𝐃𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐒𝐔𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐕𝐄, lando norris

03 ; stuck-up, are you?

I hadn't watched Formula One since Dad died. My grandfather was introverted after his son died and hadn't watched Formula Once since then because it reminded him too much of his son.

It was hard for me to look at Lando. He kept searching my gaze, trying to understand what was going on but he couldn't understand —

Because he didn't know what was going on. He hadn't realized what had happened.

Toni hadn't left my side after an hour, when I could bring myself to go into the living room. Her arm was wrapped tightly around me and she asked Lando questions to give me the chance to get to know more about him.

"Aren't you studying to get into Formula One?"

The question caught me so off guard that all that came out of my mouth was a stammer. All eyes were on me and everyone was waiting for me to give a sensible answer.

But the truth was that there was no sensible answer to this question. When I had told my father about it, he had been totally enthusiastic about the idea and had helped me so much to get this place at university.

But now he was gone and I had to carry on without him.

"Yes," I tried desperately to force a smile onto my lips. "I come from a Formula One family. They were all really excited about the idea." A smile crept onto my lips at the thought of how happy everyone had been back then.

I saw Lando's face brighten and his eyes light up.

"Which team do you stand for?" he asked, scooting a little closer as he sat on the floor in front of me.

"McLaren, through and through." As Lando's expression brightened even more, a smile crept onto my lips. I couldn't say where it came from or why it was suddenly so easy to be around him, but it felt right to talk to him.

As if my father was somehow signaling to me that he was incredibly happy —

Even if that was complete nonsense.

"I think I remember you." Lando raised his eyebrows as he looked at me. He looked at me questioningly and I couldn't help but start laughing. "You're the snooty, slimy idiot who drives next to Carlos Sainz." I glared at him provocatively, waiting for a rebuttal.

"Stuck-up, are you?" Lando grinned, raising his eyebrows in amusement as I hummed in agreement.

But I couldn't hold my expression for long, because Lando was anything but snooty and I felt kind of bad for throwing that at him. "Yes, very!" I laughed, looking at the amused expression on the Brit's face in front of me.

Even when I stopped laughing, he looked at me with a smile. Almost as if he was in his own world, he stared at me, seeming to want to look into my soul.

"We were all very proud when Lando was offered the contract at McLaren." A grin crept onto Toni's lips, looking very much like she was talking about the birth of her children. She had that look in her eyes.

"So a rookie too, huh?" I teased the McLaren driver more, who looked at me like a proud father as I used technical terms only known to Formula One fans.

"Look at that, she's using words like a real pro." Lando teased me back, earning a playful slap on the arm from me, which he didn't take offense to at all.

"I'm a professional!" I stated with mock indignation and clutched my heart to emphasize my statement.

The group started to laugh, but Lando and I just looked at each other, saying more with our looks than a thousand words could.

And suddenly I felt seen and not like I was one person out of so many.

Because there were six people in the room and he was looking at me.

It was as if I could see straight into his soul through his eyes and I saw so much suffering, so much pain that I didn't know what to do.

Lando walked around with a mask on his face that no one could break and it was so easy for me to see through him even though I didn't know him.

Because our souls were made up of the same fragments and our hearts could communicate with each other without us talking.

"Lando is no longer a rookie," Toni explained with a smile, placing her hand on mine and stroking the back of my hand with her thumb. "He's been driving for McLaren for three years."

I paused in my movement, because I hadn't realized how little I actually knew about Lando and Formula One.

It seemed as if my brain had been reset to factory settings in the hospital and suddenly I had blocked out everything that had reminded me of my father.

"Oh." Ashamed, I looked down at my hands, nibbling at the protruding skin of my fingers.

"Sorry. I... Haven't watched Formula One in a long time."

It hadn't been three years since I'd last seen it and yet I suddenly seemed so incredibly haphazard.

"It's okay." Toni tried to cheer me up, stroking my back as she let her cheek fall on my shoulder.

Lando looked out of the window for a moment before he looked at me and raised his eyebrows in invitation.

"It's already dark," he said, giving me a shy smile that I wasn't used to from him at all. "Are you staying here? You don't have to walk home in the dark."

It took me a few minutes to realize what he had asked me and I looked helpfully at Toni, who grinned knowingly at me.

"Uh, yeah... I was going to ask if I could stay anyway..."