Chapter Text
Day 35 - Oscar
Oscar was heavily considering going ballistic on his sister.
Somewhere, in the middle of bickering, he had agreed to go clubbing with her while she was in Monaco. Probably the number one thing he did not want to do.
Was it his fault?
Yes.
It was slightly easier to pretend it wasn't though.
Despite that, he was still loving having Hattie around town. She had dragged him shopping quite a few times since she had arrived, one of the notable times being to purchase another stool after he finally received an email about a job interview. You're definitely going to get the job, she had said with probably too much confidence. He was trying his hardest to believe her either way, though.
They had talked a fair bit, catching up on what he had missed back in Melbourne and the very few things she had missed in Monaco. She also had pried very hard about Lando, asking something oddly specific about him nearly twice a day. He didn't understand her obsession with him, she hardly knew him. Not that Oscar knew him very well, either.
Since discovering how he felt about Lando, his mind never left the topic that was the Brit. Oscar longed to know how the other felt about him, something that he had never really thought about before. There was a small moment where he wished that Lando was just a little bit more of an open book, but he shut the thought down quickly.
He didn't like to be the type to wish that someone was something they weren't.
All that thinking, conversation, and shopping had led up to the dreadful day that the two of them went to the club. Now that he was here, all Oscar wanted was to go back in time and to never have left Australia.
His reason for wanting to send Hattie home not in one piece was standing across the table from him.
Lando Norris. Who was waiting for them at the club. And was now chatting it up with his sister.
It was fine. Oscar was being totally cool about what was happening. Not that he was thinking about how natural the two of them worked together conversationally, or that he slightly he wished he was in that spot right about now, because that wouldn't be like him.
However, everything about this situation was nothing like Oscar.
The music in the club was still relatively quiet for party standards, meaning that he could listen in on the other twos conversation. It sounded tame but more than small talk, and thankfully, his sister didn't bring up anything too embarrassing about him. At least, not until Lando was just ever so slightly past the point on the drunk scale where we wouldn't remember much the next day. The unfortunate part was that Hattie was also beginning to get drunk, and now the words were just spewing out of her mouth.
"No, Lando, seriously. He really did try and walk to school alone. My mum was so confused." she said between laughs. Lando was laughing with her, drink in hand.
"Geez, Oscar. That sounds exactly like you." Lando spewed out, his words already beginning to gently mix together. Oscar just let out a mix of a sigh and a scoff in response. His social battery was already at a steady zero, and he knew full well it wouldn't come back at all that night.
Oscar had to bite back a comment about how Lando barely had a grasp of what would sound like him. Whatever, he thought, realizing his anger wasn't directed to his neighbor anyways, but rather still to his own sister. His mind trailed back to earlier that day prior to coming to the club when Hattie had absolutely grilled him about the Brit until he accidentally blurted out "do you want me to confess to him so you'll know more about him?". That unlocked a whole new level of teasing from her that Oscar was not excited for.
After recollecting about the past twelve hours and coming back to reality, Oscar realized that the two were no longer in front of him and had made their way back to the bar. He sighed to himself, questioning the exact sequence of events that had led up to this moment of his (possibly currently miserable) life.
—
For every five drinks Lando and Hattie had, Oscar was forced to have half a sip. He was currently at one whole sip of alcohol, which was unfortunately his limit for the night but not enough to make the two of them less annoying.
Oscar had lost any sense of time and will to be where he was watching them on the dance floor. Every time it seemed that they were remotely close to finally leaving, they would just go for another drink and get right back to it. At several points, he seriously considered walking back to the apartment and letting the two fend for themselves, considering they were both grown adults, but he feared and respected his mother too much to do that.
It also didn't help his mood that his phone was dead. Or that Lando looked so hot for someone so drunk.
Sometime between a DJ switch, Lando came and sat down across from Oscar at his table. "Dude, this guy is killing the vibe so bad. I could do ten times better, I swear." he somehow mustered out in a perfect sentence. "The mixing needs so much work."
Oscar just stared at Lando, zero idea about what he was going on about.
"I mean, I just wonder — was this like the only thing he could download on his Apple Music? Nevermind, he probably uses Deezer or something. Maybe I should go ask him why he thought this was a good idea."
A slow sigh left the Aussies mouth.
"I'm sorry, am I-" Lando laughed to himself, "am I bothering you?"
"You're not particularly enthralling me, that's for sure," Oscar responded, tone about as flat as the floor. "Do you even know what time it is?"
It took Lando a blink to comprehend what the other had just said. "Do you? Know what time it is, I mean?"
Oscar attempted to calculate what time it could be but he already knew he was caught.
"Didn't think so." a dull chuckle closed the short lived argument.
After a couple moments of awkwardly looking at each other, the song switched and Lando's face absolutely lit up.
"Will you come with me?" he asked, almost like the past couple of minutes hadn't happened at all. "To dance?"
Everything in Oscar's body screamed no and a thousand excuses flooded into his head but there was something in him that was greater than everything else. "Yes." escaped his mouth before he even had time to catch it. Nothing seemed in his control as he, for some reason, followed Lando onto the highly chaotic and noisy dance floor.
The music seemed to take over every part of Lando's body when he danced (if you could even call it that…) to the song. Everything and everyone else seemed to disappear as Oscar watched a cheesy, drunken smile grow over the others face, a sense of contentedness slowly flowing over him.
When the song finished, Lando stood there out of breath, still smiling like there was nothing to it. The whole club slowed as the song switched, the beat toned down, and the vibe changed to something that Oscar couldn't quite place. A small flash of light caught and hooked onto Lando's watercolor eyes, almost as if golden hour could be captured in someone's irises. Nothing felt real, everything felt like it was too much. He was still wearing that smile, one that felt genuine, not polished. Almost like a trap set up for Oscar to get caught in. It was only then that he realized that his breath had completely hitched, a thing of the past, even if it was only a few seconds ago, trapped somewhere deep in his heart.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" the Brit finally asked, completely oblivious.
Once again, it was almost as if Oscar had no control of himself as he took a step towards Lando, their bodies touching. It felt so natural yet so foreign.
"Sorry," Oscar said, breathless, and leaned in.
He could taste the liquor on Lando's lips from earlier, it was leaving a sharp taste in his mouth. He could feel his pulse starting to quicken, his head beginning to feel dizzy from everything. His hands moved up to cup the others face without thinking about it, a response to the feeling of Lando's hand on his back. It was all too much, but not enough either.
Someone pulled away, he couldn't tell which one of them had. His eyes opened to the sight of those same ocean eyes, the ones that had pulled him in before. They looked glassy, choking with tears of sunlight. Neither of them said or did anything as they simply stared into each other's souls, trying to read what the other could possibly be thinking.
"That was…" Oscar began, struggling to find the words to finish it and make it a proper sentence.
"Yeah."
The world moved on around them as they stood there, staring into each others eyes.