who would have thought [lando norris]

Chapter 22

He took me with him to the team dinner to celebrate his redemption. It was slightly uncomfortable because many of the people there had already seen me in the garage but I could see in their faces that they were confused on why I was here. For the most part they were all very welcoming and Lando and Daniel, who sat on each side of me, helped me integrate myself and made me feel comfortable.

After dinner, the three of us, Lando, Daniel and me went back to Landos hotel room. We celebrated with rounds of shots since non of us really like champagne, wine or beer. As we got drunk Daniel and I started discussing our tattoos and made it our mission to convince Lando to get a tattoo too and preferably as soon as possible. 

Lando and I still hadn't talked about what we were going to do when this weekend ended and the more drunk I got the more my head stared to worry about it. When Daniel went to the bathroom I couldn't hold myself back anymore. We were sitting beside each other on the couch with his arm around me. The alcohol had made him touchy and as soon as Daniel had left the room he was kissing up and down my neck.

"What now?" I disturbed his affections towards me.

"Now we'll send Daniel back to his room to have some time for ourselves." he said.

"No, not now. I mean sure, but what do we do now that the weekend is over?"

"When is your train leaving tomorrow?" he asked not answering my question.

"I believe at 1 o'clock"

"Well the next race isn't until three weeks from now I have a lot of time on my hands. Do you have any events in the next few day. We could stay in Budapest for a little longer...?" his eyes were hopeful.

"I'm free this week, I'll just have to make sure my parents aren't worried."

"I mean I'd also love to visit Vienna, I haven't been and..."

"Meeting the parents already..." I teased him. It was weird to think about, but it felt right. I was ready to introduce him, it didn't feel like this was the first weekend we had spent together.

Lando took out his phone and cancelled his flight that he had booked for tomorrow morning.

"I just cancelled the flight so we can still decide what we want to do. Let's spend tomorrow in Budapest and then we'll see" I agreed by giving him a kiss.

We sent Daniel back to his room, it was already 1 in the morning, time had one by fast.

Monday in Budapest was amazing, the weather couldn't have been any better, we strolled through the streets, had brunch in a small café and visited some attractions. We sat down on a bench in the middle of a beautiful park. 

"So? Your train still leaves at one." Lando started the well avoided conversation.

"Technically..." I said, not knowing if he wanted me to invite him to come with me or say that I wanted to stay here with him. Our words were tiptoeing around each other, it was clear we wanted to spent more time with each other and definitely weren't ready to say goodbye, but I didn't want to overwhelm him by forcing him to meet my parents and he didn't want for force me to stay in Budapest with him, because he knew my parents were already a bit worried about my whereabouts.

"You don't have to meet my parents, but I'd love to show you around Vienna." I dared to say.

"Then I will buy a ticket right now and we can plan it the rest in the train"

He took out his phone and leaned against him resting my head on his shoulder watching him book his ticket.

A few people recognized Lando on our way to the train station and asked for a photo. I was gladly willing to take the photo for them. I could tell Lando never looked into the camera each time he looked behind the camera right into my eyes. We were giving each other looks, making fun of the absurdity of the situation.

In the train I called my mom to tell her I was coming home today. We would arrive in Vienna at 4 in the afternoon with enough time to show Lando around the inner city. My mom asked me if they should pick me up from the train station, which I politely declined, because I still hadn't told them about Lando and we still weren't sure if he was going to meet my parents.

After I got done calling my mom, I hung up and decided it was time to talk about the conflicts at hand.

"Ok so first of all, I can't let you sleep in a hotel because I want to spend as much time with you as possible but my family will be asking all sorts of questions if I tell them I'm sleeping in a hotel, and if that is the case then meeting them seems like the smartest idea. Then we can just stay at my house. I know it's early but maybe that's just how it's supposed to be. Fate, you know?" I laughed to make it seem less serious.

"Fiona, I'm excited to meet them, don't worry. We've already exposed ourselves to the paparazzi, if you ask me, normally meeting the parents happens before that. We are moving fast but we can take it slow in other areas." I was glad we were thinking the exact same thing.

We spent the train ride listening to music together and when Lando fell asleep I continued reading my book about existentialism. He was sleeping deeply and soundly when we arrived and it hurt me having to wake him up because he looked so peaceful. I woke him up with kisses to make it less torturous for him.

Fully energized from his nap he was excited to see Vienna. It was a beautiful afternoon, the sun was still out and the slight breeze made the arguably hot 30 degrees seem more like bearable 24. 

We walked around the city and got ice- cream at my favorite place. I showed him where I had gone to school and after another break sitting in a park we went past the tattoos studio I had got all my tattoos at.

"This right here was were I got my tattoos done" I told him.

"Oh really... you think they've got a free slot. I remember we had a deal" Lando said.

"Are you sure you want to do this right now? I now one of the artists very well so I could arrange it, if you want."

"It's perfect timing, the deal was that I was going to do it only if you came with me and here we are and what better place than where you got yours?"

"I totally agree. Let's go then!"

We walked inside and Philipp, the artist that had done all of my tattoos, spotted me and came over. 

"Fiona, you normally text me before coming here. I didn't know you wanted another tattoo. Last time you said you would stop or at least not get another for a while." Philipp said.

"Hey to you too, Philipp. I'm not here for me. This is kind of spontaneous, but I was wondering if you had time for a small tattoo for my friend here..." I was pointing at Lando who looked slightly uncomfortable.

"Yeah sure I just got done with another client."

I turned towards Lando, "are you sure you want to do this?"

"Yes, I really want to." he turned to Philipp and said, "I want to get a quote: Tomorrow isn't promised, I was thinking somewhere on my forearm, like under my inner elbow. And I want it fairly small. It's my first"

"Alright, alright, I got you" Philipp said and immediately got to preparing a stencil. 

"I see you've given this some thought, Norris" I teased him. He just smiled at me. He was a little shy and nervous but who wasn't before getting their first tattoo. 

"This is crazy, my parents are gonna kill me", he said while sitting down, ready to get the stencil applied.

The tattoo turned out amazing. It was small and decent. The words were written in a classic font, with fine lines. I was no bigger than 5x2cm and it gave Lando a new side of his character. He wouldn't stop making me look at it, he was obsessed with it. It made him cooler and it actually fit him perfectly. Additionally to the nice, young, charming, handsome guy he already was, he seemed more mature and less like the young unexperienced boy image he had.

I took a photo of him to send to Daniel, whos number a I acquired just recently. He sent back a voice message expressing his excitement just moments later. He was very hyped about it even though he was a bit sad he hadn't been there so I sent him another video of Lando while getting tattooed. 

It was 7o'clock now which meant it was time to make our way home. Lando had just gotten past his nervousness about getting a tattoo and both of our were now starting to get nervous again about him meeting my parents.