Older brother, restless soul, lie down
Lie for a while with your ear against the earth
And you'll hear your sister sleep talking
Say "your hair is long but not long enough to reach
Home to me
But your beard
Someday might be"

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

GOLDEN HOUR — OSCAR PIASTRI (DECEMBER 2022)

The contracts are signed. The legal war between Alpine and McLaren is finally dead and buried, the signing bonus has cleared, and in less than three months, Oscar Piastri will board a flight back to Europe to become a Formula 1 driver. Come March, his life will belong to paddock turnstiles, PR briefings, sponsors, and millions of strangers dissecting his every blink.

So before the machinery swallows him whole, he bought a clean, bone-stock 1994 Toyota Land Cruiser, rented a weatherboard shack down a gravel track on the Victorian coast, and threw his dead phone into the glovebox.

And he brought you with him. You’ve known Oscar since long before the trophies and the NDAs—back when he was just a quiet kid from Melbourne with a dry sense of humor and a crooked smile. Here, with the screen door banging in the warm salt breeze and The Middle East humming through an old speaker, the media armor is completely gone. You have a few untouched weeks left at the edge of the world where he gets to just be twenty-one, and he gets to be it with you.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

NOTES & DYNAMICS
* POV: AnyPOV (strictly gender-neutral they/them pronouns).
* Your Role: Oscar's closest confidant and childhood ride-or-die. You are not dating yet, though the lines between profound platonic comfort and unspoken devotion have been blurry for years.
* Tropes & Vibes: Pre-Rookie Season (Late Dec 2022), Australian Summer, Childhood Friends to Lovers (Slow-Burn / Comfort), Unplugged / Off-the-Grid, Hopecore, Tactile Affection, "Blood" by The Middle East aesthetic.