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Valtteri smiled slightly as he walked over the track, for the first time not paying full attention to his engineers drilling him with information the coming race. Coming Sunday was the day of his 100th Grand Prix and to be honest, that was a little hard to believe, and it had turned out to be something that distracted Valtteri a little.
They passed the Ferrari team, and Valtteri timidly smiled at Kimi, the older Finn giving him a small nod in return, a tiny smile tugging at his lips. Valtteri was surprised when Kimi sauntered over, not paying attention to the confused looks he got from the members of both teams. Kimi took off his sunglasses in a fluid motion.
“Valtteri.” Kimi acknowledged him. Valtteri smiled, not sure what else to do. “Need to talk to you.” the older man said simply, in Finnish; staring at Valtteri’s engineers until they got the hint and walked off, waiting a little further down the track. Kimi rolled his eyes when he saw the Mercedes and Ferrari team standing at an ‘appropriate’ distance from each other, eying each other wearily.
Valtteri shuffled a little on his feet. He liked Kimi, but the older Finn could be unpredictable and sometimes quite intimidating, so he wasn’t sure what to expect. That fact, combined with the part where he had almost sort of looked up to Kimi, made him a little unsure around the man.
“What is it Kimi?” Valtteri asked quietly, a little self-conscious with all the others watching. Kimi smirked.
“Congratulations.” he said simply. Valtteri blinked in surprise.
“For what?” he asked, his head tilting to the side a little.
“100 Grand Prixs, is not nothing.” Kim told him. Valtteri thoughtfully wrinkled his nose up a little.
“Doesn’t feel like that many.” he said with a shrug. Kimi copied the movement, scratching the side of his nose.
“Bwoah, never does.” Kimi smiled lightly, slipping his sunglasses back on.
“Thank you.” Valtteri hurriedly said as Kimi moved to leave. “Means a lot coming from you…” he added in a mumble, a blush coming to his cheeks. Kimi looked surprised, his eyebrows raising a little above his glasses.
Kimi glanced back momentarily at the engineers still impatiently waiting for them, before reaching out, wrapping his arms around the younger man. Valtteri huffed in surprise but hugged back, smiling when Kimi’s hand pressed against the back of his head, pulling him in a little closer. With another friendly pet on Valtteri’s shoulder Kimi let go again.
“Congratulations.” Kimi repeated. “Really.”
“Thank you.” Valtteri was still blushing deeply, but there was an almost beaming smile on his face. Kimi shrugged.
“Sure.” he mumbled with another half-smile, before turning on his heels and walking back to his team, who were still waiting for him to finally join them again.
Valtteri turned back to his own team, some of them watching after Kimi with slight frowns.
“What did he want?” one of the engineers asked curiously.
“Congratulate me.” said Valtteri in slight disbelief. The engineer huffed.
“Sure he didn’t just try to distract you before the race?”
Valtteri frowned at him but didn’t bother to answer, not feeling like he had to justify anything about what had just happened.
He supposed he was starting to be like Kimi in that way.