The perfect match

“Are you okay?” Christian asked Logan silently during the pre-practice meeting, recognizing the unusually silent demeanour. Logan nodded, sliding his slightly shaking hand from the table and smiled a little before looking back to Hanna. After the meeting ended Logan went to his room, trying the calming exercises Max and Christian had shown him. He stood in the garage on time, just putting on his balaclava when Christian asked him for a moment, walking them into the back of the garage, away from everyone else. He pointed him to a chair and they sat down, Christian opposite to him.
“Is Checo coming back early?” Logan asked.
“No, he still needs to rest more. That’s not the reason we’re sitting here.” Christian said and looked at him “Your hands are shaking, Logan. You can’t drive if you can’t hold your hands straight. Do you want to talk about it or can I do anything to help?”
“No, I don’t think so. I did all the calming exercises and stuff, but it didn’t help.” Logan said.
“Alright, I have to ask you that for protocol, okay Logan? It doesn’t mean that I don’t trust you.”
“What do you mean?”
“Did you take anything that could have caused this?”
“No!” Logan said, looking at Christian in shock.
“Did you drink?”
“No, I don’t drink.”
“Did someone do anything that caused this?” Christian asked and Logan took a little longer to answer.
“It’s not something that happened in the recent past … it’s something from way earlier … I just had kind of a flashback this morning.”
“Okay. Is there something we can do, can I help somehow, should we call someone?”
“No, it’s just … I don’t know how to stop it.” Logan said, holding his slightly shaking right hand in his left.
“Would it help if I ask if Esteban has a minute to come over?” Christian asked and Logan ripped his head up, staring at him. “My wife sniffs those things out easily.”
“Maybe he can, I’m not sure and I don’t want to keep him from racing.”
“I’ll ask nicely.” Christian smiled at him and then got up. Esteban arrived a couple minutes later, out of breath.
“Hey” he said, hugging Logan “What’s going on?”
“I’m not sure. My hand just started shaking and – I don’t know.” Logan said into his shoulder.
“Okay, let’s try this.” Esteban said and pulled back, holding Logans hands in his. “Close your eyes. Everything will be okay. Just breath slowly.” Esteban said and stepped closer to Logan “You are strong. It is in the past. You survived. You are brave.” Esteban slowly said, kissing Logan’s face after every sentence. “Now open your eyes, Cherie.” And Logan opened his eyes, smiling slightly. “Just concentrate on yourself. The practice. The important things.” He said, pulling his hands from Logans. “Now go get’em, tiger!” Esteban growled and Logan almost ran back into the garage. Esteban saw Christian walking in from the garage nodding at Esteban, who nodded back before leaving to his own garage.

The first two practices went well. No big incidents, no yellow or red flags. Toto kept an eye on Esteban, remembering George’s words. He was doing well, his laps times steady and consistent, good tire management. Pierre was also doing well, but his lap times lacked consistency and he tended to overwork his tires. He definitely had a lot of thinking to do.
Third practice was a little more chaotic, a dry thunderstorm suddenly turning not so dry, drenching them within seconds. Ollie, Liam, Pierre and Lewis lost their grip in the corners, sliding through gravel and grass before making their way back to the pits and the training was aborted.
It stopped raining around midday, the sun burning down and drying everything up. They were allowed to start, the first fifteen minutes running. Magnussen, Zhou, Bottas, Aston Martin’s Latifi and Hamilton were out. Next were Lawson, Tsunoda, Alonso, Russell and Gasly in 11th. Sargeant would start from pole for the first time, followed by Verstappen, Norris, Leclerc, Sainz, Bearman, Ocon, Stroll, Hulkenberg and Ricciardo.

After qualifying, media and shortened post-qualifying meetings, almost all of the drivers, team principals and race engineers, as well as their plus ones, met in a meeting room at the track site hotel, which they concluded the day before they would need for the amount of people that wanted to watch Arthur racing his first race. It was more of a comparison between racing clubs, but it was a competition none the less. They posted some pictures of Charles setting up the livestream with his laptop and his mother’s phone, her showing them she had brought five powerbanks, just in case. She was only able to show them Arti in the pit lane, talking to Claude and his karting club trainer, as well as other drivers, all of them older than him. He looked a little nervous, but very happy and excited. Penelope, Chloe, Julia, Nico’s daughter Noemi and Kevin’s daughter Laura played in the front with some toys, the stream being shown on the big screen above them. Arthur started in 5th of a total of 22 drivers.
“I’m sorry.” Lewis said, coming in during the line up. He was met by a loud round of hushing, so he just walked over to where Toto, Suzy and George sat together.
The race started, three of the karts stalling and being rolled away. The race went on for 25 laps, the circuit less than a kilometre. On the third lap, one of the karts just took another turn, the kid going a way wider circle and apparently making up his own track until he was stopped by an ice cream vendor, almost crashing into his truck. Another driver spun, apparently lost orientation and started driving in the wrong direction, Arthur shook his head, as he was the first one to pass him. The driver tried to turn in the next corner and resume the race, but some organizers walked up and pulled his kart out of the race. He needed some big hugs from his mum after that. The next was four laps later, Arthur was about to overtake a kart on the outside when that kart sped up more and apparently tried to cut him off. Arthur went off the gas, seeing the corner approach, but the other kart just sped forwards, missing the turn completely and going up the little barrier hill, stranding on the top because his front and rear tires were too far apart, not being able to keep him going. He looked around confused. Arthur just shook his head and kept driving like nothing happened. They all laughed about these things, but still kept in their mind that they were kids, and all of these things or similar ones had happened to them as well when they started.
In the end, Arthur finished 4th, an amazing result for a first competitive race. He ran up to his mum with a red face, helmet in hand, smiling widely while being out of breath. Arthur looked at his mum’s phone and saw all the people watching him and he waved excitedly, especially when he saw Carlos Sainz Senior was also there. Their little talk was interrupted when an organizer came up to Arthur and Pascal, telling them the second placed driver got disqualified, apparently his kart being manipulated to go faster. Standing on the third-place podium, Arthur was almost as tall as the winner of the race, a French 8-year-old, who was still standing on the grass, waiting for his name to be called.
The drivers in Spain celebrated him like he won the Championship. They stayed put in the room after the stream had ended, finishing their drinks and snacks while doing some small talk.
“What do you mean?” Oscar suddenly screeched at his sister, asking her where their mother was after already asking everyone else, making them turn around.
“He comes over a lot.” Julia said now, still playing with Penelope. “And he says weird things.”
“What weird things?”
“What under those clothes Nicky Piastri?” Chloe said, fitting the last piece of the puzzle in “Done!” she exclaimed happily and looked up at her brother “What?” she asked after seeing his mad face. Chuckles were heard throughout the room. Oscar sped out of the room, yelling Daniel’s name.
“I’ll keep an eye on them.” Max said to Lando and he ran out of the room, trying to find Oscar. Lando saw him down the hallway, pushing Daniel aggressively against the wall while yelling expletives at him.
“Oscar, Oscar, come on.” He said calmly, pulling his husband back from his team mate, who didn’t even attempt to defend himself.
“Why aren’t you saying anything?!” Oscar yelled at Daniel.
“What’s going on?” Nicole asked, coming out of the restroom.
“What’s under those clothes, Nicky Piastri?” Oscar mocked “Really? Why him? Why? Why did you choose the biggest whore of the grid?” he now asked his mother.
“Oscar” Lando tried to calm him down.
“No!” he said to his husband “I told her about him! She knows! So why?”
“First of all, you have no right to talk to me or Daniel like that!” Nicole started, staring her son down “Second, you told me the end of the story. Daniel told me the whole thing. Third … I wanted to tell you when we were back home, in private, when we had time. To avoid exactly something like this.”
“That means that you are really with him?” Oscar asked, staring at her with wide eyes.
“Yes” Nicole said after a little silence, looking at Daniel “I told Daniel not to say anything because I wanted to tell you myself.”
“Humpff, you – it’s – arrrgh!” Oscar said and turned away, walking towards the elevators and hammering on the button.
“I’ll take care of him.” Lando said to them, smiling a little before making his way to the elevator, getting in behind Oscar. They got into their suite, Oscar ripping a bottle of juice from the minibar and slamming himself down at the desk, some of the papers for his new business spread on top. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“No. I need to work.”
“Oscar, you know that Daniel is not a bad person, he-“
“I don’t want to talk about it! I need to work!” Oscar repeated louder, glaring at Lando.
“Okay. I’ll take a shower, tell me if you need anything.” Lando said gently, stroking Oscar’s hair and giving it a kiss before leaving him alone.
“I’m sorry for being a bitch.” Oscar said when he laid down next to Lando.
“You shouldn’t say that to me and you know that.” Lando said, looking up from his tablet.
“Yes, but I was also mad at you, even though you didn’t have anything to do with it.” Oscar said and Lando put the tablet away.
“It’s going to be weird.” Lando stated after a bit of silence.
“Definitely”
“He’s not a bad guy, you know that.”
“I know, I just … freaked I think.”
“You’re going to have to talk to them tomorrow.”
“I know.”
“Before the race, please.” Lando said.
“Yes.”
“Thank you.” Lando said, kissed Oscar and turned off the light before cuddling up to his omega.