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It’s cold as it can get in England and Lando wishes he was in Monaco, where it’s neither too hot nor too cold and Lando’s kind of a cold-blooded creature. He needs his daily intake of sun, but not too much or his nose gets red. He likes to lays flat on his warm balcony, for like five minutes, then he’s too hot.
And he knows it’s today. He’s bound to be introduced formally to Oscar, his new teammate in Woking at the MTC, while Daniel’s still on the team and unaware of the meeting about to take place. Or maybe he knows, but won’t comment on it, or worst, doesn’t care. Lando lacks a lot of things, but he has empathy to last a lifetime and he can’t help but feel bad. He likes the Aussie, the older one, he likes everyone really, but it feels shitty to secretly meet the new guy. It feels like cheating. Yet, Lando cannot hate the newcomer. One, because he’s not responsible for McLaren’s decision, two, because Lando had yielded to his unhealthy coping mechanism: stalking. He’s seen enough footage of Oscar to be able to draw him with eyes closed. Except he can’t draw.
And he decided to be mature enough to admit Oscar looks like a pretty nice guy. So, he’s going to be an adult and be reaaaaal nice.
He’s making his way in the building, his mind running a mile the hour, he feels like a rat in a wheel. He has to actually asks the receptionist what room they are supposed to meet in, then three other people where the room actually is. He’s been in the team for five years, and he can’t wrap his damn mind around the building. It doesn’t make any sense!
But, apparently, it does to Oscar, or he’s very stressed and came two hours in advance, nevertheless, he’s here, in front of the door. So Lando does what Lando can, and startles them both by saying: “Are you ready to come in?”
And Oscar's obviously surprised because he didn’t hear him come and no sane person begins a conversation, a first conversation with this kind of: “move out the way bitch”, and Lando because his voice sounded way hoarser than he expected it. When was the last time he had an actual conversation, outside of his sensless thread of memes with Max (F)?
“Err, sorry, I mean, nice to meet you, I’m Lando, take your time, but everyone’s nice, really.”
And clearly, for a dude trained to limit damages during media duties, and a fairly social guy at that, he really does have the stupidest brain. Drive a car 250km/h around a track: done. Talking to someone like a normal human being: can’t do. He’s about to self-combust when Oscar softly smiles and extend his hand.
“Oscar.”
Duh. He knows. Of course, he knows! He’s been stalking the poor lad since day one! Or maybe he managed to wait until day two. But it’s charming, the semblance of normalcy, two coworkers, future coworkers, meeting in front of a door. Shaking hands. Lando’s hands are always clammy, he doesn’t know why, so it must feel like grabbing seaweed to Oscar…
“I was taking a breath before entering, I thought you were already there. You’re almost late.”
Okay, calm down Satan, Lando did not expect to be attacked so early. Besides, he came just on time in front of the door, but he had to do small talk and now, they BOTH are late. But before he can find a clever answer, Zak opens the door, almost unhinging it, drags Oscar in with lots of “happy to see you” and some vacuous words he told Daniel back then too, an arm across the younger one shoulders, urging Lando to follow.
He’s like that, Lando, adaptable. Carlos, Daniel, then Oscar. It’s going to be fine, even if he must be the senior, for the first time, it’s going to be fine. He just needs to be fast, bring feedbacks and settle into another easy friendship. Lando’s adaptable at work and into his social relationships. Except that in both, he’s never sure if he’s settling in right or if it’s just an illusion. If he’s making people really laugh or if they are just polite. If they are listening to him or just pretending to pay attention. He’s adaptable and he’s anxious.
“Are you okay?”
Oscar asks, Lando eyes him, focusing back to reality. He had drifted off to God knows where, falling back to this habits of enjoying his own personal mental hell, usually he can juggle both, being alive and dying inside, daynightmaring and chatting mindlessly, but apparently not convincingly enough to the blond one.
“Yeah, I was just…” He’s trying to not say shit like “I like Daniel and you’re stealing his place, but I am not mad at you”. And it’s hard, because Lando’s mind to mouth filter left 22 years ago. “In my head, I guess?
- Well, everyone’s leaving, so I’m gonna go too, do you need to stay to work?”
It’s weird, Lando doesn’t recall planning to do jack shit today, but Oscar is looking at him expectantly, for some reason, and his mind supplies him with a memory: Zak offering Lando as a tour guide for Oscar. Like… just a minute ago, before clasping their backs on his way out. Okay, thank you brain, next time do it faster.
“Shit, no, I can show you around, but I’m quite useless at it, it took me 30 minutes to find the meeting room.
- But it’s near the entrance?”
Lando’s throwing him a disbelieving look.
“You wanna be the tour guide, mate?”
Oscar shakes his head no, smart guy that he is.
“Alright, I have no idea what I can show you or not, and since I can only find my way to the garage and the sim, those are our next two stops. Alright with you, smart pants?”
Oscar smiles softly again, and it’s like… endearing? He’s shy, Lando figures out in the way to the garage, he’s not a talker, he’s not a laugher, he’s just shy and quite honest. Lando wants to squeeze out every ounce of shyness out of him. He’s nice like that, always helping.
He doesn’t have his pass to access the garage, but the sim room is open, so he can show Oscar around, but it’s not long, there’s the sim, a desk big enough to fit two huge ass screens, some computers and six seats. They have a station where they can find cold drinks, tea, a kettle and sometimes snacks. Mostly when Lando is bound to use the sim, because he never grew out of his sweet tooth and Daniel likes to bring him anything that makes him happy. He feels a pang then, because he’s showing Daniel’s replacement the place where he was supposed to work for another year. Shit, should he have thrown Oscar down the stairs? They didn’t need to take them, but Lando lost his way, strangely, and they had to climb some stairs. For no reason at all.
There’s an engineer present, tap taping on the keyboard, she takes a minute to introduce herself to Oscar before burying herself back again in her work. Some geek stuff, maybe?
So, once he’s ran out of blabbering, because he never had to team-up with someone worst than him at social skills, they fall back into a very uncomfortable silence. He never had to sit silently, itchy, with Carlos or Daniel. Daniel had made him laugh so hard he cried the first day they met as future teammates.
“Do you want to try the sim? I think it’s alright. I’m not sure actually.”
Alright Lando, good job at being the senior here. Cam, the engineer, flies to his rescue, emerging from her computer: “I’m working on the screen, beside I’m not sure if Zak is alright with it.”
She’s got a curt tone, Lando knows her to be very effective but not really into social skills, not like “I’m a mess of limbs and words” Lando, but more like Max (V). She might be Dutch, maybe? The brit turns back, sheepishly looking at Oscar, who’s offering a tiny smile.
“Guess it’s my cue to leave you to your work.”
Lando doesn’t have much to do, in fact, but he can’t bear more of Oscar stoic face and two syllables’ answers. So, he apologize and Oscar leaves.
“Wait, I’ll walk you back, no? That’s the least I can do?
- Are you sure you will find your way back alone?”
It takes him a full minute to register that Oscar just made a joke at his expense. So, his humor is a dry one, alright. He can deal with this, play with it even.
“Alright, smarty pants, get down of your high horse.” He lets a moment of silence go, although lifting his hand to stops any velleity of talking from his junior. “But you will guide me to the exit. It’s just to test your abilities to find your way next season.”
And Oscar snorts, the audacity, while Lando has yet another internal crisis. He likes Daniel, it took him time to actually stop being a bitch and warm up to the older aussie, he knows he’s not easy at first, not that he is cold, far from it, he’s just plainly not as open as he is with Carlos or Daniel, or lots of people really. He’s easygoing, but he’s not really good at pretending to be on friendly terms. And he’s got another shortcoming: he’s fiercely loyal, even when people don’t give a shit, he’s loyal, protective and every bit of what you would expect from a 23-year-old dude prone to be a drama queen and a sulker.
And Oscar doesn’t seem to be even remotely close to have Daniel’s talent for making friends. No one can stay away or hate Daniel, there is not a single person who hates him, and if you don’t like him, that’s cause you are jealous. So, Lando doesn’t make an effort to be overly nice and Oscar isn’t going out of his way to chitchat, or maybe he doesn’t care.
He’s known anyway for being quite cold toward his teammates at first, so it doesn’t surprise anyone that he’s not trying to joke around, and the season is not even over, so they don’t really see each other.