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All things considered, Mick Schumacher thought he hadn’t had such a bad year. No one in his family had been affected by a deadly virus, he had just been crowned as a Formula 2 World Champion, and he had even managed to secure a seat in Formula 1 for the 2021 season.
So, logically, he knew that he had no reason at all to complain. That didn’t stop him from doing it anyways, though.
“Mick I swear to God that if I have to hear you whining about Callum one more goddamn time I will not be held responsible for my actions, you just won the World Championship and yet you cannot shut up about him”
Mick frowned at Robert, not at all appreciating the fact that one of his best friends and (now former) teammate was so unsupportive in his time of need.
Of course he was elated about having won the Championship, it was an incredible achievement and something he’d been fighting for for a long time now. However, he couldn’t stop a small part of himself from simultaneously feeling sad about Callum losing.
And obviously, competitiveness and ruthlessness were both quintessential to professional drivers – but he supposed that not every professional driver also happened to have a great relationship with their biggest rival.
It really didn’t help that Callum was just so damn nice to him. The first thing he’d done after stepping out of his car was head over to congratulate Mick, even if the German knew he must have been feeling devastated for losing the title on the very last race.
What he’d said in the post-race interview was incredibly honest, he would always be thankful for racing against Callum. Without the British driver there he didn’t think he would’ve been pushed as much as he did, and thus probably wouldn’t have driven as well as he had all season.
So, yes, maybe he had been talking about Callum a bit more than what was considered normal, but Mick thought he had every right to do so.
“I do not whine about him that often” he grumbled, frown growing deeper when Robert only rolled his eyes at him.
“What are we talking about?” Marcus asked as he sat down at their table with a plate full of nearly everything the catering’s buffet had in offer, wasting no time before shoveling forkfuls of fries into his mouth. Now that the season was officially over, he felt very deserving of all those delightful carbohydrates.
Robert snatched a fry out of his plate, waggling his eyebrows teasingly as Marcus swatted at him with his fork “Oh just about Mick’s undying love for Callum”
“Shut up” Mick hissed, his eyes darting around the room to confirm that the aforementioned British driver was nowhere in sight “I’m not in love with Callum”
Marcus snorted, shaking his head in amused disbelief “Mate, I’m pretty sure everyone but yourself and Callum knows that you’re in love with him”
“Absolutely, but don’t worry man – denial is always the first stage”
Mick pouted, roughly bumping Rob’s shoulder with his own as his two so-called friends laughed at his expense.
Just as he was about to keep defending the fact that he was most certainly not in denial, his eyes fell on the very same man he was definitely not in love with, and he couldn’t help the way his frown instantly turned into a smile.
“See, I don’t even have to turn around to know you’re staring at Callum” Marcus stated matter of factly as he took in Mick’s lovestruck expression “you’re such a goner mate”
But Mick wasn’t even listening anymore, instead happily waving at the Brit while Robert and Marcus shared an exasperated look.
Callum had changed out of his racing suit into more comfortable clothing, opting for a pair of black sweats and his Uni-Virtuosi team polo.
And really, Mick thought it was unfair that such a simple outfit made him look so attractive.
“Hey guys” Callum greeted, taking the seat next to Marcus and quickly stealing a handful of fries from his plate, making the New Zealander squawk indignantly and grumble about how they should all get their own food instead of taking his.
“Hi Callum” Mick smiled, the corners of his lips lifting even higher when Callum smiled softly back at him.
“Hi Mick”
The two “rivals” grinned stupidly at each other for a solid 10 seconds, neither of them making any move to be the first to break eye contact.
“Really? Right in front of my salad?” Robert deadpanned, earning himself another shove from a suddenly very blushing Mick and a snort from Callum.
“Anyways” Callum drawled, leaning back to rest against his chair “what are you guys all dressed up for? It’s not like we can go out after this”
The three boys were indeed all wearing dress shirts (Mick pairing his white one with a red cap, much to his friends’ chagrin). However, it definitely wasn’t because they were planning on going out.
Mick, Marcus and Robert levelled him with disbelieving looks, and the Brit only quirked an eyebrow when he noticed how they were all staring at him.
“What?”
“Callum, mate…” Marcus started incredulously “please don’t tell me you forgot about the awards ceremony”
When Callum kept staring at him with that blank look on his face, he actually facepalmed.
“Callum, we told you seven hundred times that they give out the trophies to the first three places of the Championship right after the final race”
Realization finally dawned on Callum after that, his eyes widening in horror.
“Fucking hell” he groaned, straightening up in his panic “I don’t have anything else to wear! Andy is going to murder me”
Normally, Mick would have been much more apprehensive of what he was about to suggest, but Callum looked so anxious that he didn’t even have time to overthink it before the words were stumbling out of his mouth.
“I can give you my shirt”
Now it was time for everyone to turn to stare at Mick, and he could literally feel the blush that was still lightly dusting his pale cheeks getting deeper.
“I – I mean, I brought some extra shirts just in case, and you can wear one. If you want to, of course” he stuttered out, bringing an arm up to rub the back of his neck sheepishly.
Robert and Marcus now had the two biggest shit-eating grins he’d ever seen, but the way Callum was looking at him made it impossible for him to care about the relentless teasing he was sure to endure about this.
“Oh my God Mick, I could totally kiss you right now” Callum beamed, and if he noticed the way Mick’s face got impossibly redder, he was kind enough to not say anything.
“Yeah I bet he’d love that” Robert teased under his breath, yelping when Mick kicked him under the table.
“Great” Mick quickly stood up, clasping his hands to divert Callum’s attention away from his teammate “It’s in my driver’s room so we should head over now before they call us out there”
Callum nodded, also standing up to follow Mick out of the building.
“Try not to get sidetracked kids!” Marcus called after them, Robert bursting out laughing when Mick flipped them the bird without even turning around to face them while Callum only shook his head with a little smile.
Mick didn’t have the slightest idea if Callum knew why their friends were constantly teasing them, but he’d never said anything, and he wasn’t about to risk having a very awkward conversation by asking him about it.
Maybe he was in denial.
He was so caught up in his thoughts he barely noticed when they reached his room, and he felt supremely uncomfortable when they went in and he suddenly found himself in such a tiny space with Callum.
“Um, I have another white shirt and a blue shirt, so you can choose whichever you want?” Mick said as he signaled to the two perfectly iron-pressed shirts that were hanging in the small wire rack, even if his awkwardness made it sound more like a question.
Callum examined them for a moment before taking the blue shirt off the hanger, nodding his head approvingly.
“I think I’ll take the blue one, white looks way better on you anyways”
The Brit shot him a wink, and to say Mick felt a flurry of butterflies come to life in his stomach would have been a massive understatement.
Okay, so maybe he was a little bit in love with Callum.
Mick was about to leave the room so he could change in peace when he stopped dead in his tracks, breath hitching when Callum took off his shirt with a swift motion, exposing his unfairly toned abdomen.
Okay, so maybe he was more than a little bit in love with Callum.
The German managed to tear his eyes away from him before he caught him staring, pointedly training his eyes on the ceiling as he tried to think about anything other than how his abs would feel beneath his fingers.
“So, how do I look?”
His eyes travelled back to the Brit, and he felt his throat dry up at the sight that met him.
Mick was built a bit buffer than Callum was, so his shirt looked slightly too big on his thinner frame while somehow hugging him perfectly in all the right places. But what really sent a flash of heat running through him, was the mere fact that Callum was wearing his shirt.
Try as he might, he couldn’t help but think about how he would look wearing only that shirt, or maybe some other of his t-shirts, preferably after they had engaged in an activity that didn’t require the use of any type of clothing.
“Great. You look great, yeah” Mick stammered, mortification rising in his chest when Callum’s lips curved into a smug smirk.
“Thank you, so do you”
A knock on the door was the proverbial bell that saved him from getting more flustered than he already was, and Mick could have sighed in relief when he heard Angelo’s voice telling him it was time to go down to the ceremony.
Callum gingerly opened the door to the room, holding it wide open so Mick could walk past him “After you”
That insultingly attractive smirk was still firmly plastered on his face, and he had to bow his head as he exited the room so Callum wouldn’t notice just how flustered he had gotten. God he really needed to get a grip.
The two slipped up their masks before walking over to the balcony, where the Formula 3 boys and Yuki were already waiting for them. They had to wait on the cool down room for the F3 awards to be given out, but thankfully Yuki had stroked up a conversation with Callum and thus Mick didn’t have to worry about further embarrassing himself.
Before he knew it, it was their turn, and after Yuki’s and Callum’s names were called out the presenter announced his own and he walked out to the podium, waving and smiling at the crowd gathered below them even if he knew they couldn’t see it through the mask.
He felt a thrill of excitement shooting through him as he climbed into the top step and took his winner’s trophy in his hands, lifting it up triumphantly as everyone clapped and cheered him on.
The German subconsciously turned towards Callum, and the butterflies came back in full force when he saw how crinkly his eyes had gotten as he gave him a look that couldn’t be described as anything else but proud.
Mick could barely pay attention to anything else that wasn’t Callum, and when it was the Brit’s turn to be interviewed the butterflies turned into a full-on stampede of rhinos when he complimented Mick’s season and declared that he was more than deserving of having won the title.
The giddiness he felt at his praise was so strong that he breezed through his own interview in autopilot, thanking all the people he knew he had to before reiterating his earlier words by saying he was sure he couldn’t have won without Callum being there to push him.
Because of the mask he couldn’t be sure, but he just knew the grin Callum had shot him at his words was blinding.
When it was time for the photos to be taken, he and Callum gravitated towards each other, Mick feeling goosebumps rising on his skin as the older man slipped an arm around his waist, his touch impossibly warm even through his shirt.
Mick knew right then and there that nothing had ever felt as right as standing there next to him.
After that Yuki and Callum left the podium while he had to stay out there to take some pictures with Oscar, who had won the F3 championship, and though he really liked the Australian he already missed Callum’s presence.
When the ceremony was over Mick went back to his driver’s room to collect his stuff, and he was pleasantly surprised to find Callum was there waiting for him.
“Oh, hey”
“Hey, I thought I should give you back your shirt” Callum said as he stood up from the little couch “and thanks again Mick, I don’t know what I’d do without you”
Mick smiled, the fondness he felt in his chest towards the other man suddenly being almost too much to handle “No problem at all, you can even keep it if you want. You pull it off much better than I ever could”
Callum looked at him thoughtfully, taking a few steps forward until he was directly in front of Mick. The German held his breath at the sudden proximity, a shiver running down his spine when Callum reached up to take the cap off his head.
Every single nerve in Mick’s body felt like it was on fire, his brain going haywire as it tried to make sense of what the hell was going on.
“You look even better with no cap on” Callum murmured, running a hand through Mick’s hair to smooth it out and making his heart nearly beat out of his chest in the process.
“Callum what –“
“Can I kiss you?” he interrupted, and at this point Mick was pretty sure he had fallen of the podium and hit his head because he surely had to be hallucinating.
But hey, if he was indeed hallucinating, he better make the best out of it.
With that thought in mind he dumbly nodded his head, and he felt all the air leave his lungs when Callum stepped on his tiptoes and leaned forward to gently press his lips against his, his blue eyes fluttering shut.
Mick could swear that his ears started ringing as their lips started moving together, and if he thought his body was on fire before he had been severely mistaken because right now, he felt as though he had stepped into an incinerator.
And then Callum placed a hand on his waist to pull them flush together, and Mick let out a moan as his lean body pressed fully against his.
It wasn’t like Mick had kissed that many people in his lifetime, but he was scarily sure that no kiss had ever felt as good as this one. At the risk of sounding like a cheesy Hallmark movie, he truly felt as though their bodies had been made for each other, and the hammering of his heart in his chest only served to prove his point.
When Callum brought his hands up to bury them in his blonde hair and tug at it gently, he knew that he couldn’t possibly be dreaming, because he had dreamed about this before, more times than he’d like to admit, and the images his subconscious came up with didn’t hold a candle to how it felt to experience it in the flesh.
Callum pulled back ever so slightly so they could catch their breath, and Mick opened his eyes in a daze. It took a few seconds before his brain stopped spinning enough for him to be able to speak, and when he finally did his voice came out as a croak.
“How?”
The Brit chuckled, somehow understanding what Mick meant even when he’d only said that one word “How did I know you felt the same way? I had been hoping you might for a while, but you pretty much confirmed it when you spent a full minute undressing me with your eyes earlier”
Mick grinned embarrassedly. Apparently, he had been way less subtle than he’d thought.
“I never thought you could like me back”
“Are you kidding me? I’ve been flirting with you for the better part of a year now! Robert and Marcus had been pestering me nonstop about when I would finally make a move, hell I’m pretty sure even Guanyu noticed”
The German made a mental note to kill Robert and Marcus later. Those bastards had let him pine after Callum for ages while all the while knowing that his feelings were actually reciprocated.
“In my defense, I have been told I’m a little clueless when it comes to dating”
“No kidding” Callum snorted “If I knew all I had to do to get your attention was put on your clothes, I would have asked Robert to steal one of your shirts a lot sooner”
Mick laughed, gently placing his hands on Callum’s waist “You can have any of my shirts you want from now on, though I have to say that now that I’ve seen you in my clothes I kinda want to see you out of them”
“Is that so?” Callum teased, straining his arms so he could reach past Mick and turn the lock on the door “Well, I think that can be arranged”
With that Mick leaned down and reconnected their lips, thinking to himself that 2020 had truly not been a bad year at all.