Work Text:
The phone rang at 12:30 sharp.
Oscar had been halfway into his nightly routine (which consisted in him looking at a wall until he eventually fell asleep) when his phone started vibrating on his bedside table.
He groaned in frustration, he had been extremely close to falling asleep for the first time in days without the knowledge that he had just lost a championship hunting him to sleep.
He slowly rolled over to his side and blindly reached for his phone, when he found it he squinted his eyes a bit at the bright light bit he forced himself to focus on the id caller.
And almost as if someone had just punched oscar straight in the gut he forgot how to breathe.
Lando Norris Is calling.
it may have been a little mean from Oscar's side to save his teamate with his full name, but Oscar had been angry and he wasn't really thinking when he changed it.
He let the phone ring a few more times before he made a decision, he accepted the call and put the phone to his ear, the was a beat of silence until-.
"Oscar?" Landos voice hit Oscar hard and warm, he almost physically gasped, Lando hadn't texted him or called him ever since Abu Dhabi, not that they were really on talking terms before that.
"Lando?" he asked, his voice shaky and clipped, he was ready for Lando to hang up to phone on him as soon as he realized that this was a mistake.
Instead all he heard back was a brief moment of silence before a very audible sigh of relief.
"I hope I didn't wake you up"
"You didn't don't worry" technically Lando didn't wake him up, practically he did but not technically.
There was another beat of silence, almost awkward even though they were on a phone call, before Oscar got the courage to ask.
"Lando...why are you calling me?" The question landed heavy between the line, Oscar briefly heard Lando inhale sharply.
"I don't know" he responded honestly.
Oscar didn't respond sensing that Lando wasn't finished talking.
"I-i wanted to apologise but as soon as you picked up I...I didn't know what to say" then, he chuckled "obviously I'm... sorry but I mean I don't know what to say to make you understand that I am really sorry"
"Lando, you don't have to do this-" Oscar tried to interfere but Lando was already long gone.
"But I want to!" A pause "I want to, because you deserve to know"
Oscar let his head sink deeper into the pillow "okay" he agreed "What's on your mind?"
"Everything" a breath "I want to tell you a million things at once but I don't know how to do it, so I'm just going to...uhm try?" Lando's voice was softer.
"I didn't mean for what happened this season to happen, i-i wasn't expecting it to unfold this way either, there are definitely things that we should talk about with the team, a lot of things actually, with Andrea and Zak, also with fucking pr being all up in our business. I just feel like that this year nothing went right for us-" Lando was ranting, about the wrong subject.
"You still won the championship though?" Oscar interrupted him.
Oscar could feel Lando's slime even without seeing him "I mean, yes. But... I just think that we both deserved it"
"Lando we both can't win the championship" Oscar stated in a matter of fact way.
"I know it's just...I feel like it's not right, not that I'm not happy about winning the champions it's just that all the shit you went through to make it happened doesn't make it right, I-... after they made us switch positions in Italy I talked about it with Andrea-" Lando admitted.
"You talked about it with Andrea!?" Oscar almost exclaimed.
"Yeah, I told him that it didn't feel right and as much as I was trying to win the championship I didn't need the team to sabotage you, unfortunately I know that my argument didn't get to Zak and the higher ups...I- I know I'm their 'favourite'" Oscar could hear the disgusting in Lando's voice as he muttered the last word.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Oscar asked instead.
"That I talked to Andrea? Well...I didn't think you wanted to talk to me" he admitted quietly.
"What? Lando you must be joking, there wasn't a moment this season where I didn't want to talk to you"
Now it was Lando's turn to be confused "what?! But-t you were always giving me those looks and like...pr smiles, you barely looked me in the eyes and just...you didn't talk to me outside of meetings, I thought it was obvious that you didn't want to talk to me!"
Oscar groaned into the phone microphone "it's not like you were doing much to try and talk to me!" He exclaimed "every time my name was mentioned you pulled a weird face and you too didn't talk to me outside of meetings! I could've known that you wanted to talk to me if you didn't approach me!"
There was a moment of heavy silence, Oscar threw his head back on the pillow staring up at the blank ceiling, while he heard Lando moving around from the other side of the line.
"I'm sorry" Lando responded "I guess I didn't really help that much this season... I thought that with me standing up for you after Monza was going to help with our crumbling friendship but clearly I was wrong..." A pause.
"I was scared Oscar, and I know that this sounds silly but I-I was scared of loosing what we had so I...I pushed you away, I thought that the farther away you were from me the better you were going to feel, I didn't want you to be near me while I was so stressed for the championship because when I'm stressed then I become too much and I was scared that if I became too much then you wouldn't have wanted to be near me anymore" Oscar took a deep breath as he let the words soak in him, letting them flow to his heart and rest there.
"Lando" he said softly "I'm still here, aren't I? I wouldn't have cared if you became too much, sometimes it's okay for you to become too much, it's okay to show your emotions you aren't a robot that Is supposed to act the same way towards everything. When...when you stopped talking to me I thought that maybe you had realized that being my teammate was a waste of time, that being my friend was a waste of time, that's why I didn't try to approach you" then he chuckled.
"Ironic isn't it? We both decided to choose what the other wanted for our relationship and we both made the wrong decision" Oscar heard Lando quietly chuckle from his end.
"How about this" Oscar spoke up "tomorrow morning I'll pick you up, we'll go to our usual bakery and we can just sit down for an hour or two, or as many as we need, and talk about everything, it can be about what happened this season or it can be about us, you choose but please just- let me do this... okay?" He slightly pleaded towards the end, any type of interaction with Lando would've been enough for him but he desperately needed to look into those green eyes again.
"Okay" Lando quietly agreed "pick me up at at 8:30" he told him.
Oscar let the silence settle between them, letting him come to relaxation that maybe there was still hope, his stomach did a weird flip by the thought of it.
"Good night mr.Norris, see you tomorrow" he softly spoke into the phone microphone.
"Good night Mr.Piastri"
Oscar swore he heard Lando mutter 'i love you' before he hung up the phone.