"You deserve the world. You deserve this."
Lando Norris enjoyed the winter break a lot more when he was with Mira. He liked being around her whenever he could as her personality was just infectious. At this point, they were practically living together between their two homes with Thor and Loki as their cat children.
Having spent last Christmas with Lando's family, Mira was spending it with her two brothers, along with Lando and Marco Venturi. Marco was looking forward to cooking his famous chef spectacular...Mira had to break the news that while she was sure it was truly amazing, she couldn't eat it. Marco wasn't offended, Luke had explained Mira's eating habits and was happy to cook her whatever she wanted. Mira wasn't sure how Mike would take to Lando being there but she thought he might be okay as he was bringing his new girlfriend, Mika.
Lando and Mira were heading to Dubai with Quadrant in January, somewhere Mira had never been but was willing to go surrounded by the safety of her friends. She was scared but excited all at the same time.
However, it was only December 16th...and an important event was looming the next day.
"Mimi, I'm just heading to Max's to fix something," Lando commented as he pulled his jacket on. "I'll be like twenty minutes."
"Alright," Mira smiled as he kissed her cheek. "Can you do me a tinsie-tiny favour?"
Lando rolled his eyes with a smile.
"Do you want me to pick up waffles?"
"I really want waffles."
"Y'know, I should really bring you back some Stroopwafels from the Netherlands," Lando replied with a chuckle.
"I won't stop you," said Mira with a grin. "Love you."
"Love you too," Lando called as he left.
Truth be told, Mira had been incredibly delicate in the last few weeks with the Pro-Championship coming to the final event. Mira had to win them if she wanted to win the championship and she hadn't really been handling it well. It wasn't just a game to her and the other competitors, it was their lifestyle.
While Mira was lucky to be one of the drivers who didn't need the money, she needed the consistency that it brought to her life and she had a family within the McLaren team. With millions of e-sports players, she could be dropped when her contract ran out...which it did this year.
Lando always told her to not stress over it and he knew better than anyone. He assured her that McLaren wasn't going to drop her if she came second because why would they drop an amazing driver?
"It's fine, Mira, don't stress," Mira told herself as she walked in circles. "Don't stress."
Walking in circles when she was stressed had been Mira's biggest stim from a very young age, confusing a lot of her foster parents. The flaw in this particular stim was that it never led anywhere good like some of her others that calmed her.
So, just like every other time, the walking in circles turned to falling against the back of the sofa and sliding to the floor. Ten minutes later, she was full-on crying while holding her hands over her ears.
Loki and Thor tried to console her, both being very lovable cats. Loki purred as Thor sat at her feet meowing.
"I'm back with the waffles!" Lando's voice echoed.
When Mira didn't answer Lando, the brunette curiously walked into the living room with a frown. Normally, Mira would be anxiously waiting for her waffles. Instead, he was found on the floor crying.
"Mira, what's wrong?" Lando knelt in front of her.
Lando had dealt with this situation before when Mira had a bad experience with a journalist, whose language crossed the line into harassment. Thankfully, Mira's event security had moved him out of the way but that didn't stop Mira from breaking down afterwards.
"I can't do it, I can't do it," Mira gasped out,"I can't do it."
"Can't do what?" Lando questioned. "Did something happen?"
"There's t-too much pressure," Mira attempted to get her breathing back,"I don't know what to do."
"This is about tomorrow," Lando realised,"Mira, love, we talked about this."
"I know but it's just...I didn't really prepare myself for this situation," Mira mumbled.
"Come on, let's go lay in bed and eat waffles," said Lando gently.
Lando carefully took Mira's hand and pulled her up onto the bed before sitting behind her. While Mira didn't usually like too much contact or 'cuddling', Lando made her feel incredibly safe. Eating waffles in bed while ignoring everything that was going on was also a great way to spend the night.
"Will you still love me if I don't win?" Mira mumbled.
Lando raised his eyebrows. "Why do you think I wouldn't?"
"I don't know, maybe you only like successful women," Mira shrugged, half-joking.
"You're already successful," Lando reminded. "Besides, I'll find you hot either way and I'll love you no matter what."
"You're sweet," Mira yawned. "Imma keep you."
"Good," Lando laughed. "Glad to see I've impressed you."
They spent a few minutes eating waffles before Lando took the plates to the kitchen while Mira changed into her pyjamas. Upon his return, Lando got back into bed and let Mira curl up to his side.
"You shouldn't be worried about tomorrow," Lando assured as he ran his hand through his hair. "I know that you will be no matter what I say but you shouldn't be."
"How do you do it?" Mira questioned, turning her head to look up at him."How do you get into that car, knowing everyone is watching you? For something so important for not just you?"
"It's just my job," Lando replied honestly,"There are times that are really difficult but you can only do all you can and you work out where you went wrong so you can fix it."
"It doesn't feel like that for me," Mira replied,"I haven't had to work as hard as you and I still don't. Sometimes I feel like an imposter like I shouldn't have even got this far when I haven't earned it."
"Just because you work in different ways, it doesn't mean you don't work hard at all," Lando assured,"I've seen you get stressed over these things and analyse everything...that's no different to watch we do. And if training means spending all day on a simulator, it doesn't mean you're not working hard enough."
"That was too serious to sound like you," Mira smiled slightly,"But thank you."
◢▆█▆██ 🎮 ██▆█▆◣
2021 seemed to be Mira's year.
She had gone in with her hopes so low that when it started looking up for her, it made it all the more worthwhile. It made the team practically shout for joy and cross their fingers as the e-sports racing world watched with excitement.
Lando Norris was hidden in the background with fingers crossed as he watched his girlfriend's concentration and the live stream from his phone (ironic considering it's usually Mira watching him race.)
It was the last race of the season; Jarno Opmeer and Mira Atkinson were so close in points that it meant the final race was everything. Mercedes against McLaren. There wasn't a substantial amount of people that watched the E-sports of F1 and it was only a side project for project but to the drivers and their small team, winning it meant everything (and the F1 teams would never deny a new trophy to their cabinet when they were funding the drivers).
It meant more to Mira, in her opinion, because she would be breaking the record of the first female to win it. No one would ever be able to break that and it would be her's.
It hadn't been easy but she made it through.
"She has been stressed in the last half an hour but Mira Atkinson is officially the 2021 e-sports champion!"
Trying not to scream, Mira covered her mouth with her hand with wise eyes beaming through her glasses. Lando couldn't hold back his excitement as he got up and kissed her on the head; lucky the camera was titled down so people could only see his hands on her shoulder for a moment.
She had finally done it.
This was her moment and she was going to bathe in it.
Not edited because I'm tired <3