peridot | lando norris

8|london|

"why did you break up ?" niamh mumbled, falling asleep and maeve fidgeted with the blanket in her palms, thinking back to the time it all started.

it was right before lando's second year in formula one, could've been his third. he had taken a year off , staying as a reserve driver and trainee for a year longer. both of them had faught the night before and weren't talking to eachother. 

lando was by himself while maeve played with niamh. the little girl skipped over to the young man sitting with his legs crossed in front of her.

 "daddy, can we play hide and seek?" niamh asked lando and he look away from the trees in front of him and at the four year old. "okay. you go hide with mom" he said, covering his eyes with his hands, smiling at her giggles as maeve tries to shush her. he counted to 20 before opening his eyes and getting up. he dusted off his jeans and began walking around. he thought they'd probably be behind one of the trees but to his surprise, they weren't behind the 6th tree he'd spooked. 

"where did these girls go?" he said to himself as he began walking towards the more crowded side of the park and he stopped when he heard niamh's voice. lando grinned to himself as he slowly made his way backwards towards the ice cream truck, where he heard her laugh from. he made a run for it and picked niamh up from the bench she was sitting on making her scream. "found you" he said and niamh laughed. maeve looked at them with a smile. "we hid for so long. mom had to buy ice cream cuz it was so hot" niamh blabbed and lando looked at maeve. "you had ice cream without me?" he asked offended and maeve shrugged. "you took too long to get here. sorry" 

"atleast i found you. i'll always find you" he said, to maeve. she knew his words were not about the game of hide 'n seek.

"okay, let's go back now-" "woah- i found you now we get to hide." he says and maeve looks at him confused. "didn't you have to get back-" "that's on me. now close your eyes!" maeve sighs and closes her eyes, surprised at how lando got niamh to be absolutely silent because she was hoping she'd just find them by following their voices. both of them were pretty loud.

she opened her eyes and got up, looking around the truck but she didn't find them. "hmm, i wonder if we can have sushi for dinner tonight" she says loudly while walking, hoping to get some reactions from somewhere but nothing. maeve walked around the park till she reached their picnic blanket. she noticed the all of their things were already packed, but still lay on the blanket. she smiled and decided to go check the trees. 

"lando wouldn't hide behind trees, would he niamh?" she though out loud while approaching the trees. "no he won't!" she heard niamh say and she ran up to the tree- "got-oh" she looked behind the tree the sound came from and saw nobody until she looked down and saw lando sitting down with his back against the tree and niamh on his lap. "you gave me away" he scolded niamh who smiled. "sorry" 

maeve fixed her dress and kneeled down to take niamh from lando's lap. "are you coming back with us first?" she asked him and he checked the time. "i'll drop you off before going." he stood up and so did maeve and they made their way to their picnic spread, gathering it all up while niamh skipped around lando. 

"dodo can i go with you?" she asked and lando looked at maeve for help. he never liked saying no. not to niamh. "don't you want to go to the pool today with me?" maeve asked her with a small smile, hoping to convince niamh but she rolled out her bottom lip and looked at lando with glossy eyes, making him fall to his knees in an instant to hug the little girl. maeve held herself back from voicing out her thoughts.

"i wanna go swim with daddy and mumma" she said, tears rolling down her red cheeks and it broke lando's heart. "sweetheart, i can't swim today. look, when i come back we can go on a ride in daddy's car then. maeve has a pool day with you today. bella will be there too" he says, remembering the name of her daughter's newly made friend from the pre-school. he looks up at maeve who stood beside them, the basket  held in her hands in front of her as lando calmed down the little girl.