*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧—chapter thirteen: missing you

NICO FINDS A LETTER WAITING FOR HIM WHEN HE RETURNS HOME FROM A KARTING RACE THE FOLLOWING WEEK. Lewis is here too, the Brit getting to spend the weekend with the Rosbergs, courtesy of Anthony Hamilton and Keke Rosberg. Thank you to the boys' fathers.

Lewis peeks over the blond's shoulder, trying to get a look at the return address written in the corner. Nico smacks him in the head with the envelope, before carefully wedging his finger between the seal and tearing it open. As he's pulling out the letter, he's walking to his room, Lewis following close behind.

"It's from Poe, right? What did he say?" Lewis questions, watching as Nico kicks the door closed and starts pacing the room.

"Give me a minute, I'm still reading it," Nico says, taking a seat on the edge of the bed.

✧ ✧ ✧

9 septembre 2003

Cher Nico (et Lewis),

Je n'ai jamais écrit de lettre auparavant, donc ça a probablement l'air vraiment cheesy ou quelque chose, et aussi mon orthographe en anglais est vraiment mauvais, donc je l'écris entièrement en français. Mais jusqu'à présent, l'université va bien :) (Nico, je vous prie de traduire ça pour Lewis)
Je me suis fait de nouveaux amis le premier jour de cours, je suis sorti tous les jours cette semaine, et je trouve du temps pour prendre soin de moi. Jusqu'à présent, on n'a pas eu de travail important assigné, mais pendant mon temps libre, j'ai écrit avant d'aller me coucher. Juste pour enlever quelques idées de ma poitrine, et je n'ai rien à faire en plus de ça. Je ne sais pas si je veux utiliser ça pour mes missions. Peut-être. Si je peux, je les ferai des copies et je vous les enverrai les gars, je suis sûr que vous aimeriez lire ça.
Quoi qu'il en soit, comment va la Formule 3 ? Nico, je sais que tu es en Euro Series pour ça et Lewis est en Formule 3 britannique. Je sais que les voitures doivent être beaucoup mieux que les karts, mais il y a des règles plus strictes et tout ça de la merde parce que c'est si grave, mais vous êtes dans les voitures maintenant, donc ils sont beaucoup plus rapides! J'espère que vous vous amuserez beaucoup ! J'ai hâte de te voir pendant la pause hivernale.

          -Poe

✧ ✧ ✧

"Why is the entire letter written in French?" Lewis questions, staring at the paper as heads over to the bed and takes a seat beside Nico. He takes the letter from him and squints, as if that would magically make the words appear in English. "I can't read this shit, you guys know that."

"Okay, slow down, I was getting there," Nico says with a sigh as he snatches the letter back. "He wanted me to translate it for you. And to answer your question, his English isn't any good on paper."

"Oh. Right," Lewis says in realization. "My bad, then."

"You're good," Nico says as he glances back down at the neat cursive written in ink on the paper. "He was just saying how his week's been, how they weren't really assigned anything yet for homework, he's been writing in his free time and wants to show us some of what he's written, and in that last paragraph, he wanted to know how Formula 3's been treating us and he hopes we're having fun. He'll see us during winter break."

"Thank you, because I was going to be here all day looking like a dumbass if I had tried to translate that on my own," Lewis says with a chuckle as he rolls off of the bed and heads over to the TV, turning it on, as well as switching on the PlayStation.

Nico grins, folding the letter back up and sticking it back in the envelope. "I'm going to write him back."

"We are going to write him back," Lewis corrects, grabbing a pen off of the desk and tossing it to him, and picking up a blank sheet of paper. PlayStation momentarily forgotten, he reclaims his seat beside the blond.

"Right, sorry, we." Nico twirls the pen in his hand as takes the paper and finds something more firm to press down on so he could write. "He's all I've been thinking about lately. Do you think he misses me? Misses us?"

"Mate, of course he does! Why wouldn't he?" Lewis frowns.

Nico shrugs. "I just... I've never liked being away from him too long. I wonder how he feels..."

"Have you tried emailing him?"

"Does it look like I have his email? I can't even call him, he's so far away. In the damn States," Nico says with a disappointed sigh. "Should we be funny and just write bullshit on the paper or should we take this seriously?"

"He'd have a good kick out of that, I'm sure. But, for now, I think," Lewis takes the pen from him and scribbles the date in the top right corner before handing it back to the blond, "we should have a real response to his letter."

"All right." Nico grins, taking the pen from him and beginning to write.

✧ ✧ ✧

17 September 2003

Dear Poe,

Hi, this is Nico starting the letter, by the way! We received yours. Glad you're having fun so far! It's a big responsibility now, you attending university. Whatever letters get sent from here on, we might not see them right away or even respond right away because of all the racing stuff. And I guess the same would go for you, in the case you're swamped with schoolwork and studying for exams in the coming weeks. Have fun, I miss you, love you <3
Hey, it's Lewis. Going to university in America sounds really nice (he's lying by the way -Nico), I hope you're having fun, mate. Like Nico said, you're so far away :( At least you have about two weeks or so for holiday during winter break. Nico's already planning a whole bunch of stuff and he won't disclose what it is. Also, he didn't fucking answer your question about Formula 3, so I will answer it for him; it is a million times better than karting. Yeah, it's stricter because not only is it more dangerous with the cars and stuff, but it's a higher tier than karting ever will be. And yeah, we're having loads of fun there even though we're in two complete different series. Anyway, hope you're well, take care :)

Sincerely,
Nico & Lewis

author's note
poe lore drop: when writing
something on paper, he never
writes in english bc his regular
handwriting is absolute dog shit
and he's insecure about it, so he
always writes in french!

10.11.24