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The year 2026 was beginning, and with it a new season was starting. Lando gazed at the blue sky from his airplane window as they flew towards Australia; the first race of the year would soon begin.
World champion.
He now had that title to uphold.
Last year had been his year, marking his name in history as yet another omega to win his first title.
But lately, it wasn't even the worry of defending that title that kept him awake at night. It was a certain pair of brown eyes.
Oscar.
Lando still remembered his debut season when he learned that another alpha would be his teammate—not that he didn't like them. Carlos was his best friend and platonic crush, Daniel had been his confidant for a long time.
So he was already prepared for Oscar.
But his shock came when Oscar arrived, and he was nothing like Lando expected.
He was quiet, gentle, without a scent marking his territory, without growls, without a commanding presence, and without hovering over Oscar as if he were fragile. Oscar listened attentively, had a dry sense of humor, but not critical like the other alphas; it was more ironic.
The only thing that made Lando certain he was an alpha was the mess his motorhome was in.
Lando's omega sometimes wanted to go in there and tidy everything up.
And to Lando's greatest surprise, Oscar was simply perfect in every way, even when he exploded at Lando himself, as they did last season when the two were competing for the championship. Oscar always made sure to make it clear to Lando after things calmed down that everything that happened between them on the track stayed on the track.
Lando doesn't know exactly when he fell in love with Oscar, but at some point the parties no longer had the same charm; the alphas who passed through his bed no longer had the right scent. No matter how handsome they were, they didn't have the right look. — Lando — a voice calls.
He turns and sees his media agent calling.
— Hmmm… — he mutters to Oliver.
— We've arrived — he nods and stands up.
Australia.
Lando wasn't nervous about Australia because of the start of the season, he was nervous because of a certain Australian.
They got off the plane. Lando got into the car that would take him to his accommodation, a house further away from the city center.
They usually stayed in hotels, but when one of the drivers was at their home race, McLaren liked to give them temporary houses to make the most of the situation.
Lando loved these houses even more when he shared one with Oscar.
When he gets out of the car he notices they are in an upscale neighborhood with large mansions, and the one in front of him is enormous, in a neutral tone with large dark windows.
Lando enters, observing the place. There's a large entrance hall leading to a room with a television. He notices that his door to the right leads to a dining room, which consequently has a kitchen. His door to the left leads to the second floor, where there's a corridor of doors.
Lando opens the first door, seeing a dark-toned bedroom with windows overlooking the enormous swimming pool in the garden.
Perhaps he could take a dip later.
He begins to unpack his things without much effort; unlike Oscar, whose schedule is full today, he's free even on media days.
•••
The days had passed quickly; it was race day, and they were doing their last interviews together.
That day they had woken up together, had coffee together—one that Oscar had prepared, and Lando always blushed when the alpha offered it so subtly, as if it were nothing special.
It was almost a routine.
God, Lando would love it if it were his omega, he purred just thinking about his alpha making coffee for him every morning.
His alpha. No, Lando corrects himself in his head; he's not his alpha.
"So, Lando, Australia is a country you've visited several times. Can you tell us your favorite thing about it?" the reporter asks.
"Hmm," Lando pretends to think, "My teammate."
The omega says, pointing to the alpha who was a little behind him.
Everyone in the room laughs a lot, but it's when he hears Oscar's laugh, that truly loud and beautiful laugh, that Lando is sure he's in deep trouble, really deep trouble.
As they are being taken away to prepare for the race, Oliver is with him when Lando breaks down.
"I'm in love with Oscar," Lando says, feeling his omega freak out at finally saying it out loud.
"Yeah, tell me something new," Oliver says as he hands Lando his running clothes.
"Excuse me," the omega says, offended. "I'm having a moment here; I hadn't admitted this to myself out loud yet."
"Only for you, because everyone except Oscar probably knows you've been in love with him since you spent the first week with him," Oliver says as if it were obvious.
Lando lets out a groan so loud he's sure someone outside heard.
"Great, just when the alpha doesn't realize I'm in love with him," Lando murmurs as Oliver tries to put Lando into his running clothes.
"It's not exactly his fault. You've never shown interest in any alpha, never wanted to be courted, and besides, you're sociable with everyone. Nobody wants to offend you by confusing a compliment with flirting," Oliver explains.
"Great," Lando grumbles. "And what do I do to get Oscar to notice that I want him as an alpha?"
"I don't know," the beta says.
"How can you not know? I pay you to help me solve my problems," Lando says with a pout.
"You pay me to be your social media manager, to take care of your image with the media, and besides, I already do more than that," the beta then looks at the omega. "And speaking of which, I want a raise."
"You can get your raise after you help me with Oscar," the omega says.
"I don't know, Lan. I've never tried to win over an alpha. A search on Reddit should help you," Oliver says.
"Seriously?" Lando raises an eyebrow.
"It won't hurt," Oliver sighs, shrugging. Lando picks up his phone and anonymously types his story. His phone starts beeping, bringing up numerous responses, but Lando finds the letters meaningless until one catches his attention: a user has made a list of topics he could try to attract his alpha's attention.
"I can try that," Lando thinks, but then all that is put aside when he's called outside because it's time to take a stand.
•••
The race was a disaster, to say the least. Lando was exhausted, and all he had managed was a P5, but it was still better than Oscar's result, who had to abandon the race on the formation lap.
God, he can't imagine how the alpha's mood must have been after abandoning his race at home. Oscar was so excited for this race; everyone knew how much he wanted a podium in Australia.
Lando arrived home first; he had been released almost immediately after the race, while Oscar still had some commitments.
He went to his room, took a quick shower, then went down to the kitchen. He had a plan.
One of the Reddit threads had been cooking a meal for your alpha; it was a good way to show interest and let him know you cared about him as more than just a friend.
And nothing better than a homemade meal after a race like that.
Right, Lando thought.
He had decided to make spaghetti carbonara for dinner.
It was simple.
Cooking the pasta, frying the bacon, and preparing the sauce. He could do it, and Oscar would be proud of him.
Okay, first step he needed pasta and the other ingredients. Lando went to the small pantry in the kitchen and, with a smile, grabbed everything he needed. After that, he took a pot, opened the pasta package, and put it inside. Then he turned to the stove.
Okay, how did this work?
Lando looked at the flat black plate with circles and a row of buttons.
Lando looked at the buttons, trying to recognize something, but nothing seemed familiar. He sighed and picked up his cell phone; he wasn't going to be defeated by a simple stove.
Then he searched how to turn it on. Apparently, it was an induction stove, so you needed to turn it on, select the burner you were going to use, and then set the temperature.
Lando did as the woman in the video showed and waited a few minutes until the water started to heat up.
He smiled victoriously. Take that, stove.
Then he grabbed the bacon. Hmm, he needed to chop it into small pieces. They couldn't have already bought pre-cut bacon, Lando thought as he grabbed a knife, but it wasn't right to cut it directly on the counter. He looked around a bit, remembering that Oscar always used a cutting board to chop things.
He started with small cuts, not quite sure what thickness he should cut them. His mother was great in the kitchen, an omega in every sense, but she never raised her children in the same mold, always making it clear that they should be whatever they wanted to be.
When he finished, he took a frying pan, put in some oil, and started frying.
He then mixed in the egg yolks, cheese, and pepper, and looked at everything with a proud smile.
Now all he had to do was wait and assemble the dish.
Perfect.
His cell phone then rang, and he saw a message from Max, his friend, asking about the race.
He started replying to one message, then two, then three, then four. Lando had already sat down at the kitchen counter when suddenly the smell of burning filled the place. Lando jumped onto the counter, watching the smoke rise from the bacon to the fire extinguisher, which he immediately activated, spraying water all over the kitchen as he ran to grab the pan and throw it in the sink. But as if the disaster wasn't enough, the pasta began to overflow from the pan because it was already boiled.
— Shit — Lando cursed, dropping the pan of bacon mid-way and knocking it to the floor, scattering all the meat.
— Lando, what's going on here? — a voice said, and the omega turned around to see Oscar enter the kitchen and run to a small part of the wall, turning off the fire alarm while he tried to turn off the stove.
— Oscar — he said, turning to the alpha who stared at him — What are you doing here…
— I live here, you forgot — he said, raising an eyebrow — But the real question is what are you trying to do?
Lando bit his cheek, embarrassed.
— I wanted to make dinner — he said somewhat quietly — I… you had a bad day, I thought dinner might cheer you up.
— You wanted to make dinner for me? — he repeated…
Lando just nodded, smelling his bitter scent.
What Lando hadn't expected was Oscar bursting into laughter as if he'd been holding it in for a long time.
"Ha, Lando, that's so adorable," Oscar says, making Lando's cheeks flush.
"But I messed everything up," Lando grumbles.
"It can be fixed," the alpha says. "Why don't you go take a shower and clean yourself up while I tidy up here?"
"But I wanted to do it for you, to cheer you up," Lando says.
"You already cheered me up, I didn't expect to laugh so much today," Oscar says.
Lando blushes even more and nods quickly, going upstairs to his room.
After a nice hot shower, Lando comes downstairs and sees dinner laid out in the living room: spaghetti carbonara along with what appears to be grape juice.
"I thought about wine, but I don't think that's the best idea," Oscar says, and Lando frowns, wondering what he meant by that.
— You made the carbonara — Lando says.
— We did — Oscar says, starting to serve a plate — Your pasta was great, although it was a bit too much, the sauce was good too, so I just fried some bacon again and prepared the dish.
He then hands the plate to Lando and starts to serve another for himself.
— Thank you, Oscar — Lando says.
They dined together, side by side, with casual conversation; perhaps for Lando the plan had gone wrong, but for Oscar it couldn't have turned out better.
•••
Okay, dinner might not have gone well, but that didn't mean Lando was giving up; he was going to have Oscar Piastri.
So he decided to follow a second strategy he saw on Reddit.
Make his scent irresistible, make the alpha have to notice him.
He then bought a perfume, eucalyptus and mint.
He sprayed it on his neck and wrists, then applied it over his jacket, and then left; they had an interview soon.
When he passed some employees, he saw them sniffing and then looking in his direction, and then Lando smiled; it was working.
People were looking at him, so Oscar would look too.
When he reached where the team was, everyone looked at him, and then Oscar's engineer looked at him and then at the alpha, then gave a small laugh and left.
Then Oscar turned to face him, but it wasn't what Lando expected. Oscar had a furrowed brow, looking as if he had grown a third head.
"What's wrong?" — Lando questions Oscar as he approaches, sniffing him, but not in the way an omega would like. It seems more like Oscar wants to rip Lando's clothes off, but not in a good way.
— What did you do? — Oscar asks.
— Why? — Lando asks.
— It's wrong — Oscar says — You smell like orange, it's vibrant, and vanilla gives a sweet touch that suits you. This scent is cold, distant, and wrong; it doesn't suit you.
— I just tested a new perfume — Lando says, not understanding Oscar's reaction.
— Throw it away, it doesn't suit you — Oscar says, circling Lando.
Then Lando smells Oscar's cedar scent with a touch of amber that seems to surround him like a cloud.
— Oscar? — Lando calls, confused.
— You can smell it, but my scent will wash it away from you — Oscar says naturally.
— Okay — is all Lando manages to say while blushing violently.
— Boys, are you ready? — the McLaren manager comes to call them.
— Yes — Lando says and runs off faster than the McLaren car this season.
After Lando leaves, the manager looks up at Oscar with a smirk.
— Did Lando happen to notice that you marked him with your scent?
— No — Oscar says, shrugging.
— Gods, you're a possessive bastard.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Oscar says, following the same direction his omega had gone minutes before.