Chapter Text
Lando was screaming.
Loudly.
Which considering he was live right now wasn’t exactly unusual, much to the constant dismay of his neighbours.
Today was different.
He loved streaming with Max V, it was a twice a month ritual, something his fans loved every time, and plus he could play games with one of his oldest friends so a win-win.
They were doing awfully, six drinks in courtesy of some Dead by Daylight drinking game they half-assed invented 20 minutes before stream which was honestly more alcohol focused than actual game success.
He was hooked, which was the perfect time to reach over and grab a new can and try to catch up on some more recent messages in the hundreds he missed while being too locked in on the game and yelling at Max.
hayleydrivin: ask Max to give us a sneak peak of Easier!!!!
sargeantstan: When’s the tour?
sydneynorris: wait is this the max verstappen???
davidforlife: Why is the whole of stan twitter in the chat rn
mimimv: omg yes tour announcement please!
To say Lando was confused was an understatement. He'd streamed with Max before, countless times now by this point and never noticed this kind of reaction, plus Max was just a streamer like him after all, albeit one with a very shit streaming schedule.
‘Chat’s asking about a tour, you doing standup or something?’ He joked, opening the can and frantically moving his character towards a generator.
‘Oh. Tour will be in a few months.' Max laughed before continuing. 'Think I’m allowed to say that, hope I am else Daniel will kill me.’
‘What’s Danny got to do with this?’ Of course Lando knew Daniel, who didn't?
‘He’s my manager.’
‘Your twitch manager? I thought he did music.' Damn, Lando really should've paid more attention the last time Daniel spoke about his job because he swore the Aussie said something about being a music manager or owning a clothing brand, or doing OnlyFans, the man said a lot of things.
‘He’s the manager of my band Lando.’ Max was laughing, like it was obvious, in his smug voice like this was common knowledge, clearly wasn't a very good band if it wasn't mentioned until now.
‘You’re in a band?’
Chat was already going insane by the that point, half of them spamming mentions of driving, which barely seemed relevant considering they were on about Max’s alleged music career.
And his character, Sable was well and truly dead, hooked once again he watched her fade away and moved himself back to the loading screen as chat whizzed by.
barelyfeelinforaoty: MAX AND LANDO! omg my niches!!
tiktokoomf: omg i love drivin’
piastriscocksleeve: all these Lando fans discovering drivin’ today, welcome to my fandom!!
landoforprimeminister: i thought max was a streamer
Okay, safe to say Lando was even more confused. Chat had gone from talking about Max being in a band and touring, wild, to now mentioning driving?
What’s next Max is an F1 driver? No, that would be actually insane.
‘They’re on about driving now, God chat make up your mind.’ He groaned, running his hand through his curls, which did temporarily distract chat as they started thirsting.
‘That’s the name of my band, drivin’’ Stupid name for a band in Lando's opinion.
‘You’re in a boy band!’
He took a bit of pride in the fact that Max had finally stopped laughing, and was clearly annoyed.
Max sighed. ‘It’s not a boy band.’
‘You're a guy. In a band, sounds a lot like a boy band.’
‘I’m 29, it’s not a boy band.’ Max was getting technical, so definitely annoyed, which meant Lando was doing his job well.
‘Sounds like something someone in a boy band would say.’ He hummed.
For a second Lando was pretty happy that him and Max were not in the same building right now so Max couldn't murder him. Well couldn't murder him easily, in front of thousands of viewers.
He was on Spotify, tabbed out of the game to do so, as he searched up driving, safe to say they were popular and spelt incorrectly which was a lot coming from him. Number 81 in Spotify's top artists.
‘What the fuck?’ Lando mumbled.
‘What now?’
‘You’re famous?’
‘Your point?’
‘YOU DIDN'T TELL ME!' Lando was yelling again, the calmness of the other man pissing him off more.
‘Didn't ask.’
Max wasn’t wrong but who the fuck asks their friend if they're in a famous boy band? Exactly, no one.
‘I just can’t believe you sing.’ He teased.
‘I don’t sing.’ The other responded, like it was obvious.
‘You’re in a boyband!’
‘I play drums. Only sung one song.’ Max shot back before groaning. ‘Fuck chat ignore that, Oscar will kill me if I leak something drunk again.’
‘Who's Oscar? Is he hot?’
‘No.’
‘Are your bandmates hot?’
‘No dating my band.’ Boo
‘Who said anything about dating?’
‘No sleeping with them either.’ Max grumbled. Cunt
The stream ended shortly after with more jokes from Max about his friend's obliviousness but who could really fault him about that. The call was still going as Lando began his research.
‘You told me you didn’t have Twitter!’
‘Was surprised that stopped you?’
‘You have 7 million followers!’
‘I know.’
‘I hate you.’
The call ended shortly after with Max saying something about needing to go see the boys and cutting a persistent Lando off as he tried to ask Max to rate their attractiveness.
His phone had been going off nonstop since, no wonder since apparently a bunch of DRIVIN’ fans were trying to cancel him on Twitter for implying they were a boyband which was an odd topic to be so sensitive about in Lando’s executive opinion.
alex <3: idiot
alex <3: can’t believe you didn’t know about max
landooo <3: NOT MY FAULT ITS INSANE
alex <3: band’s been around for like 5 years now
landooo <3: how did you find out
alex <3: he has a drum kit in his living room
landooo <3: I THOUGHT IT WAS DECORATIVE
alex <3: who owns a decorative drum kit
landooo <3: PEOPLE OWN DECORATIVE PIANOS
He was still half convinced this was an elaborate prank, a very elaborate one and that DRIVIN’ had nothing to do with Max and Max just sounded similar to an actual Max who was part of the band and shared the same name as him and convinced the real Max to change his twitter profile to a picture of his Max in a suit.
But yeah okay, bit too elaborate.
It was just research.
That’s all it was, a quick Google search to teach him the basics.
Oliver Bearman lead singer - objectively attractive, too young but damn he did look like he was straight out of a magazine.
Logan Sargeant bassist - again handsome, in a frat boy college fantasy type way, and he was pretty sure he remembers hearing the name before, maybe something to ask Alex about.
Holy
Fuck
Oscar Piastri, guitarist, gorgeous like insanely gorgeous, in a how is this man real type way because what do you mean someone combined all of Lando’s type into one man.
And Max, ehh.
Back to Oscar, holy shit Lando was screwed. And to be honest never in Lando’s life did he think particularly straight but after many drinks made with way more tequila than they should’ve been, he definitely wasn’t.
Searching DRIVIN’ on TikTok pretty quickly led to some edits that did a bit too much to him, that he did consider saving for some activities later. Oscar Piastri had no right being so attractive and he hated him slightly for it, hated him in a way that he wanted to tease him until the guitarist ruined him. And maybe he also hated Max for hiding Oscar from him for so long.
He was absolutely drunk and shouldn’t be held accountable for his actions, at least that’s what he’d end up saying to Max in 10 months time.
He didn’t even add him, that would be too obvious.
And after all, what Max didn’t know didn’t hurt him, it was only breaking a little promise.
Oscar was close to screaming. He wouldn’t though, he never did, to be honest the man existed pretty quietly as much as he could.
He was painfully awake and already regretting agreeing to a late night writing session again with Ollie. Because quite frankly he was already sick of it.
His guitar was half buried next to him in a mess of blankets and notebooks.
Most of their songs started this way, with a smudged crash out in a well worn notebook. That or a drunken story after one too many shots of tequila.
This one was no different.
A drunken ramble after seeing an his ex at the bar with her new man two weeks ago.
If Ollie had been more sober that night, he probably wouldn’t have suggested staying up to finish it to get it all out.
If Oscar had been more sober, he probably wouldn’t have agreed.
Except they hadn’t finished it that first night, and so now Oscar was painfully sober while Ollie was sprawled on the floor of the older man’s hotel room, as the pair communicated exclusively through humming and half incoherent scribbling in a mix of red and black ink.
He also regretted agreeing to sing this on the album, he wasn’t opposed to singing, but if they ever managed to finish this god forsaken song it was different. The last time Oscar sang one of their songs had been on their first album back when they were younger, far less famous and he was far more open to singing a public duet with his ex who later crushed his heart.
Logan would be awake soon.
He’d fallen asleep on the floor and after 2 hours, several kicks (mainly from Ollie) and god knows how many balls of paper lobbed at him, was still snoring.
As soon as he was awake the boys could actually start getting approval from the other two.
Not that they ever had much to say about the lyrics. Max would always fight back even when he loved it instantly, and Logan was approve of basically anything.
Max wasn't even here anyway, he’d been off streaming which was definitely helpful as the boys would’ve got fuck all done with him there.
‘Can I text Max?’ Ollie asked, phone already in his hands.
‘Why do you need permission?’ While the younger man felt like his younger brother sometimes, he definitely wasn't, much to Nicole Piastri's dismay.
‘With your phone, mate.’
Ah, Ollie did that a lot, left his phone in his own room to switch off and avoid distractions in sessions like this, which would be productive if Ollie’s friends hadn’t realised this and often texted Logan or Oscar if Ollie took too long to reply.
Ollie knew his password by now, which he’d be more nervous about if there was anything actually incriminating on his phone, instead it was half finished demos and occasional dog pictures, not exactly off limits content.
‘Oh fuck! Lando Norris messaged you on Insta.’ Ollie chirped, excitedly showing Oscar the phone which he could barely see from this angle.
‘Why are you on my Instagram?’
‘Shush!’ Ollie pouted throwing another ball of paper at Oscar which would probably be annoying to clear up in the morning.
‘Who is Lando Norris?’ Oscar sighed, knowing they were definitely not getting back to the topic at hand now.
‘Major streamer.’
‘Isn’t that Max’s friend?’ He asked finally recognising the name.
‘That too’ Ollie was still staring at Oscar’s phone until another voice chimed in.
‘Max has other friends?’
‘I’m telling him you said that’ Ollie types out a message to Max before throwing the phone a bit too violently at Oscar, who barely caught it, as Logan simply shrugged unfurling one of the many balls of paper beside him.
(One new message from Lando Norris)
Lando Norris: you look like you'd be in a boyband