Picture Perfect | Daniel Ricciardo

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Christmas hasn't been the same the last two times that it was Christmas. Mostly because Dani hadn't spent Christmas at home the last two times, but even now Christmas isn't what it used to be. They actually always spent Christmas eve going to their grandparents, which they did this time too, but on actual Christmas day, it used to be Dani's family and Daniel's family together. Because the whole family used to be very close to each other. Now on Christmas day the whole family from Dani's dad side came and spend the whole day at their house eating. God, what did Dani missed the old days. Not that she didn't like hanging out with her cousins, uncles and aunts. It was just that she liked it more to spend it with Daniel and his family, even after that barbeque...  After those comments that Karen had made about them being a cute couple, Dani couldn't help but keep thinking about it. Her feelings for Daniel obviously hadn't suddenly disappeared. They were still here to annoy her. Being just friends didn't seem enough anymore for her. She wanted, selfishly, the whole package. 

After the whole family was gone, it was time for the dishes. Because they used expansive plates and cutlery for Christmas, it meant that they couldn't just be thrown into the dishwasher. Dani's mom wanted it to be washed by hand and because the parents have been cooking for the whole family, the kids could do the washing up. Will did the washing up, while both Kurt and Dani dried everything up. The Christmas music was still on, which first was meant as background music, but because Kurt put the volume up they started to all sing along to it loudly. Gina, Will's girlfriend, had decided to help the three siblings and would put every plate or cutlery back in their original spot after they've been washed and dried up. She couldn't help but laugh at the three siblings who tried to all sing louder than the others, making the singing sound ridiculous. Their mom yelled at them because she couldn't hear the television above their singing, but even then they kept on going. It actually was until the backdoor in the kitchen that slowly got opened that they finally decided to shut up. 
'Daniel, you're way too late, all the food is gone!' Kurt grinned as he saw Daniel walking in first. Dani looked at her friend standing in the door opening. He had two presents in his hand, making all the three siblings look at him curiously. 
'You don't even have leftovers?' Daniel asked as he pouted. He started to laugh straight after that as he couldn't maintain that fake sad look on his face.  
'No, I don't think-' Kurt started but got interrupted by his mom that walked into the kitchen.
'I always have some Christmas dinner leftover for our Daniel,' Dani's mom said with a big smile. 'Do you want some?' 
'No, no! Maybe later though. I first have to give Dani something,' Daniel said while a grin was growing on his face. Everyone was staring at Dani now, who was hoping to still look very casual while she was still drying a plate. 
'Well, too bad. She's helping with the dishes,' Will said, sounding a bit more irritated than normal. 
'I can help,' Daniel said as he already made his way further into the kitchen, but got stopped by Gina who he didn't really know too well. He had seen her a few times when Will started to date her a little bit longer than three years ago, but that was it. 
'Don't be so ridiculous. Dani go with him. I'll take over,' Gina said with a sisterly smile and took the kitchen towel over from Dani while she pushed her softly to Daniel. Before she closed the backdoor that leads you outside, she could hear Gina talk to Will.
'What's wrong with you?' 
'Will really hates me, hmm?' Daniel asked although he was more confirming it. He had put on a smile, but Dani could see right through it. He didn't like that he was hated by Will.
'He will get over it,' Dani told him as she tried to convince him with her own smile. Daniel walked out of Dani's small garden to go straight to the beach. Dani followed him silently as she was carefully looking at where she was walking in the dark. Daniel stopped somewhere in the middle between the garden and the sea and waited until Dani had made it over there too. He looked at her as she was focused on the ground while she was tiptoeing on her bare feet. He sat down when she finally was standing next to him and she was close to following his lead. Dani had a curious look on her face as she watched how Daniel handed over his present that he was holding. 
'Here, open this one.' he said with a smile as his eyes met those with hers. She smiled back at him as she took the present from him. Their hands softly touched as Dani took the present over from him. The small touch made without them noticing both of their smiles brighter. Dani looked back at the present in her hands. She could see he had wrapped it himself as it looked a bit messy on the sides. He tried to cover it up by putting a ribbon around it. Dani looked back again to Daniel.
'What is it?' she asked. 
'Open it and you will know,' he grinned back. She pouted for a second, but soon enough she decided to just open it. She pushed the ribbon away slowly and opened up the wrapping paper carefully as if it was going to be re-used. She looked at the two A5-format books. One that looked like just a sketchbook and other with an amazingly good illustration on its cover. She looked confused at Daniel at the hope he would explain it.
'I was supposed to give you this one a few Christmases ago,' he said as he pointed the what looked like a sketchbook. 'but you know, after our miscommunication.. yeah. But if you open it up, I made these ugly drawings of our history and how our future together would look like.' Dani opened the book up as he explained and she laughed at the first drawing he made. In the left corner of it, there was a picture of the two of them on the first day they met. She kept on laughing as she went through page by page while Daniel kept explaining. 'I knew that you wanted to write and illustrate children books and I guess I wanted to impress you.'
'It's sweet,' Dani told him as she smiled with her mouth open to show her teeth smile, which was known to be her biggest smile because her eyes would light up too. 
'Then, last year I met this guy that makes these awesome illustrations and I asked him to kind of remake this, but in his own creative way,' He took the book where he had drew in slowly out of her hands so that she could focus on the book with the beautiful cover. 'I sat down with him a few days and I've talked about all these memories of ours and he came up with this,'
'This is cool,' Dani said as she went through the pages. 'hey! My picture box made it in,' she laughed as she looked at the illustrated scene of Daniel looking through the pictures in the wooden box. 
'Of course it did,' Daniel grinned at the excitement of the girl next to him. Dani decided to let her head lean against Daniel's shoulder as she kept on looking through the pages. She felt the butterflies in her stomach as Daniel put his arm around her to push her closer to him. She smiled to herself as closed the book slowly. Her hand went over the cover of the book. 
'Daniel?' she asked after a short silence between them. 
'Yeah?' 
'Would you have ever given me this if we'd never spoke to each other again?' she asked softly as she felt him caressing her upper arm. She moved her head a little to look at the side of his face. He was concentrated on the sea as he spoke up.
'I actually got it a few weeks back and was planning to give it at least to your mom, hoping she would give it to you,' he explained. 'but I'm glad I'm able to give it to you personally.' His smile had returned as he told the last part. Dani couldn't help but feel happy as she looked at Daniel. She was glad too that he gave this special present to her personally. That they found each other again. It made her realise that whatever was going to happen, she would never let it happen to lose him again. They kept on sitting like this in each other's arms for a while. Daniel has been looking at the waves for a while, meanwhile Dani had slowly closed her eyes and started to almost fall asleep on Daniel's shoulder.