Chapter Text
When Carlos first told Lando about the business trip one evening, the younger one was quite taken by surprise - and scared!
Because for while Carlos would be away for a further education program in beautiful Italy, he obviously couldn’t take care the kids with him - leaving it to Lando to look after Marita and Mateo alone for the very first time.
So no wonder that at first, this banger of a news rather unsettled the younger one than felt like a reason to celebrate, alone for how unexpected it had come, cause: A business trip?!
Carlos had rarely ever needed to work overtime before, let alone go on a business trip abroad - heck, he was only just working again with reduced hours for roughly two years, after he (of necessity) had been a full-time-stay-at-home-dad before! And now they were sending him to Italy for a week, seriously?!
Lando just wasn’t able to believe it.
But no, of course they were not sending him, like a sentence to exile or something, as Carlos tried to calm his partner - and certainly not against his will!
However, his boss had approached him though for wether he would want to take the place of a colleague at the said advanced training, cause he, who had originally been set to go, had unfortunately stumbled down the stairs of the subway last week and was now, with a broken foot, definitely not fit to travel.
Carlos admitted to Lando that this had come unexpected for himself, too, and that he at first had been pretty overwhelmed by such an offer - cause again, he was only working for the company for not even two years, and now he was given such a big chance? Because it really was one, especially in his case, who he had been out of the job and — although he had luckily pretty quickly got settled in in the office — felt like he was still hanging behind the others (…especially the younger colleagues) most of the time.
And the seminar in Torino, which was said to be one of the best in the business, could be his chance to catch up with them again.
Only a few years before, Carlos would have said yes without even hesitating to such an opportunity and would have been heavily excited, but a lot of things had changed in the meantime - starting already with that he was a dad now and had two kids, who he loved more than anything and whose well-being were his first priority.
Already because of them, the decision was not an easy one, but even if he would have known that they were well-cared for, there still was another factor that made the decision so tough: Cause the Spaniard didn’t want to slip back into old habits, which had already caused the relationship with the kids’ mother to fail when he, in the very early days of their family, had been working far too much and had left her alone too often. And under no circumstances did he want history to repeat itself on that regard - Lando’s well-being was just as important to him.
Therefore, he told the younger one that he wouldn’t say yes to the offer without his agreement.
Which the said was thankful for, also for the thinking time of a few days that Carlos gave him - but still, the news had overwhelmed him so much, that Lando — despite Carlos’ arms wrapped safely around him from behind, like always — barely was able to fall sleep that night. His mind just kept turning and turning.
Luckily, at some point, he must have but drifted off and found some sleep; and when the alarm clock woke them up again the next morning, the initial shock had already settled a bit, like sand sinking back to the ground of an aquarium. And after a whole weekend of closely thinking about the whole thing, Lando came to the conclusion that actually, it wasn’t an as big deal as he had thought at first - and that he full well would be able to do it:
In the three years that they were together now, he had grown very fond of Carlos’ kids, after all, and they also apparently of him. The three of them got along quite well; much better than Lando would have expected when Carlos and him had officially become a thing. He (and the older one certainly as well) had been quite nervous about how they would react and how they would respond to him, once they understood that he somehow belonged to the pack now - especially because he was a man; a man who was taking the place by their father’s side where there used to be their mother -
But as it had once more proved, kids often were so much easier with these things and didn’t see the same problems as grown-ups - or any problems at all: Their papi having a special friend now, as Carlos had awkwardly phrased it when they had first tried to explain it to them? - Marita and Mateo hadn’t even bothered half as much as expected.
Quite the contrary, they had rather found it cool when they had got that Lando would spend time at their home more often from now - had been downright thrilled about it! Perhaps it had been exactly that, the classical thrill of something new, at least in the beginnings - but even now that this had settled, they still got along very well, also in Carlos’ eyes:
Already some time ago, he had told Lando that he found that the kids had changed to the better since he was in their lives. That they had kind of thawed up and were more living up to be their true self ever since - and that this was highly likely because he eased the absence of their mother for them.
Although the two siblings had still been too small to remember the time before it had all become ‘too much’ for their mum, as Carlos had called it, and before she’d ran away from her maternal duties, they nonetheless must have sensed the hole that she had left.
Of course they had.
Not that Carlos, in the time where he had only lived alone with them, had not given everything and anything for that they weren’t lacking anything - heck, he had even got them a cat in the hope it would somehow help them cope with the new situation!
But despite all efforts, he nonetheless had only been one single dad at the end of the day, while Marita’s and Mateo’s friends all had unignorably two parents at home, which had shown them of the difference every time when they had been over at their friends’ in the afternoon to play, or when the parents picked them up from kindergarten, et cetera.
But according to Carlos, Lando was somehow filling this empty spot for them. Not in a way that he was actually replacing their mother, of course not - but that his presence enabled them to over-look what they were missing and to feel more like an actual family again now.
And even if the Briton would have never dared to say it like this himself, it had been so nice to hear that - to hear that the kids liked him and were glad that he was here; from the person who knew them the best-
Because that feeling was mutual: Lando was also glad that they were in his life now.
He still had the picture that Rita had drawn for him that evening on the wall in his streaming room, right above his monitor, so that he could from time to time look on it whenever he was on his PC - as well as a selection of ever-changing other ones, cause she still regularly gifted him new pictures, even if the little princesa, as Carlos called her lovingly, was already a big school girl now!
But also with Mateo, her younger brother, he had a good connection meanwhile: The boy had only been a toddler when they had first met, not even walking for more than a week and only yet babbling gibberish instead of speaking. But over the last three years, he had grown into the cutest, most kind-hearted and most handsome little fella you could imagine - albeit he still was much more quiet compared to his bubbly sister.
Different to her, who always was ready for action and hardly knew boredom, Mateo could also just sit there together with Lando and watch how he was disassembling and re-building his gaming PC - helping him even with handing him the tools and over-attentively listening to everything that Lando told him about graphics cards and CPU performance and all such stuff. Which Mateo with his four years obviously had no clue of what this all was, but he still soaked up every bit with keen interest.
He enjoyed to just be there and observe, almost like Momo, their calico cat - while Rita would without doubt resemble the dog that they one day wanted to get.
But even if the brother and sister were as different as only siblings could be, Lando loved them both dearly. Before them, he had never thought that he would have kids one day, nor that he would even want to have some. But already after a short time, he had not been able to imagine his life without them anymore. They were just as much a blessing for his life as was their father.
Which was why he in the end came to the conclusion that he could do it, taking care of them for the week of Carlos’ absence; and therefore told him on Sunday evening, when the kids were already in bed and they were doing the last bit of cleaning up in the kitchen, that he should please tell his boss that he was coming to this thing. That he should take the big chance before it would be offered to someone else.
At first, the Spaniard was so surprised that he couldn’t believe it and only asked him with big eyes wether he was really sure, telling him in the same breath that he please shouldn’t feel pressurised into anything - but Lando didn’t.
And when he told him so and that it would really, really be okay for him, the look on Carlos’ face changed; and he was so grateful for the younger one’s understanding that he curtly dropped the towel, with which he had just been drying up a pot, on the sink and rushed to pull him into his arms, pressing him all tightly against himself.
“Thank you”, he whispered to his ear and even in these two words, Lando could hear how much this yes meant to his partner (…Carlos always referred to themselves by that term, because he found himself too old to be a ‘boyfriend’).
However, this didn’t mean that he did not ask him multiple times still that evening and also during the next morning again wether he was for real okay with it, because he would then tell his boss today if he was, but that he didn’t have to do it if he wasn’t sure about it-
But Lando’s confidence didn’t falter, not the tiniest bit.
In fact, he had become so sure about this that he even rejected his partner’s well-meant suggestion that he could also ask his mother to come over and help him throughout the day, if that would make him feel more secure.
But even if Lando loved Reyes (and Carlos’ whole family in general) and knew she would be happy to help, as the loving grandma that she was, he still turned this offer down. It would be unnecessary and just far too much to ask for that he could feel good about it.
Because Carlos parents — after they had been living and working in the UK for many years, raised their kids here and also Carlos and his sisters were still living in the country — had some years ago decided that they wanted to be closer again to where their family was originated and now lived in Spain over the winter months each year - and that was also where they still were at the moment, normally only coming back to the UK after Easter.
According to Carlos, Reyes had offered it from herself though that she could fly over for the week and help, but Lando would nevertheless feel super bad if she’d take on such efforts - such efforts, while he as Carlos’ significant other was actually right here and could just as well do the job.
And that’s also what he told himself: That he could do it. Of course he didn’t have as much experience with kids as a mother of three, but still, he would somehow be able to manage this week on his own.
Like - actually, when he thought about it, there wouldn’t even be so much — or at least not much more than normally — that he had to do: A big part of the day, the kids would spend in kindergarten care (Mateo) respectively elementary school (Marita) - and the latter would also come home by bus all on her own, as she was doing it already since the beginning of her first year of school:
At first, either Carlos or Lando had always accompanied her on the rides, both in the morning and in the afternoon, to make sure she knew how to book in her ticket and at which stop she needed to get out and all that stuff. But after only less than a month, the girl with the fairy-backpack that was almost as big as herself had stated that she was now good to go alone.
And so it had come, that the next morning, Carlos and Lando had not been sitting in a schoolbus between twenty other kids, but had stayed on the sidewalk of the nearby busstop, while a very proud and what looked like at least a head taller Marita had got on the bus all on her own - while her father had been watching her taking a seat and waving at them from the back window with all watery eyes.
“My little girl…”, Carlos had murmured to himself when the bus rolled down the street and away from them, with a wavering smile on his face and his voice audibly mirroring the emotions that had, relatably, been going through his dad-mind in that moment. In hindsight, he was a bit embarrassed by his reaction, but for Lando, it was a deeply beautiful moment, that had once more revealed Carlos’ caring, gentle nature and had only reminded all the more of him of why he loved him so much.
And therefore, the younger one had only curtly stepped up to his partner on the sidewalk that morning and had comfortingly hooked his arm into Carlos’.
“…is now a big girl!”, , he had ended the sentence for him and softly squeezed his arm, to wordlessly assure him: She will get along.
And she really had: When Rita later — after a day that had felt like it was lasting forever at least for Carlos! — had come home to a real shower of fatherly questions, who had instantly wanted to know wether everything had been alright, had everything worked with ticket, had she got a nice seat?- …she had only looked at him in confusion and given back an: “Of course!”, as if it was the most natural thing that she was taking the bus on her own and had never done differently.
And well, from then on, she — as the independent little princesa that she was — had also never done it differently anymore, going to and coming back from school on her own every day - so that Lando only had to go and pick up Mateo from daycare in the afternoons, who was obviously still too young to walk through the world on his own.
But that hardly was a problem either, because Lando had already accompanied Carlos to there often enough to know where the kindergarten was and when the bringing / fetching hours were. Even more, it had become kind of their thing to do the short walk together whenever it was possible, taking it as their sweet little time-out like parents only had them rarely.
And a number of times had he also already headed there his own, when Carlos hadn’t made it back from the office on time or had been otherwise busy, and had curtly picked up Mateo alone.
So, no, really not a big deal.
And because the young lad as well as his sister also got served lunch at the kindergarten / school, Lando didn’t even have to cook for them. Which admittedly was perhaps the biggest relief for him, cause even after three years together with Chef Carlos, who really enjoyed not only eating good food, but also making it, Lando was still a disaster in the kitchen (…at least compared to his partner) and could still only cook about two dishes: One of them being pasta with tomato sauce from the jar, and the other one was omelette.
…that means, on good days, it was omelette, on bad days it could be better described as a scrambled eggs accident. And on really bad ones, it was ashes, but Lando had made Carlos swear to never-ever bring up that certain omelette-attempt again, when he had got distracted by the sports program playing in the living room and the whole house had been smelling of burnt eggs for the rest of the day!
So, yeah - it was definitely for the better for both Lando’s nerves costume and the kid’s well-being that he didn’t have to provide them with warm meals. Thank God for school canteens!
Furthermore, Marita was also helped with her homework in the afternoon-care at school, which was another thing that the Briton was glad about.
Not that he didn’t want to help her or that the contents would so challenging in second grade that he didn’t understand them - ha, no, not even for someone who had dropped out of school to focus on his online career!
However, already now, she was learning noticeably differently than him - for example in maths, where she had been taught different ways to come to the result than he had at his school times, and Lando simply didn’t want to show the girl anything wrong or confuse her.
No, the trained professionals would certainly do that better than him.
So that in the end, his only job for the week would be to prepare breakfast and dinner for the two youngsters, to ensure that they’d have something clean to put on and would be ready in the morning on time - and to pack their sandwich boxes, of course, but that was something that even someone with his (non-existing) culinary skills could manage-
Well, and to generally take on the role of the paternal authority, like, making sure that they behaved and kept out gross mischief and such stuff - but in all honesty, Lando didn’t expect that he would have to play out the authority card much. Carlos had raised two very lovely and sweet specimens of mankind so far, with nothing deliberately mean or nasty to their personalities.
The hardest thing would most likely be to manage their TV times and find a compromise that they both wanted to watch, and to get them into bed on time in the evening - which normally were things that Carlos had the last say all about, since he was their father and Lando as ‘only’ his partner didn’t want to interfere in his educational style and rather kept out of these matters - but for a week, he would surely be able to manage that, too.
And apart from that, it would be pretty much like every other day for him:
As soon as Marita would be on the school bus and he would come back from dropping off Mateo by the kindergarten, the Briton would be all on his own in the Sainz-household, which had meanwhile become his home, too - on his own until the afternoon, which roughly gave him seven hours in which he could spread the housework however he wanted, as well as his own job:
He still earned a part of his money from streaming on twitch, but ever since he had moved in with Carlos and his kids, he had cut back on the amount of streaming that he used to do. Not out of necessity, like, because his partner wanted him to - no, Carlos had even cleaned up and emptied the little storage chamber for him, so that he could have his own streaming-room in the house; and they also had sound-proofed it as good as possible, with everything that the hardware store had had to offer, so that he wouldn’t disturb anyone’s sleep in the night-
But nonetheless, Lando had already sensed in advance, before he had even moved in, that he wouldn’t be streaming from here as often anymore as before in his own apartment, where he had been able to yell and laugh into his headset every night until the morning dawn and nobody (…okay, except for the neighbours in the apartments above and underneath to him) had cared much.
For the simple reason here, there were people who cared about him; and with the kids going to bed early and Carlos not late after them, and also getting up early in the mornings again, he just didn’t want to live along side them and only see them for a couple of hours a day, if he was staying up all night and sleeping until noon.
He had wanted to include himself, and be there.
Therefore, he had shifted his focus onto game testing:
Since his name was widely known in the scene, many game development studios were happy to take on his services as a test-player, and that was just as much fun as playing on twitch. Sometimes, he got sent an early beta-version that he should check for any major bugs and difficulties, other times he got paid to try out a finished game and record an — honest! — video-review for YouTube, which then also his fans had something of. And again other times, he even was in contact with the programmers themselves and was involved in the creative process - and if that wasn’t exciting for someone who loved gaming as much as he did, then what?
The work was as many-faceted as it was fun, and it also felt more like a ‘real’, serious job for Lando than twitch.
But the best thing about it was that he could distribute his time even more freely than with streaming. Because whereas nobody would want (or be able) to watch a stream at 8am in the morning on a weekday, he — who he had really grown to love these early hours when Carlos and the kids were out of the house — could work all concentratedly on his current testing project then and get a lot of work done before the family was back at home.
And that was also how he’d planned to it over this week. Lando still had two reviews to film and an assignment to re-check a part of an unreleased game, in terms of wether the steering controls had improved since the last time and where there still were problems - but he would simply take care of that when Marita and Mateo weren’t there throughout the day, or later, when they already were in bed, just like any other day. Easy-peasy.
The more time passed and the more Lando thought about it, the whole thing sounded less like absolute horror and more like something that he could actually, for real manage -
And that was also the mantra that he kept in his head when he said goodbye to Carlos on the faithful Monday when the business trip started. After they had dropped Mateo off at kindergarten together, the Briton drove his partner to the airport and even accompanied him to the inside of the huge glass building - because whereas he had become more and more confident the closer the day had come, he could sense that Carlos had become more and more insecure about the whole thing and was now, only so short before the departure of his flight, quite tensed - and certainly not only because he had not been on a plane for years.
No, as it was more than relatable, it were the concerns of a father — a father who had been taking care of his kids alone for the last years — that were written over his in stress wrinkled forehead and in his hesitant gaze, after he had checked in for his flight and it slowly but surely was time for them to say goodbye to each other.
“Are you really sure this is a good idea…?”, Carlos asked for the probably hundredth time. “I don’t want to overstrain you, I can also still ask my mother to come around. She said she can take a week off from work, I’m sure she wouldn’t mind-”
“I know.” - Lando interrupted his anxious chattering by softly laying his hand on his cheek, a loving smile on his lips. And he also tried to put as much confidence and strength into his gaze and voice when he explained once more: “This is very kind of her, but really not necessary. And you’re not asking too much or overstraining me - we’ll be fine. They’re even looking forward to it!”, he reminded him - cause the predominant reaction of the two siblings, ever since they’d told them that they’d spend this week only with Lando because their papi had to go on a very important trip for work, was excitement.
Of course they had been surprised and even a bit skeptical at the very first, and had asked a lot of questions about why Carlos had to go, where, what he would do there and when he would come back - but there had been no tearful breakdowns or anything. And by answering their questions honestly and being positive and calm about the matter themselves (…or at least on the outside), Carlos and Lando had managed that it also stayed that way and the two little ones hadn’t even got the chance to be worried, but soon were rather looking forward to this week full of childlike enthusiasm.
Which was probably mostly because he always did the fun things with them, while Carlos as their dad naturally was more strict -
Well, that would be slightly different this week though, because now he would of necessity have to take on the role of the responsible adult as well. But still, Lando planned to make it a nice week for the kids and for himself, and he had to say that now that he had meanwhile digested the initial shock, he was even kinda looking forward to it, too.
“It’s only for five days, Carlos. We’ll get along”, he once more assured the older one. “And in case that I could use some help with whatever, I can still phone your mum or ask mine to come over - or one of your sisters! …okay?” - and he had to admit that, even if he didn’t plan to do either of that unless it was an absolute, absolute emergency (…which he of course didn’t hope for!), it was nonetheless comfortable to know that there were some trusted people only a phone-call away.
So what could possibly go wrong?
And that was exactly the confidence that Lando also tried to radiate, when he blinked at his partner compassionately and once more let his thumb stroke the fresh-shaven skin of his cheek, before he took his hand away and reached out to intertwine his fingers with Carlos’ instead - who allowed it without any protest. Normally, he was rather reserved about public display of affection, but he really seemed to be in need of some calming right now.
Which was kind of understandable, but at the same time also not necessary at all.
“You’re only nervous because it’s a new situation”, Lando gently spoke on. “Because you haven’t been out of home for so long.” He lightly squeezed his fingers, trying to send him some encouraging power like this. “But it’s all gonna be good, I promise!”
And in the view of so much confidence and optimism, the Spaniard just couldn’t help but give up his worries; these little but-what-if-demons that were dancing through his mind. With a deep breath, he sighed surrender:
“Okay. Probably you’re right…” - and maybe it was only Lando’s perception, but he already looked a bit more at ease now. As a result of which the younger one allowed his smile to change into a mischievous grin.
“I always am!”, he cockily corrected him, to which Carlos though could only roll his eyes and let out right another sigh.
“When did you only become that arrogant? You weren’t like this when we first met!”, he claimed in pretended annoyance - and just as overly innocent, the younger one shrugged his shoulders in response:
“Maybe because someone is spoiling me too much with telling me how much they love me all the time…?” - but already in the next second, his facade crumbled — because he just could never keep a straight face when Carlos and him were fooling around like that! — and the corners of his mouth all by themselves started to twitch.
And since that was something that Carlos just could never not do — not smile as well when Lando did —, he couldn’t help but return that grin when he ‘apologised’: “My bad!” - ere he in the same second already leant in to kiss his partner and make himself even guiltier, because this kiss was just another proving of how much Lando meant to him:
It was sweet, soft, almost innocently tender - and speaking of so much love and trust and caring as both of them had probably not expected to ever experience in their life. Which was most probably also why they, after their lips had parted again, nonetheless still stayed close for a moment; with their eyes shut and their foreheads resting against each other - to soak up these final seconds of peacefulness and intimacy that had to last for until Friday evening.
Which suddenly felt like a lot farer away than the whole time before.
“I love you, Carlos”, Lando whispered without moving away, only lightly caressing his upper arm through the jacket. “Have a great time - I mean, it’s Italy! Pizza, pasta and amore!” - he paused - “…okay, maybe not the amore, cause otherwise you’ll be in quite some trouble when you come back…!”, he corrected himself, and the Spaniard’s amused smirk touched his lips in a puff of breath. As if he would ever; and Lando knew that. “But the rest - soak it all up and try to enjoy it a bit, okay? Especially enjoy the Italian sun for me!”
Cause the spring in Britain was making steady progress though, but needless to say that it of course couldn’t keep up with what that time of the year was like in the more southern countries; neither in terms of temperatures and especially not hours of sunshine! As if to underline it, it had once again started drizzling only just when they had got out of the car and walked to the airport entrance; and the imagination of what the weather just in this moment must be like in Torino, where Carlos would be spending the next days, caused Lando to let out a sigh from deep in his chest.
“God, you’re gonna look so hot with some more tan…!”, he mumbled, rapt in the imagination for a second - and even if they both were aware that he probably wouldn’t have the time to lay at the beach for hours and get tanned, Carlos nevertheless gave back that he was gonna do his best - albeit his smirk was already a bit fainter when they broke away again, now that the farewell was so imminent.
“And you three also have a great time”, he wished Lando, who nodded on the kids’ behalf.
“We will.”
“I demand updates!” Warningly, the older one pointed his finger at him, a gesture somewhere between ‘Don’t you dare forget!’ and ‘Please don’t forget!’.
To which Lando exaggeratedly straightened his posture and saluted like a soldier. “Aye! You will receive them updates, Sir!”
It was silly and far from the simple ‘yes, of course’ that Carlos only had wanted to hear, but it had its effect: A small, but recognisable grin flashed over the Spaniard’s face again, as he shook his head.
“Don’t call me Sir. That’s… making me feel things that are really inappropriate for when I’m about to go on a public flight…!”, he mumbled in a mixture of amusement and embarrassment; and all automatically, Lando had to grin wider, too, but in the view of the mercilessly ticking time, he refrained from any further joke-arounds.
“Text me when you’ve landed safely, okay?”, he instead just asked, and now it was Carlos, who nodded.
“Will do. See you on Friday.” With that, he leant in for one more quick kiss — “Byebye.” —, but before the younger one could have properly returned it, he had already pulled back again.
“Bye!”, Lando said, only managing to give his upper arm one last loving squeeze - then Carlos turned around and headed — with the small backpack that Lando had gifted him for Christmas once over his shoulder as his hand luggage — to meet up his colleagues behind the security-check, where the younger one obviously couldn’t follow him.
Lando could only blow him a last kiss when he turned around once more before the glass doors, and waved after him until he couldn’t see him anymore, then he drove back home.