiot and i know how to read the scores maximall"

"where do you come up with those?" he laughs, endearingly, not like he was trying to be nice but because he found her funny. not that she cares or anything.

"i spend my free time regularly adding words to the end of your name" she says it so seriously that max has to convince himself that she's lying. she doesn't spend time paying attention to him at all, he'd be crazy if he ever thought that.

"oh of course you do. just like you spend your free time thinking of ways to run into me"

it was mayas turn to laugh, "look i told you i was sorry you ass. it's not my fault you don't wear your glasses"

"how do you know i have glasses"

"next question"

they go back in forth until they end up back at the start of the trail, where kelly and her daughter seem to be waiting for them.

she sees how max's face goes from happy to ghost white in seconds as he says a quick goodbye and runs up to kelly. she says something in a harsh tone and drags the arm of penelope into max's hand and then walks away, cursing in what maya thinks is portuguese.

max offers her a nervous smile and he hold penelope's hand, walking back into the hotel, while penelope turns her head and uses her free arm to wave and beam at maya.

she smiles and waves back and eventually follows after.