home ambush, ln1
lando norris x gf!reader
november 2022: university has made you far busier than lando would like, and after a surprise visit you find yourself finally having time for something else, only to get invited to spend christmas at the norris house too.
warnings: none! | word count: 5.2k | notes: remember to like, comment and reblog if you enjoy! <3
The first few months of third year hit you hard. With an overwhelming amount of assignments to complete and exam preparation to do, you barely had time for yourself. Therefore, you barely had time for Lando. You still messaged him whenever you could, specifically after races to congratulate him on his finish or make him feel better when he needed it, and you called him on his birthday, sending him a gift to his address (a silver bracelet with your initials engraved on the inside and the date you two got together) that he put on immediately and couldn’t stop smiling about as well as the card you’d handwritten and shipped to him in Monaco. He loved it, though he was still slightly upset with the fact that you couldn’t be there to celebrate with him. He understood, of course he did, but he was needy, an overthinker and borderline obsessed with you. So as your responses became less and less frequent, and your daily calls almost turned monthly he’d had enough. He messaged Maya asking about you first and of course her response was one he’d already received before.
‘She’s busy, and exhausted. Don’t be angry at her.’
Lando wasn’t angry, he just missed you. Missed your face and your voice and your touch.
That was when he decided to fly out to Geneva without telling you and using Maya as a guide to find you.
When a knock sounds from your apartment door, you wake up from where you didn’t notice you’d fallen asleep at your desk over your notebook that looked like something from a psych ward.
“Shit,” you whisper out, letting your eyes move over the mess of textbooks strewn about your room, a few torn out pages scattered over piles of clothes–both clean and dirty–before standing up and rushing to the door.
At the sight of him standing on the other side, you swear you can feel your heart expand in your chest.
“Lando?” You ask, your voice slightly hoarse when you glance down at the massive bouquet of dahlias in one hand, a giftbag in the other and a warm smile on his face.
“Hey, love,” he speaks before you throw yourself on him–wrapping your arms tightly around his shoulders.
“What are you doing here?” You ask, suddenly feeling self conscious. Your hair’s pulled back in a messy bun that you haven’t taken out in about two days, you’re wearing one of his hoodies and a pair of joggers, and your eyebags are so prominent they look like they’ve been embedded into your face.
“Missed you. Came to see how you were doing,” he replies, kissing your forehead before you pull away and he holds out the flowers and the bag in your direction. Though you don’t miss the way his eyes move around your face, taking in your features.
“God, I look a mess, don’t even–”
“You look beautiful. You’re always beautiful,” he interrupts when you take everything from his hands and step aside to let him in. His eyes move across the room, at the mess haunting every corner before looking back at you.
“I’m sorry, I just–” You let out a weak sigh, feeling him follow you to the kitchen.
“Don’t apologise. You have nothing to apologise for,” he speaks firmly as you fill a vase with water before placing the flowers in them.
“These are beautiful,” you say softly, smelling them and placing the vase in the centre of the kitchen island. You turn to where Lando’s leaning against the counter, smiling at you like you’re the centre of the universe.
“I’m so happy to see you,” he says warmly, walking towards you. “I missed you so bad, love. You can’t disappear on me like that.”
His arms slip around your waist and you melt into his embrace, letting out a deep sigh as you close your eyes and finally let your running mind come to an abrupt halt.
“Have you been sleeping? Eating?” He asks then and you feel his hand cup your cheek to tilt your head back before his thumb swipes beneath your eye.
“Sleeping is a privilege I haven’t experienced in a while,” you joke, opening your eyes to find his expression far from amused.
“Y/n,” Lando says with furrowed brows, “you need to sleep.”
“I am sleeping. Just not for long and not consistently,” you shrug, rubbing your cheek against his hoodie and breathing his scent in. His cologne re-etches itself into your brain, along with something that smells so uniquely like him you couldn’t forget it even if you tried.
He sighs then, resting his lips on the crown of your head whilst his thumb draws small shapes across the skin of your cheek.
“I’m worried about you,” he says honestly then. “Are you taking breaks? Talking to people? Taking care of yourself?” Lando doesn’t even let you reply before he answers for you. “You’re not because if you were, you’d be answering me.”
“Lan, I’ll be fine. I just have to make it through these next couple weeks and then it’s Christmas,” you shrug, looking up at him again to find him clearly unhappy with your decision. As if on cue, your stomach growls in response and at the sound his brows shoot up.
“Let’s go and get you food,” he announces, slipping his arms off and taking your hand in his.
“Lando, I can’t. I need to–”
“Eat. You need to eat. We’re going.”
You frown, though the hunger is starting to override the stress gnawing at your insides. You’ve always been a stressful person, everyone around you could see that, and you thought it would go away eventually. Much to your dismay, it hadn’t. Instead, it changed shape, carving itself into you silently as it shifted into a dull hum in the background. It’s always there in the back of your mind as if waiting to be activated by something.
In this case it’s leaving your mountain of assignments to spend time with your boyfriend.
“Lando, you don’t get it,” you try, making him turn around to look at you. “I seriously cannot leave. I can’t waste time I don’t have.”
“Y/n, you need food. How are you expecting to work if your brain isn’t functioning?” He asks, his voice turning sweet when he looks at you.
“But–” “Okay, we’ll go out and eat, then we’ll go buy a bunch of food to fill your fridge, and then we’ll come back and you can do work whilst I sit with you. How does that sound?”
You sigh in defeat, knowing there’s no way out of this.
“Fine.”
“Thank you,” he breathes out, kissing your forehead. “But first open your present,” he smirks, picking up the gift bag you’d left on the counter and holding it out to you.
“Lan, you didn’t need to get me anything,” you try but he just shakes his head.
“I did. It’s your birthday soon. This is just the starter,” he replies smugly as you begin to open the bag, only to let out a soft gasp.
“Lando, I can’t take this–”
“Yes, you can,” he counters. “Open it.”
You clench your jaw, your insides screaming when you pull out the red Cartier box, placing it down on the marble before popping it open. The gold Cartier love bracelet looks up at you, your lips parting and a gasp falling from your mouth once more. You can feel the way Lando’s arms wrap around your waist from behind, his head resting on your shoulder as he grins at your reaction when you look at him.
“Lando. Lando, Lando, Lando–”
“Put it on,” he says, and you stare at him for a moment before looking down at the bracelet and clasping it on your wrist. It fits perfectly. “See? It’s perfect.”
“Lando this is too much,” you try again, turning to look at him again but he just shakes his head.
“It suits you. You need it,” he responds, grinning at you when you pull him in for a bone-crushing hug that knocks the oxygen out of him.
“Thank you,” you murmur against his chest.
“You don’t need to–”
“Lando, shut up,” you almost groan into his hoodie before he chuckles, his arms warm around your waist before he kisses you.
“Okay. Let’s go eat,” he announces when you pull apart, his fingers interlacing with yours when he leads you to your apartment door.
—
You’re sitting in a booth of a McDonalds in the corner, an assortment of food in front of you. Lando ordered almost everything on the menu after realising that you didn’t know what you wanted.
“Are you supposed to be eating this? Are you going to get in trouble?” You ask before you take a bite from the chicken nugget you’re holding. Lando shrugs, shoving a chip in his mouth.
“Are you gonna tell Jon?” He asks, turning to look at you. You smile, shaking your head whilst chewing. “Well, then.”
Both of your hoods are up, and he’s even wearing a hat because you can never be too careful out in public. To be fair, nobody’s looked twice at either of you, so it seems like everything’s working out in your favour.
“What are you doing for Christmas?” Lando asks after he finishes a burger, watching you as you reach for your water.
“Nothing really. Was going to just do something with my friends,” you shrug when he hums thoughtfully.
“What if I asked you to come with me to my parents’ house?” He asks then, eyeing you closely. You freeze, eyes locked on his when the corners of your mouth turn up into a smile.
“Really?”
“Yeah. My mum and my sisters have been dying to meet you. It’ll be fun. You don’t need to stress about presents or anything, just come.”
“Lando, I would love to,” you practically beam.
“Good. I can’t wait,” he grins before taking another chip from the box and reaching across the table to bring it to your mouth. You chuckle before taking it with your teeth, his smile only widening at the sight of you eating what he’s feeding you.
You spend the rest of your date eating until your bellies are full and laughing until you can’t breathe, and the weight on your shoulders finally feels like it’s been lifted. When you both leave McDonalds, you head together to the local shop.
“Basket,” Lando says, picking up the basket and holding it whilst his other arm remains slung around your shoulders to keep you close to him. “Right. What do we want?”
You trill your lips, letting your eyes move over the aisles as you start from the beginning and work your way around. Lando just puts basically everything you hesitate on into the basket, up until it’s practically overflowing. When you go to pay, you don’t even realise it’s happening until he’s already tapped his card and thanked the worker.
“Wait, Lando–”
“No, come on. Let’s go,” he nods his head, taking all of the bags himself whilst you clutch onto his bicep and follow him. You realise that trying to argue about it is futile because of how stubborn he is, so you decide to switch the conversation topic instead.
When you arrive back at your apartment, he leaves the bags on the counter as you let out a quiet sigh.
“I need to go back to work,” you groan, slipping your arms around his shoulders and leaning into his chest.
“I’ll put everything away and then come find you.”
“You think you can manage that?” You joke when he snorts, his arms coiled around your waist tightly.
“Yeah. I’ll find my way.”
“M’kay,” you hum, looking up at him to find him tilting his head down to you with pursed lips. You smile, accepting the kiss he’s offering when he deepens it for a split second. “I need to–”
“Yeah, yeah,” Lando nods in understanding as he gives your cheek one last kiss before you reluctantly slip out of his arms and head back to your bedroom.
—
You’re halfway through relearning about heat and mass transfer when you hear footsteps getting louder and when you look up, you find Lando walking into your room. His eyes are locked on yours when the corners of his lips turn up into a fond smile.
“Hey, megamind,” he greets, taking a seat on the space on the floor beside you.
“Hey, you don’t have to–”
“No, I want to be with you,” he counters, his arms wrapping around your leg before he rests the side of his head against your thigh and takes his phone out of his pocket. “I won’t be in your way.”
You smile at his cuteness, softly scratching his head through his curls before you return your attention back to the sheet in front of you.
“Wait, how long are you staying for?”
“As long as I can,” Lando replies, tilting his head back to look at you to see you beam down at him. “Might need to fly out sometimes but it’s worth it. As long as I get to be with you.”
—
The first week of Lando staying with you feels like pure bliss. He’s been taking care of you, reminding you of when to eat and helping you relax when you need it (in more ways than one).
Though one evening, when you return back to your apartment after a long day of lectures–it feels like the walls are threatening to close in. Sometimes you feel like a pot of water–boiling over when the heat is too much. In this case, the heat in question being the building anxiety caused by university. Maybe you care too much, or maybe you’re just an easy target to its dark embrace.
The door shuts behind you with a slam that almost rattles the walls, your bag dropping on the floor as you run your hands down your face with a deep exhale.
“Hey. What’s wrong?” Lando frowns, getting up from the couch immediately to wrap you up in his arms. You let yourself fold into him, burying your face in the crook of his neck as the tightness in your chest only begins to worsen.
“The lecture. I just… I was so tired I could barely focus and I was so lost and then I started panicking and then–”
“Sh, sh, sh,” he hums, carefully rocking you in his arms before he kisses your temple repeatedly. “Don’t worry about it now. I’m here,” he reassures you, “come on, let’s go sit down.”
You follow him to the sofa, taking a seat on his lap as you clutch onto his shoulders tightly. Your body shakes a little with sobs as he draws comforting shapes against your upper back, his warm touch making everything feel softer around the edges.
“Come here,” he whispers, tilting your head back with his other hand before his mouth meets yours in a gentle embrace. You kiss, your mouths moving together as the oxygen you felt like was missing finally returns to your lungs.
You pull apart not long after, though you keep your faces close together. Your forehead rests against his whilst you pant, your breaths mingling together when he rests his hand on the side of your head.
“Let’s go to bed, yeah? I don’t like seeing you upset,” Lando speaks in a way that makes your stomach explode with butterflies. Your bottom lip gets caught between your teeth when you nod, feeling him kiss your lips once more. “Good girl,” he whispers before standing up.
Despite your legs feeling like jelly at his praise and the gush of heat in your core, you stand up after him and attach yourself to his side as you both head towards your bedroom. You brush your teeth together, take a shower filled with kisses and loving touches before you collapse in bed with Lando wrapped around you completely. He’s warm and smells faintly of his cologne, and you find yourself falling asleep incredibly quickly as soon as he starts kissing down your neck. He feels like home.
—
Over the course of the next few weeks, you’re still attending lectures, still coming home to Lando most days when he’s not flown out for sim training or marketing, still falling more and more hopelessly in love with him.
Yes, spending as much time together as you have has made you boldly start to assume that your heart beating faster and your palms becoming clammy just whenever you’re around him isn’t something that happens when you just like someone. You’ve fallen for him, even though you’re too afraid to admit it.
Unbeknownst to you, Lando has been feeling the same way. In fact, he’s known he’s been in love with you since that holiday in Ibiza–and when you partially went ghost on him it only set that fact in stone. You both agreed to go slow, take your time and whatever, and he realised that confessing his love for you a mere few months into your relationship probably wasn’t something that agreed with your words.
Nonetheless, it’s finally Christmas break and you were convinced nobody was as excited as Lando at the fact that you could finally give him some attention. Since you’re going to his parents’ house, you have an entire flight to fulfill that.
“Okay, so I’m gonna tell you,” Lando begins as you stretch your legs over his and rest your body against his side. His arm is around your shoulders as the soft hum of the jet engine fills the brief silence. “My mum, I don’t know how she’ll be. She’s a great judge of character, but from what my dad has said I’m sure she’ll love you. If she’s too much, just let me know, okay?”
“Lan, don’t worry about it. I understand,” you respond with a smile, looking up at him as he cradles the side of your face in his large hand.
“You sure?”
“You’re a millionaire and a celebrity athlete. It makes sense that your parents are going to be protective over who you date. I completely understand.”
Lando smiles at your words, leaning down to press your lips together in a lazy kiss–one that consists of your mouths just moving together in a gentle rhythm.
You spend the flight making out for about twenty minutes before you both fall asleep on each other–your positions are mildly uncomfortable but since you can feel the other’s breathing you don’t really care.
When you land at Heathrow Airport, you can feel a slight tension linger in the air. Lando’s nervous. It’s radiating off of him but to be honest you can’t blame him. His family is obviously most important to him, and their opinions of you mean a lot–so when you walk out of the arrivals section together and towards his awaiting parents, you can’t help but feel a little nervous too.
His mum is standing with a bright smile beside his dad, and you can hear Lando let out a soft chuckle from beside you before you reach them.
“Hi, sweetheart. I missed you!” His mum exclaims when she pulls him in for a tight hug.
“Hello, good to see you!” Adam says in the same tone to you before he pulls you in for a kind hug.
When you separate, you turn to Lando’s mum who’s already looking at you with a warm smile and bright eyes that look far too familiar.
“Wow you are beautiful, Y/n darling,” she compliments before bringing you in for a hug. You giggle shyly, accepting her motherly hug. “I’m so happy to finally meet you.”
“Me too, Mrs Norris.”
“None of that, please. Call me Cisca,” she beams when she holds you at arm’s length whilst her eyes scan over your features.
“Okay,” you smile with a nod before she chuckles, just as you feel a hand slide over your lower back.
“Right. Should we go?” Lando asks when you look up at him with a small smile.
“Yes, let’s go,” Cisca nods in agreement before you all start heading towards the exit.
The entire drive to their house, Cisca spends it talking with you. She asks you questions–not particularly in relation to Lando, but just with genuine interest. What you study at university, about your life, your family and friends, how you and Lando met even though he said he’d already told her the story (she said she wanted to hear it from you). You spent a lot of time laughing, and things only got easier the more you spoke.
Lando also felt the knot in his stomach release at the sight of you and his mother getting along, and even without hearing her say it he could tell that she’s happy with you. She likes you, and that makes him feel a whole lot better.
“Do you want to work in Formula One?” She asked at some point whilst talking about your degree. You shrugged, feeling a sudden hand on your thigh when you glanced up to find Lando looking down at his phone.
“I don’t know. In the beginning, I did, yeah. But now… I don’t think I could handle seeing Lando at work too,” you joked, his parents laughing whilst your lover snapped his head towards you with his jaw dropped.
“That’s so rude!”
“I’m obviously joking,” you retorted, still giggling when he pulled you into his side and wrapped his arms around you tightly. He then leaned down to kiss your cheek and you let him, smiling at the contact.
When you arrive at his parents’ house, you can’t help but gape at the house. There’s no other way to describe it other than ‘old money’, with flowering vines coating the stone walls and acres of land spanning around the manor. Even from just walking up the pebbled pathway, you can feel the warmth of their family lingering in the atmosphere.
Lando’s fingers graze your lower back when you reach the door. He steps aside, letting you walk in first before he follows after you as your eyes move around the foyer.
“Right. Lando you can leave your things up in your room and show Y/n around, I’ll call you both when dinner’s ready,” Cisca says as Lando’s hand trails further up your back before he gently squeezes your shoulder.
“Okay,” he nods before looking at you. “Let’s go,” he nods his head to the stairs as you follow after him. He takes both of your suitcases, picking them up effortlessly as you follow him up the stairs whilst looking at the pictures lining the wall. Photos of him and his siblings when they were young, some of him karting, some of his sister on horses. You can’t help but smile at the sight of baby Lando holding a trophy that’s almost half the size of him standing in front of his kart with a toothy grin on his face. His eyes are twinkling with excitement and your heart warms. “Oi. You coming?”
“You’re so cute, Lan. Look at you,” you giggle when you look up at where he’s waiting at the top of the stairs for you. He smiles shyly when you reach him, his arm wrapping around your waist.
“Don’t worry, there’s so many more. First, let me show you,” he begins as he walks you down the corridor. “This is my room,” he introduces, opening a door and letting you in.
There’s a king’s sized bed sitting in the middle, a dresser to the right against the wall whose surface is almost overflowing with trophies and medals with a shelf above it. You walk over to it, casting your gaze over the engravings at his achievements before you feel an arm around your waist from behind.
“Jesus,” you chuckle when he rests his chin on your shoulder, kissing the side of your neck.
“I was good, huh?”
“You still are,” you respond, twisting your head to look at him. He lets out a quiet sigh before groaning softly.
“I don’t know about that.”
You frown at his words, his brutal honesty and harshness towards himself hitting you somewhere deep in your chest. Your hand buries itself in his curls before you kiss his cheek, shaking your head.
“Don’t talk about my boyfriend like that,” you say sternly as you brush the tip of your nose against his cheek. He laughs at that, nodding in agreement.
“Fine. I won’t,” he responds quietly before spinning you around and pressing a kiss to your mouth. His fingers softly grip your chin as he pushes his tongue past your lips to lick into your mouth. As soon as you feel the oxygen leaving your lungs though, a knock sounds from the door.
You pull away abruptly, hands fisting Lando’s shirt when he looks over his shoulder at the door.
“Yeah?” Lando calls out when you let him go as the handle twists.
“Hey, stranger,” a female voice speaks when the door opens and you see a face from the photos you were looking at not too long ago.
“CJ,” Lando lets out with a smile when he walks over to his sister and brings her into a firm bear hug. She laughs a little when she returns her brother’s hug, squeezing each other for a few moments before he pulls away and turns to you. “CJ, this is my girlfriend, Y/n. Y/n, this is my little sister, Cisca. But we call her CJ ‘cause, you know, she’s junior.”
Cisca turns to you immediately with a beaming smile as you step closer to where they both are, just as she wraps her arms around you in a hug.
“So good to finally meet you. Just so you know, he never shuts up about you,” she says before you both pull away and you immediately look at Lando. He smiles at you sheepishly with a shrug.
“You’re really just telling everyone about me aren’t you?” You question before he wraps an arm around your shoulders and pulls you into his side.
“Yep.”
Both you and Cisca laugh at his casualness before Lando invites her into your room to talk. You follow Lando to the bed where he sits down, and you do the same before the three of you fall into an easy conversation. That’s something you’ve noticed about Lando and his family–they’re all incredibly easy to talk to. It makes everything feel so much lighter, removing a weight off your shoulders.
—
By the time you’re called down for dinner, you’ve met Lando’s other sister Flo. She’s just as nice as the other Norrises, and when you sit at the dinner table with them they don’t make you feel like an outsider at all. In fact, it’s almost like you’ve been here the whole time.
When you excuse yourself to use the bathroom, that’s when Cisca turns to Lando.
“I like her a lot,” she comments. “Your dad was right. You made a good choice.”
“Cheers, mum,” he smiles, feeling relieved at his mother’s approval. “I think she’s perfect,” he says a little softer, more-so to himself. His mum just beams at him before squeezing his shoulder lovingly.
“Have you told her you’re in love with her yet?”
He snaps his head to her, his lips twitching a little when he looks down and shakes his head.
“I don’t wanna scare her away. What if she doesn’t feel the same way?”
Cisca raises her brows at him, sitting up a little straighter in her seat.
“You think she doesn’t feel the same way?” She asks in disbelief. Lando just looks at her with a shrug. “Sweetheart, she’s just as in love with you as you are with her,” she chuckles.
“How do you know that?” Lando asks, his stomach feeling a little lighter when he brings his fingers up to brush over his mouth.
“Because I just do. Mums know everything,” Cisca replies with a smile when she leans over to press a firm kiss to her son’s cheek. Lando sighs, biting at his bottom lip in thought before the chair beside him scrapes back and he turns to see you sitting down.
“Hello,” he greets with a warm smile, his arm sliding over the back of your chair.
“Hello,” you return with a slight chuckle before he leans over to kiss your cheek. “What was that for?”
He smiles, shaking his head whilst looking at you.
“No reason,” he says softly. You nod, humming when you lean back in your chair and rest your head against his shoulder. “Should we go to bed?”
“If you want to,” you shrug when you look at him.
“Let’s go,” he nods.
You both say goodnight to his family before he takes your hand in his and leads you up the stairs to his room–only stopping briefly to look at old framed pictures of him.
“Can we shower together?” Lando asks when you reach his room, closing the door behind you.
“Of course,” you smile, though your expression falters when you see his face. “Are you okay?”
He looks up at you after he unbuttons your jeans and gently pushes them down by the waistband.
“Yeah, of course,” he nods, plastering a smile on his features but you still don’t believe him. He looks nervous but you don’t press him for answers. Instead, you let him kiss you dizzy and continue undressing you before you step into the shower. His body remains wrapped around yours from behind, his mouth sucking the skin of your collarbone and shoulder.
And then, you hear it.
“I love you.”
He says the words so softly, his voice fragile like he’s giving you the key to something he’s guarded with his life. He sounds vulnerable–almost like he’s standing on the edge of a cliff with you and trusts that you won’t let him fall.
You freeze for a moment, letting the words register in your mind. Your breath catches and your heart threatens to beat out of your chest–the silence that stretches between you feeling heavier by the second. You spin around in his arms then, looking at his terrified expression.
Lando feels like he can’t breathe either, waiting for your response.
“I love you,” you whisper back, the words genuine and coming straight from your heart.
Lando visibly relaxes, his eyes closing as he rests his forehead against yours and brings a hand up to cup your cheek.
“Thank fuck. That was terrifying.”
“Is that why you looked so nervous?” You ask with a quiet breath. When he opens his eyes he nods. “Why?” You smile.
“I don’t know. I was scared you didn’t feel the same way.”
You almost laugh, shaking your head before you kiss him again. “Y/n, I’ve been in love with you since Ibiza.”
At that, your expression morphs into one of pure love as you look up at him. Your arms slide around his shoulders when you pull him impossibly closer to you, connecting your mouths together again. The water from the shower continues hammering down over the two of you, but you don’t seem to care–both of you are too wrapped up in your confession to focus on anything else.
“You’re crazy.”
“Yeah, for you,” he replies without missing a beat, kissing you again and sucking all of the oxygen out of your lungs.
