Chapter Text
Lando and Oscar got on a plane back to Monaco that night.
For Lando it was because he would rather not face what is happening, he just wants to pass out in his bed and forget the world.
He’s hung over still, his entirely life has been flipped upside down, and suddenly he’s expected to date his coworker. Not the best combination by any means.
Never in a million years did he think his team would be telling him to be in a gay relationship, let alone giving him a bonus to do so; but here he is.
Right after that conversation he had with Zak, his team started sending him emails about some elaborate plan to get the paparazzi to spot him and Oscar at some upscale restaurant to generate more press.
He stopped reading their plan after the first paragraph, that was detailing at exactly what time they should enter the restaurant holding hands like they are in some stupid rom-com. Truly he felt like his brain was hurting from all of this new information.
He started reading through all the texts he had received in the last 24 hours, and he got a varying range of responses.
Some people realised it was clearly a drunken mistake and proceeded to call him an idiot, which Lando can’t deny; he is an idiot. He always has been an idiot, this is just the first time his actions have come back to haunt him.
Other people in his life asked how long ‘they had been dating’, some saying they had their suspicions already. Some of which sent him long paragraphs about how they had always known he was gay and would support him anyway.
Very sweet, the only issue with that being that Lando isn’t gay and they aren’t even dating. Seriously, how is that so hard for people to believe?
Well, they might be dating now. But this is a very new revelation and it’s not like either of them really wanted to be here.
Or at least Lando didn’t want to be in this situation.
Oscar is sitting next to him in the small private jet, looking down at Lando as he scrolls through article after article about that photo. He’s been refreshing the ‘news’ tab on google every few seconds, and visibly wincing every time he sees a new headline.
Right now Lando is looking through his Instagram comment section, which has never been more alive. It’s a mix of people congratulating him on his race win and people talking about that photo.
“Why does everyone keep saying Lando-Scar?” Lando says, his eyes not leaving his phone screen as he scrolls through the comments.
“You mean Land-Oscar.” Oscar corrects.
Lando looks up at Oscar with a raised eyebrow, “How do you know how it’s pronounced.”
Oscar huffs, “Guessed.”
That is a lie.
It most definitely wasn’t a guess.
After Zak mentioned this “Landoscar” thing, Oscar looked up that phrase on the taxi ride over the airport. He was greeted to a plethora of art and speculation that made his eyes widen in shock, but Lando doesn’t have to know that.
“Uh-huh.” Lando responds with a drawn out sound, he looks back down at the comments pouring in.
“I WISH I WAS OSCAR, BECAUSE WHY COULDN’T I GET A PIECE OF THAT-”
Lando stops reading as he sees a bunch of different words referring too his his thigh put down on text, none of which seem like acceptable terms for that part of the leg.
As much as he wishes he could look away, he feels like he has to keep reading.
“BACK TO BACK WINS, LETS GO BABY!!! Tell Oscar he’s a lucky man!!!”
Lando can’t help but let out a frustrated laugh, he runs his fingers through his hair as he continues reading.
Oscar isn’t a lucky man, because they aren’t actually dating.
This was simply just a drunken mistake, a moment in time that both of them should have forgotten about. Instead someone decided would be a great idea to post to Lando’s public story on his main Instagram account.
Truly, none of this makes sense.
Did Lando post it? Or did the person that took that photo post it? Because someone else definitely took that damn photo; because they were clearly very busy when it was being taken.
Right as Lando is about to scroll down so he can read some more of the comments under his post, Oscar grabs his phone out of his hand and chucks it across the plane. It safely lands on another seat across the isle, just out of Lando’s reach.
After a moment of shock Lando’s head snaps towards Oscar, “The fuck was that for?”
Oscar huffs out a laugh, “You’re driving yourself crazy, seriously all you’ve done all day is look at social media or articles about us.”
Lando lets out a noise of disbelief, “We got caught making out at a club, and the entire world is talking about it. You seriously think I can just forget about this?” he asks, moving his arms around for emphasis as he speaks.
Oscar lets out a sigh, sinking further back into his seat, “Believe me, I’m not excited about this either Lando. Did you see that email? Zak is really serious about this one.”
“I stopped reading after the first paragraph.”
Oscar can’t help but smirk a little, “It gets worse.”
Lando groans, also sinking back into his seat, “Don’t tell me, seriously I’m dreading all of this. I mean a PR relationship sounds like a nightmare, let alone one where I have to fake my sexuality too.”
“You’re seriously not gay?”
Lando’s head snaps towards Oscar, an offended look on his face until he sees the smirk on Oscar’s face.
“Fuck off, you know I’m not gay.”
Oscar sinks back into his chair, no longer looking towards Lando, “Yeah. I know.”
The words come out monotone, and Oscar can feel a slight ache in his chest as he thinks about Lando’s response to all of this.
Oscar gets it, they’ve been outed for something that isn’t even real; neither of them expected to be in this situation. But part of him does wonder what the meaning was behind that moment, specifically what happened between them last night.
He wouldn’t call it a full on crush, he’s not drawing hearts around photos of Lando while kicking his feet in the air or anything. But Oscar likes Lando, he has for a while now.
Maybe he’s stupid to think this way, but Lando’s a good looking guy. And as much as he’s tried to ignore it over the years that they have been teammates, it’s obvious that this crush isn’t going anyway anytime soon.
At first when he saw that photo, he felt a hint of hope build up inside of him. That maybe he wasn’t crazy, that maybe Lando saw him in the same way.
But no, of course he didn’t.
Lando wants no part of this, and as much as it shouldn’t hurt; it does.
Oscar is trying to joke about it, he’s trying too act like none of this means anything. That he too is annoyed about the idea of fake dating, but he isn’t.
It’s stupid, but maybe part of him does want to live this fantasy. That Lando could like him, and that they could be a couple somehow.
He shouldn’t have agreed, this will only hurt him in the long run. But he did, and he can’t take it back now.
Oscar turns to face Lando again, “You seriously don’t remember anything from last night?” he asks.
Lando shrinks back further into his seat, he crosses his arms, “I remember dancing with someone, some girl.”
Oscar nods slowly, feeling the ache in his chest grow as he thinks about it.
Was that girl Oscar?
Did Lando’s mind fill him in as some girl?
It shouldn’t, but the idea of that hurts.
“And?” Oscar asks, trying to hide his own hurt from his words.
Lando tries to think back, but truly the night is a blur.
He remembers the heat of bodies, he remembers that scent in the air, he remembers someone making him laugh.
But he doesn’t remember faces, he doesn’t remember anything specific.
Lando lets out a sigh, “Nothing,” he says, rubbing his head as he tries to get rid of his still lingering hangover, “What about you?”
Oscar remembers flashes of the night.
He remembers looking at Lando from afar, watching him laugh as he talked to some group of girls; feeling a wave of jealousy course through him. He told himself he was jealous that Lando was getting all of the attention, that he won the race.
But that wasn’t the truth, he was jealous of those girls.
They were making Lando laugh, one of which was getting pretty close, she was touching his shoulders and running their hands down his biceps. Lando soaked in all the attention too, flashing flirty smiles at the girls as he leaned back in the booth.
It stung.
He wanted to make Lando laugh, to touch him. He wanted it all so bad and all he can wonder, is if he got it.
Oscar tried to ignore it, he kept drinking hoping it would make the night go by easier. He didn’t really want to remember it in the morning, the race didn’t go his way and he couldn’t watch Lando get all of that attention with a sober mind.
Now he’s realizing, that might’ve been his mistake.
Did he approach Lando when he was drunk last night? Did he tell him how he felt?
What did Lando say back? Did Lando give him a chance? Did his subconscious know something that a sober Lando doesn’t?
As much as it shouldn’t, it’s giving Oscar hope. Which keeps getting destroyed by most of the comments coming out of Lando’s mouth.
Though, he won’t tell Lando all of this.
“Not much,” Oscar says, trying his hardest to sound honest, “I remember standing at the bar, talking with some people… Thats’s about it.”
Lando nods slowly, taking a sigh as he leans back in his chair.
“I just…” he starts, taking a sigh as he thinks through his words, “I wonder why we ended up like that,”
For one second, Oscar feels a wave of hope wash over him.
Maybe Lando does feel the same, at the least they are thinking the same thing right? That this means something more, that they can be something more.
Oscar just wants to let himself believe for a moment that this can be something, that this crush isn’t all for nothing.
That maybe, he can date Lando for real. Not under some guise of a PR relationship.
But, Lando makes it all come crashing down.
“It was a dare right?” he turns to face Oscar, “Surely someone dared us, took a photo without us knowing.”
Oscar doesn’t look towards Lando, he keeps his eyes straight forward. Trying his hardest to not let his disappointment show on his face.
“Yeah. It was probably a dare.”
----
Once Oscar got home, he tried his hardest to go to sleep. Wanting so badly to forget about everything, let himself relax.
He couldn’t.
The hours passed him by, but he just couldn’t get himself to relax. It wasn’t like he wasn’t tired, he felt exhausted but his mind just kept spinning; his thoughts driving him insane.
Eventually he stopped trying, he just stared up at the ceiling. Seeing a peak of moonlight coming through the curtains, the quiet sound of his air conditioner humming in the background.
The environment is so familiar, and yet he couldn’t relax.
All he could think about is what this meant, about what could have happened last night.
Eventually he got his phone out, opening twitter and looking at a repost of that photo. Zooming in and looking at every detail, trying to really absorb what he’s seeing.
Lando’s pressed into that booth seat, Oscar’s hand is grabbing at his thigh so tightly, practically eating his face off with the passion in that kiss.
Oscar looks hungry, he looks desperate.
It’s in his body language, it’s in the passion of that moment. It’s almost like Oscar’s there, it’s like he can feel what he was feeling as he looks at that photo.
He must’ve been excited, he must’ve felt like he was floating above the clouds; never wanting to come down from that high.
Oscar can’t see the same energy in Lando’s body language, he can’t feel that passion from Lando as he looks at that photo.
It feels so one sided, and it hurts.
Maybe Lando is right, maybe it was a dare. But even if it was, Oscar knows that moment would have meant so much more for him.
It hurts to think about, but Oscar can’t stop thinking about it, he can’t stop looking at that photo; it’s like his eyes are glued to it.
Reluctantly, Oscar looks at the comments. He knows it will only make it worse, but he can’t help himself. He needs to see what people are saying, he needs to see if people are seeing what he’s seeing.
And some of them are.
Some people are talking about the passion, about the moment. How hungry they look, about how raw they look together; that this has to mean something.
But then he looks further down, and he clicks the replies to those comments, and he sees people saying that they’re crazy. That this can’t mean anything, that this is just a moment that got taken out of context.
Oscar takes a deep breath, trying to that that weight off of his chest somehow.
As much as he shouldn’t, he keeps digging.
He’s already googled “Landoscar”, and he found some of the most insane stuff he’s ever seen in his life. But he can’t get rid of that urge to do it again, to see what people are saying.
As he looks it up again, he sees there is a lot.
Edits, fan art, fanfiction, compilations that go for tens of minutes detailing every single moment that they have made eye contact on camera.
He finds blogs, fan pages, everything.
As he looks through he can’t help but feel the weight on his chest grow, because seeing what all of these people are seeing he can’t help but feel relief yet like he’s even crazier.
Is he really that obvious?
Truly he thought he was going a pretty good job at hiding it, that no one other than himself would notice how long he spends staring at Lando’s beautiful greenish blue eyes.
It seems like he was naive, because it seems like they have noticed it all. Moments that Oscar can’t even remember happening, interviews he long forgot about with the smallest moments of lingering eye contact.
None of this is any good for Oscar’s psyche, but he can’t help but watch through everything he can find.
Specifically, he’s looking at the moments that Lando has supposedly gotten lost looking at him. His apparent lingering touches, the way his eyes warm every time Oscar walks into a room.
He shouldn’t see it this way, but it is sort of giving him hope.
Oscar’s mind is spinning, because maybe there is something there? Maybe they just need to find some way to unlock it.
This whole ‘fake dating’ thing could be a disaster, but Oscar has some hope. That maybe it will unlock something between the two of them, that it will make Lando see what may already be there.
God he hopes so, because otherwise he will go crazy. Because he already feels insane before any of it has even started.
He puts his phone back down on the nightstand, trying to force himself to sleep again.
This situation will either destroy Oscar, or be the best thing that has ever happened to him.