𝘴𝘩𝘶𝘵 𝘶𝘱 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦 || 𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘳

was it only for a split second of heaven?

note the chapter title and don't tell me you weren't warned

~

No one was amiss to the rising tension in the McLaren garage with each passing hour of the race weekend.

Albeit for different reasons, it persisted, and it certainly didn't benefit either driver, who was dealing with... things... that the rest of the team didn't know about.

Oscar was truly starting to lose all semblance of patience. Lando had dragged this on for months, and in retrospect he was really starting to feel that this had gotten so far out of hand, and that he, at some level, needed to put himself first.

The car was fast. They had tested, and they knew that it was capable of producing amazing results. In comparison to the others, it was in the upper echelon both in terms of speed and endurance, proving capable in all conditions. The team was, generally speaking, poised to have a successful season if this was the rate at which they'd continue to perform.

Oscar wasn't sure how much longer he had it in him to smile for the cameras, to please the media, and yet to be so heartbroken on the inside knowing that he was being dragged out like this. He deserved better, and it was one thing when he wasn't in the middle of na ongoing season but now that he'd have to simultaneously focus on racing? It could very well just be too much for one person to handle on their own.

He knew without a doubt that the hardest part of this weekend wouldn't be the racing.

This was a circuit that he actually had driven on prior to F1, and that he had consistently performed well. He couldn't remember a bad race from there, and the layout was well suited to his driving style.

So that wouldn't be the had part.

He had been trained his whole life to push the maximum out of the car he was driving, and this weekend would prove to be no different. It was in his muscle memory, all the hours spent training weren't for nothing.

The hardest part, truly, was looking his own teammate in the eye. Because every time he managed to regain his bearings, the more clear it became that Lando likely wasn't going to confess the truth that Oscar now knew was, in fact, a truth. And with each day that he didn't, this would only get harder.

With each day that passed, he only became increasingly committed to himself, even if that meant having to move on from the man he so deeply loved in the process.

The hardest part was resisting Lando in the hallway that separated their driver rooms, even as Lando toyed with his shirt and looked up at Oscar with those typical doe eyes of his, the ones that had Oscar in an absolute chokehold.

Somehow he managed to resist the temptation, staying true to himself and his genuine belief that it was a bad idea to continue this any further until Lando had the guts to speak the truth.

But the way Lando's eyes widened ever so slightly before he realized Oscar wasn't going to give in, the way he turned away and his posture slumped in a way that only Oscar would really notice, it broke a small piece of him.

If nothing else, starting on the front row of the grid was a nice distraction.

Well, for all of a few seconds.

It was a nice distraction until he found out that he'd be starting on the front row alongside Lando. They had previously had a few tussles in situations like these, and that was genuinely the last thing they needed especially in the somewhat precarious situation that they were now in with each other.

As the five lights went out, something in Oscar's gut told him that this would be pivotal.

The race was nothing short of brutal.