Chapter Text
It was no one’s fault but his own really. He had gotten up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, forgotten where he was, and walked smack into a chair on the way back, landing straight on his arse. As he had been pulling himself up from the ground there was a loud knock on his door.
Which led him to where he was now, blinking in confusion at Lando Norris at 2 in the morning.
“You want me to do what?” Oscar was only half convinced that he wasn’t still dreaming.
“Stand on my back,” Lando said for what must have been the seventh time, as if this was an entirely normal thing to ask someone to do in the middle of the night. His hands were scrunched into the sleeves of his sweatshirt and the hood was half pulled over his head. Messy curls fell into his eyes.
“Why?” Maybe it was because he was still half asleep but Oscar could still not for the life of him figure out why Lando would want him to do such a thing. The season had barely started, they didn’t know each other well. Surely there were other people Lando could be asking to do … whatever it was he wanted Oscar to do.
Lando sighed, pain clearly clouding his vision. “My back is fucked and it’s too late to text Jon and if I want half a chance at being able to drive decently tomorrow I need you to stand on my back mate.”
Oscar squinted. It was certainly among the odder things he had been asked to do at 2 in the morning.
He almost said no. He didn’t know Lando well enough yet to be getting this up close and personal with him. But he had a feeling that Lando wouldn’t quit until he did it and he really just wanted to go back to sleep.
“Fine.”
“Oh thank fuck! ” Lando said. “If you hadn’t said yes I was going to have to go find Carlos and I don’t think I would have made it that far.”
Hm. So maybe this was some weird teammate initiation thing then if Carlos had done it to him before.
But before he could ask Lando was yanking off his sweatshirt and laying his bare chest face down on the floor. His floor.
“Oh, we’re doing this now?” Oscar blinked. Lando Norris was shirtless in his room, face down ass up, at 2am. He was so glad no one else was around otherwise he would never hear the end of it.
“No Oscar, I want to wait another hour just for the hell of it,” Lando’s voice was muffled against the carpeting. “Of course we’re doing it now! I need you to put me out of my misery.”
Oscar frowned. “Won’t this just hurt you more?” He couldn’t do that. He was barely three races into his first year. The press would go insane with that. Rookie Kills Teammate by Standing on His Back at 2am. And at his home race too. At least he could dump Lando in the rainforest somewhere if it really came down to that. The spiders would eat him before the authorities found him.
“No,” Lando said. “Just don’t step on my spine.”
“This hardly seems medically advisable.”
“Yeah no shit mate,” Lando said into the carpeting. “Which is why you're not going to tell Jon. Now can we get on with this?”
Oscar stared at Lando. Or, more specifically his back. It didn’t look particularly fucked to him, but he was not a trainer or a physio. “How do I do this?”
Lando sighed loudly. “Stand on me. One foot on either side of my spine. Wiggle your toes around a little. Step off. Easy.”
Says you.
Oscar took a deep breath and stepped onto Lando’s back. Immediately he became hyper aware of the fact that he was not wearing socks. And Lando was not wearing a shirt. His bare toes were on his teammates' back.
This was definitely not part of his contract.
He almost slid off, flailing his arms wildly to grab the wall in front of him to keep his balance.
Lando laughed underneath him. “Whoa there cowboy, try to hang on.”
Oscar furiously tried and failed to not blush, very thankful that there was no way Lando could see his face right now.
“So I just kind of…wiggle?”
“Yes. And actually put weight on me.”
Oscar leaned more of his weight onto Lando experimentally and shifted back and forth, trying not to think too much about what he was doing.
“I don’t know if this is-”
Oscar was cut off by a loud cracking noise that could have only come from Lando’s back.
“AH! There it is!” Lando all but moaned. Yes, moaned.
Oscar was so taken aback that he jumped off, nearly falling down again.
“Oi! Get back on you muppet!” Lando said. “My back is still fucked.”
Oscar blinked. “No way, it sounded like I was hurting you.”
Lando turned his head to look at him. “No you’re not. Please? I need to be able to get to sleep if I want to be rested enough to drive tomorrow.” His eyes were hard and serious, eyebrows crinkled in what could have been pain. “Besides, my physio will fix it tomorrow if you manage to accidentally fuck me up, but given how fucked I am right now I doubt that's possible.”
Oscar couldn’t let him down. Or the team down. Not when they finally had a solid chance for points at the race tomorrow.
Silently, he stepped back onto Lando’s back, wincing at every small crack his back made as he moved around.
“You have to go up higher.” Lando sounded like he was grimacing. “It’s right between my shoulder blades.”
“Mate I am definitely hurting you.” Still, Oscar shifted positions slowly, walking his feet up Lando’s back.
“No, no, I’m good,” his voice was strained and Oscar tried very hard to ignore it. He almost succeeded. “Just stay there for a minute.”
The bitter taste of iron erupted in Oscar’s mouth. He hadn’t even realized that he had been biting his lip.
Beneath him Lando exhaled. Hesitantly, Oscar leaned more of his weight onto Lando.
Pop!
“Fuuuuuuck!”
Oscar jumped off again. His heart pounded in his ears. He had definitely hurt Lando. Oh this was bad. His career was over. He was going to get arrested. Zak was going to sue him for defamation. He was going to have to go live as a hermit deep in the Australian rainforest.
Oscar shook his head. No, Lando was stubborn as shit. If having his teammate stand on his back at two in the morning was what got him then he was going to haunt Oscar for the rest of his life. Somehow that seemed worse than living in the rainforest.
Tentatively, Oscar poked Lando’s shoulder with his toe.
“Lando?”
Silence.
Lando’s head was facing the other way, so Oscar couldn’t tell if his eyes were open.
“C’mon mate,” Oscar poked him again, harder this time.
“Would you hush? I’m having a moment.”
Warm relief flooded Oscar’s veins.
“Can you have your moment in your room and not on my floor?” Oscar asked. “I need to go to bed.”
“Getting rid of me already?” Lando began to sit up. He probably shouldn’t have moved so quickly though because he began to lean dangerously to the side, knocked off balance as his eyes closed halfway, head careening towards the stupidly large glass table in the middle of the room.
Oscar didn’t think, he just moved, lunging down to catch Lando. His hand came up to cup his head, trying to create some sort of barrier between him and the table.
A soft groan left Lando’s lips as he landed against Oscar’s chest, shoving Oscar’s shoulder into the edge of the table. He winced and tried to ignore the pain radiating down his arm.
“Lando?”
“Mmph.”
Not really a response, but for now he would take it.
Oscar really hoped he couldn’t hear how loud his heart was beating. What the fuck had just happened? What was he supposed to do? Call someone? Scream for help? Lando’s skin was cold against him and he was fairly sure that-
Wait a damn minute.
Lando was shirtless. Pressed against his chest. Pinning him against a stupid glass table. At two in the morning.
What had Oscar done to deserve this?
The dim lighting cast shadows on Lando’s chest that rippled as he breathed. At least he was breathing. Breathing was good.
“Like what you see?”
Oscar’s face burned for the second time that evening. He clenched his jaw, tearing his gaze away from Lando’s chest. “I don’t like you passing out on me.”
“Please,” Oscar could feel Lando rolling his eyes. “I didn’t pass out, I just lost my balance.”
“Uh huh. Is that why you’re not moving?”
“You kind of have me trapped here.” He could hear the wicked smile in Lando’s voice.
Oscar looked down. One of his arms was still wrapped firmly around Lando and the other was shielding his head. He even had somehow knotted his fingers in Lando’s hair. God, wasn’t that embarrassing.
“Oh. Um…” Oscar slowly loosened his grip on Lando, guiding him off of his lap and onto the floor.
“Can you hand me my sweatshirt mate?” Lando asked.
Oscar handed it to him wordlessly, watching as he pulled the fabric down over his chest, the ripping shadows disappearing.
“Do you want me to call someone?” Oscar asked softly.
Lando shot his head up to stare at Oscar.
“What for?”
Oscar blinked. “You passed out on me? Ater doing medically inadvisable things? I’m, uh-”
Lando’s laughter was a surprise. It echoed through the room as if nothing was wrong. “You’re concerned about me? Oh that’s real cute Oscar. We are going to have fun this season.”
“But-”
“But nothing,” Lando said, placing his hand on top of Oscar’s to silence him. “Sometimes my back acts up, I hold all my tension in one spot and eventually it fucks me over. Usually I can get my physio to fix it, but it was late and I didn’t want to wait until the morning because we’ve been actually doing okay this weekend and I don’t want to fuck it up tomorrow by not getting enough sleep.”
“And what about the passing out?”
Lando sighed. “Happens sometimes when all my tension gets released quickly. I’m really fine, I swear mate. Swear on my car.”
A small smile started at the corner of Oscar’s mouth. “So you admit that you did pass out?”
“I may have briefly closed my eyes.” It was the closest to admittance that Oscar was going to get. “Can you help me up?”
“I thought you were fine.” Still, Oscar offers Lando his hand and slowly pulls him up to standing, ready to catch him again if necessary.
But Lando is steady this time.
Oscar does have to admit, he does look more relaxed now. His shoulders don't look quite so tense and his blinks are slower, more sleepy.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to call someone?”
“Yeah,” Lando said. “I swear I’m fine now. Much better actually. Thanks Oscar.”
Before Oscar had a chance to say you’re welcome Lando was pulling him into a hug. A real hug. With arms. And squeezing. And intention.
Oscar tensed before half heartedly patting Lando on the shoulder, not sure what else to do.
“Oscar, is this what you call a hug?”
“...yes?”
“God mate,” Lando pulled away, laughing. “You fucking suck at hugs”
“You caught me off guard!” Oscar tried to defend himself.
“Okay,” Lando was undeterred. “Then let’s hug again.”
Fuck!
Oscar tried to relax as he put his hands around Lando awkwardly. Lando, for his part, nearly crushed all of the air out of Oscar’s lungs as he held him tightly.
In an effort to save it, Oscar awkwardly tapped Lando’s back again.
“Mate I’m beginning to think that you just suck at hugs.”
“Well it’s late and-”
“No, no, no excuses,” Lando said. “We are going to fix this.”
“We?”
“Yes, we,” Lando said. “You are going to learn how to hug and I am going to teach you. We.”
Oscar was too tired to fight him.
“So your first mistake is that you’re too stiff. C’mon mate. Relax.” Lando shoved his shoulder playfully.
Oscar felt his shoulders relax just a little. Not too much though. Having Lando this close was still stressful.
“And now just hold me.” Without warning, Lando grabbed Oscar again and pulled him into a hug.
Oscar tried very hard to relax against him, but his body wouldn't allow it. And, though he tried very hard not to, he still awkwardly patted Lando on the back.
“No! Mate! You don’t need to do the pats!” Lando groaned loudly, pulling away.
“I’m sorry, I just don’t know what to do with my arms.” Oscar looked at the floor.
“It's a hug?” Lando laughed again. Why did he find this so funny? “Your arms go around the person you’re hugging.”
“Oh.” Oscar supposed that made sense.
Lando shook his head, but he was smiling. “Really though, thank you mate.”
Oscar shrugged. “How did you know I was awake anyway?”
“I heard a crash,” Lando said. “Are you alright by the way?”
“Oh, yeah,” Oscar shifted his gaze to the floor. “I fell into a chair.”
Lando smirked. “Happens to the best of us, mate.”
Oscar shifted back and forth. “Are you going to be able to get back to your room alright?”
“Yes, I’ll be fine,” Lando looked at him and Oscar felt like he was staring deeply into his soul. Somehow, this was the most time he had spent with Lando so far this season. He wasn’t sure what to make of it. “Really mate, thank you.”
Oscar nodded, still in shock from the whole hug thing. “Yeah, see you tomorrow.”
“See you tomorrow.”
Then the door was closing behind Lando. Oscar stared down at his bare feet in mild shock horror, the implications of the evening finally hitting him.
Had he just been hazed?