Mine? || Lando Norris

25

It's Saturday evening and qualifying just ended. Oscar did a really good job and is among the top 5 but Lando barely made it to Q3. He starts from P10. Behind a Haas. Unbelievable.
The whole weekend wasn't that great for Lando for now. Everyone was confused why Oscar was so great and Lando just wasn't. After Friday everyone thought 'it just wasn't his day, tomorrow will be better' but it wasn't.
Both of them just returned from their post quali interviews to the hospitality. Oscar seemed happy. The team fist bumped him and everyone cheered while Lando looked like he is about to murder someone. He walked straight to his room without talking to anyone but I didn't really pay attention because I hugged Oscar.
"You did great out there." He thanked me and smiled and I loved to see him like that. He just got so cute when he's all shy but extremely proud at the same time.
"Do you know what's wrong with Lando?" I asked, lowering my voice so no one could hear us.
"I don't know. I just know it's not the car. They checked every data three times. Maybe he's just extremely distracted by something. Yes we're thinking about the same thing so please go and talk to him."
He said with a knowing look in his face that said 'no excuses'
I sighed.
"Okay fine. I'll do it. But I can't promise anything."
With that, he left to debrief with the team so I was left alone with that hard move to make. "I guess we will confront your daddy now June bear"
We walked toward his room and I could feel my heart beat going faster and faster. I took a deep breath and knocked on the door. Of course I brought tissues this time so I can proudly state that I was prepared in case I started to cry again.
"Don't come in." His voice is a bit muffled through the door.
Thinking he doesn't want anyone to come in because he was so disappointed in himself I opened the door anyway just to see him almost naked. I froze right there and just stared at him, then my brain made a reboot so I said "oh my god I'm so sorry." And closed the door as fast as I could. Well that was embarrassing Em, good job. He clearly said to not come in but I was stupid enough to not even think about what the reason could've been. Ugh how was it possible to embarrass myself every single time I see him?
I didn't dare to open the door again so I stood outside the room and waited for him to let me in when he was ready. Luckily that didn't took him too long and I entered the room.
"Again, I'm so sorry." It felt like I had to say it one more time.
"It's fine. Nothing you haven't seen yet" he laughed over his own joke while I just rolled my eyes and ignored what he said. I looked away so he couldn't see me turning red because of his words.
"So why are you here?" He crossed his arms and leaned on the edge of the table.
"I wanted to talk to you about-" "no, why are you in China in general" he interrupted me.
"Well, I'm here for McLaren and xx obviously. That's what the contract says so here I am."
What a stupid question.
"Yeah I get that." He looked like he wanted to say something else but doesn't know how to phrase it. "Why did you bring her?" He pointed at June who was completely invested in the cords of my sweater but smiled at him shyly when she noticed that he looked at her. A little giggle came from her and she tried to hide in the crook of my neck.
"What do you mean why did I bring her? She's my daughter and I'm single parenting so where I go, June goes. She's too young to be left with my parents for the whole weekend." I stated the obvious facts. Lando didn't look like he was satisfied by my answer.
"Why are you so distracted at the moment Lando?" I knew I wasn't the right person to ask that.
"I'm not distra-" "yes you are." This time it was me who interrupted him and I knew I got him when he looked at the ceiling and sighed heavily.
"I guess you are distracting me. I somehow can't stop thinking about June. Not since we talked after the party thing but now you guys are here and I see her quite a lot. I have to think about your puffy eyes after you almost knocked me over with the door and then I think about how hard it has to be for you, doing all this stuff alone. Even though you chose to so I shouldn't care but I do. She's very cute too so how do you expect me to fully concentrate when I know she's my daughter and she doesn't even know I'm her dad."
He put every truth in there he had and it made me extremely emotional. I could sense that he was really uncomfortable, opening up to me like this but I'm glad he did.
"Thank you for being honest." I sniffled.
"Can I hold her?" He whispered.
I nodded so he held up his hands in Junes direction. She got the message and immediately leaned towards him so he could pick her up.
"Hey little girl. Do you remember me?" A big smile formed on his face when she giggled. She then tried to reach his hair and grabbed a strand of hair.
"Oh ow okay, you like my hair huh?" He was visibly under pain so I assume June pulled on his hair. I had to hide my laughter while I freed his hair from her little demon hand. "She does that quite a lot so you should get used to it"
I chuckled but then I noticed what I said. "I mean..only if you want to of course. If you changed your mind." Lando remained silent. He looked at June, then he looked at me and thought for a few seconds. "Yeah I think I want to get used to that." The love in his eyes when he looked at June was already so visible and a huge burden that I didn't know was there fell from my shoulders. I started to cry again.
"What's wrong? Why are you crying?" Lando asked with panic in his voice.
"I- it made me so happy that you just said that." I wiped my tears from my cheeks. "I'm so sorry I did all that hiding and stuff but I'm so glad you changed your mind." I sniffled again.
Lando was too overwhelmed to speak but all of a sudden, he seemed to remember something.
"Oh shit I completely forgot about the debrief."
"You'll need to stop using swear words." I said and took June so he could rush out of the room.

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A/n: I wanted to thank all of you who read until now and will continue to read this story. I'm so happy that you like the story 🫶 (im not good at thanking people like that but THANK YOU, I LOVE YOU GUYS)