Picture Perfect | Daniel Ricciardo

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'We need to talk, in private.' Dani said to Daniel as she decided to stand up from the sand and wrapped her hands around Daniel's biceps to make him stand up too. He thankfully did and let her drag him with her.
'What were you thinking?' Dani asked Daniel immediately after she stopped far away from the group to have more privacy. She had stopped at the big rocks, knowing that this place normally was never crowded anyway, so that their conversation could be as private as needed. 
'Dani that guy was all over you. I'm just protecting you,' Daniel said back to her, pointing his finger to the group that was pretty far away from them.
'Protecting me? From who?' Dani said in a harsh tone. 'My friend?'
'You might see him as your friend, but he surely wants more than that,' Daniel said back. 
'You're being ridiculous,' she said, shaking her head as she curled her arms over each other. Sure, Finn was being ridiculous too, but for some reason, she expected more from Daniel. But why would she? People can change after a few years. What reason was there to not expect Daniel to be a changed person too? Maybe they will never have that click with each other anymore because now they were too different. A racing driver and someone that wants to illustrate children books? That seems like two completely different things. 
'Listen, Dani. I just don't want to lose you, again.' Daniel tried to give her a small smile, hoping that his reason was good enough for her. She shook her head slowly as she avoided his look by looking to her feet in the sand.
'I don't want to lose you either, but it does make me ask myself; What if we both changed too much?' Her eyes slide a little bit up, to see his facial reaction, but kept her head down. Was she gonna regret asking that question? What if he agreed with her? Realising that they actually were both going in the opposite direction from each other. She would lose him again. Even if she wasn't happy with him right now, she didn't want to lose him again now that she knew that that one night that meant so much to her, meant the same amount to Daniel too. 
'Dani no!' Daniel said in a hard tone back. He put both hands on each side of the side of her head, pushing it a bit up so that she was forced to look at him. Even though his first reaction sounded so hard, his facial expression was the complete opposite. He had a soft look on his face as he almost drilled his eyes into Dani's. 'We haven't changed. You haven't changed. I haven't changed. We just got a little bit older, other than that we are still the same old two Dani's,' 
Daniel kept a close and intense look on Dani, hoping he had convinced her so that she would never ever have to ask that question again. 
'But you were being so aggressive to Finn,' Dani said softly. Both of Daniel's hand were still holding her on each side of her face and she felt his thumbs softly caressing her cheeks. Even in a situation where she should be mad at him, she felt like having butterflies flying around in her stomach. 
'I know. I'm sorry, I won't do it again.' Daniel said and she decided to believe his words. She smiled at him and nodded softly at him. He returned the smile with one of his bright smile. They kept looking at each other like that for a while until Daniel broke the staring contest. 'Shall we go back? I promise I will behave,' He had a big grin on his face that reminded Dani of their teenage years where he used that playful grin all the time. She nodded at him as an answer, but right before Daniel tried to make his way back, Dani took hold on his wrist and pulled him back. Daniel looked back at her while he raised his eyebrows as a way to ask her what was up. 
'Daniel, before we go back,' she started, glancing for a second back at the group that seems to even in a distance like this keep an eye on them. 'What are we?'
'What do you mean?' He turned his body around again, giving Dani his full attention. She shrugged, not sure how to explain what she was trying to figure out in her mind. 
'You know, between us. Where are we currently?' Dani pinched one eye shot as the sun was shining right into her eyes now that Daniel had moved his body. You could see Daniel thinking about his answer. It almost felt like that question was a test between the two. They obviously both knew that they didn't want to go too fast by starting again where they had left it, which was prom night. Although Daniel wouldn't mind it if they did. It had been a long time since prom night and even though Daniel told Dani they hadn't changed, things certainly had changed. They weren't teenagers anymore. 
'We are currently like we were a day before prom? Does that sound alright?' he asked uncertainly. Dani smiled back at him and nodded.
'That sounds okay,' she agreed with him. Daniel nodded back at her and pulled her close to him by putting an arm around her, resting his hand on her shoulder. She looked a few times up to his face while they slowly made their way back to the group they were hanging out with and she couldn't help but smile, because it all felt so familiar.

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A/N: A new chapter right before the race. Hope you like it (:
ALSO, thank you so much for 1k reads on this story!