Work Text:
1.
"Oh, hey!"
The driver suddenly blurted out.
At the sound of his voice, Lando looked up from his phone. It took him barely two seconds to spot what had caught the driver's attention.
On the sidewalk ahead stood someone in an eye-catching koala mascot suit. Sewn across the front was a huge papaya-orange patch that read "FREE HUGS", making their intentions perfectly clear. The road happened to be one that everyone had to pass on the way in and out of Albert Park, and with race week bringing bigger crowds than usual, a small group of people had already gathered around.
Their car was trapped in traffic that was barely moving. Unlike usual, Lando didn't look away.
Around the mascot's neck was a fluffy feather boa in the same unmistakable papaya orange. The little girl closest to them had been lifted onto her father's shoulders. She giggled as she pressed a McLaren logo sticker onto one of the koala's oversized cheeks.
Laughter rippled through the car.
"Wow. Australian papaya fans," someone in the back seat chimed in, slipping into an exaggeratedly professional tone. "Think we should make a post about it? You know, fan support lke that is always good for the team's image."
"That'd basically be us officially claiming them, though." another colleague replied, sounding even more serious. "We should at least ask for their permission first. After all, this isn't the paddock."
"Sure, sure. I'm just throwing the idea out there. It's not like I can actually hop out of the car and ask them right now anyway."
"Yeah. Honestly, traffic like this is torture. I can't believe we've only made it a few hundred yards."
Lando's eyes stayed fixed on the koala.
It was the first time he'd really notice them.
It wasn't the first time he'd seen them, though.
Last year, specifically during the second half of last season, they had started showing up outside the tracks of a handful of Grands Prix, gradually becoming a familiar face in fans' photos. At first, Lando had assumed it was just a ramdom, one-off thing. It wasn't until he'd spotted that familiar gray figure several times on the drive out after work that he mentally filed them away as one particularly dedicated fan who just liked spreading some warmth.
Back then, the suffocating pressure of the championship fight had left him with zero energy to spare for anything else. The team had even cut back on filming PR videos, let alone him paying special attention to a complete stranger who had virtually nothing to do with him.
The traffic crept forward again, bringing them a little closer.
Resting his chin in his hand, Lando watched for another moment before commenting, "They kind of remind me of Oscar."
That earned another round of chuckles.
"Yeah," someone called from the back. "An Australian koala dressed in papaya!"
Oscar's koala alike had long since become common knowledge, but that wasn't what Lando meant. It was the way the mascot behaved.
The person they were hugging now was a fan leaving the circuit. The koala leaned forward just slightly, careful to keep a respectful distance that never felt intrusive. When the fan gave them a thumbs-up, they nodded before somewhat awkwardly returning it with a fist bump.
It reminded Lando, inevitably, of his teammate.
By the time he'd finally made it back to the drivers' room after the race, Oscar had already left. There had been nothing wrong with leaving early. Oscar deserved a little peace and quiet—a chance to think after what had happened. After all, his race hadn't even made it to the formation lap.
Although it was only the opening round under the new regulations, reliability issues weren't exactly unexpected.
Still...
It had been his home Grand Prix.
Lando couldn't help imagining Silverstone. If the same thing had happened to him there, he suspected he'd have handled it even worse than Oscar.
When Lando snapped out of his thoughts, he'd somehow opened their chat. Their last conversation had been about work. The final message was a lonely OK, sitting by itself on the screen.
Lando typed.
Deleted it.
Typed something else.
Deleted that too.
In the end, he still had no idea what to say.
The two of them had always preferred sorting things out together with the team during debriefs. Besides, Lando figured Oscar was probably better at dealing with emotions like this than he was.
At last, traffic began to ease, and their car no longer crawled forward at a snail's pace. Lando put his phone away, leaned back into his seat, and let the exhaustion of race day wash over him.
2.
After the Chinese Grand Prix...
Well, calling it a race felt generous when neither of their cars had even managed to drive off the starting grid.
Once Lando finally got his phone back, he pulled a blanket over his head and took a long nap before he even bothered replying to the mountain of unread messages.
Swiping out of his messaging app, he mindlessly opened social media. The very first video on his feed couldn't have been more fitting.
POV: Your two favorite drivers both DNS right in front of you, but at least you have the KOALA HUG.
Probably just another fan video the algorithm had decided to push. It had only been uploaded a few minutes earlier. Before Lando had even finished reading the caption, it started playing automatically.
A girl stood facing the camera in full McLaren gear. Her eyes were still a little red, made even more obvious by the filter over the video.
Lando immediately felt a pang in his chest.
He knew how much the fans cared about and loved him and the team. That was exactly why it always hurt to see them sad or disappointed, even when the outcome wasn't entirely his fault. They'd come all this way, buzzing with excitement, hoping to cheer for McLaren, only to watch both cars get pushed helplessly back into the garage before the race had even begun.
The girl forced herself to smile as she spoke in a language Lando didn't understand. Then she turned toward the familiar gray figure in the background, walked over and wrapped both arms tightly around the koala.
Lando noticed the orange "FREE HUGS" patch had gained quite a collection of decorations.
Well, fans here were always creative.
There were McLaren logos, of course, but also the Mercedes three-pointed star, the Ferrari prancing horses, Red Bull cans clinking together...
Wait, was that a koala and a frog holding a papaya together? Was that supposed to be him and Oscar?
The video continued. She buried her face against the mascot's chest, while the koala simply patted her back with their oversized, padded paw, then the clip ended.
If Lando had to judge, this really wasn't a particularly good professional hugger. Even though it clearly wasn't their first time, they still looked overly cautious, almost stiff, as though they weren't entirely comfortable with close physical contact.
Thankfully, the girl, wrapped up in her own disappointment, didn't seem to mind. By the final frame, Lando could already see that her smile looked a little less forced.
So an awkward koala hug could actually do that?
The thought made him smile.
Maybe I could use a koala hug too.
Still, compared to the moment he'd retired from the race, he already felt much better, largely thanks to a certain other Australian koala.
Becoming the reigning World Champion only to suffer a DNS in the second race of the season was incredibly, incredibly frustrating, but when your teammate went through exactly the same thing, it somehow became a little easier to bear.
After everything that had happened in Melbourne, Oscar seemed to have developed an even higher tolerance for bad luck. He'd even brought out his signature deadpan humor to make light of it.
At first, Lando had been genuinely frustrated. But after joking around with Oscar in the media pen, most of that irritation had quietly dissolved.
Later, tucked away somewhere beyond the reach of cameras and microphones, their shoulders bumped lightly together.
Lando let out a long sigh.
"Our car..."
Oscar caught on immediately, finishing the complaint for him.
He chewed on his straw, looking entirely innocent and harmless, even as his mouth rattled off a string of complaints that would have been completely bleeped out on team radio.
Lando couldn't help but laugh out loud.
3.
Oscar hadn't started doing this until the second half of last season.
To be fair, the whole thing had been Nicole's idea.
Oscar wasn't the sort of person who looked for excuses. When it came to analyzing a race, logic always came first. There hadn't been any outside factors to blame, he had simply driven terribly during those few race weekends. As the season drew toward its end, the championship lead he'd worked so hard to build slowly disappeared before slipping into his teammate's hands. No one in this position could stay completely unfazed by that.
Oscar remained calm, composed, and introspective as ever. Even so, the pressure had become impossible to hide.
Late one night, after too many disappointments had piled up, Nicole called from the other side of the world.
"Do you remember the mascot hugs when you were little?" she asked.
Of course he remembered. Oscar had always had an excellent memory, even if those days now felt impossibly far away.
He'd worn an oversized mascot costume while his mum struggled to wrap her arms around his newly round belly, and his sisters giggled as they threw themselves into his fluffy embrace, surrounding him with endless love and laughter.
Even as he pulled on the koala suit Nicole had prepared for him, Oscar insisted the whole idea wouldn't work.
Reality turned out to be much kinder than he'd expected.
No one knew that behind the koala head was a racing driver who had just had a miserable race. He could simply stand there without having to pretend everything was fine, or forcing a media-trained smile for anyone. The background chatter around him was just enough to let him quietly replay the race in his head without sinking into the kind of absolute silence that made every thought spiral further into overthinking.
He stood there with his arms open, carefully hugging fans and complete strangers alike. Those hugs carried nothing but pure sincerity and warmth, completely free of malice or scrutiny.
Oscar let himself drift for a while, relaxing as the weight of being a Formula One driver slipped quietly off his shoulders. For a little while, he was simply a shy koala, just another ordinary person.
To his own surprise, he discovered he didn't mind being that close to people after all.
4.
Lando slipped out of his room quietly.
Having just finished a grueling race, he really should have been resting in his hotel room, but the Brit simply couldn't sit still. Oh well, a walk sounds like a decent plan.
A few weeks earlier, he'd won the Miami Sprint and followed it up with a podium on Sunday. There had been a few regrets, sure, but compared to the races before that, he'd been satisfied.
Yesterday he'd finished second in the Sprint, maybe that had given him just enough false hope.
Then the questionable—almost comical—intermediate tyre call sent everything downhill. In the end, he hadn't even reached the finish.
Lando wasn't sure whether it would have been easier to accept if the Sprint hadn't gone so well.
Night had settled in some time ago. The crowds were gone, leaving the area almost unrecognizable compared to the chaos of race day. This was perfect. Lando felt he could really use some privacy and quiet right now.
What he hadn't expected was to run into that koala.
They'd just waved goodbye to a pair of chattering fans, one arm still hanging awkwardly in the air but their head snapped in Lando's direction first. Despite the terrible nighttime lighting, the restricted vision of the mascot head, and the fact that Lando was dressed entirely in low-key blacks and greys with no fluorescent color or papaya orange in sight, Lando knew instantly that the mascot had recognized him.
Should he pretend not to notice? They were outside the circuit now, no one was going to judge him either way. Still, Lando didn't want to come across as cold or rude.
It was during those few seconds of silence that he made up his mind. Unlike the excitable fans he'd met all weekend, the koala simply stood there, watching him quietly and politely.
Lando suddenly remembered the video he'd scrolled past after China. He found himself wondering what one of those famous koala hugs actually felt like.
So he walked over.
"'Free Hugs'?" Lando read aloud, as though he were only just noticing the words stitched across the mascot's chest.
He raised an eyebrow, slipping effortlessly into the hopeful expression that came naturally after years in front of cameras, waiting for a reaction.
The koala froze for another solid three seconds before slowly, almost lagging, spreading their arms wide to welcome the famous driver into their embrace.
Someone had clearly put real effort into making the costume. It felt incredibly soft and warm, the kind of hug that made you instinctively want to let your guard down.
And yet, even through all that plush fabric, he could still feel how tense the person inside was. The koala held him only loosely, as motionless as a robot that had suddenly frozen mid-command. For someone advertising free hugs, they offered remarkably little emotional support.
Lando almost laughed. After all these races, how were they still this awkward?
With the little energy he had left, he leaned forward instead, deciding to take the initiative himself.
What he hadn't expected was for the frozen koala to respond.
As though they'd finally received some long-awaited signal, the mascot stopped holding back. Their arms tightened around him, turning the polite embrace into something solid, something complete, and something undeniably real.
Normally, this wouldn't have been a big deal. Lando had wanted to experience a koala hug. by making the first move, he'd successfully earned one.
The next steps should have been simple: pull away, say thank you, maybe ask whether they'd like an autograph or a photo, heaven knows if this person was just too starstruck to show any enthusiasm, and go on with his night as if he had just bumped into a regular fan.
Except Lando had always been far too good at reading people. Something didn't feel right. He had a strange, nagging feeling that the person inside the costume needed this hug just as badly as he did.
He cleared his throat and asked quietly, "Bad day?"
The koala head, still resting against his shoulder, gave a small nod, the soft fur brushing lightly against his neck.
"Me too," Lando chuckled softly. "Is it because I retired?"
The koala clearly hadn't seen that coming. They froze completely.
The Brit, thoroughly amused by his own teasing, laughed. "I'm just kidding."
Bad days happened, things didn't always go to plan, and Lando understood that all too well. He reached up and gently patted the koala's back, comforting them just as much as he was comforting himself.
"That's life, isn't it?"
5.
Lando Norris smiled at life. Life, unfortunately, didn't return the favor.
A second consecutive DNF. A DNF in Monaco. A DNF at McLaren's 1000th Grand Prix.
He'd wrung every last bit of pace out of the car, fighting tooth and nail for points, desperate to prove himself as a deserving world champion and to leave a glorious mark on this historic milestone for the team. Reality, however, had other plans.
The car had struggled all weekend. Every position gained had come more from other circumstances than outright performance. Oscar's weekend had gone slightly better, but not by much.
Even so, he'd still been trying to cheer Lando up—with his deadpan jokes, exaggeratedly cheerful commentary, and perfectly timed sarcasm. He always seemed to know exactly how to lighten the mood without accidentally poking at a fresh bruise.
Come to think of it, his young teammate was surprisingly easy to read.
Lando tried to play along, but it didn't really work. Pretending he was fine only made it more obvious that he wasn't. Without even properly saying goodbye to Oscar, he slipped out of the paddock early, trusting that his teammate wouldn't take it personally.
Luckily, since they were in Monaco, he was back at his apartment in no time. He changed, showered, rested for a few hours, and then decided to head out to find some distraction.
A local bar, a club, some karaoke...literally anywhere he could temporarily forget about this miserable race.
Strangely enough, he ran into the koala mascot yet again.
There was hardly anyone around. The locals weren't particularly interested in race-week festivities, and most fans would never wander into this neighborhood. Lando couldn't tell whether this was coincidence, or whether the koala had come looking for him.
Their eyes met across the street, and once again, the koala hesitated.
Just as Lando was about to look away and turn down another road, the mascot took the initiative, opening their arms wide.
FREE HUGS
The words sat squarely in his line of sight.
Before Lando's brain could even register what he was doing, his legs had already carried him right in front of the mascot. The driver whose day had gone spectacularly wrong found himself wrapped in a firm, steady embrace. The koala held him close, pouring every word of comfort and encouragement they couldn't say aloud into the hug instead.
It felt incredibly good, almost natural. Without needing to ask, Lando knew this hug was meant entirely for him.
"Yeah," he sighed quietly,"I guess that's life."
The mascot only hugged him tighter.
Pressed against the soft gray fur, Lando took a deep breath—
Wait. Hang on.
Lando's eyes widened in sheer disbelief. He caught a whiff of a familiar, subtly sweet scent.
He knew that scent.
Chocolate deodorant.
A smell he'd never once mistaken since that press conference last year.
Oh... Oh.
+1.
After the race, Charles and George invited him out to celebrate, making sure to emphasize it was a strictly private gathering. The top two finishers were practically glowing with joy, which was frankly a bit annoying to look at.
Lando could have easily accepted the invite. A P3 and a P4 at his home race wasn't exactly satisfying by his own standards. But by the car's standards, it was acceptable.
Even Zak had only offered a gentle, token warning: "Just don't do anything stupid. Let the PR team have one quiet night."
Yet, the famous party boy turned them down anyway.
Instead, the first thing he did after leaving the paddock was go looking for the koala.
This wasn't exactly a sensible plan. It was late, and the mascot had probably already gone home with the rest of the fans. But Lando just had an intuitive feeling he would find him.
And he was right.
Around the next corner, beneath the edge of a streetlight where the shadows swallowed most of the road, stood the familiar gray koala. Head lowered, completely still, and lost in thought.
He had to be having a bad day, even the fluffy costume somehow looked less fluffy than usual.
Oh, he looked like he desperately needed a hug.
Lando strolled over slowly.
The moody koala could have walked away or ignored him entirely, but instead, he lifted his head, locking his gaze onto the approaching driver. Lando could practically picture those familiar brown eyes staring back at him from beneath that cute mascot head.
He stopped in front of him. Then spread his arms, wearing the brightest, most genuine smile he'd managed all weekend.
"Can I give you a hug, Osc?"
Without a moment's hesitation, Oscar crashed into his arms.
Fin.