Chapter Text
MEDIA DAY 1
Scar adjusts the collar to his purple racing suit, smoothing out the white fireproof shirt he has on underneath. He fixes his hair by running a few fingers through it, but a knock at his door startles him.
He doesn’t even need the fireproof shirt, technically. He’s only filming some promo stuff with Joel before the season officially starts, with pre-season testing about to begin. He decides to put it on anyway; it’ll make for good practice when he finally starts with the official stuff later.
Formula 1. This is it. He’s made it.
He redoes the collar as he slips back into his thoughts. At twenty-two years old, he’s going to make his Formula 1 debut in exactly one week from Sunday. It should make him nervous, and he absolutely is, but he’s never been so excited in his life for anything. His hands are itching just to grab that steering wheel and race like his life is on the line.
When he spent four years in Formula 3, he thought that was where his career was going to end. Goodbye racing, he was probably going to go back to university to try and make up some of that money he put into racing since he started karting at six. He’d already saved up his sponsor money and his contract with his team was ending, but he knew he’d rather leave racing than have to spend another year in F3.
By some… miracle, at twenty, he won the F3 championship and was given a seat in F2. He knew this was his one shot at proving himself, and apparently, all he needed was one pair of eyes on him as he raced through his rookie season in F2.
Magical Mountain isn’t where he thought he’d be starting out, the way they’re better than most midfield teams. Better as in last season, one of their racers won the World Driver’s Championship. So it’s possible. It’s possible to be a champion in their car, Pix did it, yet their champion had no interest in continuing racing once he’d won.
With Pix’s retirement, that opened up a spot in F1, and Scar had just won the F2 championship.
He stares at the words across his torso, Magical Mountain Racing. He turns to see the logo on his back: the wizard’s hat that reminds Scar of the old Pizza Hut restaurants that made him giggle the first time he saw it. He zips his suit up, covering the white fireproofs that have sponsors all over it with the same words on his chest.
Scar didn’t believe it when he got the call. A championship-winning team wanted him. Him. They wanted him as their second driver next to Joel, his amazing teammate who has the ability to win the World Driver’s Championship this year. And the team wants Scar to help him get there and possibly secure the Constructors Championship as well.
Not only does he get to be in Formula 1, but he’s being given the chance to fight for podiums and wins. The constructors. The constructors could be theirs this season.
Magical Mountain barely missed out on it last year, losing by four points to Sahara. It’s a gap that Scar’s expected to make up for. He doesn’t have a feel of the land yet, but testing begins in two days. He’ll see then if he’s going to be good enough.
A knock sounds at the door again, and Scar’s shaken out of his thoughts.
He smooths out the wrinkles in his suit before opening the door to his driver’s room, smiling nervously at the excited Joel.
“Scar, don’t just leave me out here!” Joel lightly slaps him on the shoulder, welcoming himself into Scar’s room. “They’re going to call us any moment now. How are you feeling, superstar?”
Superstar. People all around the world are going to know his name now. Right, right, he has to get used to that aspect of racing too.
The first time someone asked for his autograph was when Magical Mountain had announced him as the second driver. He was at the airport heading to the next F2 race when he was approached by a stranger holding a napkin and a pen, a smile on their lips as they shyly asked him to sign it.
Ever since he started F4, he’s dreamed of that moment. When he met his team a couple of weeks ago, they said he’d better get used to that because pretty soon, there’s going to be people outside of their hotels just hoping to catch a glance at them.
Superstar. It sounds amazing, and it is. But…
“Scared shitless, but I think I’m ready for it,” Scar admits, letting his shoulders relax when Joel smiles gently. “I mean, I was a rookie in F2 just last year and now I’m here.”
Joel understands, having gone through a similar process. He was in F3 and F2 for only a year, winning both championships in his rookie season too. He’s been in F1 for five years now, and the driver’s championship is there for the taking. He wants it, and Scar could see his want just in the way his eyes seem to have that gleam in them whenever he dons his racing suit.
“They don’t give us a chance to breathe before they thrust us into the spotlight, do they?” Joel laughs. “You’re going to kick ass though, don’t worry. It’s a good thing today is just filming.”
No matter what it is, it has him scared. He’s going to get in the car for the first time today. He gets to sit in the driver’s seat, no matter if it’s just to take some pictures or videos.
“Testing isn’t for a few more days. Enjoy your last couple days of freedom before we race nearly every week until July,” Joel teases, slapping him lightly on the shoulder. “Now, come on. We don’t have long until someone comes to hunt us down.”
The last thing Scar wants right now is to be a hindrance to the PR people who have no problem making them all stay overnight if they’re late, so he follows Joel out of the safety of his driver’s room. Right before they step out, Joel turns around and fastens the velcro on his collar, making it look much better than Scar had left it. He gives him a grateful smile as they turn the winding corners of the paddock to the track.
With testing starting so soon, he expected the track to be full of other teams. He takes a step back and lets Joel walk in front of him, who grabs his helmet from his engineer. Scar waits back a second to observe the track, his eyes landing on the other team taking advantage of the sunset in the back for their promotion pictures.
He feels his helmet get shoved into his hands, but he doesn’t catch who it is before the person disappears and leaves him standing there. He sees Joel making his way over to where his car is parked nicely in the middle of the track, the sunset illuminating everything in the prettiest golden lighting.
As he makes his way over to Joel, helmet in hand, he catches sight of the other team in the corner of his eye. They’re wearing green racing suits, and Scar recognizes them instantly. Shade E-E’s. The two racers have their suits unzipped, tied around their waist to show off the black fireproofs, and they’re talking to someone.
Scar can’t make out who the other person is, their back to him and helmet on, but he does clock the red immediately. There’s only one team on the grid who wears red that bright, and they are the ones that only just managed to nick the constructor’s championship from Magical Mountain.
Sahara.
Just as the person removes their helmet, someone’s shouting orders at him to pose next to Joel. He takes one last glance at the trio, shivering slightly. Those two teams are going to be their main rivals when the season begins.
He shakes himself out of it, but then he catches Joel looking at them too. Joel, who’s standing next to the car, helmet under his arm, is staring down the three as well.
“I wonder how long it’ll take for Etho and Bdubs to realize that Grian’s totally trying to find out all of their secrets,” Joel says, and Scar’s eyes widen. He didn’t know that was allowed.
But Joel cracks a smile, and he realizes he was joking.
“Don’t worry, it won’t be long until he comes over and crashes our photo shoot.”
Someone barks directions at Scar to sit on the tire next to Joel. He tries to contain his laughter when he’s barely shorter than Joel while sitting, but Joel doesn’t seem to find it as funny. Scar tucks his helmet in the arm opposite Joel, their arms brushing as they let the photographer take an ungodly amount of photos.
They switch poses a couple of times. Scar is the one that stands and Joel sits, but they had to scrap that one pretty quickly when Joel didn’t even reach Scar’s shoulder. They sat on opposite tires. Scar perched on the nose of the front wing and Joel balanced a squat on the halo. They tried a pose where Scar sat in the car and Joel let his feet hang in the cockpit, but Joel nearly kicked his head off of his shoulders and that got binned as well.
Finally, they needed some solo pictures.
They took some of Scar without his helmet, both staring into the camera and some gazing at something in the distance. He looks to see if the trio is still where they were earlier, but all that’s left is the one in red. Scar is directed to look in that direction, so he takes the opportunity to study his competition.
His helmet is off, but his back is still to Scar. He appears to be on his phone, or maybe talking to someone inside the Shade E-Es garage. Scar can see his blonde hair shining in the setting sun, basking in the glow of oranges and reds. It isn’t until he turns around that Scar realizes who it is.
Blue eyes meet his, and Scar’s told to put his helmet on to get more shots.
He breaks eye contact immediately, a little intimidated, and hides his sheepish expression behind a purple helmet and a dark visor.
“Oi!” Joel cups his hands around his lips, facing Shade E-Es. “Grian, fuck off! You’re going to have to finish your photo shoots if you want to go out later!”
Scar turns his head a bit to the left when the photographer tells him to, and when he’s directed to stare straight into the camera, he sees that only mechanics fixing up the Shade E-Es car are left.
When he’s done and the photographer takes solo pictures of Joel, he stands to the side and waits patiently. He hasn’t been told to leave yet, so he assumes he isn’t taking up too much space.
As the photographer reviews their photos ten minutes later, Joel says behind his helmet, “Hey, some of us had plans to go to the club later. A little preseason treat, if you will. I figured it’d be a good opportunity to meet some of the grid.”
Scar cranes his neck to hear, his voice only slightly muffled by the helmet, but he finds himself nodding before he even processes what Joel’s said. Joel pumps a fist in the air, and the photographer tells him to get back in position and hold that pose.
He chuckles and finally realizes what Joel’s told him.
Oh, wait, he’s going to meet the other drivers.
See, meeting his team was one thing. He’s coming into the team to replace someone who won the championship just last season. But meeting the people he’s meant to beat in order to help his team repeat that, and win the constructors on top of that?
Not to mention he’s the only rookie on the grid this season and all of these people have been doing this for longer.
He’s about to turn to Joel and ask him who else is coming so he can at least prepare, but Joel’s taking some pictures with his visor flipped up. His brown eyes are stoic and intimidating. Exactly the kind of driver who has the ability to win the championship.
He wonders if the others are going to be like that.
Scar stands there until he’s done and leads him back to the paddock, back to the safety of Magical Mountain hospitality where he can unwind from a ridiculous sunset photo session.
“Welcome to the big leagues,” Joel jokes, dropping him off in front of his driver’s room. “Just wear a white tee or something. I’ll be back in an hour and we’ll get a taxi together.”
Before Scar can even agree to the plan, Joel leaves to get ready.
Scar’s immediately at ease when he sees somebody that he knows.
Joel had been guiding him through the club to the table where the others would be when he spotted Impulse. He lets out a sigh of relief when Impulse smiles upon seeing him, opening his arms to pull him into a side hug.
The beauty of racing is that a lot of them got to race together in their younger years. He’s known Impulse since his days in F3, but Impulse got to move on a little quicker. He’s a bit older, as is much of the grid, so Scar has to play catch up.
“It has been too long since we’ve raced together!” Impulse shouts over the music. “I’m so happy to see you on the track, man! You deserve it!”
Scar moves out of the hug after squeezing Impulse’s shoulder. “Yeah, man. It’s crazy! I almost never thought I’d see this day and I’m here now!”
“Here, have you met my teammate?” He gestures to a woman behind him, her curly ginger hair a nice contrast against the black top she’s wearing. “This is Gem!
Scar goes to shake her hand. The thing is, of course he knows who all these people are. He’s been watching racing since he can remember, so yes, he knows of everyone who makes up the current grid. It’s strange to see them in person, though. To shake Gem’s hand instead of watching her on TV or seeing her pass by on weekends the F2 and F1 races share the track.
He puts a smile on his face, one that doesn’t seem as fanboyish as he feels, and introduces himself. “Hey, I’m Scar! I’m teammates with Joel for this season.”
The pleasant smile she returns is doubled when Joel comes up to them with his arm around someone. “Bdubs, let Etho go for two seconds and say hi to our new friend!”
Bdubs and Etho: the pair from Shade E-Es. They came third in the constructors last season, and Etho’s supposed to be another challenger for the WDC. Scar looks for Etho somewhere in the distance, but he can only see Bdubs’ tipsy figure trying to size him up.
“You’re really tall,” are the first words out of Bdubs’ mouth, causing him and Gem to chuckle at him.
“Hi, I’m Scar,” he tries, holding a hand out. Bdubs gives him a fist bump.
Scar spots the infamous white headband before Bdubs responds, coming up behind Joel and Bdubs. The headband is something of a brand for Etho, but right now all of the focus is on the two drinks he’s carrying in his hands.
“Yes! Thanks, you’re the best, my sugar pumpkin!” Bdubs takes the glass from Etho and moves to stand next to him before Etho grabs him by the waist.
“Bdubs, don’t be rude,” Etho chastens, although Scar can hear the slight slurring of his words. How long has everyone else been here? Weren’t they taking pictures at the same time? “Did you say hi?”
Bdubs rolls his eyes playfully and starts talking to Gem, but Etho takes the time to introduce himself. “Hey, I’m Etho.”
Etho doesn’t seem particularly interested in long introductions, and he doesn’t need one. Scar knows plenty about the man. He was Joel’s first teammate when he came to F1, but Joel left when he got the offer to race for Magical Mountain. Scar remembers watching their interviews back when they were teammates and seeing how well they got along, how they genuinely seemed to be friends outside of racing.
He also remembers the reason Joel left Shade E-Es, shared on a night they were getting to know each other.
“I’m Scar! I’m—”
Etho dismisses him with a hand wave. “—Joel’s teammate. He’s been so excited for you since he found out Pix was retiring. He heard about you from Jimmy.”
Jimmy is the only other person on the grid that Scar’s familiar with, and also something of a childhood best friend. He scans the group they have, but he doesn’t see him.
Etho catches him looking. “Oh, he’s probably not coming tonight, but Pearl should be here any minute now. She might be in the bathroom with Mumbo trying to help Grian hold his hair back though.”
Joel comes back to him, handing Scar a glass with something pink. “I found Mumbo and he gave me some drinks Grian had ordered, so free drinks!”
Scar takes the drink, sniffing it quickly before deeming it safe to drink. He watches Joel over his glass, sees it when he whispers something into Etho’s ear, and plasters a smile on his face when Scar moves the glass from his lips.
It warms his heart to know Joel had been talking about him before he officially got here. He only knows two of the drivers personally, and you can never gauge absolutely everything about a person based on their interviews. He’d been nervous about everything leading up to the day he met his team and teammate, but it went smoother than he’d ever imagined.
Joel stayed up until two in the morning with him, just talking about everything racing and F1 and themselves. He learned that Joel’s wife, Lizzie, is a paddock photographer and he met her after she took an amazing candid after his first career win. He learned about his experience at Shade E-Es and why he’d never join them again. He told Joel about his struggles in F3 and how sad he is about leaving his cat to his parents.
He can’t help but wonder what exactly Joel told the others, but based on everyone's reactions so far, it couldn’t have been anything bad.
“So, Scar, how are you liking F1 so far?” Etho asks. “I started my career with Cleo, so I know all about the importance of having an amazing teammate to show you the ropes. She might meet us later, might not. She’s never on time and we never know if she’s coming to one of our hangouts unless she shows up out of nowhere.”
“I also know a thing or two about that!” Joel grins, but quickly wipes his face clean of expression. “At least, I would if I hadn’t gotten divorced.”
Etho laughs so hard that he catches the attention of Bdubs, and Scar feels like he’s missed out on an inside joke. Oddly enough, he doesn’t feel like an outsider. Well, he does, but not in a bad way.
He’s here now. He’ll get in on these inside jokes and little quips amongst each other soon enough.
Bdubs is suddenly next to them, but he doesn’t look as happy as he did a moment ago. “Uh oh, someone’s getting in trouble for this.”
He looks to where Bdubs’ line of sight goes, and he sees the same guy from earlier being held up by his teammate.
Scar’s first thought is, Oh god, he’s beautiful.
Then his mind processes exactly who’s in front of him: Grian and Mumbo, the drivers for Sahara, and their biggest rivals.
Grian came P2 in the driver’s championship last season, only just missing first because of a bad call by Grian to pit near the end of the final race of the season. A shoddy strategy and a pit stop that didn’t need to happen later and Pix was crowned the world champion.
Reports are saying that Sahara has built a car faster than ever, and Grian isn’t going to let a mistake like that cost him the championship again.
He feels Joel tense next to him, and Scar can’t help but do the same.
Mumbo’s holding Grian up by the shoulders, wearing a black button-up and red tie. Who wears a tie to a club? Whatever, he’s there, and he’s heading straight to them.
“Someone’s getting in trouble and it’s going to be Mumbo,” Etho grumbles, waiting until the pair are beside them to glare. “Mumbo, really?”
Now here, Scar feels out of his element. Mumbo’s giving Etho and Joel a helpless look, glancing back occasionally to make sure Grian hasn’t wandered off or something. Grian’s leaning against him, only wobbling a bit when Mumbo shifts slightly.
Grian looks up from the spot on the floor he was staring at, and their eyes meet. Scar freezes only for a second, scared to meet the icy blue eyes he’s seen on TV, but finds that they’re wet with tears. He’s definitely on the verge of blacking out, but there doesn’t seem to be an urgency within the group to get him home.
“It honestly just happened, really…” Mumbo trails off. “We ran into Scott when he got here. He’s waiting outside and he’s driving us back to the hotel.”
“Mumbo, we wanted to introduce him to Scar,” Joel protests.
Scar shakes his head. “No, don’t worry about me. Get him home! I’m sure we’ll meet another day!”
He hopes it comes off as polite. He thinks it does when Mumbo gives him a grateful look. “Hey, sorry. This is a horrible first impression, but I’ll be taking Grian now. I’ll see you during testing, hopefully.”
Before Scar can respond that it’s all okay, Mumbo walks out of the club with Grian on his arm.
Before Scar can even process any of that, Etho swings an arm around Joel when the song changes. Bdubs comes over to them, dancing along with the song with his drink high in the air.
Nobody seems to be overly concerned about what just happened, so when Impulse pulls him into the group, he also forgets about the two Sahara drivers.
PRESEASON TESTING: DAY 1
“Good run. That’s P10, best so far!”
His race engineer, Cub, has the faintest hint of disappointment in his voice. Scar hasn’t been performing exceptionally, but it is only testing. The race isn’t until next week, and for now, they just need to worry about making sure the car isn’t going to blow up.
But still. Joel came P1 during a few of the practice sessions. At the very least, Scar wants to aim to finish a little higher.
Pix won a world championship with this car and Scar can’t get it into a podium finish during testing of all things. Even if Cub is excited for him, and if Scar cracks a smile at his best result yet, they can’t pretend like he isn’t underperforming a bit.
He pushes it out of his mind as Cub rattles off some technical stuff about the car itself. He’s doing good. His parents would kill him if they knew how he was already thinking of himself when they hadn’t even gotten to the first race yet.
That’s what happens when you’re stuck in F3 for so long. It begins to feel like maybe that’s all he was cut out for.
For what it’s worth, Magical Mountain gives him a bit of leeway. It isn’t exactly the best on track, that would be Sahara. They aren’t the quickest on the straights, which would be Shade E-Es. Etho’s pretty much infamous for overtaking on a final straight when he’s side by side with another person.
But despite all of that, it’s Pix that won the championship last year. It’s Joel that’s expected to give Grian the strongest fight this year, not Etho. Everyone who’s driven it knows exactly what to do with it.
And Scar can’t get above tenth in testing.
He drives back to the pit lane, where mechanics begin to roll the car into the garage. He lifts his visor as they do, searching their faces for any hint that they’re disappointed in his performance. He’s expecting it, but if they are, he doesn’t find it. They just smile at him kindly as they talk about engineering things.
“Alrighty, Scar,” Cub says in his ear. If Scar cranes his neck, he could probably see Cub somewhere in the pit lane with his headphones and a notebook with critiques to go over later. “I think we’re good for today. I believe that Joel’s getting sent out again, but I can’t confirm.”
“Thanks, Cub,” Scar replies, trying not to sound like he’s feeling too sorry for himself. “Looking forward to the race. I’ll see you later.”
He hears Cub shut off the radio from his end of things, and Scar waits until a mechanic gives him a thumbs up so he can get out of the car. He stands, carefully hauling his legs over the car until his feet softly hit the ground.
Scar takes his gloves off first, setting them on a table next to a water bottle. When he removes his helmet, he graciously lifts the bottle to his lips. He downs almost the entire thing before someone comes up behind him to slap his shoulder.
Some of the water dribbles down the front of his suit, and he hears Joel’s laugh before he sees him.
Other mechanics clap him on the back, and Joel bids them gentle smiles. “I’m so excited! I don’t care if we’re practically a shitbox on the straights right now, I know we’re going to do great things this season!”
Scar sets the water bottle back down on the table, unzipping the top of his racing suit before slipping his arms out. He ties the top around his waist, as Joel has done too, letting the world see the fireproof shirts they had on underneath; letting them see the Magical Mountain logo plastered across his chest and back.
Joel grabs his arm and starts leading him out of the garage. “So, what’d you think? I just got out of the car and Oli said he didn’t have your results yet when I asked him over the radio.”
Scar has yet to meet Joel’s engineer, but he’s glad that he’s spared the embarrassment of having to hear his poor results repeated back to him. At least here he can explain himself, though he doesn’t necessarily know why he’s not getting above P10 either.
He ducks his head as they make their way through the paddock, where they’ll have to deal with media duties. He can practice coming up with an excuse with Joel while he’s at it.
“Uh, P10,” Scar offers, and he hears Joel gasp. Out of embarrassment, he keeps his eyes trained on the Ranchers hospitality center that’s ahead.
“P10? That’s amazing!” Joel claps him on the back again, Scar much more aware of the heat of his hand through his fireproofs. “Dude, I seriously can’t wait to see what we do with the car this year. P10 when you’ve never been in the car before? We’re going to be unstoppable!”
Scar certainty doesn’t feel unstoppable, but the smile that he gives Joel is genuine. Over the radio, he can’t gauge Cub’s face. As it is, his engineer is pretty stoic. And he did sound disappointed, Scar knows he isn’t making that up. But for the moment, Joel’s on top of the world and he wants Scar to feel the same way.
So he lets himself smile, trying to feel the same thing that Joel does.
“During my rookie season, I barely got into P12 during testing. Trust me, you’re doing something right.”
“What’d you get?” Scar asks curiously, and now he sees Joel looking away from him.
“Just behind Grian this past session, but P1 at some point. The little bugger is barely faster, so their car is going to be tough to beat. Mumbo’s struggling a bit, dunno if you saw.”
The entire grid is pretty much all friends, sure, but he can’t help it when his lip starts turning a bit into a smile. He lets it spread across his face when he sees that Joel looks much happier about it than he does.
“Mate, this is perfect!” Joel shouts, practically to the entire paddock. “He was eighth at some point. Eighth! The battle for the best second driver is basically yours, although you’ve already won in my heart.”
The words sound foreign coming from Joel, and he’s sure that even Joel feels weird saying them. Up until two days ago, Joel had been a second driver his entire career.
Being the second driver is interesting. On some teams, a second driver is there because the team needs to field a second car. In others, like Magical Mountain, the two drivers are treated as equals. Of course, one driver is always going to be prioritized, it’s probably impossible to run a team without labeling at least one of them.
But truthfully, Scar doesn’t mind too much. He’s going to be treated with the same amount of respect as Joel, and he’s going to be allowed to push as hard as Joel does and if the scenario arises, he would be allowed to fight Joel for a position.
One night, when they were still getting to know each other, he asked Joel about the most bizarre choice of his career; he left an amazing team for one that was doing considerably worse at the time.
Etho being an amazing teammate is something Joel needed to reiterate throughout the story. He never blamed Etho for what happened during his time at Shade E-Es, and he swears he never will. Etho wasn’t the problem, but the team was.
Joel was constantly having to give up positions to Etho, sacrificing his own points and podiums for him due to team orders. He’s had to settle for second place a couple of times because he was ordered to swap places. He gave up his wins, and he simply couldn’t do that anymore. He wasn’t willing to put up with it and found his home at Magical Mountain.
He tries to say that helping Etho win his first championship was worth it, but Scar could tell by the look in his eyes that it was the loyalty to his friend saying that.
It’s better now, Joel says. Once Bdubs got signed, he fixed their system because he doubted anyone would deal with how they were running things, no matter how good the team is. He claims that Bdubs did what he couldn’t, but Scar knows he checks in with both of them to make sure things are still good.
“After helping out two world champions, it’s about time you got your own,” Scar says, and he can tell Joel appreciates it.
Joel leaves to find Lizzie right after their talk, which leaves Scar wandering around the paddock until he finds the right motorhome. Wedged in between Sahara and Shade E-Es, he begins walking towards them to freshen up before he has to do media.
He’s about to reach the Magical Mountain motorhome when he feels a tap on his shoulder. He turns, expecting Joel (which is stupid because Joel’s movements are never that soft), and nearly jumps out of his race suit when he sees who it is.
“Oh, uh… Hi!” Scar greets, trying not to cringe at his awkwardness and stuttering. Really, he’s got to learn how to get better at these things before the race next week.
The race gets quickly pushed to the back of his mind when Grian looks up at him, confidence just radiating off of him. He holds himself the same way Joel does, with an aura of someone who knows they’re going to be world champion this season.
He flutters his eyelashes at Scar, but it seems so unconscious that Grian probably doesn’t know he’s doing it. He has to look up, Scar having a good five inches on him, and his blue eyes boring into him combined with his little lash flutter nearly has Scar missing what he’s saying.
“Hey! I… didn’t get a chance to introduce myself the other day properly so I wanted to do that,” Grian says, his eyes suddenly dodging away from Scar’s face.
His gaze lands on something behind him, and Scar has half a mind to turn and check it out. That would probably be, like, rude though. So he doesn’t, and now he’s awkwardly holding eye contact when it’s clearly not reciprocated. Okay! Okay. Before it gets creepy, Scar breaks his one-sided eye contact to check the time on his watch and fix his sleeve.
“No worries! I could tell that you, uh…” Scar’s about to make a joke about blacking out, but he also doesn’t know Grian well enough to make that sort of joke. He needs Joel back now. “…you needed to get back to the hotel.”
Grian winces and a sheepish grin appears on his face. He laughs dryly, and Scar wonders if he said something wrong. “Yeah, that happens sometimes…” He scratches his neck, opens his mouth to say something, and closes it. He chews his bottom lip, and Scar catches himself tracking the movement of his tongue swiping across his mouth before he can stop. “I guess I just wanted to say sorry?”
It comes off as a question. Scar doesn’t even know what he’s apologizing for, and for a moment he thinks he was so distracted he misheard that. “What?”
His eyes are apologetic as they dart all over the place. “Sorry you had to see me like that. It was a horrible first impression, as far as first impressions go, and I totally embarrassed myself. I hadn’t even told you my name by that point.”
Right, the club is supposed to be the first time they meet. Probably not the time for Scar to talk about how much research he’s done on his rivals.
“Seriously, don’t worry!” Scar holds a hand out. “I’m Scar, and I’m Joel’s teammate.”
Grian stares at his hand and doesn’t make any move to shake it. He clasps his hands behind his back so that Scar can’t shake his hand even if he tries. “Yeah, I heard! Man, Joel was so excited. Don’t tell him I told you this, but he was over the moon when he said he felt like you guys were going to be best friends for life.”
Scar draws his hand back to his side when he gets the sense that Grian isn’t going to shake it.
Maybe this isn’t as friendly of a conversation as he thought it was.
“I’ve been hearing that a lot lately.” He thinks back to what Etho said at the club.
Grian crosses his arms in front of his chest, covering the Sahara logo branded across his racing suit. He hasn’t taken it off yet, sticking out like a red umbrella at a funeral in front of the Magical Mountain motorhome.
“I’m Grian, by the way,” he smiles, and it’s a nice one. It’s sincere, as far as Scar could tell, and he realizes he’s practically staring at this dude’s lips. He very quickly glances around to see if Joel’s nearby. “We’re going to be seeing a lot of each other this season so I’d like to get to know you before all the chaos begins.”
Scar has a smart comment on the tip of his tongue, something like, Sure, before Joel takes the lead of the championship, but he holds it back when Grian’s eyes meet his for a split second. There’s a faint spark in them, one that tells him he means what he’s saying. That paired with his fluttering lashes makes him hesitate. Saying something mean after hesitating would only make him look stupid, so he bites it back and swallows it.
Is he being the mean one here?
He’d hate it if Grian went back to Mumbo talking about how rude Scar was because that’s truthfully not who he is. He thought that’s where the conversation was heading, but now he thinks he’s still a little too caught up in his head after testing.
He should be the one apologizing, but either he was subtle about his grumpiness or Grian isn’t mentioning it because there’s hope in Grian’s face. He’d hate to be the one to crush it.
And then the words leave his mouth before he can think too hard about it.
“Well, I trust we’ll see each other outside of racing as well.”
Grian, for what it’s worth, laughs at him. No, not at him, but Scar would be laughing at himself.
“I trust we will.” When Grian smiles again, Scar finds himself staring. He’s only broken out of it when he hears Jojo calling out his name from inside the motorhome.
He points to her and tries his best to look apologetic. “Sorry, my trainer.”
Grian peeks behind him to catch a look at his personal trainer, and waves at her. He turns back to Scar. “I shouldn’t keep you, but I’ll see you later!”
He holds his hand out to shake his before remembering he’s going to look stupid. Clearly, Grian did not want to shake his hand. He plays it off by running his hand through his hair. “I’ll be seeing you!”
Grian nods at him, and without sticking around any longer, starts to weave his way through the paddock.
The next time they meet is at the end of day three.
All sessions are over for today's testing, and the anticipation is growing for next week to come already now that testing is officially over. Scar’s noticed that all the drivers are pretty much ready for the race, but alas, they have to wait for the following week.
He’s walking with Joel to the car park now. The walk back is secluded enough that they feel safe discussing their opinions of the car, ranging from the crazy overtakes they're going to do on turns to how the brakes feel. It’s public knowledge, considering this is stuff they relayed over their radios, but they both have boisterous voices that carry far. They wouldn’t want to accidentally say something compromising when they’re heading to the car park specifically for crew members.
As Scar’s about to say something about the understeer, they hear a voice that’s louder than theirs.
“Etho, quite frankly, you’re overreacting!”
Joel turns first at the mention of his ex-teammate, but Scar whips around to see the person whose voice it belongs to. They catch Grian and Etho slowly walking in their direction, incredibly slow as if they were trying to avoid other people.
Joel stops in his tracks and waits for the duo to catch up to them. Scar has no choice but to pause as well, seeing as Joel is his ride back to the hotel.
Etho has some sort of grimace on his face as they approach, but Grian looks absolutely ecstatic to see them. The happy little way he claps his hands captures Scar’s attention so fast that he almost misses the heavy sigh that Etho lets out.
“I don’t understand how you manage to weasel your way out of this conversation every single time we try to have it with you,” Etho says, and oh shit, he seems kind of upset. His eyes are set hard on Grian, but Scar doesn’t miss how they flicker to him for a second.
Joel chuckles like he’s trying to defuse the tension, but even Scar notices how forced it sounds. “Grian’s a little weasel. He’s always going to do that.”
Etho rolls his eyes and points a finger firmly at Grian. It reminds Scar a bit of lecturing a child who’s stolen some candy from the store, but he has the slightest sneaking suspicion that whatever has Etho upset is more serious than that. Maybe they collided during one of their sessions or something.
“We’re going to continue this later, so don’t think you’re getting out of it,” Etho berates, his gaze fully on Scar now.
Scar shrinks away from his eyes, though he doesn’t know why they’re on him in the first place.
Grian isn’t bothered by Etho’s threat and rolls his eyes. “Oh, please. We both know I have my red-eye tonight.”
Yikes. It makes him thankful that his and Joel’s flights aren’t until tomorrow afternoon. But Joel isn’t thinking of that when he glances at Scar, instead saying, “I don’t think you two got the chance to meet at the club, all things considered. Scar, this is—”
“We met!” Scar can tell that neither Joel nor Etho expected that. “Yesterday; we ran into each other and had a proper meeting.”
He doesn’t mean to make Grian feel bad, but he can see the blonde’s expression fall ever so slightly. He didn’t mean it like that, but he also didn’t want to put Grian on blast again. He’s already trying to fumble up a reply when Etho saves him.
“Great, so at least we all know everyone’s names before we start ripping each other apart beginning next week!”
Scar wouldn’t necessarily describe it like that, but he agrees with Etho’s main point. The last thing he’d want is to genuinely not get along with anyone off the track.
“Wait! What about Mumbo!?” Grian laughs at the prospect of forgetting his teammate. “Oh, forget it, never mind. Guys, did you know he didn’t want to get the red-eye with me? He was perfectly fine leaving me abandoned at the airport, all alone!”
“Grian, you guys aren’t even going to the same place,” Joel says plainly.
From here, Joel and Scar are going back to the Magical Mountain Testing Center to put some work into their racing simulator before the race. He can’t imagine many teams would want to split up their drivers the week before the first race of the season.
“Where are you heading?” Scar asks, simply because he’s curious. Friends are allowed to ask these things, aren’t they? Is it too much to assume they’re friends after one conversation? Oh god, he hopes he doesn’t sound weird—
Grian lights up at the question, and Scar isn’t worried anymore. “I’m seeing my friend! I don’t get to see BigB much during the season and he’s sort of my rock outside of all this,” He smiles fondly as if he’s already with his friend and away from the stress of racing.
That’s kind of what Jellie is for him, but he doesn’t say that out loud. Everyone else has best friends and significant others to keep them afloat, and while he absolutely loves Jellie and has no problem showing her off, he doesn’t want to admit to his rivals that his most important attachment is his cat.
“You see, I’ll tell Lizzie she’s the most perfect being I’ve ever had the pleasure of laying my eyes upon and she’ll just show me a cool picture of Cleo she’s taken,” Joel pouts, but his voice is still laced with love for his wife.
Etho doesn’t add anything to this particular topic, so Scar keeps his mouth shut too. He wonders who a world champion like Etho might turn to when things get rough. He wonders when he’ll get to have a person like that of his own.
F3 never offered him anything and he spent more time in F2 trying to prove himself than getting to know people like that. Maybe he should start hitting on paddock photographers if it worked out so well for Joel.
“Alright, now if Etho can kindly give me a ride back to the hotel then that would be wonderful,” Grian says, his face pleading. “Mumbo only offered to help me pack if I was there by the time he gets back.”
Etho deadpans at him. “Our teams aren’t even staying at the same hotel.”
“I know. But if you don’t, I’ll tell Bdubs you left me at the track.”
That doesn't seem like much of a threat, but it makes Etho hesitate and sigh loudly. He turns to Scar and points at Grian. “I hate it when he does that.”
Grian looks happy when he turns to him and Joel. “I’ll be seeing you all next week then. Stay fast, but not too fast!”
Etho nods at them to signal his goodbye without saying a word, and the pair are walking away before they can return their farewell.