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"Come on, it'll be fun!" Charles looked at him with puppy-dog eyes. "Please, Max."
Max didn't look entirely convinced. "I don't know, it's still March. The water won’t be warm. We're going to be sick."
Charles rolled his eyes, but his smile didn't waver. 'No, we won't. We've done ice baths plenty of times and they were way colder than that. It's not even that bad."
Max sighed and startet to toe off his shoes. If he was going to get close to the water, there was no way he was going to get his shoes wet.
Charles had already taken off his shoes and was standing ancle-deep in the lake. The bottom of his heart jeans were drenched, even though he was pulling them up like the hem of a long dress. The sunlight reflecting off the water behind him made him look like an angelic being. Max was starstruck for a moment.
"Come on!" He snapped out of admiring his boyfriend and finished taking off his socks. The wet sand was uncomfortably cold beneath his soles, but he made his way to Charles nonetheless.
Charles held his hand out his hand and Max took it once he was within reach. As Max' feet touched the water he was prepared to face the cold, but to his surprise it was very warm. Not body temperature, but still comfortable.
“See?” Charles was smiling at him, a sparkle of satisfaction in his eyes. “I told you it wasn’t that bad.”
Max didn’t respond, but kept holding onto Charles’ hand and looking out on the lake. Even though they were standing underneath a tree he had to squint his eyes a bit. The sun reflected onto the water and made the clearing seem like a magical place, untouched by humans for several decades.
Suddenly he felt wetness on the side of his shirt and shorts. He looked to the side and saw Charles a few feet away, slightly crouching and his hands hanging a few centimeters above the water. Little water droplets were running down his fingers and falling into the lake.
Max looked up. Charles was grinning at him. He could feel a grin spreading onto his own face as he started to advance towards his boyfriend. Charles started to walk backwards further into the lake, walking faster as Max started to get closer.
Charles screamed as Max got to him and lifted him up. He was now hip deep in the lake. Charles’ pants and the bottom of his shirt were completely wet, as were Max’ shorts. They looked into each other’s eyes and slowly leaned in. Charles’ eyes were already close, clearly anticipating the kiss.
And now was Max’ chance.
He dropped Charles into the water.
Charles, who wasn’t expecting it, screamed before his sounds were muffled by the water.
After a second he pushed his head out of the water again. Max tilted his head to the side and tried to suppress the grin that was trying to creep onto his face. The glare on Charles’ face told him that that was unsuccessful. If one looked closely, one would’ve been able to see light grey scales behind his ears and down his neck.
“What was that for?”, he yelled, getting back onto his feet again.
“Hey, you splashed water on me first”, Max defended himself.
“It was just a bit of water, you drenched me!”, his boyfriend continued, wanting to seem genuinely upset, but the smile on his face came through.
“You’re right, that was mean of me.” Max stepped closer and took his hands. They looked into each other’s eyes again and now Max was the one who closed his eyes first. Charles used that opportunity to push him into the water.
Max couldn’t catch himself in time to avoid falling into the water. As soon as his head was back above water he saw his boyfriend laughing and trying to keep himself upright. When he noticed that Max was back up, he trekked further into the lake. Max followed him until both of them lost the ground beneath their feet.
They locked eyes and Charles let Max swim close to him. When they faced each other Charles looked at Max’ lips and he lifted his hands out of the water to put on the side of his partners neck. “If you’ll dunk me again, I’ll drown you in this lake”, he whispered before finally kissing Max on the lips.
Max closed his eyes and put his hand on Charles’ hips beneath his shirt. As his feet were paddling to hold him above water, they brushed something slippery. Could have been a fish.
They separated Max looked at his boyfriend. “I love you, you know that?” His voice was low, not wanting to disturb the moment.
Charles smiled. “I know.”
Charles’ hands wandered down to his waist. They grabbed ahold of him and then he was underwater.
~ ~ ~
When Max opened his eyes again, he was upside down, surrounded by the increasingly colder water of the lake.
He couldn’t move his upper arms, trapped by the siren who was holding onto him and bringing him down deeper to the ground.
The siren still looked like Charles, even if the skin was greyer, shales littered the entire body and claws dug into his skin.
Max put his head on the creatures shoulder and draped his lower arms around its waist.
He knew this was going to happen.
He wanted it to happen.
He just missed Charles so much. It has been five years.
Five years since that accident.
The accident where that stupid drunk driver killed the love of his life.
The asshole didn’t even go to jail for it. Enough money to avoid it apparently.
He tried to move on, really he did.
He even tried dating again, he went on a date with that one guy just ... two years ago.
Who was he kidding. He couldn’t move on. Charles was simply too important to him.
No one else he met on dating apps wanted to go over racing data for hours on end.
No one else he met through friends was willing to fight him on track like it’s the last thing they’d do.
No one else he met when walking Leo was going to push him into puddles on the sides of karting tracks.
No one else was going to love him like Charles did.
So he just held onto the siren and tried to ignore the hacking of his lungs screaming for oxygen.
It didn’t really matter anyway.
He was going to see Charles soon.
Just a few more moments.
~ ~ ~
BREAKING NEWS: 4x WORLD CHAMPION MAX VERSTAPPEN MYSTERIOUS DISSAPERANCE
Ever since the death of his partner and fellow F1 driver Charles Leclerc the world of Formula 1 World Champion Max Verstappen has been a downward spiral. Now the driver has gone missing under mysterious circumstances. Friends and Family have last seen or talked with him over three weeks ago. “Even if we came over personally, he didn’t open the door”, says fellow driver and friend Lando Norris. Red Bull Racing has expressed great concern over their star driver, reporting not having heard from him since the new year.
The family requests any tips about Verstappen’s whereabouts be brought directly to the Dutch police.
It stands to question, whether or not he will be back for the start of the upcoming season in two weeks. We wish the family and friends all the strength possible in this situation.