Chapter Text
It’s early spring. It’s still cold outside, but that isn’t stopping practice. Formula 1 cars tear through the practice track, the mobian drivers refamiliarizing themselves with the routines and techniques after the previous championship. The driver with the best time is none other than McLaren’s golden boy, Charmy Bee. 20 years old and annoyingly aware of his raw talent, Charmy had climbed his way to the top with what looked like nothing but effortless charm and a special touch behind the wheel. He flew through the tracks like they were second nature. Maybe they were at this point.
Charmy pulls into the pits like a wildfire, screeching to a stop on his practice tires and climbing out of the car like it was nothing as the pit crew swarms his car. He takes off his helmet, striding over to the worktable where Miles stands, looking over his notes. Charmy tosses his helmet onto the table and grabs his water bottle, taking a good long sip of electrolytes while he leans against the table on his elbow. His eyes look up and down Miles’ tall lanky form. He grins around the straw of his water bottle. “Hey~”
“Charmy.” Miles coldly acknowledges him. Lead engineer and Charmy’s personal mechanic, Miles is the polar opposite of Charmy in every way. The tailless fox is tall, while Charmy is on the shorter side. He’s cold, stoic, and rarely shows emotion, while Charmy wears his feelings on his sleeve. When he isn’t flirting or laughing, Charmy’s covering up any solace with a flashy grin or raunchy joke. The picture of performance in more ways than one. Miles looks at him with icy eyes for just a moment before returning his gaze to his notes. “You drifted too hard on the 6th turn. Take the turn slower and you won’t need to do the extra correction on the straightaway afterward. That’ll save you around 0.4 seconds. Oh, and your left axel is off by 0.2 percent, so we’ll have to check that. Also, stop hugging the turns so closely in sectors 2 through 4. You’re bound to crash one of these days.”
Charmy just stares deadpan up at him, tonguing his straw as the information flies right over his head. He waves a hand dismissively. “Yeah yeah. Uh.. Axels. Hey listen, uhh… You get stressed, right? Bein’ my lead mechanic and all. Boss stuff.”
Miles gives him a look, quirking one eyebrow as he turns to add more to his notes. “... Yes. I do. Take a rest while we fix some things on your car. And don’t forget to watch replays. You have room to improve.” He turns to walk away.
“Wait!”
Miles turns to look at him again, his expression stoic as ever.
Charmy gets a little nervous grin, then quickly hides it with his usual suave expression. He puts his water bottle back on the table and takes a couple steps closer to Miles, his swagger severely exaggerated as he clasps his hands behind his back. “I uh.. Get stressed too. You know. Being the one behind the wheel, it’s a lot of pressure.”
“I’m sure it is. Is that all?”
“Naw.” Charmy takes one more step closer, looking up at him with a half-lidded smile. “I was wondering if you wanted to, uh… Blow off some steam~? Behind the garage?”
Miles’ ears tilt backwards as he stares at Charmy, not sure if he’s hearing him right. “What exactly are you implying?”
“Just think of it as a… Stress reliever. Just a little kissing between homies~”
Miles lets off a tiny, offended huff, recoiling. The tips of his ears turn red. “Absolutely not. You are a professional. Act like it.”
“Oh come on, ice king. It releases chemicals in the brain, right? You like science! Just this once, I promise.”
Miles is about to chew him out, but actually stops to consider it when Charmy mentions science. He does like science. He’s right that it releases endorphins to engage in physical intimacy. He has been rather stressed. And Charmy isn’t too bad to look at… It isn’t like Miles hasn’t kissed anyone before, but this would be different. Not that he hadn’t considered what it would be like to kiss the Bee before, but no one needed to know that. Especially Charmy. He glances at the rest of the pit crew. They seem to have things handled without him for a bit. The car doesn’t need too much work. All routine things. His direction at this point would be a tad overkill. He sighs and sets down his tablet on the worktable. “Fine. Five minutes. That’s it.”
“Sweet!” Charmy’s wings buzz, lifting him slightly off the ground in excitement before Miles shoots him a steely glare.
“Shut up. No one is to know about this. Just… Meet me outside in ten minutes. Behind the garage. There are some tires stacked, just- … You’ll see it. Again, not a word.”
“Aye aye, captain~” Charmy grins, saluting him as Miles slips out the back door. He sighs and spins on his heel to loiter around the garage, being nosy and bored as he pokes around the pit crew’s supplies and winks at passersby. A few times he considers just heading out there early, but if he knew anything about his engineer, he knew he would be timing this to make sure Charmy didn’t cheat. He ends up just spinning around in one of the swivel stools at a workbench, leaning his head back with his arm over his face, staring at his watch.
Finally, the ten minutes have elapsed. He hurries out the front of the garage, circling around to the back. He sees Miles waiting there, leaning against the exterior wall of the garage, his eyes trained on the ground in front of him. Charmy’s heart skips a beat. He’s so hot. Charmy shoves his hands into the pockets of his racing suit and saunters over to him, trying to hide the look of excitement on his face. “Hey~ You didn’t chicken out. Worst ten minutes of my life, by the way.”
Miles looks up, ears pricked as Charmy speaks. He immediately fixes his expression with his usual glare. “It’s stress relief. As you said. Nothing to be ‘chicken’ about.”
“Yeah~” Charmy stops in front of him, checking him out without shame. Miles makes a face of disgust.
“Get your filthy eyes off of me. Just- ….” He can’t bring himself to initiate. Why is he so nervous? It’s just a kiss, as he said. Charmy shakes his head and steps forward, closing the gap between them.
“Yeah. You want my filthy lips instead, huh fox~” Charmy stands on his toes, grabbing the lapels of Miles’ coat and pulling him down into a kiss.
At first, Miles is shocked. This isn’t his first kiss, of course, but it’s his first kiss with a man. And certainly his first kiss for no reason other than to shoo away his tension from work. But it feels… Incredible. Freeing. And most definitely distracting. Charmy smells like expensive cologne and adrenaline. He tastes like electrolytes. Miles closes his eyes as his hands find Charmy’s shoulders, pulling him closer as he deepens the kiss. He feels one of Charmy’s hands slide up his chest to the nape of his neck as he parts his lips, testing the waters to see how far Miles will go. The answer is… Further than Charmy was expecting.
Miles opens his mouth against Charmy’s, their breath mingling as he grips Charmy’s hair in his fist to keep him close. Charmy smiles into the kiss and bites Miles’ lip, scraping his teeth along it before letting go. Unfortunately for Charmy, that’s the last bit of enjoyment he gets. Miles pushes him away, breathing heavily. He wipes his mouth on the back of his hand and fixes his coat, not making eye contact with Charmy. His fur is standing on end.
“4 minutes and 43 seconds.”
Charmy lets off a winded laugh, running a hand through his hair. “You timed it??”
Miles turns to start heading inside. “Yes. I said five minutes and I meant it.” He pauses in the doorway, glancing over his shoulder at Charmy, who puts his hands in his pockets and licks Miles’ spit off his own lips while smugly holding the fox’s eye contact. Miles’ cheeks flush and he disappears back into the garage.