Chapter Text
It was only much later that Jack realized he hadn't actually been having a conversation with Carlos and Lando.
It had been a nice enough driver's parade, as awkward as it still felt to have people staring and cheering at him as he lounged atop a slow-moving truck. He still milled about a little self-consciously, hoping no one would mind him sidling up and joining whatever ongoing conversation would be had. No one did, of course; and Lando and Carlos were particularly generous, both of them grinning widely as he drew up. They didn't change the tenor of their conversation at all, speaking at the same pitch and excitement as they had been.
Jack had smiled; that was nice. He didn't feel like an interloper. The fact that they didn't feel the need to change anything...Jack felt accepted!
Even if he didn't get the inside jokes, even if he didn't really know why they kept nudging and jostling each other, he felt included! Invited! Normal! Confident, even!
He hung out with them until the end of the parade, trying to avoid getting pin-balled about between their weird movements. Oddly undulating. Weirdly orbit-like. Like they were pulling apart and drawing back and pulling apart and drawing back and-
"Oh, shit," Jack said somewhere between Turn 7 and 9 of Lap 43 during the Bahrain Grand Prix.
"All good, Jack?"
"Oh, yeah, sorry. Didn't realize," Jack stammered, releasing the radio button he'd pressed unthinkingly. Or maybe out of some subconscious desire to talk to someone about his revelation.
He put the epiphany firmly out of his mind until after the race. And then he pulled out his phone to watch the video of the driver's parade.
Jesus Christ. They weren't talking to him at all.
They'd barely noticed he was there. So all the big smiles, all the touches, all the jokes...
...the way they looked at each other...
...the way Carlos reached past Jack to brush Lando’s back so gently...
...the way Lando asked after "papá's" birthday...
"Oh, shit," Jack said again, his eyes wide.
Huh.
Well, they were still really nice.
And probably no one else had figured it out, and Jack wasn't going to be a dick.
Still. Maybe he'd announce himself a bit more audibly next time he entered their orbit.
...or maybe he'd change nothing and observe. For science, of course.
Of course.