Landoscar, exes to lovers
"Is this a fucking joke?" Lando spits out, way too loud for the setting he finds himself in.
Always quick to meet him where he's at, Oscar replies, dry as ever, "Well, if it is, it's not a very funny one, is it?"
Lando's eyes narrow, a burning irritation as well as a familiar yet unwanted itch of adoration in his throat.
He feels frozen, watching the used-to-be love of his life dressed to the nines, sitting at the dinner table where Lando was supposed to meet his blind date.
It's stupid to think back on it, how excited Lando was for tonight. It's been a while since he's been out to a romantic dinner and he was genuinely looking forward to this.
And it's fucking annoying how perfect everything is. The bouquet of carnations on the table wrapped in white and yellow tissue, the soft music playing in the background in a foreign language so Lando cannot get distracted by it, the candle light giving the illusion of privacy even while being surrounded by other tables with other couples.
Everything is quite nice. Besides fucking Oscar Piastri being at the other side.
"Are you just gonna stand there?" Oscar asks, making Lando realise that he truly is just standing there.
To be fair, what the fuck is he supposed to do? Sit down and have a lovely, romantic night with the guy who broke his heart?
Fuck no.
"Fuck no. I am leaving," Lando says.
Oscar sighs, his shoulders sinking down a bit, "Okay."
Lando turns around and walks out, trying not to think about how he wished Oscar had asked for him to stay.
--
Oscar didn't have particularly high hopes for his night.
He's a realist. He's well aware that his run of terrible date nights aren't going to come to a sudden halt on a blind date set up by fucking Logan Sargeant out of all people.
But he didn't think it would go as badly as this.
This being his ex-boyfriend showing up, hair curly as ever and face prettier than Oscar's mind could ever conjure up.
He's going to fucking murder Logan.
But those are his future plans.
For now, he asks for a bottle of red from the waitress, signs the cheque for it, ignores her curious yet pitying stare, and fucking walks out of that stupidly perfect restaurant.
Oscar takes a sip of the wine as he waits for his Uber to show.
"Dude, just taking a fucking cab. Don't be such a wannabe show-off," Logan had said to him when Oscar had complained about not having any of his transport of his in Monaco.
Fucking dickhead.
He knew Oscar was meeting Lando and he still made life difficult for him.
Oscar's going to run Logan's car into the wall. Road or F1, it doesn't matter. Logan's body is going to be finding a new home.
Oscar's made his way half-way through the bottle of wine, phone clutched in hand loading and searching and locating, when an obnoxiously bright McLaren pulls up in front of him.
The driver side's door opens, a familiar head of curls on an all too-familiar body popping out.
"D'ya need a ride?" Lando asks, sounding like each word causes him physical distress to let out.
Oscar should say no, should laugh in Lando's face and tell him to fuck off, should be mean and avoidant, really lay it on thick that Lando really fucking hurt him, walking away the way he did last time. And then again tonight.
He really should.
And yet, all he does is nod, stepping off the pavement and into the car.
--
"What do you have there?" Lando asks, eyeing the bottle of wine Oscar is so carefully cradling in his arms.
"Wine," Oscar says, about to offer some to Lando before glancing at the steering wheel and thinking better off of it.
He needs to make it home safe to be able to put Logan into the wall.
It's so...strange. How awkward and painful the silence feels, how the air is heavy and thick, stale and unmoving.
Yet the scent of Lando's car is familiar, so is the feel of the leather underneath him, the playlist playing in the background definitely one he's heard before.
It makes sense, Oscar's cologne mixing with Lando's.
It makes sense and it's devastating.
It's too much, all the conflicting emotions, getting to Oscar and making him open his big, stupid mouth to ask some big, stupid questions.
"So, a blind date, huh?" Oscar asks, "Didn't think you were that kind of guy."
Lando's eyes narrow and Oscar already knows that something nasty is going to follow. Lando is still so easy for him to read.
"I was just asking, Lan, it wasn't a dig or anything," Oscar jumps in, saving himself and Lando from the vitriol of the words that were sure to follow.
Lando glances at him, a lot surprised and a little bit... fond.
Yes. Fond.
Unfortunately, while Oscar can read Lando's expressions, he cannot read his mind.
So he really has no idea what he's said that makes Lando soften up, makes him ease his fingers around the steering wheel, his shoulders falling away from his ears, relief apparent in every part of him.
"I don't know," Lando replies, "Thought I'd try something different."
There's more to it, Oscar knows, but he's not privy to that kind of information anymore. So he bites down on the urge to ask.
He hums, "Yeah. Me too," he pauses, wondering if he should just let the conversation die down, let this crazy night come to an end in silence as Lando drops him to the Hilton Lando knows Oscar stays at when he's in Monaco.
But while he cannot get more from Lando, it doesn't meet he cannot give more.
And he wants to. Give, that is.
Even after everything, he would always want to give give give when it comes to Lando.
"It's been hard," Oscar begins, swallowing, forcing the nerves down his throat, "to go on dates that actually..." mean something, can hold a light to what ours were like, don't make me want to run and call you and tell you we got this all wrong but we can always get it right, "enjoyable."
Oscar watches as Lando glances at him from the corner of his eye. He watches Lando bite down hard on his bottom lip. Watches the bob of his throat and the twitch of his nose.
Lando has always been so beautiful, so pretty and handsome. A perfect mix of harsh lines and soft corners. A flawless design.
To be in close proximity to him after so long of being apart, Oscar feels overwhelmed by all of him. Feels like he needs to cover his eyes with his hands and peek through his fingers, ensure that he is only taking in a little of Lando's beauty at a time, savour it bit by bit while making sure he doesn't lose his mind over the curl hanging over Lando's right eye.
--
It shouldn't surprise him. Oscar's admission.
It really shouldn't.
Oscar had always been braver one between them, always more comfortable with being vulnerable, being open.
It's one of the things Lando loves about him.
Loved.
Loved about him.
Well.
Loves, he guesses, if the clenching of his heart is anything to go by.
"Yeah," Lando chokes out, his voice cracking and causing him to flush, "It's been the same for me."
The silence envelopes them again, and it's not as tense as before, but it's not where Lando wants them to be at either.
"It's not the same," Lando admits, pretending to glance at the right side mirror to catch a glimpse of Oscar's face, "You know..."
He cannot say 'as it was with you'. He cannot.
It would ruin him.
"Not the same as?"
Fuck Oscar for always being so good at pulling the softness out of Lando, at making him want to open up and show him parts that he would normally try to not even think of.
"As it was with us," Lando says, voice so low it's nearly a whisper.
He knows Oscar hears it anyway, can see the instant reaction of the tightening of the arms around his precious wine bottle, the shifting and moving of his body to slightly turn to face Lando.
Lando wonders whether Oscar notices he's doing it, opening up his body to Lando. Whether it was a conscious choice, or a habit, or maybe an uncontrolled but called-for reaction.
"It really isn't," Oscar says.
The air in the car is heavy, but not in the way it was when they left the restaurant. This one is more electric, more charged, just a pinprick needed to make it all rain down.
Lando wants to shove at it as hard as he can.
The next exit leads to the Hilton.
Lando drives pass it, and the spark goes off.
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