Reviewing priorities - Sebastian Vettel

46. Bonding with the in-laws

Valeria kept her eyes pressed shut as the plane leapt from side to side due to the thunderstorm around Frankfurt Airport. They had been kept up in the air for a while as they waited for the conditions to improve and they had just received the all clear.

'it doesn't feel like we should be landing, but apparently it's fine' Valeria thought. She managed to half open an eye and look out of the window. It was pouring down buckets of rain and she couldn't distinguish anything but a couple of lights. She closed her eyes again. If there was ever a time to become religious, she felt like that was the one. The plane finally touched the ground and started its abrupt slowing down.

'Fucking finally' Valeria uttered to herself, in Italian.

'Were you a bit worried?' Seb asked her, Valeria could see him smirking.

'Kinda shat myself, yeah' she laughed.

They walked out of the plane not long later, they could hear the rain was stopping as the metal clanging from the drops was becoming more sparse.

Norbert had come to pick them up and drop them off at Seb's, they had agreed to go for dinner with everyone the following day.

'Will you hate me if I go out to train tomorrow morning? Antti gave me this winter break plan and I know he will somehow find out if I missed any days' Seb asked her, once they were in bed.

'Nah, it'll be alright. I'd say I'd come with but, knowing Antti, I'd probably be out of breath after a minute' Valeria joked. The last time she had tried to train with Seb and Antti she had ended up lying on the gym floor for over an hour with jelly legs.

'Fabian just messaged and said he's going for a bike ride, if you fancy joining him' Seb told her. 'So you're not by yourself'

'Ah the Vettels and their worrying about me' she smiled 'yeah, alright. Tell him to text me a time and a place... you need a play station here' she joked, cuddling up to him.

'But the outside world is so much more interesting' Seb told her.

'But in the outside world I can't be a cowboy' Valeria mumbled.

Seb let out a soft laugh, as she fell asleep cuddle up to his chest. 'weirdo' he whispered 'but you're my weirdo' he sweetly kissed her hair.

'Guten Morgen, Fabiano!' Valeria greeted Seb's brother, once she opened the garage door. Seb had lent her his bike and she had been sorting it out to adapt it to her height.

'buongiorno' he tried, in Italian.

'Man you sound so German' she joked, hugging him. 'wie gehts?'

'Tutto... buono? No, no! Bene! Tutto bene, tu?' he replied.

'sehr gut, just sorting out the last bits on the bike. I think your brother hasn't used this in longer than a year as he said' she joked.

'Seb doesn't really spend much time here, I guess he bought the bike to shut Antti up' Fabian laughed.

'Where are we going then?' she asked, putting her helmet on her braided hair.

'There's this nice trail up the mountains, we'll take the easy one, I promise' he said looking at her already shocked face. 'It's a gradual rise, but not too bad. The view is quite nice up there'

'Damn you Germans and your mountains' Valeria joked, following Fabian out on the road.

The cycled for a while, following a trail up in the mountains. The silence was almost palpable, all that could be heard was the quiet noise coming from their bikes, with a few birds chirping every now and then. It had been freezing cold, but the sun had started shining as they got to the top of the trail. Valeria was glad she had brought her sunglasses, but mostly her phone. She took a panoramic shot of Heppenheim with the small streets, the castle, the typical German architecture and sent it to her family.