#0463

"can i have one more hug?" "aw, babe you don't have to ask, c'mere..."

and

breaking down mid-hug because they just needed this so much.

for Lando/George?

Would love some touch starved George thrown in there pretty please!!

Thank you 🥹

At the beginning of the season, Lando would have thought he'd be the one in need of comfort.

But after two good races on the McLaren side and a couple of less good ones for George, Lando finds himself knocking at the other Brit's door after one too many unanswered calls.

They're on summer break now, both back in Monaco, and Lando had been expecting a couple of weeks of bliss with George. But after two days of one-word text responses and dropped calls, he's found himself more than worried about the state of his boyfriend.

Lando knocks on George's door, and he hears shuffling in the background.

"Georgie," Lando calls through the door. "It's me, baby."

A few moments later, George answers the door, hair messy and clothes wrinkled. He looks like he just got out of bed, which he may have, despite it being nearly noon.

George gives Lando a small smile, slightly forced, "Hey."

"Hey?" Lando pushes past George, heading into the man's apartment before he can shut the door.

"Is that not how people say hello?" George retorts, but it falls flat.

Lando spins, crossing his arms and giving George a look that clearly says, what the fuck is going on with you?

George sighs, running a hand through his hair. Without the gel, the strands have gone curly, and Lando wants to touch it, pull George close and just never let go.

So he does.

He drops his arms, reaching for George's hands and pulls his boyfriend into a hug.

George is tense at first, almost fighting the grip that Lando has on him. But Lando strokes his back softly, bringing a hand up to play with the strands of hair on George's neck, and the small ministrations are enough to have George relaxing into the embrace.

Lando presses a kiss to George's temple as the man tucks his head into the curve of Lando's neck.

They stand there like that, Lando trying to keep his breathing even and keep himself quiet, despite his urge to ask George what's going on.

Instead, he waits and then feels George's tears against his skin.

"Honey," Lando soothes, "What's going on?"

George stays quiet, arms wrapping tighter around Lando to hold him in place.

It takes everything in Lando to not ask George again, but he knows that George will tell him when he's ready, and not a second before. They've been friends for too long for him to not know how this all works.

And he's right because after a few more minutes, George untangles himself from Lando, bringing them face to face again. Well, sorta. Lando is always looking up at George. That's how it's always been.

"This season has just not been-" George cuts himself off, shakes his head. "It's not been good."

Lando doesn't really think that's true. It's more that Lewis is feeling okay with the car and he's giving George a better run for his money this season. That doesn't mean George is any worse.

But now is not the time to argue, so he nods and lets George continue.

"And you've been having a great season, which is amazing," George gives him a bit of a smile, because he's never been anything but supportive of Lando, "and I didn't want to bring you down."

"Bring me down?" Lando forgets he's just supposed to be listening. "When have you ever brought me down?"

George makes a frustrated noise in his throat, "Lando-"

"No." Lando huffs, "I will not let you ruin our summer break because you have decided that I am upset with you or don't want to hang out."

George bites his lip.

"If you asked me how I felt instead of assuming," he's being a bit of a brat but it's George, he'll understand, "you would know that all I want to do is spend time with my beautiful boyfriend, in this beautiful city. And that I don't care whether he's won every race this season or none of them."

George ducks his head, blushing slightly.

"Because, if I did care," Lando nudges George's foot with his own, "I'd have to be dating Max or god forbid, Checo."

They both wrinkle their faces in disgust at the same time and finally, George cracks, breaking into a fit of giggles.

"You're a brat," George smiles.

"You love it." Lando sticks his tongue out. "Now, go get dressed, we're going for brunch."

George hesitates, "Can I have one more hug?"

"Aw babe, you don't have to ask, c'mere."

after I went to sleep they also announced a kirby fan magazine! I am so very intrigued! if only I could read Japanese (not that it’ll be enough to stop me lol)

 Good evening to you, @butherlipsarenotmoving!

If you have walked into a museum recently- whether youdid so to attend an art exhibition in to escape from the police-you may havenoticed a type of painting known as a triptych. A triptych has three panels,with something different painted on each of the panels. For instance, my friendProfessor Reed made a trip-tych for me, and he painted fire on one panel, atypewriter on another, and the face of a beautiful, intelligent woman on thethird. The triptych is entitled What Happened to Beatrice and I cannot lookupon it without weeping.I am a writer, and not a painter, but if I were to tryand paint a triptych entitled The Baudelaire Orphans’ Miserable Experiences atPrufrock Prep, I would paint Mr. Remora on one panel, Mrs. Bass on another, anda box of staples on the third, and the results would make me so sad thatbetween the Beatrice triptych and the Baudelaire triptych I would scarcely stopweeping all day.[The Austere Academy, Chapter Four]

The arrangement of this triptych seems deliberately arcane so we can only presume of its symbolism. Several questions to consider:

Is this the fire which consumed the Baudelaire mansion? Or another place?

Is the typewriter meant to allude to Beatrice’s 200-pages break-up letter to Lemony, as mentioned in Chapter Two of “The Miserable Mill”? Or is this Lemony’s typewriter, with which he wrote the infamous review of Olaf’s play that caused so much trouble to their relationship and later his magnum opus about her children?

Is the woman Beatrice, her daughter Violet, or even Beatrice Jr (Lemony’s niece)?

Traditionally, triptychs were originally supposed to be read from left to right and from right to middle (with a bigger painting in the middle), and Brett Helquist seems to have followed this convention. According to the text, the box of staples is the third and final painting:

Vegas by Doja Cat

Love it when you be cryin' out when I'm corseted

Could've been what we should've been, but you lost a bet, now you gotta find me

NSFWish so it's below the cut 😉

Thanks <3

Really love what you’ve been writing recently!

"So, how is Lando feeling?" Carlos asks George as they walk into the paddock in Brazil.

"What do you mean?" George stops walking, and Carlos raises his eyebrows.

"He has food poisoning?"

"He- He what?" George reaches for his phone, opening his text conversation with his boyfriend who apparently has food poisoning.

"He told me that he wasn't going to be on track today because he's sick," Carlos fixes George with a look.

"Well, he bloody well didn't tell me!" George exclaims.

You're sick????? He texts Lando.

"Are you two not dating?" Carlos looks at George over his sunglasses.

"Well, I thought we were," George runs a hand through his hair exasperatedly.

He refreshes his text feed but gets nothing from Lando. Sure, Lando had been distant since they'd gotten to Brazil, George having his own room here as part of his new race mindset. When George had asked to hang out the night before, Lando had said he was busy and George hadn't heard from him since.

"Well, I'm going to let you sort this out," Carlos bites his lip, "But George, sometimes you have to ask twice, okay? He's not always forthcoming with this stuff."

And yeah, George knows that. It took Lando four dates before he realized that George actually did want to date him and that they weren't hanging out as friends. And it took George three goes of asking him to move in before Lando actually believed him.

He waves Carlos off and presses the call icon next to Lando's name.

"Hello?" Lando groans into the phone.

"You're sick?" George asks, but it's not a question.

"Oh, um, yeah." And Lando sounds so sad and sick that George wants to just forget all of this and go to him but he can't.

"Why did I have to find out from Carlos?" George sighs.

"I didn't want to bother you," Lando mumbles.

"Are you kidding me, Lando?"

"Sorry," Lando coughs and groans.

"I'm your boyfriend, you're supposed to tell me these things!" George paces, "I'm supposed to be there for you. And here I am finding out from another driver that you're sick."

"I'm sorry, George!" Lando pleads, "Really, I wasn't trying to tell Carlos either, he just came by my room while I was throwing up."

"So your plan was to suffer in your room, alone?"

Lando goes quiet on the other end. George pinches the bridge of his nose.

"Look George, I don't have the energy to argue with you about this," Lando sniffs, "Have a good press conference."

George pulls the phone away from his ear to see that Lando has hung up.

He finishes media and makes a beeline for Lando's hotel room, using the spare key Lando always gives him to get inside.

It's stuffy and hot in Lando's room but it's clear from the discarded water and Gatorade bottles and the half-empty sleeve of saltines that someone has been here trying to help Lando. Probably Jon, George thinks.

And Lando, his beautiful, insufferable Lando, is bundled under a million blankets, asleep on the hotel bed. George makes himself useful, cleaning up the discarded bottles and opening the windows a crack to let in some air.

Finally, he sits down on the edge of the bed. Beneath the layers, Lando looks so small. George always feels like Lando is small compared to him, but this is different. He looks so fragile and worn out like he's raced for 5 hours with no break. George had googled food poisoning symptoms on the ride over, and wouldn't be surprised if Lando's lost a few pounds throughout all of this.

He leans over to smooth Lando's sweaty curls and adjust the blankets and realizes that Lando is wearing one of George's old Williams hoodies. Something flutters in George's chest. He can't be mad at Lando for not telling him, not when he looks and feels like this but... he's still hurt.

Lando stirs slightly as George strokes his hair. "George?" He mumbles, eyes fluttering.

"I'm sorry, baby," George whispers, "I didn't mean to wake you."

"S'okay," Lando nuzzles against George's hand.

"Can I lay with you?" George asks, pressing the back of his hand against Lando's head where he's hot with fever.

Lando nods weakly, and George climbs into the bed next to Lando.

"You're burning up," George kisses the top of his head.

"I'm so cold," Lando sighs, voice catching. A few tears fall from his eyes.

"Oh sweetheart," George pulls the blankets up tighter around Lando and reaches over to wipe away the tears, "I'm sorry you're sick."

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you," Lando murmurs sleepily, leaning his full weight onto George and closing his eyes again.

"It's okay," George tucks him close, "It's all okay."

The next morning, against George's wishes, Lando's back in the paddock, ready to race for FP1 and qualifying.

He finds George in the Mercedes motorhome, pouring over some data with Lewis.

"Intruder alert!" Lewis jokes as Lando approaches, coffee in hand.

"Ha ha," Lando rolls his eyes.

George watches him carefully, taking in the dark circles under Lando's eyes and the way he's breathing shallowly like he's trying not to puke.

"Everything okay?" George stands, pressing a kiss to Lando's forehead.

Lando shrugs, "I made it through the first practice."

"Lando-"

"Hush, George." Lando gives him a small smile, "I brought you this."

He holds out the coffee to George who takes it, smiling when he realizes it's made exactly how he likes it. Lando is shifting back and forth, hands behind his back, looking up at George innocently.

"Consider it an "I'm sorry I didn't tell you I had food poisoning and you had to find out from my ex-teammate" apology coffee."

It's stupid and George wants to tell him that it's going to take more than a coffee to make it up to him, that they need to talk about this, that Lando can come to him with anything. But Lando is smiling so sweetly at him and he's gone out of his way while he's sick to try and make it up to George and well, George kinda loves him so...

"Apology accepted," George hums, pressing a kiss to Lando's lips, much to the chagrin of Lewis who yells, "Go makeout in the McLaren motorhome!" causing Lando to giggle against his lips.

Yeah... everything is going to be fine.

Oh. Uh... Hey... Hey there, Cal.