FOREVERLANDO

lmao this has been in my drafts for months sorry!

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Arianna Barrichello grew up in and around the formula one paddock. A personal tutor allowed for her to travel the world with her father as he raced at spectacular circuits against some of the fastest men to ever grace the planet. As a kid, she could often feel a little lonely at times, especially since her and her little brother, Eduardo, squabbled since the moment he could talk. She found solace in a young boy slightly older than her - Max Verstappen. He knew what she was going through since he would often attend his father's races, too.

Arianna found the young Dutch boy rather funny. He was always finding new ways to make his new-found best friend laugh. This included, but was not limited to, wearing clothes on the wrong body parts, spontaneous water fights, and pranking their fathers. The last one wasn't appreciated by Jos or Rubens, however Arianna thought it was the funniest thing in the world.

The pair were so close that as they got older, they would join each other on family holidays. Arianna was considered as much a part of the Verstappen clan as she was her own, and Max was basically a Barrichello with the amount of time he spent with Arianna. Even after Jos left the sport, Max would join Arianna at her father's races to continue their mischievous antics. It was rare to see them apart - ever.

Arianna knew from a young age that she wanted to be a part of the motorsport community but didn't think that driving was for her. Although her father encouraged her to pursue her karting with Max and recognised a talent in both of them, she lacked the passion. Instead, Arianna went down the designing route. Her knowledge of the formula one car tied with refined understandings of aerodynamics landed her an apprenticeship with Mercedes for the 2017 at just seventeen years old. By then, Max was already making a name for himself in the sport as an up-and-coming talent. He wasn't overly pleased that his best friend was with Mercedes, however was proud and supported her nonetheless.

It was around the same time that Arianna and Max grew a little closer than best friends. It was a foreign experience for both of them. The moment their exploring of new emotions started to strain the bond they had had since young children, they decided to just remain as friends. Not many people knew of the relationship because they acted how they normally would with each other around the paddock. A few pictures circulated of them kissing on a balcony but they were forgotten in time.

During the 2019 season, Max started dedicating a lot of his time to a young McLaren driver. As a result, Arianna found herself hanging out with them, but only if Max's girlfriend, Dilara, was unavailable.

At first, Lando barely spoke around Arianna. He would never think to admit to her that she made him nervous. She was smart, beautiful, and had what he considered to be the cutest accent ever. Arianna grew up around the world, however adopted a hybrid accent of Portuguese and Italian because of her heritage. She eventually started to make an effort to talk to the cute British boy who blushed every time she would smile at him.

It was actually Max who forced the two together, quite literally. Both Arianna and Lando were either too stubborn or too shy to ever admit their feelings for each other so Max took matters into his own hands. He texted both of them saying that he wanted to meet with them in his trailer, not telling them about the other. When they both showed up, he locked them in using his only key until they 'admitted that [they] love each other!'

If it wasn't for Max, Arianna and Lando might not have shared their first kiss until much later on, if at all. Once the initial move was made, there was no stopping the new couple. To Arianna, she had found the man of her dreams. Her father was quick to approve of Lando mostly because of his job, however that doesn't mean that he didn't mess around with the young Brit first. Lando still finds Rubens a little bit scary to this day, but it's only because he cares so much about his daughter.

A year of the couple being together flew by. They celebrated with a double date with Max and Dilara before finishing the rest of the evening on their own. Up until then, very few people actually knew the extent of Lando and Arianna's relationship. Many of the fans shipped them together but, for privacy reasons, neither explicitly said to the public that they were a couple. It was less stressful, especially during the early days of a relationship when they were trying to find their footing. That was until their year anniversary.

The support came flooding in from fans when both Arianna and Lando posted a cute picture of each other on their instagrams, identically captioned with '1 year ❤️'. Most people were just shocked that Lando could've kept such a secret for so long without spilling it as keeping things secret wasn't his speciality. Unfortunately, some old photos began to resurface shortly after the announcement.

Unbeknownst to Arianna, Lando had been sent the picture of her and Max on the balcony from the time they were together. Neither her or Max had ever brought up the fact they they were together since it didn't seem like an important piece of information.

Lando, Arianna, Max, and Dilara were on holiday together when Lando first saw the picture. He tried his hardest to ignore it, not wanting to stir up any drama, but he also started noticing how close Arianna and Max were. He found himself overanalysing ever touch of the arm, every giggle, every little bit of affection Arianna showed to the Dutch boy before it all got too much.

"Arianna, I need to talk to you," Lando sternly said, watching his girlfriend carefully. Max and Arianna were in the pool, her perched on his shoulders as she tried to throw a basketball into the hoop overhanging the water, a way of keeping occupied whilst Dilara napped. She immediately knew something was up because Lando normally calls her by a nickname.

"Uh-oh, you're in trouble," Max joked, earning a smack in the head from his best friend. The sun was beating down on their exposed skin, so it was a cool rush when Max dropped Arianna back into the pool. "Did you steal another one of his shirts?"

Arianna grumbled a couple of swears at Max, alternating between Italian and Portuguese to get the full range in there as she swam to the edge of the pool. She hoisted herself out, letting the water just drip off her as she approached Lando in the doorway to their villa. Since she didn't quite know what she had done, or the severity of what Lando wanted to talk about, Arianna just offered him a smile as she approached.

"What's up?" She queried, wringing out as much water from her hair as she could. It splashed on the hot floor around her, some of it landing on Lando's bare feet. He took a step back and frowned at her. "Don't do that, you'll get wrinkles," Arianna teased, reaching up to pinch Lando's cheek but he swatted her hand away. Arianna's smile immediately left her face and her lips parted in shock. "Meu amor, what's wrong?

"You and Max..." Lando trailed off, exhaling loudly through his nose as he tried to contain his annoyance.

"Have been best friends since we were little?" Arianna guessed, eyebrows furrowing. She had no clue why Lando was suddenly bringing up her and Max's friendship, or why it's only just seemingly bothering him. She was very aware that Max was probably eavesdropping from the pool. "C'mon, just say what you want."

Lando's jaw clenched and then unclenched. "I heard you and Max had a thing. Is this true?"

Arianna was taken by surprise, certainly not expecting something like that to ever come up. "For, like, a month a few years ago... where's this coming from?"

"It's true?" Lando's eyes widened in surprise. Whilst he had his suspicions, he was never fully prepared to find out that they were true. He had some hope that Arianna would be able to explain the photos, or reassure him that her and Max had never been anything more than friends. "People have been sending me a picture of you two and I," he sighed, "I guess I just didn't want to believe it."

"Are you worried about it?" Arianna asked.

"Well, yeah, a little," Lando said with a shrug, "I mean - why did you never tell me?"

"Because I didn't think it was important. It wouldn't have impacted our relationship in any way, and it was a long time ago. It was so short that I barely even count it as a relationship," Arianna tried to reassure, watching Lando's unchanging annoyed expression for any indication of some understanding. "Mine and Max's relationship is strictly platonic - he's my best friend."

"Yeah, mate," Max chimed in. The water splattered across the patio as he approached. Arianna knew he had been listening but hadn't expected him to butt in to the conversation. "You know how much I love Ari, but, as she said, it's nothing more than platonic. I have Dilara, but even if I didn't, I wouldn't be with Ari romantically because we just don't feel that way about each other."

"I get why you might be annoyed, but there's really no need to ever doubt us," Arianna said, reaching for Lando's hand. When he didn't pull away, she gently clasped it in her own and gave it a small squeeze. "Eu te amo." Arianna knew that Lando couldn't ever stay mad at her when she spoke to him in another language. She offered him a small smile and was relieved when he returned it.

"I love you, too."

Arianna wrapped her arms around Lando's neck and planted a sweet kiss against his lips. At the affection, Max let out a noise of disgust from behind her. In retaliation, the Brazilian kicked out her foot, colliding it with whichever part of Max she could as she deepened her kiss with Lando. She was satisfied to hear Max groan in pain before focussing her full attention on the man that she loved with all her heart - Lando Norris.