Chapter Text
“that’s way too dangerous, daniel.” blake is almost furious, rounding on daniel as he gets off his car in the garage, his back to the camera, the mechanics descending upon his car immediately, picking it apart.
“relax, it worked, didn’t it?” daniel just smiles at him, cocky, toothy behind his hemet. he undoes a strap and removes his helmet and balaclava and shakes his hair out, smoothing it so it's picture-ready.
“you can’t keep going on like this, daniel,” one thing blake is proud of himself for, is never backing down, he grabs daniel by the shoulder, almost forcing him to look into his eyes. “you’re gonna kill someone.”
daniel just swiftly removes blake’s hands from himself, before looking at him with cold eyes. “please, just let me do my job. you do yours.”
blake can't say anything else as mechanics surround them and the car, shooing them almost. someone congratulates daniel on pole position. and blake suddenly remembers where he is.
daniel shakes some hands, nods his head and smiles wide as he celebrates his fifth pole position of the season, third in a row.
blake stays behind, shaking his head, filled with worry at the downward spiral daniel seems to be going through.
daniel always has had a passion for winning, a competitive streak that existed in him since he was a kid, but the intensity had ramped up this season. after being promoted to the big team after almost a year on the sidelines. many chalked it up to luck, favouritism, pr. but he had been determined to prove everyone wrong, becoming more aggressive in his racing style, and taking risks he’d never taken before. he had to, anyway. if he wanted to compete with reigning champion max verstappen.
when daniel requested blake to be his manager, he obviously agreed because they had been lifelong friends and blake is one of the few people that knew him best. but now, blake is noticing a shift in his friend that is starting to worry him.
she's just getting ready for bed in the bathroom when her phone rings, she rushes to the bedroom to get it, concerned it might be a family member or a friend in trouble. when she looks at the phone, she notices an international number she is not familiar with. she still picks up, now concerned that it is work-related.
from the grainy speakers, she hears a voice she hasn't heard in a long time calling her name.
"blake," she's overwhelmed with a slew of emotions at the sound of his voice, some pleasant, some bad, mostly because it reminds her of her ex-boyfriend. daniel.
"god, i'm so glad you're awake, i’m sorry to call so late," he says, his voice uncertain, exhausted. she’s surprised blake even knows where in the world she is, but knowing him, he’s aware of everything. ever.
"it's alright. what's going on?" she worries now.
"i hate to bring this on you, i know you haven't been a part of his life for a while," he stops, and she knows exactly where this is headed.
"what has he done now?" she asks, almost laughing. yes, of course. of course, when something goes wrong with daniel, blake turns to her.
"I'm sorry," is all he can say, and he doesn't need to say anything else.
she and daniel dated back in their teenage years in perth, through highschool. they were inseparable until he moved to europe to pursue his racing career. they even attempted to keep it afloat for a few months. until she decided to sever it totally.
she is not interested in long-distance relationships. he agonised over the decision, but she told him him that she'd be too busy with university to see him, and that they could still be friends and hang out when he was home.
they ended up fighting more than anything else. and she ended up being the one to break it off for good, and he didn't want to. she will never forget his face as he begged her to talk it out with him, but even though her heart was aching, she felt there was nothing else she could do. she hadn't heard from him since.
but despise their split, she couldn't stop herself from following his career. especially since he joined f1 full time. she had always been proud of him and it hurt when something went wrong, knowing how hard he had worked for all of it, what he left behind in order to be the best in the world.
and when he joined redbull for 2025, when he was winning practically every race, she felt an enormous burst of pride. but then everyone started saying his style had changed, he was more aggressive and reckless, pride transformed into anxiety and almost terror.
"you’re my last resort, i don't need to tell you, i know you've seen it," blake adds again, always all knowing.
she had seen it. daniel almost taking two people out in one corner on purpose, during practice. but blake's honesty is always appreciated, and it’s always been her weakness too. he is obviously concerned for daniel. when she was dating daniel, one of the biggest discussions they had was about safety, and how scared she was. he used to reassure her that safety was his top priority, but that no longer seemed to be the case.
"i'm not sure what you want me to do," her heart bleeds at the thought of daniel putting his life and everyone else’s at risk on track, but she has no power over him, not anymore. she hasn't seen him in nearly ten years, "it's been over a decade."
blake chuckles quietly, almost laughing. "come on," she can hear him smiling from the other end of the phone. "we both know you were the only person who could ever talk sense into him. he’d never listen to me or his parents. hell, christian horner can't even get through to him. but you used to be able to argue that the world was flat and he would still agree with you."
that makes her smile, remembering their time together. "blake…"
"listen,” he starts, "i’m desperate. this is almost a life-or-death scenario right now. i’ve been warned that he could lose his seat. you know he’d be devastated,” blake speaks firmly, but she can hear the desperation in his voice. “please just talk to him.”
she sits on her bed, reflecting on all the years he'd worked hard to be where he is. the sacrifices, including moving continents and leaving everyone behind, as well as damaging his own career several times. she remembers how his eyes glitter when he talks about something he's interested in. how thrilled he was when he received an offer from red bull in 2013.
she exhales heavily. she has nothing to lose.
"i'm in."
the race she agreed to go to was miami, which was close enough to her city so if she had a work emergency or some sort of commitment she could go right back. she flight is exhausting and her stomach is tight with anxiety the whole way. but the situation doesn’t sink in until she steps foot on the red bull hospitality.
her heart is heavy at the thought that daniel could pop out any second. thankfully, blake finds her first.
he calls her name, beaming, pulling her for a hug. she hugs back, genuinely happy and excited to be there, to see him.
“can’t believe you brought me all the way here,” she says, walking as blake pulls her away to sit at a table outside, “i don’t know what you want me to do.”
she hears a camera shutter, then a whisper, and before she knows it daniel has walked down the stairs deep in conversation with his lead mechanic. he freezes when he sees her, silent. everyone around him coming to a halt too.
everyone is looking at daniel, but soon enough they all realise he’s only looking at her.
the crowd disperses eventually, daniel gives a dismissive nod to his mechanic and he goes, disappears behind a door, leaving the three of them alone in the terrace.
daniel looks rooted to his spot, and she feels like she is rooted to hers, unable to move a muscle. it’s been years since the last time they spoke in person. last glimpse of him she had was his back on a club in perth.
the hundreds of hours of f1 she’s watched will never compare to seeing him in person.
she can’t help but remember how she fell in love with him at first sight, back then. he was all crooked teeth and big curly hair. and she even feels the butterflies in her stomach just like that first time. maybe they’re right when they say that you never forget your first love.
daniel says her name, like he’s trying the sound of it on his tongue, and there’s a quick flash of emotion in his eyes, before he suddenly turns to blake.
“what's going on here?” he looks lost, giving blake a look she can’t decipher.
blake doesn’t back down, speaks in a calm tone, “i invited her. you mentioned she’d always wanted to see a race.”
daniel almost flinches, his demeanour cracking slightly at the insinuation that blake let slip that he talks about her, even now. blake knows exactly what he’s doing.
“yeah, okay, whatever” he says, not a hint of a smile on his face. she’s shocked at the change in his personality. she has never seen him this angry, this upset. he’d never been this mean to anyone, much less blake.
“daniel,” she calls to him, wanting to make the situation better, “can we talk?”
she steps forward, ignoring the fact that her heart feels like it's about to beat itself out of her chest. the closer she gets to him the more the memories come flooding back.
he doesn't step back, and for a moment he looks lost, his eyes big and wide, like he’s being flooded with memories too. his eyebrows knit together for a second before his face loses all emotion.
“sorry, got a car to drive.” he says, shrugs, zips his race suit up to his hips, and walks off.
she looks at blake, who just shakes his head.
“come with me.”
blake walks her to the top of the hospitality building, where a couple of fans gather around so they can watch practice from the screens. she sits down next to blake on a small outdoor sofa, sighing.
blake takes a long sip of his fruity red bull before he starts giving her a run down of daniel’s situation.
he had a horrible last year at mclaren, got fired. red bull picked him up after that and gave him a third driver role, and so many people already called it a pr move, luck, favouritism, helmut marko’s crazy moves. it made daniel want to prove himself more than ever.
and he did, he had a test with them and they decided to put him in the car almost immediately. then after that, after two seasons of being in the sister team, he was promoted to race along max, the reigning champion. everyone doubted him, said he was only there to make max look good. so he worked hard, got in shape and started matching his performance, winning against him wheel to wheel.
but now, after the real championship battle is between him and max, things are getting serious. and he feels like he has no choice but to act this way.
“he’s like he has no brakes,” blake shakes his head, “he feels he has so much to prove, even though i keep telling him he’s doing great. we all are, even max himself.”
she watches on the tv as the camera focuses on daniel’s eyes in the garage. she remembers him when he was young, a go- getter, always saying yes, never giving up. he always pushed himself to the edge, and she admired him for it. but she’s never seen it get this bad.
“i can talk to him,” she tells blake, and he sighs, takes his glasses off to rub his face.
“please.”
she waits by his drivers room for him to come back, heart heavy and with a deatly crip on her phone. he sees her, keeps walking and almsots shuts the door on his face.
“daniel,” she starts, wedging her foot in between the door and the frame. “hear me out.”
“hear you out?” he shakes his head, unzipping his race suit. “like you heard me out when you were trying to break up with me?”
his words hit her like a bullet to the heart, “that’s not fair.”
he scoffs, “what’s fair, anyway.”
she lunges forward and grabs his arm, stopping him from turning around. the door is heavy and closes behind her, leaving them alone in the room. “hey.” she starts, scrutinising his face, “people are worried about you.”
he takes a deep breath, “and you? are you worried about me?” he brushes her hand off, finishes taking his suit off and ties it to his waist, sitting down on a folding chair, “is that why you came all the way here?” he's keeping up with the tough face, his chin up and chest puffed, but she can see right through it.
“daniel, of course i am,” she reassures him, standing awkwardly between daniel an the door. the small space making her feel hot all over.
“so why did you have to wait for blake to call you? you couldn’t come on your own?” he scoffs again, rubbing his face.
“i-”
“don’t pretend you care. we both know you’re here out of some misplaced guilt. whatever we had was over a long time ago, so whatever you think you can do here, it’s not gonna work.” he says the last two words in a huff, like he will lose breath if he doesn’t get them out fast enough.
and before she knows it, she’s shoved out of the door and it closes behind her again, this time leaving her alone with the world.
“hey,” a voice calls her name.
it’s race day, and she’s hovering around daniel’s side of the garage, trying to keep out of the way.
she turns around to find daniel’s teammate max in front of her. he smiles.
“i’m max,” he says with a wink, slipping his arms into his racing suit and zipping it up, “you’re staying for the race?”
“yeah,” she says, smiling at max, her cheek flushing at the wink. she scans the garage for daniel, but he seems nowhere to be seen.
max is still talking to her, “well, i recommend you wear these, it can get pretty loud,” he suddenly moves towards her with a pair of earmuffs in his hands, reaching to place them over her ears. she bends her head down to meet him halfway.
at that moment daniel walks in, and he only spares her and max one second of his time before he turns away and walks to his helmet to fiddle with something. max finishes putting the earmuffs on her and gives her a small smile before he walks away.
she slides closer to daniel, who is ignoring her and bopping to the music coming from his headphones. he gives a nod to a mechanic, slides his balaclava on and before he can get in the car, they lock eyes.
“be careful,” she mouths, hoping he understands.
if he does, he doesn't react. he puts his helmet over his head and slides in the car, revving it as he pulls out of the garage.
“ignore him,” max says from behind her, “don’t take it personally.”
he winks at her again, following it with a bright smile, and then he’s peeling away, the roar of his engine echoing in the garage.
and well, if she can’t get through to daniel maybe she can have some fun after the race anyway.
the race is a close one, lewis hamilton giving daniel a run fro his money. she sits on the edge of her seat next to blake, who curses under his breath every time daniel pulls a crazy move, which is often.
he dives on the inside and almost hits a wall on the first lap, nearly taking himself and max out at the same time.
lewis keeps the heat on him for almost thirty laps, but daniel takes the victory in the end, max coming closely behind them.
she waits for daniel in parc ferme, behind some people from the team and a fence. she’s unsure what to do even if daniel did go up to her. he parks his car behind the p1 sign, but before he can run to the team and celebrate, max is beelining to him.
“you’re going to kill someone, you get that?” max screams through his helmet, walking up to daniel and getting on his face.
daniel keeps it cool, takes his helmet off, smoothes his hair down and barely spares max a glance.
“relax, mate.” he replies, “you lived, right?”
max storms off, walking to the guys in the fence and getting a couple hugs, she hears a few, “leave him alone,” whispered to him in relation to daniel. and then daniel finally makes his way over, receiving even more hugs and some cheers, she stands there, getting squished by men in red bull shirts, daniel pretending she doesn’t exist.
he just walks away to the podium, and she doesn't see him again until later, in the hospitality. she's sitting alone, scrolling through work emails on her phone, when she notices a tall shadow appear in front of her.
"you're still here," daniel says, cold, matter-of-factly. although his cold approach hurts her, she's relieved he's back to talking to her.
"i'm not leaving until we talk," she adds with her arms crossed. he can't help but smile at her childish demeanour, but he glances away so she doesn't notice.
"okay, have it your way," he says, continuing to gaze away from her. "met me at the paddock entrance tonight, and we'll talk."
she can’t believe her ears, she raises her eyebrows, looking at him, “okay. bet.”
he finally meets her eyes, and he holds his gaze there for a few seconds before he turns away again. “see you later.”
the sun is setting when she gets out of the hospitality, thanking the staff there for dinner.
she walks past some mechanics tidying up, the last of the fans driving off and getting out. she makes her way to the entrance, where the driver’s cars are parked. she finds daniel not there, and she’s about to be mad and storm off before he appears jogging behind her.
“alright,” he says, a note of exasperation in his tone, “let’s get this over with.”
he unlocks his car, letting her slip in. she does, taking in the small space there and the comfortable leather seats.
without the team there, without the spectators and media, he was just daniel, the daniel she remembered. he looks like the boy she’d fallen in love with all those years ago. the one she gave her heart out to, the one she shared all those memories with.
he looks like he’s trying not to smile as he starts the car. he drives them to a small hill overlooking the city, miami so bright and lively under the stars.
“this is a great view,” she says, looking around her in awe, getting out the car and sitting on the hood, waiting for daniel to join her. when they were dating, he would always send pictures of the view, tell her exactly how it was like on the track. and she could feel the exhilaration through the phone when he spoke. seeing it in person makes her understand it much more.
“yeah, i love finding spots away from the track,” his tone is almost wishful, and this is the first time in a week he sounds sincere, no anger in his voice.
“so this is it,” she says, turning to her side to look at him, face bright illuminated by the city lights. “this is what you worked so hard to achieve, and look at you. you made it.”
he nods, gazing out at the track, when I’m out on the track, i feel alive, you know? like it’s where i was always meant to be.” he bites the skin on his thumb, “the only other time i felt like that was-” he looks at her for a moment, before turning his head away, “well, that was a long time ago.”
she doesn’t know how many times her heart can break in the span of one week, because the way daniel looks feels like a knife into her chest. she wants to reach out to him, soothe all the pain away.
tentatively, she places a hand on his knee. “i’m sorry,” she starts, he doesn’t pull away but also doesn’t look at her.
“i thought i hated you for so long, but it was just hurt, and disappointed,” he looks down at their feet, his voice low and quiet.
she stays quiet too, doesn’t want to say that she hated herself too, that she took years to get over him, that at the time it felt like the right thing to do.
“do you regret it?” he asks tentatively, his face so open as he looks at her.
“i regret a lot of things,” she replies, holding his gaze. she thinks about how much she does regret it, how she misses him every day.
but then her phone rings.
“go ahead,” daniel says, going back to biting the skin on his thumb.
her heart sinks when she reads the caller id, a man she’d only seen a couple of times. he seemed interested and she’d agreed to a second date. but she’d flown to miami and forgotten to answer him.
she took a deep breath and answered the call, “hello?”
“oh hey, i heard you’re in miami?” the man replied, sounding a little concerned.
“oh yeah,” she answers, looking over at daniel, who was pretending like he was focused on his own phone, clearly listening to the conversation. “i can’t talk right now, are you okay?”
“i’m okay– when are you coming back?” he asks, and she wants to roll her eyes, desperate to get off the phone.
“i don’t know,” she replies, rubbing her eyes, “there’s something i need to do. sorry- bye.”
she ends the call, looking at daniel again, apologetic, “sorry.”
daniel doesn’t meet her gaze, just focuses his eyes on the space between them “sorry i took you away from that,” the coldness is back, and she hates herself for picking up the phone, “maybe you should go home.”
“hey,” her hand finds his knee again, and this time he does pull away, “i’m here to take care of you.”
he stands up then, brushing his jeans off, “i don’t need a babysitter.”
she stands up too, meeting his gaze, “fine.”
he scoffs, “get in the car.”
she does, opening her own door and slipping inside, pretending to be too busy on the phone on the ride to the hotel, not daring to look at daniel all the way to when they separate at the lobby.
“go home,” daniel says again when her back is turned to him.