-Across America- Diego Brando x reader

~43~

Sorry for not updating earlier! I've been kinda sick and didn't feel like doing anything. But this chapter is here🙏🏻

We got on the horses. We thanked the owners of the house, and we began galloping to the finishing line.
We went into a frozen forest when it started snowing. Almost there.. We couldn't see the town, but it was really close. I hated going through forested regions, I had to be really cautious all the time.
"Finally.." I heard Diego muttering. "Hey, I think I see something!" I was excited. I saw the clear opening. We ran out of the forest and we were just about 1 kilometer away from the town's entrance, where the finishing line was. I could hear all of the people's shouts even from such distance. "I wonder which place we will get.." I thought to myself. However, it wasn't really of an importance. We had secured our first places in previous stages. I smiled to myself. "Life has been quite good here if I think about it.." I sighed. "Is everything alright, Y/N? Are you feeling good?" He immediately took notice of it. "Of course, yes. I'm just admiring the pretty white snowflakes, they remind me of you.." I looked at him. "It's not the time for this please.. So just focus on the race, we're falling behind." He was overly-determined, as always . I realized that other racers were gathering near us. "My bad, we should definitely win this."

1 hour later

So we got 19th and 20th place.. Still good💅🏻

"Damn, It's not that bad, but I'm still kind of upset." I grunted. "..There was nothing we could do, stop crying about it." He sighed. "Aren't you even a little irritated?" I asked. "No, I'm okay with it. I'm even happy, at least you're here with me, alive." He looked to the side. "Did I tell you? Lucy Steel was killed." Diego suddenly said. "What? Lucy? Are you being for real?" I couldn't believe it. "Yes, they found her laying by the river, she was dead." He looked back at me. "This can't be true.. Why would you say it with such lack of emotion though? She was rather close to us.." I felt extremely sad, unable to do anything. "How do you expect me to say it?" He asked, couldn't understand what I meant. "..Forget it." Sometimes his lack of empathy was really tiring for me. I was confused.. In all of the records of the race, there was no such thing as her being killed, it was strange. "Who would do that? To her..And why?" I had so many questions in mind. Maybe I was actually the reason why this happened..

I felt a little weak probably because of the improper way of recovering. I was stressed out, there were too many things that happened in the last few days. I needed some coffee, a little nap maybe too. "Diego, we have a day off, are we gonna spend it in pointlessly hanging around this town's streets?" He was clearly looking around for something. "I told you already, you can go check in and do whatever you want, I have something to do. I promise I'll be back later. Why don't you go check up on Gyro?" He hurried. "Are you looking for a place to pee or what? Don't tell me you're keeping secrets from me again. I ain't leaving until you tell me." I was tired of it. "..Y/N, I'll tell you later, believe me. Now it is not the time nor the place for me to discuss it." He turned back and reached out to hold my hand. "Fine.. you're not getting away with that though." I pulled my hand away and guided my horse to turn, heading for the apartments that we were given.

"I'm so fucking pissed off, why didn't he tell me earlier what he was going to do? What am I supposed to do now.." I had gotten off my horse since I wanted to walk for a little. "Damn, I miss taking long walks alone.." I sighed and closed my eyes while talking to myself and Megan Stallion. I was so goddamn sleep deprived. "I need some coffee-" "Tired, aren't you?" Someone on the on my right behind my horse spoke. I immediately recognized the italian accent. I looked behind and saw Gyro and Johnny sitting on a bench on the side of road together. "Guys!" I wasn't expecting to see them, but well, I did. I let go of my horse's leash and ran towards them. I missed them a lot, and now that Diego wasn't here I could talk with them more freely. "I missed you guys so much!" I hugged Johnny then Gyro. "We really missed having you around too.. come sit." They made space so I could be in the middle.
"Tell me guys, how have you been?" I smiled. "Hmm, not bad. Could be better if you were with us. A lot of things happened.." Gyro spoke. "Huh?" I was curious. "We got attacked by a lot of stand users, there seems to be many people trying to get the corpse's parts." Johnny continued. They both seemed down. "I see.. Diego and me got attacked too. I guess it can't be avoided." It was tough, I'm just glad Dio gave up on pursuing the other parts. "I wonder why.." I thought to myself. "I miss having pizza with you guys-" "Me too. "Same.." They said simultaneously. "I wish we could go back to when it wasn't that hard." Johnny sighed. There was silence. I thought about it, there was really nothing I can do. The world was now a dangerous place.. I also wished if we hadn't gotten in this mess at all. It was all too much for me to handle. I started quietly sobbing. Johnny hugged me. "Now don't cry, we're all gonna have fun once this is over.. It's not worth it." He tried comforting me. "Sorry.. I didn't want to leave you both." Tears fell down my cheeks. "You're such a crybaby, Y/N. It's all fine, it's in the past. And we are all fine!" Gyro chuckled. "Okay then.." "When we win, I'm gonna take you two to Napples. It's so much better there. The pizza is just on a whole another level." He wiped the tears off my face. "We should go together somewhere else too, we have a lot of money now. Y/N, got any ideas?" Johnny asked. "Hmm, I've been wanting to go to Japan or the south pole." I told them. "The south pole? Isn't it freezing cold there??" Gyro seemed to not like the idea. "No shit sherlock. At least we can see penguins, they are so cute and fluffy." I giggled. "Japan sounds nice.. I'm up." Johnny agreed. "Yeah, I'm up for Japan too." Gyro said. I was genuinely happy, but wanted to see the penguins...
After we talked for a bit, it was time that they go. Gyro and me got up and Johnny sat on his wheelchair. "It was so fun spending time with you again Y/N."  He opened his hands for yet another hug. I bent down to hug him. He was so warm and comfortable, such a sweet boy. "I must say, I've really missed you too." Gyro spoke from behind. I turned around and gave him a hug for goodbye too. "Soon, just a little more and we'll hang out again." I smiled.
They walked off.
"Now I gotta find Diego.." I was irritated once again. I didn't know where the fuck he was, nor my hotel. "Wait.. I'm sure I brought my horse with me.. WHERE IS MY HORSE?!" I realized I let go of it before I sat with Gyro and Johnny. "God, this can't be happening. Megan ran away- this damn horse!" I got pissed off, I didn't know whether it was at the horse or myself, both probably.
I looked around, but I couldn't see it. I decided to go left. I saw a kid on the side of the road. "Hey you! Have you seen a white horse, middle aged, and very handsome?" I yelled. It just pointed straight to where I was headed.
I started walking faster and looking around asking people. I was so done. This was it. Well I'm sorry everyone, unfortunately I never found my horse and this will be the end of the story, I hope you enjoyed it.
Just kidding, but I was at my breaking point. I was about to cry. "It's all Diego's fault, he shouldn't have left me in the first place. Now I wouldn't be here searching the streets for-" "Is this what you may be looking for? Seems like you lost it." A really familiar voice behind me spoke. "Diego!" I saw him leading my horse. He jumped off Silver Bullet and made his way to me. "What happened and why the hell is your horse wandering around the city? Someone could have just stolen it. Do you even think? Use your head??" He sighed and closed his eyes. "I'm sorry that I left, but it was urgent. Now that you have your horse, let's go find these apartments. I need to eat something." He got on his horse again and so did I.
"Where were you?" I asked. "I was in a meeting with the president." He answered. "Why? What were you doing there?" I was confused. "I can't say.. At least here, right now." It looked like it was something serious since he didn't want to speak about it in a public space. "So what about you? Where were you?" He questioned while looking at me. His look.. there was something off about it. "I met up with Gyro and Johnny, then lost my horse, nothing else." I grunted. "Haha, okay. I'm sorry I had to leave you like that, I'll surely make up for it." He apologized. "It's fine.." He was too sweet so I couldn't really be mad at him.

After asking a few other racers, we found the place. They picked a really weird location for the accommodation of the racers. This time we weren't staying in a hotel, but houses. "I quite like the idea.. We gotta find out which house is ours." Diego said. "I suppose we will be with someone else, they are too big only for two racers." I added. "Yeah.. That's a little troublesome." He nodded.

We got the keys for house 6. We left out horses in the backyard and got in.
There was a nice winter smell. It had a view to the lake. It was cozy, I felt at home and safe. "Looks like they can afford something better now that the racers decreased." Diego laughed mockingly. "I can't really complain, I like it anyway." It was fine..

Have a great day/night!