Picture Perfect | Daniel Ricciardo

° 21 °

New year's eve. A night where it was unbelievably busy at the beach. You'd have to walk further down on the beach to have some quietness because in the middle of the beach there were parties on parties going on. Although Dani had spent all of her time with Daniel the past few days and she really wanted to spent new years eve with him too, she had already agreed with Finn and Oliver a few days back that she would spend it with them on the beach. Maybe that was a good thing as Daniel was spending his night partying on the beach together with Carl, Sarah, Gavin and Corrie. 
'Oh my god. Do I smell barbeque?!' Oliver suddenly said as the three of them were walking from Dani's house to the place where the party was mostly happening. 
'We just ate... We just ate a whole pizza at Dani's place. How are you still hungry?' Finn asked confused to his friend as he had made it clear that the pizza he just ate was enough for him for a while. 
'Mate,' Oliver said as he put his arms both around Finn and Dani to pull them closer to him as he was walking in the middle. 'I can't say no to a barbie,' he grinned. 
'I don't know if it's part of the party though,' Dani told his friend. He shrugged and pushed his arms away from his two friends. 
'If I ask nicely, surely they will share with me,' Oliver had said, saying goodbye to his two friends already. 'See you guys later!' 
Finn and Dani shared a look with each other. 'And then there were two,' Finn made as a comment. He pulled his arm around her shoulder, just like Oliver did before he decided that food was more important than his friends and got something to drink together. They'd spent most of their time sitting in the sand and eventually, Oliver joined them again. He was in some sort of food coma because he couldn't or just didn't want to move out of the sand as he was fully laying down in the sand. He'd actually managed to ask the people that were having a barbeque if he could join them and weirdly enough to Dani and Finn they let Oliver eat with them. 
'Honestly, that was the best way to end this year,' Oliver sighed with happiness as he patted his stomach. Dani let out a giggle as she shook her head to her friend. 

Meanwhile, Daniel stood a little back from the trio, drinking his bottle of beer that he got handed by Gavin.
'It's time to get drunk mate, just like these ones.' Gavin said as he pointed with his own beer to Corrie and Sarah who were as Daniel would describe it as shitfaced. Gavin clicked his own beer against Daniel's making the beer inside Daniel's glass spill over.
'Mate,' Daniel sighed annoyed. Although he wasn't sure he was annoyed with Gavin or seeing Dani's friend, Finn, whisper something to her.
'I'm telling you, get as drunk as you can.' Gavin smirked, having watched Daniel staring at Dani.
'Please don't listen to him,' Carl protested, joining the conversation as he overheard Gavin while he had been busy to control the two girls in their group. If anyone out of the group knew Daniel's love for Dani, it was Carl. And he wanted to be a good friend for Daniel, instead of letting him embarrasses himself like Gavin would like to see.
'Uhm, yes listen to me. It's new years eve. What else are we supposed to do? C'mon Daniel! Let's do it like last year,' Gavin said, putting his arm around Daniel's neck and pulling him as close to him as he could. Carl shook his head in disapproval and hoped his friend wouldn't get along with this.
'Actually,' Daniel said as he pulled Gavin's away. 'I have another plan,'
Both Carl and Gavin looked at how Daniel walked away from the group. Gavin decided to just go after him, which made Carl go after him keeping Gavin away from troubling Daniel. 

Dani was again giggling about something Oliver said but that giggle changed immediately in a high pitch scream that was caused by Daniel who tried and succeeded in scaring Dani. 
'Daniel!' she said, still with all the adrenaline flying around in her body. He flopped next to her in the sand as he gave Finn and Oliver a friendly nod, which he got a nod returned. One friendlier looking than the other. At least that was a start, were Dani's thoughts as she felt Daniel put his arm lazily around her shoulder. she looked back at him and smiled, meanwhile Carl and Gavin joined the group too and sat down in the little circle that Dani firstly had formed with Finn and Oliver. Daniel looked back at Dani.
'I tried to lose them,' Daniel laughed softly to Dani as he saw on her face that she didn't like their company very much. But as he whispered in her ear Oliver decided to make noise at them.
'Oi. Oi, oi. No  kissy kissy whispers in this circle of joy. If you want to do that, you gotta find yourself a private part on the beach.' Oliver grinned as he leaned his body on his two elbows to sit a little bit up. Mostly of course to see and enjoy the tension between Finn and Daniel. Because unlike Finn, Oliver actually kind of started to like the guy. 
'You got any suggestions?' Daniel joked, making Dani give him a little slap against his stomach and receiving an annoyed eye roll from Finn.  
'I saw a couple almost having sex a little bit further up there, maybe you could steal their spot,' Oliver grinned, enjoying all of the different reactions from the group.
'That's enough Oliver,' Finn told his friend. 
'Yeah Oliver. I'd like to think I'm classier and more romantic than that,' Daniel responded back. Dani looked over at Daniel and couldn't help but raise her voice by that comment.  She had a thoughtful look in her eyes, making Daniel look back at her. 
'I thought you once told me you would like to have sex on the beach at least once,' Dani spoke. Oliver couldn't help but laugh at the conversation somehow kept on going. Daniel had a surprised look on his face as he looked back at Dani. 
'You remembered?' Daniel asked confused. 'Whatever. That was a long time ago. I've grown up.' 
'Sure,' Dani laughed playfully.
'Are you challenging me here? I will prove it.'

And proving it, Daniel was going to do. Later that evening when the group was kind of split off, with Carl and Gavin trying to keep the girls Sarah and Corrie in tack, and Oliver dragging Finn with him. Making Daniel and Dani be alone, just how Daniel wanted it to be. He'd asked if she wanted to go somewhere quiet and she happily accepted it and she let her get dragged by Daniel's hand in hers. They got to a quiet place on the beach, making Dani think back of the conversation that they had at the beginning of the night. 
'Is this you trying to finally have sex on the beach. Because in that case, you should've asked Oliver to find you the right girl for that.' Dani joked, making Daniel stop and turn his body to her. 
'That's a joke right,' he started, straightening his back as they locked eyes. Dani's lips curled up. Her smile also being responsible for the sparkle in her eyes, showing the amusement on her face. Although Daniel didn't seem to notice her amusement as he kept explaining himself. 'Because whatever you say, you're the only right girl-'
'I was joking, don't worry.' Dani laughed as she interrupted him in the middle of his sentence. Daniel closed his mouth as he studied her face. Daniel started to notice that his heart was beating faster and faster. A nervous feeling was coming as a wave through his body as he was rethinking his decision to confess the things he was about to say to his friend. 
'We have three minutes left to the new year guys!' A man shouted loudly as he walked past Dani and Daniel. 
'Oh god, we do?' Dani asked confused as she took out her phone to check the time. She saw a text message from Finn, asking her where she was. She was about to open the phone until Daniel put his hand over her phone to lower it. 
'Dani,' he said, making her look up to him. As she saw his nervous look she put her phone away and looked at him worried. He cupped her face as he put both of his hands on both sides of her cheeks. She couldn't help but give him a confused look.
'Are you alright?' she asked concerned. 
'Dani, I don't want to end the year or start the new year with a lie. I've got three minutes, so hear me out okay?' 
'Oka-' Daniel didn't want to lose any more time like he already has and therefore had to interrupt Dani.
'I'm so thankful for having you back in my life. I really missed you these past few years and you don't want to know how many times I almost tried to call you or text you. Maybe you'd changed your number by that time, I don't know. I hated not knowing that. You have to know that I always before a race wanted to call you. Always. I missed having you by my side. You don't want to know how much of a lucky guy I felt when we kissed that night at prom and made love with you. And I know we said just a few days ago that we just be friends, but I can't lie to you. I don't want to be just friends. I still have the same feelings for you like I showed you on prom night. I know we've grown up and we might not be the same as we were in school. But these feelings never changed.'  Daniel took a little break as he tried to catch his breath. He almost didn't leave any breaks after one sentence was done as he needed to tell her everything. 
'Daniel,' she said, only being able to say it in a whisper as she was stunned. 
'I don't care anymore Dani. I don't want to wait one damn minute to tell you this, so I will tell you now. I love you. Always have,'
'Daniel,' she said again, this time a little bit harder. But Daniel didn't seem to hear it as he was to busy to confess his love to her.
'And I don't mean I love you like a friend. I really love you. I love you like I want to grow up with you and be always by your side. As your boyfriend, as your husband, as two old wrinkled people sitting on our swing bench in the garden thinking back at how good the old days were,' Daniel didn't even notice the grin that had appeared on his face as he already was thinking about their future together. 
'Daniel,' Dani said again with a giggle while in the background fireworks started to get off as the clock had moved up to midnight. She finally had Daniel's attention as she put her hands above those of Daniel's that were still on her cheeks. 'I love you too,'
As if they were both on automatic pilot they started to move closer to each other and soon enough their lips were on top of each other. 

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A/N: Writing a Christmas and New Year chapter in July doesn't feel right tbh. Hope you still liked this New Years chapter in July haha.