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The front door of Logan's apartment creaked quietly as Oscar stepped inside the threshold. He shut the door behind him, the soft click seeming far louder than it actually was in the silence of the August afternoon. The two of them had returned to London between Zandvoort and Monza, McLaren wanting to go over some of the data in the factory. Logan had told Oscar something similar about what Williams had wanted. They had arrived back late that Sunday evening, staying in Logan's north London apartment.
Oscar knew now what had happened, Logan having avoided going into specifics about what Williams needed should of been his first red flag. No, he realized, the first red flag was Logan's silence over the last few days. The American had been quieter in general as the season had progressed, the events of Australia solidifying where he stood in the mind of James Vowles and the team. Nothing had pissed Oscar off more though—when the videos of the Carlos announcement had dropped. Logan knew he wouldn't be resigned, but he didn't realize how much the team would celebrate his replacement. Oscar had watched as Logan turned off his phone and set it on the counter, the two having gone back to Monaco before they were due in Florida to see Logan's family.
The blond had stared down at the device on the counter, the far away look in his eye that had made a home on Logan's features over the previous few months. Oscar had kicked himself at the time for not noticing sooner, but they both had been extremely busy, and McLaren having got their shit together mid-season put more and more of a demand on Oscar's time.
Oscar tread quietly into the living room, a single lamp on in the corner and the TV left on. It was bouncing around on some empty input, Logan probably tried distracting himself with their Playstation.
A glint of a screen on the couch caught his eye: Logan's phone. He knew that it was either off or just plain dead. Oscar had tried calling him the second he heard from Alex about what happened. He was miffed that he didn't even get to hear it from Logan himself, but then again it seemed that Logan had known since that Saturday after that fiery free practice and had just…. told no one. Not Oscar, not Alex, not even Dalton or Kyle Kirkwood based on the confused messages in his inbox.
What really was troubling Oscar was the fact that Logan was able to hide something at of this magnitude for so long. He knew how Logan was, this had to have been eating him alive for the last few days. Fuck. He needed to find him.
He moved towards their bedroom, ignoring the dread that was piling up in his stomach. There's no way Logan had left, right? His phone was on the couch, but Oscar wasn't paying attention to the bowl by the front door when he had walked in. Logan was a stickler about keeping his keys and wallet there, knowing damn well he might lose them otherwise.
The bedroom door was shut as he turned the corner in the hallway, he let his hand rest on the doorknob for a moment. He took a deep breath and turned the handle, pushing in as the door quietly creaked open.
Oscar bit his lip as his eyes scanned the room, Logan wasn't there. The bathroom light was off. What the hell was happening? "Logan?", he called out cautiously, some last resort before he began to properly panic. There was a subtle movement that caught his eye from under their bed. The smallest tuft of golden fur dissipated back into the shadows.
Oscar let out a sigh of relief. "Logan…", he said, moving to sit next to where he saw the blond's tail. Oscar took a second to ponder what he should say next. "I'm right here for you, Lo, whenever you're ready, I'll be here." The smallest whimper came out from under the mattress, Oscar taking that as a response.
Oscar lowered himself to the ground, back up against the mattress. He sighed and looked down at his legs. "I'm not mad Lo, not at you. Mostly just…" he took a breath, "surprised, I guess." Oscar looked back up at their nightstand, a framed photo of the two of them sat there. It was probably from around the time they were at Prema together, if the way Logan's hair was freakishly gelled was anything to go by. "I thought we'd be able to finish the season out together, y'know, I am so sorry Logan. I really am."
As the silence in the room stretched on, Oscar felt himself dozing off, knees pulled up to his chest. It was sometime later, the growing darkness of the room proof enough, when he was pulled from his sleepy daze by a weight pressing itself along his side. Logan was sat beside him, human Logan. Eyes red and face blotchy. The blond was staring off into the distance, mouth held tightly shut. Almost as if he was afraid to make a sound.
“Hey.”, Oscar said quietly, not wanting to startle Logan. His boyfriend turned his head slightly to look at him and then paused, lips pursed as if he was debating what to say. After probably a good 30 seconds of silence, Logan hit him with a simple, “Hey”
Logan took a breath before continuing, “I’m sorry for not uh, not saying anything.” Out of his peripheral Oscar saw the man start rubbing the skin of his thumb, “I just uh, wasn’t sure how to say anything and like, it’s too late.”
Oscar made the executive decision to pull Logan closer to him, the American rag dolling into him, head flopping onto Oscar’s shoulder. He could feel Logan’s breath stutter.
"Whatever you want to do, I'm there for you. I'll support you."
Logan looked back up at him. "I… I don't know what I'm going to do."
Oscar nodded. "That's okay. You'll figure it out. You always do, Lo." He said, placing a kiss to the top of Logan's head. "Why not just…", Oscar paused, "Take a step back. It'll be good for you."
Logan seemed to mill the though over for a bit, "Yeah. Yeah maybe just a bit. Best to let the world forget me for a bit."
Oscar smiled softly, "And I'll be here for you. Every single step of the way."
They left their phones be for the rest of the evening, Oscar spending the rest of the evening with Logan curled into him. Oscar heard sniffles from time to time, the blond's face buried into his chest.
Oscar sent a few texts off to Logan's family, letting them know that he was with Logan and that the American was doing the best he could in that situation. He felt the blond's breath even out. Oscar took a minute to take it all in. What the fuck was he going to do? What the fuck were they going to do? The couple had manged when they were in different series, but there was a certainty that they would end up at the same place: Formula One.
That was over now. Logan's half of their dream lay shattered in the grass in Zandvoort. They'd figure it out, they always did. For now they'd take it one step at a time. Oscar leaves the next evening for Italy. They would talk it out more than they had earlier. Have a concrete plan set in place for the rest of the season.
He thought he'd have more time with Logan on the grid, and that is probably what hurts the most.
He eventually wiggled out from under Logan as carefully as possible and set about tidying up Logan's room. Logan wasn't a messy person, far more organized than Oscar would ever be, and the room was not what was up to Logan's standards. The bedding was thrown about and the fitted sheet was coming up from the corners. He would need to make the bed before he moved Logan there, knowing that his boyfriend would gripe about his neck being sore from the position that he had dozed off in.
After getting the bed situated, his eyes wandered to the clothes thrown about on the floor. Logan's suitcase was sat in the corner of their room, opened up with various Williams branded items spilling out over the sides. Oscar hadn't thought much of it in the morning, Logan being—despite his usual cleanliness—a messy packer.
Oscar paused for a moment. Should he just put the clothes away? Hide them in the back of the closet with the hope that they would never see the light of day again? Yeah that would work, it was one more thing that he could take off of Logan's plate and if he was lucky, Logan would let him burn the shirts at some point in the future.
He sighed, quietly walking over to the suitcase and picking up the mess of shirts. Was Logan going to stay here while he was in Italy? Hiding away might feel good but would it really be what's best right now? He needed to stop. This was a conversation for later. A conversation for when Logan was awake and not curled up against their bed with tear tracks staining his cheeks. He set the ball of Williams gear in the back corner of a shelf, out of sight and out of mind. Oscar then crept his way into the kitchen to make a snack and some tea for Logan. While Logan was definitely more of a coffee person, the American had developed a fondness for a specific brand of mint tea that he would swear up and down was for Oscar if asked about it.
Oscar grabbed their electric kettle and set the water to boil and took a peak into their fridge. It was mostly empty, bar a couple of meal prep things they had tossed in their upon the couple's return to the Netherlands. Oscar could always just doordash something. He picked up his phone and scrolled over to the app, trying to figure out what Logan would want right now. His train of thought was interrupted by the click of the kettle, he reached up to grab a mug out of their cabinet, the funky looking clay one Oscar had made during a pottery class they had taken together for shits and giggles. Oscar thought it was ugly but for some reason Logan loved the damn thing.
He set Logan's tea on the counter to steep and went back to searching for something that would lift up his boyfriend's spirits when it hit him, that Italian place nearby was definitely still open. Oscar searched it up and sure enough there it was, he ordered the last thing that he remembered Logan having from there and grinned. Easy. He discarded the teabag from Logan's mug, adding in some honey and a rather obscene amount of sugar. Carefully he ventured back into their room, Logan still curled up beside their bed. Oscar set the mug on a coaster that Logan kept on his bedside table and slowly crouched down to pick Logan up. The Australian slid his arm behind Logan's back and just under his knees and slowly lifted him up to set down on the bed. The blond stirred slightly, a small noise of complaint from being jostled rising from his lips. Logan's face quickly smoothed out to that of a relatively peaceful sleep. Oscar figured he would wake Logan up when their food got here—or whenever his tea had cooled down enough—whichever came first.
Turns out he didn't have to wait that long, because about 5 minutes after Oscar sat down next to Logan on the bed, the blond began to stir, slowly sitting up from his curled up position over their covers. Logan blinked at him, eyes slightly unfocused.
Logan opened his mouth to speak, a small noise escaping before he closed it again, visibly thinking about what to say next. The American pursed his lips before finally asking, "What time is it?"
"About 9ish, we slept for a bit. Made you tea and ordered from that one Italian place you like. Y'know the one with those cannolis you wanted like a dozen of." Logan smiled but it quickly faded into a look of concern and he went to speak, "Lo, you need to get actual food into your system, you'll feel better." Oscar kind of felt rude for cutting him off but not really, he saw the singular bag of trail mix in the trash earlier and knew Logan had probably just spent his day anxiously picking at the snack foods in the apartment.
Logan just nodded, his eyes wandered around the room, eventually landing on the mug, condensation staring to build on the outer layer and drip onto the coaster. A small smile graced his face as he reached for it, Thank you, Osc." Logan took a small sip. He wiggled closer to Oscar, their shoulders now touching, "Do you, uh, know where my phone is? I remember turning it off but I can't remember where I left it."
Oscar was pretty sure it was still on their couch, half buried into a cushion. "Are you sure that you want your phone?" He didn't want to come off like an asshole but there was likely a lot of people with a lot of nothing to say about what had occurred over the last day.
"Yeah." Logan said with a nod, "I deleted my socials already, did it sometime over the weekend. I just need to talk to Dalton or my mom." He paused, "Probably Kyle too."
"They reached out to me and told them that, well, that you were doing as well as you could be given the circumstances."
Logan nodded again, "I figured. Just thought that they should hear from the horse's mouth."
"Yeah, pretty sure I saw it on the couch when I came in. Do you want me to grab it for you?"
"Nah, it's okay, I should probably get up and like, move." Logan then rolled his shoulders a bit before sliding off the bed, taking a deep breath and grabbing the cooling mug of tea from off the nightstand, "Plus, Osc, you said you ordered us food." Logan added with a half smile, more-so that smirk that Logan swore up and down was a smile.
Oscar followed him out to their kitchen, the blond setting his mug back down on the counter and then moving to their living room to search for his phone. If this were any other person, Oscar would simply assume that they were handling the situation well. Logan wasn't just any other person. The only thing Logan knew how to do was to just keep pushing forward. He was like a shark, if he stopped moving he wouldn't know what to do with himself. Oscar knew that he would just have to be there for Logan when he stopped.
Logan returned back to their kitchen, phone in hand and plopped down on one of their barstools. "When should the food be here?" the blond asked as Oscar watched him power on his phone, the logo lighting up on the counter. Oscar shrugged, "Like, 20 minutes." Logan looked appeased by his answer, "Fire."
Oscar watched him out of the corner of his vision, trying to figure out how to properly start the 'What is our plan for the rest of the season?' talk. He wasn't super worried. They weren't going to break up or anything. That much he knew for sure. Would Logan go back to Florida? Just bask in the sun on the beach or on a boat and figure out his next steps there. One of the other options being Logan coming to races with him, though he wouldn't want the American to feel forced back into the spotlight so soon after being dropped. There was always the insane option of Logan showing up to races as a dog. Scratch that. there's no way in hell he'd do that. Oscar shook his head slightly, they just needed to talk it out.
"Kyle invited me to Nashville," Logan said, breaking Oscar's train of thought, "said Andretti would be happy to have me." He was looking at Oscar, expression neutral, as if he was trying to sus out what Oscar thought of it.
"I think that would be good for you." Oscar smiled as he spoke, "New environment, some familiar faces." He watched as Logan's features smoothed back out, the slight tension falling from his face. Oscar took a breath, "If you wanted, you could also put some feelers out, make some connections." Logan bit his lip. "If you wanted. It's up to you, Lo."
"I have about a week to think about it." Logan added, completely ignoring the last bit of what Oscar had just said. "I would probably have to leave Thursday, maybe Friday at the latest."
"Are you for sure wanting to go?"
"I don't know."
Right. Okay he needed to get Logan some food and actual rest. Their conversation starting to run in circles. Oscar needed to slightly change tactics. "Why don't you go sit down at the table, I'll grab you a drink and our food should be here soon." Logan looked at him with a raised eyebrow—rude—and slowly stood up. As if some kind of higher being was listening in, there was a knock at the door. Oscar moved to go look through the peephole as his own phone buzzed on the counter. A quiet confirmation of the food delivery.
Oscar opened the door and grabbed the plastic bag, bringing it back to their kitchen. Logan was sat at their dining table, head propped up on his hand, eyeing Oscar as he sat the bag down on the counter. He took the takeout containers out, opening one of them to check whose it was. He opened up Logan's pesto pasta first, Oscar took one of the packs of plastic cutlery from the bag and took it to where Logan sat at the table. "Bone apple tit." Oscar said, all serious. It got a laugh out of Logan, so ut was a win.
Oscar then returned to the counter to grab his own food and sat down next to Logan, bumping his leg against the American's. It was now or never, "Do you want to come with me to Italy?" he started, Logan froze, "You won't have to go to the track if you don't want to. You don't even have to go to Italy if you don't feel comfortable doing so." He quickly added on, just to try and emphasize that it was Logan's choice. "You can do whatever you'd like Lo, go with Kyle or your folks, hell you could run off to, I don't know, Canada or somewhere and I'd still support it."
Logan looked at him, eyes shining. "I think I'd like to go with you. Then maybe I'll spend the Baku weekend in Nashville with Kyle." He said quietly, becoming more and more sure of what he was saying as he spoke. "I'll let Kyle know in a bit so he can make sure Andretti has like my pass and shit"
Oscar nodded, "Sounds good, though we kind of need a way to get you to Italy without the media swarming you."
Logan gnawed at his lip for a second before looking at him with a stupid grin, "What if, hear me out." Oscar did not like where this was going, "You were supposed to fly in with Max and them right, bring me along but like as a dog."
"Logan there is no way in hell-"
It was surprisingly easy to convince Max to let him bring along dog-Logan on their flight to Italy.
While Max was very much so was a cat person, he seemed to be quite fond of dog-Logan, or better known now to Oscar's friends: Remi. Remi was a hit. Lando saw him after boarding and ignored everybody else to go and sit with the half asleep dog before wandering off to go sit across from Hulkenberg. Oscar may or may not have given Logan a piece of totally normal, not at all stuffed with benadryl cheese. Logan was a pain in the ass on airplanes in general, the air pressure tending to mess with his ears in a way that left him annoyed and snappy, and he wanted to avoid that as much as possible when Logan was in his canine form.
There was a certain awkwardness in the air that made itself at home on the jet, Oscar knew what it was. There was an American shaped hole next to Oscar. Logan was supposed to be there with them, the now ex-Williams driver rarely flew into races with people that weren't Alex or Oscar, and had agreed to join Max and them on the way to Italy. Oscar was able to tell that people were curious, Lando in particular had the world's least subtle side eye.
Other people were starting to get on board, few going out of their way to meet Oscar's newest companion. He was secretly worried someone might figure out that Remi was Logan, but who in their right mind would accuse Oscar of sneaking around his public best friend as a dog. How insane of a thought would that be to anyone with a lick of common sense. Thank God Lando was too enamored with dog-Logan to rub his two non-racing braincells together to form an actual thought.
Oscar took a deep breath as someone slid into the seat across from him. "Nice dog. Didn't know you had one." Said none other than Fernando Alonso. Fuck.
"He's been with me for a while actually, since I was about 17." Oscar said with a smile, looking down at where dog-Logan had finally drifted off into sleep, curled up on the seat to the left of the McLaren driver. "His name is Remington, I think everyone just calls him Remi though."
Fernando just nodded, there was something else in his eyes as they scanned over Oscar, "How is Sargeant doing?"
Oscar froze, he knew he'd be asked about it, his press officer had mentioned it in an email about some media stuff they would be going over before the race weekend started. "He's doing… okay. Probably the best he can right now. I'm pretty sure he's headed off to Florida soon." It wasn't a total lie, Logan was going to go back after the race weekend, they'd spend a couple days in Monaco and then Logan would be off. They still hadn't decided if Logan was going to come to Singapore yet, but it was all in the cards. Oscar planned on spending time in the U.S. with Logan before Austin regardless of the situation.
Fernando just nodded at him, probably just asking as a courtesy, while to the world the two had drifted apart over the last few months, it was pretty obvious in the paddock to most people that Logan and Oscar had still spent lots of time with each other. A select few knew why, actually it was probably an open secret in the world of motorsports that they were more than just friends or ex teammates or whatever they were seen as.
The flight went well, dog-Logan only stirring when they'd hit bouts of turbulence and he would immediately settle upon seeing Oscar still next to him. Lando ventured back over at some point to talk, it wasn't a very long flight, having felt like they were descending mere moments after they took off.
As they started to get off the plane, Oscar shook dog-Logan awake, clipping the light green leash to the dog's collar. Dog-Logan looked up at him, tiredness evident in his eyes. "Just going to the car, bud." Oscar said and dog-Logan hopped down from his seat and sat as he waited for Oscar to get his stuff from the overhead bin.
"He's so well behaved.' Lando commented from behind him somewhere.
"Thanks." Oscar said, "He's pretty chill most of the time." Dog-Logan looked at him with a turned head, still fighting off the totally not benadryl snack from earlier. Oscar began to disembark from the plane, stood behind Lando and a couple of Redbull personnel as he made his way down the stairs. He figured there would be someone papping them somewhere, with the way Max's jet tended to be stalked by some overeager fans. He tried to look normal with Dog-Logan leading him down the steps onto the tarmac. The two of them had come up with a story, Oscar having gotten Dog-Logan in F4 and having just stayed with Oscar's dad back in Melbourne until he moved to Monaco earlier in the year. As long as no one asked Oscar's dad about it, they should be in the clear. Simple really.
They made it to their hotel with no issues, Lando seemed to be thinking up some plan to buy Dog-Logan's affections, Oscar seeing some racing related dog toys on his phone screen. Once they got into the room Oscar sighed in relief, Logan would be joining him for media day and for the free practices and the easy ride in eased the Australian's worries about Logan getting noticed while in the paddock. Oscar took Dog-Logan off his leash, the dog flopping down onto the hotel floor. He laughed and took their toiletries bag into the bathroom, Logan liked having their things set up so they weren't scrambling the next morning for what they needed. Not that Oscar was too pressed about it, having shown up in the paddock with a bird's nest as a hair-do on several occasions.
A groan came bedroom, Logan having shifted back into his normal form, likely achey and still tired from having been shifted for the majority of the day. Oscar walked back into the bedroom, greeted with the sight of Logan starfished face-down on the bed.
The Australian sat on the edge of the bed, right next to Logan's torso. He reached a hand out to rub his back. "You good there, hoss?" Muffled Logan noises were his response.
The blond turned over, a half grouchy look on his face and a glare shot towards Oscar. "Did you put benadryl in the cheese again?"
"No." Oscar said, like a liar.
Logan raised his eyebrows, totally not believing Oscar but too enamored to care. "You spent too much time around Kyle, why the hell did you call me 'hoss'?"
"God forbid I try to embrace my boyfriend's culture." Oscar snarked, rolling his eyes dramatically.
Logan proceeds to whack him with a pillow. Oscar giggling like some kind of schoolboy as it thumps against his chest. "Scoot over, asshole." Oscar says through his fit of laughter, Logan does as he's told and the brunet slides up next to him, tucking his head underneath Logan's chin.
"What are we going to do about tomorrow?", Logan asked, voice quiet against the hum of the hotel room.
Oscar took a pause. "Whatever you'd like. There a paddock pass for a 'Remington Piastri' in my bag right now. If you want I can have someone bring you back in the afternoon. Just let me know, babe."
Logan nodded, bringing Oscar even closer in, like he was trying to merge himself into Oscar. "Sounds good. At least now I don't have to get ready."
"The amount of time we'll save now that you don't have to style your hair like you're going to an awards show."
"Excuse me, at least I actually did my hair instead of taking some water and a comb to it."
"Not my fault you gave everyone standards from the get-go."
"Yeah. yeah." Logan said with a small laugh, "What's for dinner?"
The rest of their night was simple, the two had their room service dinner, Oscar went through a few of his emails with Logan starting to doze off on his chest. By the time Oscar was ready for bed Logan was out like a light, mouth slightly agape as he snored quietly. The younger man smiled softly, brushing a strand of blond hair out of the way before scooting them down a bit so he too could fall asleep.
The walk into the paddock was relatively uneventful a few photographers snapping him and his surprise golden retriever. Logan was eerily relaxed about it in the morning, picking out a black McLaren branded bandana to wear with his collar because in his words: "You are not going to put me in that godawful orange, Oscar."
Even now, Logan seemed to be enjoying his walk in, trotting beside Oscar with his tongue flopping out in a pant. The other man didn't normally like being the center of attention, but maybe it was different because people didn't really know it was him. A couple of personnel stopped to pet Dog-Logan, who took it in stride. The most unexpected thing was George Russell of all people seemingly going out of his way to stop by, kneeling down by Logan and scratching behind his ears with a small, almost sad smile.
George looked up at Oscar, a knowing look in his freaky blue eyes. "Cute dog, Oscar, didn't know you had one."
"Erm, yeah, he just stayed with my dad in Melbourne." Oscar said, trying to not sound like he was two more questions away from blowing Logan's cover.
"What's his name?" George went back to looking at Dog-Logan. who was licking at George's hand. (What the fuck, Logan?)
"Remi. well Remington."
George just nodded and stood up, clapping Oscar on the shoulder, "See you two around, yeah?" He then waved at Dog-Logan, that same smile gracing his face again.
Fuck. Did George know? Was Oscar that obvious? There was absolutely no way he knew. George was weirdly perceptive though and would somehow have the knowledge that Oscar's dog was in fact actually a shifted Logan Sargeant.
They made it back to Oscar's driver room without further incident, any other drivers he ran into simply waving or nodding at him as he walked past. The whole conversation with George was on replay in his mind. If George knew, who would he have told? The first person to come to mind was Alex. Though if George had told Alex, the other Brit would have been at Oscar's door in minutes, especially if the way he kept blowing up Oscar's phone for information on Logan was anything to go by.
He felt bad for Alex, he really did. But he saw Logan send him a text saying that he was going to go off the grid for a while, and wished his now ex teammate all the best. Alex just kept texting Oscar instead, with the idea that maybe Oscar could or would give him more information than Logan was letting out.
Oscar made sure the door was shut before taking off Logan's collar and set it with his things. He had a media thing in like half an hour and he figured hiding out in his driver's room would give Logan some time to chill as a human before going back out to the masses. Oscar started changing into his media day outfit and heard the tell-tale pops of Logan transforming back into a human.
Oscar turned around Logan flopped on the couch like he owned the place, a dopey look on his face as he stared down Oscar. What a sap.
"Hey good-looking." Logan grinned
"Hey yourself." Oscar replied, trying to slightly tame the bird's nest before the media thing. They'd style it a bit more anyway.
Oscar felt a pair of arms wrap around his middle and a face smoosh itself into his neck, he smiled softly.
The younger turned around to face Logan, Oscar pressing a kiss to Logan's cheek. "I love you Lo, but I am not kissing you until you brush your teeth." Logan made an offended noise and stuck his lip out in a pout. "Especially", he added. "after licking George Russell's hand. What was that?"
Logan snorted, "He's known that I can shift almost as long as you have, Osc."
No shot.
"What?" Oscar asked, confusion written all over his face.
"Well he was my driver coach at one point and it just kind of… came out? He's been chill about it , as far as I know he hasn't told anyone." Logan explained with a shrug. "He seen my dog form a couple times and he's probably assumed that it's me with you."
"Right, right." Oscar almost laughs, at least he doesn't have to worry about George having figured them out, because 18 year old Logan already told him. Perfect.
"Probably should have brought that up earlier but, I don't tend to think about George Russell very often."
He could give Logan that. "Yeah, yeah." Oscar felt his face soften, "A heads-up would have been great, though." Oscar teased, met with Logan rolling his eyes.
Logan split from Oscar, moving back to his spot on the couch, "When should you be back from media?"
Oscar shrugged, "We have some team stuff that is going to take God knows how long and they have me for a press conference today, so hopefully after that I should be good to come back for a bit."
Logan laid his head back over the arm of the couch, a small smile on his face. "Sounds good, please make sure I get like, human food, at some point today."
Oscar tossed a sock at him with a snort, "What, are you too good for the kibble I sent with Kim?"
Logan, whacked the sock away. "Yes, actually I am."
"See you later, yeah?" Oscar said with a smile as he grabbed his phone.
"Later, love you, bye." Logan grinned back, waving as Oscar closed the door.
The team media stuff went by quickly, much to Oscar's joy. The faster he could get back to Logan in his driver's room, the better. The biggest issue he had was the press conference he was scheduled for. Normally it would be easy to bullshit his way through it, but considering recent events he knew the kind of questions he was bound to get. It also didn't help though, that Alex Albon was going to be there and looming as menacingly as he could over Oscar's shoulder to get information on Logan.
Again he understood where Alex was coming from, the other driver having been in a similar situation with his infamous RedBull stint. Logan however told Alex he was stepping away from dealing with the world for a while and Alex needed to learn to take no for an answer.
If Oscar was lucky he would be able to form some kind of driver-buffer between himself and the prying eyes of Alex.
The Aussie made his way into the media room and realized that two other drivers were already there, Charles and Esteban sat in the middle of the long couch, chatting quietly in French. Perfect placement, Oscar sat at the edge of the couch, positioning himself so there wasn't enough space for someone else to sit in the gap between himself and Esteban.
The media began to trickle in as well, setting themselves up, eyes scanning over the drivers that sat before them. Alex came in shortly after, walking in with a guarded look. Oscar looked the man up and down and Jesus Christ, Alex was looking worse for wear. That was not the normal amount of dead inside a Williams driver should look like. Oscar would know, having watched Logan over the last 6-ish months.
Alex sat down on the other side of Charles, a polite, media-worthy smile now plastered onto his face. Oscar almost felt bad for the guy.
Yuki was the last driver to come in, sitting down quietly next to him.
The conference started with little fanfare, Charles getting asked about his chances in the race and Esteban about seats for the next year. Then the attention then turned to Oscar, a pause laid heavy over the room.
"Oscar!", some pundit began, "As we all know, Logan Sargeant was dropped following the last race, have you spoken to him since then? Any hints on his next moves."
Oscar knew it was coming, though it was a little wild that it was the first question anyone asked him. Nothing about the car or McLaren's championship chances, but Logan. Guess that was going to be the hot topic for this weekend. He not surprised at all, he just wishes it wasn't at his and Logan's expense.
"Erm, I've talked with him a bit, yeah. He seems to be doing okay. I don't know what his next steps are but he was one of the fastest people I have raced against back in the junior formulas. Whatever he does next I am sure he'll be great at."
The reporter nodded. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Alex staring him down, listening to every word for a hint of what Logan would be up to. He didn't regret keeping Alex in the dark, but he did hope that little bit would keep the other man out of their business.
The press conference moved on quickly, Alex being asked a similar question about Logan a little later on and rattling off some Williams PR approved response. Oscar kept his reaction schooled, not wanting to feed the people that were undoubtedly scanning them for every single expression that would grace their face.
When they were finally released from the conference Oscar made a bee-line for the exit, hoping and praying that Alex wouldn't be able to catch him. It was all in vain as Charles pulled him aside, still leaning into the whole fatherly bit. Dammit. Normally he wouldn't mind, but he had a boyfriend in his driver's room he kind of wanted to get back to and said boyfriend's ex-teammate that he wanted to avoid.
"Oscar!", Charles greeted him, a cheery expression plastered across the Ferrari driver's face, he then began talking about the racing aspects of the weekend, it's one of those conversations that Oscar would enjoy on a regular race weekend, but his mind was elsewhere about 300 meters away. Oscar nodded along when he felt it was necessary and did his best to lead Charles to the McLaren Garage that way he could make an easy excuse to dip out. Charles had other plans and decided to stop in the middle of the paddock walkway.
"Do you know anything else about Sargeant?" Charles asked, out of the blue. Alex was coming up closer too, goddammit Charles.
Oscar rubbed the back of his neck, "Just about as much as I let on to the media, I talked to him and he's just gonna take a break from it all and go from there. He's doing as good as he can given the circumstances."
"That's good to hear." Another voice cut in, Alex Albon. "It's a shame what happened to Logan, was really hoping to finish out the season with him."
"Who's Logan?" Oscar blurted out, ignoring the bewildered looks that took over the other two men's expressions and taking the opportunity to leave back to McLaren.
He knows that is probably one of the stupidest things that has ever come out of his mouth, but it is what it is and it got him out of having to talk more to Alex than he wanted to. He will just never tell Logan about that because the American would not let him live down asking his former teammate such a smart-ass question.
The rest of the weekend went over quickly, Logan opting to stay back at the hotel for the rest of it, meaning Oscar got to come back to a smiling Logan come Sunday, second place trophy in hand.
Baku race week was going to be a little bit tougher, it wasn't anything bad, Oscar just missed Logan. He knew Logan was fine, having spoken with him at least once a day on the phone after his boyfriend left for the United States. Logan sent him photos from Nashville and tidbits of information about what was going on in the Andretti garage. Apparently Kyle was hyping him up the entire week before and a mechanic had mentioned it to Logan in front of him, leaving Kyle all embarrassed and Logan laughing. He was glad that Logan was in an environment where he didn't have to worry about his Formula 1 reputation. The people in IndyCar were good to him.
Oscar's main issue for the weekend was his continued avoidance of Alex. He knows he's being a bit of an ass, but after the whole "Who's Logan?" blunder, it was way more obvious that Oscar was in fact hiding something and Alex was nothing if not persistent.
Things were going great so far, with Oscar successfully avoiding Alex the whole weekend. He figured his luck was going to run out at some point, but he was just trying to go with the flow, Oscar had a good overall feeling about the weekend. He refused to let Alex's nosy ass ruin it.
Nevertheless he was doing pretty good, the car was great and he was starting the race on the front row. There was a good possibility that he could win; and if he got to bring a trophy back home to Logan? That just made everything better. Oscar wouldn't be able to get time to go visit Logan in the U.S. before Singapore, but there was a month break before Austin and Oscar made sure at least half of that would be able to be spent on some Florida beach or on the Sargeant's boat.
The driver's parade was shaping up to be rather boring, Oscar electing to hang towards the back, Lando off somewhere yapping with George and with Logan gone Oscar wasn't able to use talking to him as an excuse to not talk to the other drivers. This left him vulnerable to once again being cornered by Alex, a look of determination in his eyes once he realized Oscar was standing there alone.
"So," the Williams driver began, "No dog this race?"
Oscar shook his head, "Nah, he's with family right now." Now Alex would probably figure that Oscar meant his own family. Wrong. Technically this wasn't that big of a lie to tell, since Logan was in fact with family… that family just happened to be Kyle Kirkwood and Dalton. Not Oscar's own.
Alex nodded, "Saw that Logan was at IndyCar."
Oscar shrugged, "Yeah, Kirkwood let me know that Logan was going to be with Andretti for the weekend."
"Just interesting that your dog's not here at the same time Logan's out too."
Alex was smarter than Oscar would have liked to give him credit for, but if he was thinking about it, it just seemed like Alex was grasping at straws. No normal person would accuse someone of pretending their best friend, or as Alex knew them, boyfriend as a dog to sneak into said person's former place of work.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Oscar looked up at him, trying to play off his question as nonchalantly as possible.
The other driver shrugged again, "Maybe Logan was doing the most to avoid people."
Oscar made a face, "Mate, do you know how crazy you sound right now?"
Alex paused for a second, "Well-"
Oscar cut him off, "Alex, I'm gonna hold your hand when I tell you this, but I've had Remington for years. Like since I was 17. Logan has met him a few times back in Australia. I know he'd joke about having that dog in him but he obviously wasn't being literal."
Alex stood there speechless, mouth slightly agape. Good. He needed to mind his own business. Logan was entitled to his space, especially after what went down at Williams. Alex of all people should understand. Everyone knew his history with RedBull. Then again, Oscar thought, maybe that is why he was being so adamant about figuring out if Logan was okay. He walked away, determined to socialize with someone who wasn't Alex Albon.
If Alex wanted to keep tabs on Logan, maybe he should have started after the blunder that was Australia in March.
The break between Singapore and Austin was great, he spent the mandated amount of time doing his team obligations before taking off to south Florida as fast as he could. He'd been getting daily updates on all the fishing and surfing and beach life stuff he was getting up to with Kyle now that the IndyCar season was over.
He was excited to be able to spend time with Logan, who was still in high spirits from the fact that Meyer Shank offered him an IndyCar test for November. It was the week of Las Vegas, so he'd be able to sneak down to California to spend some time with Logan before the race weekend started.
The trip to Austin wasn't bad, Logan opting to fly normally as they were flying in commercially instead of through AirMax. Getting into the hotel was much of the same way, Logan just opted to go in his dog form, so he wouldn't get papped. While the motorsports world was still in a tizzy over Daniel being dropped after Singapore, taking most of the spotlight off of Logan, it would still have been a big deal for him to show up at a race.
The receptionist greeted Oscar with a smile and within seconds the two of them were on their way up. The elevator was on one of the upper floors and Oscar quite frankly didn't feel like trying to find one of the other ones so he figured they could just wait the 30 seconds for it to come back down to the ground floor. Logan apparently had no such patience. He flopped onto the floor with a whine, looking up at Oscar with his literal puppy dog eyes.
"It will be like less than a minute, you'll be fine."
He was met with a yawn and the canine equivalent of an eyeroll
"Okay, be that way."
What Oscar didn't expect was for Logan to paw at his ankles and then lightly nip at the bottom of his pant leg.
"Rude!' Oscar's jaw dropped, "Stop being an asshole."
"Crazy way to talk to your dog, mate."
Fucking hell, Oscar could not catch a break. Alex came into his peripheral, why was he at this hotel? Shouldn't Williams be budgeting to fix the three cars Alex has crashed since Baku?
"Well maybe if he understood the concept of patience, but it is what it is." Oscar shrugged, Dog-Logan chose that moment to sit back up and properly face Oscar, tilting his head to the side.
"Seems like he understands you pretty well, Oscar."
"Please do not insinuate that my dog has human intelligence."
It was Alex's turn to shrug, "See you around, Oscar." The other driver turned on his heel and went back to the lobby, what was the point then of having come to bother Oscar?
Also, where the hell was this elevator?
The weekend itself wasn't the worst by Oscar's standards, though he didn't want to talk about the sprint. It was nice to come back to Logan after that rough result though. Being able to flop into Logan's waiting embrace was something he had missed and decided he would never take it for granted again.
The main race fared much better for Oscar, but rough for McLaren, with Lando pissy about his time penalty for whatever he did. He couldn't bother to remember when it was becoming increasingly obvious that Lando was not going to actually catch up to Max in the points.
Logan was going to be with him until Las Vegas, and he was ecstatic . They wouldn't risk going to the last two races, but instead Logan would go back to Monaco after his Indycar test and relax before a hypercar thing he was scheduled for, the world of endurance looking to open up more and more doors for the American. Oscar couldn't be happier for him, Logan was slowly but surely rebuilding his love for racing that was smashed up in front of him over the last two years.
He figured that at some point that they would have to drop the whole dog gimmick, but for now Oscar was happy, it gave him a way to stay with Logan that wasn't overwhelming to his boyfriend. Even with Alex somewhat on their tail. But how would Alex even prove it to anybody? No one would actually believe Logan was a shifter and after all the Formula One world moves on fast, by next year Logan would sadly be a blip in the history of the sport.
They didn't have to worry about that now though, whatever happened would happen. As long as Oscar still had Logan by his side he'd be happy.