Singapore was going to be a weird weekend, Valeria thought. Being in the middle of European races, the whole crew was staying on European time zones, instead of following the local one like they did everywhere else. Going to sleep with the sun up and having lunch at night wasn't the easiest thing to adapt your brain to, but at least Valeria and Pietro were lucky that their job didn't entice being completely on point at all times.

It was Saturday qualifying and Ferrari seemed to have some winning opportunity that weekend. Valeria was walking down the paddock, still trying to wrap her head around what time it actually was when someone stopped right in front of her, by the red bull motorhome.

'ouch.' She joked 'this is not even a good place to stop, follow the red mate' she continued, as the man turned around. 'Oh shitting hell. You're Matt Bellamy! Oh my god, I'm so sorry. I didn't realise it was you'

The muse singer let out a laugh. Valeria had gone fully red and was mumbling some other apology about taking the mick out of a superstar.

'it's OK, I get you might be biased' he joked, pointing at her uniform.

'Just a little' she joked 'what are you doing here? Haven't you got a concert in about 2 hours?' she asked. She was surprised he would be hanging around the paddock merely hours before Muse were due on stage.

'yeah, we do. But I thought I'd sneak in the qualifying before...' he smiled.

'I am Valeria, by the way. Excuse my manners. I'm just in shock. You're Matt Bellamy!'

Matt laughed again 'yes, I am! You said that already' he teased her 'Nice to meet you, Valeria. Will we have the pleasure to see you tonight?'

'well,  I would have loved to but I realised too late you guys were here at the same time as us, so I don't think I can just show up. I would have come to Rome again but we were off to some other GP. I'll have to wait for the next one!'

'Mr. Bellamy, it's time to go' a girl in full Red Bull uniform interrupted them.

'Sorry, my bad.' Valeria apologised, with a smile. 'I should probably go too! Break a leg!'

'Thank you' Matt told her with a smile, as he was escorted towards the garage by the Red Bull lady.

Valeria checked her watch. It was probably time for her to go into the garage too. She joined Pietro, at the back of the garage, telling him about her encounter with Muse's singer.

'Jesus, you're dating an F1 driver but you still get pretty starstruck by celebrities. Calm down, you're speaking at a million miles per hour'

'you don't understand! I had a chat with Matt Bellamy. Matt! Bellamy! From Muse! I spoke to him, in real life!'

'Jesus' Pietro huffed again. 'concentrate on work, please!'

'No, look! He's there!' she pointed at the screen. The camera had just panned out on him watching q1 in the Red Bull garage and then to her and Pietro, she was excitedly pointing at the screen, but stopped as soon as she was in the frame, pretending nothing had happened.

'Smooth' Domenico shouted from the opposite side of the garage.

'Do one!' she shouted back.

By the end of Q3, even if Seb had topped the previous two stints, Charles had ended up on pole, with Lewis in p2 and Seb in p3.

Valeria walked out of the garage, looking for Nico.

'Newbie' he greeted her.

'hello, honey' she joked.

'Crofty, Martin. Here with Ferrari. Charles seems to have found a good pace in the car, this is his 5th pole and he has now topped both Lewis and Valtteri. You guys must be pretty happy with him.'

'Absolutely, Charles has found his feet in the team and we can all see the difference. It's great to see him up there all the time.'

'it seems like you're gonna have a good race tomorrow'

'let's not get ahead of ourselves. Every time I say something, I seem to regret it!'

'Thanks a lot' Nico grabbed the microphone she was passing him. She started walking back to the garage when she heard a voice call her name. She turned around to see Matt, walking towards her.

'hey, I thought you might want these?' he smiled, giving her two backstage passes. 'you could bring your friend I saw on the screen earlier or anyone else. Or come by yourself'

'Oh my god are you shitting me right now? Are these fake?'

Matt laughed 'no, I'm not "shitting you". You seemed upset about missing out, so I thought I'd help out. I need to rush now, but I'll see you later' and without waiting for her reply, he left.

'What has my life become? Noemi is going to be so jealous.' Valeria thought, as she snapped a picture of the tickets to send to her sister. She sent the same picture to Seb with the caption: so this just happened. Wanna join me? I just need to get changed, but I can meet you back here when you're done. She knew he still had a bit of work stuff to do, but the concert was going to start soon. She rushed back to her hotel room and changed into a pair of shorts and a tank top. She put her hair up in a bun and checked her phone. Don't really know many Muse songs, but I know you love them. I'm just done now, gonna get changed. Meet you outisde the paddock? Seb had just replied.

Sure thing, Bärchen. I apologise in advance for my level of excitement. See you in 10.

'I don't think I have seen you this happy since we went karting' Seb told her, as they walked through the back of the stage. 'I'm not sure I can fully take it as a compliment. Have I made you unhappy for the past 7 months? You didn't even smile this much in Maldives. Actually, you cried a lot' he teased her.

'du bist ein Idiot' she told him, laughing.

'ja, aber ich bin dein Idiot ' he replied. She was even prettier when she tried to speak German to him, even just to call him an idiot. Seb followed her through the corridors, until they arrived to the fan area. There were a couple of other people there, all in full Muse merchandise. They turned around surprised, as most of them recognised the German driver.

'Valeria, you made it' she heard Matt's voice. 'and you brought a friend! Oh damn! Your friend is...' Matt opened his mouth in shock.

'The best driver Red Bull ever had?' she joked. 'Sebastian, Matt. Matt, Sebastian.' They shook hands. 'This is something I never thought I'd do. Introduce you two.' She said, laughing.

Seb had watched Valeria sing her heart out for over an hour and he felt like he hadn't stopped smiling. The last time he had seen her that carefree was on the beach in Maldives. The stress of the second half of the season had taken a toll on her since Spa and he knew she had had to deal with a lot more stuff than she had led him to believe. Britta still kept an eye on socials for him, even if he didn't have an account and she had told him about a few comments that had been made about her.

'Hold you in my arms
I just wanted to hold
You in my arms

My life
You electrify my life
Let's conspire to ignite
All the souls that would die just to feel alive

Now I'll never let you go
If you promised not to fade away
Never fade away'

Valeria had turned around to him as she was singing and had grabbed his hands. Seb couldn't help but smile even more. Her voice had started to crack, but that didn't stop her from singing even louder once the band had announced that the following song would have been the last.

'no one is going to take me alive, time has come to make things right, you and I must fight for our rights, you and I must fight to survive' the song ended 'thank you, Singapore! You've been amazing!'

Valeria and Seb left thr concert, not long after, having thanked the band again for the hospitality.

'Can we add Muse to the music you like, now?' Valeria asked him, grabbing his hand.

'if listening to them always makes you this happy, yes' he smiled, pulling her close to wrap his arm behind her back.

Sunday

'Damn, Seb is pushing hard this lap' Pietro said. He had just pitted before Charles and he seemed to want to push the car to the limit.

Once Charles pitted too, Seb had managed to get ahead of him. This didn't make the Monegasque happy at all. The radio was bursting with questions and comments from his part. Seb had continued to lead the race, probably enjoying what his out lap had brought him.

By the end of the race, Seb had finally snatched the first victory of 2019. Valeria smiled, watching the mechanics hug. Not everyone, however, seemed happy about the 1-2, even within the Ferrari garage. Charles' side of the team felt betrayed by the strategy.

'Valeria?' Riccardo's voice reconnected her to the world. 'Seb has asked for you to go on the podium with him, but he also understands if you don't want to do it.' He told her, as her jaw dropped to the floor.

'me? On the podium? I have no reason to be up there!'

'well, you do..' Riccardo smiled. 'what am I telling him?'

'Yeah, alright. Has Mattia agreed?' she asked.

'yes, he has. Seb, Vale will be on her way to you soon' he concluded the radio transmission.

Valeria walked out of the garage, unsure on what do next.

Someone from the organisers had come and picked her up. Valeria quietly followed them to the cool-down room. Charles raised an eyebrow as she slowly entered the room, without saying anything. Verstappen gave her a glance which could only be translated as 'man, this is uncomfortable'

'Congrats, Seb' she eventually said.

'danke schön, Val' he smiled. Valeria could only think about wanting to hug him and kiss him to proper congratulate him, but instead she turned around to Charles.

'are you here to give me a lecture?' he whispered.

'nope. I get it, you're pissed' she whispered back, trying not to let the cameras and anyone else hear them. 'but it's not my fault, nor his.' She concluded. 'I'll speak to you later, if you want'

'I might need a drink or two' he smiled.

'consider it done' she promised.

Valeria followed the instructions and walked on the podium, she felt so out of place. She could feel the cameras on her, she just wanted to hide never to be seen again. Then Seb walked in and soon enough, nothing mattered anymore. She could see how much that win had meant to him. The German national anthem started playing and Valeria couldn't stop just looking at her fiancee. Valeria tried to contain her own tears. It had taken a long time for him to be back where he belonged. She clapped along with the others once the anthem had ended and prepared herself for her own. She imagined some cameras would be on her, so she hoped her brain wouldn't play a prank on her midway through it.

Seb had been nervously playing with his race suit zipper, until he got an Essere Ferrari flag out of it just in time for the Italian anthem to start, Valeria couldn't believe how much Seb loved being in the red team.

She hadn't even had the time to pick up the team champagne, that she had been covered. Between Seb and Charles they had decided to empty most of their bottles on her.

'both of you. You are two stronzi' she laughed, as they walked back from the podium. Seb and Charles chuckled.

'I'll see you back at the hotel, Schatzi' Seb whispered, before he was ushered through to the interviews.

'Du bist mein Champion' she whispered back, making him smile.