hihihihihi. everything u write about like, the landoscar dynamic (specifically top oscar/bottom lando) is literally puled DIRECTLY out of my mind like it makes so much sense to me you don't even know. but like i wanted to know ur opinion on oscar comforting lando. cos even tho oscar likes to win, like, there's something so satisfying to him about taking care of lando and stroking him and just. yeah. anyways!!
ok so first of all, i am very aware of how ridiculous this is, the timing especially. lando just came off a weekend that was objectively brutal, and here i am writing a thesis about the inner workings of his fictionalized relationship with his teammate. i know i’m practically making things up. But The Thing Is. it’s so fun to make things up. but most importantly, sometimes the ‘making up’ ends up landing closer to the truth than you expect.
lando is proud. he hates needing anyone. he’ll insist he wants to be left alone, but he goes rigid if oscar actually shifts away. oscar’s already learned the difference between when lando really wants space and when he’s bluffing.
that’s what sticks with me: oscar has figured out that lando craves touch more than he’ll ever admit, and he never forces him to name it. he just gives it.
oscar’s comfort shows up in all these tiny, practical ways too. he’ll put off dinner with his own family just because he knows lando needs to play padel and burn through the frustration. he remembers lando’s drink order when lando would never remember his. he’ll sit with him in silence for an hour because he knows lando hates being alone in the aftermath, even if lando won’t say it.
lando chews his thumb to bits and oscar just slides him something else to get his attention. when lando’s sulking into his phone, oscar leans over his shoulder like it’s his right. he bumps him with a shoulder when the mood’s too heavy, trips him lightly if he’s pacing. if lando sprawls across the whole couch, oscar still wedges himself in until they’re pressed together. sometimes lando hunches over, head in his hands, and oscar copies the exact pose next to him until lando ends up laughing at how stupid it looks. he never points out when lando leans on him, just lets him stay there as long as he wants.
lando hates stillness, so oscar gives him movement. he’ll walk with him, sit in the sim with him, play along when lando needs to fidget his way out of his head without making a big deal out of it.
what makes it stranger, almost perverse, is that oscar still has that leftover awe from when he was a kid and lando was already a name. he’s careful with it now, hides it in little gestures, but you can see it leak through sometimes in the way he looks at him. so when lando cracks, when he shows the side of himself that’s messy and human, oscar doesn’t see something humiliating. he thinks he’s lucky to be trusted with it, like it’s a privilege to be the one holding the pieces.
sometimes you get the sense oscar doesn’t just want to win, he wants to be the one lando loses to. there’s a kind of private satisfaction in that. it’s not cruelty, not exactly, more like the pleasure of breaking him just enough to be the one who fits the pieces back together. and the truth is, lando lets him. every time. the rivalry and the comfort blur until they’re almost the same thing. oscar’s win, lando’s loss, and the inevitability of where lando ends up. pressed against oscar and giving in.
also! thank you for saying you enjoy the way i write them. it means a lot. half the fun of this whole thing is just throwing my brain noise into words, but the other half is knowing it resonates with someone else. i really do love thinking about their dynamic in this oddly specific way and i’m glad u like being along for the ride.
