Equilateral [Lando Norris x Alex Albon x George Russell]

Part 2

"I'm so proud of you! You did great!" Alex exclaimed, throwing his arms around George's neck and pressing their lips together. George returned the kiss happily.

They had only started dating a week ago, but since they had been friends beforehand, they practically knew each other inside out.

"Thanks, babe." George smiled, as Alex untangled himself and tried his best to straighten both of their shirts again.

"Classic Lando, he's always late.", he laughed, when the third friend had still not arrived at their meeting point, ten minutes later.

"Do you think he forgot about it?", George asked, suddenly an insecure look on his face.

Alex tried to cheer him up. "Georgie, don't be stupid! This is such an important step for you and Lando is one of your best friends and greatest supporters. After all, the celebratory dinner was his idea. That's not something he would just simply forget."

After another 10 minutes had passed and Lando had still not arrived, nor answered any of their calls or text messages, they decided to go look for him.

George was chewing on his lower lip, something he always did, when he was worried about something - or someone in this particular case. Alex squeezed his hand one more time, in an attempt to comfort his boyfriend before they left the privacy of the almost empty Williams hospitality and he had to let go.

After a nice McLaren employee had shown them the way to Lando's driver room, George basically ran there, causing Alex to grin before following him quickly. George had always been pretty caring and overprotective, when it came to his friends, especially Lando as the youngest one.

Alex was sure Lando had just forgotten the time or fallen asleep in his room, while his boyfriend seemed to be genuinely worried now.

However, what they both didn't expect, was Carlos to stick his head out the door, a few seconds after they had knocked.

"Hi, guys! What are you doing here?", the Spaniard greeted them but didn't open the door any further to let them in.

"We wanted to pick up Lando. He seems to have forgotten our dinner plans."

Carlos hesitated for a moment before he turned around, looking into a corner of the room that Alex and George couldn't see from outside the half-open door.

What they didn't see was a wide-eyed Lando, vigorously shaking his head at Carlos, signalling him that he definitely did not want to see his two friends at the moment.

"Oh sorry, he's not coming. Lando isn't feeling very well. I actually just wanted to take him back to the hotel, so he can lay down and rest a little." Carlos explained once he had turned around again.

"Oh, what's wrong? Is he alright? Is he hurt? We can take him to the hotel, too." George's worries seemed to have increased even more now and Alex couldn't stop himself from rubbing his boyfriend's back gently, trying to calm him down a little.

"He's okay, he just needs some sleep. I'll take care of him, don't worry." And with that Carlos shut the door again, just leaving them awkwardly standing there.

They both looked at each other in confusion. What had that just been?

Carlos wasn't usually this short-spoken and when Lando felt down or sick, they normally were the first ones to know.

"Come on then, you heard Carlos, he's taking care of him. Let's go before the restaurant cancels our reservation." Alex tried not to overthink the whole situation and motivate his boyfriend, but George was preoccupied with his phone now.

Just wanted to let you know, that even if I'm happy about my own qualifying or race or anything really, you can still always talk to me about your problems. Same goes for Alex, of course.
Please don't ever feel like you would bring us down, we always care about you and your feelings! You know where to find us if you want to talk.

After George had sent the message, Alex managed to convince him to go out to dinner anyway.
The Brit didn't really feel in the mood for celebration anymore but he just couldn't say no to Alex' adorable puppy eyes.

-

"Are they gone?" Lando asked quietly from where he was cuddled up in a blanket on the small couch in the corner of the room. Carlos quickly stuck his head out the door and onto the hall again. "Yep, all clear."

He closed the door again and turned around to face his teammate. "But you can't avoid them forever, Lando. You'll have to face your feelings sooner or later."

"No thanks, I'd rather take never.", Lando mumbled and pulled the fluffy blanket over his face.

"I'm not going to continue lying for you. You should have seen their faces just now. They were so confused and worried about you. I was afraid George would kick in the door at any moment because he wanted to make sure you're alright!" Carlos sat down next to him, patting his back. Or at least what he thought was Lando's back, he wasn't quite sure since his friend was just a giant blanket pile now.

"But what if they find out about my feelings? I don't want them to hate me." Lando's voice was muffled by the blanket but Carlos could still hear that he was close to tears again.

"Nobody could ever hate you, pequeño. Especially not those two, believe me."

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