Chapter Text
There are rookies on the grid. Five new rookies, six if you include Liam. Max is absolutely including Liam into the roster, because he still looks so young and excited and nervous about his season, and he keeps spiking his hair up with some silly hair gel which then makes Max want to smooth it back down , and—
There are six rookies on the grid. Which is totally fine, and Max is completely normal about. 100%, totally normal.
It’s his fucking cat instincts that seem to have a problem with them.
Match the Shifter Challenge! | Grill The Grid 2024 | Episode 2
“In this episode, you’re going to match each driver with their animal shift. For each one you get right, you get a point. Are you ready?”
Next to the drivers stood a wide blackboard, split in two sections. On one section were the names of the drivers, and on the other were the list of animals that the drivers shifted into.
Oscar raised an eyebrow, frowning. “Some of the drivers don’t shift in the paddock,” he pointed out, even as he already grabbed Max’s name and moved it next to “LION” on the board.
“Well, I can at least get two for sure right,” Lando laughed, moving his name to “DOG” and Max’s name to “LION”. He flashed a grin at the camera. “Really helpful of Max to use his animal for his brand.”
“Ah, yes,” Fernando chuckled as he worked his way down the list. “Little león,” he murmured, just barely loud enough for the microphone to pick up as he moved Max’s name to sit next to “LION”.
Charles worked down the list quickly, putting everyone down efficiently and easily, humming to himself. When he reached Max’s name, for a second, his hand froze. His expression flickered as he glanced at the animal options. Then he snatched Max’s name and slapped it over “LION” before quickly moving on, as if nothing had happened.
“I’m done!” Max cheered, turning fully to the camera. Behind him, the board was a mess, with half of the names slapped messily over “DOG” and the other half placed randomly on different animals, with no effort. Charles had been put on “BULL”, which Max had spent five minutes laughing over, almost to the point of tears.
“I—,” a sigh behind the camera, “—you know what? We’ll take it. Thank you, Max.”
Max beamed, flashing the camera a thumbs up before he walked out of view of the camera, leaving his awful board behind. On the board, with all the names messily moved around and placed haphazardly, Max’s name remained unmoved. It sat, still far away from any of the animal options. He hadn’t touched his name at all.
February 26, 2025
It was pre-testing photoshoot hell, and Max was just trying to get through it in one piece. All the drivers back in one room mean it was an absolute zoo, both literally and figuratively.
Everyone talked loudly as they waited for the cameras to get set up, catching up and ignoring their assigned spot on the white seats to instead move around. Yuki was flying around the large room, divebombing people’s heads while Pierre squawked in laughter, flying beside him.
Already Max had a headache forming, and he could feel the hair on his neck stand up from being in a room with so many other predators. He wanted to just sit down and wait for the cameras, hopefully use some of his “world champion authority” or whatever he could get away with to hurry this thing along. He was right by his seat too, at the front and away from where most of the other drivers were talking, most of them choosing to go to the higher seats to talk as they were further from the cameras. Honestly, he could even just lie down on the white bench and ignore everyone.
Except—
Liam stood in front of him, bouncing on his toes in excitement, his new Red Bull suit standing out against the bright red background. His blonde hair flopped with every bounce. “I mean, do you like the fire suits? I think the dark navy looks rad with my hair —“
Max nodded his head absently, blue eyes fond as Liam continued to talk, hands waving widely in the air as he prattled on about the suits and how his girlfriend said she liked the color on him and his new hairstyle. The boy really wasn’t even paying attention to Max, eyes darting around as if he still couldn’t take it all in, his dingo ears twitching on the top of his head and his tail wagging behind aggressively. As if he couldn’t believe he was a Red Bull driver.
It was absolutely adorable, and even though his fire suit was fitted for him they somehow seem to big on him, making him look like a little kit—
Max shook his head, smile tightening slightly. None of that. His instincts had been much more loud recently, and Max had no idea why. His stupid cat had been fine for years with being ignored, quiet and content to not annoy Max if he shifted once every couple of months, and now Max couldn’t go one conversation without the cat rearing its ugly head.
“Tired, Max?”
He stiffened at the feeling of a hand placed on the small of his back, barely biting back a hiss, before the familiar accent washed over him. Max sighed, relaxing slightly as Liam smiled at the sight of the new driver.
“Charles! Hello,” Liam exclaimed, and Charles stepped up next to Max, smiling kindly at Liam. Max tried to ignore how good he looked in his red Ferrari fire suit, and how tightly it clung to his shoulders.
Max had had an entire winter break to try and get over his damn feelings for the other driver, and clearly that didn’t work. Of course, he’s also been stuck feeling something for Charles ever since he became aware that feelings were a thing, so he didn’t know why this year he thought would be different. A guy could dream though.
“Hello, Liam,” he greeted back, and damn, Max had forgotten how much he missed Charles’s accent, before his head cocked to where Isack sat on one of the prop tires, animatedly talking to Kimi, a small smile playing on his lips. “I think Isack was talking about the different special suit colors this season.”
Liam jumped, his eyes brightening as he immediately shot off to the other rookies with an excited yip, completely forgetting about his conversation with Max.
Max sighed in relief, turning to Charles. “Thank you for that,” he said, feeling a blush creep up his cheeks as Charles rubbed small circles into the small of his back. He hadn’t even realized Charles had left his hand. Inside Max could feel his cat instincts rouse, interest piqued.
Somewhere along the way Max’s cat had caught feelings for Charles too, which didn’t even make sense. How the fuck did a cat fall in love with a fucking horse? It made Max want to lean more into the firm hand on his back, to arch his spine into his hands like a needy cat—
He felt like a schoolgirl with a crush, and it only made his face turn redder.
Max really hoped Charles didn’t notice.
“Of course,” Charles replied softly, his eyes trailing down to Max’s cheeks, before he smiled teasingly. “You seemed to be having fun,” he remarked slyly, and Max groaned, hand coming up to rub his nose and hopefully cover his flushed face. Trying to wrangle his cat and deal with a conversation with Charles was much harder than he thought.
“I, of course, was enjoying my conversation with Liam,” Max tried to sound indignant, but his lips twitched at Charles’s serious expression.
“Yes, I’m sure,” Charles nodded solemnly, brow furrowed while his green eyes twinkled in amusement. “I too would love to hear about how the exact shade of Red Bull navy is like the waves of the Pacific Ocean and how Liam’s new hair gel smells like a beachy sunset.”
“Charlie!” Max exclaimed in shock, his hands coming up to cover his mouth as he tried to hide his laughter. In the end he found the easiest way was to turn and duck his head in Charles’s shoulder, body shaking as he studiously did not look in Liam’s direction, where he was wearing his Red Bull suit which was navy blue and his hair was beginning to stick up from his sunset hair gel—
“He’s just excited, leave him be,” Max scolded, lips still twitching as Charles shrugged helplessly, chuckling slightly. With how Max had turned in to Charles, it meant Charles’s arm had wrapped more around him. Selfishly, Max didn’t make a move to step away. He hoped Charles wouldn’t either.
Thankfully, Charles didn’t seem to notice, thumb still absently drawing circles on Max’s back.
“I’m sure he is.” Charles hummed, a small smile growing. “I remember my first season at Ferrari after Sauber and how it felt.”
Max nodded, even as his smile thinned and his shoulders tightened. He remembered his move to Red Bull and how obsessive his dad had been over keeping his shifting under control. Red Bull meant new responsibilities and even tougher competition, and while his cat form had been banned from Toro Rosso, like every part of his life, his father had been even crazier over keeping Max’s cat form hidden at Red Bull. Red Bull meant that Max was the lion, not the fucking house cat.
While it had sucked, it had seemed worth it at the time to trade even less hours where he was allowed to shift for the Red Bull seat. Max had been so excited to try and be on the same level as the other drivers, and maybe even try sim racing with some of them, except. Well.
Max spent a lot of nights alone doing sim racing while his cat instincts yowled inside him.
The thought of any of the rookies feeling like that during their first seasons, or Liam feeling like he couldn’t even ask Max if his hair looked okay—
Next to him, Charles stiffened.
“Did you just hiss?” he asked incredulously, removing his hand from Max’s back.
“What? No!” Max lied loudly, holding in the whine that threatened to come out when Charles stepped away slightly. His cat needed to shut the fuck up. “I just had an itch in my throat, naturally.”
“Uh huh,” Charles looked at him suspiciously, his eyebrow cocked before his gaze shifted into something softer, his expression flickering into something unreadable. “Max,” he hesitated, pausing before leaning in, voice dropper to something quieter, “Is this about your shifting—“
”Alright, everyone, please go back to your seats! We should be starting soon.” One of the photographers called out, and Max jumped, quickly turning away from Charles.
“Gotta go!” he yelled back, studiously ignoring the piercing gaze on his back. Max had no idea what Charles was going to ask, but he wasn’t going to wait to find out. While most drivers had never questioned him about his shifting, Charles had been one of the few that were much more curious.
A curious Charles was a dangerous one. Max sighed in relief as he didn’t hear the sound of footsteps following, before he squeezed his eyes in frustration as he felt his cat meow angrily, urging Max to go back and plaster himself next to Charles and gather his kits—
Fuck, this was awful.
Just get through the next five minutes, and then Max could escape back to his own hotel room.
His eyes quickly scanned the room, tracking how Gabriel and Isack were already in their proper spots, with Jack climbing up with Kimi. Ollie was still talking to Fernando, but thankfully the older man was ushering the rookie along to their spots. Good. That only left Liam—
Max’s steps stuttered as he caught sight of the younger driver. His suit was still impeccable, but his blonde hair had become a complete bird’s nest, strands sticking up everywhere.
That silly rookie—
He hissed, rolling his eyes in fond exasperation as he changed direction, prowling towards Liam, who froze when he saw Max.
“I told you to stop running your hands through your hair,” he tsked, grabbing the rookie’s head gently but firmly and tilting it down. Thankfully the boy didn’t move as Max hummed, licking his hand thoroughly before running it through Liam’s hair. The barbs on his tongue grew out as he covered his hand, which would have been easier to just use on Liam’s head instead of on own hand, but it would have been a pain to make Liam lean all the way down.
Curse his tall kits.
He wrinkled his nose at the feeling of hair gel between his fingers as he combed back strands of Liam’s hair. “Of course if you keep using hair gel then you need to leave your hair alone, otherwise you’re just going to make a mess.”
The kit stayed quiet, letting Max fix his hair back into the slick back style he knew Liam liked. Finally he was finished, and Max quickly fixed the boy’s collar before stepping back to admire his work, a purr rising up. The rookie looked perfect for the photoshoot, even if his face was growing redder and redder by the minute, and he refused to look Max in the eye.
“Liam?” Max asked, concerned, before a loud British voice interrupted, teasing.
“Oy! Max, are you done taking care of your cub?” Lando called out, and cold water poured over Max, blood rushing to his face as he looked at Liam, eyes wide. He realized how quiet the room had become, and a quick glance to their side showed everyone already in their seats, some with amused expressions on their faces while others looked confused. Even the cameramen were watching, faces stuck in some weird mix of confusion and horror over seeing the reigning world champion lick his own hand and groom a rookie’s head. Everyone watched him treat Liam like a baby —
“ Fuck , Liam, I am so sorry,” he apologized quickly, regret filling his voice as Liam only smiled at him weakly. That must have been so embarrassing for him, and Max just completely invaded his personal space.
Inside Max, his cat instincts purred in delight, smug and satisfied over taking care of one of his kits. Max squeezed his eyes shut in frustration, his cheeks burning in humiliation. He was going to need to get some kind of spray bottle to use on himself .
Liam laughed stiltedly, hands instinctively going to his hair before he paused, hands hovering awkwardly in the air. “It’s ok,” he finally said, hands dropping uselessly, and Max nodded miserably.
“Ok.”
Then, because Max was absolutely pathetic, he still gently pushed Liam towards his seat, ignoring how easily Liam let himself be pushed. “Go sit down, then.”
Once Liam got to his seat, the boy immediately sat down without protest, and Max ignored everyone and everything, aside from Lando who he flipped off, walking furiously over to his seat and sitting down, arms crossed. Resolutely, he ignored Charles staring directly at him and the snickers rising from behind him.
“Are we going to take photos or not?” he said loudly, and thankfully the photographers jumped into action, silencing the other drivers as they began barking out orders.
Please, just let this day be over.
As soon as pictures were finished, Max shot up, charging towards the exit. He did not want to spend a minute more in this place, because he was honestly scared he was going to actually try to groom one of the rookies like a fucking cat. Or even worse, his instincts were going to force a shift, which hadn’t happened in years .
He could not do this.
“Max!”
Max paused, his eyes closing in agony as his cat perked up. Please, let that have been a mistake and he heard wrong. The approaching footsteps and nervous breathing proved him wrong, and slowly, painfully, Max turned to see Liam jogging up to him.
His eye twitched at the blonde hair falling over the boy’s face. “Yes, Liam?” He said politely, instead of please let me fix your hair again and hold you close to my chest like a kit.
Liam stopped in front of him, stumbling slightly like a deer, his ears twitching nervously. Max almost cooed, and then immediately wanted to kill himself.
“I just wanted to talk about earlier, with my hair,” he said nervously, scratching the back of his neck, flush rising to his cheeks.
Instantly, Max’s heart dropped. “Liam, I’m so sorry,” he said regretfully, face grimacing. “I know it was a complete invasion of privacy and—“
“I just wanted to say thank you, is all.”
Max blinked, mouth dropping open. “ What? ”
Liam nodded, blushing furiously. “Yeah, I get really anxious about my hair, so knowing that you fixed it before the photos kind of helped calm me down, because I knew you wouldn’t let me look like shit.” He leaned forward, squeezing Max quickly in a hug before Max could even react. He sent Max a shy grin. “So thank you.”
“Of course,” Max responded automatically, trying desperately to not purr loudly and grab Liam to wrap back in his arms and keep him there forever. Where were the rest of his kits? Instead, he smiled weakly. “Any time.”
“Great!” Liam beamed at him, before jerking his head back towards the rest of the drivers. “Charles said he was going to show me some new hair products, so I’m going to head back!”
“Uh huh,” Max nodded absently, barely moving as Liam leaned in to give him another hug before bounding back to the rest of the drivers, his tail wagging behind him excitedly. Charles was waiting for him, a small smile on his face. Briefly, his eyes met Max’s and his expression softened into something Max couldn't decipher. When Liam left Max’s fingers twitched, his claws growing, and he felt his body shake from the force of his purring.
Fuck .