𝘴𝘩𝘶𝘵 𝘶𝘱 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦 || 𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘳

the end of the beginning

last chapter 🥹

i strongly suggest going back to the very first chapter and rereading the very first lines since the end will make much more sense that way eheh (it's a bit of a full circle moment)

~

The season slowly progressed.

No one actually knew what happened during Verstappen's brief social hiatus. He had started posting again, but it was pretty clear to just about everyone that he was only posting when he was asked to, not on his own accord.

The drama between the two McLaren drivers faded over the next few weeks, the team filled with a sense of relief that people had actually bought into the excuse. Maybe it was that initially, Lando and Oscar had hated each other so much that people found it hard to believe that what they had claimed wasn't the truth.

Of course, people loved to speculate, and they were. There were many theories about what could have happened, but none of them really caught any wind.

But the couple was quickly getting sick of having to hide what they had.

With each race that passed, one of them often finding themselves on the top step of the podium, and sometimes with the other alongside them, they wanted nothing more than to announce their relationship to the public.

The world had reacted to the photo that was still being posted everywhere, but honestly, not as much as Oscar thought they would. He certainly thought, at least, that they'd have received a lot more negativity and hate that they did.

Of course, that was due in part to the excuse that they made up. Everyone does stupid shit when they're as drunk as Oscar and Lando claimed to be that night.

It wouldn't be the first time Oscar had instigated chaos on Twitter.

Likely wouldn't be the last, at this rate.

Lando and Oscar quickly raced to the front of the championship, swapping the lead back and forth almost every weekend. They had the fastest car and at this rate it was shaping up to be an intense championship battle, especially in the latter stages of the season.

They weren't worried about their relationship in the process though.

Because anything that happened on track stayed there.

In one catastrophic sprint, they had taken each other out in the first turn and Lando had definitely been more to blame. But their cars were more of an issue than they were, and even then those were repaired perfectly for them to score yet another 1-2 the next day.

They had spoken about what had happened and watched the replays, and Lando had readily accepted the blame for the incident. He had been a little skittish at first, thinking that Oscar may have been irritated but quite the opposite, when the Aussie had finally cornered him into his drivers room he had scooped Lando up into his arms and held him for as long as he could before they were both forced to deal with the media.

This couldn't have worked out better for either of them.

The one point of uncertainty was Max Verstappen, and even he had stayed relatively quiet. His responses were benign, and rumors of what had happened were flying around.

His driving certainly hadn't suffered, staying a consistent third in the championship so far in the season, but he hadn't been the instigator that he once was on track. His driving was just as aggressive, but he didn't touch the line of respectful, much less cross it.

The other problem was that they were getting progressively worse at hiding in front of the cameras.

Because oh, the temptation for Lando to just take Oscar's hand in his as they were interviewing side by side in the media pen. If there weren't dozens of cameras pointed at them from every angle, he absolutely would.