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Lando is admittedly freaking out just a tad.
He's been pacing back and forth long enough that the floor may as well have a path burned into it.
It shouldn't be so stressful getting ready to go and see Oscar but he isn't just going to hang out. This is technically their trial run for Lando being his caregiver.
So, it's pretty important that it goes well.
They haven't been putting the day off but both of their schedules somehow have been polar opposites.
That isn't to say Lando has had no interactions with little Oscar since the first time. Oscar had called him once in the middle night, inconsolable and begging Lando to stay on the line.
Lando talked and talked until he was sure Oscar was dead asleep. And even then he didn't hang up.
Oscar apologized profusely the next day explaining that little Oscar had a nightmare and his tablet wasn't charged. Lando of course reassured him that it was fine and he was more than happy to help.
The only other interaction had come just as out of the blue.
Lando was in his driver's room, watching videos on his phone, when he heard what could only be described as the quietest knock in the world.
On the other side of the door was Oscar, rubbing at his eyes and yawning. He asked if he could take a nap with Lando and who would Lando be if he didn't say yes.
Still, this is more stressful because Lando knows it's coming. They've already set the time aside for him to come over and watch Oscar.
He doesn't even really know what to expect out of the day.
Should he be bringing things with him, what does little Oscar even like to do.
He'd tried to pry the information out of Oscar the morning after finding out he regressed at all but his answers weren't exactly detailed.
Lando decides in a split second if he leaves now he has time to go out and just buy something for the two of them to do together.
He is even more stumped standing in the middle of some random store's toy section.
He looks towards the plushies first but Oscar already has his koala. It's not an insane thought that he could have more than one though right. That's what Lando tells himself when he reaches out for one.
It's a little brown puppy with floppy ears.
He picks up some toys they'd be able to more actively play with as well. But he can't decide on whether or not he thinks Oscar would like any of them.
Truly all of his experiences with little Oscar revolved around helping him sleep.
He'll just have to wing it.
Toy cars seem like a safe enough bet given who they are. He picks up a coloring book as well as a pack of crayons.
Oscar probably won't complain anyway.
Lando is content to leave with just the two options when a big display of legos catches his eye. He never really gravitated towards them as a kid, it was too much work to sit there and focus on them. But it seems like the type of thing Oscar would enjoy.
He looks through every set trying to decide what would be best for the two of them.
Getting one of the actual formula one sets seems a bit too predictable and maybe too complicated for little Oscar.
The one he picks out doesn't look too complicated and it's technically three designs in one. A choice between building a turtle, chameleon, or frog.
Lando crosses his fingers that Oscar will like it and goes to checkout.
He shoots him a quick text that he'll be on his way after paying.
The drive over is long enough that Lando goes through convincing himself it'll all go smoothly and then goes right back to worrying.
There's prickles of anticipation bubbling under his skin waiting after knocking on the door. He might be more nervous about this than Oscar is honestly.
Oscar opens the door after a second dressed in shorts and a hoodie that he's practically swimming in. Oversized to the point of covering the top half of his sweatpants.
“You look cozy mate,” Lando says as he follows him through the door.
Oscar shoots him a look, rolling his eyes.
“It helps me get into the headspace.”
“Alright, is there like anything I can do to help or should I just give you some space?”
“I usually just watch tv or something until it happens.”
That's when a memory pops into Lando's head.
“Do my streams fit into the or something category,” Lando asks. It might sound a bit teasing but he's asking earnestly.
Oscar's cheeks slowly turn pink, “Yeah sometimes.”
They end up watching cartoons on the couch together. Lando is expecting something bright and fast paced. He should've known better really, instead Oscar has them watching Winnie the Pooh.
Lando must admit it is much more relaxing than the kinds of cartoons he liked growing up. Just watching Pooh and his friends doing random activities.
Oscar on the other hand looks less relaxed.
“You okay?”
Oscar keeps his eyes firmly on the tv instead of turning towards Lando.
“Yeah it's just, I don't know, it's hard trying to get myself to regress around someone else I guess.”
Lando has been so caught up in how nervous he's felt he totally forgot that this is probably extremely nerve-wracking for Oscar. Having to be vulnerable with him on purpose instead of just coming to him after like all the other times.
“Well it's fine if you don't we can still hangout, but you don't have to be worried trust me I'm nervous too.”
Oscar does look towards him then, “You are?”
“Of course, I mean I've been freaking out a little all day, just want it to be perfect.”
Before Oscar can reply to that Lando is talking again, “Really want little Osc to like me y'know?”
“He already does like you,” Oscar replies with a shrug.
Lando smiles back at him. He knew deep down already that it must be true but it feels good to hear Oscar say it.
They go back to watching the show after that and Lando can see when Oscar slowly starts to slip. He does his best not to startle him out of the process.
He thinks Oscar must be fully down when he tries to sneakily scoot closer to Lando on the couch.
His eyes dart back and forth between the screen, the gap of space between them, and then up at Lando to see if he's watching. Lando pretends not to notice as the gap gets smaller and smaller and smaller until Oscar's leg bumps against his.
Lando turns to look at him and Oscar is already looking back, wide brown eyes and a slight flush on his cheeks.
“Sorry didn't mean to,” Oscar says quickly.
“It's alright, you just wanted to sit closer.”
Oscar nods, brown hair flopping into his face. Lando brushes it back for him.
The show continues in the background and Lando is trying to split his attention as best as he can. Focusing on what the characters are doing while he feels the warm weight of Oscar melting into his side.
He's about to reposition so Oscar can fully lean against him when he hears him mumble something against his side.
“Can't hear you Osc.”
Oscar lifts his head a little, “Koala.”
“Koala?”
Oscar nods against him.
Lando wracks his brain until it hits him.
“Oh, you want your koala, where is he?”
Oscar points in the general direction of the bedroom and Lando goes to find him. The bag Oscar keeps all of his little stuff in is sitting beside the bed.
Lando reaches in until he feels soft fur.
He plops down on the couch, “Look who I found.”
Oscar reaches out for his Koala and then settles back in his place against Lando's side. A few minutes later Lando can hear his breathing even out.
Lando tries to fight the pull of sleep but he's not strong enough. Not when Oscar's breathing so softly against him.
ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁 .ᐟ
Oscar wakes up feeling warmer and softer than he thinks he ever has.
He blinks his eyes open.
Lando is still asleep, head tilted slightly.
Winnie the Pooh has automatically paused, leaving Lando's quiet breathing as the only sound in the room.
Oscar feels a bit awestruck looking at Lando. The only times he's gotten to be little around him have all been under not the best circumstances. And he'd always woken up back in his big headspace.
But now, Lando's here and there's nothing wrong. No nightmares or surprise drops. Just Lando wanting to actually be around little Oscar.
The thought makes Oscar giggle behind his hand.
His throat feels dry from the action, he must have been sleeping with his mouth open.
He slides off the couch as carefully as he can manage, taking his koala with him to the kitchen.
Years of basically being his own caregiver means he's pretty confident with his ability to pour himself a glass of juice. Holding on to it with both hands as he drinks it down.
Lando is still asleep when he glances towards the couch. Oscar pouts, he wants Lando to wake up soon.
He holds his koala up towards his face, “What do we do?”
Oscar imagines his koala shrugging at him which makes sense, he doesn't know what they should do either.
He resolves to just go back to watching the show while he waits for Lando to wake up.
Sound fills the room when the show resumes playing and Lando stirs in his sleep. He doesn't wake up.
Oscar whispers about what's going on in the show to his koala. He's so wrapped up in telling him about the episodes he missed that he hardly notices Lando moving.
He doesn't look up until Lando lets out a long yawn.
“How long have you been awake,” Lando's voice is softened with sleep.
“Not long.”
“Did I miss anything important with Winnie?”
Oscar giggles, he didn't think Lando would care about what was happening in the show.
He does his best recounting the episode he missed just like he did for his koala.
His own stomach rumbling interrupts his explanation of Roo getting lost during hide and seek.
It doesn't even cross his mind to ask Lando about food.
He's so used to doing everything himself that he's about to just slide off the couch when Lando turns to look at him.
“Hungry?”
He nods once and Lando is immediately up, walking towards the couch.
Oscar stays seated, following him with his eyes and wondering how this could be real. All the time he's spent daydreaming about Lando being his caregiver and here they are now.
The thought is still bouncing around in his mind when Lando calls him to the kitchen. Oscar walks up to see two plates on the table. One of the prepackaged meals from the fridge sits on one. and on the other is a sandwich and chips for him.
They're the yucky healthy kind that big Oscar buys so he can snack on them when he regresses but they're chips nonetheless.
“Thankyou,” Oscar says while he takes the plate.
“No problem, didn't know if you wanted the crust or not, I hated it as a kid.”
“S'okay I'm not picky.”
Oscar sits across from Lando eating his sandwich and it occurs to him that he doesn't even know what the two of them are going to do.
Distantly, he remembers Lando asking big Oscar what types of things he likes to do when he's little. But he has no idea what he'd told Lando then.
Hopefully nothing too embarrassing.
He doesn't want Lando to think he's a baby, even if sometimes all he wants to do is cuddle with his koala.
Speaking of his koala he forgot him back on the couch.
He's about to go get him but then he remembers Lando is supposed to be taking care of him today. Would he even want to get interrupted eating just to get his koala though.
Oscar is more than capable of doing it himself but Lando did come over just for this.
“Lan,” Lando looks up from his food at him, “forgot my koala.”
“I'll go get him for you.”
Lando ruffles his hair as he walks by him and Oscar ducks his head. Not to get away but to hide the way it makes his cheeks burn.
He comes back with Oscar's koala talking animatedly to it, “Hope you're not hungry too mate, have no clue what koalas even eat.”
Oh, Oscar knows what they eat.
Maybe if he tells Lando, he'll think he's super smart.
Oscar has to talk around a bite of his sandwich, “they eat leaves.”
Lando beams at him while he passes the plush over.
“What kind of leaves?”
“Um,” Oscar closes his eyes to try and see the word in his mind, “calyptus leaves.”
“Wow, didn't know you were an expert.”
Oscar smiles into the next bite of his sandwich. This is great, Lando definitely thinks he's so smart.
ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁 .ᐟ
Lando can tell this is the deepest he's ever seen Oscar drop just from a few subtle changes.
He's still in an old enough headspace to talk in sentences but his words are starting to run together a little more than usual. And he's moving less precisely, limbs not moving quite how they should sometimes.
Perhaps the biggest tell is the way he keeps looking at Lando like he's the most important thing on the planet.
It's flattering really, turning his head and seeing Oscar staring at him in awe.
“You wanna play something, I brought you a few things.”
Oscar gasps, “brought me something?”
“Yeah let's look.”
Lando pulls out the toy cars first passing them over to Oscar so he can inspect them. Oscar arranges them in a little line while he waits for Lando to pull out the next surprise.
The next thing Lando's hand hits is soft fur. He almost forgot he bought Oscar a new stuffed animal.
“Oh, I thought you and your koala might want a new friend.”
He pulls the stuffed puppy out and Oscar's face lights up.
Phew, Lando had been a little worried that Oscar might not care to have any more plushies.
Apparently he couldn't have been more wrong, as Oscar turns to show his koala the puppy. Sitting them in front of each other like they're talking between themselves.
The crayons and coloring book get another excited reaction out of Oscar. He flips through a few of the pages tracing over one of the outlines with his finger.
“Alright, one more thing.”
Lando pulls out the box of legos, holding it out to Oscar.
“See you can pick which one you want us to build,” Lando points to the three different designs on the box.
Oscar stares at the box wide-eyed, “Woah.”
Lando laughs at the way he can't quite seem to take his eyes off the box.
“You wanna build it now?”
Oscar nods and then looks hesitant, “What ‘bout the other toys?”
“We don't have to play with everything today, you can keep it all for next time.”
The smile he gets from that answer makes Lando's heart melt in his chest. He would spend everyday doing this just to keep Oscar smiling like that, open and carefree.
It takes Oscar a few minutes to decide on which of the three designs he wants to try. A little coaxing from Lando promising that they can always change their minds later gets him to finally choose the chameleon.
They both fall into rolls very easily.
Oscar is doing most of the building while Lando separates the pieces out for him to grab, and helps with the instructions when he gets a little stuck.
Lando finds it absolutely adorable watching how focused Oscar gets on the little project.
His tongue is poking out of the side of his mouth while he carefully places his pieces.
Lando was a little worried this one may have too few pieces, that they'd be done with it pretty quickly but it may be right around the perfect amount. Enough that Oscar can enjoy building it for a while without getting bored or burned out.
Not that he seems to be near boredom at all.
Even regressed Oscar is still himself so it comes as no shock that he'd be so invested in building his little lego creation.
Oscar looks up to meet his eyes, “Lan, you're s'posed to give me another pink one.”
“Sorry bud, got distracted.”
Lando hands him one of the last three pink pieces.
Another ten minutes go by and Lando figures they're about three-fourths of the way done. He notices that Oscar is moving around a little, squirming in place.
At first he ignores it, assuming Oscar must just be excited to almost be done. And then the squirming gets worse like Oscar can't manage to sit still at all. It crosses Lando's mind then that he doesn't think Oscar's been to the bathroom the whole time he's been there.
“Think it's time for a potty break Osc.”
Oscar looks up at him confused before thinking for a second and nodding. He must've been so focused he didn't even realize how bad he had to go.
The second he stands up, his face looks alarmed.
He whispers something to himself that Lando can't quite catch.
“What's wrong?”
Oscar's response comes in a louder whisper that Lando only barely makes out as, “Not gonna make it.”
Lando reacts before his brain can fully process the words, scooping Oscar up and making his way towards the bathroom.
To his credit, they do make it to the bathroom but when they get there it's too late.
The dam breaks the second Oscar's feet touch the tiled floor. Wet trickles running down the front of Oscar's sweatpants.
Oscar starts crying immediately, a total flip from how happy he'd been putting the chameleon together.
God Lando feels terrible, his first time actually trying the whole caregiver thing and he couldn't even tell Oscar was seconds away from an accident.
Oscar must remember Lando is there then turning to look at him and crying even harder.
“Hey, hey it's okay, just a little accident, yeah?”
Oscar shakes his head, continuing to cry.
“We'll get you cleaned up okay?”
It doesn't stop the crying, but Oscar does at least allow Lando to maneuver him towards the bathtub.
In the time it takes for the water to fill the tub Oscar has calmed down a bit. Enough that he has mostly stopped crying.
The occasional stray tear still falling down his cheeks.
Lando is still trying his absolute best to reassure him that it's okay, talking to him in the softest voice he can manage.
Once the water has cooled enough that Lando feels safe letting Oscar in, he realizes they hadn't discussed the idea of Lando bathing him at all. But he can't rightfully leave an obviously distressed Oscar to do this himself.
Lando will just have to do his best to not cross any boundaries.
He helps him take off his shirt and the wet sweatpants then closes his eyes so Oscar can pull off his underwear.
They stay closed until Oscar has slipped into the tub.
Lando washes his top half just fine. Even gets Oscar to actually crack a small smile when he gathers up soap suds to pile on top of his hair.
His eyes are once again closed when he washes the rest of Oscar's body, trying his best to be quick and efficient.
Oscar seems almost completely past the accident when Lando helps him wrap himself in a towel.
He follows said towel wrapped Oscar into the bedroom to look for clothes for him to wear.
There's a designated area in his closet for all the soft clothes he likes to wear when he's regressed. Mostly huge hoodies and pajamas made of different soft materials.
Lando lets Oscar pick his own outfit while he goes to throw his dirty clothes in the washer.
He comes back to Oscar in a huge navy blue sweater and a pair of baggy pajama bottoms.
Oscar, though no longer crying, is a lot more quiet.
Lando hopes he might just be tired after his bath and not still upset. Either way he'll do his best to make sure the rest of the day goes smoothly.
“Should we eat something and then finish your legos?”
Oscar looks surprised at that.
“Still wan’ build with me?”
“Of course, why wouldn't I?”
“Cause I had an accident,” Oscar whispers at him like he doesn't want to say the words out loud.
Lando can feel his heart truly breaking in his chest.
“Everyone has had one before, it's not a big deal really.”
The look on Oscar's face conveys his disbelief easily.
Lando has to think of something to get him out of his head about this. The answer comes in an embarrassing memory.
“Can I tell you a secret?”
Oscar nods even if he looks a bit confused about the sudden change in conversation.
“Okay but you can't tell anyone, not even big Oscar,” Lando dramatically shakes his head.
“Won't tell, I promise.”
“One time during one of my first big races I was so excited that I forgot to go to the bathroom and had to try and hold it for the whole race.”
Oscar nods along with Lando's words.
“And then on one of the last laps, I couldn't hold it anymore.”
“Lando had an accident,” Oscar gasps.
“Yup, so it's not a bad thing, just means we have to do better listening to our bodies sometimes.”
Oscar leans down like he's trying to get his ear against his stomach, “ My body says it's hungry.”
Lando actually fully laughs at that, head thrown back. Oscar laughs as well and Lando thinks the day is right back on track.
They end up eating two more of the prepackaged meals from Oscar's fridge. Lando will have to loan him some to make up for it and probably bring food over if he lets him watch little Oscar again.
Oscar is right back to full excitement the second Lando mentions finishing their chameleon.
He's about to rush out of the chair when Lando stops him.
“Let's wash our hands first, you don't wanna get rice on the legos do you?”
“No, no rice,” Oscar agrees.
With their hands cleaned, Lando puts away the dishes while Oscar goes to sit down. He rinses them off in the sink before following behind him.
The last bit of building goes just as quick as before. And before Lando knows it, the fully built chameleon is sitting between them.
“We did it,” Oscar smiles at him, big bunny-teeth on full display.
Lando takes a picture of him holding the chameleon to cherish forever.
They wind down after that with a few more episodes of Winnie the Pooh. Oscar is lax against his side after a while.
Lando carries him to his bed and tucks him in.
“Goodnight Osc,” He whispers, brushing his hand through soft brown hair.
ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁 .ᐟ
Oscar is bored out of his mind, some random show playing in the background while he scrolls absentmindedly on his phone.
He's about to click on the third video in a row about go knows what when a notification pops up on his phone.
landonorris has gone live
He clicks on it just to see what he's streaming. Maybe he'll watch a few minutes of it, what's he got better to do anyway.
Lando starts off the stream mostly talking about what he's been up to, what he plans on streaming, and whatever random thoughts come into his head.
Oscar is about to click off and check back in later when Lando leaves to go get food he ordered. There in his background on a shelf, something catches Oscar’s eye.
A little lego chameleon sitting beside other random trinkets Lando has collected.
He can't wait for little Oscar to rewatch this stream.
Oscar pulls up his messages with Lando, while he sinks farther into his hoodie.
can't believe you put the chameleon on display
ofc i did
promised little osc i would
he's gonna freak out when he sees
Oscar is admittedly more excited than usual for the next time he regresses. He's already made plans with Lando for him to come over again.
Maybe he could get used to having a caregiver.