Champagne Problems
Pairing: Charles Leclerc x Reader Summary: In which Charles comforts a crying girl on a cold London night. Warning: Mentions of death (made up friends & made up brother), angst, fluff, use of google translator for French curse word, over romanticized entertainment purposes. Notes: Also english is not my first language, so criticism is always welcome, but please be kind xx Word Count: 2.7K
Part One: The Sweet Stranger
»your mom's ring in your pocket, my picture in your wallet, your heart was glass, I dropped it. Champagne problems«
"Excuse me?"
You winced noticeably before you turned your head into the direction wherefrom the voice had spoken to you. Just a few meters away a young man dressed in a suit was standing there.
"Are you alright?" He asked with a worried expression on his face. Taken by surprise you nodded, assuring the stranger you were fine. However he furrowed his brows dubiously, not believing you.
"Are you sure? You're crying" he noted with a french accent, fishing a tissue out of the inside of his jacket and handed it to you carefully.
"Thank you" you mumbled, accepting the tissue, using it to wipe away the tears from your face.
"Do you need to call someone?"
"No, thank you" you replied and turned your gaze towards the distance.
"Alright" he breathed, abutting on the blue railing of the Bridge.
"But I'm definitely not leaving you on your own"
"Pardon?" Perplexed you faced the young man, who just looked at you with raised brows.
"What?" He took a step aside.
"There you go, safety gap"
Still startled you simply stared at him, confused by what the man was doing. All you wanted was time to yourself to process the horrendous evening you had just experienced.
"Why?"
Anxiety started to pile up, of course you couldn't spend some time by yourself on the Tower Bridge at night without encountering strange men that wouldn't leave you be. Frowning the brown haired man scanned you from head to toe.
"Well, you're by yourself in the middle of the night standing on a bridge, crying, your heels are off. It's chilly and you're wearing a spaghetti strap dress without a jacket"
You gasped for air.
"Wait-, no-" you shook your head frantically but then looked down on yourself and quickly realized where he was coming from.
"Fair enough" you snorted, running your fingers through your thick hair in frustration.
"I do not want to commit suicide if that's what you thought" you responded horrified, although you couldn't help to feel relieved at the same time. The man apparently wouldn't go, because he sincerely wanted to make sure, you were fine instead of intending to harass you.
"I'm relieved" he breathed out.
"But still you seem to be upset about something. Do you want to talk about it? It can help to pour your heart out to a stranger" he offered and smiled softly.
"Don't you have somewhere else to be?" You retorted, wrapping your arms around yourself in attempt to warm your cold body. Melodic laughter escaped his lips.
"Coud say the same thing about you or do you always take strolls in dresses and higheels?"
The corners of your mouth twitched hardly noticeable at his words.
"I think, I've already embarrassed myself enough"
"This is your opportunity to embarrass yourself even more" the stranger responded sounding oddly encouraging.
Baffled you eyed the man, for the first time noticing how handsome he was. You couldn't clearly see his eye color due to the faint lighting of the bridge, but you already knew his eyes were your favorite feature of his face.
"I'm a stranger to you and you are a stranger to me. We both couldn't care less, if we made fouls out of ourselves" the brunette, young man reasoned.
"You frenchman are strange" you shivered, feeling your hands ache in the cold wind as you rubbed your arms.
"Thank goodness, I am not french then" he said, his smile broadening until the dimples appeared. After you flashed him a puzzled look, he started to snicker.
"I am from Monaco" he clarified.
"And that doesn't make you french?"
"We prefer being called monegasque" the brown haired man explained.
"Sorry" you shuddered.
"I didn't mean to be disrespectful"
The man shook his head.
"Don't worry about it" he assured you, observing shortly after that you were strongly trembling in consequence of your light clothing.
"You're freezing" the monegasque remarked and took off his jacket.
"May I step closer?"
You wanted to decline his unspoken offer, but instead you nodded, getting a whiff of the pleasant scent of his perfume as he came closer and put his black jacket around you.
"Very kind of you" you mumbled, shyly smiling at him.
"I'm y/n by the way" you introduced yourself, while extending your hand to greet him.
"Charles" the monegasque answered, shaking your ice cold hand.
"Sharl" you repeated the french and, in your opinion, more fancy version of the name Charles.
"So tell me y/n, what brings you here in the middle of the night?" Charles asked, after you both turned towards the River that reflected the lights of the city.
"I ran away"
Tears welled up in your eyes, as soon as you thought back on the unpleasant event that had happened earlier this evening.
"After my boyfriend proposed to me" you proceeded, while pulling the jacket closer.
Charles carefully watched your expression, you looked devastated and guilty. Tears ran over your cheeks again, staining your face with mascara. He could see how sorry you were, how much abandoning your boyfriend was nagging on your conscience. The pained expression on your face made it somehow easy for him to empathize with you, even though your boyfriend was the one deserving the empathy.
"And it wasn't even that we never talked about marriage, of course we did and I was convinced I wanted this, but I guess, I didn't know the real answer until he went down on one knee. Ironic, huh?"
You faced him, finally catching a better sight of his pretty eyes, nevertheless you couldn't put your finger on the exact color of them. Maybe they were green, maybe hazel, they could have been ocean blue as well.
"You must think, I'm a cruel person" you snuffled, using the tissue to stop the tears. But Charles shook his head.
"I'm not one to judge" he assured, handing you another tissue.
"But if you talked about it, what made you run away?"
You inhaled deeply, crossing your arms in front of your chest, after you wiped your nose.
"I believe, that love isn't for everybody" you turned your head away from him, gazing into the distance.
"For a long time I thought, I was one of those people. That was until I met Will, my boyfriend. He was very patient with me, never gave up on me and made me slowly like the idea of marriage and starting a family"
With a deep sigh you then continued.
"But seeing him getting down on one knee made me question our whole relationship, it made me realize that I never wanted this" your voice broke and once again tears were brought to your eyes.
"And hearing him say these words felt like hands around my neck, they suffocated me" you bit your lip.
"So I ran"
You paused and he couldn't find the right words to say.
"I understand" Charles then responded compassionately, taking a closer look at your beautiful but sad face. Your jawline was clenched, your cheeks rosy, the big eyes glassy.
Even while crying she was gorgeous Charles thought.
You both kept silent. Charles thought of ways to make you feel better and you choked on your sobs, desperately trying to calm down.
"Let's walk a bit, we don't want people to think we're planning on jumping off of the bridge, do we?" Charles suggested after a short period in attempt to make you smile. And he succeeded as he managed to bring a smile to your face.
"I can't walk through the city looking like a Panda though" you sighed followed by silly laughter. Charles watched your face light up and as he did so, he couldn't detain chuckling as well.
"May I help?" He asked politely, whereat you had to smile brightly.
"Yes, you may" you giggled.
"What?"
"Is every monegasque guy as polite as you are?"
"Most of them are" he replied, carefully wiping away the mascara stains off your face with a tissue. Meanwhile the monegasque cleaned your face highly focused, you were able to take a closer look at his beautiful eyes, finally registering his eyecolor. They were hazel with blue flecks, by far the prettiest pair of eyes you had ever seen.
"There you go, no more panda eyes" Charles grinned confidently.
"Merci"
"De rien"
For a moment you both tensley stared into each others eyes, forgetting your surroundings and circumstances for a split second up until reality crashed in on you, brought you both back to here and now. Charles cleared his throat and nodded towards the way back to the city.
"Let's go"
Quickly you slipped in to your uncomfortable higheels and walked awkwardly next to the taller brunette.
"Why would you believe that love isn't for everyone?" Charles questioned to start another conversation.
"Because I've seen it" you smiled sadly.
"My parents were never happily in love, my mother spent all their marriage cheating on him with different men until my dad's had enough and divorced her"
Charles' curious expression swiftly saddened as he heard your parents story and started to understand why the you were so troubled with love.
"I'm sorry to hear"
"And yes, it's my parents business, but while my father was clueless about my mother's infidelity, I knew all along, since I was 13"
"That must have been horrible. Didn't you ever tell him?"
You bowed your head in shame and shook your head.
"No, my Dad and I never had the closest relationship and it's not that I've admitted it to myself back then, I've supressed it for years" you explained, burying your hands in the pockets of the jacket.
"When you love someone, the least thing you want to do, is hurt them. My parents hurt each other pretty badly, all the time. They are incapable of love"
Charles remained silent, he wasn't convinced of your statement, but unlike your parents his parents had had a loving relationship. They had set the perfect example for him and his brothers, they taught them what it meant to love and to be loved.
"I can already hear them talking behind my back: she would've made such a lovely bride, what a shame, she's fucked in the head" you changed the topic and laughed scornfully. The monegasque shook his head, loosening the tie around his neck.
"It's okay to choose not to get married" he told you, shooting you a reassuring look.
"Although running away wasn't the ideal way to decline his marriage proposal" he joked, trying to lighten up the mood.
"Tell me, you were alone with him"
You couldn't help but to smirk at Charles' comment. You knew, it wasn't funny, that you had to take full responsibilities of your actions once you got back, but right now you just wanted to allow yourself for only a few minutes to laugh about it in order to relieve the stress that had built up.
"I wasn't" you confessed guiltily.
"He proposed to me on my party"
"bordel de merde!" Charles cursed in his native tongue in disbelief and bursted into laughter.
"I changed my mind, you are a cruel person" he bantered as though he had known you for years already. You didn't counter, you just laughed with him. Charles meant it as a joke, but you understood that leaving your boyfriend behind with all the guests made you indeed a cruel person.
"Now to you: what were you doing on the bridge?" You asked full of curiosity.
"I needed some fresh air, I've had a rough evening" he grinned, even though there was a glint of misery in his eyes.
"What happened?"
"My family and I hosted a charity event on behalf of my deceased brother and my best friend" Charles responded, slipping his cold hands into his pockets.
"I'm sorry, did they pass recently?"
"No, my best friend passed away 5 years ago and my brother 7 years ago" suddenly his voice sounded evenly.
"Does it ever get better?" You asked cautiously to which he just sighed.
"No" his lips formed to a small, but sorrowful smile again.
"Some days are just less tough than others" Charles ran his long, slender fingers through his brown, untamed hair, releasing another, deeper sigh.
"In 2019 I also lost another friend and ever since that this crippling anxiety has been haunting me, the fear that I might lose another person that I love. I wouldn't survive that" he loosened his tie another time and also opened the first two buttons of his shirt as though he felt smothered by them.
"I spent hours and hours contemplating if I ever wanted to start a family one day and the answer was always the same: no, because to start a family meant more to lose" Charles added, meanwhile tears had welled up and gleamed in his eyes. You didn't notice that a teardrop fell from your eye and rolled over your cheek. You were moved by his words. What Charles had been through was unimaginable.
"I'm honestly so sorry, Charles. I've been whining all night about my problems, that definitely seem like champagne problems compared to yours and-"
"Y/n! It's fine!" Charles interrupted and laid his hand on your shoulder to calm you down.
"I approached you, remember? I was worried and I wanted to make you feel better and guess what? You made me feel better"
Perplexed you looked into his handsome face, recurringly getting lost in those hazel eyes of his.
"Sorry" you whispered and felt blood rushing to her face, tinging your already read cheeks crimson.
"You've apologized enough for today, don't you think?" He said with a crooked smile on his face, hardly any trace of grief left.
"You're right" you agreed with the monegasque.
The rest of the night you two strangers spent talking about everything and anything. You gave Charles a little London tour, showing him the true gems of your hometown, at least that what could be seen at nearly 12 A.M. Like silly children, you had been fooling around, both forgetting what an awful evening you both had had. When it was slowly time to part ways, Charles kindly accompanied you to the next taxi rank. For a few meters the you and the monegasque walked silently next to each other through the illuminated city of London. Both lost in thought, enjoying each others company without the deafening silence that would have came alongside awkwardness.
"I think, I just proved, that I'm no better than my parents. I've hurt the person that I love the most. I'm incapable of love just like them" you muttered as the realization came to you.
"I don't believe that" Charles disagreed.
"Love is not just a strong feeling, it's a choice and sometimes people stop choosing and that is okay"
You didn't respond, the heavy weight of your heart made itself noticeable, causing a feeling of paralysis.
"Do you wish, you had accepted?"
"No" you whispered.
"Then you're already more self-reflected than your parents" Charles contended.
"Is he a good man?" Charles asked.
"The best" you responded without hesitation.
"Then be honest with him, you owe him that"
You nodded nervously, already scared of the utterly unpleasant, but necessary conversation with your boyfriend.
"Thank you, Charles"
"You're welcome, y/n"
Finally a taxi was in sight, that you quickly hailed with a hand gesture.
"Give me your phone" you quickly demanded.
Confused the monegasque handed you his phone, after unlocking it for you. As fast as you could, you typed down your phone number and gave it back to its owner.
"For when you need to completely embarrass yourself" you smirked at Charles, before you took off his jacket and returned it to him as well.
"Thanks" Charles laughed and opened the door for you.
"Goodbye, Charles Leclerc"
Caught off guard he widened his eyes and held the door open after you got into the car.
"You know my full name, it's only fair to know yours as well"
"Y/n y/l" you answered right before you closed the door and the taxi took off.
To be continued...
