racing hearts - a Fabio Quartararo fanfiction [🇬🇧]

chapter 6

[Right now - One Direction]

I lay in the bed of my hotel room, despair coursing through me as I felt a pressure inside me that was choking my throat. God it felt like someone put a bag with ten kilos of cement on my chest.
My start to the racing season was pathetic. I dropped from 5th place to 9th place and then I had to park my car because I had problems with the engine.
I almost never say that, but I was glad there wasn't a race next week and I had a week off.
Our tests had actually always been so good, which is why this bad result of mine was almost a shock, from which I had to recover first.
I felt a short vibration next to me, which turned into a ring.
I looked at the screen annoyed, but then a feeling of warmth spread through me when I saw who was calling me via FaceTime. It was Fabio.
I would love to have him here with me right now. I felt longing for him. However, that didn't work and so a phone call seemed to me at least to be a reasonably good alternative.
His race was probably over now and he had time to make a call.
I immediately picked up and saw him in front of me.
"Hey," he greeted me.
"Hey. And how was it?" I asked. If I had a bad result, I hope Fabio has a good one and doesn't feel the same as I do.
"Good. I held my position. 4th place. How was yours?"
"To be honest... It was awful!"
Fabio's radiant facial expression turned more pitiful, and his tone became softer and more empathetic: "Hey, what happened?"
I started straight away when I sat down at my desk and put my phone down in front of me, "Well, my qualifying was worse than expected and then I dropped straight back to 9th place, only to drive into the pits a little later because I had an engine failure. It was a complete disappointment for me and the team... It's really up to me this time-"
"You can't do anything against an engine failure," Fabio interrupted me with a stern look that meant I shouldn't blame myself too much.
I looked up at him.
"Yeah, but you know what I mean. The qualifying and falling back to 9th place was my fault. The car can drive on a podium course, Max proved that. He finished second."
"Do you now have a break between the next race?" he asked after a short silence.
I nodded and stared at some spot from the desk, but I noticed Fabio's eyes burning at me when he started talking again, "That's good. Then take a week off and clear your head. Leave your social media for a week and just calm down."
"Easier said than done," I replied as I felt tears welling up in my eyes. It was just out of sheer desperation. On the one hand because that thing with Fabio confused me and I was extremely afraid of getting hurt. On the other hand, of course, because of my 9th place, which ended in the box.
Actually, I coped with bad results relatively well. Sure, I didn't like them, but they didn't make me feel the way I do right now.
I think my race result worried me so much because my contract only ran until the end of this season. If this continues, then I don't know if last year's world title is reason enough to not kick me.
I don't think Fabio knew my contract was going to expire, but I didn't want to start about that now. Otherwise I'll be labeled as crazy because I may have interpreted too much into this result.
Silence reigned between us again. My thoughts were lost in the result and Fabio's thoughts were lost in the things he could say to make me feel better.
"Nika?" I heard his voice, which was louder than before and sounded more determined. Yet she was still gentle.
"Hm?"
I snapped out of my thoughts and looked up at him.
"Actually, it doesn't make any sense anymore, does it?" he asked.
Somehow his question gave me a bad feeling. What should no longer make sense?
"What do you mean?" I asked afterwards, my voice sounding more anxious than I planned.
Fabio began to explain: "I miss you...really..."
"I miss you too," I replied.
"Besides, seeing you like this is killing me more than you might think. I have a suggestion."
"Which?"
"We've got a week off now. Come visit me in Italy again and stay there til Sunday. I promise you'll feel better afterwards."
I considered. Of course I wanted to see him. More than anything else. He had expressed my wish from earlier, so to speak.
However, suddenly something held me back. A raw fear came over me, out of nowhere. I couldn't explain where it came from in the first place, but somehow it was there.
"Fabio, I..."
He interrupted me, "Come on, Nika. I want to be there for you. Also-"
He disappeared from the screen. What was he going to do now?
A few seconds later he reappeared in the picture. This time with a cat in his arms.
"...She already misses you."
I didn't know why, but somehow I thought it was cute how Fabio held his cat in his arms. It made me smile.
"I missed the smile," he said smiling with me.
"Wouldn't it be about time to invite you to Monaco?" I asked.
"No, Jules and I insist that you come to us for a week. We can do that with Monaco another time."
"Okay, I'll be there on Tuesday morning. I think I need to sleep off my jet lag on Monday."
"Deal," Fabio replied, although I could already hear the radiance in his voice.
I automatically glanced at my watch on my cell phone when I went into shock.
"Shit, I have to be down in five minutes. We're going to the airport with the team and I haven't packed yet."
"Okay, you'd better hurry up," Fabio advised me.
I nodded hastily: "Yes, I'll do that. I'll book the flight to Italy later and I'll write to you when I have the tickets."
We said our goodbyes quickly and I went to my suitcase.