prodigy pt2 😭 angst or sad WIP snippet. is this one better.
u guys need to know val follows me on twitter and leaked the name of prodigy2 in this ask originally. and i had to yell at her. anyway for compensation u can have a really long snippet
“You two are adults, I’m sure you can work out whatever caused this,” she whispers, and Daniel doesn’t have the heart to tell her that, truthfully, he doesn’t think they can. This isn’t some childish misunderstanding, it’s not Max accidentally hurting Daniel’s feelings.
Max knows what he said, he knew it hurt Daniel, and then he doubled down on it anyway. He isn’t sure if they can come back from that.
He shrugs against his mum, and she pulls back, holding his face in both of her hands. Daniel hadn’t realised how much older she’s gotten over the years. It almost makes him feel bad for how often he’s away now. He’s thought about retiring so many times—both seriously and as a joke—and maybe when he finally does, he’ll come back to Australia. For a fleeting moment, he wonders if Max would want that, and then he realises Max doesn’t get a say in things like that anymore.
“I don’t think so,” he whispers softly. “Do you remember Nico and Lewis in 2016? How I told you that season ruined their friendship?”
He remembers that all too easily, he remembers telling his mum and her scoffing, not understanding how something like a Championship can ruin a friendship that ran so deep, that was so strong for so many years. His mum hums in agreement, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion as to why he’s bringing that up now, of all days.
“This is worse.” And it pains him to admit it, to put it into perspective like that. Nico and Lewis’s friendship breakdown over the 2016 season was so well documented that it’s still talked about to this day. He wonders if people have began to notice Max and Daniel; the way they don’t hug each after the race anymore, the way they can’t look at each other on the podiums too.
He wonders, in 5 years time when Max is probably still racing and Daniel is long retired, if people will still talk about them the way people talk about Nico and Lewis.