prove them all wrong, it's a lot of fun

Martijn had insisted on walking him home, like a gentleman. His hotel was only a few blocks from Lando's apartment, so it wasn't like he had much farther to go. Still . . . Lando wasn't eager to end the night so soon. He didn't want to say goodbye, even temporarily. Now that he'd had a glimpse of what spending time with Martijn was like, he almost couldn't bear the thought of bringing this night to an end.

The two of them stood facing each other, close enough to touch. The concept of personal space had shrunk smaller and smaller throughout the night, as they'd grown more comfortable with each other. At this point, the only way they could get any closer was to actually kiss.

And Lando would be lying if he hadn't been thinking about that for a long time now.

He wondered if Martijn's lips were as soft as they looked. He wondered if he liked deep, passionate kisses, or if he liked them to be more tender. He wondered if he liked to be pressed up against the wall, or hugged to someone's chest, or maybe even pushed down onto a bed -

Okay, Lando needed to stop this train of thought before he accidentally acted on it. This was their first date, it was way too soon to be thinking about things like that. Right? They had great chemistry, sure, but jumping into bed so fast would be a mistake, right?

It didn't help that Martijn seemed to be just as reluctant to end the date as Lando. His hand, which had been curled around Lando's for the whole walk, lifted like he was thinking about placing a kiss on Lando's fingers, like the romantic, perfect gentleman he was. "I had a lot of fun with you tonight," he said softly. "I'd love to take you out again, soon."

"Yeah, definitely," Lando agreed. "How much longer will you be in town for?"

Martijn winced. "Only a couple more days. I'm supposed to go back to the studio before my next show."

Right. And Lando had a race in two weeks. Their window to spend time together, at least in the immediate future, was very small. "Well, maybe we can plan something soon. Or if we can't, maybe you can take me on a date in Amsterdam sometime. I'd love to see more of the city."

Martijn smiled at him. "Absolutely, liefje."

They lapsed into brief silence, both of them blushing as their eyes met. Their date was done, they both knew they didn't need to linger. But . . .

Lando thought he was dreaming when he saw Martijn's eyes flicker down to his lips. Was Martijn thinking about the same things he was?

Tonight had been one of the best nights Lando had ever had. He felt like there were two paths before him: one where he sent Martijn home and called it a night here, and one where he took a leap and found out where this went.

He knew what he wanted to choose.

"Can I kiss you?" he asked, his voice so soft it was a whisper. Like he was afraid to shatter the moment if he spoke to loud.

Martijn's hand reached up to cup his cheek, his eyes bright like he'd been secretly hoping for this. "Yes, you can, lief."

The first touch of their lips was light, almost tentative. But it didn't take long for it to deepen into more. One led to another, then another, and another. Lando's back hit the door, and Martijn's hands curled around the back of his neck to deepen the kiss. It turned out, Martijn's lips were just as soft as Lando had imagined.

I can't believe I almost missed this, he thought.

When they finally parted for air, they both looked at each other, flushed and breathless. Lando reached a hand up to brush a tuft of hair off of Martijn's face, his heart swelling as Martijn made a soft noise and leaned closer to his touch.

He figured that if he'd reached this far, he could be a little more brave. "Do you want to come inside for a bit?" he offered. "Just . . . just to spend a bit more time together, yeah? You can stay as long as you want."

Martijn looked at him and smiled, and it was the warmest Lando had felt all day. "I'd love to, schat. I'd love to."

More than once, Martijn had gone to do laundry and found random things in Lando's pockets. A funky piece of bark from a tree on their favorite walk, a snack wrapper with a different design, a piece of polished sea glass from the nearby beach. He'd also found things like a cap from Max F., a lanyard that he was pretty sure had been swiped from Oscar, and even two entire shirts from Carlos. Lando collected things, and they always had meaning to him. Especially when that meaning related to the ones he loved.

"Lando, what on earth is this?" Martijn asked one day, walking out to the living room with a rock in his hand. He'd found it in the pocket of Lando's jeans before throwing them in the wash. It had a crust of dirt on it, and was small and misshapen. It was definitely less pretty or eye-catching than some of Lando's other acquired trinkets.

Lando, though, perked up immediately. "Oh! I meant to clean that off when I got home. Come on, look at it!" He plucked the stone from Martijn's hand and fluttered to the kitchen to run it under water. "I know it doesn't look like much now, but I saw it glint in the sunlight, and look!"

It sure was glittering, now that Lando was cleaning it up. It still looked like just a plain, lumpy black rock though. A pretty shade of black, sure, but nothing very remarkable.

Martijn smiled appreciatively anyway. If it was important to Lando, then it was important to him. "It's lovely, lief," he said.

The next thing he knew, Lando was depositing it in his hand. "I want you to have it."

"What?" Martijn asked. "Why?"

"Because . . . well," Lando stammered, blushing. His wings fluffed up in the way they did when he was feeling particularly deeply in love with Martijn. "Because it reminds me of you."

Martijn blinked in surprise. "Really? How so?"

Lando pointed eagerly. "Well, look, it's like, really shiny black, right?" he said. "That immediately reminded me of your wings. But the reason I picked it up was because I saw this little glint of color, here."

He flipped over the rock, and there, Martijn saw that it had been cleaved open, and inside of it were glittering blotches of every color he could name. Roses, gold, waterfalls, sapphires, summer leaves and violet skies, all rolled together.

"Y'know how, like, when you mix pigments together, black is what you get when you mix all colors?" Lando said. "That's how I think of your wings. You have so much brightness in you, you're like a rainbow even on the dreariest days, and in a way, your wings reflect that. 'Cause if you think about it, they're all colors all at once. Does, uh, does that make any sen -"

Martijn pulled him close to hug him, spreading his wings around him and grinning as Lando laughed. It was the most beautiful thing he'd ever heard.