Archive of Our Own ^beta

It all started one day when Kimi was making his way across the Paddock to Mercedes. That was when Max caught the first faint scent curling in the air around the pup, oranges.

Of course, no one else was able to detect it because only an omega can tell before presentation what a pup's second gender will be. And Max kept his newfound knowledge quiet, because half of the fun of presenting was that you didn't know what you'd be. And also because it wasn't a good idea to go spreading that information for anyone to hear, in case it would make alphas eager to stick around close to Kimi to wait for the presentation. Omegas, like Max (and Kimi soon), were rare after all, especially males.

Max himself had been lucky enough to be with Charles when he had presented, and Charles was one of the only alphas in the world who had the willpower to restrain himself to make sure that Max was okay. But Max wouldn't be telling anyone about Kimi, not even Charles, just in case.

Kimi wasn't sure what it was, but recently he had been drawn to Max a lot more that usual. He would subconsciously be searching for Max, something in the back of his brain telling him to find the older driver for comfort and protection.

He didn't understand it, but who was he to go against his instinct?

He found himself with Max more and more, always by the older's side. Some drivers laughed that Kimi had been adopted or was getting tutored in racing by the world champion. Others scoffed, though Kimi didn't know why they did. But it was okay because Max told them off, and then the doubting voices would scatter for a while...

Until the media articles started coming in:

Soon to be Alpha, Kimi Antonelli, has been getting very close to Charles Leclerc's Omega

Is Kimi Antonelli hoping that Verstappen will cheat on Leclerc?

Verstappen's silence on Antonelli's seduction speaks volumes.

Kimi 'Homewrecker' Antonelli gets in the way of Leclerc and Verstappen's relationship

Kimi didn't understand any of the headlines. Soon to be alpha? Was that what he was? How did they know before him? Was that why he had been instinctively getting close with Max? Did half of the drivers on the grid think that Kimi wanted to seduce Max?

Did the whole world now think that? If the comments and death threats on Kimi's Instagram were anything to go by, then yes, the whole world did think that.

Kimi was terrified. He wanted to go find Max, who would hug him and make it all better, but he couldn't because Max had other things to do, and that would reinforce the rumors, and the omega was probably with Charles right now.

Oh no, what would Charles think? Kimi was dead if he ever met the Monegasque alone. Kimi had always thought Charles was cool, especially because the Monegasque had spoken with him in Italian upon their first meeting so that Kimi would be more comfortable. But the young Italian was still always a bit scared to approach the driver. And after this fiasco, any chance of a friendship with Charles had gone out the window.

Maybe Kimi should just avoid Max and everything would blow over? Yeah. That was what Kimi had to do. He would tamp down his instincts and stay away.

A knock on Kimi's hotel door sounded, and he quickly hid under the bed. Were the death threats about to come to fruition? Was someone about to barge in with a knife? Kimi's breathing was ragged and his heart was pounding in his chest as he waited, but eventually realized that no one was coming in, and this hadn't been an attempt on his life... Not yet.

The paddock the next day was all abuzz, with people talking about Kimi's "seduction" of Max. As Max waded through the crowd, he couldn't help but feel annoyed. The media had completely made up all the crap about Kimi being a future alpha, and now Kimi was getting hate for it online and being sent death threats by the dozen from Lestappen shippers.

And to top it all off, Max couldn't find Kimi anywhere. He had tried to knock on Kimi's hotel room door last night, but he had gotten no response. He had been searching for the pup at the paddock all day, but hadn't seen a trace of him.

He really wished the pup would just turn up.

Kimi had been scared to go to the paddock, but he knew he had to.

He hadn't slept all night, sure that more people would come knocking, this time ready to come in and kill him. And now he had to leave the safe confines of his hotel room to go out into the open where anyone might attack without warning. Kimi wasn't sure he'd survive today.  

He got out of his hotel room on shaky legs. He just had to make it to the paddock, and then security might be able to protect him. Unless security wanted him dead too... No Kimi couldn't think like that or he'd be scared of his own shadow.

On the paddock, Kimi pulled up his hood and tried to stay small, avoiding the busy pathways and trying to be low-profile. It would have worked if not for one reporter.

She zeroed in on him like a hawk, and was immediately rushing over with her microphone, eyes sharp and smile hiding a hint of malice. She started crowding him, asking question after question in English that was far too fast for Kimi's panic-addled brain to understand. And then other reporters were coming over, cameras flashing, mics at the ready, questions burning.

Kimi did the only logical thing: he ran. He rounded a few corners to try and throw the reporters off his tail, and ran so fast that his lungs felt like they were on fire and his legs nearly gave out. His body and mind hurt so much that he had tears streaming down his cheeks, but he kept running. Or rather, he would have kept running if not for a roadblock in red stepping in front of his path.

Kimi slammed into Charles Leclerc, sending both of them onto the ground with a thud. Kimi landed directly on top of Charles. He felt bad for crashing into the older, and he was terrified of what the Monegasque might say or do to him, but he was so exhausted that he couldn't move at all, not even to get off of Charles.

He really wanted to get up and keep running, but now that he had stopped, he wouldn't be able to start again. And just to make everything worse, some of the faster reporters were approaching.

Charles was so confused. His plan had been to give Kimi an earful when he saw the younger, and ward him off of Max for good. He thought the media was way overdoing it with the death threats and things, because he hadn't sensed any mal intent from Kimi, and was pretty sure the younger didn't realize why his biology as an alpha pup was drawing him towards the omega. But he wanted to make sure that Kimi knew who Max's alpha was.

He was just about to go to the Mercedes hospitality, when the very pup he was looking for came barreling into him at a speed that was almost faster than humanly possible. Luckily, Charles wasn't hurt when he fell, and he cushioned the pup's fall too, but he became exceedingly worried by Kimi's lack of movement and rapidly heaving chest. The kid was going to hyperventilate at this rate.

Charles had to help the pup, and there was also the issue of approaching reporters, also very out of breath. That's when it clicked: Kimi had been running from the reporters. Charles didn't blame him, the wall of cameras was getting closer and scaring even him, and the Monegasque was well media-trained, unlike the Italian rookie.

As quickly as he could, Charles picked Kimi up bridal style and carried him into the Ferrari hospitality.

Inside Charles found a very concerned Lewis. "Hey, Lewis, I'll buy you dinner if you do me a huge favor, okay? Keep the reporters out, please."

Lewis nodded, but quickly froze. "Hey, man, don't kill Kimi. He didn't mean it-"

"I know he didn't, but the reporters outside would tear him to shreds if they get in here!"

The importance of his task suddenly dawned on Lewis, and he ran outside to subdue the reporters. Charles settled Kimi on the couch in his own driver room, found a paper bag, and had Kimi breathe into it to try and reset his CO2 and get his breathing back to a normal and safe speed. He then left for a moment to find Fred who agreed to go help Lewis with the swarm of paparazzi.

By the time Charles came back from enlisting Fred to help with the media storm, Kimi's breathing was mostly normal, but his appearance wasn't.

The pup's eyes were red and puffy from crying, and he had dark circles that were so pronounced, Charles wondered if the kid had gotten any sleep last night. And Kimi was also curled in on himself and staring up at Charles fearfully, as if terrified that Charles might do something bad to him.

Charles' heart broke and he cooed at the scared pup, all of his anger flooding away. This wasn't the face of someone who had done any of this intentionally, this was a scared kid who had been thrust into a world that was too grown up for him.

Charles sat on the ground next to the couch and played with Kimi's hair soothingly, releasing calming pheromones until the exhausted pup fell asleep. Whatever talking to Charles had planned to give could wait until Kimi wasn't so panicked.

Charles scrolled on his phone while he waited for Kimi to wake up. His brow furrowed every time he saw a headline slandering Kimi, or a picture of Kimi as he ran away in terror from the reporters.

His own scent soured slowly as he saw more and more of these posts on social media that were threatening and blaming Kimi. Soon, his scent was an almost suffocating blanket of old books and almonds, the only reprieve being the faint scent of orange wafting from somewhere nearby. Charles didn't know where it came from, but he was glad for it.

Kimi woke up to pain curling in his stomach and a heavy scent smothering him. He did the instinctual thing: he whined.

He quickly slapped a hand over his mouth, though, when he realized that Charles was sitting on the ground next to him, looking at the pup as if seeing him for the first time. Suddenly, Charles was scrambling up from the ground and backing away, eyes wide, covering his nose with his shirt. Kimi looked around, trying to find what had spooked Charles, but couldn't figure it out.

"Kimi, you need to stay in here, okay? I've got to go outside to make a call, but please, you have to stay in this room," Charles was fumbling for the door handle, and quickly excused himself.

Kimi didn't know what was happening, but Charles had said to stay and Kimi was still tired. If only his tummy would stop hurting so badly and he could go back to sleep. Clutching a pillow, Kimi tried not to whimper every time the pain got bad, but was failing.

The pup could just barely make out the words that were said on the other side of the door, where Charles was: something about oranges and misunderstandings. He just wanted to sleep.

Charles left the room quickly, and leaned against the wall outside his driver room, breathing fresh air that didn't carry the scent of oranges. Oranges were an omega's scent. Kimi's scent was oranges. Kimi was an omega and the media had made a giant deal over nothing. God, Charles was so glad he hadn't chewed Kimi out.

Charles pulled out his phone and called Max. The omega hadn't picked up the phone on the first call, so Charles called again.

This time, Max answered on the first ring. "Hey, sorry, I'm in a meeting. Is it urgent?"

"Yes. Kimi presented in my driver room. He's an omega and he's clearly paranoid and I don't know what to do," Charles confessed. He hoped he didn't sound as desperate as he felt.

"Okay, Charles, I'm on my way, and then we'll both stay with Kimi until his heat passes, okay?"

"But what if his scent triggers my rut?" Charles worried.

"It won't. He's unknowingly marked you and I as his dam and sire, so his heat shouldn't affect us in that way." Max's voice sounded slightly winded, and it was clear that he was hurrying over to Ferrari hospitality. "The reason he was sticking close to me was because his instincts were telling him to find a dam. Anyways, I'm almost there."

Charles rushed out of the hospitality to meet Max, but instead found a wall of flashing lights and reporters who had camped out. Most of the security personnel on the paddock were outside of the Ferrari hospitality, holding back the wall, and it looked like Fred and Lewis had both retired their posts once they had gotten these reinforcements.

Max shoved his way through the crowd, and Charles grabbed the omega's hand and smiled apologetically to the security guards.

"That's a lot of cameras," Max remarked. "but we've got bigger problems here. Is Kimi in your driver room?"

Charles nodded and both drivers made their way over. Opening the door, Charles was hit by a strong waft of oranges.

Max quickly pushed Charles inside and closed the door behind them, locking it and shoving a blanket under the crack in the door. "For protection," the Dutchman said and then went about making sure the windows were locked and the curtains drawn.

Max cursed that he hadn't told Charles about Kimi's second gender, because even Charles had thought that Kimi was trying to get in the middle of their relationship, when Kimi was actually just trying have guidance from a Dam and Sire.

Kimi was curled into an even tighter ball than before Charles had left, and was now clutching a pillow tight. Max sunk down onto the couch next to the presenting pup and pulled Kimi against his chest, purring and letting out soothing pheromones, looking up at Charles expectantly so that the Monegasque would do the same.

Soon, Kimi was relaxing, and his cramps were easing. His dam and sire were holding him gently and their scents lulled him to sleep once more.

Kimi spent most of his heat catching up on sleep. It was a non-sexual heat since his dam and sire were with him, and it only lasted a few days. The main problem was that they weren't able to leave Charles' driver room for the whole time because the paparazzi never left, and trying to bring an omega in heat through a sea of overcurious people wasn't a good idea at all.

Finally, after 4 days, Kimi's heat finally broke, and Max helped the newly-presented omega to shower before they made their way outside. Immediately as the trio left the hospitality, the bored reporters were reinvigorated, and the security guards had to redouble their efforts to keep the mob back.

"Go away!" Max shouted, pulling Kimi behind him protectively. "There is no drama, and we are not taking questions."

One bold reporter called out though, "Charles! How do you feel about that conniving little scoundrel's attempts on your omega?"

Charles had been trying not to get heated, but hearing someone say such offensive words about Kimi broke his resolve. "Don't ever speak like that about my pup. Kimi would never do such a thing, and it is disgusting that all of you whipped up a media storm over misinformation, and have all but chased and barricaded him into the hospitality while he was presenting. I will give you one warning: Leave."

All of the reporters began to disperse quickly after that. Charles scoffed, he wouldn't rest until every last one of them had been fined, fired, and banned from the paddock.

Kimi was shaking, hidden behind Max and with his hands balled up in his dam's shirt in fear.

Charles cooed. "It's okay now, pup. It's all going to be okay."

The story of Kimi's presentation spread like wildfire, and suddenly, everyone who had sent death threats to Kimi at first were squealing about how cute he was as Lestappen's pup. That just goes to show you the duality of some people. Max and Charles didn't care about the change in attitude though, and immediately began to take legal action against the reporters and those who had threatened Kimi.

Kimi didn't care much anymore. The media storm was over and all those mean people were getting what they deserved. Over time, everyone who had hurt Kimi was brought to justice, and the media began to forget about the whole incident.

Kimi was happier than he ever had been, because he had his Dam and Sire with him, and they seemed intent on spoiling their new pup with gifts and cuddles until the day they died.