Chapter Text
It was the low whines and the soft curls tickling Oscar's jaw that woke him up. There was sunlight streaming through the half-open curtains, which meant it was a much more appropriate hour to be awake. What got his attention, however, was the warm, solid weight tucked into his body, and the fact that, for some reason, he'd been sleeping on the floor of his hotel room.
Another whine sounded in the otherwise quiet room, and– yeah. Lando. Lando, who was half dog now. His half-dog teammate, who was plastered to Oscar's front, hands fisted in his shirt and a leg thrown over his hips. Lando, whose waist Oscar's brand new cat tail had decided was the thing to wrap around while he slept.
Lando, who was currently having some kind of nightmare, and letting out panicked little noises exactly as a puppy would.
Sure. Why not?
Slowly, Oscar used his hand – the one that had apparently spent the last few hours nestled into the hair at the nape of Lando's neck – to gently grab his shoulder and try to wake him up without startling him. All he got for his efforts was a longer, sadder whine, while his teammate pressed his face deeper into the crook of his neck. Oh boy.
“Lando,” Oscar tried, giving the other's shoulder a tentative squeeze. “Lando, you're having a nightmare. Lando–”
Lando startled awake with a full-body flinch, ears snapping up before his eyes even opened, and for one disoriented second his hands only fisted tighter in Oscar's shirt instead of letting go. Then, his brain seemed to catch up to his body, and the tension went out of him all at once — shoulders dropping, breath leaving him in a long, shaky exhale directly against Oscar's collarbone.
"Hey. Hey, you're alright," Oscar said, before the mortification could set in and Lando tried to bolt. "Just a dream."
"'M fine," Lando mumbled, thick and unconvincing, not moving an inch. If anything, he burrowed closer, nose pressed into the side of Oscar's neck like it was the most natural thing in the world. His tail thumped once against the carpet, slow and uncertain, and Oscar felt the exact moment Lando's brain caught up with where his hands were, where his face was, because he went rigid again — this time with a very human kind of awareness.
Next thing Oscar knew, Lando was scrambling off and putting a good two meters between them. His eyes were wide and wild then, and one of his floppy ears was flipped the wrong way. Oscar was still lying down on the floor, one hand hovering in the air and an odd petty indignation in his chest at the cold air of the room hitting his body.
“Uh. Sorry, mate,” Lando breathed out, shaky. “Don't know what that was all about.”
“It's fine,” Oscar said, raising his arms above his head in a deep stretch that had something like a growl spilling out of his chest. Sure. That's a noise he now made, then. Alright. Oddly enough, he didn't feel like sitting up, and instead grabbed one of the pillows on the floor next to him to tuck under his head. “Everything's already weird as fuck anyway.”
The pillow Oscar had grabbed kinda smelled like him and Lando, and he was suddenly feeling sleepy again, nose pressed against it, when another pillow flew right in his face.
“Mate, what are you doing?” Oscar complained, voice low and rough from sleep.
“What are you doing, you muppet? Are you seriously trying to sleep again?”
Oscar cracked one eye open, unimpressed, pillow still tucked under his cheek. "I was resting my eyes."
"You were sniffing the pillow."
"Yeah, I don’t wanna hear about sniffing from you, mate."
Lando made a noise like he didn't know whether to laugh or be horrified, hovering somewhere between the two with his arms crossed and his tail giving the occasional betrayed flick. "We have a flight. We have — things. To figure out. Actual werewolf, cat-person, whatever-the-fuck things."
"We've got hours," Oscar said, unmoving, entirely too comfortable for a man on a hotel floor. His stomach picked that moment to growl, loud enough that his own ears twitched at the sound of it, and he sighed the sigh of a man betrayed by his own biology. "Feed me first, then I'll be a functional human."
"You're not gonna be a functional anything, you're half asleep."
"Half cat," Oscar corrected, closing his eyes again. Why was he so tired? "Only a little bit sleepy."
A moment passed in perfect, blissful quiet, and Oscar almost fell asleep again until Lando huffed, and then Oscar was being properly whacked with a pillow, right in the face. His arms scrambled a little while the pillow was held there a beat longer than strictly necessary, until he could get a hold of Lando and shove him off.
"Up," Lando said, sitting back and giving him a nudge. "Get moving or I'll get room service only for myself.”
As if on cue, Oscar’s stomach growled, loud and inconvenient, and his cheeks warmed up slightly in response.
“Fine,” he mumbled, pushing himself up on his hands and knees to give his back one last big stretch before rising to his feet. “Happy?”
“Getting there,” Lando said, giving Oscar a cheeky grin before getting up only to plop back down on the couch. One of his ears was still flipped the wrong way. “Order some food for us, yeah? I’m starving.”
The pointed, unimpressed stare Oscar gave him only made Lando grin brighter, and Oscar knew arguing was pointless. Instead, he bit back a smirk and reached out to unflip Lando’s ear, letting it flop back to its correct position before giving his hair a ruffle. The way Lando instantly leaned into the touch, only to catch himself and flinch back was more than enough payback for him being a lazy brat.
Oscar padded over to the room service menu tucked into the desk drawer, still riding the last dregs of sleep-fog, and dropped into the chair with significantly less grace than he usually managed.
"What d'you want?" he asked, flipping the menu open one-handed.
"Everything," Lando said, from where he'd draped himself sideways across the couch, one leg hooked over the armrest. "I feel like I could eat my body weight."
Oscar hummed, scanning the list, and then paused. "Do we think that's a dog thing or a person-who-hasn't-eaten-since-yesterday's-lunch thing?"
"Dunno. Wanna test it? Order two of everything and see who finishes first."
Oscar snorted. “I don't think Jon is gonna appreciate that, mate.”
“Right, because us cheating our diets is definitely gonna be the team's main concern.”
Well. Fair enough.
Oscar huffed something that was almost a laugh, and went back to the menu — except halfway down the list, his eyes snagged on the word bacon and something in his chest did an undignified little lurch of want. He blinked. Frowned at the menu like it had personally wronged him.
"...All good over there?" Lando asked, clocking the look on his face.
"Yeah," Oscar said slowly. "Just. Really want the bacon. Like, a lot."
"Order the bacon, then?"
"I did already have half a plan for avocado, eggs and toast, and now the bacon's just — elbowing everything else out of the way." He rubbed a hand over his face. "This is so stupid."
Lando cackled, delighted, tail giving an involuntary thump against the couch cushion. "Oh, this is going to be so easy to make fun of you for."
"Say another word and I'm ordering salmon.”
The smile melted off Lando's face faster than softs in Singapore. “You wouldn't.”
“Try me.”
With a pout, Lando sunk back into the couch instead, mumbling something rude under his breath. Oscar paid him no mind, and just focused on ordering their food first. Now that he was up and about, his stomach did feel like it was about to cave into itself.
Maybe because of the transformation? Growing new body parts is bound to take up some calories.
Once he placed the order, Oscar walked back to the couch, plopping down next to Lando. He was on his phone now, quickly scrolling through instagram as if something there could help them. Oscar turned his attention back to himself, taking stock of his body once again, his tail, especially. It lay on the couch next to him, the tip of it swaying discreetly from side to side. Could he stop it from happening, or would it always betray whatever he felt? He focused on the feeling of it, of this new limb growing out of his body: on where it attached to his lower back, of how the couch felt under it; he willed it then, to lie completely still, feeling his lips tilt up as he succeeded. It was a little fun watching the way it moved, so he watched as his tail rose, fell and swayed in different directions just as he wanted it to.
He must've been truly absorbed in his scientific research, as he almost jumped out of his skin when a polite knock came from the door.
“Room service!”
Right. He stood up and was getting ready to move, when his wrist was suddenly grabbed.
“Wait,” Lando urged, phone forgotten and eyes enormous. “They'll see you.”
“Yes, genius. Which is why I'm grabbing a hoodie first.”
They stared at each other for a beat, until Lando gingerly let go of Oscar's wrist with a timid oh. Oscar resisted the urge to ruffle his hair again, and instead walked over to the bedroom to grab an oversized hoodie he'd left lying around, and tug it over his head so his tail and ears were concealed. He returned to the other room to find Lando in a similar situation, and went over to open the door once he deemed the situation safe.
Their food was brought in by a shy, polite maid, who pushed in a cart with several plates and carefully arranged them on the table. Oscar gave her a generous tip for her efforts, and she was quick to leave them alone afterwards.
“Mate,” Lando snorted once he approached the table and took a look at the dishes. “You weren't kidding about the bacon thing.”
By which, of course, he meant the plate full of bacon stripes and nothing else that Oscar had ordered along with his avocado toast and poached eggs.
He gave Lando a glance. “I can eat it by myself if you don't want it.”
Right on cue, Lando's stomach growled. Loud. A pink flush immediately spread on his face, and he chose to sit down instead of replying. Magnanimously, Oscar decided to let it go. The transformation must've truly gone beyond the physical aspects if it had them acting like this over food.
They ate in silence, faster than Oscar ever remembered wolfing down a plate of food. His trainer definitely wouldn't be happy with him but, well. It was as Lando said, the cat ears were probably a much more pressing issue than cheating his strict athlete diet a little. Or a lot, but who the hell was counting, anyway?
The rest of the day dragged by, with a late lunch and a couple hours of them pretending like nothing was wrong. They ended up back on the couch, sitting on opposite ends. However, post lunch drowsiness and an unusual urge to sit next to something warm had them way too close to each other again, mindlessly scrolling through their phones with Lando’s legs thrown over Oscar’s lap.
Oscar glanced at the time– less than two hours until they had to meet Max for the flight. He couldn't help but wonder how that would turn out, being locked for a few hours in a private jet with two other guys who just got turned into animals.
One of them being Max, who wasn't exactly the most normal individual even on a regular day.
“You should probably get back to your room so we can pack,” Oscar said, glancing at Lando next to him. Their legs were almost tangled together now, and Lando's eyes were soft and droopy as if he were about to fall asleep again.
Lando groaned in response, face all scrunched up. “Don't wanna.”
“Well, you have to, otherwise we’re gonna miss the plane, and have to get our own PJ last minute.”
To add to his words, Oscar gave Lando a nudge with his foot, which was promptly returned. Oscar nudged him again, a little harder, and next thing he knew, they were kicking and shoving at each other, completely tangled on the couch. His next kick found the meat of Lando’s ass, hard enough that he almost went tumbling off the couch, and Oscar braced for retribution.
Nothing could have prepared him though, to the shocked meow that ripped out of his chest when Lando reached down and gave his tail a firm, mean tug. Both of them froze, staring at each other with matching slack-jawed expressions, and Oscar kind of wanted the ground to open up and swallow him whole. His face burned, and he knew he was probably blushing from the roots of his hair down to his chest.
“Not. A word,” he said, though his voice was barely a shaky whisper that didn’t do much to deter the wicked grin lighting up Lando’s face.
“You have to do that again.”
On pure instinct, Oscar drew his legs back, scooting backwards until he was curled up on the far end of the couch, knees pressed to his chest. His tail, the traitor, was hidden firmly behind his back.
“Oh, c’mon, mate. That was cute,” Lando insisted, still grinning. “You have to try it again.”
“Careful,” Oscar warned, voice thankfully firmer now. “If this can happen to me, what’s stopping you from barking by accident?”
The cheeky grin remained, but something flashed across Lando’s face for just a second.
“What was it you were saying? Not to worry about stuff before it happens?” Lando asked, scooting forward on the couch on hands and knees.
Oscar’s stupid tail was beginning to poof up in response. “Lando.”
But the other didn’t mind his warnings, instead just advancing more and more in Oscar’s direction, mischief written clear as day across his features. Oscar braced for it; he was bigger and stronger, he’d have to wrestle Lando down before he got a hand on Oscar’s tail again. Maybe give his own a tug to see how he likes it. Lando stopped right in front of Oscar on the couch, eyes flashing with mischief.
And—shit. Oscar’s tail was definitely all poofed up now.
He barely registered it when Lando surged forward, reacting just in time for one of his hands to find a waist and the other, a shoulder so he could hold Lando back. It was fruitless though, as Lando managed to squirm past Oscar’s hold, hands grabbing onto arms and shoulders, and soon enough Oscar found himself with a lapful of irritating teammate. His poor tail swayed behind him, narrowly avoiding being grabbed and pulled on.
“Oh, c’mon,” Lando giggled on top of him, body shaking with the effort to push against the hold Oscar had on him. “You can tease me but I can’t tease you?”
“I did nothing of the sort,” Oscar shot back, though his lips were beginning to tug up in a smile.
“Did, too,” Lando said, giving Oscar another light shove.
Oscar’s other hand traveled down to Lando’s ribs too, before beginning to poke at them. The action had a loud, startled laugh bubbling out of Lando’s chest, and then they were both on the floor as Oscar flipped around. Despite his incessant giggling, Lando managed to flip them back almost immediately, following through on the momentum. The floor position, unfortunately, trapped the base of Oscar’s tail under him, leaving the upper-half to drag across the floor next to him. Now fully on top of him, Lando was trying to catch his tail like a cat chasing a laser pen.
A loud knock at the door had them both startled into silence, completely frozen in place. Without the distraction of playing around, Oscar was hit by the sudden realization of how close together he and Lando were – not at all appropriate for coworkers. Lando seemed to arrive at the same conclusion, as a faint flush crept upon his face right as Oscar’s cheeks were warming up.
“Waiting for someone?” Lando asked him, voice low, still not moving.
“No,” Oscar replied, maintaining the same soft tone. “Should we ignore it?”
As an answer, the banging at the door resumed. Shit. They’d draw attention of the whole floor at this rate. Oscar sat up, carrying Lando’s weight along with his and depositing him on the floor.
“Pull your hood up,” Oscar whispered, tugging his own hood over his ears and hiding his tail under the baggy hoodie he still wore.
Lando did as instructed, before climbing back into the couch and grabbing his phone and a pillow to hold in his lap. His eyes were round and apprehensive, darting between Oscar and the door, where the banging had momentarily paused. They hadn’t gotten any messages from their handlers, so it shouldn’t be anyone from the team at the door with such urgency. Maybe Gabi or Alex wanting to hangout before leaving? Oscar wasn’t sure what their travel plans were, but Alex would probably share a PJ with George, or something. And knowing Gabi he might as well have made some kind of mistake with his own booking and be looking for a last minute ride. Sure.
It didn’t stop his tail from twitching anxiously under his hoodie, though.
Oscar inched carefully towards the door, sniffing the air in search of a familiar scent. Unfortunately, the air was still heavy with their lunch, so he couldn’t pick up on much more than a slightly familiar hint of cologne– or maybe aftershave? Either way, whoever was on the other side of the door was male. His ears swivelled, but there were no voices outside, other than the distant sounds of the other guests. He threw one final glance at Lando on the couch, curled up into the cushions, before reaching for the doorknob and turning it.
He’d never been more thankful for his natural poker-face, as the door opened to reveal Zak and Andrea waiting for him in the hallway.
“Oscar,” Zak opened one of his big, overtly friendly smiles. Atop his head, only his neatly combed greying hair could be seen, and the same went for Andrea, standing a step back with a much more apprehensive expression on his stern face. “Good to see you, buddy.”
“Uh. Hi,” Oscar managed, appropriately confused since his bosses didn’t exactly make it a habit of knocking on his hotel room. “Can I– Can I help you?”
Zak’s hands, which had been in his pockets, were now held open in front of him. “I was counting on you asking that. Lando’s with ya, I assume?”
“Yeah. We were going over some stuff from the race.”
Andrea’s eyes never left Oscar’s face as he spoke, as if he were trying to see right through him. Oscar’s stomach turned, and his tail twitched inside the hoodie again.
“Oh, I’m sure you were,” Zak nodded, still smiling. “You don’t mind if we come in, then.”
And he was already walking before Oscar could do anything about it, his larger frame effortlessly pushing into the room.
“Ah, there you are, Lando. We’ve been looking for ya.”
Oscar just closed the door behind them, Andrea’s eyes still burning into the back of his neck.
“Oh, did I forget about a meeting? I swear there was nothing on my calendar,” Lando replied, already scrolling through his phone.
“Not at all, buddy,” Zak said, approaching Lando on the couch, and Oscar could do nothing to stop it as he reached forward and tugged the hood off Lando’s head, drawing a yelp from him as he hurried to cover his ears. Zak gave him a long look, while Andrea only shook his head. Then, they both looked over at Oscar, who understood the hint well enough to pull off his own hood.
“How did you know?” Oscar asked, turning to Andrea.
“The Ferrari and Mercedes drivers told their team principals,” Andrea said, fixing Oscar with a stern look. “We have all been in a meeting for two hours trying to figure out what to do.”
“We just wish you boys trusted us, too,” Zak said, throwing Lando a glance that looked so close to hurt that Oscar almost snorted. The nerve of the man.
“So I assume the other drivers were affected, too?” Oscar asked Andrea, sparing Lando from having to reply to that.
Andrea nodded. “Mekies and I were the only ones who still had to check. Everyone else, yes, have been turned into some kind of cat or dog.”
Fuck, all of them?
That’s better than just us, though. If it’s grid-wide, they can’t take everyone’s seats. Right?
“Just the drivers?” Lando asked, sitting up a little straighter. Zak still hovered nearby, leaning against the back of the couch.
“Yes, it would appear so,” Andrea replied. “We do not know the cause, however. So, the few drivers who were staying at a different hotel will be moved here, to the upper floors with the rest of you.”
Oscar’s eyes widened. Wait.
Lando met his gaze from across the room.
“And you all will remain here, until we can understand what happened, and how to turn you back to normal,” Andrea said, looking between the two of them with that disappointed-parent look of his. “I trust you will not cause any issues, yes?”
Oscar and Lando shared another look.
“Are we just gonna be stuck here?” Lando asked.
“For the time being, yes,” Zak replied. “Don’t suppose you’re wanting to get papped looking like this, right?”
Lando shook his head.
“Are there gonna be… doctors?” Oscar asked, looking back at Andrea. His tail had wrangled itself free from his hoodie, and was now embarrassingly wrapped around his own thigh.
The question had Andrea’s eyes widening slightly, before walking over to Oscar and resting both hands on his shoulders. “No one will hurt you. Either of you. You understand that, yes?”
There was a pause as he looked between both drivers, waiting until they both nodded. Then, he continued. “Your vitals will be checked, and some bloodwork will be done. We need that to understand what has happened. But neither of you will be harmed.”
“Like Andrea is saying,” Zak added, placing a hand on Lando’s shoulder. “We just want you boys to be fine.”
“So.You will help us and stay put in the hotel with the other drivers, yes?” Andrea asked again, letting go of one of Oscar’s shoulders so he could look back at Lando.
I mean. What the hell.
“Sure,” Oscar said, receiving an approving nod from Andrea.
“Yeah. We’ll stay,” Lando added, glancing between Andrea and Zak, who was now smiling down at him.
At least they wouldn’t be the only ones.