Just 500 words of belated post-Brazil Rolipe, cos I was imagining this scene of them hugging like I’m sure so many of us were. 

When Rob next sees Felipe, his eyes are dry.

Rob wishes he could’ve been there in the pitlane to cry with him, but it’s just a small, selfish wish. It’s best he wasn’t anyway, because while when Felipe cries there’s a dignity in his emotion, when Rob does, he’s just a bleary mess. He doesn’t want to be reminded of that in every TV montage to come.

Felipe smiles when he sees him, a beautiful, soft, real smile, standing there still in his soaking wet race suit.

“You alright?” Rob says first. “At the medical centre.” He feels like he’s missed the moment, through having to sit staring at screens for lap after lap of a gloomy and interminable race, for no reward at the end. He might as well have come off the pitwall anyway, to be with Felipe – another selfish thought. Felipe didn’t need him there, he had enough people around him, and Rob is here now, anyway. But Rob can’t suppress the pang of regret that he wasn’t a part of it all as well, because now he doesn’t really know what kind of a place Felipe is in, what he might want or need or feel. Rob is still stuck in that moment, but he doesn’t know where Felipe is.

“Yes, I am fine,” Felipe says. “I apologise to the team,” he says with a little smile. “Maybe they thought I do it on purpose.”

Rob chuckles. “To be the centre of attention,” he says. “Yeah, that’s just like you.”

Felipe laughs quietly, then he’s quiet for a moment. “I did not expect… everything,” he says softly.

Rob falters a little then, because he’s not surprised that Felipe says that, humble as he is, but Rob wasn’t at all surprised at the reception in the pitlane, the love, the admiration, the words from the media that, Rob thinks, were well overdue. They’ve had years to say those things, when they should’ve, and they didn’t. No wonder Felipe didn’t expect it all.

Rob thinks he might point that out, next time he’s interviewed on live TV, because he’s certain Felipe won’t. And, Rob thinks dryly, that’s why, when he retires, he won’t get quite the same affectionate send off as Felipe.

“You deserve it,” Rob says, and it comes out more fiercely than he intended. He takes Felipe in his arms now, pulling him close with all the feeling he’s been holding onto since that moment, watching Felipe on a screen when all he wanted to do was this, hold him, kiss him, be with him. Felipe must be all hugged out now, he probably doesn’t need any more comforting, but Rob knows this is for himself as much as Felipe. He needs it just as much.

“You deserve it all. And more,” he murmurs. He kisses Felipe’s temple, right there, like he has done for years, and will still do whenever he gets the chance, and holds Felipe as tightly as he ever has.