Q: is there anything you regretted about no longer being teammates?
Max: it’s a shame we’re not sharing the same room anymore. That’s a bit of disappointing thing
Daniel: yeah, I struggled out the first year sleeping
Max: yeah it was tough, I got nightmares and everything
Daniel: I thought I would wake up in the morning and..
Max: the back rub, you know, the back rub
Daniel: and also the pillow. I thought I would drool on the pillow, but actually it was tears I would cry in my sleep for missing Max. Only now I was getting over it until you brought it up.
Max: that’s tough
Daniel: so you hit a spot, you pulled out my heartstring, Dieter
writing my favourites is always a treasure, thank you! couple habits -maxiel, around 900 words:
Daniel does not know when Max starts eating off his plate.
Not, like, in life. In life, Max started doing that years ago, probably. Max has been stealing Daniel’s fries and water bottles and hoodies for so long Daniel’s brain has filed it under normal Max shit, somewhere between says mate weird and touches his neck when nervous.
He means tonight.
Tonight, Max has somehow ended up with Daniel’s fork in his hand, scraping at the last bit of sauce on Daniel’s plate while Daniel keeps talking about a guy he saw walking a cat on a leash outside the restaurant.
“It was a big cat,” Daniel says. “Like, dog-sized. Maybe spiritually a dog.”
Max hums. He’s not really looking at the plate. He’s looking at Daniel like he always does when Daniel is saying things that have no point. Like there might be a point anyway, hidden somewhere under all the bullshit, and Max is patient enough to wait for it.
This is very annoying of him.
Daniel gestures with his wine glass. “I’m just saying, if you’re a cat and you let yourself be walked on a leash, you have to admit you’ve lost some mystique.”
Max smiles, small and crooked. “Maybe the cat likes being close.”
“To the man?”
“Of course cats shouldn't be on leashes anyway, Daniel...but yes.”
Daniel’s mouth closes around the rim of his glass. “Right. Yeah. Emotional support cat.”
Max laughs.
It’s how he knows Max's laughs.
One he barely does anymore with anyone else. It's more in his shoulders first, then his face with straight teeth and crinkly eyes, like the laugh is a private thing he’s decided to let Daniel see. It makes Daniel feel weirdly successful, like he’s won a trophy for being a dickhead.
Max gives Daniel’s fork back and pushes his own plate closer, because there’s still some pasta left on it.
Daniel takes a bite without asking.
Again: normal.
Very normal.
It is also normal that Max’s knee has been pressed against his under the table for most of dinner. The place is small. The tables are cramped.
Daniel does not move.
Max reaches over and turns Daniel’s wine glass by the stem because Daniel keeps fidgeting with it and nearly knocked it over twice.
“Careful,” Max says.
“Yes, Mum.”
Max rolls his eyes, but his fingers stay around the base of the glass for an extra second, right next to Daniel’s hand. Daniel notices this in the same way he notices cars passing outside or the low music from the speakers. As something that is simply true about the room he is in.
Then the waitress comes over with a cake.
It’s small and white and stupidly pretty, with a candle stuck in the top and two spoons balanced on the plate. There’s chocolate writing on it.
Happy Anniversary.
Daniel looks at it. Then at the waitress. Then at Max.
The waitress smiles. “Congratulations!”
There are, Daniel thinks, a few moments in a man’s life where his soul leaves his body to watch from above.
This is one of them.
Because the cake is wrong. Obviously the cake is wrong. The cake belongs to the couple at the next table, the ones who have been holding hands and smiling softly and being so married.
But also.
Also.
Daniel looks down and sees Max’s knee against his. Their plates pushed between them, half-shared. Daniel’s fork on Max’s side of the table. Max’s cap sitting in Daniel’s lap because Max had taken it off earlier and handed it to him without a word. Daniel’s thumb still damp where Max had wiped a drop of wine from it with his napkin, like that was a thing people just did.
Oh.
Oh, fuck.
They look like a couple.
Not in the way Daniel calls half the people he knows babe and lets people think whatever they want because attention is attention and he’s Australian enough to weaponize friendliness.
This is different.
This is Max knowing Daniel doesn’t like the bitter olives but likes the salty ones. This is Daniel ordering two desserts because Max always says he doesn’t want dessert and then eats half. This is knees touching. This is Max’s face going soft when Daniel talks nonsense. This is Daniel being so used to Max’s attention that he has stopped recognizing it as attention.
His chest goes hot and horrible.
“No,” Daniel says.
Max blinks.
The waitress’s smile twitches.
Daniel laughs, because always laugh and everything becomes okay again. “No, sorry. We’re not— That’s not ours. We’re not, um. Together. Like that. We’re not together together. We’re just—”
Max’s face changes.
Only a bit. The crinkly eyes vanish.
Daniel should stop speaking. Daniel has never stopped speaking in his life.
“Friends,” he says, and then because that sounds awful for some reason, adds, “Mates. Old teammates. Pasta associates.”
The woman at the next table says gently, “I think that might be ours.”
“Yep,” Daniel says too fast. “Yes. That makes heaps more sense. Anniversary people. You guys look anniversary.”
The waitress starts apologizing, lifting the cake away, but another waiter appears so quickly it’s like someone summoned him in a panic. He takes one look at Max and goes completely rigid.
Daniel knows that look. The oh shit it’s Max Verstappen look. The I’m going to pretend I don’t know but now I look like I’ve seen God look.
“Mr—” the waiter starts, then visibly swallows. “Sir. I am so sorry. This was entirely our mistake.”
“It’s okay,” Max says.
His voice is flat. It is not okay.
“It’s not okay,” the waiter says, sweating. “Please accept our apologies. Dessert is on the house. Anything you want.”
Daniel almost says, The cake seems taken, which would be funny if his entire life had not just quietly exploded.
Max says, “We don’t need anything.”
“Max,” Daniel says.
Max looks at him, and there it is again. That offended little hurt. Like Daniel denied something Max thought they both knew. Daniel’s gay panic, which had been sprinting around his skull with a fire extinguisher, trips and falls directly into realization.
He kind of loves Max.
“Oh,” Daniel says, very quietly.
Max’s mouth tightens. “What?”
Daniel swallows. “I think I said the wrong thing.”
“You said many things.”
“Yeah.” Daniel tries to laugh, but it comes out thin. “Classic me.”
Max shifts his knee away.
Daniel hates it immediately.
“Don’t,” Daniel says, too quick.
Max freezes.
Daniel reaches under the table like a lunatic and puts his hand on Max’s knee. Warm and terrifying. “Don’t move away.”
Max looks at him for a long second.
“The cake,” Daniel says, because apparently this needs explaining. “The stupid cake saw me before I did.”
Max says nothing, but his knee presses back into Daniel’s hand.
Former Formula 1 driver Daniel Ricciardo walks through gasoline alley Sunday, May 24, 2026, ahead of the 110th running of the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway | 📷 Michael Clubb
You've been a father for over a year now. Which lessons from your parents do you want to pass on to your daughter Lily?
"For me the most important thing is: always be yourself. And I will completely let her decide what she wants or doesn't want to do later. There are a lot of parents who push their kid and want to push them in a certain direction, in sports for example. That's the opposite of what you should do. I think you can introduce a child to certain sports but in the end they have to decide what they want to do.
"Although practising a sport is a good thing generally. It's healthy and keeps you off the streets. You won't do stupid things as easily. Besides that I think it's important that you're sweet to your family. And that sometimes you realise no one will be around forever. And that you're compassionate, especially to the people close to you."
Are there things you find difficult? As a little kid you had a famous father too but that was a very different time, social media-wise and such.
"Absolutely, I think about that too. I don't want her in the limelight now. She will have to decide in the future if that's what she wants. It's also why I don't want her to be in the paddock. First, because she won't remember this anyway in the future but also with regards to privacy. A baby or young child should lead a careless life."
Do you believe in fate? Do you believe destiny, an unstoppable force tying invisible ribbons through every day of every life, exists? Do you believe in souls, meant to be together?
If you do (and if you don't) you're invited to join in Written in the stars, a Max-centric fic fest!
Timeline:
Prompts can be submitted here up to June 20th, and claimed here until August 6th. Submissions are due August 7th, and the collection will be revealed on August 8th.
We'll be holding non-mandatory monthly check-ins over in the GoldenBootsBoy server. If you'd like to, come join us! (if the link doesn't work but you'd like to join, feel free to shoot me a dm!)
Rules and guidelines:
- All works should be Max-centric. There are no other limits on characters or pairings.
- All works should be themed around the concept of destiny and/or of soulmates. You can be as loose ("it was meant to happen") or as classic ("red string of fate") with it as you'd like.
- You are free to write whatever (dead dove, kink, gen...) as long as it's properly tagged
- There's no word limit (minimum or maximum) or chapter limit (as long as you have at least one chapter ready by the deadline)
- You can claim more than one prompt and prompts can be claimed by more than one person
- The free prompt can be claimed if you want to write your own idea!
- NO AI generated fics
If you have any questions, feel free to send and ask here or at @lost-in-fandoms!
(It's my first time organizing a fest like this, so if there's anything not working or unclear, please let me know <3)
jbbartram-illu
jacobvanloon
prguitarman
blakekathryn
izzy806
gummygunk
