#sebmickchal

for backstory: their powers, seb imprisoning michael causing mick to attack, mick’s apology

and now for the mick tries to prove himself to them part:

When all is said and done, when the fires from Mick and Charles’ combined efforts finally die down, Sebastian knows. The crackling in his body dulls to an easy hum. He thinks he should feel bereft. It’s hard to, when Mick and Charles walk out alive—alive. Sebastian would’ve given up a lot more for that.

Mick he tells first. It’s easy, well. Easier. After Michael, after they both peeled back every layer of their outer shells and presented themselves to each other, raw and bloody and ugly, there are now no secrets between them. Mick takes his hands and kisses every one of his knuckles. Takes his time with it too, like he’s trying to press healing into Sebastian’s skin.

“How much more will I take from you?” Mick sounds wounded, like the loss is his own.  

However much more you want, though he knows it’s not what Mick needs to hear at the moment. “I think I’ll enjoy farming,” he says instead, and it nudges Mick into a watery laugh. “You can come visit.”

With Charles, it’s harder.

Sebastian doesn’t know how to bring it up, so it surfaces only when it must, like a boil that needs lancing, as these things always do.

Charles is lining out the battle plan. Sebastian wants to beam at him with pride, even though he’s trying to pre-empt the inevitable fallout about to take place at the table. Six months ago Charles would’ve waited for the Ferrari strategists. Now, he says jump, and they all do.

“Sebastian will take the rear.”

Mick startles, looks up. It takes him two seconds to figure it out; Mick’s always been so clever. Ah. You didn’t tell Charles.

For a painful, suspended moment, Sebastian considers pushing his deadline. He could claim tiredness, maybe even sickness. Charles would be all over him in a heartbeat, would ground him without thinking twice. In his weakest moments, he always thinks of Michael. Sebastian ran from his problems and looked away from a fading supernova once. He can’t ever again.

“I can’t come on this mission,” he says carefully.

Charles tips his head, puzzled. “Why not?”

“Because,” he takes a breath, “I no longer have my powers.”

It’s quiet for a long, long time.

Charles says, voice low like a simmer, “How long?”

Sebastian scrubs at his eyes. “Since the fight.”

“Since you shielded us.” Charles is quick to comprehend. Sebastian can only hope he is quick to forgive. If he aims a fireball at Sebastian now, Sebastian will have nothing to defend with.

Mick clears his throat. “I’ll get us some water.”

Wait, Sebastian wants to say, because he doesn’t think he can stomach Charles staring at him like that, like it’s a betrayal. But Mick quells him with a deft look; You made this bed. Sebastian shrinks back into his seat like a child.

As soon as Mick’s gone, Charles says, “You told him.”

Sebastian closes his eyes briefly. “Yes.”

Fire in many ways is controlled by emotion. The ones who live the biggest, laugh the loudest, and love (and hurt) the hardest, always carry flame in their hands. Sebastian used to think it was a failing. Now he loves them all the more for it. Charles’ entire body is an open nerve of feeling. His eyes are shiny. The air in the room sears like an accusation, hotter than the surface of the sun. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Sebastian considers his words. “I trained you.”

“Yes,” Charles says tightly, hurt drawn out like a wire. “So?”

“So I got used to you looking at me like. Like I was—”

Oh, Charles’ eyes are growing wider. He needs to get this out now or he’d never again be able to.

“Like I was something,” Sebastian finishes.

Charles’ jaw drops. “You thought,” he says slowly, as if speaking to a child, and since when did both Mick and him eclipse Sebastian so greatly, that’s something he’ll have to rejoice at later, “that I would stop looking at you like that. If you lost your powers?”

Sebastian swallows. He looks away. It’s answer enough.

“I’m so angry at you I can’t even speak,” Charles breathes. “I’m so. You’re so. You’re so fucking stupid, Seb. You’re so stupid. I’m so angry, and you’re so stupid.”

“Why are you crying,” Sebastian says dumbly, but before he can even react, Charles is kneeling before him on one knee, and taking both his hands.

In a flash, Sebastian realizes why the three of them will circle each other in an infinite loop until the end of time, powers or no. Sebastian will always look to them as his redemption, his legacy. They will always look to him as their king.

“You could lose everything and I would still see you the same,” Charles says fiercely, sounding as if he were scorching a vow into the earth.

“Charles,” Sebastian is crying too. “Please, get up.”

“Not until you tell me you understand.”

“I understand,” Sebastian croaks. He replays the fight in his head and what he sacrificed for Mick and Charles, and comes to the conclusion he will do so again and again and again. “Now get up.”

Charles does. “Don’t think I’ve forgiven you. I’m still so angry I could spit fire.”

Mick and Charles sending pics to seb constantly and he’s so confused and doesn’t know what to do until he just has a minor aneurysm about the whole thing and tells them both (separately) no.

And then Charles and Mick in their sadness start hooking up. At some point they both point out that each other still obviously has feelings for seb and one might, drunk, they send him a pic of the two of the together and say that they’d be open to a third.

And Seb just goes oh. Oh. I didn’t think about that. And then has another minor mental breakdown. And then they finallyyyy get together (and coincidentally solves all the teammate/team principal drama and they win the goddamn constructors title).

anon are you... trying to end me this good morn...

seb having an aneurysm every time they send him something because those are his boys and they look so good but he's the team principal and he's just like okay, okay, i gotta put a stop to this now.

and then charles and mick being morose and wounded and turning to each other and then YOUR BRAIN ANON. they decide to send seb a pic! charles is like wait, wait, we gotta get the lighting right, this ain't no GOT finale, and mick's like you're weird, and charles is like you're weird, and mick's like we can't look like we're trying too hard, it's gotta be casual so we don't trigger his moral compass, and charles is like what was that about being weird, just send him the goddamn photo--

anon you mean this picture? you have a much bigger brain than i do because i looked at that photo and all i saw was titty—anyway!

yes you're absolutely right ferrari makes all their supes dress up in the flashiest, tightest suits there are. charles has a cape of fire or something. when they realize there's a massive fanbase for it, they make mick's uniform practically see-through. sebastian walks right into a glass door the first time he sees it. charles pouts about it, and stomps off to the costume designer to ask for a transparent mesh shirt to go along with his cape. he won't be outdone by mickolas!

No no athy wait but BUT him telling mick & charles that he kicks in his sleep and they will have to keep their distance if they dont want to wake up in bruises but what he doesnt expect is for them to be like *shrug* bruises it is?? And then they squeeze him so tight from both sides he almost desintegrates but also goes all limp like a cat held by its scruff 🥺 because being held is what he has been missing all this time 🥺🥺🥺

Sorry im evidently going through it today but also let me have this🍋

noooooo lemonnnnnnnnnn i'm going to be in my feelings about this image

if bruises are the price i will have to pay to hold you, then bruises i shall receive

limp like a cat held by its scruff is pretty much how he should be held all the time and how charles and mick will hold him all the time now that they've discovered it to be seb's weakness