A World Alone - D.R.

twelve

For both Jade and Dan, the next week away from each other was slow, Jade finalising and finishing off her Thesis, and getting slowly back into the swing of her shifts at the hospital. Dan putting in hour after hour in the race simulator in Enstone, and hour after hour in the gym and going on runs with Joe. Despite the time, and miles between them, they fell into a bit of a routine, face-timing every day, whether it was the morning after one of Jade's nightshifts, or the evening after she finished. They'd eat dinner or breakfast over the shaky internet call every day, catching up the other on their day, or just enjoying each other's company, talking about absolutely nothing. They'd even organised the next time they'd see each other. Dan would come to London and spend the week with her before they jetted off together for the next race in Belgium.

The week they spent together largely involved them hanging out in Jade's flat, binge-watching Netflix TV shows, and playing a few video games jade had on her laptop and PS4. They spent a lot of the time laughing and just generally getting to know each other a bit more. Despite them leaving the flat to spend more time together in a different country, they both missed the routine they had got themselves into over the week.

***

The short flight to Belgium was a very tense affair.

"Everyone is going to judge me aren't they?" Jade said, scraping the polish off her thumbnail with her bottom teeth.

"Who?" Dan asked, eyebrows furrowing. She had already met everyone on the team. They all got on with her. Even Cyrill had given her a bit of a smile.

"The general public," Jade said, swapping her thumbnail for a bit of loose skin on her bottom lip. "In Germany, someone got some pictures of me and you and put them online, and the comments were just horrible. What if they actually see my face this time?"

Dan laughed, "Just ignore them. they're not worth it, and even if they do see your face they'll think your amazing"

Jade shot him a scathing look and turned to look out of the window, watching the clouds go past.

Daniel turned around, looking up and down the aisle for a steward. He successfully flagged one down and sorted a drink out for him and Jade. Glittery gin and lemonades for each of them. He nudged Jade and she turned around, smiling when she saw the drinks in his hands. She gratefully took one, and rested her head on his shoulder as he wrapped his arm around her for a half-cuddle. Jade picked up one of the headphones resting on Dan's chest and put in her ear, listening to whatever music Dan had chosen to be his playlist for the flight.

Dan smiled down at Jade's head and gently kissed the spot in the middle of her head where her hairline met her forehead. He pulled out his phone and took a quick selfie of them with careless smiles on their faces. Jade's eyes were shut as she rested on Dan's chest, and he was looking down at her with a very soft look in his eyes. He looked at the picture for a little while, before opening Instagram, and posting the picture, not bothering with a caption. He clicked his phone screen off and put his phone back on the tray table in front of him.

Dan's eyes shot open as the plane wheels hit the ground. He pulled Jade closer into him as she stirred too. She blinked up at him, and he leaned down to give her a little peck on the lips. She pulled the other half of Dan's earbud out of her ear and sat back up. and started watching out of the window at the Belgian airport, glad that they were out of the sky. Strangely though, with Dan sat beside her, she didn't feel half as anxious as she usually did on planes. He knew exactly what to say to distract and calm her down.

They had left at a stupid time in the morning to make the flight that Wednesday morning, and for good reason, the airport was very quiet. No-one was there to notice Daniel, but he had his hood up and sunglasses on anyway. The two brunettes headed to the rental car point, and after a little bit of waiting, and some confusion about what car they were getting, Dan had the keys in hand and was ready to head to the circuit. He had logo's on under his staple black hoodie, but they wouldn't be visible until they reached the track, and were safely tucked away in Daniel's driver's room at the back of the garage.