Chapter Text
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Oscar held his breath as he took picture after picture of Lando walking into the paddock with The Model clinging onto his hand as she wobbled in her heels. He knew it was petty, but Oscar couldn’t bring himself to ask Lando anything about the women who Lando spent his time with in public, including her name. However, Oscar also knew that there was no other photo that was going to make him as much money today as one of Lando with a blonde bombshell hanging off his arm. If he had to watch his boyfriend flaunt a random women about, the least he could do was get a nice pay out from it.
As Lando made he way past Oscar, the pair didn’t even make eye contact on the strict instructions of McLaren PR. Apparently Oscar’s ‘stunt’ of commenting orange love hearts on Lando’s instagram posts had ‘caused quite the stir’ and ‘completely undermined the McLaren PR strategy’, at which point Lando had very gently asked Oscar to unfollow his account.
This conversation was one of many that Oscar had left feeling deflated in the 3 months since the duo officially got together at the beginning of the summer break, but, never one to start a fight, Oscar always let Lando (and by proxy the McLaren PR team) have their way.
Drivers continued to make their way into the paddock ahead of the Dutch grandprix, but Oscar wasn’t really paying attention, taking photos on autopilot now that the one person he’d been waiting to see all day had walked passed him without batting an eyelid.
Oscar supposed that, to some extent, the situation was his fault, he’d just be too public about his links with Lando, and now Lando had a beautiful McLaren-approved ‘girlfriend’ who accompanied him to all the events Oscar wanted to be at supporting him, and who got to jump up and down and be excited whenever Lando stood on the podium while all Oscar got was a feeling of dread that sat in his stomach and an exhausted Lando showing up to his hotel room in the middle of the night after making sure he wasn’t followed.
Oscar’s phone buzzed in his pocket, snapping him out of the mental pity party he held whenever he had to witness Lando and The Model together. Allowing his camera to rest around his neck, Oscar fished his phone out of his pocket, seeing a new message from a contact who’s only identifier was an orange heart.
from <3: there was this super cute photographer as I was making my way into the paddock just now
from <3: almost tripped over my feet on the way in but managed to keep my cool in front of him
from <3: miss you x
Oscar fought back the urge to send a snarky message back about how if Lando had in fact tripped over his feet he would have fallen into the arms of his fake girlfriend, but managed to contain himself as he typed out a quick reply
to <3: yikes, another cute photographer is knocking around? better keep an eye out
to <3: miss you too, have a safe quali x
Dropping his phone back into his pocket, Oscar began to pack up his gear as he thought through where he was going to set up for the rest of the day. Usually he’d try and choose a spot that simultaneously got him a good view of the track, but was as close to the McLaren garage as possible in the hopes that he would be able to get glances of Lando through out the day - not that Oscar would ever admit this to anyone - but now, the thought of having to see Lando and The Model interacting anymore than he needed to made him feel queasy.
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“No listen to me, I’m not saying you have to look miserable all the time, that’s literally not what I said, I just need you to understand that I’m really not comfortable with public displays of affection” Lando said, running his hands through his hair as the discussion that had already been going on for 45 minutes continued when he should really be getting mentally prepared for qualifying.
It’s not that Lando didn’t like Anya, she was a very intelligent woman and he was sure if they’d met through different circumstances, maybe they even could have been friends, however, in their current circumstances, Lando could only describe her as a fucking nightmare.
“Lando it’s not about what makes you comfortable or not,” Anya raged, “I’ve got a job to do here and it’s to make people think you’re in love with me. That’s not going to work if you get weird every time I try and hold your hand or kiss you in front of other people.”
“Yes but I’m not in love with you!” Lando shouted. He was sure that other people, including his team mate in the next room could hear the commotion but he didn’t care, “the person I’m in love with is my boyfriend who I’ve been banned from seeing and you keep trying to snog me in front of him.”
Anya groaned deeply, moving her hand to run it through her hair before thinking better of it, unwilling to destory her blow out. “I know it sucks for you and your photogrpaher friend but that’s not my problem Lando, do you know what will really suck? If my ‘boyfriend’ is caught shagging a guy and I’ve got all the media saying I’ve turned him gay, right? Now that sucks,” Anya continued.
Lando rolled his eyes so violently it actually caused some pain. Looking down at his watch, Lando saw he had 20 minutes before he needed to be in the car and ready to drive a several hundred miles an hour. Usually he’d be spending this time on the phone to Oscar, but that wasn’t going to happen today.
“Right, look, fine, whatever, I’ll do what you want today but we will be coming back to this. I cannot live like this ok, I’ll be talking to the PR team about this, don’t get comfortable.” Lando said through gritted teeth.
Instantly Anya’s face lit up, relieved to have got her own way. “Amazing, thank you so much Lany baby, now go and have a good race out there.” she said, blowing a kiss as she turned on her heel to make her way out of Lando’s driver room. Lando didn’t have the energy to tell her qualifying wasn’t a race and he put his head in his hands and desperately wished it was Oscar he had been spending time with instead.
Pulling himself together, Lando jumped up and headed out of the motor home, determined to make the best of qualifying, leaving his phone behind in his hate.
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Sat in the paddock, Oscar unlocked his phone again, before instantly locking it again with a sigh when no new notifications came through on his screen. Realistically, he knew that Lando wouldn’t have been able to message him during quali, but they usually called before, and the session ended over an hour ago so surely by this point he’d have been able to reply, Oscar thought to himself.
Lando’s quali had been one of his best, putting in lap after lap of flawless runs as Oscar watched on from his spot near the pit exit, taking pictures of each of the cars as they made their way onto the track. Lando had missed out on pole by a couple of hundredths with Max just stealing the first grid spot from him, but Oscar knew Lando would be pleased, McLaren hadn’t been expecting much this weekend.
With nothing to entertain him post qualifying without Lando, Oscar began making his way through the paddock towards the exit where his rental car was parked, snapping photos of anything that caught his eye, when he made the terrible mistake of giving in to muscle memory and turning his camera towards the McLaren motorhome.
Through his view finder, Oscar watched as Lando made his way towards the motor home, only to be met by the running blonde figure who Oscar could only assume was The Model, who proceeded to throw herself into Lando arms. Oscar dropped the camera, willing back tears and not wanting the zoomed in view that his view finder provided, but couldn’t miss the way his boyfriend span the petite women around in a circle or the giggles that she emitted as she span.
“You alright mate?” an English accent spoke from behind Oscar, making him jump and spin around from Lando. George Russel stood behind him, clearly having witnessed Lando’s dramatic interaction just the same as Oscar had.
“Uh yeah mate,” Oscar said, awkwardly eyeing the other man well aware that it was obvious that Oscar was in fact not ok.
“That’s a bit much don’t you think?” George said, vaguely gesturing in the direction of the McLaren motor home which Lando and The Model had now disappeared into.
Oscar shifted his weight from foot to foot, unable to keep still under George’s gaze, “It’s not up to me what they do, I don’t get a say.” Oscar said. He knew he shouldn’t be talking about this, but he the need to talk about the situation was beginning to overwhelm him.
“Doesn’t Lando talk to you about it?” George asked, eye brows creasing as he spoke.
“I don’t ask, I really don’t want to know anything about her to be honest.” Oscar replied, only now having the brains to look around and make sure nobody was close enough by to be able to hear their interaction.
“Shit man that’s grim,” George replied, “it’s clearly affecting you though, is there really nothing Lando can do?”
Oscar sighed, the exhaustion of the day settling into his bones all of a sudden. “I don’t know George, I don’t really know why I’m here at all anymore.” Oscar said, turning his body away from the other man, “I need to head off, but I’ll see you around,” he said, walking away before George could add anything else.
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It wasn’t until 11pm on Sunday night that Oscar eventually heard from Lando. Oscar was already tucked up in bed, eyes beginning to close after the intense race day of refreshing his phone in the hopes of seeing a message from his boyfriend when he was brought out of his slumber by a gentle knocking on his hotel room door.
With a sigh, Oscar climbed out of his warm bed in nothing but his boxers to look through the peep hole to see a distorted view of Lando, buried in an over sized hoodie covering his head and a surgical mask covering the rest of his face, leaving nothing but his eyes showing as he shifted from foot to foot outside the hotel room door.
Still hazy from near sleep, Oscar clicked the lock on the door, opening it up and stepping aside to let Lando into the messy hotel room.
“You alright Lan?” Oscar said, shuffling his way back to the bed to climb back under the covers as Lando made his way into the dark room, shutting the door softly behind him, “Not heard from you all weekend.”
Lando sighed, removing his mask and hoodie before flopping down on the bed next to his boyfriend, groaning as he sunk into the plush hotel room bed before rearranging to crawl under the covers. “I’m sorry it’s been so mental this weekend, I wish I could have you with me all the time,” Lando said, now turning his body to tuck himself into Oscar’s side, letting Oscar absorb the cold of the outside that still clung to him.
“I wish I was with you too love,” Oscar said, moving to open his arms to envelop Lando, “I missed you this weekend, feels so wrong being at a race and not being able to see you.” Oscar knew he usually wouldn’t be so forth coming with his feelings, but with sleep threatening to overtake him his filter was dropped.
“I miss you every moment you’re not next to be Osc.” Lando said, reaching up to graze his finger tips along Oscar’s jaw, “This whole situation is so rubbish, I’m sorry it’s all happening like this, I just don’t know how to stop it,” Lando said, tears threatening to fall.
“Oscar?” Lando whispered into the darkness, but he was met with no response from the now sleeping Oscar.