Have you ever thought about doing a hockey au with f1 drivers? like I know Valtteri, Lance, and Kvyat can somewhat play hockey
i didn't know there are drivers that can play! although that doesn't surprise me now that i think about it considering they're from big hockey countries
there's a lestappen au that i'll maybe write one day where charles and max are both FOA picks and each struggling with that in their own way. i def think that the mcjesus-il predestinato parallels are compelling to explore from charles' side of the story too. also, natemack reminded me eerily of max when i first got into hockey and i still stand by it. it's fascinating to me how golden boy narratives repeat themselves in basically every sport...
imagine max and charles coming up through juniors together, their careers inexpicably intertwined and constantly pitted against each other. the inchident was probably some sort of borderline illegal check charles laid on max and "nothing, just an inchident on the ice" becomes just as popular a meme. they're drafted as back-to-back first overalls, both going to shit teams and handed the reins to them too early in hopes that they can drag their dying franchises back to the top.
and max succeeds, he cracks the code and wins a cup, while charles struggles and drowns and his team can't ever seem to get their shit together. they end up at the same training camp one summer because of a mutual friend and sort of maybe hit it off? and then covid happens and the season's canceled and max has nowhere to go so charles offers his place, because it's supposed to be temporary, but then they're stuck in forced proximity because the pandemic is much worse than they'd anticipated.
max looks over one night when they're watching shitty television and has his "oh" moment. he doesn't hesitate and just plants one on charles, who's left reeling but more than a little interested. and then they fall into something easy, something good, that they carefully don't talk about until the day that the playoff bubble is announced and max is supposed to leave. he goes but charles kisses him at the door and there's one of charles' sweatshirts in his suitcase and when his team is knocked out he goes right back to charles, and max tells him that he loves him
they have so much going against them, charles' worries about his career and the way that max has already achieved what he's still desperately chasing, max's issues with commitment after his childhood, the fact that they're hockey players in love with each other, but they figure it out, mostly because they're both too stubborn to give up on something this good.
they tell the people that matter—their families, their agents, their teams—and go about their lives, except now max has signed up for pinterest and has a private board named "bruiloft" (wedding in dutch) and charles has an extra key on his keychain.
idk just. something something max “wears a wag jacket in private” verstappen vs charles "lets max fuck him over the stanley cup (while carefully avoiding touching it)" leclerc something something.