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Oscar was midway through a brutal cardio session when the incessant vibrating of his phone mounted on the front of his spin bike made him pause and actually check his notifications. Surely his Instagram story hadn’t blown up that much… although it was a good photo he did admit.
Swiping down on his screen he was met with a barrage of notifications.. oh no.
Instagram - 100+ notifications
Hattie - sms (7)
Max F - sms (1)
Missed calls (8)
Opening Hattie’s thread first, he is met with a screenshot of someone’s Instagram followers with ‘?’
He frowns and scrunches his nose - opening the photo. He realises it’s a screenshot of Magui’s follow list - with Lando notably missing.
He swipes out of the photo and back to her messages.
‘Oscar what is going on!?’
‘….i thought this was handled months ago?’
‘…????? Are you ignoring me?!’
Another photo - this time of Lando’s follow list.. Magui notably missing.
‘He’s blocked her.. or she’s blocked him, everything is missing?’
‘Oscar Jack Piastri answer me or so help me when I get a hold of you’
He smirked, thumbing a quick reply back to her.
Opening Max Fewtrell’s message next ‘Hi Oscar, sorry to bother you, have you heard from Lando? I assume you’ve seen on the socials.. let me know if you speak to him, he appears to be ignoring me’
Oscar reacts with the thumbs up emoji. Lando would scold him for that if he saw.. ‘Oscarrr you muppet that’s such boomer behaviour’ he can hear in his head.
He glances at the Instagram notifications - knowing it’s most likely going to be more of the same, he smirks when he notices some of the replies to his story though.
‘Oscar in his thirst trap era… we are finally being fed 🙌’
‘Do you think Lando has seen this 👀’
‘🙄 I see this is more important than messaging your favourite sister back’
He huffed, locking his phone and getting off the bike any motivation he had to continue long gone.
In the elevator his phone starts to vibrate again.. Charlotte..
‘Hi Charlotte’ he murmurs
‘I take it you have seen the news’ she sighs.
‘Mmmhmm’ he fights out.
‘There’s more PR fallout from this then there was with Luisa… at least his relationship with her was real.. Magui was meant to keep the reporters off his back.. well.. keep them off your back..’ she rushes out.
‘I know Charlotte, we appreciate it.. truly. But maybe it’s time to stop pretending? I mean, what’s the internet going to do? tear us apart?’
He takes a deep breath steadying himself against the wall of the elevator
‘Zak promised.. the team promised.. after last year and the championship run.. if we wanted to come out we could… maybe it’s time’
He hears a stiffled giggle down the end of the line and what sounds like someone being swatted with a book.
‘Charlotte?’ He prompts ‘who’s there with you?’
‘Ermmm maybe 90% of the PR department.. it’s been a crazy morning Oscar..whole team on deck weathering the storm. Everyone’s just a little bit excited to hear you say that. We’ve been rooting for you guys this whole time you know’
‘We’ve had the plan ready to go since the championship podium.. we’re ready whenever you are’
Oscar straightens from where he was braced against the wall ‘And we can do this however we want? No script, no PR setups?’
He hears Charlotte inhale and clear her throat ‘as we discussed, it’s all up to you guys.. just maybe give me a heads up.. an sms.. anything just so we’re ready’
‘Deal.. listen Charlotte I’ve gotta go and do damage control, I know he will be feeling pretty horrible right about now. We will speak later ok?’
‘Go sort your man.. We look forward to hearing from you Oscar’ Charlotte says warmly down the phone.
He hangs up as he’s unlocking the front door, wondering what sort of storm today might bring for him.
Dropping the keys on the sideboard, he steps over the mess of trainers that seems to grow every day, kicking a few aside. ‘Should really build that shoe rack’ he mutters to himself’
As he walks into the bedroom, shucking his shirt into the laundry hamper he notices a lump on the bed that certainly was not there when he left for gym earlier.. a suspiciously Lando sized lump.
He approaches quietly, listening for proof of life when he can hear small sobs emanating from under the mass of blankets.
‘Lan..?’ He says softly reaching out his hand to place on the lump.. ‘Baby are you ok?’
He hears a large sob followed by ‘I tried so hard this time Osc… I really did’
Oscar’s heart breaks into a million pieces as he climbs on the bed. Seeking an edge to the blanket cocoon Lando has constructed around himself.
‘Hey.. hey it’s ok’ Oscar soothes. ‘I know you tried, everyone knows you did’
‘They don’t, everyone is crucifying me on the internet.. everyone hates me… thinks I’m the worst person in the world’
‘Lan.. the people that matter know the truth’
Oscar hears a deep sniffle and a hiccup as the side of the blanket cocoon opens and Lando is revealed.
He takes a moment to take in the sight of him.
Even like this he is so devastatingly handsome, handsome isn’t even the right word Oscar thinks, beautiful, ethereal would maybe suit him better.
Lando notices him staring and a small smile tugs at the corner of his lips. ‘You can really see why everyone refers to you as heart-eyes Piastri’
Oscar can’t help it, he really does look at Lando like he hung the moon and the stars, he always has.
‘Max messaged me.. you should really let him know you’re ok’ Oscar says as settles down against the headboard, tugging Lando into an embrace.
‘I don’t want to talk to anyone’ Lando sniffles.
Oscar shimmy’s his phone out of his pocket - snapping a quick photo of Lando laying on his chest and fires it off to Max with a thumbs up emoji.
Within a few seconds his phone buzzes ‘Max F reacted ♥️’
‘That’s one issue solved’ Oscar sighs.
‘You think I could just delete all my social media and disappear forever?’ Lando sniffles.
‘Baby you have to drive on Friday.. we have to drive on Friday’ Oscar hums stroking a hand softly down Lando’s spine.
‘Don’t wanna’ Lando shoves his face into Oscar’s chest.
‘I got an interesting call from Charlotte on the way up here’ Oscar says.
‘Why is my press officer calling you?’ Lando lifts his head to look at Oscar directly.
Oscar smiles ‘assuming she tried to call you and gave up’ looking around the room he spots Lando’s phone against a wall across from the bed.
‘Also you know she’s the head of the Landoscar relationship agenda’ he says sarcastically.
‘What did she want?’ Lando enquires.
Oscar clears his throat ‘well firstly she wanted to check you’re ok, she’s really mad that Magui has broken the contract like this.. she brought up that this fallout is worse than Luisa’
He feels Lando tense at the mention of Luisa’s name. They were that couple.. end game as far as everyone was concerned. The fallout had been astronomical from their breakup. She was the last real relationship that Lando had, outside of Oscar of course.
Their breakup fueled by Lando’s confusion about his sexuality + the social media smear campaign about Luisa had been too much in the end.
They still remained friends, in fact Luisa and her boyfriend had been over for dinner just last week.
‘But she also wanted to tell us that she’s in our corner..and if we wanted to post anything… she wouldn’t stop us’
Lando jerks up into a seated position, startling Oscar. ‘What!?’ He yelps grasping at Oscar’s shoulders.
‘You know she’s team Landoscar.. and we have the teams blessing if we wanted to go public’
Lando just stares at Oscar for a moment, Oscar thinks he can see the thoughts flitting through Lando’s head before Lando reaches down and brushes his lips against Oscar’s. Softly at first before pushing further into the kiss, leaving both of them breathless.
‘We don’t have to hide anymore?’
‘Nope’ Oscar says casually.
‘Oh my god…oh my god’ Lando stutters ‘how is this going to work, how will we tell people?’
Oscar tilts his head ‘I don’t think we have to hard launch it.. we can just be us.. just a little less secretive’ Oscar entwines his fingers with Lando’s. ‘We can post the cute pictures that you always want to post.. we don’t have to sneak around everywhere anymore’
Oscar smiles at the thought of not having to steal kisses in secret anymore, maybe actually being able to hold Lando’s hand in public.
‘I have an idea’ Lando says ‘go have a shower and get dressed.. just something comfortable’
Oscar does as he’s told, pulling on some comfortable tailored shorts and a soft white quadrant t-shirt that Lando had added to his collection sometime over the past few months.
He slips into the lounge room and Lando’s eyes catch his, a smile breaks across his face ‘wow…’ lando breathes. Oscar will never get over that feeling.
‘So.. what are we doing?’ Oscar enquires
‘We’re going for a drive’ Lando states, pressing a key into Oscar’s palm.
Oscar looks down at his hand, eyes widening in surprise ‘the Miura!?’
Lando chuckles ‘thought it was a special occasion’
Lando handing over the keys to the Miura was akin to being given the keys to the city Oscar thought. He doesn’t even let a valet park it when he takes it out.
Cars don’t make Oscar nervous, it’s his job, driving cataclysmically fast in abstract circles…but suddenly he feels like 15 year old about to sit his driving test for the first time.
‘I trust you.. you’ll be fine’ lando says ‘lets go’
They take the winding roads up to their favourite lookout, Oscar cannot wipe the smile off his face the whole way. He glances over at Lando several times on the drive, his radiant smile, his body finally looking a lot less heavy than it had earlier. He had one arm out the window - hand dancing in the wind.
Oscar thinks he could spend the rest of his life like this. These small moments - just the 2 of them.
They sit in silence for a while, today has been a lot.
‘Let’s post a photo’ lando says.. ‘just something small’
Oscar tilts his head to think.. ’I have an idea’
He places one hand on the steering wheel and grabs Lando’s hand settling it on this thigh casually. The stack of bracelets Lando always wears catching the light.
Oscar lines up the shot and snaps it. Flipping his phone around to show Lando.
Lando beems.. ‘perfect, it’s just us’
‘We need to tell Charlotte, she made me promise we would let her know’ Oscar says.
Lando picks up his phone and opens Charlottes thread and types ‘Ready?’
Her reply arrives a few seconds later ‘you’ve got this ♥️’
Oscar opens his Instagram and loads up a new story. He adds the photo and adds a heart as the only text.
Lando smiles across the console of the car ‘perfect’
Oscar quickly adds a song and queues it to the right point.. it’s not his regular music but he had heard it at the gym this morning and he thought it fit the moment perfectly. He hits post.
Lando opens his phone to repost to his story, Oscar hears the music softly play …’say you’ll never let me go’ as a smile creeps across Lando’s face. He reaches across and pulls Oscar’s face to his, crushing their lips together.