➢ Lando Norris - "I heard you and Max had a thing. Is this true?"

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FOREVERLANDO

lmao this has been in my drafts for months sorry!

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Arianna Barrichello grew up in and around the formula one paddock. A personal tutor allowed for her to travel the world with her father as he raced at spectacular circuits against some of the fastest men to ever grace the planet. As a kid, she could often feel a little lonely at times, especially since her and her little brother, Eduardo, squabbled since the moment he could talk. She found solace in a young boy slightly older than her - Max Verstappen. He knew what she was going through since he would often attend his father's races, too.

Arianna found the young Dutch boy rather funny. He was always finding new ways to make his new-found best friend laugh. This included, but was not limited to, wearing clothes on the wrong body parts, spontaneous water fights, and pranking their fathers. The last one wasn't appreciated by Jos or Rubens, however Arianna thought it was the funniest thing in the world.

The pair were so close that as they got older, they would join each other on family holidays. Arianna was considered as much a part of the Verstappen clan as she was her own, and Max was basically a Barrichello with the amount of time he spent with Arianna. Even after Jos left the sport, Max would join Arianna at her father's races to continue their mischievous antics. It was rare to see them apart - ever.

Arianna knew from a young age that she wanted to be a part of the motorsport community but didn't think that driving was for her. Although her father encouraged her to pursue her karting with Max and recognised a talent in both of them, she lacked the passion. Instead, Arianna went down the designing route. Her knowledge of the formula one car tied with refined understandings of aerodynamics landed her an apprenticeship with Mercedes for the 2017 at just seventeen years old. By then, Max was already making a name for himself in the sport as an up-and-coming talent. He wasn't overly pleased that his best friend was with Mercedes, however was proud and supported her nonetheless.

It was around the same time that Arianna and Max grew a little closer than best friends. It was a foreign experience for both of them. The moment their exploring of new emotions started to strain the bond they had had since young children, they decided to just remain as friends. Not many people knew of the relationship because they acted how they normally would with each other around the paddock. A few pictures circulated of them kissing on a balcony but they were forgotten in time.

During the 2019 season, Max started dedicating a lot of his time to a young McLaren driver. As a result, Arianna found herself hanging out with them, but only if Max's girlfriend, Dilara, was unavailable.

At first, Lando barely spoke around Arianna. He would never think to admit to her that she made him nervous. She was smart, beautiful, and had what he considered to be the cutest accent ever. Arianna grew up around the world, however adopted a hybrid accent of Portuguese and Italian because of her heritage. She eventually started to make an effort to talk to the cute British boy who blushed every time she would smile at him.

It was actually Max who forced the two together, quite literally. Both Arianna and Lando were either too stubborn or too shy to ever admit their feelings for each other so Max took matters into his own hands. He texted both of them saying that he wanted to meet with them in his trailer, not telling them about the other. When they both showed up, he locked them in using his only key until they 'admitted that [they] love each other!'

If it wasn't for Max, Arianna and Lando might not have shared their first kiss until much later on, if at all. Once the initial move was made, there was no stopping the new couple. To Arianna, she had found the man of her dreams. Her father was quick to approve of Lando mostly because of his job, however that doesn't mean that he didn't mess around with the young Brit first. Lando still finds Rubens a little bit scary to this day, but it's only because he cares so much about his daughter.

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