Chapter Text
Lando had found himself in a strange predicament. Usually when he had a tough race he’d talk to Oscar and he’d listen when Oscar had tough races. However, today Lando had lost the championship lead to his teammate after a shit weekend. So he couldn’t talk to Oscar about his problems today, he’d be a bit of a sore loser to drag down Oscar’s good mood. That’s how he found himself with Carlos, except he wasn’t all too willing to listen to Lando’s woes.
“Lando.” Carlos sighed. “Isn’t the whole point of you and Oscar being married that you’re his problem.”
“We’re not married.” Lando scoffs as if it was obvious.
Carlos stares at him with a blank face. “Mate, you call him your husband all the time. Are you just upset with him or something?” He gasps dramatically, “Are you getting divorced??”
“What no! I’m not upset with Oscar!” Lando quickly answers before clarifying, "At least not in a divorce sense. I’ve just been having a shit time and he’s the one beating me so.. it’s complicated."
“...So you are married.. And taking a break.”
“Oh my God Carlossss.” Lando groans, frustrated that the topic had shifted to his supposed marriage rather than what he came to complain about.
Carlos holds up his hands, “Mate, I’m just curious because Max told me you got married in Singapore and like I said you call him your husband AND you’re not beating the divorce allegations right now… How will you break the news to poor Alex?” Carlos was obviously just trying to rile him up now.
Lando rubs the bridge of his nose trying not to show how much Carlos was annoying him, “Of course Max told you we got married.”
“Actually, let’s not talk about Max.” Carlos quickly cuts in. “I’m already tired of you and your relationships.” He explains to deter from why he really changed the topic while Lando narrows his eyes at him. “Now please just tell me about your apparent marriage that isn’t a marriage that’s going through a divorce, I’m sure it’s a better story than either of our weekends.”
Lando covers his hands with his face. “God, you’re so annoying.” His voice muffles through his hands. He then pushes them towards the back of his neck and sighs, “The whole thing is a joke because we have this papaya family thing going on and we did basically adopt Alex. Max told you we got married in Singapore because Oscar ‘proposed’ to me on the podium there.” He emphasises the finger quotations on purpose as he explains his situation with Oscar as if the whole thing were obvious. “And we’re not getting divorced!”
Carlos’ mouth is shaped like an ‘oh’ as he nods before he bites his lip. “You know mate.. championships are hard on teammates and..”
“Carlos, just because you have a weird toxic rivalry relationship thing with two of your ex-teammates does not mean everyone does.” Lando gave him a deadpan look, already tired of this topic of discussion.
“You have a child with Max!” Carlos accused.
Lando becomes bewildered, “So do you?? Plus he was never my teammate.” He crosses his arms triumphantly as if he’s just won whatever argument the pair are having.
“You guys go back and forth between liking each other and hating each other faster than your pitstop in Qatar! At least we mostly tolerate each other.”
“I had a stop and go penalty in Qatar.. Sooo don’t get your point here..”
“Lando…” Carlos takes a second to take in how dense his friend is. “Obviously I meant the one in fucking 2023.”
“Ah, that makes sense… W-Wait! No no no no, I haven’t spoken to him since Japan.” Lando scrambles his arms frantically as he keeps trying to defend his little honour.
Carlos laughs, “Mate, you swore not to speak to him after he crashed into Oscar in Abu Dhabi and then you were besties again by the pre-season test.”
Lando clicks his tongue and tries to think of any comeback but he knows Carlos will find something against him every time. There are a few moments of silence before Lando’s face turns to bewilderment. “How the fuck did we start talking about my relationships?”
Carlos covers his face and groans. “Because I don’t want to talk about racing and hearing you talk about it is just as miserable.” Lando goes to object but soon realises there’s truth to his words. “And it’s funny to piss you off.” Carlos adds with a laugh.
Lando scoffs in offense and goes to leave, “You know what, nice chat Carlos, will I see you around before Miami?”
Carlos thinks for a moment before his smile becomes cheeky, “Yeah, let’s meet up before Miami.”
Lando, stupidly, didn’t think much about his closing words and left to catch his plane.
---
Lando had shut out the world and any memory of the weekend while on the plane journey back home. “Lando?” Oscar’s voice cautiously called across from Lando. Once Lando turned his head from the window to Oscar he turned his phone around, “Why did Carlos add me to a group chat called ‘family day trip’?”
Lando’s face quickly fell as he scrambled for his own phone. “That motherfucker.”
“I’m gonna kill him.” Lando said to himself as he stared at his phone. He quickly looked up to Oscar, “This was not my idea, he’s the crazy one.”
Oscar blinked, “I never said you were crazy.. But we did already know he was crazy, also when were you two hanging- nevermind, that’s not important now.” He sighs and re-reads the message. “I mean.. I’d be down for it I guess.” He said with slight unease while looking at Lando to gauge how he was feeling.
Lando looks at Oscar with perplexity, “Wait, woah, when did we agree that he was crazy?” He shakes his head quickly, “Anyway, irrelevant, what does he even mean by ‘family bonding’?” Lando scrunched his face together while re-reading the message.
“You really need to stop making plans without thinking them through.” Oscar deadpanned before sighing. “I mean, it would be nice to do something with Alex outside of the race weekends he attends.” He bites his lip, still not very content with the proposal, as Lando analyses his phone. “I think-”
“Oh. My. God.” Lando interrupts. “It’s a trap!”
Oscar sighs in an attempt to mentally prepare for Lando’s bullshit. “What?”
“He wants to see if we’re getting divorced.” Lando explains with a certain nonchalance that makes it seem like this is a perfectly normal thing to say.
Nothing could have prepared Oscar for that sentence as he looks at Lando in absurdity. “Lando.. We’re not even married.”
“That’s what I told him! But he told me that according to Max Verstappen we got married in Singapore!”
“Ah yeah I did kinda fake propose, he’s got us there.” Oscar nods along. “Does the whole grid think we eloped in Vegas or something though?”
Lando thinks for a second. “I’m actually not sure… I’m gonna presume yes because Carlos definitely would’ve told Charles and the two of them are a dangerous force for gossip.”
Oscar sighs. “This is why I don’t like Carlos.”
Lando throws a small cushion at him. “I don’t remember asking for your opinion.”
Oscar makes a face back at him but elects to back down. “Anyway, so now he thinks we’re getting divorced?” Lando nods his head, leading Oscar to ask, “Why?”
“Because you two fight like an old married couple.” Alex pops his head over the seat causing both Lando and Oscar to jump. “I heard my name and you should know it’s rude to talk about people when they’re sitting right behind you.”
“He’s sassy.” Lando smiled as Alex came around to sit next to him.
Oscar scoffed, “He gets it from you.” Lando gasps with fake drama.
Oscar shakes his head and ignores him, instead turning to Alex. “Carlos invited all of us to hang out. We don’t know if we’ll go though.”
“He can’t be right about the divorce allegations though! Imagine him and Charles then! We have to go and.. I don’t know.. Put on a show?” Lando waved around his hands as if it would make his thoughts coherent.
“A show? Lando, this is stupid.” Oscar crossed his arms in a huff.
Lando bites his lip and sighs as he begins to think Oscar won’t budge on his stance, then he forms an idea. “Alright then, but it’s not my fault you’re jealous of Carlos.” He slyly mentions as he gets up to leave.
“What?!” Oscar says, getting Lando to smugly sit back down. “I’m not jealous.. I-” He scrambles through his words.
“So you’ll go?” Lando raises his eyebrows.
Oscar rolls his eyes in defeat. “Yeah, I suppose.”
---
---
Ollie had a lot on his plate. He’d found himself caught in two, what he could only describe as, situationships. It was technically his fault but it also wasn’t his fault his fathers were also anything but devoted. So when Carlos had offered a small grid get together where he wouldn’t have to deal with his current problems for a minute, he happily agreed.
It was a simple plan and it appealed to the drivers after a tough race in Jeddah and before the Miami heat. Someone, probably Carlos, had rented a lounge space. Deck chairs and tables in the shade littered the area with a padel court to the side, which he had no doubt would be used. It wasn’t massive, but it suited the small group occupying it.
He’d arrived slightly later than expected but the Mclaren crew were still absent so he could still deem himself as being somewhat on time. In the time he hadn’t been there two factions had already formed. Carlos, Charles, and Max were gathered together chatting while Arvid and Luke sat to the side, stuck in their own conversation.
While the first trio were his gridmates, he felt more compelled to his half sibling and friend. And once they’d seen he’d arrived they had also begun ushering him over. Hard to resist. Especially since he doesn’t hang out with the two as often despite being good friends.
Carlos, Charles, and Max made for a strange trio which had resulted in their trio as they all shared at least one parent with another. When the initial trio are all getting along it means they’re probably scheming something, but Ollie didn’t really mind for now as he just wanted to see some friends who weren’t involved in his love life.
Arvid leaned over his chair as Ollie approached the two. “They’re plotting..” He says quietly while nodding his head in the direction of the older drivers.
Ollie shrugs as he takes a seat with them, “I mean, they’re always up to something when they’re actually getting along as a collective. They’re always cheating on each other or mad at one person.”
“Alex said he was coming with Lando and Oscar, maybe it’s about them?” Luke chimes in.
“You’re the F1 driver here Ollie, surely you know the gossip.” Arvid added.
“I’ve been uh, too busy for gossip.” A half truth, he only excluded how he was creating some of the gossip. “I mean, Lando did crash and Oscar is leading the championship, maybe they fell out.” He shrugs.
“Just like that though? They’re always attached at the hip!” Arvid questions Ollie’s reasoning.
“We can just ask Alex when he gets here anyway. He knows the difference between when they’re getting along or not.” Luke brushes it off.
“Well speak of the devils..” Arvid smirks and directs everyone's attention towards the new arrivals.
Carlos, Charles, and Max quickly shift their conversation to include Lando and Oscar and Alex makes his way over to the younger drivers. “Hey guys.”
“Is there drama with your dads?” Arvid asks without a second thought.
Alex is caught a little off guard as he sits next to the trio. “Hello to you too, was gonna congratulate you on the win again but straight to the point, okay.”
“Ignore him, we’re just being nosy because our dads rarely get along as a group. So we figured it had something to do with Lando and Oscar.” Luke explained.
Alex looks even more confused. “There’s no drama with my dads. They’re still annoying as fuck and I’m definately not getting a seat anytime soon.”
“Then why are we all here?” Ollie asked. “No offense Alex but I’ve never even met you. And now we’re all having some ‘family’ get together. Someone has ulterior motives here.”
Alex’s face lights up with a realisation. “Oh wait, Lando did mention something about divorce on the plane.”
Luke sighs. “Alex, that’s literally the drama we asked you about.”
“No, no, they’re not actually getting divorced but they think they are. Or at least Carlos does. They gave me this whole debrief on acting like a perfect family before we came.” Alex explains.
Everyone shares a collective ‘oh’ as they quickly look over at the older group of drivers. None of them complained about being used as bait for a ‘family’ gathering, they were all now invested in what their idiot parents were scheming.