Chapter Text
Oscar stared at his reflection in the bathroom mirror. Breathing heavily, he looked at his manager. He pulled the corner of his lip up as the cold tap ran. Pale and cold hands gripped the sink below him. Mark ran over with some tissues as the young driver spat blood down the drain.
“Be honest.” He spoke, neutral despite the obvious stress. “Do I look bad?”
Mark wiped the blood from the corner of Oscars mouth with a tissue. He looked in the young driver’s glassy red eyes.
“I’ve seen better,” he moved closer, the tissue in his hands. An opaque bottle next to him on the sink. “But, I’ve also seen worse.”
He handed the bottle over, Oscar bit the lid away from the bottle and drank greedily. The cut on his lip faded into a thin line. His eyes returned to their normal colour. He looked at his mentor shaken from the experience.
“You’ll need to head out there soon. Media duties are just starting.”
“My head’s pounding. I don’t think I can do it.”
“I know you can. And unfortunately you kind of have to. I’ll drive you straight to your hotel once you’re out.”
Oscar spoke to a few reporters. Mostly they asked about the tire management, why he wasn’t on the podium. The incident with Lando. Oh how they all wanted to know about the incident with Lando. In the heat of the moment of course he complained the team had gone on and on about being a team player. However, he’d not seen the footage for himself, or known the other driver’s motives.
Team meetings were going to be rough. He knew that Mark was lying. He’d not be able to escape the team. Neither could he escape the media. His eyes were puffy and red, lips quivering from the shock to his system. Ice water was unsuccessful in settling the burning heat in his face. Most motorsport reporters called any slip up of vampire features an emotional outburst, they ignored the fact that in the blazing heat, high humidity and difficult track, looking human was the least of Oscar’s priorities.
Andrea had promised him that if they won the constructors in Singapore he’d give him one of the rare desserts made for vampire tastes. Technically, vampires were second-class citizens. In Singapore, it was understood that they needed blood but the idea of a vampire having a treat infused with blood was taboo. Therefore, Andrea would’ve needed to search far for said dessert.
Following his media duties, Oscar was guided efficiently back to the Paddock. Taken into a meeting with Andrea. Mark stood at the door like a nightclub bouncer. Andrea placed a smooth iron smelling pastry in front of Oscar.
“As promised.” He smiled. “It’s cow I think. I didn’t ask.”
“How’d you get it? Not many places around here like me.” Oscar winced at the next few races on the calendar. Sure he’d be okay in the Americas. COTA might be a struggle but he was also liked, Texas wasn’t the hotspot for American vampires. But his mere presence in Abu Dhabi was a controversy which the government had given him an exception and the team a laundry list of rules Oscar had to follow. And that wasn’t the only country.
“Friends in the know.” Andrea smirked as Oscar sniffed at the treat. Cows blood?
Oscar definitely enjoyed the sweetness of the dessert. Sure he could eat human food, but he needed blood to survive so his body naturally craved it more. Granted maybe he’d get under the FIA’s skin with how much he had been given today.
In the meeting with Andrea he had calmed down enough for the proper team debrief. There he was given some water. Finally sorting his insatiable thirst via the form of a sweet treat and the opportunity to talk to Lando without cameras everywhere.
——
A few days after Singapore Oscar was back at the MTC. They had been filming content for the instagram when one of the social media team practically yanked him into a meeting room. Lando turned his head but was quickly whisked away to the other room.
Andrea walked in. Bags so heavy under his eyes that someone could carry their weekly shop in them. His PA had an IPad glowing in her hands.
“Oscar, I have incredibly concerning news.”
The iPad was thrust into Oscar’s chest nearly winding him with the speed and surprise of it. He looked at the article with a photo of him on the way into the bathroom. Eyes red. Fangs out. Bitten his own lip and dripping blood.
“That doesn’t look good.” He looked at his team principal. “The blood is my own I swear. When I came fourth in Singapore I bit my lip when I didn’t realise my fangs were down.”
Andrea looked the vampire in the eyes. Something which a younger Oscar would’ve responded with by running away in fear or growling. Probably by running away, his flight response to fear was unfortunately very heightened. At least it wasn’t a fawn response. But in his 20s he instead matched the eye contact and softened.
“What do I do? The FIA don’t want a vampire to be world champion as it is.”
“I have a plan but you’re going to need to work with the team. Including Lando. Keep the championship battle going but calm down about the racing incident.”
“But there’s a double standard! I can’t race him as much as he can race me!”
“We’re going to sort out this problem so please don’t make it difficult for our PR team.”
Laid out in a flowchart was an action plan for the next month of content. TikToks, instagram posts, press interviews, to name but a few. Everyone’s favourite thing to film was on the agenda: challenge videos. The typically annoying videos to show driver personalities which really just took away time from training. Speaking of training his personal trainer had waltzed into the room with the staff physician, specifically the physician that managed his bloodlust.
He coughed as the doctor laid out his typical feeding schedule. It had always been so clinical since he started taking the sport seriously. Feeds were not based on his hunger levels. Far too risky. Vampires were not usually trusted with their own feedings. Too manipulative. At least that’s what he was told growing up.
—
13 year old Oscar sat with his mum in a doctors office outside of Hertford. They’d had strict instruction from the FIA that they needed clearance for Oscar to be at all welcome in the junior series. As the only vampire in his family, nobody was quite sure how to adapt things for him. Any and all behaviours were just normal. Just what he did.
“Your son appears to show instability in his diet.” The doctor stated looking at his 4 week intake chart.
Oscar lifted his head up nervously. He’d been recording his blood intake for every bag he ripped into. Preferring to use his fangs than a straw.
“Oscar according to this chart you’re due a feed. Can you show me how you feed?”
A medium sized blood bag was handed to the young vampire. He looked at his mother almost asking for permission. At school the nurse once shouted at him for biting straight into a bag. Nicole nodded and he tore into it before the doctor snatched it from his hands. Oscar looked at the man in annoyance, but he didn’t bear his fangs or growl.
“Did I do something wrong?” Oscar asked looking between both adults in the room.
The doctor typed something on his computer before handing the bag back to the young vampire. Oscar looked at him before moving back to the point he was half behind his mother and drank the liquid like it were a juice pouch.
“No we just need an aggressive behaviour baseline.” The doctor said. Sickly in the babying of the young man.
By the time he left the appointment his meal plan had been sent to his school, his parents and his karting club. It didn’t matter his opinion on it. He had to follow it.
——
“Why do you think you had that reaction in Singapore?” The team doctor asked. “You’re normally so on top of mealtimes.”
“I don’t know.” He placed his head in his hands. “I just felt so annoyed in the car after everything. You know, I’m not that old so the fangs came out.”
“You think it was emotional.”
“Yeah.” He paused. “I swear I wasn’t gonna bite anyone!”
“I believe you.” The doctor grabbed a large file and looked Oscar in the eyes. “But you’re on an aggression warning from the FIA. You know how long those last don’t you.”
Oscar looked to the floor. He thought about the warning Sebastian Vettel received in Turkey in 2010. It lasted until 2015 and it was all sky sports could talk about for years.
“It’s not fair.” Oscar complained slouching in his chair.
“I’m not saying it is. But you need to behave.”
“I did behave though. I removed myself from the press conference. Sat in the bathroom and calmed down.”
“I don’t know why they marked it as aggressive. Bad optics I assume. We are appealing it.”
A few hours later Oscar was working out in the MTC gym. His headphones blasted house music as he worked on his overall strength on the smith machine. He was completely focused on his workout as sweat dripped from his brow. Rep by rep by rep. The vampire was wholly engaged in his time to himself. He’d been promised a dessert at the end of the day by his trainer, and by god did he want it. He reached his last rep for his current circuit and looked up.
Lando was staring at him from his own set. Oscar sniffed the air nervously and subtly, the stench of sweat filling the room. Vampires barely sweat. They’re built to be undetectable, ‘better’ as his critics called him. Better was bs. Maybe he did think a bit faster, but he needed to think about more things at once. Other drivers could focus on the race. He had to mask vampiric noise, watch his face, suppress his vampire features. There was certainly a reason he was normally regarded as calm on the radio.
Shit. They were both between sets and Lando was walking over. He liked Lando, most of the time but talking about the photos again was a pain.
“Hey, I saw the photos from Singapore. Are you okay?”
“I mean it’s kinda like getting your nudes leaked.”
“What?” Landos eyes drew wide and he chuckled nervously.
“Like it’s really really private things. And now everyone’s seen me when I’m vulnerable.”
Lando, for what it’s worth, clearly didn’t originally think of that. His grin faded as fast as it rose. He placed a hand on his teammate’s shoulder. Practically pulling him full force into a hug.
“I’m so sorry I didn’t check on you. Vampire, human whatever the fuck else is out there. You’re not some media spectacle and I’m gonna make it right.”
“You can’t. They’ve seen it. Look at what they did to Vettel. He’s a 4-time-world champion. I’m not him.”
“So.” He pauses. “I’m going to show everyone how kind you are. How much you deserve just as much respect as everyone else.”
“Face it, I’m screwed. Vampires don’t last long on the grid once they’ve been in a scandal.”
“Osc…”
“All I want to do is race cars.”