Chapter Text
Freshly showered, Arvid quickly threw a shirt on, and ran his fingers through his hair afterwards, ensuring his curls were set the way he liked them. Satisfied, he hummed to himself and quickly opened his phone, checking through his calendar. Today the team actually had a visit scheduled to its factory in Faenza. Out of all his media duties thus far, this may become his favorite. He was actually excited to visit the factory, getting the first-hand look on how the cars are crafted masterfully, and viewing the past cars the factory had produced.
There was another incentive that he had in mind, though. He would get the chance to spend the day with his teammate, Liam.
Being a rookie, he’d had his initial concern of tense rivalry between teammates. Of course it was expected when you stepped up to Formula One, but he still had hope that his teammate would provide him with healthy competition, even better if they were willing to help him improve, which was often not the case in the area of highly competitive sport.
And so Arvid was immensely grateful when Liam was more than he was expecting from a teammate. They had known each other from way before he was officially announced as the second driver of VCARB, however he did have some skepticism at the start towards the blond. His initial image in the media wasn’t exactly the best, you can blame Netflix for that, nevertheless, all was proven wrong from the start, when the blond flashed the biggest smile on his face the first day Arvid arrived at Milton Keynes, giving him a high-five and a hug to welcome him to the team. At the time, he felt his heartbeat steadily increased, but he brushed it off as first-day nervousness.
And somewhere between the pre-season until now… Arvid felt what he could describe as intrigue, an itch that he could not seem to scratch to be closer, more impossibly closer to Liam than they were now. He felt giddy whenever they were huddled, be it filming contents, appearing in the stage before each race, late-night sim run, free practices, basically any moments whenever they were together.
He tried to shrug the feeling off multiple times, convincing himself that all the excitement was present because it was natural, it was his debut year in Formula One, for God’s sake. That every time Liam’s thigh brushes against his when they sit together despite the amount of space available, or whenever he leaned too close to the point that he rests his chin on Arvid’s shoulder, it was just Liam being friendly and open towards his teammate, despite deep down, he desperately clinged on any kind of hope that the lingering touches had some kind of meaning. But as the time went on, he was starting to have difficulties in differentiating between excitement and the feeling of wanting to become more than just teammates with Liam (he couldn’t even bring himself to actually say the word, call it being in denial).
His train of thoughts were interrupted when a notification suddenly flashed from his phone.
Liam Lawson 30 VCARB
r u ready yet?
i’m starving, you promised that we’ll have breakfast together.
Ah, yes, he remembered that he invited Liam the previous day to have breakfast together in the hotel before going to Faenza. He quickly tapped on the notification and typed a reply.
Arvid Lindblad (VCARB)
just finished getting ready :)
give me two minutes, I’ll go to your room.
Liam Lawson 30 VCARB
huzzah
no need, we can meet up in the restaurant.
was abt to put my shoes on anyway.
Arvid Lindblad (VCARB)
you’re literally five doors away from me
just waitt i’m already walking to yours rn
Liam Lawson 30 VCARB
🙄🙄🙄
k fine hurry or else i’ll blame u when i faint in faenza later
At his reply, Arvid smiled in triumph. Sue him, it was only natural wanting to grasp at every little moment possible to be with him. He opened the hotel room’s door, and jogged lightly to Liam’s room. Two knocks, and the door was swiftly opened, revealing the blond standing there, with his bag ready. The sweet smell of Liam’s cologne hits Arvid, and he resisted the urge to just bury his head on Liam’s shoulder to take a longer whiff.
“Why, thank you for your effort in picking me up, Arvi.” Liam said playfully, closing the door behind him. There was barely any difference between his real and nickname, but Liam has been referring to him as Arvi as of late. The brunette then had decided that it was now his favorite nickname, even petulantly refusing to respond to Liam sometimes when he called him by Arvid.
“No worries. Why must we go alone when we can go together?” Arvid grinned, throwing his arm casually around Liam’s shoulder as they walked towards the elevator. It became a habit now, to rest his arm on Liam’s shoulder, to the point that most of the time, he did it unconsciously. Liam gazed at his shoulder for a brief moment, before finally his hand reached up to hold Arvid’s hips loosely. This kind of contact was familiar and often done, but Arvid still couldn’t help his excitement whenever they touched.
Breakfast was hearty, and provided the much-needed fuel to go through the rest of the day. Both of them knew that they were going to have a late lunch with the factory’s crews, so they decided to splurge on the breakfast; they figured that they could face the wrath of their trainers later.
The ride to the Faenza factory only took less than forty-five minutes. Both of them went through the briefs of the video shoot, reviewing each detail and itinerary during the visit. Arvid took this chance to sit ever so close next to Liam despite having much space beside him, his hand brushing with Liam’s occasionally when they scrolled through the IPad, in which Arvid may or may not have done it intentionally.
The first thing that they did was engage in the paintshop, where they needed to add the new livery sticker to the car’s Halo. Arvid was secretly excited to do this part, it reminded him of the art and craft class that he needed to take back at school. He snickered when he saw what was clearly a struggling Liam, the blond squinting his eyes and repeatedly placing the sticker on and off again to ensure that it was located right in the center. He could not deny that the view was cute, and made a mental note to himself to ask for all the photos from the admin later on. He may have accidentally started a habit to save photos of the blond, even marking some of them to his favorites.
He sure prayed that nobody would ever find out about this new quirk, because how do you even explain the reason for having countless photos of your teammate in your favorite folder?
“Well if you give us your expert opinion, whose is better?” Liam asked the factory crew, feeling competitive after he saw that Arvid was finished as well. It was one of Arvid’s many favorite quirk of the Kiwi, when he maintained his competitiveness both on and off track.
“First attempt as well!” The younger stated matter-of-factly, satisfied at his craft when the crew pointed at his work. He laughed as the blond made his way towards him, clearly not happy with the verdict.
“It’s all right, mate.” He jokingly consoled the sulking blond, grabbing his shoulder to pull him slightly closer to him and patting his chest.
Still protesting, Liam walked towards the next station, mouthing “I’m gonna beat you next!” towards Arvid, at which he playfully stuck his tongue out.
The next part was placing the sticker on to the car’s panel, and Arvid swore this was the most irritating work that he’s ever done. It reminded him of sticking a layer of protective screen over the phone, where he had to make sure that no air bubbles were present. From his peripheral vision, he could see that Liam was done and proudly showed the panel to the crew. He could not hold his laugh when the crew plainly ripped the sticker out of Liam’s hard-worked panel to Liam’s dismay, mentioning that they could still salvage it.
“What do you mean? I thought it was good!” Liam protested, laughing as he helplessly watched the sticker being ripped out, preparing to redo the process from the start.
With the help from the crew, Liam was able to finish first as he smugly walked towards Arvid’s table to show off his masterpiece. “How’s yours, Arvid? You’ve got creases here bro, he’s not going to be happy about this. Trust me, I had to redo it with the smallest crease!” He laughed as he checked on the younger’s work, and laughed even louder when the crew tore Arvid’s sticker out, with an expression that could be interpreted as “I told you so!”
This time, it was Arvid’s turn to be competitive as he eagerly asked the crew which work was better. “I think it was 50-50,” stated the crew, to which Arvid excitedly clapped and went on by instinct to hug his once again, protesting teammate. Sue him, he couldn’t help but feel touchy whenever Liam was in a close proximity.
They actually spent most of the factory visit inside the simulation room, as the visit also doubles as a practice session. Afterwards, they get to visit a part of the factory that displayed the past cars and racing suits. Arvid giddily explored the room, clearly excited to learn of the team’s heritage.
“Have you ever played the F1 2010 game?” Liam asked curiously as he placed his hand over one of the car’s front wing, admiring it.
“Nah, it was before my time.” Arvid answered. He played the newer edition of course, but he was three years old when the game got out.
He could see Liam count inside of his head.
“You were three- no you weren’t!” He stated in disbelief.
Arvid rolled his eyes at the tone of denial from Liam. “In 2010, I was indeed three!”
“Fuck, how old was I? Seven? Eight?” Liam said to himself. “I was twenty-one during my debut in F1, and you’re like what now, nineteen?” Liam asked, lightly jogged towards Arvid to walk by his side. The cameraman and admin were already walking in front of them, and Arvid was thankful to be able to slip away from the recording for a moment.
“Close, I’ll be nineteen in August.” He corrected Liam. Liam gasped, shaking his head. “Gosh, anytime I feel like we’re compatible, I forgot about how young you are.” He whispered the reply, to which Arvid turned his head towards Liam. Compatible? Was his ears playing tricks on him? What did Liam mean by they are compatible?
“What do you mean? We ARE compatible.” Arvid frowned, emphasizing his statement.
“No, I mean, what I meant to say is-” Liam said, trailing off when he was about to finish his sentence. Arvid could see his expression painted with hesitation and uncertainty. Afterwards, he decided not to continue, shaking his head. “Forget it mate, it was nothing. You’re right! Despite our age gap, we work nicely together. Let’s just catch up to the others.” He hurriedly said, walking faster to catch up to the rest of the filming crews.
Bless a racing athlete’s reflexes, as he quickly grabbed Liam’s wrist to stop him from running. “Li, what did you actually mean?” He softly asked, careful not to grab the other crews’ attention. He couldn’t help but let his nickname slip out of his mouth, his eyes searching Liam’s face for any kind of reassurement that maybe, just maybe, what Arvid felt towards Liam was reciprocated.
Liam’s eyes trailed over to his wrist with an unreadable expression, and back to meeting Arvid’s eyes. “Nothing, okay? Just forget about it, I did mean it when I say that we work well together. Now can we please go to the next station?” He sighed exasperatedly, nodding in the direction towards the door that leads to the pitstop practice, which was their next and final destination of the day.
He was still curious, however he figured that Liam was determined to not change his answer. Still holding onto Liam’s wrist, he contemplated for a few seconds on how to respond, as he was not ready to let this topic go, yet he did not want to risk anything that Liam could deem as out of boundaries and instead would push him away.
“Five years is not that big of a gap, you know?” He finally settled on a response, slightly testing the water.
Arvid could feel the atmosphere turned serious around them. He figured that they were walking on thin ice right now, both of them seemingly knew what the conversation was implying, but none were brave enough to address it out loud.
“Well, it sort of is when your age still ends with ‘teen’.” Liam finally replied. His blue eyes darted downwards towards his wrist, where Arvid held him. He hesitantly lets go of Liam’s wrist, fingers rubbing as he mourns the loss of contact.
He was about to argue when he heard one of the filming crews call them over, and he decided that it was best to drop this conversation and continue it later at a more appropriate time. “Promise me that we’ll talk about this later?” Arvid bit his lip in anticipation, both of them started to walk over to catch up.
“I promise.” Again, the blond seemed to be hesitating before finally replying, but he could never reject whatever the younger asks from him, especially as of late.
Arvid took it as a small win for now, not pushing any further now that Liam has promised him. They walk together silently, with Arvid’s heart beating too loudly for his liking, yet judging from their interaction earlier, he felt a sliver of hope blooming inside of him.
For now, he figured he could settle on this.