[maximillian-makes-world-bearable]

An excerpt from the next chapter :)

Saving Me, Saving You

Fandom: Formula 1 RPF, Hunger Games Series - All Media Types

Relationships: Daniel Ricciardo/Max Verstappen

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Hunger Games Setting, Hunger Games-Typical Death/Violence, District 4 (Hunger Games), Rebellion, Implied/Referenced Torture, Prostitution, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Heavy Angst, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Eating Disorders, Suicide Attempt

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞

Max broke the silence with the faintest of sighs. “This is stupid.”

Daniel stirred, the barest of smiles tugging at his lips. “What is?”

“All of it. Us. This. Lying in bed like we’re… like we’re anything other than what we are.” Max shifted, his voice curling sharp, then soft again. “You’re too warm. It feels unreal.”

“Unreal doesn’t mean wrong,” Daniel murmured, pressing his chin into Max’s hair.

“It does here,” Max answered quickly, eyes fixed on the pale ceiling, as though it might collapse under the weight of their small illusion.

But then Daniel laughed, fragile and unshaken by Max’s barbs, and asked, “Do you like tea?”

Max blinked, startled, then snorted in disbelief. “Tea?”

“Yeah.” Daniel’s fingers drummed lightly against Max’s arm. “Black? Herbal? I mean, you have the face of someone who probably hates chamomile.”

Max turned his head slightly, lips twitching against his will. “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Answer the question,” Daniel pressed, a boyish grin playing at the edge of his mouth.

Max rolled his eyes, staring at some invisible horizon. “Mint. I like mint. And jasmine, sometimes.”

“See? I knew it. You’ve got taste.” Daniel’s laughter trembled between them, a sound almost too alive for the room. “Not chamomile. Definitely not.” Definitely not something I like.

For a moment, Max wanted to hate him for it, for this softness, this refusal to see the rot that had long hollowed him out. But he couldn’t. The sound chipped at his edges, pried them loose, and let something warm seep through.

He muttered, “You’re insufferable.”

“You love it,” Daniel teased.

Max went quiet. The word snagged. Love. It sat in his chest like a shard of glass, beautiful and cruel. He wanted to laugh at the absurdity of it, but instead he asked, very softly, “Do you like coffee?”

“Addicted,” Daniel confessed immediately, without shame. “No drama. Plain.”

Max’s lips curved, brittle but real. “Of course you do. No patience for anything that asks for more.”

Daniel glanced at Max, dipping his head closer, and Max continued, quieter. “I don’t have patience for things that ask for more as well.”

Daniel exhaled. His mouth curved, not quite a smile, something sadder. He leaned in and kissed Max carefully, like he was smoothing a crease instead of fixing it. 

“I already do.”

And they tumbled, shy and giddy, stumbling upon a forbidden game. They spoke of nothing. Of tea, coffee, the color of sunsets, and whether Daniel snored (he denied it vehemently, and Max rolled his eyes). For once, there was no script to follow, no Capitol cameras, and no whispered bargains in the dark.

It terrified Max more than any knife ever pressed to his skin.

Because this was how softness became dangerous. By existing. By carving a space in him, he did not think he deserved.

Daniel shifted, catching Max’s gaze at last. “You’re smiling.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are.”

Max bit the inside of his cheek, as though punishing himself for letting it slip. “Don’t look at me like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like I’m… here. Like I’m someone.” His voice cracked then, the pretense snapping. “I’m not. I’m just… I’m what they made. You don’t want me. You want what’s left of me, and that isn’t much.”

Daniel’s hands tightened around him, pulling him closer. “Don’t say that.”

“But it’s true,” Max whispered, hollow and unrelenting. “I’m nothing but scraps. You should throw me away before I rot in your hands.”

Daniel pressed his forehead against Max’s, breathing ragged, almost breaking. “Max, you don’t get to decide what you are to me. You don’t get to decide that.”

The silence after was raw, bleeding.

And yet, it softened again. Slowly. Fragile joy creeping back like sunlight through broken shutters. Daniel began telling some ridiculous story about stealing bread as a kid in District 4, how his mother caught him and made him eat the whole stale loaf as punishment, and how he would do it again if Max liked bread so much. Max laughed despite himself, a sharp, surprised sound, the first true one Daniel had heard in months.

“You’re an idiot,” Max said, wiping at his eyes.

“Maybe,” Daniel admitted, smiling through his own tears. “But I can be your idiot.”

The words hung between them, dangerous and tender.

Max did not answer. But he didn’t need to. His hand, trembling and slight, found Daniel’s beneath the sheets and held on, as though he were afraid the world would come and rip it away.

For now, they clung to it with all the desperation of dying men clinging to a breath.

For they knew the day wouldn't last forever, and so they stayed in the sheets as long as the Capitol permitted them to.  

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞

Stay tuned for the next chapter, heh!

[maximillian-makes-world-bearable]

I'm having the urge to write a one shot though all my other works are incomplete 😭😭

hopefully i do go through with it. all I know is that it will be inspired by the all I want by kodaline because that's on repeat since forever and will continue to be.

i do have an outline in my mind (and scribbles on my work diary). it's just that I have to do the difficult task of expressing the emotions correctly.

[ribuless]

[theraininspa]

when I think about the fact that singapore 2019 gave us the maxiel classic: "do you miss me?" "do you miss me?" "I asked first." "I do miss it, sometimes…"

then, singapore 2024 gave us the equally insane: "thank you, daniel." "he can ask for anything he wants..."

something, something if you just ask, I’ll come running. something, something final act of love. something, something red string of fate that strains and twists but never breaks. something, something: you might not have made it home, but I don’t care, you made it back to me.

[maximillian-makes-world-bearable]

this is a short and regretful update as to why I am not being able to upload new chapters. NOTHING MAJOR, just job. I'm an engineer at a field job and it sucks the life out of me. i soooo terribly wish to merge all the different parts of the new chapters I have written in the notes but then i remember I have to proofread it as well and I just lose all motivation. I'm so sorry to keep y'all waiting but if you are still reading, please do know that I will definitely update. thank you for reading this rant through. ily

[maximillian-makes-world-bearable]

at times I wonder what miracles would have max pulled in mcl39

[literaryvein-references]

When your Character...

Gets into: A Fight ⚜ ...Another Fight ⚜ ...Yet Another Fight

Hates Someone ⚜ Kisses Someone ⚜ Falls in Love

Calls Someone they Love ⚜ Dies / Cheats Death ⚜ Drowns

is...

A Ballerina ⚜ A Child ⚜ Interacting with a Child ⚜ A Cheerleader

A Cowboy ⚜ A Genius ⚜ A Lawyer ⚜ A Pirate ⚜ A Spy

A Wheelchair User ⚜ A Zombie ⚜ Beautiful ⚜ Dangerous ⚜ Drunk

Funny ⚜ In a Coma ⚜ In a Secret Society ⚜ Injured ⚜ Shy

needs...

A Magical Item ⚜ An Aphrodisiac ⚜ A Fictional Poison

A Coping Strategy ⚜ A Drink ⚜ A Medicinal Herb ⚜ A Mentor

Money ⚜ A Persuasion Tactic ⚜ A Quirk ⚜ To be Killed Off

To Become Likable ⚜ To Clean a Wound ⚜ To Self-Reflect

To Find the Right Word, but Can't ⚜ To Say No ⚜ To Swear

loves...

Astronomy ⚜ Baking ⚜ Cooking ⚜ Cocktails ⚜ Food ⚜ Oils

Dancing ⚜ Fashion ⚜ Gems ⚜ Herbal Remedies ⚜ Honey

Mushrooms ⚜ Mythology ⚜ Numbers ⚜ Perfumes

Roses ⚜ Sweets ⚜ To Argue ⚜ To Insult ⚜ To Kiss

To Make False Claims ⚜ Wine ⚜ Wine-Tasting ⚜ Yoga

has/experiences...

Allergies ⚜ Amnesia ⚜ Bereavement ⚜ Bites & Stings

Bruises ⚜ Caffeine ⚜ CO Poisoning ⚜ Color Blindness

Facial Hair ⚜ Fainting ⚜ Fevers ⚜ Food Allergies

Food Poisoning ⚜ Fractures ⚜ Frostbite ⚜ Hypothermia

Injuries ⚜ Jet Lag ⚜ Kidnapping ⚜ Manipulation ⚜ Mutism

Pain ⚜ Paranoia ⚜ Poisoning ⚜ More Pain & Violence

Scars ⚜ Trauma ⚜ Viruses ⚜ Wounds

[these are just quick references. more research may be needed to write your story...]

Writing Resources PDFs

[maximillian-makes-world-bearable]

Chapter update!!

Saving Me, Saving You (31094 words) by wanderlust_lib Chapters: 3/? Fandom: Formula 1 RPF, Hunger Games Series - All Media Types Relationships: Daniel Ricciardo/Max Verstappen Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Hunger Games Setting, Hunger Games-Typical Death/Violence, District 4 (Hunger Games), Rebellion, Implied/Referenced Torture, Prostitution, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Heavy Angst, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Eating Disorders, Suicide Attempt

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞

An excerpt from the chapter

The kiss was not planned. There was no pause for intention, no slow moving-together in the way the Capitol wrote in their head when they hurt him. One moment there was space between them; the next, there was the softest collapse, as though the air itself had pushed them into it. Daniel’s lips brushed his, barely, like a misplaced breath, and Max startled, his body flinching in the smallest tremor. He had not known it could be like this. Not to be taken, not to be bought, but to be met.

Daniel’s mouth lingered there, tentative for only a second before something sharper leaked through, something almost shameful in its hunger. Max, tasting that ache, opened into it like an animal shown food after famine. It wasn’t the kind of kiss that claimed; it was the kind that begged without words.

Daniel’s lips were soft but insistent, pressing just enough to anchor, moving just enough to search. He sucked on Max’s mole on his upper lip. The hunger was quiet, muffled under layers of care, but Max could feel it, hot and dangerous, beneath the surface. His hands stayed where they were, not daring to take, but his whole body tilted, leaned, pressed into Daniel’s side as though trying to be closer than skin allowed.

Max kissed back with the hesitance of someone unused to being given anything freely. It felt stolen, fragile, a thing the world outside would crush if it knew. And yet, for all its softness, there was desperation threaded through, the trembling gasp of someone who had been holding their breath for years without knowing it.

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i would love to hear your views!! kudos are much appreciated!! and thank you to my silent readers as well!!

[maximillian-makes-world-bearable]

Chapter update!

Saving Me, Saving You (19328 words) by wanderlust_lib Chapters: 2/? Fandom: Formula 1 RPF, Hunger Games Series - All Media Types Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage Sex Relationships: Daniel Ricciardo/Max Verstappen Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Hunger Games Setting, Hunger Games-Typical Death/Violence, District 4 (Hunger Games), Rebellion, Implied/Referenced Torture, Prostitution, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Heavy Angst, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Eating Disorders, Suicide Attempt

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞

An excerpt from the chapter

He didn’t understand why Daniel kept arriving in his mind.

Why every time someone pressed him down, he saw dark curls and storm-wracked eyes. Why did he remember the scent of sea salt on Daniel’s skin more than the blood in his own mouth?

It was not love. He was sure of that. Max didn’t believe in love. Love was something the Capitol packaged in perfumes and pumped into ventilation systems. Love was also something Max had never known.

Maybe it was guilt. Daniel should never have gone into the Games. Max would have volunteered had he understood it all. And yet.

And yet Daniel was there. And Daniel bled. And Max watched.

Maybe it was pity. But he didn’t think so. There was nothing pitiful about Daniel. Even when he was silent. Even when he was scared. Even when his hands shook around a wine glass at a gala.

Daniel was the only thing left that felt like a memory.

Maybe that was what made Max ache.

[claudicious]

Daniel’s interview with Fox Sports Asia

Q: who would you take to a deserted island with you?

A: probably Max, I mean Max does know how to have fun, so if you’re on a deserted island and you definitely need some inspirations for fun, Max would be pretty safe bet.

🏝🏝🏝🏝🏝

So sorry for the bad quality, I had to record it from the TV as the video isn’t available to be downloaded nor recorded.

[rb19]

From 2017 If you were allowed to take one driver to a desert island, who would it be? Probably Max! He is young, funny and loves a drink. You can have a lot of fun with him. He's still young and immature, which also makes me feel young and immature when I'm with him, so I think we get along well. And he also knows some good DJs, so maybe he could bring someone with him too!  - If you had to take one driver to a desert island with you, who would it be, and why? Daniel! (Smiles). He said you as well, so it’s a match made in heaven… Yeah, it’s unbelievable! It’s like a romance almost. (Laughs).

[maximillian-makes-world-bearable]

Sneak peek into the next chapter!

Saving Me, Saving You by wanderlust_lib Chapters: 1/? Fandom: Formula 1 RPF, Hunger Games Series - All Media Types Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage Sex Relationships: Daniel Ricciardo/Max Verstappen Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Hunger Games Setting, Hunger Games-Typical Death/Violence, District 4 (Hunger Games), Rebellion, Implied/Referenced Torture, Prostitution, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Angst, Heavy Angst, Depressing, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Eating Disorders, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Suicide Attempt, Suicidal Thoughts, Devotion

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He smiled the way they taught him. The smile that meant, I am not dangerous, I am grateful, and I will not make this difficult.

The rooms glittered like the inside of a jewel. Chandeliers swayed from laughter too loud to be real. People toasted to nothing. Champagne flowed like currency. Eyes followed him. Hunger masqueraded as charm. Desire as decorum.

Max moved like a dancer through it all. He knew how to pose, how to lean just enough to suggest accessibility. Not eagerness. Never eagerness. That’s not what they wanted. They wanted something harder to catch. Something soft with sharp edges.

"You look divine tonight," said a woman in emeralds, her fingers skating down the length of his arm. "So delicate."

Max nodded. His voice was careful. "Thank you."

She chuckled. "So obedient. Just like they said."

They.

Another man stepped forward. Older. White hair slicked back like a villain in a cautionary tale. His hand landed on Max's hip like he owned it.

"He’s smaller in person," he observed, not to Max, but to the woman.

"They always are."

The game was never subtle. The night always ended in a room.

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I will be updating the next chapter in a few days. The beta reading is killing me. Until then, you could check out the other few fics that I will be updating soon, but they already have multiple chapters published!! Here are the links: (1) In the Shadow of Aporia, the Dream of Ataraxia (89929 words) (2) The weight of Blue (11166 words)

[maximillian-makes-world-bearable]

A new Maxiel Hunger Games fic!!

Since I was absolutely dying to write this, I hope I have done justice to this. The first chapter has already been published, so please do share your reviews!!

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞

Saving Me, Saving You (8035 words) by wanderlust_lib Chapters: 1/? Fandom: Formula 1 RPF, Hunger Games Series - All Media Types Summary: Two Victors. One haunted by silence, the other by him.

Daniel survived the Games years ago, but something inside him never left the arena. He smiles for the cameras, speaks when spoken to, and feels nothing. Max is newer, starved for love, raised on violence, and burning with a need to protect what no one ever protected in him.

Thrown together by the Capitol, they orbit each other like wounded stars, love blooming in the wreckage.

In a world that demands obedience and sells beauty like blood, devotion becomes defiance. And the act of holding someone through the night becomes its own revolution.

It’s a story of boys who were never meant to live, trying to.

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞

A short excerpt: He had eaten too quickly. Too hungrily. The fork had trembled in his hand like it didn’t belong there. Food was not something he understood anymore. Hunger had carved him hollow, rewired his body to mistrust fullness. The Capitol stylist had tilted her head earlier that day and frowned.

“You’re too thin,” she said, lips pursed like she was tasting something sour. “You remind them you starved. It ruins the fantasy.”

Fantasy. Yes. That’s what they needed, not survival, but spectacle. Max had nodded because it was easier than explaining that food now made his hands shake. That luxury curled in his gut like poison. That he had learned to chew slowly in the arena, lest the crunch of something edible alert predators to his presence.

And so he ate tonight. To please them. To prove he could. To become the product they had paid for.

Now he was here, on his knees, fingers clenching the Capitol’s toilet bowl like it was a lifeboat and he was about to drown. His ribs ached from the force of it, and his throat burned like a coastline scorched by lightning. He heaved until he was empty.

Water ran. Cold. He washed his mouth out twice. Three times. Four. Then, slowly, he looked up.

The mirror stared back. It was not a reflection. It was a betrayal.

The boy in it had Max's eyes but none of his childhood. That boy's lips were chapped and red. His cheek was faintly bruised, a reminder from training, or the Games, or maybe Daniel’s doorframe. His skin was too pale under the Capitol lights, salt-bleached and seasick.

He smiled. Just to see. It didn’t reach his eyes. Not even close.

"Pretty enough," he muttered to the glass. His voice scraped dry against his teeth. "Pretty enough to sell."

[lorelune]

i'll defend fanfic for my whole life. like the joy it brings is genuinely transformative and indulgent in a way unique to the genre. it isn't meant for a market, it isn't meant to be sold or marketed. it is born out of such care and passion for a media that one must write and must share it, so other folks can enjoy it to. for no other reason than love and joy. do you know how special that is? especially in our current social and political climate.

[maximillian-makes-world-bearable]

Unless they've changed it in like the last year or so Wattpad's terms of service give them ownership over any writing you post in their platform

my goodness, that's terrible. thank you so much for this information!!

[the-bar-sinister]

So, the other day, when I was discussing AO3's policy on solicitation, a tumblr user came at me saying that AO3's "no monetization/solicitation" rules were "bullshit" because nexus mods allows fan created mods to get paid.

Look at me.

Look at me right now.

AO3 protects you.

AO3 protects you and your works. 

It protects your works from copyright strikes and DCMA takedowns.

It protects your work from advertisers.

It protects your work from overzealous legal challenges.

It protects your right to post adult content.

AO3 is non-profit and AO3 will never try to use you or your work to make a profit for themselves and AO3 will go to bat for you if someone tries to legally challenge you or your works.

Please respect AO3 and its mission.

[tenpintsof-sundrop]

I just saw someone say "there is no ethical consumption under capitalism" as an argument for boycotting AO3

Babe AO3 is a nonprofit. They do not exist under the ethics of capitalism. Fanfiction is legal because no money is ever exchanged around it. (All the money given to AO3 is used to maintain their servers and pay their lawyers to help keep fanfiction legal.)

Fanfiction is one of the few things in this world - probably the one singular form of entertainment that does not exist within the confines of capitalism. So by your own logic, even if you hate some of the content on AO3, it's inherently the only ethical thing to consume in the whole world.

[maximillian-makes-world-bearable]

I need some opinions, please!! someone suggested me that I should post my ao3 works (all maxiel, ofc :)) on wattapad as well.

would that be a good move?

yes

no

Voting ended onAug 9, 2025

if possible please do list some pros or cons, it would be really helpful for me!! thank you!!