Work Text:
“Maybe the next game we can play is Goat Simulator.”
George’s mind is addled trying to process what Charles said. Surely he had misheard what the Monégasque had said into the mic? George tries to process this, and Alex, who was lounging at the corner of the couch as a bystander, seemingly echoes his own confusion.
“Goat, sorry?” Alex questions.
“Yeah, goat. Goat! I’ve never played,” Charles answers, laughter breaking through his mic.
George thinks there is a reason that this game has not been played. It sounds ridiculous. “Do you have to milk the goats?” He mutters.
This is clearly too much for his two fellow drivers. George hears Charles giggling through his headset, chortling out words that sounded like “milk” and “run”. Alex similarly has no qualms at laughing, hand covering his gleaming smile. Eyes on that smile, George feels himself relaxing as he takes in his partner.
With that innate sense that comes from knowing each other for years, Alex meets the gaze of George from across the couch, chortles still escaping his mouth. With an uptick in his lips, the elder swings his feet up to rest them on George’s lap. “Instead of milking goats and gaming away, give my feet a rub?” Alex asks. George cannot help but quirk his own grin, setting aside the laptop, and settles a hand on each foot, slowly rubbing his thumbs circularly.
“Ew, I do not need to hear about you two and your feet. Keep that private,” Charles snarks.
“Oh sod off, mate!” Alex grumbles out, swatting his hand like he could somehow hit Charles from a distance.
“Charles, should I tell Pierre you are struggling to understand casual intimacy?” George drawls. “Are things a little stale?”
There is a clamor from the other side, and George did not need a camera to know the Ferrari driver is flushed to match the stammering. “I think we are finished now, as it seems my boyfriend has gotten himself in a mess?” The accent voice of Pierre cuts through, meaning the Frenchman has joined his boyfriend.
“We will be logging off here, we will have to milk the goats another time,” George responds with a slight chuckle. He exits out of discord before turning his attention back to his new job as massager.
Alex opts for this to be the time he wiggles his toes in George’s lap. “I feel like you two were going to make a questionable decision with your time, no one will believe what Charles was ready to play. Shame it was just a private stream.”
True, George internally muses. Summer break of the 2024 season is here, and somehow the Twitch streams during the pandemic seem like a distant memory. George cannot help but value taking some times to interact privately with his people. Even his people included his unhelpful boyfriend and a chaotic Ferrari driver as a friend.
“Blimey, a goat game? Never know what to expect, and you were leaving me alone with Charles, ganging up on me really,” George puts on a false tone of scolding.
The two look at each with growing grins before both hear their phones chime. George glances down, hands still rubbing Alex’s feet, to take note of the source of the ping. His eyes scan the notification at the top of the screen.
L4NDONORRIS is live!
IM BACK😈😈 AND BORED😭
“Lando Norris is live with a stream! Should we watch it together?” George asks.
“Let’s pull it up on the screen,” Alex responds. George grabs the laptop he had recently set aside, opening it and quickly logging into Twitch before setting the device on the table.
Alex scoots close to George, thighs pressed together, and George finds comfort in the radiating heat as he angles the laptop screen to ease the viewing for both of them. A sigh escapes him as he relaxes further into the arm that Alex has now wrapped around him, truly his home. He notes that Alex was typing on his phone with one hand, and the vibration of George’s own phone implies Alex had sent a message.
“I sent a message in the group with Charles and Pierre, if they are not absorbed in each other, that Lando is streaming,” Alex offers, receiving an answering hum from his boyfriend. George makes sure to slide away the notifications from the “Let’s be Queer” group chat as Charles reacts to Alex’s message before setting aside his phone.
The screen before them now shows Lando Norris in his usual streaming corner. The display is such that viewers can see the view from Lando’s screen at the bottom. Currently, the little screen has brightly colored cartoon characters running across the cars of a train. Lando is offering a stream of commentary, and George notes that it seems like Lando is gaming solo.
Lando Norris is now an accomplished streamer. It might seem strange that four Formula 1 drivers follow this gamer, stranger yet with how long they have followed the streamer. George especially recalls tuning into Lando’s Youtube channel during his Formula 3 days. Lando has always been affable and funny as Lando gamed or attempted various challenges. (He truly could not handle any spice, as shown by a video where the streamer sought to drown himself in ice cream after having hot sauce.) His commentary and reactions, especially his giggles, made his videos easy to watch between races. Soon George found himself following along, recommending Lando’s channel to Charles and of course Alex. Pierre naturally was pulled into watching some because he was a package deal with Charles.
The drivers followed the saga of Lando and his various pursuits, like his studies and work in graphic design. Truthfully, their favorite arc was that of Lando and his now boyfriend, Oscar. Lando coming out as he did struck George as brave and foreign as the streamer was so casual about his sexuality. There was a tinge of envy as George wrestled with his own sexuality as he entered F2 at this point. However, he soon found comfort and humor again in how Lando shared his life amidst his gaming. As George and Alex came to understand the nature of their respective and requited feelings, they got to witness the arc of Lando wooing the Aussie who caught his attention.
Oscar Piastri is hard to not like. Charming with his moles and swoopy hair, he is finishing up his engineering studies as well as a hobbyist baker. More introverted than Lando, he does make periodic appearances in Lando’s content, and he certainly features heavily as a topic of conversation by Lando. A striking component for George is of course Oscar’s baking journey, from shortcrust pastries to sponge cakes. George finds himself agreeing that Oscar should audition for The Great British Bake Off.
Additionally, there was something so deeply affirming about seeing this similarly aged queer couple live and grow in their own relationship. George can feel confidence in witnessing this authentic representation, reminding him how he and Alex can be like others. They too can squabble over the placement of dishes and the type of toilet paper. George knows the other three drivers similarly are drawn to Landoscar at this point in their lives for similar reasons.
A stream of curses from the laptop snaps George out of his ruminations to Lando’s character falling from the train car. The streamer shakes his head in frustration, curls bouncing. “Gang Beasts here can be a fun game, and luck is definitely involved. I will find a better stage and you will see me win!” Lando declares.
Lando’s screen shows the selection of a new stage with his character wearing a cheeseburger hat running around. The streamer continues to ramble some, seemingly narrating a case of takeout spilling. Alex uses his fingers to draw circles on George’s shoulder, and he finds himself relaxing as they watch the laptop.
Lando bites his lip as he looks up to the camera before darting back to the screen as he has his character run up the stairs on the ship.
“I recently broke up with my boyfriend,” Lando says, his fingers clicking away on the keyboard. George feels his stomach do an uncharacteristic swoop. Lando and Oscar breaking up? The end of Landoscar, the end of the duo’s antics, how could it be? This is an unlikable plot twist.
Immediately, George felt vibrations from his phone. He feels off kilter, and he notes that Alex has stopped moving his hand.
“Stop telling people we broke up!” An accented voice cuts calls out from the laptop. “We got married!”
Lando shifts his head to a direction away from his own screen or the camera. A cheeky smile spreads across his face as he reaches his hands out, making the grabby motions with his hands.
“Come here my former boyfriend!” Lando calls. Oscar enters the view of the camera, seemingly shaking his hand as one hand holds a whisk with some batter on it.
The thoughts are racing around George’s mind, and he hears Alex gasp quietly. On screen, the Aussie grabs the left hand of Lando with his left hand,
“I guess we just happen to be wearing these rings then, Lando?” Oscar banters.
“Well, I say it is a symbol of our boyfriend status ending,” Lando answers beaming, “Matching ones of course.”
Oscar reads some of the comments scrolling on the screen as viewers type their thoughts. “Looks like your viewers are asking for details on the wedding. I can say that I did end up baking dessert for us after. You know how Lando is a picky eater.”
“Picky eater? I know what I want. And you,” Lando is grinning like a cat who got the cream, “Husband of mine, certainly are a dessert. I have husband privileges, that trumps boyfriend privileges. And I like saying husband!”
Oscar blushes, right across his cheekbones, and George cannot help but sneak a glance at Alex. His own boyfriend is smiling brightly. Yes, George thinks husband does sound nice.
On the screen, Oscar drops Lando’s hand and swats playfully at him. “Well, I will leave you all to my husband who thinks he is so funny. Messing with you all making it seem like we are finished. We did the paperwork and all to make this an official upgrade to husbands.”
With that, the Aussie leaves the screen as Lando watches him go, smiling all fondly. He disregards the fate of his character in the game, focusing instead on his new husband’s retreat. Landoscar going from boyfriends to husbands is indeed lovely news. George finds himself relaxing back into Alex’s arm and the couch as his thoughts whirl.
Progression and change is natural, something George does account for in his plans. Seeing how Lando and Oscar have progressed gives himself a nudge to his own spreadsheet noting pros and cons for various wedding dates and venues. George Russell is the type of guy to have documents to account for such plans. His thoughts linger on the word husband, how Lando kept repeating that word.
George feels like he and Alex are ready for that title upgrade.