Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Yuki’s breath picked up as Daniel approached him looking so unbelievably shocked, “Yuki? I’m sorry he hit you- I didn’t expect that…” Daniel spluttered out bending down to Yuki’s level where he had just dropped from moments previous.

Daniel inspected the area around Yuki’s face seeing the red from not only the tears that poured down but the mark forming from the slap the fingerprints still left there.

“Away-! Away!” Yuki whined pushing Daniel back, he was so scared right now; not only had he raced badly not scoring any points but the entire being shouted at thing doesn’t normally fly well with Yuki the panic settling in as the pain started to sting further.

Daniel panicked, Yuki reminded him of a kid that had just fallen over in the playground and was huddled scared of anyone noticing, like he wasn’t allowed to feel hurt. The guilt ran through Daniel as he placed a hand on Yuki’s knee and tried to cup the young man’s face to look further at the slap mark.

Daniel noticed how Yuki flinched away and it panged at his heart heavily, Yuki was literally shaking, crying, he was a mess.

Daniel placed both his hands on Yuki’s cheeks, “Take some deep breaths for me buddy, okay?” Yuki followed Daniel’s voice in an attempt to reground himself out of this panic.

The world felt so unbelievably big and he felt so unbelievably small. He hated it but Pierre would always say it was okay to feel small but Daniel didn’t know Pierre said that.

Yuki wanted Pierre so badly.

Daniel didn’t know anything about Yuki in this time of need, he wanted Pierre. Or even Charles would do right now, yes it was clear he would favourite the French man but Charles always equally as good, but no one could beat his da- best friend.

“Want Pierre.” Yuki mumbled out silently his tears still flowing despite his breath slowing down. Daniel raised an eyebrow wondering why the younger suddenly wanted his ex-teammate.

“Or Charlie- Either… Please.” Yuki looked Daniel in the eyes for the first time ever the begging was clearly behind them he needed his da- friends. he needed his friends.

“Okay- hold on.” Daniel muttered grabbing his phone, he did have Pierre’s number so quickly he found the contact and clicked the call button hoping he was still at the track.

“Pierre? Hello? Yes I’ve got Yuki here… It’s a long story…” Yuki heard the muffles of Pierre’s voice down the phone and this sent him over the edge. He spent so long gripping onto this adult headspace and now it felt like just hearing his caregivers voice it was far too much.

“Daddy!” Yuki yelled out to the phone using grabby hands towards the older man’s hand that was holding the phone while Daniel just raised both eyebrows this time in shock.

Quickly he placed the phone on speaker, as per Pierre’s request hearing the younger’s muffled shout in the background.

“Hi buddy…” Pierre started softly making Yuki immediately tear up at his daddy’s voice, he couldn’t bear hearing him without his presence being in the room, he needed him.

“Daddy-“ Yuki said sadly crying further hugging into himself sadly, he so badly wanted to feel the hug from his daddy.

“I’m on my way I’m so close lil man, me and Charlie we are both coming.” Daniel heard Charles swearing in french the background of the call probably at the fact Yuki had somehow slipped at the track.

Yuki continued to cry as Daniel helplessly held the phone witnessing his teammate call another driver ‘daddy’? was this some weird kink?

It didn’t seem sexual as Yuki was so upset but he still was so confused. Before he could think further though the door swung open revealing a very worried Pierre and Charles.

Pierre immediately allowed Yuki to scurry up and run into his arms crashing with a lot of tears streaming down his face. Pierre held him close rocking him back and forth whispering something in his ear that Daniel couldn’t quite hear.

Charles on the other hand pulled Daniel by his sleeve out the room into the hallway. “What did you do to him.” Charles seethed gritting his teeth to hold back the emotions that were still clear in his voice.

“Nothing- Well not a lot- it was my coach-“ Charles gripped the older man’s shirt aggressively despite Charles being shorter the man was incredibly angry.

“I asked what you did to him. What happened for him to be like this.” Charles asked still holding back not just flooring the man. Daniel shook the man off trying to regain his composure.

“It got heated after the race- I called him a few bad things… I expected him to fight back though! He just stood and took it!” Daniel scratched the back of his head; “My coach got too close and slapped him and he just crumbled…”

-=+=-
[ BACK IN THE ROOM ]

“It’s okay baby..” Pierre mumbled pulling Yuki back slightly to look at his face, a bruise staring to form on his cheek, “What happened?” Pierre said shocked holding the younger’s face softly stroking his cheek.

“Coach- Daniel- hurt.” Yuki spoke between panicked breaths. Pierre held Yuki’s hands placing the boy between his legs and bending down to make eye contact with him.

“Hey- Let’s do some breathing baby okay? Deep breathes.” Pierre set an example and Yuki followed, both of them breathing together. Yuki took Pierre’s hands in his slowing his breathing down quite drastically the pure presence of his caregiver giving him the comfort he so utterly needed at this time.

After Yuki had calmed down now only streaks of were the tears once were showing. “Now, can you explain to me what happened? I know your race wasn’t the best but you never react this badly.” Pierre was honestly so lost at how upset Yuki was but the mark on his face gave him some sort of idea.

“After race-“ Yuki let out a breath he forgot he was holding, “Daniel was so mad at Yuki, calling Yuki mean names.” Yuki looked down at his feet sadly as Pierre felt anger fill through his body.

Yuki continued; “Then Daniel coach hit Yuki for not apologising.” Yuki felt the tears start to well up at the memory of the sudden pain that he felt not expecting the sudden blow to his face.

Pierre shook his head emotions kicking in and wanting to make sure this man never touched his little again, but Yuki was right in front of him and he couldn’t show this to him or he’d be scared. So he contained himself knowing Charles was in the hallway dealing with Daniel.

Yuki pressed himself further into Pierre’s chest now only quiet tears falling as he sniffled, Pierre held him close not trusting his voice not to call the man who hit Yuki some very special words that no little should ever be in the presence of.

“Yuki do something wrong?” Yuki tilted his head slightly as he pulled back from his caregiver, wondering if he had done something to deserve this treatment. “Not at all, things like this happen to every driver, miscommunication is a big thing that teams need to work on.” Pierre mumbled knowing Yuki would only understand a couple of words.

Yuki just kept the same confused expression, his daddy was using very big words and he couldn’t seem to understand any of them! Pierre let out a small exhale, smiling at the younger boy who smiled back seeing his daddy smile.

“You did so well asking for me though.” Pierre praised thinking about how brave Yuki must have been to use big boy words in a situation where he felt so unbelievably small. “You’re so so so smart!” Pierre praised continuing to pat the top of Yuki’s head, Yuki leaning into the touch gratefully.

“Yuki smart!” He said proudly nodding his head, Pierre nodded back, “Yes Yuki you’re super smart!” Pierre laughed as Yuki held up a peace sign at the compliment almost as a ‘look at me’ face.

-=+=-
[ BACK OUTSIDE ]

Charles bit his lip angrily, he couldn’t beat another driver up that would look so unbelievably bad if Daniel showed up to his next PR event with a black eye. Even though he so badly wanted to just floor the taller Aussie right then and there he held back, for Yuki’s sake.

“I do not understand your mentality.” Charles seethed walking back and forth in the corridor, Daniel tried to speak but Charles just held out his finger indicating he wasn’t finished and Daniel just sighed. “You just let your coach do that?”

“I didn’t tell him to!” Daniel exasperated by the accusations coming flying towards him, Charles rolled his eyes dramatically. “You still watched him do it and just allowed him to leave the situation!” Charles was more than pissed now.

“Not only that you decided to throw names at the kid like he’s an idiot! It was a miss communication everyone has fucking seen it Riccardo!” Charles ran his fingers through his hair fighting the urge to just punch the man in the face.

Daniel bit the side of his cheek, he does admit that it was uncalled for to say that stuff to someone who’s that much younger than you but still, he didn’t expect for Yuki to react like… That?

“You’re so unbelievably lucky I don’t fight people in front of Yuki.” Charles mumbled taking a deep breath, “Your going to apologise to him.” Daniel’s eyes widened, yes deep in his mind he knew he was wrong for the names he called Yuki but apologise to him?

“Don’t give me that face, you blatantly belittled him and made him slip! That takes a whole fucking lot you know? He’s crashed cars before and hasn’t slipped that quickly!” Charles spat out, Daniel just looked more confused; slipped? He didn’t see Yuki fall over.

“What? He didn’t fall over- What is this ‘slipping’ you’re talking about Charles.” Daniel sighed finally having enough of being talked at, “I don’t understand why Yuki reacted like that, yes I’m sorry for saying that stuff but- What is even going on!” Daniel looked exhausted at this entire situation and Charles felt a tiny bit of sympathy.

Daniel actually had no clue, and he probably didn’t even know what age regression was let alone that Yuki did it. “Yuki is something called an Age regressor.” Charles sighed out defeated by the entire situation, surprisingly getting into a heated argument after a race isn’t best for the adrenaline.

Daniel just nodded, still confused. “It’s not a sexual thing before you read into the ‘d word.’ Charles cringed at himself even saying ‘d word’ it seemed wrong for him to say in mentioning it in a sexual context because of hearing little Yuki call him and Pierre it so often.

Daniel looked relieved at this, “To cope with stress, and to calm down he goes into what many call ‘little space, it’s where his mind regresses into a younger headspace; for Yuki it’s around the age of 2-3 but for others it can be younger or older.” Charles continued to explain to the best of his ability.

“So obviously when you shouted at him, it scared the little side of him that was probably already wanting to come out due to-“

“Due to the stress of the race.” Daniel finished feeling very very guilty. Yuki would have already been stressed after that race, not scoring points and having a poor race in general and then being screamed at and slapped by someone twice his size; while in the headspace of a 2 year old? Yeah Daniel felt bad.

Daniel already saw Yuki as a kid, the image of Yuki crying for Pierre came flooding back in his mind, he had caused that. “I’m so sorry.” Daniel spluttered out holding his head in his hands, he thought he was pretty good with his emotions he didn’t know why he let it get the best of him especially at Yuki, his own teammate.

“It’s not me you should be apologising to.” Charles huffed out signalling to the door that was slowly opening revealing a very pissed, but controlled Pierre holding Yuki’s hand, who now had a light bruise forming on the side of his face and the tear streaks practically scarred into him.

Daniel bit his lip as he crouched down slightly being over a head taller than Yuki it did really feel like he was speaking to a kid, he saw the way Yuki whimpered and tried to hide behind Pierre in fear. Daniel didn’t miss the way Pierre almost pulled Yuki back.

“I’m sorry for shouting at you.” Daniel mumbled softly placing his hands on his knees despite the overwhelming need to hug the kid. “It was irresponsible of me to call you all of that, I will have a long talk with my coach as well due to what happened.” Yuki nodded gently still holding onto Pierre’s hand like a lifeline.

“It’s okay.” Yuki smiled softly wincing at the pain in his cheek once again, Daniel cringed realising that this technically was his doing, guilty by association to the entire thing. If he didn’t start having a go at Yuki this would have never happened.

“No, it’s not okay. I am older than you, more experienced and you showed more maturity in that situation than I did and you were practically in the headspace of a two year old.” Daniel motioned his hands around the corridor dramatically.

“I’m so unbelievably sorry for this, I never get this mad I don’t even understand why I decided to let myself get this far.” Daniel looked down at his feet not being able to reach the younger’s eyes he was that defeated in the situation.

“Daniel, it’s okay. Everyone was under stress and team orders got mixed up. I promise you, you’ve done nothing that bad, your coach- ehhh… But he’s not you.” Yuki’s mind temporarily slipped out of little space, allowing himself to calm Daniel down a bit more.

Yuki had this defensive state where if he needed to he could usually slip out for a moment, or at least half slip into a sort of adult mindset. This was heavily uncomfortable and gave him intense migraines but sometimes it was needed.

Daniel reached in to his pockets, he had something in here from earlier that he got given by one of the grid kids that had lined up with them for the national anthem, pulling it out of his pocket after digging around for a bit he held the item proudly with a smile in front of Yuki’s face.

A lollipop, all kids liked lollipops right? Daniel saw Pierre’s face cringe slightly and panicked, but the overjoyed look on Yuki’s face changed Daniel’s thoughts immediately. Yuki reached out grabbing the lollipop happily, clearly back into headspace.

“CANDY!” Yuki proudly showed his lollipop to Pierre who smiled still cringing slightly, Yuki x sugar? Great. Charles laughed at Pierre’s face and ruffled Yuki’s hair softly.

“Looks like your daddy is going to have a long night, huh.” Charles said squishing Yuki’s cheeks in his hand, Yuki giggled and nodded attempting to unwrap the wrapper around the candy.

Daniel held his hand out to help which Yuki smiled and let the man unwrap his lollipop, squealing when it was given back to him immediately popping in into his mouth. “What do you say to Daniel?” Charles reminded gesturing out with his hands.

Yuki tilted his head before speaking, “Thank you!” Yuki hugged into Daniel, nearly knocking him over in the process as he was still bent down to Yuki’s height, Daniel laughed and steadied himself. “It’s okay kiddo, hopefully it can help your face feel better.”

Yuki nodded, “Candy make everything better.” Pierre shook his head causing both Daniel and Charles to laugh knowing damn well Yuki would be bouncing off the walls at 11PM tonight wanting to do everything but go to sleep at a reasonable time.

But that’s what daddies are for.

Chapter Text

Daniel had made a quick exit after this, realising it was not his place to stay and also having to find his coach and have a very angry conversation with him about the situation that transpired half an hour before.

This left Yuki, who was staring at the ceiling while rocking back on forth on his heels, and Charles and Pierre who both were just relieved that Yuki had stopped crying.

“You wanna go back to the hotel with me and Charlie?” Pierre said brushing the hair out of Yuki’s face, Yuki nodded still sucking on the lollipop Daniel had given him as an apology. Pierre nodded reaching out to take Yuki’s hand.

Yuki took Pierre’s hand but was so distracted by the lollipop, so it turned him into the slowest walker ever. It took the trio around 10 minutes to do a walk that could probably take 4 if you walked fast, and 2 if you were Max Verstappen.

Despite this the older two bit their tongues knowing Yuki had already had a bad day and not wanting to upset him more, Charles just pointed at random pictures on the wall to try and keep Pierre entertained as he was dragged behind by a tiny Yuki and his lollipop.

After what felt like an hours walk they eventually got to Pierre’s car, he decided to rent out a car whenever he was somewhere he couldn’t bring his own car. It makes it a lot easier for Yuki not to have to pretend to be big for a taxi journey.

Yuki slowly got into the backseat of the car, pottering around the side of the car for a moment more mesmerised by the fact it was still dark outside than anything else.

“You ready baby?” Pierre said starting the engine, Yuki nodded smiling behind his lollipop giggling as Pierre waved at him through the mirrors. Charles took his seat in the passenger seat always being the designated passenger princess on rides like these.

Despite the everlasting argument between the two of who was the more ‘masculine’ one in the relationship, it always ended up with Charles taking the role of passenger princess even though if you asked him he would say otherwise.

The ride to the hotel was short, they could have easily walked it on any other day that Yuki didn’t feel like taking 500 hours to walk 5 metres. Today was one of them nights where Yuki was in a mind of his own; completely detached from the reality of the situation.

Charles did have to stop Yuki from kicking the back of his seat around 5 times, which made the younger one just giggle once again, the two men in the front just enjoying the fact Yuki was no longer crying his eyes out I guess.

Pierre passed his keys to the valet before helping Yuki out the car, Charles just got out himself trying to find the keycard to his or Pierre’s hotel room.

Eventually after turning out his pockets on the walk into the hotel he found Pierre’s keycard; how he found Pierre’s and not his, he doesn’t know but he realises quickly that Yuki and Pierre were not next to him.

Panicking internally he turns around to see Pierre dragging Yuki along, Yuki far more interested in the rocks on the floor leading up to the path, Yuki whined shaking his hand from Pierre’s wanting to pick up one of the rocks but not wanting to let go of his lollipop either.

Pierre sighed letting go of Yuki’s hand placing his hands on his hips staring back at Charles rolling his eyes fondly, Yuki didn’t take notice though just picking up one of the rocks smiling at it before practically shoving it into Pierre’s face.

Pierre held back a noise of discomfort before bringing back Yuki’s wrist so he could see the rock more clearly. “Wow!” He said with a higher toned voice, “You wanna bring that one with you?” Pierre asked gently seeing Yuki’s face light up at the idea.

Yuki nodded quickly skipping off to go show Charles his new pet rock, Pierre just laughed fondly following after the now quick Yuki.

“Charlie look!” Yuki said smiling showing Charles his rock, Charles made a surprised expression as Pierre caught up with the two all of them walking towards the elevator as Yuki babbled on about what he was going to call his new rock friend.

“So much for buying him hundreds of euros worth of toys huh.” Pierre mumbled under his breath before pressing the button to their floor in the elevator. Charles held back a laugh shoving Pierre slightly as a way to contain his laughter.

Yuki not hearing the conversation just continued talking about his new rock friend, happy as ever.

The elevator ride was quick with Yuki, energy rising despite the time at night, happily talking about how he was going to introduce his rock friend to all his stuffies once he gets to the hotel room. Then he went to on about how he was going to play cars, colour pictures, I guess the night wasn’t over as quick as they hoped.

Charles kept the little entertained by adding on to each of his statements with shocked faces and different expressions of shock and whimsy. Pierre on the other hand was more worried about what time Yuki was going to end up sleeping tonight.

Charles opened the hotel room door with the keycard, he was still missing his own keycard but he would probably just crash here as Yuki normally begs (and will cry) if you don’t stay with him overnight.

The three of them all came into the hotel room, Pierre picking his phone out his of pocket and scrolling through some delivery apps for food choices before it gets too late.

Yuki on the other hand was overly excited to see his little suitcase that rested on Pierre’s floor, Pierre had grabbed it from his hotel room from this morning; expecting Yuki to want to come over after the race. Not in the way this evening went; but expecting it non the less.

Yuki started to unzip the suitcase before either of the older men could take charge and make sure Yuki didn’t just tip everything out, but at last it was too late.

“Yuki-“ Charles called out before he saw the entire of Yuki’s very thought out toy collection pour on the ground, “Mr.Rock needs to meet all my toys!” Yuki said happily kneeling on the ground beginning to organise the mess he had just created to create a welcoming ceremony for his new pet rock.

Pierre pinched the bridge of his nose, “I’m going to go order food before I go insane.” He muttered walking into the other room of the hotel, Charles just laughed and went over to sit on the couch in the living room keeping an eye on Yuki from a far.

“Look!” Yuki said smiling wider by the second, he was sat across the room from Charles on the floor with two race cars in his hands.

“It’s like you Charlie!” Yuki said happily showing Charles the Ferrari car proudly with a grin that could match no other. By now all the introductions to Mr.Rock had been covered.

Charles gasped dramatically, “Is that really me?” He asked comically and Yuki giggled nodding going back to his made up car game.

Charles got up from the couch and walked over to the little, crouching down next to him to see what type of mysterious game he was playing this time, Yuki’s mind was a creative hive-mind after all.

“Who’s this one?” Charles said holding up the Alpine toy car, “Is it…. You?” Charles made a fake confused face as Yuki giggled.

“You silly!” Yuki laughed pointing at the door to the in the other room; “That’s daddies car!” Yuki said proudly taking the car from Charles.

Charles made an ‘Oooh’ sound as he picked up a few more of the cars and started to mess around with the cars with Yuki.

Yuki had literally turned the living room upside down with Charles, taking out every individual toy, stuffed animal and colouring book and crayons they had packed away in the suitcase. Charles was always good cop, so subsequently Pierre had to be bad cop.

Before they knew it Pierre was back, walking into the room his phone being slipped back into his pocket. “Food should be up in the next 30 minutes; what are we playing Yuki bear?” Pierre looked shocked at all the cars on the floor.

Charles looked up at Pierre’s grimacing face realising they’d have to clean that all up once Yuki finally crashed for the night, at least he was seeming to have fun after such a horrible evening?

“We playing cars daddy, see got you and Charlie!” Yuki said happily smiling at the older man. Pierre couldn’t keep a foul face as he saw his little having so much fun despite the mess.

“Wow! Where’s Yuki?” Pierre asked crouching down with the other two to join in on the fun. Yuki scanned over the cars in front of him humming slightly.

“Yuki!” The little said happily picking up his car showing it to his caregivers, the two made an excited gasp as they all joined in on playing with the toy cars.

Yuki began arranging the grid of all the cars, pointing at each one individually saying which place they are, “Charlie be P4 qualifying!” Yuki said proudly nodding as he placed the car down.

Pierre scoffed, “Should be more around P18 I recon.” Charles hit Pierre in the side causing the man to hunch over slightly laughing at the clear pout on Charles’ face.

Yuki either didn’t hear, or didn’t bother to listen to the chaos behind him carrying on putting his cars in the qualifying positions. Even when he was off the track the little always would talk about racing, always wanting to get back on the track.

“Daddy bad at qualifying so he get P11.” Yuki giggled placing himself a few paces ahead of Pierre meaning he got into Q3 and Pierre clearly didn’t. Charles let out an ungodly laughter at this nearly toppling over in the process causing Pierre to just give him an evil look.

“At least let daddy be in front of the other Alpine.” Pierre said hoping for Yuki to agree with him, Yuki hummed for a moment before speaking his thoughts; “But in real qualifying he beat you.”

Charles continued to wheeze on the floor, knowing he’d be getting an earful from Pierre about little Yuki’s grid placements for the next month at least.

But before they could finish though the doorbell went and Pierre shot up to grab the food trying to get away from more teasing from Charles about being put behind Ocon.

Charles heard Pierre mumble some swear words in french and shot him an evil look knowing that Yuki could have heard it and the little, despite not knowing french, definitely knew the swear words of the language.

Pierre just shrugged a smile teetering on his face as he went to open the door to get the food they ordered in.

This was going to be a long night.