It was nearly lunch time when she woke up, Lando still snoring softly in her ear, his arm draped around her holding her into his chest. She couldn't even remember the last time she'd slept so well, never made it to lunch time. She sighed in contentment, sinking into Lando's embrace and allowing her eyes to droop closed again.
Monaco was like its own little bubble she had decided. The perfect little bubble where it was just her and Lando. A little bubble where she could walk down the street hand in hand with him, go grocery shopping without getting hounded by paparazzi and where seemingly Cassie didn't bombard her with hundreds of requests every waking hour of the day. It felt like it existed in an entirely different universe to the tour and the looming deadline for the album.
"I can hear you thinking." Lando mumbled sleepily in her ear, squeezing his arms around her.
"You're awake." She smiled, a shiver going up her spine as his hands began tracing over her naked body.
"And you don't have any clothes on." He smirked, lips pressed against her skin.
"I don't remember you complaining last night?" She laughed. She could remember a lot from last night, her cheeks flushing at the thought, but there definitely hadn't been any complaints.
"I never said I was complaining now either." He laughed quietly, turning her to face him so he could kiss her. "I'd like to wake up like this every day."
"Me too." She said softly. The words seemed to hang in the air. Both of them knew they couldn't stay in this bubble forever, the end of the week and her flight to continue onwards with the tour was looming. She had a couple of interviews to do today that Cassie had scheduled and it felt like the beginning of the end of her bubble.
"What do you want to do today?" He mumbled, pressing another sleepy kiss to the back of her shoulder.
"I thought maybe we could go for a run?" She suggested. "Then I've got a few interviews and things I need to do on zoom later. Sorry."
"It's okay." He pressed another kiss to her neck. "Run sounds good, I can make us some lunch after and you can do your thing. Then maybe we can go out for dinner tonight?"
"Sounds good." She agreed quietly. Her head was already spinning at the thought of the interviews that afternoon. She was hardly listening to him.
He stopped his trail of kisses up her neck, pulling back a little to look at her. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." She tried to brush it off.
"Hannah." He sighed. "It's not nothing, what's going on?" He could hear her heart pounding in her chest and her body had gone tense.
She was quiet for a long moment. "It's fine, I'll be fine. I think it's just the interviews and thinking about going back to the tour. And the premier of the movie, I'm still nowhere near even done on the next album and they're pushing to book dates to record. I don't know how I'm going to get all of this done." She blurted out.
He was uncharacteristically quiet for a long moment, where he'd usually be quick to reassure her it would be fine, hands still trailing up and down her skin as he was looking for the words.
"I know you're just going to tell me you're fine and you've got to get through it somehow..." he sighed "but are you really sure it's worth what it's doing to you?" He hadn't realised quite how tightly wound she'd been by the whole thing until he'd seen her relax this week.
"No." She admitted. "But like you said, I don't have a choice... can we just talk about something else?"
"What do you normally do, to make yourself feel better?" He asked quietly.
"Run." She shrugged.
"Then get up, we're going running."
****
She'd been quiet for the duration of their run, setting a pace so fast Lando had found himself struggling to keep up. He'd known she was in good shape to keep up with performing all those shows, but it surprised him given his rigorous training schedule that he'd almost struggled to keep pace with her.
The pounding of her feet against the streets had helped to quiet her mind. When they found themselves back at his apartment an hour later she felt considerably calmer.
"Better?" He asked quietly as he unlocked the door, breaking the silence.
She shot him a grateful smile. "So much better. I'd forgotten how nice it is to run outside instead of on the treadmill."
"I'm going to have to up my game to keep up with you." He joked.
"You might." She winked, elbowing him.
He wrapped his arms around her, looking down at her. "I'm always going to be here, if you ever need someone to talk to, you know that? Even if we're in different countries. You don't have to do it on your own."
She rested her head against his chest, listening to his heartbeat for a moment as she let his words sink in.
It scared her when he said things like that. Not because she didn't want them to be true, quite the opposite. But because it allowed her to hope that there would be a future in which this all worked out for the two of them.
She'd been there with Joe, they'd been engaged. She was so sure he was the man she was going to spend the rest of her life with, and then it had all fallen apart. He'd made all kinds of promises, just like the one Lando had just made, and he hadn't kept a single one of them. Instead he'd slowly driven her insane to the point she'd broken, and then blamed her for what had followed.
She knew deep down Lando wouldn't hurt her intentionally in the way Joe had, but the damage had been done. The idea of opening her heart to someone else was terrifying.
"Let's go get in the shower." She took him by the hand and dragged him towards the bathroom. A surefire way to distract him and avoid having to have a serious conversation, for now at least.
****
He'd watched quietly as she'd busied herself getting ready to do the interviews, doing her hair and makeup in his bedroom. The quiet anxiety had set back in, that little frown line on her forehead was back and she was drumming her fingers nervously on countertop as she finished her hair.
She'd pulled on one of his McLaren hoodies, it was comfy and smelled of him, a little bit of comfort to help her through it.
"That looks good on you." He smiled softly, holding his arms out to her.
She walked into his arms, letting him hold her for a moment. "Hopefully it won't take too long." She mumbled. "Then we can still go out for dinner?"
"Sounds good." He kissed the top of her head. "You going to set up in the kitchen?"
She nodded. "Yeah if that's okay?"
"Of course. I'm going to go hide in the spare room and play some games with the boys for a bit. Come get me when you're done?"
"Okay." She made no attempt to move, but she could see the clock behind him and it was approaching the time the interview had been scheduled for.
"Come on." He released his arms from around her waist, taking her hand and leading her to the kitchen. "Let's get you set up and then I'll get out of the way."
****
The interviews had been fairly painless. She could tell Cassie had given them a strict list of questions they were allowed to ask about the tour and the upcoming movie premiere and the interviewers hadn't really strayed from it, except for the odd question about her and Lando and if she'd be attending any more of his races when their schedules aligned.
She'd found herself unable to keep the smile off her face though as she'd spoken about attending the races in Miami and Australia, letting slip without really thinking about it that she was spending her week off in Monaco with him. The reporter had stayed fairly neutral, asking if she was enjoying Monaco and what her favourite place she'd visited so far was, but she couldn't help but wonder what kind of article it would end up being turned into. It hadn't even occurred to her until afterwards that she had her webcam on and was literally sitting there wearing his clothes for all to see. The orange McLaren hoodie wasn't exactly subtle.
She shook it off though, deciding not to let it cloud her evening with Lando. She'd warn him that she'd let it slip, but given the amount of photos of the two of them had been taken, it was hardly breaking news and he didn't seem to be too bothered.
It was force of habit to worry, she'd decided. Joe had never liked the attention, hated the media speculation and would then blame her for it. It had led to her overthinking every last word she said every time she did an interview, trying not to upset him by saying the wrong thing.
She headed down the hallway to the spare bedroom in search of Lando, laughing as she realised she could hear him yelling at the screen. She opened the door carefully, he flickered his eyes away from the screen for a moment, grinning at her before turning her attention back to the screen.
"Your camera isn't on, is it?" She asked quietly, stepping inside.
He shook his head, too concentrated on what he was doing to get any words out. She stepped into the room, instantly more relaxed and walked over to him, leaning over the back of his seat, arms draped around his shoulders and chin rested on his shoulder. She pressed a soft kiss to his neck, seeing a smile spread across his face.
"I won't be long." He whispered, lifting the microphone on his headset up for a moment.
"I'm fine right here." she smiled as he went back to his game. Her hands began trailing up and down his chest, across his stomach, her lips leaving a gentle trail of kisses down his neck and across his jaw. A smirk forming on her face as he squirmed in his seat, trying to keep his focus on what he was doing.
It didn't last long. "Sorry, gotta go." He shot out quickly, disconnecting from the game before anyone could even say anything.
"In a hurry?" She asked innocently as he pulled her to sit on his lap. Her fingers twisted into his hair, leaving a gentle trail of kisses down his neck and across his jaw until she reached his lips.
****
They did eventually make it out to dinner, much later than planned. She couldn't help but smile as the two of them walked hand in hand down the street to the restaurant Lando had chosen. There were a few camera flashes here and there, but no one approached them and she allowed herself to relax. It felt so wonderfully normal. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been so relaxed.
They'd chatted about the upcoming race, his travel plans to get to LA for the premier and if there were any other races she might be able to attend. He'd steered well clear of the tour and the new album, not wanting to ruin the relaxed mood of the evening.
"I do have a confession to make." She looked at him guiltily as she took a sip of her wine. He raised an eyebrow. "I did let slip to the interviewer earlier that we'd spent the week together here." Her eyes were scanning his face looking for some kind of reaction.
"And?" He looked at her blankly.
"Are you mad?" She chewed on her lip.
"Why would I be mad?" He frowned.
"Well they're probably going to write some weird article now trying to decode what it means and before you know it they'll turn it into some crazy story saying I'm pregnant and we're getting married you know what it's like."
He laughed. "Let them." He shrugged. "Us worrying about it won't stop them doing it."
She looked uncertain. "You really don't mind?"
He shook his head. "I don't know how many times you want me to tell you, but I'll tell you again. I really like you Hannah, and I don't care who knows it."
She took a deep breath, the frown being replaced by a genuine smile, and took another sip of her wine. He could see her whole body relax. "I really like you too." She grinned.