Work Text:
The darkness can be such a lonely place on your own
I’ll be your compass so you’ll never feel alone
Don’t wait for the world to be ready
Find what you’re looking for
Don’t Wait – Joey Graceffa
Vivian picked out Nico’s outfit. He was capable of doing that himself, and insisted upon it several times, but after he’d changed his mind for the fifth time, Vivian took over by force and did it for him.
“Since I’m no longer your wife, I suppose I can always be your mother,” she quipped, only slightly passive-aggressively. She had made a handful of similar comments since Nico had started sleeping upstairs; as much as it hurt, Nico was fairly sure she was allowed.
“No,” he finally responded. “Just the only one with any fashion sense.”
“You don’t think Lewis has fashion sense?” Vivian laughed.
“He does, just not for me.”
“That’s what happens when your soulmate’s a black guy,” Lewis laughed as he walked into the bedroom. “The door was open; I hope you don’t mind, I just let myself in.” Vivian smiled at him.
“Of course not,” she beckoned him closer and pecked him on the cheek. “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure he doesn’t embarrass you too much.” Vivian ruffled her hand through Nico’s hair, mussing his careful styling.
“Hey!” he whined, batting her hand away. “I can take care of myself, guys!”
“Whatever you say, Nico,” Vivian cooed, smacking a kiss to the top of Nico’s head. She danced out of the room laughing as Nico threw a shirt after her. Lewis leaned against the doorframe, laughing.
“Shut up,” Nico groused. He picked up a shirt at random and yanked it on, fingers flying over the front buttons.
“How are things going with Vivian?” Lewis asked. Nico sighed and shrugged.
“She’s on board with it, I guess. I think we’re working through it. The divorce application was hard.” He looked crestfallen as he stood and grabbed a Mercedes jacket out of the closet. His life was a sort of limbo; his stuff (and his daughter) still at Vivian’s apartment, even while he was sleeping at Lewis.’ It was being tough on all of them.
Lewis walked out of the doorway and stood in front of Nico. He straightened Nico’s collar and fixed his hair, and checked over his shoulder before kissing Nico quickly. “It’ll be fine, love. This’ll be good.”
Nico closed his eyes and rested his forehead against Lewis.’ “God, I hope so.” They stood for a moment and Nico felt his nerves calm. The insistent butterflies in his stomach finally settled.
Eventually Lewis pulled away and slapped Nico’s shoulder. “Let’s get this show on the road!” he laughed with a cocky grin. Nico smiled back and they left the room together.
Vivian kissed them both on the check in goodbye, lightly teasing Lewis about his own outfit choices. Nico felt like they were all teenagers again, and the loose and easy relationship the three of them had was the best note he could have left on.
The car ride was quiet, and the tension was starting to mount again with every mile they drove. Lewis was driving, and Nico regretted not having something to take his mind off it. He tried to focus on the city instead. The barriers and setups of the Monaco Grand Prix were almost all down, nearly every remnant of the weekend disappearing like it had never happened.
“You did your best, Nico,” Lewis said to break the silence. Not for the first time, Nico wondered if Lewis had suddenly gained the ability to read his mind.
“Yeah, I guess,” Nico said, unconvinced. “It was strange, actually. I did poorly, but I don’t feel like I did.” Nico shrugged. “It feels like I’m riding your high.”
“That sounds like a good thing, mate,” Lewis responded, looking at Nico out of the corner of his eye. He didn’t look convinced of his own statement, though, and Nico smiled at him in reassurance.
“I think it is. It will make living with you a lot easier after each weekend,” Nico joked, and Lewis barked a laugh.
“Yeah. It can’t hurt.”
The rest of the drive was in silence, and Nico fidgeted. It didn’t take them long to get to the hotel. Lewis let the valet park and they walked into the hotel together. The lobby was busy, and Nico tried to ignore everyone, hoping they would ignore him, too. They stepped into the elevator and Lewis hit the button for Mercedes’ floor. As soon as the doors closed, he looped one arm around Nico’s waist and pulled him close. Nico hummed appreciatively, letting himself relax against Lewis.
“You’re so possessive,” he mocked. Lewis smiled without looking at him, but tightened his grip in response. Then the elevator pinged, and the doors started to open. Nico shook of Lewis’ grip, took a deep breath, and they walked out together.
Toto was already waiting in the conference room with a handful of other Mercedes employees Nico recognized from the legal and PR departments. There was an ominous stack of papers on the conference table. Nico really hoped it was not what it looked like, because he was really not ready to wade through a stack of legal English.
“Good morning,” Toto offered, smiling. Lewis nodded, and Nico tried to put on a brave face. After so many years with him, Nico wasn’t sure it worked on Toto anymore.
“Shall we get started?” Toto asked, gesturing at the papers on the conference table.
“Sure,” Nico agreed, and everyone took a seat at the table.
It wasn’t as bad as Nico had thought it would be. The legal stuff only took a fraction of the time; Mercedes’ only concern was protecting the company. He and Lewis were asked to sign a document promising they would do everything in their personal power to remain as competitive as they had before becoming soulmates, in order to avoid the accusations of “playing favors” that came with nepotism. It didn’t seem to Nico to be very solid from an appearances standpoint, but the lawyers insisted it would protect the company from anyone who might sue it; why someone would sue Mercedes over that, Nico would never know. In any case, it only took about fifteen minutes to discuss it and sign the document; the rest of the legal war was up to the FIA.
The next forty-five minutes were consumed by the PR representative – Jessica something, Nico remembered. They bumped into each other every once in a while, when the team asked him and Lewis to do a PR event together. If memory served, she was responsible for making sure their relationship looked at least somewhat civil to the press.
She had a lot of thoughts on how to present their new relationship to the world, and Lewis didn’t like most of them. Nico wasn’t surprised; Lewis hated people telling him how to manage his personal appearance and social media – and, no offence to Jessica, but that was what she was trying to do, whether she realized it or not. So she and Lewis butted heads, and Nico was left in the middle to find a compromise.
After almost an hour of that, Toto mercifully let them go. A tentative agreement to film a short video that would be published on their various social media accounts had been worked out as the announcement medium. Neither Jessica nor Lewis seemed particularly thrilled about it, but Toto had put is foot down and no one was going to argue with him at that point. Lewis practically dragged Nico out of the room, so eager was he to finish the meeting. It felt just like old times.
Lewis was more than ready to get out of the damn conference room. It had taken all of fifteen minutes to sign the legal papers, even after Nico insisted on reading the entirety of the document – Lewis would never not admire his diligence to that; English was Lewis’ first language and he still couldn’t get through the legal-speak to save his life – but it had taken almost no time at all and that was great. Despite that, forty-five minutes later, the PR lady – Jessica, maybe? – still had them cornered, lecturing them about the press. Lewis was grateful Nico was there, because otherwise he never would have been able to sit through it all. He was grateful Toto had called it when he had.
“I guess we are meant to make the announcement now,” Nico observed as they burst out of the hotel lobby into the parking lot. Lewis huffed unhappily. He’d wanted to just take a couple selfies, write a brief blurb to accompany it, and leave it at that; Jessica had started out by insisting on a press conference. Nico was staring at him. “Do you know how you want to do it?”
“What, don’t you have an opinion?” Lewis asked. They were still standing in front of the hotel doors.
“You know more about this than I do; I figured I would follow your lead,” Nico shrugged. Lewis got the distinct impression Nico was intentionally letting him have his way.
“You have a twitter,” Lewis objected on principle, though he didn’t really disagree with Nico. Nico only laughed at him and looked out at the street. Lewis followed his gaze, catching sight of the waterfront across the park on the other side of the street. It gave him a sudden idea. “C’mon,” he said, grabbing Nico’s hand and dragging him across the street.
They wandered down from street-level to the paved park area off of Pointe Focinane. Lewis refused to let go of Nico’s hand as they followed the coastline, and Nico didn’t object. They still didn’t show many public displays of affection, but Lewis was hoping to change that. The park was mostly empty, anyway; it the middle of the morning on a Monday, and most people were at school or work. Lewis decided it was perfect.
“Let’s do it here,” he told Nico, who shrugged in agreement. Lewis pulled out his phone and switched to the camera, adjusting it to video. He paused and looked at Nico. “What do you want to say?”
Nico only shrugged. “Should we show them?” he asked, and Lewis knew he was talking about the soulmate marks. Most people, when they announced it, would take a picture with both marks visible – which had been Lewis’ original plan, but apparently that wasn’t good enough for them. He considered Nico’s question for a moment, and was surprised by how much he really hated the idea of Nico taking his shirt off in public and on camera, even though he knew they’d have to publish that sort of picture eventually.
He wanted to say no – he wanted to demand it, actually – but he only shrugged at Nico. “Your choice,” he muttered. Nico was watching him carefully, and Lewis would have loved to know what his expression looked like just then. He’d been aiming for neutral, but had never been able to look as completely emotionless as Nico could.
Nico eventually shrugged. “We will have to eventually. I guess we might as well do it now. I mean,” he added with a grin, “it wouldn’t be the first time I took my shirt off on a Monaco street.” Lewis snorted and rolled his eyes. He forced himself to swallow his envy and strip off his own Mercedes jacket to reveal a white and gray mottled t-shirt. His soulmate mark stood out brightly in the Monaco sunlight. Nico unzipped his jacket and unbuttoned his shirt, awkwardly pushing them open to reveal his own mark. Lewis reached out and brushed his hand over Nico’s ribs, over the mark, before pulling Nico against him. Nico laughed at him, shaking his head in mock irritation, but he pressed himself up against Lewis’ body tightly. Lewis looped his arm across Nico’s shoulders, careful to make sure his own mark was still visible next to Nico’s head.
“Ready?” Lewis asked, holding up his phone.
“Yeah,” Nico agreed breathlessly.
“Know what you’re going to say?”
Nico shook his head. “No clue,” he muttered with a wry smile. Lewis laughed, kissed his temple quickly, looked back at the phone, and clicked ‘record.’
“Hey everybody,” he grinned at the phone. “Nico and I are happy to announce that –“ he looked at Nico– “we’re soulmates!” He paused to let Nico chime in.
Nico took the que and added, “It’s been crazy since we found out, but we are excited to start this new part of our lives!”
“Thank you guys for all your support, it means so much to us” Lewis continued, looking back at the phone. “We’ll see you in Montreal!” He pressed the record button again to shut it off and lowered the phone so he and Nico could watch it. It was short, and slightly bland, but Lewis didn’t know what to add to it. That was all there was to say.
“Do you think it’s good?” Nico asked. He obviously did, because he’d started buttoning up his shirt again. Either that or he was getting shy, but that didn’t sound like Nico.
“It’s fine,” Lewis decided. He jumped over to the twitter app and quickly attached the video. He added the text “Surprise! <3” to it, and sent it out to the internet. “Alright,” he said to Nico, looking up. “I posted it.”
“You don’t waste any time,” Nico joked, pulling out his own phone, ostensibly to retweet it.
Lewis shrugged. “No reason to wait.” Nico sighed in response.
“No. I suppose there isn’t at this point.”
Lewis watched Nico carefully. “It’ll be fine, Nico,” Lewis insisted. They’d talked about it a lot, and Lewis knew Nico agreed this needed to happen, but he also knew Nico still wasn’t completely ready to face the ridicule the press was going to throw at them. “No one has any ground to stand on.”
Nico looked up at Lewis from his phone. “I know, Lewis.” He promised. “I love you.” He didn’t say that often, and Lewis cherished every time he did.
“I love you, too, Nico. Always.”