Chapter Text
Charles used to love summer. He remembers going to the beach with his brothers and spending the whole day between sunbathing and playing in the water. No worries in the world, just if his fortress of sand would be better than Lorenzo’s. Summer used to be that season of the year in which things kind of lost their meaning and nothing really mattered that much until school started again. It used to be fun.
Now, even if the sun is blazing hot, Charles cannot really feel the summer anymore. Not when he has so many exams approaching and no time to enjoy the beach. It’s more like torture, his memories of better days coming back to him while he goes back home after spending 10 full hours in the library on a perfectly hot and sunny Sunday. On top of that, he has yet to eat anything that is not a protein bar since he woke up. It’s not that he doesn’t want to eat, but he is so stressed that he cannot really stop his study session to go for a full meal, his stomach just refuses to cooperate.
“Hey! You the guy with the Ferrari t-shirt.”
Well, fuck this. Charles is in no mood for whatever they want to sell him. He’s just going to pretend he did not hear that. Maybe someone else is wearing Ferrari merchandising, it’s the best team in the world after all. Yeah, that’s it, even though no one else is in this street. Either way, he’s just going to continue his way, and whoever was screaming will catch the message.
“Hey! Wait a moment!” The stranger catches his arm, and Charles is so close to scream. “Woah, sorry. Can you wait for a minute? You have like the perfect proportions.”
“Excuse me?”
If Charles was not weirded out before, which he completely was, he is now. Who even says that? The stranger seems to realize how inappropriate that came out because his whole face turns red. Still, he doesn’t let Charles go.
“Shit, I’m so sorry, I’m not hitting on you, I promise” he says, and Charles can now hear clearly the French accent. “not that you aren’t pretty, you are. But I have a boyfriend, and he is the prettiest-“
“Yeah, I’m out.”
Charles really does not have time for whatever this guy has to tell him. He is in a rush, and the guy seems insane. He does his best to get out of his grasp and starts running. Which maybe is not a very good idea when he barely had nothing to eat and it’s so hot outside.
“Merde! Oscar, catch this guy!”
Charles doesn’t have time to ask about who this Oscar persona is before he just crashes into him.
“Woah. Just give us five minutes, man. We are not part of a cult…”
That’s all Charles hears before he passes out.
.
.
.
When he wakes up, it’s not two weird guys looking at him, but four of them. Charles wants to cry. Is this how he dies?
“Oh my god! He’s awake.”
This time is a curly haired guy who talks to him. He seems to be way more energetic than Charles is ready to deal with.
“Who are you?” is the only thing he manages to say.
“Oh,” the curly hair guy looks around, the smile never leaving him. “Of course these guys never said their names. I’m Lando, over there you can see Oscar and Pierre, and behind the bar is Yuki.”
Charls manages to get up a little bit from the couch he was resting on. He doesn’t even now where he is right now, but he manages to recognise the French guy who first approached him as Pierre, and he already knew who Oscar was, barely.
“Sorry for all of this” Lando continues, “Pierre and Oscar just went out to get some drinks. But then they saw you and Pierre thought you would be perfect.”
Charles looks at Lando, he doesn’t look like he kills people for a living, but also who looks like that, really? And his friends did bring Charles to some weird ass empty bar. He has so many questions.
“Perfect for what? What is this place?”
Lando looks at his friends, clearly unimpressed.
“Really?”
“Look,” Oscar starts, putting his hands in the air “We really tried. But he just ran away and then he passed out.”
Charles feels the heat come up to his face. This is maybe in his top three embarrassing moments since he was six and he tried to eat a cake made of dirt. But it wasn’t his fault, really. So many exams.
“Whatever,” Lando says looking once again towards Charles. “I’m sorry it looks like this. I’m sure you think we are some crazy cult or something –“ Charles agrees mentally but decides not to say anything. “We are just students from the Monaco School of fashion and design.”
Oh. That explains his eccentricity. Or at least this is the type of behaviour Charles expects from the rich kids attending that fashion school. Is not like Monaco lacks rich people all around, but the fashion school has this crazy tuition, and everyone knows you either are a genius to get a scholarship or have very rich parents.
“There is this fair at the end of October, it’s kind of a big deal, everyone attends” Lando keeps explaining, and Charles really does not like where this is going. “like big fashion houses representatives are there as well, you know. And of course, they made it a competition for last year students, which we are. You kind of make a team, design something and present it.”
“And where do I fit in all of this?”
“Well, you” this time is Pierre speaking. “Your body type and face are exactly what we need.”
“Max’s type, basically” Lando supplies. “he’s so picky and it has been an absolute pain in our ass. He won’t design anything if he doesn’t like the model and we are already running out of time. We would love I if you could do us this favour.”
“And, before you ask, no, they don’t let us contact professional models” Oscar adds.
Well, it’s a no for Charles. He dos love to help people, but if there is anyone in the world who needs help right now, that’s him. He has so much o study and so little time. And he does not even know who this “Max” person is. Yeah, the other guys seem weird but nice, but who knows how Max is, they talk about him like someone on a permanent power trip and that is very much not what Charles needs now. He shouldn’t even be here. His mom must be worried sick.
“I would love to help but –“ ugh. Charles hates how Lando looks at him like he just broke his heart. “I’m a student as well and I have so many things to do. Civil Engineering is not easy. I have exams coming up and I cannot really play dress up with you right now.”
“Dress up? What the fuck is wrong with you?” it’s the first time since Charles woke up that Yuki speaks up, and he clearly has some opinions. “You could just say no, without being a condescending bitch about it.”
“Yuki, don’t– “
“No, Pierre, he’s full of shit –” Yuki answers to the French, but he goes back to facing Charles quite fast “You think you are the next big thing or something? That your exams matter more or something? You should be honoured they even considered your ugly ass for this. Just get out.”
Charles feels like an absolute shit. He doesn’t even think like that. He’s just tired, exhausted. And he needs to get out of there as soon as possible. It looks like Yuki will kick him out by force if he doesn’t leave in the next ten seconds, either way. He just sprints to what seems to be the door without saying anything else.
Just as he thinks he has made it out, a hand catches his arm. What’s with this people grabbing him?
“Wait” it’s Lando, and that just makes Charles feels one thousand times worse. “Just, give it a thought, okay? I’m sorry it was like this, Yuki doesn’t mean any of that, he’s just overprotective of Pierre. We are always here after class, if you change your mind.”
Charles nods, not because he thinks that will happen, but because he needs to get out of there. He hates disappointing people so much, hates feeling like he could have helped and has actively decided not to do it. It makes him want to throw up but at least he doesn’t have anything in his stomach. Lando lets him go and Charles doesn’t look back. He takes the first bus he sees even though is not the one that leaves him close to his house, and he ends up having to walk another 30 minutes.
He feels sick, and it’s even worse when he gets home and his mom is waiting for him, with a full plate for dinner. He barely manages to take some before he feels sick again. He just excuses himself to his bedroom, under her worried eyes. It’s just so fucked up. He just wants to go to bed and forget all about this. Tomorrow he will wake up and his life will be normal again, another engineering student with no mental health trying his best to survive his last year. It’s fine, he can do it.
He goes to get his phone to set up the alarm, but he doesn’t find it. He is so sure he had it in his pocket when he left the library. Realization dawns at him then. It must have fallen from his pocket, when he was laying in that couch in that weird bar. As if the day could get worse. He falls in bed with a thump, hoping that somehow things will have magically fixed themselves by tomorrow.
.
.
.
Things don’t get magically solved, but they don’t get worse either. That’s a win in Charle’s book, as he finds himself sitting after one of the most horrible classes of the day.
“Rough night?”
Charles looks up to find Carlos, already leaving an orange juice in front on the former.
“Rough everything.”
Carlos laughs as he sits next to Charles, who cannot supress a smile. Carlos has been one of his closest friends since he started studying engineering, even thought Carlos is studying Aeronautical and not Civil. They had many classes together the first years and that is how his friendship had blossomed. Charles is so thankful for it.
“You study to much, Charlie. I texted you yesterday” Carlos says, and Charles is suddenly reminded of the fact that his phone is lost “, you never answered. I think I called you like 10 times. I was very worried.”
“Yeah, sorry, I lost my phone” he sets for, no point in explaining to Carlos his whole crazy day, and knowing him, Carlos would just offer to go retrieve his phone for him and Charles is not doing that. “, as I said, very rough day.”
“Really? That sucks. I think I might have my old one laying around, I can lend it to you?”
Charles smiles while nodding. Carlos is always there for him. He is kind of everything Charles wants to be. While Charles needs to spend long hours in the library, Carlos is incredibly smart and can catch almost everything just by attending classes. Everyone seems to orbit around him and Charles cannot blame them, because he is the same.
“You have one hour free, right?” Carlos asks and Charles can’t help but feel butterflies in his stomach at the idea that Carlos has somehow memorized his schedule “Let’s go for a walk or something, ok? I think you need some fresh air.”
And how can he say no? He really needs some fresh air. And also for Carlos to distract him with whatever he has been doing during the weekend, because Charles is sure the older has not been in the library. And lo and behold, Carlos tells him about going to the beach and how full it was, how he had met a couple of girls and exchanged numbers. Charles is well aware of how attractive Carlos is, and the fact that someone like him would never look twice to someone like Charles, not even mentioning the fact that Carlos liking men sounds completely impossible with how many girls he tells Charles about.
“I just don’t know Charlies, it’s just like, they want my number, so I feel like I should give it to them, no?”
Charles hums, sympathetic. It’s not like he can relate to any of that. Not the girls swarming around him nor being attracted to any of them.
“But if they are friends, and I give it to both. Are they going to fight? Does it look bad? I just want to be a gentleman.”
“Did you even like any of them?”
Carlos then looks at him, like re-evaluating his life choices.
“Maybe?” he says, clearly unsure “Not like let’s have a family together, but they were very pretty so I didn’t see a reason to not give my number.”
Charles sighs, it’s not like this is the first time they have this conversation.
“I think it would be better,” he starts, nor trying to sound too judgemental “if you started only giving your number if you are really interested in them.”
Carlos looks at him with interest but doesn’t say anything. Charles takes it as him telling him to continue.
“I think if you keep giving away your number, when the one girl you likes appear, you won’t even know if it’s her calling you” he says “, and it would be so embarrassing to call her by another name. She would never talk to you again.”
“You are so right, Charlie” Carlos concedes “I need to be more mindful. You give like the best relationship advice ever.”
Charles doesn’t really think that whatever he did is considered “relationship advice”, more like “common sense”, but he doesn’t need to tell Carlos that. He barely had any experience in dating, to be honest. It hasn’t been his priority until now, and it doesn’t seem like it will change anytime soon. Maybe once he graduates and gets a decent job, he can start thinking about thigs like that.
“Oh fuck, I had a meeting with Professor Alonso for my thesis” Carlos announces, checking his watch “I’ll catch you later, ok Charlie? And I’ll bring you the phone tomorrow!”
Before Charles can say anything, Carlos is already running back to one of the university buildings.
To be fair, Charles also would not enjoy making Professor Alonso mad by being late. But that leaves him still alone, and with more than half an hour left before his next class. He decides to go to the coffee shop nearby; he’ll get an espresso and hopefully that will wake him up for the rest of the day.
“Hey, you.”
Charles wants to pretend he hasn’t heard anything. He learned yesterday that entertaining strangers never ends well, and he does not know anyone with that voice.
“Hey!” the guy repeats, “I just came here to give your phone back.”
That catches Charles attention. He turns to face the stranger and is met with electric blue eyes and a face of complete boredom. Even though he apparently is friends with the eccentric guys from yesterday –at least he seems to be by having Charles phone–, this guy is dressed in the most basic wear imaginable to humankind. Charles is not one to judge, with a limited wardrove himself, but this guy seems the type to have one pair of jeans and three t-shirts the same colour that he just rotates during the week.
“So you want it or not?” the stranger says, and Charles cannot believe the audacity of being this rude when the reason why he lost his phone in the first place was an almost kidnaping, “I don’t have all day.”
“Of course I want my phone back. Who are you even?”
“Good” the guy says, “Then you will have to come with me.”
Oh, no, no. Charles is not doing this again, this time for sure he will end up in some underground ring that sells organ.
“It’s Max, by the way” the guy says, “you know, the guy who will design your suit. Now get on the car, I really don’t have all day here. Busy life.”
There are many things Charles doesn’t understand.
One: how can this very plain looking Max person design anything, when he seems to be living out of basic sportwear and one pair of jeans? And the second one is: why is he getting on this stranger’s car?
But he probably knows the answer to the second one, is not everyday you get to go inside a Ferrari car.