Chapter Text
Lando refuses to believe what he just heard. It can't possibly be real, it didn't feel real.
It's said too casually, like it was just another piece of information, another decision made without him.
"Lando, your engagement with Hattie Piastri has been finalised."
Lando's head snapped up from where he had been slumped over on the table, half listening. He was sure he was going to get whiplash from the force.
His father's words had taken a second too long for him to process and actually understand.
"I'm sorry – what?" Lando asked, unable to hide the dread and shock laced behind the words.
His father doesn't repeat himself. He knows Lando heard him as clear as day.
Adam Norris stands at the head of the long table, leaning forward with his hands resting the polished wood. His expression was stone-cold and composed in a way that meant the conversation was over.
"The alliance between us and the Piastri's has been in discussion for months already, " Adam says calmly. " It's time we finally formalise it."
Months? Lando had no idea about any engagement between him and Hattie.
Lando lets out a quiet, disbelieving laugh. "And you of course just forgot to tell me about it. Right."
Adam's jaw visibly tightens. "It wasn't necessary."
Of course it wasn't.
Across the table, Lando's brother - Oliver Norris shifts uncomfortably, but he doesn't say anything . Lando looked right at his brother, who was looking down, refusing to meet Lando's eyes.
He knows about this. Lando quickly clocked. His brother looked down sheepishly as he guiltily peeled at his thumbnail.
"You can't be serious about this, You don't get to decide something like this for me!" Lando says, standing up and slamming his hands heavily on the table, chair being pushed back with a loud scrape. Lando could practically hear his heartbeat in his head.
"I already have."
The room stills, falling eerily quiet. It's not anger in Adam's voice. It was certainty.
"You will marry Hattie," he continues as if Lando hasn't spoken at all. " Her family secures our southern borders. This marriage strengthens both kingdoms, Lando. It is not your choice."
Lando clenches his fists tighter.
Hattie Piastri.
The name had meant nothing to him just a minute ago but now it meant everything. The person he is supposed to spend the rest of his life to, to actually love and care for was reduced to nothing but an alliance forced upon both of them.
"I'm not marrying Hattie."
Theres a brief pause in the room. A heavy shift of the air.
"Lando," Oliver says quietly, finally raising his head to meet Lando's eyes. "Just, listen –"
Lando turns to glare at his brother. "No!" Lando shakes his head, taking a slow step away from the table, like he needed the distance to breathe. " You don't get to just sit there and just tell me to listen, like this is a reasonable request, like this is just another stupid treaty!"
"It is reasonable." Adam replies, as unmoved as a stone.
"It's not my choice."
"No," His father agrees, as calm as ever. He almost sounds apologetic for a second. "It isn't."
That sentence hit Lando harder than it should've, harder than anything else.
For a second, Lando just stared unbelievably ar his father. Waiting – hoping just a miracle would happen and that he would actually get a say in it.
But his father doesn't move.
Deep inside, Lando already knew the decision had already been made for him. Long before he even knew anything about it.
“You’re not the heir,” Adam adds, as if that explains everything. “Your brother has already fulfilled his duty.”
Lando’s gaze flicks to Oliver again. Married. Settled. Done.
So now it’s his turn.
“That doesn’t mean you get to—”
“It means,” Adam cuts in, voice sharpening just slightly, “that you have a responsibility to this kingdom.”
There it is.
Responsibility.
Duty.
Words that have followed Lando his entire life, closing in tighter and tighter until there’s barely any room left for anything else.
"Will I at least get to meet her before we get married?" Lando asks,the fight draining out of him.
"Yes. Her father and I have already made plans to announce your engagement at the masquerade ball next week."
Of course it had to be at the masquerade ball. A performance, a spectacle was all that it is.
Lando lets out a quiet humourless laugh.
"You really have this all planned out perfectly don't you." Lando says, venom laced in his voice.
Adam Norris doesn't answer. He doesn't need to.
—
Lando goes to find Oliver later.
He's not even sure why. Maybe it was the anger. Maybe it was the need for someone to understand.
"You knew about this Oliver." Lando says, like it wasn't a question.
"Lando–"
"You knew," Lando repeats. "And you didn't say anything."
"It wasn't my place, Lando."
Something flickers across Oliver’s face—guilt, maybe. Or something heavier.
“It’s not as simple as you think,” he says quietly.
"It's simple to me." Lando says, sharper, angrier."
Lando doesn’t want this.
He doesn’t want a stranger. He doesn’t want a political arrangement. He doesn’t want to stand in a room full of people and pretend this is something it’s not.
“Just get through the ball,” Oliver says after a moment. “That’s all you have to do for now.”
For now.
Like it doesn’t become permanent the second it’s announced.
Lando looks away, jaw tightening.
“And then what?” he asks. “I just… live the rest of my life like this?”
Oliver doesn’t answer immediately.
When he does, it’s quiet.
“You learn to.”
—
The days leading up to the masquerade pass by to quickly.
Too quick for Lando to process his engagement. Too quick for Lando to find a way out.
He doesn’t meet Hattie before the ball. Not properly. Just hears her name, over and over again, like repetition will make it feel less foreign.
It doesn't.
The dreaded night finally arrives.
He stands in front of the mirror, adjusting the edge of his mask, barely recognising the person staring back at him.
His mask screamed nothing but royalty. It was a deep, vivid orange, the colour of a beautiful sunset. Gold detailing traced the mask in delicate, curling patterns, catching the light at every slightest movement he made. It was the most beautiful, most regal piece of art Lando has ever seen.
But as Lando looked at himself in the mirror, all he could think was that it felt less like an accessory and more like something meant to hide him.
This is it. The night everything changes forever. The night his life stops being his.
Lando stops at the foot of the door, hesitating.
Just for a moment, he considers not walking out at all. Refusing. Leaving.
But that thought left as quickly as it came.
Because deep in his heart. He knows he won't.
Lando shakily exhales, steadying himself, trying to calm his heartbeat. He curls his fingers over the ice cold handle of the door.
The masquerade is waiting.