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MAIA has never rewatched Avengers: Endgame so many times in her life, but a twelve hour flight meant that if she watched it four times in a row starting from takeoff, then she'd be in Melbourne around the time the fourth watch was over. So, that's exactly how she killed time on the plane—and she's pretty sure that she could now recite all of Tony Stark's lines without trying.
But finally, after dealing with the pain of waiting to collect her luggages, and managing through the sizable building, she's officially found herself in the back of her parents' car—and she feels the exact same way that she used to when they would pick her up from school. Except, this time around, the 'school' was the Melbourne Airport, and her backpack was a huge luggage and two carry-ons that were all stowed away in the trunk of the vehicle.
"Has the house changed much?" Maia asks, head turning from the car window to her parents, who were in the driver's and passenger's seats of the car.
Her dad glances at her in the rearview mirror, then back to the road. "Not really. We changed the ceiling fan in the living room though since it was as old as you are."
Maia hums with a smile, and turns her attention back to the window outside.
The city of Melbourne passes her by as the car goes on, and it's a weird feeling to acknowledge that even when she hasn't been here in so long, she still remembers the sights with ease.
She faces the front of the car again, and catches a glimpse of the small clock on the dashboard that reads '3:19.'
"I'm sorry you guys woke up so early," she pouts, leaning in between the two front seats.
"Is your seatbelt on?" Her mom asks, turning to face her daughter. After Maia nods a response, her mother shakes her head. "We already told you, Maia, it's alright. We're your parents. If you're coming home to us, then you're not taking some stuffy Uber to our house."
Maia puts on a crooked smile, and tilts her head. "Most Ubers are really nice, mom."
"Even though."
Maia lets out a small 'ha' and sits back on the leather chair of the backseat, and continues to look outside of her window to kick away the time.
Or, that was the plan originally.
"I'm sure Oscar will be happy to see you," her dad says.
Maia laughs nervously, "Yeah. I kind of forgot he was home."
That's a lie, by the way.
"We should invite him and his family to hang out during Christmas Eve," her mom suggests with a gasp, clasping her hands together. She turns her head to look at Maia in the backseat. "Wouldn't that be fun? It'll be like how you guys used to as kids, karaoke and all."
"Oh, I don't know," Maia stammers. "He's probably busy."
"He's on vacation, just like yoy," her dad chimes in. "I'm sure his schedule isn't so full."
Maia slumps in her seat and shuts her eyes, fingers clasping over her nose bridge.
She's going to have the best sleep ever when she gets home, and that's all she tries to think about for the rest of the ride.
Eventually, she peers over to look at the screen of the car, and her eyes wander toward the bottom of the device showing their expected arrival time.
30 minutes.
Maia huffs quietly and covers her face as she tries to tune out the conversation her parents are having about some talk they had a bit ago with Oscar's mom and dad.
She never told him when her flight would be, when she would land, and she never told her parents about how her and Oscar's newly re-discovered 'friendship' makes her feel like she's seasick if she thinks about it too hard.
Maia's not stupid, and she knows she can't avoid him even if she tried, but she might give it a shot anyway, because something about the idea of hanging out at each other's houses like the past eight years never happened is making her head spin like crazy.
THE screen of his family TV mocks Oscar as he's faced with the image of his car crashing into the wall, and his eyes are starting to burn from playing iRacing for so long.
He leans back on the soft couch of his living room and sighs, eyes flickering to the clock mounted on the wall.
It's 4 AM.
How in the world did it become 4 AM?
Oscar rubs his eyes and presses the menu button on the controller, then places it on the free space next to him on the couch.
It was so quiet downstairs, the whole house seemingly too big for him to be the only one awake, and yet, he knew he was, and that meant it was either time to head to bed, or it was time for a hot chocolate and five more games before he passes out on the couch with the TV on.
Man, did that second option sound tempting, or what?
Oscar stands up from his place on the couch and walks over to his kitchen, pulling a packet of powdered hot chocolate from the pantry that was cluttered with all sorts of chips and snacks, and basically whatever any of the Piastri family members could potentially be craving at any time at all.
A mug, some hot water, and a few minutes later; and Oscar finds himself in the small family room by the front door of his house, sitting on one of the couches near a window giving him a view of the rest of the houses in front of his own. The scent of hot cocoa floods his senses, and the heat from the warm mug in his hands satisfy his touch.
Oscar blows on the top of his hot chocolate, and takes a small sip, the sweetness running on his tastebuds as he swallows.
He never wants to live in a world without hot chocolate, because that sounds like a cruel, cruel world.
Oscar goes in for another sip, and as he does he sees a car pulling into the driveway of the Hoang family house, and before he could even question why they were out so late—or, early, he should say—he sees a woman with dark hair and a beaming smile open the door of the passenger seat.
He chokes on his drink, and he can't even focus on the heated liquid that has splattered on his shirt as his eyes water.
He never asked Maia when she was coming to Melbourne, did he?
Oscar shakily puts the mug down and smacks his chest a bit, trying to regain his composure as he sees Maia and her dad grabbing her luggages out of the trunk.
This is a sign he should probably get some sleep, right?
Yeah, probably.
One minute he's sat on the couch in the family room, and the next he's running up the steps of his house, leaving his hot chocolate to turn cold and the Piastri family TV to run the rest of the night. Eventually, he finds refuge under his covers, because Maia being home meant seeing her almost every day.
Fucked, that's what he is.
He's so completely, utterly, without a doubt fucked.
NOTES!
oscar: haha wow maia is so cool, just like how i remember her!! i cant wait to see her again sometime
maia, arriving at her house: 😇
oscar:
xoxo, cas