Charles and Max walk downstairs after a mixed night. They had stayed awake for a while, but eventually fell asleep. It was now 9 o'clock and they go downstairs.
There they see Lando on the couch. He is curled up in a corner and his head is in an awkward position. He had clearly fallen asleep without really realizing it.
"Should I try to lay him down properly?" Max asks softly. "He will wake up if you do that." "But this is going to hurt his neck." "It's going to hurt already." "I'm going to do it anyway." says Max and he walks over to Lando. He carefully removes the pillow and he carefully pushes his hand between the pillow and Lando's back and the other under his legs. He slides it further down and Lando immediately wakes up.
"It's okay, it's me. I wanted to lie you down, because your neck wasn't in the best position." says Max while he lets Lando lie down. "Max." he says softly and Max sits down next to him. "How are you feeling?" Max asks as he rubs Lando's cheek. Lando just shakes his head softly and looks away. Max and Charles knew enough.
"Can I do anything for you?" "Tea?" "I'll make it." Charles says and he grabs Lando's glass from the table and he walks to the kitchen. "Did you get any sleep last night?" Max asks and Lando shakes his head. "I'm really tired." he says softly and Max nods and rubs Lando's chest. "Can I come and lie with you?" Lando nods and Max lie down next to him. Lando lies on his side and he puts his head on Max's chest. Max puts his arms around him and he rubs Lando's back.
"What would you like to do today?" Max asks. "Nothing. I think I will goback to bed after my tea. Is that okay?" "Of course it is. Charles and I will stay at home. If you want to join us downstairs you can or if you want us to be with you upstairs then we can do that too." "I don't want you to think that I don't want to be with you both." Lando says softly. "Hey, we don't think that. We understand that you want to be alone for a while and have some silence. Sure, Charles and I would love to lay here on the couch with you and watch a series or something, but not if you don't want to. And maybe you want to be with us this afternoon or tonight, that's fine too. You don't have to feel guilty about anything right now, okay?" "I don't want to disappoint you guys anymore." Lando says softly and Max puts his finger under his chin and makes him look at him. "You won't. Yes, we want to help you, but we can't. We can only help if you need us." "I need you, always." Lando says immediately. "But sometimes you have to process some things alone in the beginning. But know that Charles and I are here to catch you." "I love you both." he says and Max presses a kiss to Lando's hair. "We love you too. We love you so much."
"Here is your tea Mon Amour." Charles says and he puts down two glasses. One for Lando and one for himself. He also puts a glass of water down for Max. "Thank you." Max and Lando say at the same time. Charles walks over to them and he kisses Lando's forehead before kneeling down next to them.
"I was thinking about making cookies. Would you like the chocolate one?" Charles asks. "We have a race this weekend." says Lando and Charles shrugs. "What Jon doesn't know, he doesn't know." he smiles. "I'm going to bed first." "I understand. Hopefully you can get some sleep." says Charles as he rubs Lando's cheek.
But the rest of the day Lando couldn't find his peace. It was quite the opposite.
He took three showers. He scrubed his body with the sponge over and over again.
He threw stuff all over the bedroom.
He screamed at Max and Charles that they had to leave him alone and not to touch him.
Charles and Max could only watch as Lando collapsed through his legs from crying. They could only watch as Lando began to hit his own body to remove the hands.
Lando did not see or hear how Max and Charles were crying downstairs. They had never felt so helpless, because they couldn't do anything for Lando.
At one point Lando went up to the roof. He lay down on a lounge chair while he stared at the clouds hanging over Monaco.
