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LANDO loves his grid-mates, he really does, but sometimes he feels an urge to strangle some of them in the broad daylight, especially if they suggest partying right after a race.

It was Max's idea, to no one's surprise, to celebrate the start of the season with a visit to some sort of underground club in Bahrain; an afterparty-type of thing in honor of his win, and Lando and George's podium finishes. With that idea, a decent handful of drivers agreed to go—Logan, Lance, Charles, Lewis, and Alex, to name a few, and while George got away from the idea easily, Lando was dragged into it, since Max had slapped a hand on his shoulder and referred to him as his 'clubbing buddy,' which he couldn't help but cringe at, hoping that the nickname wouldn't stick.

So, against all his wishes, here he and Bianca were, watching an absurd amount of people get shit-faced, in the darkness of some random club, at a tiny little standing table meant for two. Oh, and it was 3 PM, had he mentioned that yet? It was 3 PM, and people were slamming shots down like it was midnight and his eyes genuinely hurt from rolling them so far back into his head.

He wanted to spend this time to ask Bianca how she was feeling, if she was okay after the race, but when she heard the idea of an afterparty she was too engrossed in the act of coming up with a good outfit to even spare Lando a minute that would allow him to check up on her.

This wasn't like her, and his suspicions on something being wrong were growing stronger by the second.

At their tiny table, Bianca had opted to drink a Shirley Temple, while Lando found himself slowly working on some random, fruit-filled drink he saw on the menu that was filled to the brim with beverages labelled with crazy names he couldn't pronounce. He was getting sick of the music for once, and he wanted out.

"You wanna get out of here?" Lando asks, shouting at the singer to get his words to translate over the booming tunes of the club.

Bianca shook her head. "Not really! It's kind of fun, unless you want to go back to the room?"

"Is that you flirting or you worrying about my wants and needs?" He asks, making a laugh escape from the blonde.

"Why not both?"

Lando shakes his head and takes a sip of his beverage. "I'm good with staying if you want to stay!" He appeases, one hand on the tall glass.

Bianca smiles at the response and sips on her red drink through the provided straw until all that's left is ice and a singular cherry resting at the bottom. She then removes the straw from the glass and raises the cup to her lips, shooting some ice into her mouth. She begins to chomp, and Lando can't help but laugh at the sight.

"It's hot in here!" She defends, ice crunching between her teeth.

Lando doesn't think twice before raising his eyebrows and shouting back, "Because you're here!"

Bianca nearly chokes on the ice as she giggles, the stupid little pick-up line (if you could even call it that) getting to her, and Lando almost forgets that she was crying not even a few hours ago.

Just almost.

It wasn't long before the two hear the sounds of Lance beckoning for the two to join them on the dance floor, with help from Charles and Max, who were gesturing for them to join as well.

Bianca looks to Lando. "You in?"

He shakes his head. "I'll join you all in a bit. Logan wanted to see me brush up on my DJ-ing skills, and I figured why not since he got P4."

Bianca pushes her drink forward next to Lando's on their little table. "Okay, I'll save you a spot on the dance floor," she winks before twirling around to join the other drivers.

"Make sure you don't trip over Charles!" He advises as she walks away, causing her to turn and listen before she fully envelopes herself in the crowd. "He can't keep up with the rhythm!"

He sees Bianca's nose scrunch up as she smiles, and he can already hear the sound of her laughter even though she was too far to actually hear it in his ears.

It's an interesting thing for Lando to think about every once in awhile. One time, he saw in his comment section some people debating how he feels about Bianca's closeness with Charles and the other drivers, but he could honestly care less. He and Bianca had gained so much trust in one another over the span of their little PR relationship that they had no reason to worry about the other finding someone else, and now that they were officially a real couple, he felt more confident in their relationship than ever.

He was hers. She was his. Plain and simple.

"Everybody, can we please get formerly-retired DJ Lando Norris to the stage!" An American voice calls out via microphone, and when Lando looks up to the DJ's deck, he sees a few people looking around for him—including one very drunk Logan Sargeant.

Lando sighs, and grabs his drink and Bianca's empty glass before making his way to the bar. He drops off the empty cup with a small "Thank you" passing his mouth, and begins to shuffle his way through the crowd of the club, feeling some people give him pats on the back or whatever since half of these people were out of their minds anyway.

When he gets up to the deck, he leaves his drink by the corner of the set-up, and Logan gives him a tap on the back. "You're actually the coolest ever," Logan says, a goofy smile on his face as he takes a sip of his drink.

Lando flashes him a small smile as he adjusts the headset on his ears. "You can thank me by not getting yourself into trouble while drunk."

"I'm not drunk, Mate!"

"Liar!" Lando shoots back, making Logan laugh as he takes another sip of his drink.

Lando gets to work mixing the beats and figuring out what song might go where, trying to piece together his memories of doing this sort of thing in his free-time.

Eventually, he gets the hang of it again, and he sees Bianca in the crowd dancing with Charles, Lance, Max, and Logan, and they're all laughing while Lance spins her around.

He smiles at the scene, and keeps working on creating harmony between the songs on the roster and keeping the crowd happy.

Lando feels good, really good, actually. He finds his old flow fast, and soon enough he's hooting and hollering with the crowd, shirt unbuttoned to his chest and hand pumping in the air as everyone dances.

It's going great, until he sees Bianca trying to navigate her way through the crowd while a man follows her.

He sees it, the stress in her face as her eyes find a table belonging to Lewis and Alex, who were sitting down talking rather than dancing.

Listen, Lando may not get jealous so easily when it comes to his girlfriend, but he already knew that the guy following her was trouble, so when he slips off the headset and hops off the deck, he tries to get to Bianca as fast as he can, his legs moving without thinking.

He collides shoulders with someone in the crowd hard, and he scrambles to apologize while he tries to keep Bianca in his eyesight.

"Sorry, I..." Lando holds his shoulder and takes a look at the man, and his face feels hot. it's sudden, as the dark club turns red when he can finally, fully identify the man in question.

"Lando!" Jackson greets, almost as if they had been good friends since childhood. "How you doing? Bianca treating you well?" He asks nonchalantly, ignoring the piping flames coming off of Lando's body.

It takes everything in him to not to punch him right then and there, in front of the crowd, in front of his girlfriend. Lando's ego may be high, but his self-control is a lot higher, and he'll be damned if he lets this excuse of a man be the one to make him break.

NOTES!

😁

xoxo, cas