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“Chico!” the young h/c-haired girl rushed to her friend after the podium ceremony held for him winning the karting race. Their bodies collided, the boy barely able to keep himself uprights, as she wrapped an arm around him, holding out the other one and pulling out a pocket-sized Sony camera covered in stickers, “Smile!”
“Can I see the picture?” the boy questioned eagerly as the girl smiled proudly, displaying the slightly blurry image she’d taken of them both. Neither of them were in the center of the frame, nor did the lighting or angle flatter either of them. But to the young boy, any photo taken by his best friend was a masterpiece, “I love it!”
“You know, maybe I can take pictures of you after all your races too!”
“Of course, chica!” he exclaimed excitedly, looking forward to her constant presence in his races. Nothing was more exciting for a young child than the prospect of his best friend frequenting karting races despite knowing only a little about the sport.
The girl kept her word, she was there for nearly every race he had as they grew older, camera always at the ready. And for whatever reason, the boy kept that photo of them as his phone’s wallpaper as he grew older as well as he checked the time on his phone; they didn’t have much time before they needed to catch their flight.
“Now I regret going shopping,” she laughed, trying her best to hang onto all of her bags.
“Do you need help with that?” he questioned, motioning to the paper bags—she refused to throw them out, they were too beautiful to end up in the garbage—swinging on her arms.
“Please,” she nodded, handing a few of the bags over to Carlos. Her brows furrowed thoughtfully. Carlos knew that look. She took the camera that hung around her neck, far larger than the one she owned as a child, angling the lens at him and snapping a quick photo, “You look adorable right now.”
Heat rose to Carlos’ cheeks at the compliment. He’d grown used to the constant compliments from the woman as she took his photos, it had become a constant. It was how she took pride in her work, he couldn’t blame her for it. He smiled, shaking his head as he led them both into the car the team loaned him, driving them to the airport after the Mexican Grand Prix.
“Do you have plans between these races?” y/n questioned, fiddling with a few settings of her camera as she snapped a few photos of her views outside. Though it was difficult with how fast the car was going, she didn’t mind it one bit. Said it was great practice for when she was trying to capture photos of him driving on the track.
“Ah, just a bit more golf,” Carlos shrugged as y/n giggled, shaking her head. He craned his neck over to her, pausing, “What’s funny about that?”
“I don’t know, I mean I’m constantly taking pictures of you guys when you go out golfing,” she shrugged, she didn’t mind having to take photos of him, though, “If it’s not F1 or training, it’s golfing. Don’t you think your fans want to see something new for once?”
“Like what?” he questioned, nose crinkling up at the thought of spending his off time doing something performative for the fans.
“Like attending your best friend’s next exhibition,” she shrugged as Carlos smiled widely, looking over to her as the car stopped in front of the traffic light, a lovely bright glint in his brown eyes, shining brightly under the light of the sun shining through the windshield.
“You got another exhibition?”
“Of course, I did. Traveling as much as we do really helped rack up content for another exhibition,” she shrugged, though smiling proudly at her achievement, “I made sure it was between Mexico and Brazil so there weren’t any scheduling conflicts. Though, if you want to play golf still, you’re allowed to.”
“Are you kidding? Why would I miss one of your exhibitions?” Carlos quirked a brow at her. Just as she’d never missed a single one of Carlos’ races, the Spaniard had never missed a single one of y/n’s photography exhibitions. It was all they did since they were young, supporting each other’s ambitions and being there for their milestones, “You know, I think Lando might want to go as well?”
“Lando?”
“Yeah, I mean, he’s been getting into photography since Singapore and he’s constantly talking about how he’s running out of ideas for photos,” Carlos shrugged, recalling the way the younger driver walked around the paddock excitedly with his camera, “Maybe he can take inspiration from your exhibit.”
“Oh, I’ll be sure to send him an invite, then,” she smiled widely with a nod.
“When’s the exhibition?”
“Friday night,” she shrugged.
“So soon?” he questioned. Of course, they didn’t have much time between the races, but he didn’t think she would have managed to help set up the exhibition while she was out traveling with him. Though, he knew she was a diligent woman. She must have found a way around it.
“Well, yeah. We’re going to have to be in Brazil by next Friday. It was the only available window, really.”
“And this is a sure thing already? You got it all ready while you were away?”
“Of course. It’s been months since my last one,” she shrugged.
“Wasn’t there that thing in the US around the time of the Miami Grand Prix?” he recalled how she was constantly about prior to the race weekend, busying herself with as many projects as she could accomplish in the States.
“No, those were just a few magazine shoots and photos for the MET,” she shook her head, “It’s just been constant magazine and promotional shoots since my last exhibit. I thought an exhibition would have been great to show off and hopefully sell a few of the newer pieces I’ve worked on.”
“Right,” Carlos nodded in understanding, already looking forward to it, “Is the space for your exhibit ready?”
“Yes, and I’ve already got the prints ready to be framed,” she paused, “That reminds me, there’s one photo of you that I want to use in the exhibit, but I need your consent.”
“Me?”
“Of course,” she rolled her eyes as though it were the most obvious statement, “My best work always seems to revolve around you.”
“Depends, does it look bad?”
“When have I ever taken a bad photo of you?” she quirked a brow at him as his gaze danced over to his phone’s screen. She scoffed, “If that was a bad photo, you wouldn’t have kept it as your wallpaper.”
“But which photo is it?” Carlos questioned, though he doubted he’d be able to remember with how often she pulled her camera out to steal a few photos of him as well.
“That’s going to have to be my secret,” y/n shrugged, “Besides, when have I ever done you dirty with my photos?”
“That party in Monaco?”
“Those pictures did me dirty too, Carlos,” she laughed, biting her lip at the memory of those hazy photos, reminiscent of the way she took photos when she was younger, but with more alcohol, “They’re never seeing the light of day.”
“What happened to those pictures? Did you delete them?”
“No, I have them stashed somewhere in case you forget to pay me for taking your photos over a race weekend,” she quipped.
“I was meant to pay you?”
“Yeah!” she exclaimed jokingly, “If those photos end up on TMZ, you only have yourself to blame.”
“Wait, is that a serious thing or are you still joking?” he questioned. He could never really tell with her. Photography was both her passion and her livelihood and if he was meant to be paying her, he felt bad about not giving her the proper compensation for it.
“Of course, I was joking,” she shook her head, smiling as she rest her head against his shoulder, “Besides, you’re the one paying for the hotel and food. That’s more than enough for me.”
“You promise?”
“I mean, I could really go for a free airport coffee when we get there,” she shrugged.
“Consider it done,” Carlos nodded, continuing on with the drive.
As they, along with Carlos’ cousin they met up with at the airport, were the only people who had to board the jet, they didn’t need to wait long before they were up in the clouds on their way back to Spain.
“Do you have anything planned before Friday?” she questioned, turning to Carlos, “Because if you need photos for your social media, I might have to sit this out.”
“To work out the last touches to your exhibition, yes?”
“Yep,” she nodded.
“Maybe I can go with you?” he offered, a small smile making its way to his face at the idea.
“You really don’t have to,” she shook her head. This was his time off from driving,she didn’t want him to spend it helping her out with the exhibit, “Besides, maybe you can use this time to rest a bit after all those races.”
“No, but I want to see the process of you forming an exhibit too,” he shrugged, “Besides, I think it might even be nice to have an episode of Don’t Blink for it.”
“I don’t think that’s what your fans are going to want to see, though.”
“No, I put what I want to on YouTube,” he insisted, “Besides, you’ve done so much for the channel too already. It’s time we dedicate an episode to you, yes?”
“No,” y/n shook her head, “But sure, if you figure out how to work your camera for this session, you’re more than welcome to do so.”
“I mean, it can’t be that hard if I have you teaching me,” he smiled in an attempt to suck up to her, “I mean it’s a long flight. We have a lot of time, still.”
“Yeah, okay,” she nodded, plucking the camera out from her backpack, a more portable film camera with a microphone attached to it, “It’s fairly easy. There’s this red button you just press, and when the light’s on, it means it’s recording. This screen over here is adjustable too so you could see yourself if you want to record yourself.”
“You know, I think I’m figuring this out pretty well,” Carlos smiled proudly as he brought both he and y/n into the frame, “Hello!”
“Look at you, a golfer, F1 driver, and a videographer too,” she let out a smile as she waved into the camera, “Hi, everyone!”
“Maybe I can put this in the vlog too?” he laughed.
“Like an intro?” she questioned, pausing before giving a nod, “Yeah, that would be an interesting intro, I guess.”
“Do you think I can borrow this camera for a while when we land? Just so I can practice using it a bit more?” Carlos questioned as y/n shrugged. It wasn’t as though she had any need for a video camera outside of the work she did with Carlos for his YouTube series.
“Go ahead,” she smiled at him, leaning into her chair as he watched him tinker with the camera, recording random clips of random things, the camera eventually being pointed back at her as she smiled at the child-like wonder in Carlos eyes as he did so. She pulled out her camera, capturing a photo of him recording her, letting out a laugh, “You look like you’re having so much fun, I love it.”
“You know, this is actually kind of fun. No wonder Lando’s doing this now too,” he smiled in wonder, pointing the camera back at himself and making faces at the camera.
The flight was a long one and eventually, everyone fell asleep before touching down at the airport, Carlos being the first to wake up and shaking y/n awake gently, “We landed.”
“Oh, that’s cool,” she yawned, still hazy from her sleep.
“Need another overpriced airport coffee?”
“More like another overpriced airport breakfast,” she smiled, helping herself off the seat and stretching out her limbs before picking her bags up.
“Let’s get breakfast before I drop you off, then?” he offered.
“You’re dropping me off too?”
“When did I not?” he quirked a brow at her. In their time traveling together for Formula 1, Carlos has managed to consistently keep himself in the driver’s seat when it came to them driving back home from the airport.
With them both too tired to have to physically enter a restaurant and dine there, the pair opted to go through a drive-thru, Carlos handing y/n over the paper bag before driving over to her apartment complex.
“You’re going to sort some things out for the exhibit too tomorrow, yes?”
“Yeah,” she nodded.
“Should I pick you up too? It will be easier for me to help with the exhibit too and get some footage if we just go together.”
“If that’s what you want to do,” she smiled, fighting off the heat that rose to her cheeks, “I’ll see you tomorrow at 8?”
Of course,” Carlos nodded, watching as she made her way off the car and into her apartment building, waving at him before he drove back to his own home.
y/n spent the rest of the day making calls and such to check on what else she needed to work on when she arrived to the exhibit tomorrow. Carlos, on the other hand, had been figuring out what else it was he could do on the camera.
The next morning, she got dressed in something more comfortable for her to move around in as Carlos texted her that he was on his way to her apartment already. She smiled, heading down to the lobby just in time for Carlos to fetch her in his pride and joy—his Golf car.
“Hop on in!” he invited her, camera already up and pointed at her.
“Should you be driving and recording?” she quirked a brow at him.
“Actually, I tried to keep it on the dashboard, but it kept falling off,” Carlos stated with a laugh, “So I tried to hold on to it this whole time while steering, and it ended up with a few clips of my hand while it was on the wheel.”
“Can I check to see the footage?” she questioned as Carlos nodded, handing the camera over to her as she scrubbed through the recording, finding the shot Carlos was talking about, breaking out into a fit of laughter, “Carlos, that clip was chaos.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, the camera was shaking while you were steering, and not to mention the fact that absolutely nothing was in focus,” she explained with a laugh as Carlos smiled over at her amusement.
“This is why you’re the photographer between us and I’m just the driver,” he chuckled, “Now, where do we go?”
y/n’s exhibit was to be held at a grand gallery she often worked with. On occasion, she even sold them a few of her works as well. Carlos was familiar with the gallery; he was there for every exhibit of hers, anyway.
He followed her around as she was greeted by the staff, all of them elegantly dressed in black clothes, preparing to walk them through the gallery.
“These are the frames you requested, yes?” the attendant questioned, motioning to a few of the framed pictures already hung up on the wall. Carlos stared at them in wonder, most of the photos being ones of familiar sights to him, places they saw while out on the road. He didn’t have a clue about how it was possible, but she managed to bring more beauty to all those places.
“Oh, yeah, definitely,” she nodded, letting out a smile at how everything turned out.
“Right, and we hear you’ve set a price for all of the photos except for one? Should we get that sorted out?”
“Not for sale,” she shook her head, knowing exactly which photo they meant, “But yeah, I see the pegs are all placed nicely, the plaques as well look great. Do we have the food service sorted out already?”
“You wanted a mix of appetizers from different countries, yes?”
“Mhm,” y/n nodded, pleased at this, “The invites were sent out already too?”
“Yes, there will be plenty of prominent people in attendance,” the attendant nodded as y/n found herself immersed in a conversation with the attendant, discussing everything else there was to be discussed, allowing Carlos to wander the unfinished exhibit. After all these years, he was always in a state of wonder with how well y/n did with the camera.
“What do you think?” she questioned, biting her lip as she eagerly awaited a verdict from the man.
“I think I want to buy this entire exhibit,” he admitted with a small smile.
“You’ve got more than enough photos in your apartment,” she shook her head, recalling how she offered Carlos a photo from every exhibition she’d ever had, the frames covering his apartment as well.
“Well, you’re just that good,” he shrugged, eyes not leaving the photograph, giving y/n another opportunity to snap a photo of him.
“It’s unfair how you always look so good,” she shook her head, reviewing the photo of him on her camera and smiling, “Anyways, everything’s pretty much set. I can do everything else online again before getting a final look at everything before the exhibit opens.”
“I mean it’s practically perfect already,” he shrugged, “Where’s that photo of me you said you were going to use?”
“Told you, it’s going to have to be a surprise,” she smirked proudly, as they made their way out the gallery, “Have you talked to Lando yet about whether or not he was going?”
“Oh, right,” Carlos nodded, “He said he was going to be there, and Daniel as well? He mentioned something about how Daniel wanted to get into photography too.”
“That’s fun,” she nodded at the thought of the McLaren drivers coming to the gallery as well, “Let’s just hope people don’t find out there are going to be three Formula 1 drivers in attendance.”
“I can wear a disguise, if you want,” he quipped as she laughed at the thought.
“And what would that even look like?” she quirked a brow at the idea, already trying to formulate what kind of disguise Carlos could come up with.
“I don’t know, maybe a fake mustache?”
“I’d want to see that, actually,” she laughed, “Maybe you should grow one when the season ends, just so I know what it would look like.”
“Then you’d take another one of your pictures?”
“You know it,” she winked proudly as they made their way back into the car, Carlos dropping her off at her apartment to let her continue on with whatever she needed to get to.
The day before the exhibit, Carlos dropped y/n off again, but with her telling him to stay in the car. With how the gallery was practically finished at that point, he assumed it was because she would have wanted the rest of the gallery to be a surprise.
On opening night, though, both he and y/n were dressed in their best attire. He thought it appropriate to fetch her in a beautiful Ferrari car. Something special for that special night.
He didn’t know many of the people in attendance, but he knew most of them came from wealth. Seeing them take appreciation for y/n’s pieces, it was amazing to him.
“Before we do anything else, I want to show you something,” she explained, pulling him to a big framed photo of him, British Grand Prix trophy in hand. It was one taken in his Driver room, Carlos was far too engrossed in taking in every detail of the trophy to notice that y/n had snapped a photo of him.
The pair remained there for a moment, y/n watching Carlos’ expression as he continued to scan the photograph.
Soon enough, both Lando and Daniel arrived, their faces lighting up at the sight of y/n and Carlos.
“Nice place you got here,” Daniel quipped, taking in his surroundings.
“You took all of these?” Lando questioned, eyes growing wide with amazement at the framed photos.
“Yeah, while we were out on the road,” y/n shrugged.
“You know, maybe I should have talked to you first before I got into this photography thing,” he laughed, still amazed with everything, “Oh, and this is a picture of Carlos!”
“Yeah, took it after his first Grand Prix win,” she smiled proudly. At this point, both Carlos and Daniel had begun to wander around too.
“How’d you get this picture to look so good?” Lando questioned. Not that many photos in the driver rooms looked as great as the way this one turned out, “Come to think of it, you’ve never taken a bad picture of Carlos for his Instagram either!”
“I try to capture with the lens the way I see him,” she explained with a wistful smile, e/c eyes scanning over the picture once more.
“What does this mean?” Lando questioned, motioning over to the plaque beneath the picture, “Mi Hogar?”
“It means home,” she shrugged. Lando gave her a look, smiling widely at her as she backtracked, bringing herself back down to Earth, “It also helps that he always has great hair.”
Home was where the heart is and her home was Carlos. She knew that when she decided to travel with him.
Before she and Lando could talk more, y/n was approached by another person at the gallery.
“You know, when I asked the attendants for the price on this, they said there was no data on it,” the man explained looking over to y/n and motioning to the picture of Carlos, “So, what’s the price?”
“Not for sale,” y/n shook her head immediately.
“I can offer you—”
“Not for sale,” she insisted again, “You’re free to purchase any other picture in the exhibition, just not this one, my apologies.”
“You’re not selling it?”
“It feels weird to sell a picture of my best friend,” she shrugged, “I was planning on giving it to Carlos too afterwards.”
“Seriously, though. Everything here is unreal,” Lando nodded towards every other picture in the gallery, “You’re amazing!”
“Thanks,” she nodded, “Enjoy the rest of the night, I’m going to go find Carlos now.”
The rest of the night went off without a hitch. She was informed that quite a lot of the photographs were sold as well. She gave a few words of thanks to everyone before heading back home with Carlos after that exhausting night.
She smiled as she scrolled through social media, having been tagged in a few posts. Smiling at a photo on lando.jpg of both her and Carlos staring up at the picture of Carlos. He must have taken it before he and Daniel came to greet them.
Then it was back to business for them as usual with y/n flying out with Carlos to the States to take photos of him and record him as he played golf. She then flew out with him to Brazil for the next Grand Prix. As it was the second to the last race of the season, y/n found herself busying herself with creating content.
“How’d you know you wanted to be with Charlotte?” Carlos found himself questioning Charles as they prepared for the upcoming practice session.
“We were friends. Spent a lot of time together too,” Charles shrugged, “At some point, I realized I didn’t want to leave for races anymore. Not without her, mate.”
“Oh,” Carlos paused, “ Oh !”
It was only at that moment that it finally hit him. The only thing he could do was to rush for his laptop and hurry along with finishing up what he was starting with. Some time in the night, he finished. And his immediate idea was to send her a message, asking her to head over to his hotel room.
“You know, it’s a bit late for you to ask to hang out,” y/n laughed.
“Knew you would have been awake anyway,” he shrugged, “But I uh, I finished editing the episode.”
“You edited it yourself?”
“No, I had an editor work on most of it,” he chuckled awkwardly, “I added a few things in it I want you to see, though.”
The video started with a clip of them on the plane, just as the pair had discussed. It was only then she realized that he’d looked at her with such brightness in his brown eyes. Had she noticed then, maybe she would have taken a photo of him as well.
Rather than a usual montage of clips taken at an event, she took note of how the intro consisted of different photographs of both she and Carlos over the years, some taken by her, some taken by other people. A few of the photos were taken by photographers in the paddock, some of these being the more recent ones.
It brought a smile to her face, the way Carlos took the time to collect these pictures of them.
Then the video cut to a clip of Carlos in the car, wearing the same clothes he’d worn prior to fetching her for their first visit to the gallery.
“y/n, you’re probably only going to see this when the video goes up,” he started off, smiling into the camera, “But I want to tell you I’m so so proud of you, I mean, another exhibit! And also, I want to say thank you for still being by my side after all your successes and traveling with me.”
“Anyways, I’m really happy to see you doing what you love to do all the time. It brings a smile to my face, honestly,” he smiled, “I’m happy to see you so in your element every time. Thank you in advance…well, delay? For letting me be part of this special event.”
“You’re making me tear up,” she smiled, eyes going red as she wiped a tear from her eyes at the sweet tribute.
The video went along to play a series of clips Carlos took throughout the week alluding to the exhibition, Carlos constantly shown smiling in wonder as he looked around at the framed photos.
She thought the video would have ended with the clip of them, both tired in his Ferrari after the night of the exhibit.
To her surprise, it was followed up by a clip of Carlos in his driver room, perhaps shot previously just between the practice session.
“y/n, hi,” he mumbled, “I wanted to get you to see this as soon as possible, but I really do want to talk for a moment about how, after all these years, I’m so so thankful to have you in my life, and I was very happy to celebrate another exhibit with you. Also, I’m thankful to have you celebrating with me and being there for me after races.”
Carlos took a deep breath, “I want to have you in my life for so much longer. But I don’t want you in my life as just my friend. y/n, I’m so sorry it took me so long to realize this, but I want to be there for every high and every low. I want to be there for you and the man you love. I love you, y/n l/n.”
And then the video cut out. y/n looked over to Carlos, her jaw hanging open widely as she brought her hands to her mouth, “Carlos, do you mean it?”
“I love you, y/n,” he admitted, his brown eyes piercing into hers, an apprehensive look on his face. They were both silent for a moment before the click of a camera echoed through the room.
“I love the way you look when you say that,” she admitted bashfully, a sure smile on her face, “And I love you, Carlos Sainz.”