Archive of Our Own ^beta

Mika never thought he’d ever be going to his school reunion in Helsinki, not since he moved to Great Britain to advance his motor racing career in the British F3 series with the hope to continue to F1 one day.

But when the invite came in, his wife encouraged him to go.

The Finn had been an awkward teen in high school, with only one friend called Mika Sohlberg with whom he would later drive on several frozen lakes in that Beetle back in 1980. But now, 20 years after his graduation in ’84, he’d be returning to that place in Helsinki as a recently 5-time Formula One World Champion with a lovely wife he married 12 years ago and as a father of 4 beautiful children.

At 6.30 in the evening, he stood in front of a hotel mirror of the bedroom with a nice panorama view of the city as the sun was going down, fixing his tie and suede jacket when his beloved wife came into the mirror frame dressed in a tight fire engine red suit.

“You look positively dashing, my dear.” Michael stated.

“I’m glad I look good.” the 5-time F1 champion said as he turned his head sideways to gaze upon his wife. “And you look absolutely gorgeous, kulta.”

“That’s what I was going for.” the Omega said with a bright smile. “I want you to show me off to all of your former classmates as your wife and the mother of your children.”

“Oh, so that’s why you persuaded me to go.” the ash blonde chuckled.

“Persuading you isn’t that difficult.” the rally driver said with a devious smile. “Now, shall we?”

“Naturally, my dear.” Mika replied as he began stuffing the inside pockets of his jacket with his phone and wallet. “Let’s get to the parking garage.”

“Look who’s arrived now! Mika Pauli Häkkinen! What a humongous surprise!”

“I see you’ve learned a few big words.” Mika said.

“I know I played dumb in high school, but you know that was all an act.” the brunet chuckled. “And who’s this muscled long-legged beauty on your arm?”

“He is my wife. Aki, meet Michael.” the Alpha replied

“It’s lovely to meet you.” Michael said, shaking the other man’s hand.

“Officially it’s Joachim, Aki’s a nickname. The honour is all mine. You must be a foreigner.”

The dark blonde nodded. “I'm German. My lovely husband here decided to start teaching me Finnish shortly before our marriage twelve years ago.”

“You sound pretty good. Accent must be tough to lose.” Joachim said.

The Omega laughed. “I can’t speak English without an accent either.”

“How many people actually showed up?” the ash blonde asked.”

The jokester classmate thought for a minute. “About... ninety percent said they’d come, rest was a maybe. But the whole football team showed up as well as the cheer squad. The chess team is complete bar one, several athletes, Irma and Ria who own a bar, three of the seven punk kids, the computer nerds... oh, and your ex-girlfriend.”

“How did Erja turn out? Last I heard she was dating Filip.”

A grumble left Aki’s throat, and he rolled his eyes. “Oh God. She really doesn’t look like her former self any longer. I didn’t recognize her when she walked in.”

The F1 champion frowned and raised an eyebrow. “What happened?”

“See for yourself.” and the brunet pointed out someone near the wine stand.

“That’s Erja?” Mika asked, turning back to his classmate with a look of confusion on his face.

The German could see why his husband wouldn’t recognize the woman.

The woman who was supposedly Erja had incredibly puffy cheeks, high eyebrows and a cat-like eye-shape.

“She’s addicted to plastic surgery.” the Beta male confessed. “She even got married to a plastic surgeon named Heino Hämäläinen three years ago who lives and practises in Helsinki’s city centre.”

“Plastic surgery would explain the way she looks now. I’ve seen Hollywood celebs sporting puffy looks.” Michael told. “Even minor movie stars in Germany have implants and fillers. Just look at my sister-in-law.”

The brunet frowned. “You know that crowd?”

“My younger brother is also a Formula One driver. He went up against my husband last year. His wife of three years, Cora, is an actress and model. She’s introduced me to a few people.” the German stated. “I myself am a rally cross driver and I’ve been participating in the Dakar Rally since ninety-two.”

“Ever participated in any Finnish rally?” Joachim asked. “I think I’ve seen your face somewhere.”

The Omega chuckled. “Not yet, but I’ve won several stages in Swedish rallies. It’s been a dream of ours to do the Finnish rallies together, which we might do this winter or the next.”

“I’m so going to watch.”

Mika smiled at his wife.

The two of them had been talking about doing the Finnish rally together for a few years, since the birth of their first son Mick in early 1999. It was something they wanted to do prior to their complete retirement from motorsport as they would soon focus solely on their children.

Right now they were still young, they’d be on the old side if they did the rally once their children were old enough to take care of themselves and rallies weren’t exactly without danger of crashes that could break a bone or tear a muscle, something which would be harder to heal at an older age.

“Look who’s here.” a female voice purred. “If it isn’t the world-famous Mika Häkkinen.”

The recently retired F1 driver turned around. “Oh, hi Nea. I see the past twenty years have treated you rather well. Or is it the skin routine?”

The Omega woman laughed. “Always the charmer. No wonder you were already married by ninety-two.”

“It was simply love at first sight that day in Macau, wasn’t it, my dearest beloved?” the ash blonde asked as he turned to his wife.

“At first I couldn’t stand you beat me in that race, but you were attempting to charm my pants off like seconds after the podium ceremony.”

The Alpha chuckled at that memory. “It worked, didn’t it? I married you one-and-a-half years later.”

Joachim then walked around the couple to join in. “That must’ve been a whirlwind romance. I was together with my girlfriend Tatiana for seven years, and I never proposed to her. I never thought it was the right moment… but I guess we weren’t meant to be.”

“Yeah… sometimes you know it’ll all work out just fine.” and Häkkinen placed a kiss on his wife’s forehead.

“Do the two of you have any kids?” Nea asked. “I mean, twelve years is long enough to have kids I guess.”

The 5-time World Champion nodded in reply. “We’ve got four. Our firstborn, Vivienne, was born in late ninety-seven and our youngest, Ingeborg, just turned two.”

“That sounds like a lovely family the two of you have got.” the redhead lady stated.

“And I couldn’t be happier.” the ash blonde told.

“Glad to hear that. Oh! Have you already seen how your ex looks like?”

“Aki here just pointed that out.” the retired F1 driver answered and looked over at his wife. “Would you like a drink? Soda? Champagne? Wine?”

“I’ll go for a water, but you can grab your glass of bubbles if you don’t mind me driving back.” the mother of 4 replied.

“As long as you don’t crash that Ferrari, I’ll be fine.”

The Beta chuckled. “Of course you’d own a sportscar.”

“Occupational hazard.” and the married Alpha went to the tables where the beverages stood.

He was contemplating which drink he was going to take for himself when he felt a hand creep under his jacket. He turned around and pushed the hand away. “What the fuck are you doing Erja?”

The dark-haired woman purred. “Have twenty years changed you so much I can’t touch you anymore?”

“Erja, I’m married.” Mika replied, flashing his wedding band. “And you are too.”

The Beta scoffed. “Marriage is just a piece of paper and an expensive ceremony. It means nothing.”

“Perhaps it means nothing to you, but I do take the vows I pledged very seriously.” Häkkinen stated.

“It’s not worth it.” Erja said with a smirk on her face. “I can tell you that, I’ve been married five times.”

“I’ve been married for twelve years straight to the same person. I married someone who was right for me, unlike your five husbands.” the ash blonde retorted. “Why don’t you try falling in love?”

The woman looked straight into the eyes of the man in front of her. “The man I loved left, and I’ve never seen him again until now.”

“We weren’t right for each other, Erja.” Mika stated.

“Who are you to determine that? You never gave us a shot!”

The retired F1 driver shook his head. “I didn’t need to. Our short romance showed that we were so different, we would never have been able to stay married for longer than five years.”

“You don’t know that.” the dark-haired woman said, shaking her head.

“I do know that. Do you know why I know? Because you were only interested in rich boys back in the day. Our relationship was just something in-between for you, and you didn’t have feelings for me. And the ones I had for you, they’re long gone now.” the 5-time Champ grabbed a glass of red wine from the table and left to go back to his wife.

Michael raised an eyebrow as he took the glass of water. “What was she up to?”

“My ex trying to bait me into cheating on you.”

“Mika, darling, there are so many women and Omegas who want you to cheat on me with them.” the German stated. “I see the stories on the internet every day. You’re a wanted Alpha male.”

The Alpha had a disgusted look on his face. “Ugh.”

“The fact you’re disgusted with that lets me know I have your loyalty.” the rally champion said with a soft smile. “And you know you have mine, because I didn’t just give birth to your four kids.”

“And each single one of our kids is beautiful.”

“No wonder the two of you are still married.” Nea commented. “You’re sappy as hell.”

“As we’re supposed to be.” the Omega said with a smirk. “What’s a marriage without magic?”

Joachim chuckled. “Just a piece of paper and two golden rings.”

“I can agree with that one.” Häkkinen turned to his wife. “I’m only drinking one glass.”

“It’s your party honey. As long as I don’t have to drag your ass into the car.”

Mika had known it was true love when he first laid eyes on his now wife that day in Macau. He couldn’t shake the feeling of enchantment and butterflies that had been there when their eyes met.

And he said the words ‘I do’ not that much later in the Cathedral of Cologne.

People said they were too young to marry, too young to know what true love was. But those people were wrong from the start, as no one else but them was able to see the magic between them.

That magic had created Vivienne, Mick, Hugo, and Ingeborg. Their beautiful children.

And the retired F1-driver would never ever cheat on his beloved wife.

He was still enchanted, just like he was on the day they first gazed into each other’s eyes: bright ocean blue meeting greyish sky blue in the Macau paddock before the racing commenced.

No one was going to make him cheat, as their loyalty was to their love.