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Oscar is very quiet at first. That's the first thing Lando notices about him.
Not in a bad way. He'll talk with Lando just fine when prompted, but he doesn't really initiate conversation, doesn't say more than he needs to, always watching, always listening, never saying anything about whatever he stores away in his head as he observes the world around him.
Lando probably gives him far too much to observe with the way his minimal replies leave too much room for Lando to fill up silences with his prattling and antics.
Lando doesn't think too much of it, reckons Oscar is just a guy who prefers to watch people instead of engaging. He decides to give it time and hope Oscar will become as comfortable around him as he seems in his Prema videos with his old friends, volunteering more about himself with less prompting. He's probably just taking everything in, everything new, that's why he's always observing.
The first time Lando realises how much Oscar notices things is the first time they're on a plane together.
Lando hates flying.
You'd think he'd be used it by now, with all the travelling he does, but the same old anxiety sticks in his throat every time he gets on a plane, twisting in his stomach as he waits for the take-off.
He always hides it well, just holds his breath and tries not to grip the armrests too tightly when the airplane takes off or touches down, when he's sure nobody is looking he'll squeeze his eyes shut and clench down on his teeth.
Nobody had ever noticed before.
He doesn't think Oscar Piastri will notice either, but Oscar is scarily perceptive.
Lando is just busy trying very much not to be noticed, buckled very tightly into the seat across from Oscar, envying the relaxed posture of his rookie teammate in front of him, who's instincts are probably not screaming that he's about to die because Oscar got a sophisticated brain in the genetic roulette, unlike Lando's defective piece of shit.
Oscar is looking at his phone as they take off, but as soon as Lando's grip tightens on the armrests his eyes tip upwards to look at Lando.
Lando has no idea what made him look, but he doesn't have time to think about it because Oscar's eyebrows tick upward in subtle concern as he asks, "Are you alright, mate?"
Lando is trying to keep breathing and convince himself that his organs are not, in fact, sinking into his stomach and that the plane will not, in fact, come crashing down any second and that those bumps are just the air and that Lando is fine.
"Yeah, what do you mean?" Lando says, high pitched, tight, and several seconds too late, his voice sounding totally off even to his own ears.
In his defence nobody has ever asked him if he's fine while the plane is still going up, so he can't have known he would sound like that. Maybe Oscar didn't notice.
No such luck. Oscar's eyes flicker down to the tendons sticking out of his hands with how hard he grips the armrests, before he looks back at Lando's face.
Thankfully he decides not to push it. "Nothing."
Lando's not sure what his problem with flying is, why the downforce freaks him out so much if the lateral pressure of the G force in the car is fine and Lando has gotten on and off of enough planes to know that they don't just fall out of the sky during takeoff or landing on a regular basis, but here he is.
The plane evens out, the downwards force subsiding and Lando lets out a quiet, relieved breath. Oscar's eyes move just to the left of his phone, but he doesn't look right at Lando again.
Lando is just glad that Oscar lets it go and distracts himself from the situation by mucking about with the offline games he has downloaded to amuse himself on flights without wifi.
Oscar does get more talkative with time, it doesn’t even take long.
He quickly grows out of his unsurety and Lando likes to think he helped by bombarding Oscar with his company 24/7 and taking it upon himself to make everybody in the team love their new rookie as much as they'd liked his previous teammates.
Oscar lets him do it, lets him pry remarks and commentary out of him in front of the cameras and away from them as well until eventually he doesn't need to be prodded as much to talk, even if he will always be a bit quiet by nature.
Lando is perfectly fine with that, seeing as it gives him more room to talk.
But it wasn’t the quiet or the newness that made him perceptive. Oscar is still frighteningly observant even when he has less time for sitting quietly and watching beforehand.
Lando keeps noticing that.
He knows all the engineers and media team members by name in a month, even the ones he has never talked to. Lando notices him greeting five people by name as they say their hello's passing the pair of them in the garage, people even Lando doesn't know the name of and he’s been here forever.
He memorises Zak's schedule in two months, which Lando notices when Oscar tells him what weekly meeting he's in for the third time that week that Lando is looking for him.
He knows the grid dynamics three months in, gathers up all the gossip and mentally pieces together who is friends with who and what happened between who and all that.
When Lando calls him gossip girl, he just laughs, tilts his head and says, "Nah mate, I just listen."
And, well, that’s something that Lando stores away in that box he keeps for little things he finds attractive about people he shouldn’t be finding attractive. In his mind it’s labelled very clearly ‘do not open’.
Oscar notices that Lando is afraid of fish the second time he eats salmon at the engineering table. He does it again a few more times just to make fun of Lando before he stops, but the point is, he notices really fucking fast.
He knows Lando's birthday before anyone should have mentioned it to him, sometime in May, asking something inane before mentioning the exact date which Lando knows for a fact he didn’t tell him, unless he said it in passing. He looks up Oscar’s and puts it in his calendar just to be even.
And then all of a sudden, he knows Lando's favourite foods, the names of all his friends from home, his gym schedule, his niece's name.
He just knows everything.
Lando gets properly freaked out when they’re on a break in the hospitality, hanging around in the lounge and Oscar mentions he's going downstairs for a coffee, and he says, “Get me one too, will you?”
“Yep,” Oscar shoots before he disappears.
And then he comes back with a simple cappuccino for himself and a double foam latte with a pump of hazelnut, half a shot of milk extra and two and a half sugars.
"When the fuck did you memorise my coffee order?"
Oscar blanches as Lando screws up his face in confusion after he takes a glorious, perfect sip, because this has got to be some glitch in the matrix, Lando did not tell Oscar his coffee order word for word, that’s impossible.
"Sorry, I was going to get you a plain cappuccino, but you don't like those, so I just got you what you like..." Oscar says, guiltily.
"What?"
Oscar clears his throat. "Sorry, shouldn't have said that."
"Uh... Okay, no, this getting a bit creepy, mate..." Lando admits inspecting his drink critically now. "Why were you going to get me something else when you already knew my order?"
Oscar shrugs, looking a bit guilty. "So you wouldn't get freaked out about me knowing your coffee order."
"You do realise how this conversation is not freaking me out less, right?" Lando says, pained as he pokes a little at the impossibly delicious foam on top.
"Yeah, sorry, my sisters always tell me it's creepy."
"That you notice everything? Yeah, mate, a little."
"Yeah.” Oscar grimaces. “I accidentally memorised their periods once and that did not go over well..."
"Accidentally?"
"Ugh, I know, I just notice things, I'm sorry. I was trying to be nice and buy them chocolates, okay?”
“Right, and you just accidentally memorised those and just accidentally memorised the coffee order I have never told you in my life?”
Oscar groans. “I was with you a few weeks ago when we ordered coffees! I didn't go search it up on the dark web or anything."
"That was weeks ago! Do you have some kind of photographic memory?"
"No, I just remember important things," Oscar defends.
"Like my coffee order?"
Oscar just shrugs.
After a year of knowing him, Lando kind of gets used to it.
It's just one of Oscar's quirks like touching and talking are Lando's quirks. He supposes that since Oscar bears his chattering and his constant touching, Lando is pretty much obligated to make his peace with it.
He usually chalks up the knowing things to Lando having told him at some point, but every once in a while Oscar will do or say something that reminds Lando just how many things Oscar notices sometimes.
It's a bit annoying actually.
Like when Lando tries to surprise him for his birthday.
Oscar of course, because he's nice, pretends he didn't know that Lando was going to get him a signed shirt from his favourite cricket player, but Lando catches him out immediately.
"You knew!"
"Uh, yeah, sorry... I do love it though."
"How? I was so sneaky! I swear if you went sneaking through my banking messages, I will actually report you to the authorities."
"I wouldn't! There were context clues!"
"What context clues?"
"You asked me my favourite player."
"Months ago!"
"And you said something about my shirt size."
"One time! We were signing shirts! How is that a context clue?"
"You had your scheming face on."
"I do not have a scheming face, how could you know my scheming face?"
"Okay, no, that one you can't blame me for, you scheme a lot, mate. Everybody knows your scheming face."
Lando groans and throws his hands up in exasperation.
But the problem, really, is not just that Oscar is observant, it's that he's thoughtful.
He's thoughtful when they're seated next to each other on the plane and Oscar just offers him his hand.
"At least pretend you didn't notice," Lando grumbles, annoyed, because that's kind of really sweet of Oscar and that box in Lando’s head labelled ‘do not open’ is getting a bit full nowadays.
"Oh, okay, sorry," Oscar says and drops the offered hand.
"Well don't take it back now! Give it here!" Lando bites out, holding his hand out expectantly.
Oscar rolls his eyes and takes his hand.
Oscar holds his hand and tells him a story he overheard from someone the other day, like the gossip girl he is, and it works a little too well to distract him because they're up in the air before Lando even knows it.
Well fuck.
Another time, when Lando hasn't been home to London in a while with the travelling, he's just started groaning when Oscar's head pops out of his room in their shared hotel.
"D'you run out of tea?"
"Yeah."
"I told you so."
"Yes, alright, Oscar, you freak, did you calculate exactly how many cups of tea I drink a day and work out that I'd run out before I'm scheduled back?"
Oscar blinks.
"Oscar. Seriously."
"You drink three a day, every day, it wasn't hard."
"Can we go back to when you pretended you didn't know everything about me?"
"Oh okay, well, in that case I suppose you won't be wanting the extra pack I got you," Oscar says, half smirking as he leans against his doorway.
And that... Well, that's just ridiculously thoughtful of him in a way that makes something melt in Lando's chest.
Lando scowls at him for a moment before he huffs. "Give it here, you bastard."
Another time, Lando hasn’t even said anything to indicate he’s feeling down when Oscar just knocks on his door holding out a packet of his favourite sweets which is incredibly inconvenient for the state of Lando’s head.
"I know for a fact I did not tell you I like these,” Lando tells him as he grabs the packet.
"You eat them all the time,” Oscar says, sounding a bit too pleased with himself as he leans against the doorframe.
"I don't! I don't even eat sweets in season! You're Pavloving me or- or gaslighting me," Lando says even as he instinctively opens the package and shoves the sweets in his mouth because he needs those on a spiritual level right now.
"I don't think either of those apply here..."
"They do too!" Lando argues through a mouthful, wagging an index finger at Oscar. "You're manipulating me into believing you just casually know everything about me for normal reasons meanwhile you have some kind of pinboard full of red strings hidden somewhere where you're writing down everything about me!"
"I do not have a pinboard, mate..."
"And then you use your creepy evil Lando knowledge to manipulate me."
"Ah, yes, you got me, I'm using everything I know about you for evil. You know like buying you sweets you like when you're sad and giving you tea and distracting you from your fear of flying."
Lando's finger flags as something fluttery happens in his stomach. He says, a bit weaker, "Y-Yes. That."
"Uhuh."
"Oh, shut up, Oscar."
It’s all incredibly inconvenient to Lando personally.
How the fuck is he meant to be normal about this shit? Like who does that?
So Lando really can’t be blamed for how absolutely undignified he acts around Oscar sometimes because come on.
He’s given up on keeping that box of thoughts closed in his brain because they’re spilling out of it all over the place and Lando can barely control himself any time Oscar just gets him that ridiculously complex coffee when he’s tired or hands over his water bottle after a race when Lando licks the sweat on his lips or redirects a question in an interview Lando visibly doesn’t feel comfortable with.
Every time Oscar does something like that Lando can physically feel common sense leaving the chat and he doesn’t really know what his face is doing and it’s incredibly hard to form intelligent sentences.
And the problem is just that Oscar is fucking hot, okay?
Not even just when he’s being thoughtful, he’s just hot in general, with that floppy hair of his and those toned muscles and that tilt of his head and those fucking eyes of his, all soft one moment and sharp the next.
The thoughtfulness just gives Lando butterflies on top of the basic attraction and it’s all a complete mess and Lando can’t even stop himself.
He keeps writing this whole confession speech about it in his head, daydreaming about telling Oscar how thoughtful and sweet he is and telling him how it gives Lando butterflies and asking him if maybe Lando could be the thoughtful one for a change and take him on a date, but that’s stupid and Lando doesn’t say things like that because he’s not a thirteen year old with a crush.
But the whole mess of it is bound to spill over at some point, so it might as well be on a random Wednesday afternoon.
Oscar knows Lando likes hoodies, because he knows everything about Lando apparently, so of course he notices when Lando rubs at his arms, missing the feeling of fabric covering them.
Lando hadn’t brought one today and is now just slightly uncomfortable, missing the weight of a hoodie now as they’re hanging out in Oscar’s driver’s room, mostly because Lando hasn’t gotten his fill of nattering at someone today yet and Oscar is always happy to be nattered at.
Oscar has given up on trying to seem subtle with the noticing thing, which helps fuck all of course as he just holds out one of his hoodies and says, “Here.”
Lando cuts off in the middle of his sentence and oh god, yeah, there are those butterflies and that twisting in his heart, and really, what is he even supposed to say, except, “Jesus, Oscar, how am I supposed to be rational about this shit?”
Oscar’s forehead wrinkles up in confusion. “What?”
Lando makes a pained sound as he snatches that stupid hoodie before Oscar thinks about taking it back because he wants the hoodie obviously, he’d just prefer to have it without Oscar looking at all the goddamn feelings probably fucking up his face right now.
Lando makes an anguished sigh as he looks at the hoodie and at Oscar and back at that hoodie and he’s blushing and he can’t quite form a proper sentence but he can’t quite keep the words from spilling out either.
"Oh fucking— God— Look, Oscar, I'm just—" Lando trails off in a tortured whining kind of sound as he flops his arms down to his sides in defeat.
Oscar’s face smooths out and he doesn’t look confused anymore as he stands up and gently takes the hoodie out of his hands.
“Look, I’m— Um, I’m trying to say..."
Lando just needs to say it, get it out and over with and deal with whatever comes next afterwards.
Oscar gets that warm, soft smile on his face and Lando can barely handle it and it certainly doesn't improve his vocabulary right now.
"I— I—"
And then Lando cuts off completely as Oscar takes his face in both his hands, brain blanking out.
Oscar just looks at him for a second before he murmurs, "Yeah, I know."
And then before Lando even knows it he pulls him in by his waist and kisses him.
"You wha— Mm."
Lando's brain is spinning somewhere not even close to where it's meant to be, empty save for the feeling of Oscar's lips on his, that gentle, firm press, the way he takes a breath in through his nose before he opens his lips just a little and oh fuck that's good, why is he so good at that?
Lando is helpless but to kiss back.
Oscar has got this small smile against this lips and it's absolutely inconceivable how Lando knows that just because he can feel it.
He doesn't know when they even moved but Lando has one hand clutched in the front of Oscar's shirt, the other is sliding up the back of his neck and into that stupidly soft flop of hair that somehow always just lies right not matter what he does and oh, yes, that's what he wants.
Lando hums helplessly against his lips.
Oscar smiles a little more.
And then Lando's brain record scratches back into place.
"You knew!" Lando yells, pushing Oscar away a little by his chest. "You bastard."
Oscar laughs warmly, and comes right back, pulling Lando into him by his hips because of course he knows that's right where Lando wants him, Oscar knows everything.
"Yeah."
"You knew," Lando moans, slightly mortified, honestly.
"I'm sorry, I would have said something, but I wasn't completely sure, I didn't want to take the chance."
"I had a whole speech!"
Oscar at least has the decency to look a little pained. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please say your speech."
"No," Lando snaps moodily, smacking his stupid chest. "You've gone and ruined it with all your— Your perceptiveness, you muppet."
Oscar laughs and moans, "No, come on."
”Fuck it, it was stupid anyway. You know, you could do with a bell around your neck and a blindfold then maybe you'd know a normal amount of things about people. How did you know?"
Oscar blushes and gestures vaguely. "You know..."
"No! No, I do not know! How could you possibly know?"
"You do this— This thing," Oscar says with this ridiculously soft look on his face that makes Lando want to scream. "You always look down and blush a little when you get flustered."
Lando flushes and drops his head straight to Oscar's chest.
Oscar wraps his arms around him, probably because he knows Lando loves hugs or some shit.
"And you talk slower when we're alone, you listen more. And you blush. A lot."
"I do not," Lando argues, blushing.
"And whenever I say something even vaguely flirty you'll bite your lip and you'll just like, stutter. It’s so cute.”
"Shut up, Oscar."
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it's just— God, you don't know how long I've wanted to kiss you when you do that. I just— I know it’s your flustered face and—"
"Yes, yes, alright, I get it, you know, now kiss me, you freak."
Oscar does.