Chapter Text
It was a sunny and beautiful day for Carlos, he just got back to Monaco after finishing his studies and work in Spain. Took him two years to finish his master degree, and four years of work in Spain that absolutely feels like hell for him to finally decided to go back to Monaco, since all of his families moved there already anyway. Honestly, he doesn’t have so much plan, but clearly he didn’t want to go back doing finance stuff like he did back in Spain. He’s just going to enjoy his life for now, maybe took some time off before his dad force him to go back to the office.
Carlos’ phone buzzez in his jeans, his hand went to grab it, it’s Alex calling, Alex Albon, “Hello Alex, don’t worry I’m already on the parki─”
He hears Alex’s sigh from the other line, “That’s the thing Carlos, I think I won’t be able to make it to the pool.”
“Why, what happened?”
“It’s Lily, i think she’s going into labor, we’re at the hospital right now.”
“What? Okay i’ll go with you then.”
Without waiting for Alex’s answer, Carlos hang up the call and walk back to his car. There’s no way Carlos won’t be there for Alex, he already missed Alex and Lily’s wedding three years ago. At least he got to be able to witness the day Alex finally become a father.
The drive to hospital was smooth, Carlos parked his car nearest the emergency room. He then jogged lightly to the delivery room, finding Alex sitting in front of it, he never seen Alex looks that stressed before, he must’ve been nervous.
“Mate, is everything alright?” Carlos gave him a fist bump, it was the first time they met each other after six years.
“Yeah, i hope so, they’re doing some checks right now.”
“I hope everything is alright then, sorry i missed your wedding.” Carlos finally sat next to Alex.
“It’s okay, i mean, if i were you i also want to avoid going back to Monaco.” Alex giggled, earning a chuckle from Carlos, “Why are you back though? Healed enough?”
“I miss Monaco, not gonna lie.”
“Monaco or─”
“Excuse me Mr. Albon, Mrs. Albon has request you to go inside.” Carlos and Alex turns their head to the voice, a nurse called, asking him to go inside. Carlos can see Alex’s nervous expression came back to the brit's face. Without saying anything, the younger man got up and went inside the room.
Carlos sighs, his stomach are growling, he got up and decided to go to the cafeteria. The man sighs even harder when he saw the cafeteria packed with a bunch of people, leaving barely any seats to sit. He walks to one of the stalls to order some sandwich and smoothies.
“That’ll be 16 euro.” Said the lady, handing him a plastic bag with his sandwich and smoothies inside.
Carlos tapped his credit card to the machine before taking the bag, his eyes wanders around, finally found an empty table at the corner of the room, he hurriedly walked to the empty spot─
Or not. The spot was indeed not empty, there’s a little kid sitting at one of the chairs. Busy doing something that looks like a homework.
“Hi buddy, can i join?” Carlos put on his best, widest smile.
His voice makes the kids head turns, he eyed him from up and down before finally looks at him in the eye, “Sure.”
Carlos unwraps his sandwich, taking a small bite before asking, “Are you here alone? Who’s your name?”
The kid pays no attention, doesn’t even looks up from his homework, he answers coldly, “My father said i can’t talk to a stranger, especially when he’s not around.”
“Too bad you don’t wanna be friends with me, I’m really good at math.” Carlos answers cheekily after seeing that the kid in front of him is currently doing a math homework.
The kid didn’t answer so Carlos continues to eat his sandwich. He laughs a little when he sees the kid in front of him are struggling, thinking hard whether he should ask the man in front of him or not.
“Are you sure you don’t wanna be friends with me?” Carlos ask once again.
The boy sighs, “I’m Oliver and I’m not here alone, I’m with my grandmother but she’s currently waiting for her prescriptions.” He held out his hands, “And who are you?”
“Carlos, Carlos Sainz.” He shakes the boy’s hands, “So which one do you need help with?” He asked.
“Can you help me with this problem?” Oliver hand his homework to Carlos, he points one of the number with his pencil.
Carlos giggles when he sees that the problem Oliver is struggling to answer was a simple substraction. But his smile fades when he sees Oliver’s name at the top of the paper.
Oliver Leclerc. Leclerc?
Carlos knows at least three Leclercs that lives in Monaco and could possibly be Oliver’s dad. Now the question is, which Leclerc?
“So are you gonna help me or not?” Oliver’s question snapped him back to reality.
“Of course I will.” Said Carlos, then he proceeds to teach Oliver and help the kid to finish his homework.
20 questions later and the homework is finally done, Oliver claps in excitement, “Thank you, but I think I have to go now.”
“Do you want me to take you to your grandmother?” Carlos offers, but honestly he just wanna know if Oliver’s family is the Leclercs that he knew or not.
“No, she would freak out if she knew I'm speaking to a stranger. Nice to know you Uncle Carlos.”
“Okay take care, tell your father I said hi.” He said before his brain could think further, “Or don’t, don’t tell him you meet me.”
Oliver looks at him weird before he shrugs his shoulder, “Okay bye.” He waves then walk his way outside the cafeteria.
***
Few days have passed, Alex and Lily are now already back in their home, safe and sound with their beautiful baby girl. Carlos promised Alex that he’ll give them a present to congratulate their first born, and even though Alex have said no, but Carlos being Carlos, he just wants the best for his best friend’s daughter.
And because of that reason, Carlos is here now at a place called Motherland, where apparently, is a heaven for anyone who are looking for mother, kids, and newborn stuff. But since Carlos are neither of those categories, he stood in the middle of the isle, thinking so hard because he really doesn’t know what to buy.
He’s now walking slowly while seeing gift recommendations on his phone, completely ignoring what’s in front of him. And that’s exactly when someone crashes into him, a kid, probably only as tall as his elbows. The kid fell because, obviously, Carlos is bigger than him.
“Ouch.” The kid hides his face in his palms, in pain because he just hits Carlos’ abdomen.
Carlos get down on his knees, trying to match his height to the kid, “Hey, are you okay?”
Recognizing his voice, the kid puts down his hands, Carlos can see a small beads of tears in the corner of the kids eyes, “Oh, it’s you again.”
“Oh, Oliver? What are you doing here?” Carlos said, “Anything hurt?”
Oliver shakes his head, “I’m with my father.”
Carlos’ heart sink to his stomach, his father, Oliver is with his Father, “Where’s your father then?” He asks.
“I don’t know, I’m running away from him because he’s making me trying out a bunch of clothes.” Oliver sulks, Carlos giggles, the older man stands up and ruffles Oliver’s hair.
“What if he’s looking for you? He might be worried now.”
Before Oliver can answer Carlos’ words, both of the males heard a sound from behind Carlos’ back, “Ollie! Here you are, I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”
That voice. That familiar voice makes Carlos’ heart sank to his stomach. He’s slowly turning his head to the source of the noise, completely ignoring Oliver who’s now hiding his face in Carlos’ stomach to avoid his father.
And it seems like, Carlos is not the only one who’s stunned by this incident. Because right in front of him, like four meters away from Carlos, Charles stood there. Charles’ big blue eyes widen for like, five seconds, before he’s clearing his throat, trying to get his voice to reach his mouth.
“Carlos Sainz, long time no see.” Charles is the one who starts the conversation first.
Carlos… Carlos… Oh how Carlos always love the way his name came out of Charles’ mouth.
“Charles Leclerc, long time no see indeed.”
“Papa knows Uncle Carlos?” Both adults are now staring at Oliver who’s currently staring at his Papa, but still hugging Carlos’ waist.
Charles clears his throat again, “Yes, we were friends.”
No, we’re exes. Carlos thought, but of course he didn’t say it out loud.
“So not friends anymore?” Oliver asks.
“Still a friend of course, but it’s been a long time since the last time we see each other. Right Carlos?” Charles asks, he smiles a bit, that beautiful smile.
“Yeah that’s correct.” Carlos ruffles Oliver’s hair.
“Come on Ollie, say bye to Uncle Carlos, we have to go now.” Charles held out both of his arms.
Carlos saw the younger man pouts a bit when Oliver shakes his head, burying his face in Carlos’ stomach again.
“Ollie… Come on, I’ll buy you pasta I promise.” Charles sighs.
“But can Uncle Carlos come?” Oliver is now looking at Charles with a huge puppy eyes.
Carlos and Charles looked at each other, “If you don’t want to, that’s fine.” Charles said.
“Would it be okay for you, if I come?”
“Of course.”
And now here they are, in one of the most famous pasta place in Monte Carlo, they sit in the corner of the restaurant, where they used to sit years ago. Ollie are now somewhere in the kids playground part of the restaurant, leaving Carlos together with Charles, just the two of them.
“So you’re the uncle that Ollie is telling me about, huh?” Charles asks, starting a conversation.
Carlos smiles, “What did he said about me?”
“That you helped him do his homework.” Charles replied, “Thank you, Carlos. I was so busy last week and didn’t have enough time to help him finish his homework.”
Carlos chuckles, “It was nothing, I’m happy to help. So, do you still work with your architecture firm?”
Charles looked down, his gaze looks sad but his lips forms a thin smile, he shakes his head, “No, I’m no longer an architect.”
“No? Why? It’s always been your dream to become an architect.”
“Well, I have Ollie now. Being an architect took so much of my time, I want to spend a lot of time with Ollie, wanna see him grow.” Charles took a sip of his champagne.
“So, what did you do now, if I may know?”
“I teach piano lessons, mostly for children.”
Carlos only nods, his gaze shifted from Charles face to his hands. Still the same like it was before, only this time, there’s a silver band on his ring finger.
“I miss you Charles.” The word blurted out of Carlos’ mouth before he even realized, “I’m sorry.”
“What are you apologizing for?” Charles asks.
“I don’t know? For saying that I missed you?” Carlos answers, “Or for hoping that you feel the same.”
“You don’t have to be sorry Carlos, it was my fault, I’m the one who’s asking for a break up.”
Right, back then, it was Charles who asks for a break up. Happened just a month after Carlos went to Spain to pursue his master degree. Charles just disappear for two weeks, ignoring every texts, every calls, every emails that Carlos send him. Then came back two weeks later, with a short text saying “Let’s break up Carlos” .
“What did I do Charles? You must’ve had your reasons, but I never knew what did I do. Did I do something wrong?”
Back then, Carlos have tried to ask why Charles is breaking up with him. But the younger man never replied, and even blocks his social media for some period of time. So Carlos thought, everything was really over.
“You did nothing wrong, I just don’t want to bother you.”
“That’s bullshit Charles.” Carlos blurted out, “You know you never bother me, ever.”
“I cheated on you Carlos.”
That is an answer that Carlos would never think of, even in a million years.
“What?”
“We broke up six years ago, and Ollie is now six years old. Where did you think I got him?” Charles lets out a big sigh.
“That can’t be happening, why Charles? We were so in love.” Carlos knows he sounds desperate and pathetic now, asking stuff like this to a married man, but he doesn’t give a damn, he needed to know.
“I’m sorry, I need to go. Thank you for today Carlos.” With that, Charles grabs his purse and went to the playground to pick up Oliver before they’re heading home.
***
“What? He cheated on you?” Alex sits up from his sleeping position, too shock to hear the news.
Carlos is currently at The Albon’s house, delivering his gift for the newborn, a car seat, which makes Lily screams in happiness.
“Yeah, that’s what he told me.” Carlos shrugs his shoulders, “Also I think he’s married too.”
“What makes you think that?” Carlos and Alex are now staring at Lily who asked the question.
“I mean, he wore a ring.”
“I don’t think he’s married.” Lily said.
“Why is that babe?” Alex asks.
“Six years ago, me and Charles are in the same golf club. No one hears any news about him being married. He disappears for almost two years before finally coming back to play golf, not as frequent as before though.”
“Maybe he just didn’t invite any of you guys?” Carlos said.
“Even with that reason, Monaco is a small country. Everyone knows everyone, and no one said anything. They can’t be that good at keeping secrets right?” Lily sips his orange juice.
“Lily’s right, I met Pierre a few times, he also didn’t say anything.” Alex adds.
Pierre, Charles’ childhood friend who used to hate Carlos, especially when Pierre found out that Carlos has a plan to pursue master degree in Spain.
“I don’t know, i might be wrong about him being married.” Carlos answers as he massages his forehead.
“You still love him?” Alex asks.
“It’s hard not to, or maybe I’m just still curious about his reasons.” Carlos shrugs his shoulder, “I thought I’m over him already, but when we met, it’s hard not to fall in love all over again.”
"Just tell us if you need anything mate, we're happy to help." Lily offers with a small smile, Alex follows with a nod.
"Yeah, thanks guys. Maybe I need to rest my mind a bit."
***