Like Lightning - Carlando

Restless Minds - 3

3rd Person/Lando's POV

It was around 4am Lando fell asleep last night. He tried to relax and shut off for so long, but his mind just would not rest. A million thoughts rushed through his head, such as "What's the weather going to be like in quali tomorrow?" or "Did I send that message to Charlotte or not?", but one person in particular seemed to control his thoughts. After spending such a calming time with Carlos earlier that day, Lando didn't want to leave but he knew he had no choice. He wished he could have spent the whole evening with Carlos solely and maybe even go back to his hotel to watch a show or chill before going back to his hotel to sleep but if you look at that from someone else's perspective, it looks clingy or somewhat romantic. He also was pondering upon why the Spaniard would ever feel jealous towards Daniel. I mean, yes he did replace Carlos as Lando's teammate but to Lando thats the only reason he could possibly be jealous. Another point is that Carlos chose to leave McLaren, it wasn't like he was made to, so the Brit doesn't really understand the elders feelings. After racking his brain on this for ages, he decided it was better to think about something else or ultimately nothing at all. He got into a comfortable position on his side and thought of space and emptiness. Causing him to finally drift off to sleep.

Lando woke up to his alarm at 7:30am after waking up twice in the around 3 and a half hours he was asleep for. He felt extremely exhausted but knew he had to get up because he had a long Saturday ahead. After checking his phone, and seeing nothing significant, he made his way to the bathroom and took a quick shower to freshen up. When out of the shower and when he had dried his curly chocolate brown hair, Lando looked at himself in the mirror. He looked awful. His eyes had massive bags under them and he looked really pale from the lack of sleep. He took a deep breath in before releasing it shakily a few moments later. After putting on his McLaren polo, black jeans, shoes and his watch, he sprayed his cologne, taking in its sweet smell of flowers. Once he grabbed his phone and his bag, it was 8:15am when he headed towards the elevator to go to the hotel's breakfast.

Whilst in the elevator, his mind started to think about the reason he was so restless last night. He had spent time with Carlos a lot previously, when they were teammates, but yesterday night felt so different. The Brit felt so at peace with the Spaniard, compared to how he had been feeling for the last several months. It felt like the only time lately that his mind could fully rest and his body was filled with contentment. How these feelings could be channeled by a simple action and moment by his ex-teammate, Lando was still unsure but he did know that if he had the choice he would choose to feel like that forever.

Once the elevator door opened, Lando made his way through the busy lobby to the restaurant. Once he was at the breakfast buffet, he opted to get a coffee, two slices of toast and picked up butter to put onto the toast. He didn't get much as to be honest, he felt quite sick. He made his way over to a table where he saw some members of his team and Daniel.
"G'day mate, you look rough." Daniel said as he was approaching the table. He sat in the seat which was opposite the Aussie, placing his bag on the floor in-front of him.
"Bad sleep, I guess. I'm alright though." Lando replied as he picked up a knife and started to butter his slices of toast.
"You sure mate? You're really pale." Daniel remarked, crunching on a green apple.
"Mhm I'll be fine." the Brit replied, not wanting to engage in much more conversation although the honey badger still appeared very concerned. Not wanting to make Lando feel annoyed by his constant questioning, Daniel finally replied,
"If you say so."

When breakfast was finished and the table was cleared, they made there way to the circuit for the long day ahead of them. He had only eaten one slice of toast and drank half of his coffee but he felt as though he couldn't stomach much more. The hotel was only around twenty minutes away so Lando didn't need to be subject to much talking from his teammate on the way there. Once they got there, the pair both hopped out of Daniel's McLaren and made their way towards the McLaren motorhome. Whilst his mind was free to wonder, he realised how lucky he was that no one was in the Ferrari motorhome yesterday, otherwise the events that occurred would have probably never have happened. Smiling at the thought, he then clearly dismissed it as he entered his own teams Motorhome. It was 9:57 am and the third free practise was at 12:00 am, before the qualifying at 3:00 pm. In the gaps he had to do some press and publicity appearances which he hated. The first thing he had to was just go the garage, speak to the team in three minutes time and then possibly to some of the other drivers depending on how long he took speaking to the team, so he placed his bag down in his room and started to head there.

When entering the paddock, some of the drivers that were already there acknowledged him, waving him good morning so he just gave a nod back. The Brit ignored the funny looks a few people gave him and made his way to his team in the pits.

After half an hour of analysing statistics and other technical stuff, Lando was very bored so he was happy to find out he was free to go for a bit until FP3. Exiting the pit lane he made his way into the paddock where some of the other drivers were chatting amongst each other or talking to interviewers. Looking around, he finally set his ocean blue eyes on the tanned man he had been thinking about all morning. The Spaniard seemed to sense Lando's eyes looking him up and down and turned around noticing the Brit. He smiled at first, before noticing the McLaren drivers unusual appearance, then his face turned into a worried look.

When Carlos was making his way to where Lando was standing, the Brit felt nervous all of a sudden, causing him to fidget with his hands and bite his bottom lip.
"Are you okay Lando?" the elder asked, taking the last few steps toward his ex-teammate.
"I'm fine, how are you?" Lando replied whilst looking up from his shoes, trying to smile.
"No offence cabrón, but you look kind of uh dreadful." Carlos said to him ignoring the question about himself, whilst his eyes tried desperately to meet Lando's . "You do not seem the best. You do not have to but you can talk to me about it you know? Even if we are not teammates anymore."
"I didn't sleep very well thats all." he replies softly, "I had a lot on my mind I guess."
"It'll be okay, I didn't sleep the greatest either. Make sure you get a good night of sleep tonight though, okay?"
"Mhm, thank you Carlos." the younger man said whilst nodding to show his agreement. God, only if Carlos knew why Lando's mind wouldn't and couldn't rest last night. The Ferrari driver did mention that he had a bad nights sleep as well. Could it be because of the same reason? Did they both share the same restless minds? Do not be silly Lando, he thought to himself.

Not wanting to indulge in conversation with anyone else or speak to any interviewers yet, he decided to talk to the Spaniard to pass time (he would do this all day if he could though).
"Why couldn't you sleep well Carlos?" It seemed that this question caught the Hispanic man off guard as his demeanour turned slightly nervous as well.
"Uhm I guess my mind was a bit.. uh how'd you put it? Overactive? Yeah well I just couldn't switch off my thoughts..." Why was Carlos so nervous all of a sudden? Lando didn't really care as it was quite cute. Cute? Lando can not be thinking his ex-teammate is cute. Deciding to settle the Spaniard's nerves and sudden awkwardness, the Brit decided to change the subject of the conversation to something completely different.

After a while of talking a few other drivers came to speak to both of them, a few of them skeptical Norris' appearance but choosing to not question it. Carlos noticed this however and gave Lando a look to say "I told you it's obvious something is really wrong" anytime someone saw. It was about 11:20 am when a people constantly requested to interview him, so he finally decided to leave the other drivers. He said goodbye to Carlos and few others before going to give the paparazzi something to share before the rest of the day.

A/N~  GEORGE RUSSELL ON POLE??!! :D Anyways, hey guys, thank you for reading my fic so far, it means a lot. I wrote this chapter at 2am because I said I would write another chapter once my last one got 15 views. I hope you guys are enjoying it so far and if you have any recommendations or thoughts please comment and let me know. Aside from all of that I'll publish the next chapter once this one gets 20 views. :)