#established lestappen

As far as Max remembered, Charles had left with no luggage except for his backpack that morning. And he hadn’t mentioned he was going grocery shopping today either. Had he maybe forgotten something in the car?

But as Max waited for the more distant sounds of car doors clapping, through the open kitchen window, he grew worried.

Was he missing something?

It wasn’t so much the fact that Charles had left the flat immediately after arriving, but more the lack of a response all together. Normally he would at least get a verbal acknowledgement, but today he hadn’t heard Charles say anything, not even to the cats, that were sure to have swarmed him as soon as he opened the door.

He waited a bit longer, to see if Charles maybe really just went to the car or the mailbox. But when after 10 minutes there was still no sign of the Monegasque, Max became even more worried.

As he looked at the pots and pans on the stove, the set kitchen table and half plated food, he began to think that he was indeed missing something.

They hadn’t talked about any elaborate plans for their first wedding anniversary, because, despite the winter break, both had known they’d need to work that day. But Max had spontaneously decided to just be that guy and reschedule half his meetings, so he could at least prepare a special dinner for the two of them. Seeing as it was meant to be a surprise, Max also hadn’t mentioned it to Charles. He didn’t expect it would be a problem. Surely his husband must’ve noticed the coat on the rag and the light under the kitchen door.

But apparently he hadn’t.

Because the only thing Max found when he walked through the flat into the hallway, was the hastily dropped backpack in the corner.

Still confused, Max turned around and began looking for his phone. He had planned everything to the minute and if Charles stayed gone for any longer, most of the food would be cold.

Predictably his phone had gotten lost in the kerfuffle that was cooking dinner and soon he had turned over every single item in the kitchen twice, without having found it.

Max was sure it had to be in the kitchen, because he had used it as a timer.

But when had that been? And hadn't he gone to the bedroom to change after that?

Just as he entered the bedroom and saw his phone lying right in the middle of the bed - taunting him - he heard the front door open for the third time in the last hour.

Max made sure not to actually run out of the bedroom, but in case Charles decided to leave again he needed to be quick this time.

It appeared that he didn’t need to worry though, because he found his husband in the hall, slowly taking of his shoes while holding what looked to be a king-sized bouquet of roses in all different colours.

So that’s why he had left.

There was a flower shop at the end of the street, where they often got some thing or other for special occasions or sometimes just because. Charles loved to give Max flowers because he liked that each one had a specific meaning that didn’t need words to convey. ‘You just know by looking at them.’ , he always said. Max was not as well versed in flower language as Charles, but he enjoyed having something colourful and pretty in the flat. It made it feel more like home.

Charles was wearing his headphones and kept nodding to the music, which explained his lack of response to Max’s call earlier. It also explained why - when he looked up and saw Max coming towards him - his eyes got wide, he jumped and let out a high-pitched shriek. In his surprise he lost his grip on the bouquet, but managed to catch it just in time.

“Oh my god Max, you almost scared me to death!”, he said, taking off his headphones and trying to catch his breath. “What are you already doing here I thought you would come home after me?”

Charles’ voice was still slightly high pitched.

Max laughed.

"It’s nice to see you to, love. I’m sorry I scared you." , he apologized, not even trying to suppress his grin. Charles stepped a bit closer to hug and kiss him hello, Max melting into his embrace.

"I took half the day off to surprise you with dinner. I thought you would notice I was here.”, Max explained. “And I did call to you when you got home the first time.’’ He raised one eyebrow at Charles who just looked at him confused, which made Max's grin get even wider.

“But”, he continued, “you keep insisting on listening to your music on maximum volume. So I probably could’ve used a megaphone and you wouldn’t have heard me.” Understanding bloomed in Charles’ eyes and he had the decency to look sheepish.

Max laughed again. "I tried to plan everything so we could eat right when you got here. But you sped out of the flat even faster than out the pit lane, so now it’s probably mostly cold.", he said, his eyes wandering to the bouquet still in Charles' hand. "Although I see you got something to make up for that?", Max smiled at the his husband and the Monegasque grinned back.

Then he cringed a little.

“Oh I’m sorry about earlier, I was just convinced you would come back later and so I didn’t even spare a glance in any direction.", Charles said apologetically. He put his free arm around Max’s waist and continued. "I just wanted to get the flowers sorted, so you could see them on the counter right when you got home.”

That made Max’s smile grow impossibly wider.

“Seems like we got similar ideas.’, Max said, “But as always I seem to be just a tad bit faster.”

He grinned into the kiss Charles gave him for his arrogance.

“As always you are a prick. But you made me dinner, so you are forgiven.” Charles replied, his eyes full of mirth and his words without bite. Then his look went soft and he put his other arm, still holding the flowers, around Max’s waist to pull them closer, foreheads touching.

“Happy anniversary, chéri.”, Charles whispered.

Max put his arms around Charles’ neck.

‘Happy anniversary.’, he smiled at his husband and pulled him in for a kiss.

Even after one year Max still couldn’t believe he got to call this man, this impossibly perfect man his husband of all things. It was intoxicating to think that only one year ago, they had stood at the altar, surrounded by flowers and their closest friends and family. And today, they got to celebrate all over again.

Max broke the kiss and giggled at the thought, that he was surrounded by flowers once again. Charles looked at him confused but Max just wiggled out of his embrace, took his free hand and led him to the kitchen. Charles’ eyes growing wide at the scene in front of them.

Max had tried to think of everything. Had tried to make it as romantic as possible. He put candles and rose petals on the table, got their best plates out and had prepared some of their favourite dishes, in addition to some they’d had at their wedding.

Charles tugged at Max’s hand and pulled him into another heart-meltingly soft kiss. "Thank you for this", he said, cupping Max’s face with one hand.

"Everything for you, Schatje", Max replied with a fond smile. "Thank you for the flowers. They are beautiful.” Charles smiled and kissed him again.

They revelled in each others touch and it was another few minutes until they broke apart again. The candles were half burned down and most of the food cold at this point, but neither of them cared as they sat down and started to recount their days to each other – Max listening intently to everything that had happened at Charles’ countless meetings and Charles laughing loudly at Max describing the look on Christian’s face when he had rescheduled most of his day on account of ‘husbandly duties’.

For all the worries he’d had about planning, Max thought to himself that night - lying in bed, Charles tightly snuggled to his side and flowers on the night stand - it had all worked out perfectly in the end.

Sure his planning hadn't actually worked out all the way, but what was a bit of cold food, when he had all he needed right there beside him.

Charles always brought chaos into his order.

Charles didn’t go so far as to begin celebrating his favourite holiday on the first of September, when the supermarkets would kickoff selling Christmas related products, but he did start shopping for what he seemed to await the whole year.

The week before the first advent.

For most of that week, Max made sure to be as far away from the flat as possible. Because in addition to being obsessed with the holiday in general, Charles was particularly obsessive when it came to the perfect arrangement of all things Christmas in their home. Everything had to be in the right place and light up at the exact same time. When all of it was set up and done though, Max always helped him tidy up the packaging and store it all for the end of the season. Then they usually fell onto the couch, from where Charles could admire his work and point out all the little details to Max.

Max had never really gotten the hype, if he was honest. Sure it was pleasant to have a few things to make the flat feel cozy and warm during the winter – he could appreciate a nice string light or a well decorated Christmas tree. Still, holidays, particularly Christmas, seemed so oversold to him. Throughout his life, growing up, dealing with marketing and sponsorships for every available holiday, Max had simply lost the enthusiasm for it. He could still appreciate the cheer, but didn’t understand why some people got so overly excited, they had to theme their whole lifes around it.

But Max understood Charles.

He understood how much it meant to him, to have an occasion dedicated to family and celebrating the love between all of them. To get to have down-time and just revel in being near all the people he sees so little of the rest of the year.

Max also understood that Charles just really loved decorating for it.

So he endured the perfectionism, the timers blocking every available outlet and the themed kitchen tongs. There was nothing he would not do for Charles.

This was were the problems started though.

Because Charles knew. He knew and at least during the holidays he seemed to take shameless advantage of it. Roping Max into every Christmas-related activity he could think of.

One of these activities also included another thing Max normally didn’t really care for. Karaoke.

Every year around the third advent, Charles gathered all their available friends and family for a Christmas-themed karaoke night. To celebrate what was, to Charles, the absolute best thing about that time of the year. Christmas Music.

He always booked the room a year in advance and would demand of everyone to be free, because it’s a year from now, what else could you have already planned?

And that’s how Max found himself, sitting in a private karaoke bar, with about as much decorations as their own living room, surrounded by people who where important to them, trying unsuccessfully to calm himself down.

He could not fuck this up. This was important.

Because Max was on a mission.

He knew how much Charles loved Christmas, how much he loved Christmas-Karaoke, how much he loved their families and friends. And Max also hoped he knew how much Charles loved him. Enough to say yes to marrying him.

He had been planning this for a while now. The thought of proposing to his boyfriend on his favourite holiday had been bumbling around Max’s mind for even longer. Yet he had never had the right idea on how to go about it.

So seeing that after being together for 4 years, Max did not want to delay it any further, in July of that year he had caved and told his friends. His first mistake. Because involving Lando and Daniel could never end in a way that was helpful to anyone.

Their initial reaction had of course been one of support. They were happy for the two of them. But Max should have seen the chaos that followed coming.

He had told them what he had come up with so far. Which was not really anything at all, aside from the vague idea, that it had to be around Christmas and needed to have something to do with music. Lando and Daniel had been understandably sceptical and immediately started taking over the planning.

It had all gone downhill from there.

After hours of discussions about proposal plans that seemed to have nothing to do with neither Christmas, music nor Max, they had come to the conclusion that the only way the whole thing would work, was if they were there. So no private moment just for the two of them to enjoy. No, it had to be something big, something that would make an impression. Not just on Charles but hopefully on the whole world.

A flash mob.

And even worse, a flash mob to Mistletoe by Justin Bieber.

Max didn’t know what he found more horrible about that idea – the song, the fact that he was supposed to dance, or the mass of other people that would be doing it with him. He was self-aware enough to know that any kind of dancing from him before a proposal would not end in the result he’d like. But Lando and Daniel had stopped listening to him at that point. All entranced in their amazing idea and already working on choreography.

Fuck.

But apparently being backed into a corner by his overenthusiastic friends, seemed to get his brain working. While they tried to decide on which racing circuit to rent, Max thought about all the things he did not like about their idea and from there tried to find out what he thought would work.

Christmas and music. But no Justin Bieber.

And their families. Because even though Max shuddered at the image of a hundred strangers dancing to a teenagers Christmas pop song, he rather liked the idea of sharing the moment with people. People he actually knew and cared about. So maybe their friends could come too.

But organizing a special gathering would be hard to pull off in secret. And bringing it up to Charles directly would probably only raise suspicions. They were spending the actual holiday only with Charles’ family in Monaco. And Max’s mum and sister were heading to a tropical island on Christmas Eve to mix it up a little. Their annual karaoke meet-up would be the last time they’d all see each other.

The karaoke meet-up.

It seemed to have everything, happening close enough to Christmas for Charles to be in the right mood, involving music, all the relevant people and most importantly, no dancing. At least not the mass choreographed kind.

So Max had finally settled on an occasion, but was still coming up a bit short on the actual execution. He resigned himself to letting his two friends have their fun, thinking of a million ways to embarrass him in front of his boyfriend and the world. However he would need to cut them off at an appropriate time, so it didn’t get out of hand. In the meantime, Max could definitely use some of their plan to his advantage though.

Daniel had tasked him with writing the proposal speech, which was nice considering he was the one doing the actual proposing, but it also presented another problem.

He didn’t know what to say.

Or rather he knew what he wanted to convey, what he felt for Charles and what he wanted him to know, but Max could not, for the life of him, find words that would express that.

“Just say what’s in your heart.”, had been Daniel’s advice, which did nothing to loosen the knot that seemed to have tied up the pipeline between Max’s heart and his head.

Ultimately it was Lando who had the idea that did just that.

“You could always just quote something.”, he had shrugged while scrolling through his phone to find a suitable dance group to hire.

Max, who had been prepared to be as dismissive of the idea as he had been of all the dancers he’d been shown so far, had paused and taken a second to think about it. Sure, quoting would take away from the originality of his speech, but it would still be as genuine. He could even quote someone Charles admired, so it would be doubly heartfelt.

With this new plan in mind, Max started to look through all the books he knew Charles liked and that had romance in them. There weren’t too many but none of them seemed to really fit their situation.

Again Lando came to the rescue. Even if it was not how he thought he did.

After giving up on trying to convince Max to hire professional dancers for the proposal-flash-mob-that-was-definitely-happening, Lando got the idea that Max could also just sing the song himself. That way he didn’t have to dance but could still be the one to lead the whole thing.

(Apparently they did listen to Max repeatedly telling them he hated dancing, yet chose not to acknowledge his rejection of the overall idea.)

Still, Max could’ve hit himself. His whole plan revolved around them being at a karaoke bar, but he didn’t think of just finding a song to quote? And there were so many opportunities. Christmas songs were littered with cheesy love declarations and if something didn’t feel completely right, he could just try to rewrite a bit. At least it wouldn’t be a whole speech.

So that settled it. He would find a song to sing to Charles and convey the love and dedication he had for his boyfriend, without making a complete fool of himself.

Or so he thought.

Because yes, in theory, that sounded like a bullet-proof plan to him. In reality Max had to get up on that stage alone and sing - actually sing - a song that would hopefully not make Charles say no to his question.

Max was so fucked.

He tried calming himself once again by getting up for another drink. He was a Formula 1 driver, for fucks sake. Why was this so hard?

It didn’t help that he hadn’t told anyone he would be doing this. Not even Lando and Daniel.

Max looked around. He could see the two of them sitting on one end of the couch, snickering at each other. They got some weird looks from Pierre and Carlos sitting next to them, clearly not following what was happening. It was probably nothing good anyway. Charles was currently on stage with his mum, singing a strangely not-really-weirder-than-normal version of ‘Baby it’s cold outside’, which was a feat considering that it was already a pretty weird song to begin with.

In any case it could not get weirder than Daniel and Lando’s rendition of ‘Santa Baby’ they had all witnessed an hour ago. Max had had the strong urge to cover his sister’s eyes, because whatever that was, it was not something he wanted her to have to sit through. Charles had apparently not been as strong as him, because when Max had looked over during a particularly disturbing part (involving a lot more thrusts and voice lilting than ever necessary) his boyfriend had been trying to shield Arthur from the sight, Lorenzo laughing hysterically next to him.

That had fortunately been the last time his two friends had been allowed to sing together. Every time they had made to get up after, someone else had managed to get one of them to agree to sing something harmless with them.

So al things considered, the evening was going great. Max had even gotten up on stage himself - although not alone. Never alone.

It had become a small tradition, that Charles and Max would each choose a song for them to sing together. That way, they both had some element of surprise to their performance. This year Charles had chosen ‘Let it Snow’, traditional yet romantic, while Max had gone for something a little more up to date. He kind of felt bad for Lando and Daniel, seeing as the grand plan they were working on, would never see the light of day, so he had chosen ‘Mistletoe’. It was worth it just for the look on everyone’s faces when the opening began playing, but had been surprisingly fun as well.

However now he did not feel as confident as he had then.

So as Charles and his mum finished their song and everyone applauded, Max got even more nervous. He knew this was it. The moment. The opportunity to go up there and just. Do it.

Somehow his body had gotten the message before his brain did, because by some miracle Max ended up on the stage, in front of the computer, typing in the song he was going to sing.

He was going to do it.

In his haze, Max had not noticed that, while he climbed up the small steps, the room had fallen eerily silent. Everyone was sitting on the couch expectantly looking at the stage. He only realized that all the attention was on him, when he turned around.

And froze.

Max looked at the crowd. Took in his mother, his sister, Charles’ mum and brothers, all with a slight look of confusion in their eyes. He decidedly did not look at Daniel and Lando. And then his eyes fell on Charles and his nervousness evaporated.

Because Charles just smiled at him.

It wasn’t a knowing smile. He definitely had no idea what was going to happen. But it was a reassuring one. The one that always made Max feel ready to face any and all challenges thrown his way. That made everyone else in the room disappear. So without breaking eye contact, he smiled back and pressed play.

The opening melodies of ‘Perfect Christmas’ by S Club 7 started playing. The background singers soft ‘do-do-do’ filling the room. Max took up the microphone.

“Hey everyone.”, he greeted, waving a little awkwardly. “You’re probably wondering what the hell I am doing up here. And alone at that. I’d just like to take the opportunity to say something.” A pause. “And also sing.” Multiple people chuckled. Charles was still looking expectantly at him.

“Charles.”, Max began again and understanding dawned in his boyfriends widening eyes. “I have thought a lot about what I want to say up here. What I want to say to you. And you know me, I’m not particularly good with words.” Max rubbed his neck and his boyfriend chuckled. “But I love you and I want this to be perfect for you. So Lando suggested I could just...borrow someone else's.” Max’s eyes flitted to his friend, who gave him a smile and a wink. “So that’s what I’m gonna try to do now.”, he continued, “Not every part of this song works, so I’m gonna try to just...riff it? But in the end I hope you’ll know what I’m trying to say.”

With his last words the second chorus hit and Max tried to make his voice sound as even as possible as he sang, however crookedly: “The perfect ending to a wonderful year. Would be to celebrate the good times with you here. 'Cause I know for sure, I never wanted anything more. “

He tried a little shuffle from one side to another. Charles’ eyes following his every move.

“The greatest gift that there could be. Wrapped underneath my Christmas tree. Would be the same my whole life through. I'd spend the perfect Christmas with you. Though the winter seems so long. My faith in love has kept me strong. So if I had a wish come true. I'd spend the perfect Christmas with you.” At the last words he took the ring box out of his pocket, got down on one knee and opened it.

“Charles Leclerc, will you marry me?”, he asked, voice wavering just the tiniest bit.

But his worries were unfounded, because Charles, who had already leapt from his place on the couch when Max got the box out, now practically ran to the stage. His eyes were welling up with tears. When he got to Max, standing on eye level with him kneeling on the platform, he threw his arms around Max’s neck while giving him an enthusiastic “Yes! Yes! Oh god yes!”

The whole room erupted into applause, but Max could only concentrate on Charles in front of him, his fiancé. Slipping the ring onto Charles’ finger, then his hands cupping Max’s cheeks and their lips connecting in the most wonderful kiss they had ever shared, Max was so relieved. Relieved he had done it, but also relieved Charles had said yes. He’d had no real doubt he wouldn’t but there was always a sliver of a chance.

They broke apart, resting their foreheads together and looking deeply into each others eyes. “I love you, cheri.”, Charles whispered. “I love you too, Schatje.”, Max whispered back. “And I’ll never stop.” Charles huffed a wet laugh at that. “Me neither. I promise.”, he said. They smiled at each other for a second longer, before being pulled apart and into the embraces of their friends and family.

After a lot of bone-crushing hugs from their mothers and siblings, Max came face to face with his two immensely disappointed flash-mob-proposal planners. He could tell they were going for the full guilt trip, but Max could also see the genuine excitement in Lando’s eyes and the way Daniel’s lips would barely stay in the frown he was trying to put on. After just blankly staring at each other for a few seconds all three of them burst into laughter. Then Max got a hug from both of them as well.

“Mate why didn’t you say anything sooner? We would’ve totally helped you.” Daniel said. Lando just rolled his eyes. “I think you know exactly why he didn’t ask us again. We went a bit overboard didn’t we?”, he asked, looking a bit sheepish. Max just laughed again. “It’s fine, you did help me a lot. So thank you.”, he said and hoped they knew how much he meant it. “But let’s just shelf the flash-mob idea for one of your proposals.” All three of them grinned at each other.

The evening didn’t end there, but Max’s performance remained the last thing to happen on the stage. No one wanted to follow that. So they sat and talked, simply enjoyed each others company. Just like Christmas was supposed to be.

While Charles, as always, seemed to entertain the whole party, Max sat back and let himself revel in the fuzzy feelings he found himself full of. He didn’t think he had ever enjoyed something Christmas-related this much. But as so often before, Charles had somehow found a way to bring Max out of his shell and get him excited about something he had lost faith in a long time ago.

Looking at Charles now, enthusiastically talking about an encounter with a childhood friend he’d had at the grocery store last week, Max couldn’t help but smile. Charles was his fiancé. His fiancé. The man he was going to marry. How did he get so lucky?

Then another thought struck him.