awkwardbucketofcrazies

I dug through my fics and skimmed several of them to like. remind myself what I think about them. and I actually had a lot of fun seeing how the way I wrote them changed over time

the first fic I wrote and posted for them was "il pleut des hallebardes" (shout-out to the french language for having fun phrases that I can steal even though I don't know french), and it's very fluffy. I've been watching (sort of? half-watching. aware of) f1 for a while but only paying attention to the races, and as of the end of last season, started getting properly invested in the drivers and fandom. at the point that I wrote this fic, pretty much all I knew about these two was that they made silly content together for vcarb. what initially drew me to them is that they are (or were) in similar situations, and have a lot of the same worries and troubles, but they make each other laugh, and seem to make things easier for each other. (I think of isack's interview, where he said that he doesn't like the social media content really, but it's better with a friend like liam- something something he took "I'm not here to make friends" as a challenge- also he slipped and called liam "william" in that interview, which does raise the question of whether he calls him that sometimes as a bit. but I digress)

anyway, after that was "unless I know it's worth it." I was getting more comfortable with writing them in-depth, which means I was trying to answer the very question you're asking me now: what makes them work together? I leaned pretty hard into the aforementioned "not here to make friends -> making friends with isack" storyline, but hey, can you blame me? pure cinema. what really gets me is the two sides of a coin-esque situation, of becoming friends when liam's fresh out of red bull, bitter and hurt, when isack's the one doing the heavy lifting to reassure him and build what they have into something committed, then they become lovers when isack's about to leave for red bull and he's scared (for both his career and his relationship with liam) and liam, since isack has shown him that what they have is worth it, is the one who makes sure isack believes that liam will be there for him like isack had been for him

I don't play around with this as much as I should, but I also appreciate the possessive side of it as well (I most notably wrote "all mine" about this). the way I write them, isack helped liam throughout all of the red bull drama, by meeting him as an equal instead of pitying him, and helping him get out of his head about it all. I think isack was quite intentional about doing so, and is very aware of how much he helped liam, and with that comes a certain level of possession- he's proven to be able to take care of liam, so he doesn't want to give anyone else the opportunity to try and end up hurting liam instead. it can perhaps veer into something unhealthy, but is there any relationship without the potential for unhealthiness? I think not

on that note: I do have a recycled lisack breakup plot that's used in a few of my fics. I explore it most fully in "I didn't forget about any of it," but the gist is also used in a couple of my lawbladjar fics (mostly for the purpose of setting up lawbladjar lol), and in "old habits die hard." when I write them more realistically (I trend towards idealism, if left unchecked, bc I just want them to be happy and in love most of the time), I think they're absolute shit at communication. as the saying goes, communication isn't interesting unless it's the effect of a deeper rooted issue, and there's a wealth of deeply rooted issues to choose from for these two. I think they actively ignore the fact that either of them would screw the other over if it meant getting one more year in f1. I think they're afraid of labelling what they have bc if it's labelled, then it's real, and can hurt them (both in the sense of "they can only break up if they're actually together in the first place" and in the sense of "they can't be f1 drivers and BOYFRIENDS, they'd get crucified for being boyfriends"). how best to deal with this? ignore it! keep doing whatever they're doing behind closed doors, and pretend to be friends at most when around others. (I'm not particularly good at writing the brutal side of them, so I will refer you to "the jealous type" by figgypudding77. it's pretty devastating. read the tags)

alright another one that I feel like is pretty indicative of what I think draws them to each other is "on earning gentleness." I think this is among my earliest attempts at hurt/comfort with this duo. let's face it- it's pretty easy to throw angst in liam's direction. torturing the blond guy is always fun. most of all when he thinks that it's deserved. for me, isack is good at forcing liam to accept his love and attention until liam learns that he's allowed to ask for it. isack sees liam with, perhaps, rose colored glasses (I think of when he went in front of the stewards a couple races ago and was like "nah he didn't cut me off, idek why we're here bc he obviously did nothing wrong" lmao), and wants to be the one to make liam as happy as liam makes him. liam, on the other hand, is comfortable with isack in a way he's not with many people, and trusts that isack wants the best for him, and I think he needs people like that. he has rose colored glasses, too- he sees the best of isack, after all. (sidebar: I imagine it's far easier to write hurt/comfort with lisack than lawblad. whenever I imagine arvid trying to comfort liam he's just like "yeah, that sucks, man... wanna fuck about it")

a few more notes, not tied to any particular fic of mine, but they definitely inform how I write them:

I think about that one video from the very start of 2025, like, all the time. it's just a photoshoot with the red bull teams, when liam was with rbr, but isack goes up to liam after and says how he tried to stop himself from looking over at liam during it bc he knew he'd start to laugh. also of note, liam naming isack in that "fill in the blank" video as the funniest driver, but calling him "funny but not always on purpose" (paraphrasing- I don't have the video right in front of me). they don't even have to do anything to make each other giggle. I don't talk about this enough

I also write a fair bit about aspec versions of lisack (particularly ace liam, of various shades, and one instance of aro isack). I'll admit this has more to do with myself than them, but there's something very healing about writing about them being intimate in ways other than sexual. even when I do write about them having sex, it's used more as a crutch for them to express affection- it's not the end goal, the way I write them, but rather one of many ways that they could take care of each other

since I'm mostly a oneshot writer, I haven't delved into the yearning stage of their relationship much, but trust, it is there. I think liam's pining mostly comes in the form of "he's my friend and also I need him near me All The Time" and isack's pining is mostly "I want him to smile and I want to be the reason why he is smiling." they're both dense and/or in denial

all this to say, like any relationship, there are a million ways to write lisack, and I like to mess around with different portrayals throughout different fics. but what usually draws me in, and what keeps me coming back to lisack, is that they think the world of each other, and each want to be the one to give the world to the other. I like them best when they're soft, and to me, they are soft together in a way that they're not with many other people