Ok, so a few words. Thanks to anyone who read the first part and liked it, it means a lot. Special thanks to @no00000000, your comment made the dolphin in my brain swim all day. Enjoy the second part💜
A few hours later, Fernando lightly shook Lance. He was happy to see his teammate so relaxed in his sleep, but sleeping on the couch couldn't be comfortable. So he waited until the other made a sleepy murmur, then started.
"Ehi, Lancito, let's get you to bed"
As Lance started to steer, Nando couldn't help but smile. He could do this, be there and stay there and not ruin whatever was going on between them.
They stood up, and slowly went towards the bedroom. After Nando deposited his precious cargo on the spacious bed, he started moving towards the door, but a hand quickly caught his wrist.
"Please don't go away, don't leave me, Nano"
It was the first time Lance called him with that particular nickname, and a lovely warmth spread all over his body.
"I'm not going anywhere. Just getting some water, then we sleep"
Reassured, Lance seemed to fall asleep in a matter of seconds.
Nando returned to the other room, picked up their glasses and refilled them. In his mind images of Lance were flashing, righteous anger and boiling frustration and tired discomfort.
When the younger man told him about his impromptu nap in the tub, Nando felt his heart stop and suddenly restart twice as fast. He couldn't bear the idea of Lance so lonely and so tired and so hurt.
When he opened the door, puffy red eyes and wobbly knees, that was the moment Nando decided that, whatever his feelings towards the Canadian were, he would always be there to support and help him, in any capacity Lance allowed him to.
As he made his way to the bedroom, a sentence Lance said started bothering him. What had Lance meant when he said he was a danger to others? Nando hadn't heard about any accidents, even if the race conditions were almost inhuman.
It was the reason why he went to Lance in the first place.
He was just hopping off the car and pulling off the helmet and the balaclava, when he heard two engineers talking about how Lance passed out on track and how he had to go to the medical centre for further treatment.
So, after attending to his media duty and taking a quick cold shower, he basically ran to make sure Lance was ok.
If he paid attention for 2 more minutes, he would have heard them talking about the alleged push, but he was much too preoccupied, so he was left to find out about it when, returning to the bed, he decided to glance at his social media to see the news.
The terrible angle and the people in front of the lens of the camera covered the scene, but with whatever really happened up to speculation, it wasn't much longer that everyone on the bird app and their mothers were pointing at Lance as a menace, a disgrace, a spoiled rude brat and a worthless driver.
Fernando could feel the anger boiling in his veins. He was sure whatever happened was an accident, tainted by anger and frustration. And don't let him get started about the interview. What else could Lance have said, other than "I don't know"s and "I'll try my best"s? The journalistic side of the circus really wanted monkeys rather than real people with real emotions. Fernando could now understand his reactions better. He himself would have had trouble containing his anger.
Disgusted by all the hate Lance was receiving, he turned off his phone before he threw it against the nearest wall. Fuck other people and what they thought, they didn't know shit.
He turned to his left, frown still evident on his face, but it suddenly disappeared, replaced by a soft smile at one of the best scene he'd ever seen: Lance was on his back, limbs spread wide and face relaxed, not a single hint of his troubled emotions. Amor sleeping and Psique adoring.
Now, Fernando was even more determined to be there for him.
It's not in a friendly way you want to be there, whispered a voice in his mind. He unwillingly had to agree, his feelings were rapidly growing more intense and veering from platonic to ... something else. But this wasn't the right moment. This was about Lance and supporting him.
With that last thought in his mind, and the image of Lance's long eyelashes resting on his cheeks behind his eyelids, Fernando fell asleep.
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