White & Red

Rory’s POV

The morning was like any Disney princess morning. The birds were singing and the smell of flowers slid into Aurora’s room like a spring breeze. If she could freeze the moment and take a picture she would be unhappy, as the rest of the senses would be ignored, overlooked. She wanted to remember it all, to feel like that every morning. Basically to feel luxurious and fancy without even opening her eyes.

Then all of a sudden there was a weight dropped to her side. Slightly opening her eyes, Rory met a couple of hazel ones.

“Bonjourno” smiled Mauro getting comfy over one of the many pillows surrounding the girl. Aurora turned herself around, giving her back to Mauro and trying to go back to sleep. “You have a photoshoot, Rory”

“It’s at 10” she argued

“It’s 9:13”

“Damn it,” groaned the blonde and stood up stretching her arms over her head and heading towards the bathroom. “Thanks” she yawned and closed the door after her. She showered as fast as she could and jumped out of the shower wrapped in a towel. Mauro was still laying in her bed scrolling through his phone. He didn’t even look at Rory, his eyes remained on his screen. What a gentleman, Rory thought and fished for her clothes. “So why exactly did you wake up before I did?”

Mauro shrugged his eyes locked to the screen. “Honestly, I was hungry and woke up”

Aurora sniffed the air, “Did you cook anything?”

“Nah. But I did make a pot of coffee” he smiled proud of himself, “I imagine they are going to feed us at the Silverlane hospitality”

“Us?”

“Yeah, us. I am your friend slash bodyguard slash manager,” explained the brunet as he stood up from the bed, “At least that’s what Yori believes”

The blonde narrowed her eyes at him and shook her head slightly, “And who am I to break Yori Tsuchida’s heart?”

“Exactly,” agreed Mauro pointing at her with his phone, “Now, finish getting dressed. I’ll call for a cab.”

“We don’t need a cab, we’ll just walk out of the lobby and be at the circuit.”

Once at the paddock both Mauro and Rory had an Silverlane accessory. Mauro wore the typical polo meanwhile Rory checked the box by wearing a cap. Within the small backpack that Mauro hung over his shoulders were a toothbrush, a hairbrush, Rory’s makeup bag for emergencies, two bottles of water and three batteries with two different cables for either of the phones the Mexicans had with them.

“Morning,” smiled Rory as an engineer nodded his head at her. The Alpha motor home wasn’t as far as the Williams’s, thank God. Aurora wore a pair of nike air force carefully matching her shorts and t-shirt. It was a warm day, not like the ones any of them were used to but tolerable, however if they stopped tolerating, Mauro’s magic backpack also hid two hoodies.

Mauro opened the door for Aurora who thanked him and walked in. He remained close behind Rory, and the girl was eyeing the place non-stop. If she had to guess tOUR should be waiting for her here.

“Aurora!” Both Aurora and Mauro jumped before turning around to find Tour, the team principal being followed by the drivers. “Good morning.”

“Morning” she said, hesitating whether to hug him or not, she opted for not hugging. Sometimes she wondered if people found her weird because of that. “It’s good to see you again”

“I am surprised he’s here” spoke Jean patting Mauro on the back

“Ha. Ha” Mauro rolled his eyes, “I’ll take you to Mexico, see how you manage there.”

Tour clapped his hands and sighed, “Let’s get started!”

Rory stood beside Jean, she was surprised that the guy was significantly taller than her, however he was nothing compared to Mauro. Now that guy was huge. She placed a hand over his shoulder and leaned closer to him. Rory knew for a fact that it wasn’t one of those photoshoots, so she kept the right amount of distance. Then it was just Yori and Jean, or just Aurora. However in between photos the guys laughed which made Rory laugh.

Sal had personally called Mauro to ask him for favors, so in other words for candid pictures of the shoot and in general, all for Aurora’s curriculum and social media. And for the look of it Maura had taken it seriously. He stood behind the photographer and recorded bits and pieces. A look of concentration on his face.

It melted Rory’s heart to see Mauro, a friend, whom she had not seen in a long time so invested in helping her. The simple fact that he had accepted the trip and offered to pay for the hotel and not just a decent hotel but a huge-ass hotel, a suite. A tender smile was drawn over her rose lps as she made eye contact with him.

“You look great,” he mouthed with a smile

Mauro’s POV

“We need a change of clothes,” were Mauro’s first words after they finished the shoot with the guys in Silverlane, Rory turned to him questioningly, “I mean the hoodies.”

Rory knit her brows, “But I think I can still manage” extending her hand before her.

Mauro smacked his forehead and sighed a bit too loud, “You are clueless really,” he stopped in his tracks and started pulling out the hoodies. “We are going to see the big boys.”

“We don’t have access to the Argent garage,” mused Rory folding her arms over her chest as she waited for Mauro, “Plus I left my jacket back at the suite”

The brunet gave her a quick scan from head to toe, he might have taken a second too long looking at the caramel color of Aurora’s legs before returning his gaze back to the backpack. From it, he pulled a pair of Monoposto red hoodies. Mauro was sure that he heard Rory snort, “Don’t mock me!”

“You surely came prepared,” the blonde dared say and kneeled beside him to grab her hoodie, she inspected it and turned to Mauro, “When did you buy these? I am pretty sure I have been with you the whole day.”

Mauro shrugged, “I have my ways,” Rory raised an eyebrow at him, “Now, give me your pass,” protectively Aurora placed the hoodie over her chest, where the pass was, “I won’t lose it Rory, but we can’t be seen with two passes”

“What do you mean by two passes?” Already expecting the inquiry Mauro pulled two purple passes with the Monoposto horse stamped over them, “Wha-”

“Dany sent them to me,” Mauro explained. It had been a while since Rory heard him talk about his sister, “I told her we were already here and might as well see how the Monoposto boys are doing.” The model gave her Silverlane pass and accepted the other one, she was visibly confused, but no more questions were expelled from her mouth, which made Mauro a bit uncomfortable, “Flores Internacional is a Monoposto sponsor.”

Laughter was Rory’s response, “Of course it is.”

The Monoposto garage was pretty much like the Silverlane one. However the excitement in Mauro’s stomach was three times as much. He had dreamed of coming here, of meeting the guys. Actually his dad had promised that they would come and do everything that Mauro was doing with Rory, together for Mauro’s twenty-fifth birthday. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Mauro’s hand flew to his neck where he wore his father’s golden chain. The chain had been a family hairloom and though Mauro had always wanted it to be his, he would have gladly waited ten more years if it meant being with his father now. Squeezing it just a second he returned his hand back to his side, accidentally gracing Aurora’s hand.

Then all of a sudden the girl took his hand and Mauro turned to look into her green worried eyes, “What?”

“Are you okay?” she wondered tilting her head just a bit to the left, “You look a bit pale.”

He tried for a reassuring smile, “I’m all good. Maybe a bit nervous,” it wasn’t a lie, but it was real clear that Rory worried, Mauro wondered if he could ever really talk to someone about his feelings about the drowning grieve in which he found himself, if that ever happened he really hoped that that person would be Aurora.

“It’s alright” she smiled back at him, “I mean it's not like they are Vincens or Müller,” Up to this moment Mauro was under the impression that Aurora was into younger drivers but with that simple comment he realized he had been wrong, “Besides Marcos talks Spanish, if Côme turns out to be mamoncito, we can simple switch languages and ignore him.”

“He won’t be like that”

“We never know,” Rory sighed, “Never meet your heroes right?”

Out of the blue Mauro found himself bumping into someone pretty much his height, “Sorry” he said and turned his head to find the Monoposto’s team principal’s face a feet away from his, “Oh wow” he retrieved his hand from Rory and offered his hand at the team principal, “Signor Bagnoli, sono Mauro Flores, di Flores Internacional”

“Ah” Bagnoli stretch hands with Mauro, “Benvenuto, benvenuto. Vai avanti, ho alcune cose da fare, ma ti raggiungo”

“Grazie” smiled Mauro at the man, and moved aside so the italian could walk through. The Mexican had never felt short, but the Italian made him feel short.

“What did he say?” asked Rory returning her gaze from Bagnoli to Mauro

“That we can go right ahead, he’s got things to do, but will catch up,” explained Mauro slightly pushing the blonde forward and deeper into the garage. If someone would have told him that Marcos and Côme were going to be there at the same time Mauro would have snorted in their face. But there they were, the Spainard and the Monegasque.

From behind her back Rory managed to squeeze Mauro’s wrist making him wince.

“Hi” greeted Marcos, noticing the pair, “Are you supposed to be here?” Marcos was spanish driver, whose family had always been involved in motorsport, his old man Marcos Salazar Senior continued being a rally driver, his grandpa had been an F1 driver like Marcos himself. Motorsport ran in his family.

Mauro regained his composure and nodded, “Yeah,” he raised the pass and grinned, “We were not expecting to see both of you here, at the same time” Marcos chucked and Côme made one of his typical wheezes, that is when Mauro noticed Côme, his hero, his favorite driver. It was no secret that Mauro was a fan of Argent and that he had all his F1 merch from said team, but his father, Mauro Flores Senior was a Monoposto fan, since before Vincens. That explains why Flores Internacional sponsors the Scuderia. “Sono un grande fan, e anche mio padre”

“Grazie” smiled the green eyed driver, he was easily a year older than Mauro and still Mauro couldn’t comprehend how different both their lives were.

“In bocca al lupo per questa gara, speriamo che spezzi la tua maledizione di Monaco” chuckled Mauro and gave Rory a side eye.

The Monegasque driver had not had the best of luck when it came to driving in his city. Though Côme Herve Gerard Lavigne had gotten the super license before the normal driver’s license he still had trouble driving the Monaco streets. He either DNfed or had horrible strategies. Lavigne was probably the new Elsa Vincens, but if Monoposto wasn’t careful it could ruin the 25 year-old driver’s career.

“Párale” she warned, “¡No se vale, yo no hablo italiano!”

“Pues que triste,” was Mauro's smug reply and return to talk to Côme.

Rory placed her hands on her hips and glared, “Es como si yo empezara a hablar en francés, tú no entenderías nada.”

“Basta,” shouted Marcos running a hand through his thick mane of hair, “Mejor todos hablamos español e ignoramos a Côme.”

“No, no,” Côme shook his head, “No, yo lo capisco, yo lo capisco, espanol” Rory couldn’t help but smile, “English, we all know english” both drivers were bilingual, but to be fair english wasn’t their first or even second language as they both spoke Italian as their second language.

Aurora allowed her shoulders to drop, “Sounds good to me,” an evil look took hold of her factions, “By the way you are his man crush,” she winked and Côme turned to Mauro.

“Yeah, well, you are hers,” Mauro argued, pointing at Marcos. Rory must have known what was going to happen and still she turned as red as a tomato. The four of them laughed and started to chat comfortably.

“The paddock is receiving a lot of Spanish talking guests I see” Côme said scratching his head, his eyes landed on Aurora, “Hey, I know you” he ran his eyes quickly over her, “Charline, talks about you, Aurora Lagos, right?”

The girl nodded, “Really?,” mused Rory trying to hide her excitement. Regret settled into the driver's face, before he realized and changed it back to his relaxed smiling face, “Are you guys excited for Sunday?”

Marcos placed his hands on his hips and sighed, “Yes, but I am not liking the weather”

Aurora and Mauro turned to each other, “I think it’s lovely,” mused the brunet running a hand over his curls.

“Yeah, but the weather is going to be against us in the race,” explained the Spaniard, “It will rain.”

It was interesting to hear that it rained in Monaco. When you think of the small country you think of its casinos, its wealth, maybe even, if you were a car addict like Mauro, luxurious cars and models and clothes, you don’t think of the weather, rain, hail, how interesting, how curious. Mauro had been to Monaco before. He had come when he was seventeen with his family. The memory of that trip was pleasant to a certain point. The guy could only remember running after Alan, his youngest sibling through the streets with his own mother running behind him yelling for Mauro’s brother to stop.

It had been embarrassing.

The second time he came to Monaco he had been accompanied by two of his friends. So, probably expected, Mauro could only remember two things from the whole trip; 1) He lost a lot of money, his guess was gambling, and 2) throwing up in the plane all over Charlie, one of his friends. The only thing he could be grateful for from that trip was the fact that there was a shower on the plane and the flight attendants were nice to the three of them.

“It rains in Monaco?” was Aurora’s comment, “It is so strange to think that,” she chuckled. Mauro turned to her, had she read his mind?

“Well it is normal” said Côme

Mauro decided to speak this time, “I mean, you don’t expect the principality to be taunted by rain,” he folded his arms over his chest, “It’s not on the propaganda”

A smile tugged at the corners of the Spanish driver as he clapped Côme on the back, “See that, your country is not as perfect as you say it is.”

“Because it rains?” inquired Côme, “As if it did not rain in Madrid”

“Never,” joked Marcos Salazar, taking his helmet and handing it to Aurora who gladly took it, “Côme give your helmet to Mauro” the Spaniard gestured to Côme and the monegasque nodded, “Rossi!” He shouted. One of Marcos’s engineers appeared out of nowhere, “Tomadnos una foto”