this is technically not what you asked for, but it's what you get 😭 my head was empty with the prompt you gave so i changed it up a little, sorry! also i wanna do more of these so please send in asks everyone :3
“Can I have a kiss?”
“How much did you drink?” Lando asks, his face all scrunched up in disgust like Carlos just told him he threw up in the bushes.
“You don’t wanna kiss me?” Carlos mumbles and pouts for good measure. He knows Lando finds it hard to resist his pout. He juts his bottom lip out, makes it as big as he can manage.
“Carlos, what are you—not here!” Lando hisses. “Don’t give me that look.”
“Landinho…”
“I’m cutting you off. No more drinks.” Lando’s voice is final.
“But—”
“We’re in the club, Carlos. I’m not kissing you here, alright?”
“Then let’s leave. I’m tired.” Carlos leans closer, his body is hanging on to Lando’s. All his weight makes Lando brace to keep his balance.
“Alright, man. Let me just say goodnight to Martin.”
Carlos moans, “I wanna go now. We can do that… Dutch goodbye.”
“What?”
“Italian? No, Irish. Irish goodbye.”
“I don’t wanna leave without Martin knowing,” Lando says.
“I’ll do that thing you like,” Carlos continues, “when we get home.”
Lando tenses, stares at Carlos for a second. “I’ll text him.”
Carlos’ face breaks out in a soft smile, while his body gets heavier as he leans impossibly closer to Lando.
“Fucking—Carlos, carry yourself, oh my god—” Lando groans while leading them out of the crowded club, bumping into people too drunk to notice.
The air outside is cold and welcome – Lando feels like he can breathe again. His ears are buzzing with the quiet.
“Can I have a kiss now?” Carlos asks.
“No.” Lando looks around the street – it’s not crowded but there are still people around. He orders a taxi from his phone and shoots off a message to Martin as well.
“What about now?” Carlos asks again when they’re seated in the back of the car. Lando looks up at the rear view mirror and meets the driver’s eye.
“Be patient, Carlos. You’ll get what you want in a minute.” Lando rests his hand on Carlos’ thigh and squeezes. Carlos stays quiet for the rest of the car ride.
Carlos sits in a secluded corner of the restaurant at the team’s hotel. It is relatively empty at this hour, too late for a late dinner, but still too early for the crowd pregaming a night out. He peruses the menu, looking up occasionally for Alex. He meets Alex’s gaze eventually, and Alex makes his way to Carlos’s corner.
“Do you always like to be seated in dark corners?” Alex asks, with the hint of a smile. He picks up his menu, but still looks at Carlos, waiting for a response.
“They sat me here. I was not asking for this,” Carlos answers, sounding defensive.
“Relax,” Alex starts. “It’s not like if I wrote that you were shy in my piece it would be breaking news.” Alex picks up the drink menu. “I was asking in just case I make it down first next time.”
Carlos breathes out a sigh. He knows Alex isn’t out to get him. He’s doing his job. It makes his job easier if he feels like Carlos is being himself. But Carlos doesn’t feel like himself.
Carlos has reinvented himself as team principal of Williams after his retirement from driving. Alex is a journalist who is writing a profile piece on Carlos's first year on the job.
#i like how alex is like ‘carlos is sillier than i thought :D’ and carlos is like ‘alex is meaner than i thought :D’#really makes you think (read: open up a new google doc) @brushedbymelancholy
#please#he complains ALL THE TIME. in a good way :)#carlos winning sweetie pie of the week every week by default @newbromantics
#carlos really said my team mate is a bitch and i like her so much <3 @gridmother
I won't share it here because I'm trying to avoid pap shots, but one of the ones of Carlos and Rebecca in Mallorca is living rent free in my mind. Rotating it around the microwave of my brain.
Have you seen this new article from marca? It says that Carlos’ negotiations for a renewal with Williams are in the final stages and that an announcement is imminent, possibly during the Zandvoort race week. I knew this was going to be the most likely outcome, but am sad nonetheless. Williams is such a dead end and an utter shambles of a team.
I have seen it, and I don't think it's as hopeless as it feels.
I'm just as frustrated with this season as anyone else is, but I don't think we'll see much driver movement going into next season. The ones I think we could see won't be at teams with much better on track results than Williams, and probably much less ideal working environments. Once the teams start to feel a bit more stable, it will be easier for the drivers to see what their options are, and then I think there will be more potential for a good place to open up if he wants to move somewhere else.
Whatever contract Carlos signs will surely have an exit clause that makes it easy for him if a good spot opens up, and he'll have a lot of flexibility to evaluate the teams as this season ends and next season begins. I'm sure the rumored conversations he's been having with other teams are helping to inform that.
I also have probably a little too much faith in Williams to be able to turn things around, and I blame a lot of their problems on the Mercedes power unit (whether that's fair or not, I don't really care lmao). It's a long-term project, which Carlos has said is what he wants, and the team want him there. I would prefer if the project came with consistent points sooner rather than later, but things change so much from one year to the next.
(let's look at this a year from now and see if I'm ready to eat my words lol)
So, I have 2 1/2 helmet ideas that I remember (I probably have more though...?)
1. Honestly, this one is soooo old at this point. Born from the slight obsession I have with helmet shots of especially Carlos (but also Lando). There is just something very very hot to me when all you can see of this man are his stupidly beautiful cow eyes (and his nose). And I am fully of the opinion that Lando would agree with me here. Carlos' eyes are definitely what Lando fell in love with first and he'd ask for Carlos to wear his helmet when they have sex. Lando is not afraid to ask for what he wants and share his kinks. Originally this was set in Silverstone 22 after Carlos got pole, but I have also changed it to Singapore 23 in a little experiment to try and maybe revive this idea again. Now I think Mexico 24 would also work rather well (and I really loved that helmet design).
2. Lando's gold championship helmet. He's not superstitious, so he shows it to Carlos when he had it made. *Carlos* is (slightly) superstitious and freaks out a little, doesn't want to fully jinx it (Lando laughs at him but thinks he's being very sweet). But it leaves Carlos with an idea nagging at the very back of his head. And idea he finally gets to act upon after Lando comes stumbling back to their room at 6 or 7 am after celebrating his championship all night. Lando is very on board with christening the helmet in bed before he takes it out on track. And it's always hot when Carlos is on a mission to rain praise down on Lando and all he's achieved, so Lando can never ever forget or start doubting himself again, because those memories are seared into his brain, burned into his skin, marking his soul.
Also just, Lando’s eye colour with the gold? I am weak, so Carlos is too.
The 1/2 idea is because I am indecisive if the helmet comes into play or not. Basically just Lando wanting to get fucked in his race overall, but never asking any hook up for it because he just knows they wouldn't *get it*. It's not because the overalls are hot to look at or anything, it's just that Lando sometimes feels like the he, the f1 driver and the he, the gay/bi/whatever he wants guy are two different people. And while yes, it is technically just a kink and he does simply find the idea hot, he also just wants to feel like he's one person rather than two who can't collide.
Carlos accidentally finds the overall one time, Lando panics because they are just friends and Carlos just wanted to borrow some clothes after their golf trip to crash at his because his flight was cancelled or something. Carlos doesn't even notice it's more than just a black overall Lando might use for karting. Only sees the opening when Lando snatches it away with a bright red face.
We all know Carlos can't let shit go, so he asks. At first he just assumes the fabric somehow managed to rip at Lando’s ass (an idea he yells at himself for finding hot, they are only friends after all, but well, Lando has too nice of an ass not to take note). Lando considers lying. But he doesn’t like lying to Carlos. And Carlos can tell more often than not anyway. Just like he could (and still mostly can) in their McLaren days. So he tells him. He doesn't expect Carlos' eyes to go black and telling him breathlessly to go get dressed.
So it def is the race suit. Probably also the balaclava. Maybe the helmet too, but I never got this far with this because my smut blockade started acting up again and all I tried to write just made me cringe in a bad way.
The second key point in Fahrenheit 451 is that the country is at war having fighter jets flying above citizen's heads, but citizens themselves are too enamored by screen and music and nice simple things to mind them. They don't know who they are fighting against or why or how many people even are involved and they don't care.
And then the bomb levels down the city too busy doing their version of a tiktok dance, shocked that there are such things as the outside world and consequences of politics.
One piece of advice that’s always stuck with me is to never hold back a compliment. If you think someone looks nice/is doing a good job/is very talented tell them! Could improve someone’s day or make you a new friend.
