Just don't talk--------
-you might say something that hurts.
p10 to Just don't talk
summary: Enemies to lovers on steroids. The PR teams strike again.
Y/N was unusually giddy while doing interviews on the grid that day. It was hard to be nervous when in the corner of her eye she saw Lando, in his usual glorious unbothered style, seemingly more confident than he'd been the past few weeks.
Smiles shared in secret, both of them being lifted up by enormous amount of butterflies. Yet they both tried their best to keep busy in order to push off their inevitable "what are we" talk.
She was more than sure what she wanted to be to him. But the thought of him not being willing to make the lead was a scary one - so let's just ignore it and keep thinking about his tongue on her neck.
And Lando? He was doing exactly the same. Both of them blissfully unaware that their crush has started to become impossible to hide.
//
"Y/N, what do you think about the car on this track? Will you be competetive enough for a podium?" was a simple and boring question that Y/N tried to answer in a creative way, but nothing was coming to her mind.
With a great smile, she replied: "Yeah, I have a pretty good feeling that things are turning out for good."
Lando was "not so accidentally" passing by at that exact moment, deliberately taking the rout where he would have to walk past her, because his body just wanted to be near her at any point possible.
His school boy instinct kicked in and in the same way as a five-year old boy would pull his crushes hair, he snatched Y/N team cap of her head gracefully in order to tease her.
"Hey!" she screamed in the middle of listening to another question from the interviewer and turned around, knowing well who that was, as she watched him approaching before. A small amused smile escaped her, it was impossible to stop it. Same for Lando.
"Oh, hello, Lando," the interviewer acknowledged him, hoping for some good viral content.
"Hey," was his speedy response, probably not ever trying to hide his own amusement.
Y/N tried to keep it cool and look at his lips. "Give it back, Lando."
Nope, she failed at keeping her smile in.
"You know where to pick it up, honey," he said simply, winked and said goodbye to the interviewer as he walked away. Y/N's stomach dropped at how obvious he was with his flirting in public and how impossible she found it to keep herself together. She took a moment before resuming, internally fuming. She was happy and mortified at the same time.
"Well," Y/N said as she turned back to her interview. "Where were we?"
And there it was - a fatal smile that would cost her in the future.
The interviewer was full on a mission to not let that go. "I see the mood has shifted between you two, has the previous feud passed now?"
"I guess you could say that, yes," she replied, slowly pulling herself back, heart still beating like after running a marathon.
"Do you guys spend time together off the track? Has that maybe helped?"
How the fuck was she supposed to answer that?
Not so confidently, she pulled out a cliché line in order to save her.
"We do our talking on the track."
It was technically not a lie - what they did in their spare time was definitely not limited to talking.
"I see," the interviewer said, not satisfied with her answer.
"I'd love to chat, but my team is calling," he pointed somewhere off camera, somewhere where there definitely was not someone from her team pointing at her.
She excused herself and strolled away, in the other way that Lando went, as quickly as possible.
Yes, she did. Oh god, it was becoming unbearable. How was he so infuriating? How can one manage to be so....ugh!!
The day passed by in a blur of meetings, interviews and fan meet and greets.
Since their "joint" interview was live though, it took only few hours for the first edits to appear on social media, hashtags getting created and the two of them going viral once again.
It was all a bit overwhelming, Y/N sat there and secretly watched every single edit she came by. There is one thing to fantasize secretly about your crush, another thing is when the whole seems to get on the same boat and romanticize the fuck out it.
Was it making the whole thing more awkward? Probably, but Lando's and Y/N minds were too busy thinking about each other in order to take in the point of view of others.
The whole grid became aware of the pair quickly becoming a meme.
Oscar limited himself to eye rolling only, as he was more than aware of what was going on.
Y/N was shocked to find Lando already sitting in with his and her team in one of the FIA's meeting rooms. The fact that this was happening outside of their team premise should have been a clear sign - they are being called into the same meeting. Nowhere to hide now.
Lando was sitting there, casually cramped up in a chair in an anatomically impossible position, legs twisted all around.
"Can't he not sit like a normal person for once?" was Y/N first thought.
The reason he sat like that was to prevent himself from foot tapping the whole building down. Acting cool and innocent, that was his strategy. He was sure they'll tell him to tone it down, not to bother Y/N publicly, he'll just nod at everything they say and then go finally cum all over her chest once again, just to prove to her that she is his.
Not a hard task.
He glanced at her innocently as she stepped in, doing a real bad job at hiding her shock. He rolled his eyes and smirked. This girl was so innocently cute.
His own comms team shot him a warning look, so he just proceeded to stare into the ground.
Y/n had very little time to get her strategy ready, cursing herself for not discussing this with Lando prior to this.
"Thank you both for coming on such a short notice," was how Lando's team opened the conversation with. You could cut the tension in the room with a butter knife.
"As you're both aware, we have tried several strategies in the past in order to get your image out in the best light as possible."
Y/N let out a laugh which she could not contain in, to which Lando shot her a surprised, horrified and slightly amused look. Unbelievable.
"Continue, please. I am listening," he said, just to spite her.
"Thank you. Please guys, let's keep this civil and adult," this time her team stepped in to put her down. Lando could not remember having this much fun.
"To continue what my colleague started to say, lots of several approaches which did not bring the ideal results. And with today's development, we feel like this is another time for us to step in. You're both faces of prestigious brands and the teams rely on you being likable characters. Am I right?"
Lando nodded, as if he was lying about understanding a new topic in a math lesson - maybe little too much. Y/N just bit her lip and remained silent.
This whole thing was so bizarre, like being caught for stealing a candy bar while having a stolen gold necklace in your pocket.
"What would you suggest?" Lando asked and Y/N doubted anyone in the room was fooled by his act and must have seen though him. He was obviously having the time of his life.
At this rate she would have a hole in her lower lip if she would keep biting it down this was.
"I'm glad you're asking, Lando, and hope you'll be able to cooperate."
"You can count on my sincere involvement in your strategy," he stated seriously and stared at Y/N comms team. His own team knew what was up with his attitude but decided not to call him out just yet.
Y/N glanced at the papers resembling a contact on the table. This is it, she thought, the no contact and no involvement agreement. They're going to stop them from talking to each other in public? Is that even allowed?
His's comms manager took a deep breath. "The numbers on all our socials have spiked up greatly since your interaction became of a positive nature. What we've seen today - that will make our sponsors more than happy."
Lando was quicker than Y/N to connect the dots. His mood changed drastically within seconds and he finally sat up straight.
"No. Not a chance," he burned his team with his hard stare.
"Lando, please, let us finish."
He was not having that. "I know what you're going to say and no, you can't just order us to do that."
"Nobody is ordering you to do anything. We're simply...Putting this on the table.
"Forget that, no way in hell am I ever going to agree with this," he said, pointing at the contracts lying on the table.
The room went silent for few seconds.
"I'm sorry, what are we talking about here?" asked Y/N, not really having the dots connected just yet.
Lando briefly forgot that she was in the room, suddenly regretting his quick dismissal. But he was not the one to be forced into anything like this.
Better him having it break to her then them, right?
This time he was the one to take a deep breath and while speaking to Y/N, he still stared at the comms teams. "They want us to start fake dating for PR." He was hoping he got it wrong. But the silence on the other side of the table just proved him right.
This came as a shock to her. Was this their masterplan? Did they really have to meddle all the fucking time?
"I...I didn't think these things actually happened in real world," she stated, honestly.
Why couldn't these two just get a minute to talk among themselves? Y/N's mind was once again stuck in a rut because of Lando Norris existing at the same time as she did. Million questions on her mind, but the biggest one - why was it such a hard and obvious no from him? He did not even consider it. This could have been an easy escape for them.
"What would that look like exactly?" she asked, wrapping her head around it.
She received smiles from the team, them being happy that she was seemingly somewhat on board. "Well, we would set a clear timeline with a deadline and a scheduled break up, set up a social media strategy, you'd accompany each other on social event and the PDA would be very clearly stated upon the mutual agreement between you and your lawyers. Involvement of other people around you would always be discussed prior and clear communication is key. We do not want to make anyone feel uncomfortable. Of course, an NDA is part of this agreement."
It was impossible to look at him just yet. Her head was spinning. She was on the verge of crying and had to somehow hold herself together in front of all those people. She had to get out fast, like fast fast.
She had her answer. He did not like her in the same way she liked him.
"Excuse me for a moment, I feel sick," she said and swiftly got up, nearly tripping over her own feet as she sprinted out.
part 11
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