-+Rivals+- A Lando Norris Fanfic

Chapter 12

3 Days Later

I was at my house for one full day before I was packing up to leave for Lando's place. I was only going to stay there for 3 days, then I would fly back here on Sunday for a few days before flying to Bahrain. So much flying involved in my life, it's such a struggle.

I spent the whole day today doing recovery; I took a long bubble bath to relax my body, did intermittent yoga, and played a bit of video games. Lando and I played some iRacing on stream for about 2 hours at one point, but then he split off to go play PUBG. It's really hard to stream and not give anything away about our relationship but, to be fair, people have thought we were dating or have wanted us to date for years.

My phone buzzed. Stream's over :)

How'd it go? I asked.

It was a lot of fun. Lots of people were asking about you.

I smiled. My follow count has doubled in this past week.

Yea, getting 6th in your first race will do that, Lando texted back.

What are we gonna do when I get to London? I asked.

Oh don't worry, I've got lots of plans :P

If ya say so lmao, I typed.

When's your flight? Lando asked.

I fly out at 6am.

Alrighty, I'll meet you at the airport when you land :)

I texted him a blue heart emoji and went back to the packing I was lazily doing. Since I didn't really know what we're doing, I just packed a variety of clothes. I included athletic clothes because I was going to make Lando work out at least a little bit, a nice dress in case we went out somewhere nice, etc.

Once I felt that I was adequately packed, I decided to go hop on my simulator for a bit. My plan is to stay up kinda late so I can fall asleep on the plane. It helps with my anxiety.

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I grabbed my suitcase off the luggage return and looked down at my vibrating phone. Lando was calling me.

"Hello?" I asked.

"Turn around," He said.

I turned around and saw Lando standing about 50 yards away, wearing a hat and sunglasses. He had a cheesy little sign that said "Future world champion" on it, and I was so overwhelmed by excitement that I started running at him. I threw my arms around him in a hug.

"You act like I haven't seen you in years! It's only been a few days, my love," He giggled as he spun me around.

"Oh, I'm sorry, you're totally right. Why would I ever be excited to see you? You're pretty lame," I said sarcastically.

"Ready to head back to my place?" He offered, taking my luggage in one hand and my hand in the other.

"Wow that's a bit forward, man," I joked.

"Ah I'm terribly sorry, I can just find some alleyway for you to sleep if you'd like?" He offered.

"That sounds MUCH more comfortable. Thank you," I said.

"Anything for you, Moonchild," He chuckled and kissed my head as we started walking.

We made it back to his house and I dropped my bags off in Lando's room. Lando's roomate, Sacha, already knows about us; I'm pretty sure he was the first to know. He can keep a secret, though.

"First stop: food," He told me.

"Agreed," I chuckled. "I'm starved."

"Feelin like getting burgers?" He offered.

"You know I'm always down for burgers," I told him in a matter-of-fact tone, "But, if we get burgers, we gotta go on a run later."

"Fiiiiiiiine," He reluctantly agreed. We walked back out the house, climbing into his little McLaren car.

"At least you finally figured out what the buttons do," I laughed.

"It took a while but we got it down," He chuckled.

When we finally got our burgers, Lando decided it was time to go on a little nature walk. We had to be careful being out and about here; Formula 1 is huge in the UK and we don't want to be recognized, so we wanted to stay away from the public.

"When do you think I'll be able to brag about you to the world?" Lando asked as he took my hand in his and started down the trail.

"Hmmmmm when I win the driver's championship," I laughed. "Shouldn't take too long."

"I have no doubt you'll be up there within a season, my love," He smiled, kissing my head. "I just want to be able to be out with you! And see you on race weekends!"

"It is kinda an unprecedented situation. No one in Formula 1 has ever been dating someone else on the grid, to be fair," I said.

"Well you're also the first woman in Formula 1, a lot of this is unprecedented because you're over here being so amazing," He laughed, kissing my head.

"You're gonna be right up there on the podium with me pretty soon, y'know. Probably not this season for either of us, but one day. You're gonna get blasted with champagne," I told him.

"Thanks for the faith, Moonchild," He smiled at me.

"Look, a big rock that is asking us to sit on it," I pointed to a rock that overlooked the water.

"Oh yea, I can hear it asking as well!" Lando said as we walked over.

Once we sat down, I leaned into Lando's side, his arm around me, and we sat in silence for a little while.

"I'm sorry we can't tell anyone we're together," I said sadly.

"Why? I still get to be with you, that's all that matters," He reassured me.

"It's kinda my fault though. Since my PR team wants me marketed as strong and independent, I can't be seen with you," I sighed.

"Hey, I'll survive. Don't worry about me," He smiled to me. "As long as both of us drive well and I get to see you in between weekends, that's all that matters. Hell, If I can see you once a month I'm happy. I may get just the tiiiiiiniest bit jealous once in a while, when you're talking to the other guys, but I trust you, so it's not like I worry anything will happen," He told me.

"You're the only one in my heart, Lando. I just have a lot of guy friends," I laughed. "You know that personally."

"As long as the friendships with them aren't like the ones we had," He laughed. "Our friendship was a bit extreme."

"I wouldn't have had it any other way," I smiled, kissing him.

We continued sitting in silence for a bit, just enjoying each other's company. Eventually we went back to Lando's flat for some movie night time.

"Wanna rewatch Australia? We may have been in the race but it could be cool to watch," He offered.

"Hell yea," I agreed.

Lando's roommate, Sacha, ended up joining us for movie night, and we all settled down on the floor, completely engulfed in blankets.

"Right there is when I almost completely lost it into the wall," I laughed as we saw my car do a little wiggle in the back.

"Crofty sure made fun of you for that one," Sacha laughed.

"Crofty makes fun of all of us," I stated.

"True," Lando said.

We continued watching various things all night, moving on to watching last year's Bahrain race to prep us for the next race, then moving on to various movies before everyone eventually conked out for the night.