Give Me the Initial D.

Takumi Fujiwara - Heartbeat

Words: 1,357.

This is a request for soundyy88!

In which an arcade racer and street racer bring their differences together that only strengthens their relationship and love for racing, as well as a cute tofu boy helping his girlfriend drift a real car.

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She was an arcade racer; he was a street racer. She's never raced on real roads, while he has. She was an expert drifter in the games, and he was an expert drifter on the mountains. She, of course knew the process of drifting, but it was quite different compared to a video game. She wanted to know the feeling of real drifting. She wanted to know the exhilaration that video games simply couldn't give. He gave her the exhilaration with such ease, with a relaxed face and a small smile gracing his beautiful lips as he took occasional glances in her direction.

She was loving every minute. The screeching sound of tires on the road, the high revving of the 4A-GE engine that echoed through Akina, and the tilt the car made from its soft suspension as it drifted oh so perfectly around a hairpin. This was amazing. This was an experience that was better than any racing game she'd ever played. She wanted him to teach her. She wanted to drift along with him across the pass in her own car, following the bright taillights of his Trueno as she chased after him and drifted in tandem. Whether it was them racing through the pass for fun or simply wanting to drive fast next to each other, she wanted to do it all with him. She could easily give up her arcade racing for this. Racing games were nothing in comparison. They never made her heart beat in the way this was.

He was interested in her style of racing. What was it like controlling a fake car rather than a real one? Was it easier? Harder? Did it give the same responses as a real car would? Was drifting a video game car easier than real life? He wanted her to show him what it was like. Were video games how she learned to drive and practice racing styles? He would find it impressive to learn to drift without ever being behind the wheel of an actual car. He was always easily surprised. He wondered how long it took her to perfect her drifting style in her games.

He glanced at her again, his small smile becoming slightly wider after seeing how big her own was. Her eyes shined so brightly and he adored it. He was curious if they would shine brighter if he taught her to drive his car with the same method his dad used to teach him. Would she figure out the method faster than he did with her current skill and knowledge? How long would it take her to grasp onto her own style, maybe even the same as his own or similar, with the method?

"Takumi?"

"Yeah?"

"Teach me how to drift."

"I learned in a way that I'm pretty sure no one else has. It'll be different than what you're thinking and are used to."

"Then I want to learn the same way you did. Everything you're doing is amazing. I can't even do this in my games."

And so, he taught her. She had a great understanding of the concept and the footing but still spilled a lot of the water. It didn't take her as long as him to figure out how to smoothly roll the water around the rim of the cup. It took a little over a month, and she only got better. Takumi was proud of her. He was so proud. He's never felt anything near that with someone else's driving, but the way she handled the Trueno around Akina was beautiful – like her- and made his heartbeat race every time.

He wasn't scared of her driving like he was of his friends'. Her practice from the video games really gave her an advantage. She mastered the gutter run in about the same time it took him. He found it cute how she always giggled when she dipped the car into the gutter and quickly turned the corner.

While Takumi taught her how to drift a real car, she showed him how to drift video game cars. It was a huge difference. There wasn't really any give and take in a game and no swaying when going around a corner. It was... flat? All screen movement, no real or body movement. It was too easy to drift, he would say. The tires gave no fight with the steering wheel when skidding, it was only sound. It felt way too weird to Takumi that he nearly called it foreign and not driving at all. It made him all the more impressed that (Y/N) was able to learn to drift an actual car that fought back in somewhat a short amount of time, even with knowing the fundamentals.

She worked hard during the last half of the year and gave Takumi quite a surprise when he was doing a delivery run and saw an 8-6 gain on him quickly. He thought it was possibly Wataru coming back to have a run on Akina, maybe even Itsuki having a late-night practice, but was somehow not expecting (Y/N) to speed past him in her own Trueno and flawlessly drift around a corner.

She slowed down and lined up next to him on the next straightaway, giving him a cheesy smile and wave through the window. He laughed, lightly shaking his head. They pulled over at the iconic spot where downhill races start and (Y/N) pulled out a paper cup filled with water from the car, taking a sip of it. She gently tapped the cup against the small can of coffee Takumi was holding and took another sip. He chuckled at her cute antics.

After their small drink break and small talk (Y/N) proposed they have a race for fun down Akina since he was heading home from his deliveries. She had a strong feeling she wouldn't win since her car wasn't anywhere near built up like Takumi's since his dad always played around with it. As well as the fact that Takumi had years of experience on the pass and his skills were so much better compared to her. She didn't care at all if she lost, she only cared about the exhilaration of drifting in tandem with Takumi and chasing after those bright taillights.

The Ghost of Akina had obviously won, even when he slowed down a bit on purpose to let her catch up and keep a pace with her. She drove with him back to his house and he asked, albeit shyly and with a dark blush, if she wanted to spend the rest of the night with him before he had to wake up for work. She happily accepted and grabbed her small bag from the passenger seat before following him inside.

His old man greeted them both, having being used to (Y/N) visiting Takumi quite often. He had grown fond of the girl, surprised even, with how she managed to get someone like Takumi to teach to her drift. The couple were quickly under the warm covers of his bed and (Y/N) pulled out a few gaming magazines from her bag, showing Takumi the varieties of video games and her favourite racing games, she has the top scores in.

He occasionally asked her questions about them all to which she excitedly answered them all. He found it endearing how passionate she was for simple games. He loved indulging her for the small things she loved which only fueled her passion more. She had quite the extensive armada of knowledge on cars, their parts, their specs, anything he could think of, she knew a lot of it.

When they were finally tired enough to fall asleep, she lightly tossed the magazines on top of her bag and rolled over to cuddle into Takumi's side, with her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat. He wrapped an arm around her waist and his other around her shoulders with his hands gently weaving through her hair, quickly lulling her to sleep in his arms, just barely aware of the soft kisses he left on her forehead and lips before falling asleep himself.