1. The First Push - “You don’t want this.”

It starts when they’re twenty three and still pretending they’re not orbiting each other.

Back then, everything between Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz exists in the spaces no one names. The way they stand just a little too close during briefings. The way Max’s voice changes...sharper with everyone else, quieter with Carlos. The way Carlos always seems to know when Max needs silence instead of jokes.

The race weekend has been brutal. Long meetings. Tight margins. Too many cameras. The kind of Sunday that leaves your bones buzzing even after the engines go quiet.

They’re in the cooldown room, the air thick with the scent of champagne and sweat and overheated brakes. The screen on the wall is replaying overtakes no one is watching. Carlos is still running on adrenaline, cheeks flushed, curls damp at his temples. He feels alive in that particular post-race way...everything bright and loud and slightly reckless.

Max is sitting beside him on the narrow couch, shoulder pressed against his. Not by accident. Max never does anything by accident.