Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

1.

Whenever she asks him what he noticed first about her, he changes the answer each time. Sometimes, he would say that he liked her eyes because they were brown like his. Often, he would joke and pretend that he couldn’t remember. But the truth was that the first thing he ever noticed about her was her voice. He knew it before he ever even knew her, almost as if he was meant to find its owner; as if it were an invisible trail that led him to her. 

Like most of the good things in his life, it all started with music. 

“I don’t know, I liked their older stuff better.”

Daniel nodded, sipping his beer as Dave went on another tangent about some band that had debuted the same time as his, but somehow found mainstream success much faster. He’d been friends with him for a while and had been a fan of their music before they even met, but the passive bitterness Dave lugged around with him in random conversations was sometimes hard to ignore. 

“D’you reckon they’ll be at that festival we’re playing next week?” Donnie asked. Dave made a face as he ordered them another round of beer. Daniel had tried ordering the previous round—he hated Coronas—but the lads were insistent: he was their guest. It would be wrong for him to get their drinks. 

“I would hope not,” Dave said, making a face. Onstage, a guy was singing some song about his cat and was met with lukewarm applause. Daniel had frequented The Clover since before he’d left for Europe, mostly to listen to upcoming artists and sometimes catch the occasional established names passing by Perth they’d manage to book. He once saw Mac Miller do a gig there one summer during the off-season. 

“Hey, since when did Isabel get back from her tour?” Jung asked as the entire place suddenly erupted in applause. Daniel followed Jung’s line of sight back to the stage where a girl in a short black dress stood, laughing and making small talk with the host before waving at the crowd and grabbing the mic. 

She looked at the host one last time, her cheeks flushed red, before almost shyly addressing the audience. “Okay, so I’m up here on short notice. I was hiding in the back, praying Mark here wouldn’t notice me, but here I am.”

Jung laughed, while Donnie hooted. So did Dave. It was the most excited they’d been for another artist since they were up on the same stage just an hour past. 

“I see the lads of Gangs of Youth are here,” she said, recognizing Daniel’s companions, who saw a reason to cheer louder. The girl laughed. “Ton of familiar faces. I haven’t been home in six months, so really, this is a treat. Anyway, I should probably do some singing now, huh?”

She grinned at the crowd, right as she was handed a guitar. She ran a hand over the staff before checking if it was tuned to her liking, and then sang the opening lyrics to Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car.”

It wasn’t until she started singing the chorus that Daniel put a name to her face. 

“Wait, she’s Isabel Castañeda, right?” he said. Dave laughed before handing Daniel his third Corona. 

“I’m impressed,” Dave joked. Daniel rolled his eyes, but smiled good-naturedly anyway. 

“Her debut album’s good,” Daniel said. And it was true. He had discovered it by accident one night, just a few weeks before his last race in Singapore. It became part of his daily rotation for the rest of the year. “I didn’t know she was from here.”

“Her family moved here from Singapore when she was young, I think,” Dave recalled. “Her mom’s half-Australian. Or is that her dad? I forget. But yeah, she’s from here.”

“I see,” Daniel noted, just as Jung spotted an old friend sitting by the bar and excused himself to catch up with them instead, while Donnie announced he was heading outside to smoke. “You guys close?”

“We’ve played a bunch of the same festivals,” Dave said with a shrug, just as Isabel took a bow. He briefly caught Daniel’s eye, as if he were about to make an implication. “Awesome girl. She recently moved to a bigger label too. Pretty sure some of her stuff is charting right now.”  

Off stage, Isabel was now taking a few selfies with some fans and right as she walked past their table, Dave called out her name.

“Hey, Isa!”

Isabel turned, looking for the source with her eyes squinted. Her face lit up upon seeing Dave’s face before making her way towards them.

“Davey!” she said with a laugh before reaching in to accept a one-armed hug. Her halter dress fell just halfway her thighs, while her hair fanned in long dark sheets over her shoulders. “How long are you in town?”

Dave shrugged. “A couple of weeks,” he said. “When did you get back?”

“Earlier today,” Isabel replied, sheepish. “Couldn’t sleep and I needed some music.”

“Fair enough,” Dave allowed before glancing at Daniel, who instantly shot him a discreet glare. 

Dave was a good friend. He’d been someone Daniel found easy to hangout with whenever he needed live music and a friend that loved music just as much, someone he shared an interest other than racing. Because more and more, he was beginning to hate being associated with that specific title. Driver. 

“By the way, this is my friend Daniel,” Dave said anyway. “He’s a fan. Says he loves your debut album. ‘Hello You’, is it called?”

“It’s ‘To Infinity,’” Daniel corrected. “‘Hello You’ was good too, but I loved ‘To Infinity.’”

“Oh, wow, thank you,” Isabel said, regarding him for the first time. She sounded surprised. “I don’t think anyone’s ever mentioned ‘To Infinity’ to me, honestly. Sometimes, I’m starting to worry that I’ve made it all up.”

“Don’t worry, you didn’t,” Daniel said as she laughed. Dave shot him a knowing look and Daniel resisted the urge to kick his leg. But he’d be lying if he didn’t at least admit he found her cute. 

“I gotta take this,” Dave announced, noting his wife’s name flashing on his phone screen. “You two get to know each other.”

Daniel laughed and gave him a light shove as he got out the way, while Isabel nodded her head to his quickly fleeting figure. 

“Does he always try to set you up with people?” she asked. Daniel smiled before handing her one of their untouched beers. She smiled back but shook her head no. 

“Not always, but these days he’s been trying a lot,” Daniel said, recalling three other instances he’d met up with the band, only to end with the same result. It was no better with his friends from his old life either—Seb’s tried setting him up with one of his wife’s friends at least twice. Even Lewis has tried his hand at it. 

Unfortunately for them, their championships were exclusive to racing. It didn’t extend to matters outside the track. 

“I doubt you have trouble on that front, though,” Isabel said, holding his look before darting her gaze towards a table a few feet away from them. From his periphery, Daniel followed her gaze and saw a group of friends whispering and looking his way. He’d seen them earlier that night and had a feeling they were probably fans. “Those girls have been looking here ever since I got here. Need a wingman?”

Daniel laughed and shook his head. “Oh, I don’t think anyone’s interested,” he said. She quirked a brow.

“False humility isn’t a flattering look, you know,” she joked. Underneath the lights, her brown eyes looked dark. She had three piercings in one ear, four in the other. On her neck, she wore a necklace with the letter A.

As Daniel was about to point the charm out—anything to shift the topic—a guy, probably in his twenties approached, with a cap and pen in hand.

“Daniel?” the guy started, with the universal look of a fan dying for an autograph in his eye. “Sorry, but I was wondering if…?”

“Sure, man,” Daniel said with an easy smile, signing the guy’s cap. As soon as he handed back the pen, the guy looked over his shoulder and waved the cap in the air to show his friends before mumbling a quick thanks to Daniel. Isabel, who had watched the entire exchange, raised a brow.

But before she could ask what had just happened, the same girls she had noted from moments before—along with two male friends—swooped in with table napkins and pens and a few requests for selfies.

“Thanks, Daniel! Have a great night!” one of the girls even said before rushing back to their table.

“Please don’t take this the wrong way, but am I supposed to know you?”

For the first time in what felt like a long while, Daniel laughed. A genuine, deep laugh from his belly that filled him with a sense of humor he’d thought he had lost long ago.

It had been a while since the last time he was a stranger to someone. He liked it. “It’s nice that you don’t, honestly.”

“So you race cars?”

“I used to race cars,” Daniel corrected. “Haven’t been in a proper F1 car in two years.”

Isabel nodded, taking this information in. When Dave came back, he had to bid them goodbye, citing something about needing to turn in. He gave Daniel a wink before settling the check. Jung never came back, while Donnie said he was meeting up with some other friends.

“Do you miss it?” Isabel asked. They’d moved outside after a particularly loud band took the stage. 

Daniel pondered the question. It was something he got asked a lot, but never gave much thought until that moment. They were standing by the now deserted smoking area. Not smoking, rather, just talking and watching each other. “I’m not sure,” Daniel finally answered.

“I think you do,” Isabel said, looking at him curiously.

“Why?”

She shrugged. “You sound sad,” she said simply. And maybe she was right. He had known and loved racing all his life. One of his earliest memories was at that old track in Adelaide. And it wasn’t as if he left of his own volition. He was left without a choice. 

“What about you?” Daniel asked, switching the subject. 

“What about me?” she replied coyly. Daniel rolled his eyes but smirked, watching the way she mirrored him by leaning back against the wall opposite him the same way he did.

“What’s your story?”

“Not much to tell,” Isabel said. 

“Dave mentioned you moved here from Singapore?”

“I can’t believe he remembered that,” she said with a small laugh. “But yeah, I did. My mom was half Singaporean, half Australian. Dad’s Filipino. We moved here when I was six.”

“Singapore’s nice,” Daniel said.

“You’ve been?”

“A couple of times, yeah,” Daniel answered, smiling thinly. He hadn’t been back since his last race.

“That’s a silly question, I’m sorry,” Isabel said, covering her face with a hand.

“What, why?”

“You were an F1 driver. I mean, I don’t know a lot about it, but I’m pretty sure traveling must have been a norm,” she said, laughing.

“I mean, yeah, but it wasn’t a horrible question,” Daniel said, somehow laughing as well. “I’ve been thrown a lot worse.”

Isabel brushed her hair over her shoulder, watching him intently, her brown eyes sympathetic. “I can only imagine,” she said softly. Daniel held onto her gaze. Brown on brown. A cold gust of wind gently blew against her inky black hair as she gently pinned the edge of her short dress down with the back of her hand. He placed her to be at least three or four inches shorter than he was, but her legs were long. And as she pursed her lips, seemingly about to ask him a question, he wondered what it would be like to kiss her.

The question never came as the silence was broken by the sound of her phone. Isabel glanced at her screen before looking back up at Daniel, apologetic. “Looks like I need to go,” she said, sounding almost hesitant. 

“Oh,” was all Daniel could say. Isabel smiled, presumably about to say goodbye when he blurted, “I follow you on Instagram.”

“Oh?” she echoed, confused. 

“Sorry, sorry, um, I just thought asking for numbers isn’t a thing anymore,” Daniel continued, mentally wanting to kick himself for tripping over his words. Maybe his friends were right. Maybe he did need a buffer. “Then I realized it would be stupid to ask for your Instagram since I follow you already. So. Yeah.”

Her smile progressed into a grin as she unlocked her phone. “It’s Daniel Ricardo, right?” she confirmed, opening her profile.

“Yeah, but with two C’s followed by an I,” Daniel said, watching her retype the corrected version of his name.

“Found you,” Isabel said, flipping her phone to face him before hitting Follow Back. “9 mill! I’m starting to doubt you liked being a stranger earlier.”

“Believe me, I did.”

Daniel wiped the sweat off his brow before opening the fridge to grab some orange juice. As he set it down the kitchen island, he glanced at a random news alert on his notifications bar. It took him over six months to finally find the courage to mute any news related to Formula 1, with the exception of one topic: Max Verstappen.

Stuck in a rut? Max Verstappen fails to finish Belgium Grand Prix following upset in Silverstone

Daniel cleared the notification, not bothering to read the article. Instead, he opened his text thread with Max.

Ignore the noise, man. You did good. 

Max saw the message right away and almost instantly, the three dots appeared by the corner of Daniel’s screen to indicate that he was typing.

Thanks, Danny. 

Daniel smiled, giving the message a Like. But before he could put his phone away, his screen flashed with Max’s caller ID. Daniel had almost forgotten he had him saved as “33” instead of his actual name.

“If I’d known you missed me this much, I wouldn’t have bothered texting and just called you right away instead,” Daniel joked. On the other end of the line, Max scoffed, but Daniel could hear the smile in it.

“How’s retirement been treating you?”

“Pretty okay, I’d say,” Daniel said, unsure if that was a lie. “Boring. But I think that’s a good thing.”

“It is,” Max agreed.

Pause.

“So, what’s up?” Daniel asked. With Max, it was best to get straight to the point. He didn’t appreciate frills. “Don’t tell me you’re calling for a pep talk. Because if you are, I think I’m legally obligated to call the emergency line and report that you might be having a stroke.”

“It’s not that,” Max said, miffed. “Did you see the race?”

“No,” Daniel said. There was no point in lying. He took a large gulp of his juice before pulling out the stats. “But I’m checking the numbers now.”

“No need,” Max sighed. “I skidded off the track. Didn’t finish.”

“It’s still early in the season, Max,” Daniel pointed out. He had a feeling where this was going.

“No, I know,” Max replied, surprising Daniel. Another pause. “I just keep thinking about what Seb said.”

“Seb says a lot of things. You need to be more specific.” 

Daniel was positive that Max rolled his eyes at the attempt at humor.

“Remember that time we were talking about that comment Fernando made about Michael? How he knew Michael was going to brake?”

“Because he had a wife and two kids waiting at home, yeah,” Daniel supplied, right as what was actually bothering Max dawned on him. “Fernando can be a bit of a dick, you know. I think it isn’t a good idea to read into this that much.”

“But he isn’t wrong,” Max said, tired. He sounded like he’d had this argument with himself—because he rarely ever talked to anyone else outside himself—about this before. “I don’t know. I think he’s right. I brake during turns I normally wouldn’t before.”

“Max, you have a kid,” Daniel said. “So what if Fernando was sort of right? It’s okay to be a dad first.”

“I know that, too,” Max said. He let out a long sigh. “It’s just weird. I keep skipping risks but at the same time, I just can’t let it go. Like, there’s this bigger part of me that’s trying to shake the fear off.”

“You’re trying to keep the extra seconds off, the ones Seb said.”

“Yes,” Max said, with a tinge of guilt. “He said you get an extra second for each kid, right?”

“Three if you get married,” Daniel added.

“Do not get me started on that,” Max said.

“What, still no plans of making an honest woman out of Kelly?”

“You sound just like her,” Max deadpanned. “I don’t know, man. I mean, it seems like the right thing to do.”

“Maybe it is,” Daniel allowed. “But is it what you want?”

“You’ve met my dad, Daniel.”

“What does he have to do with anything?”

“He was bad at marriage! Maybe I will be, too,” Max said, as if this should have been obvious to Daniel.

“Well, your dad also raced but you’re better at it than him,” Daniel pointed out. 

“I don’t know,” Max sighed again. “I guess I’m still trying to figure out this new additional second with that came with the baby. I’m not sure if I can handle three more seconds.”

“You’ll manage,” Daniel said. That, he was sure of. “You’re too stubborn not to.”

Finally, Max laughed.

“I’ll see you in Melbourne?”

“I’ll think about it.”

Chapter Text

2.

Isabel stared at the tiny cup, scrunching her nose as she smelled the unmistakable scent of pure, freshly squeezed ginger. She closed her eyes as she held the small cup to her mouth, before downing the mixture in one go.

As soon as the drink cleared her throat, she padded to her still-bare living room and stared out her backyard. As soon as she got her first significant advance, her father insisted that she invest it in her own place back at home.

“What about you?” she asked, always the first to point out the obvious.

Her father shrugged. “I’ll be fifteen minutes away,” he said. “It’s important that you have your own space. Grow up, and all that.”

She loved that about him.

Even if it meant having to drop by the house every other day whenever she was in Perth for every minor inconvenience he needed help with. Case in point: last night, he sent her a frantic text about not knowing if he had set his new security system up properly. It wasn’t the first time she had to excuse herself from a conversation because of him. If anything, those random texts for help had gotten her out of situations she didn’t want to be in.

But it was probably the first time an emergency text made her tap out of a conversation with a guy with arguably the best smile she had seen in a while. 

She spent the rest of the night scrolling through his feed until she fell asleep, feeling silly over the fact that she missed him following her in the first place. She had recently hit the 750k mark, surely Instagram should have at least notified her that someone with this big of a following knew her?

danielricciardo: So, how’d the crisis go?

He had replied to her Story from the night before. It was a photo of the crowd at The Clover.

isabelcas: I came right in time. It was another of my dad vs. technology episodes.

danielricciardo: I take it that happens often?

isabelcas: Every time I’m home, yes. 

They went on like that for most of the morning as she tinkered with her piano, exchanging messages about their lives, what they’ve been up to these past couple of months. She hadn’t realized how long they’d been at it until she fired up her computer to send some tracks to her manager.

isabelcas: Got any lunch plans?

danielricciardo: Is this an invite?

She laughed and typed, maybe.

She spotted Daniel sitting by the window with his sunglasses on. In the heat of the early afternoon sun, his skin looked golden as he grinned at her. He wore an oversized tee with a drawing of a pair of intertwined hands on one corner. 

“I was beginning to think that you were gonna ghost me,” Daniel joked, taking a sip of his water. 

“It took me a while to get an Uber, sorry,” Isabel said with a slight laugh. “I, unfortunately, do not know how to drive.”

Daniel had been giving their orders to the waitress when she had said it, and somewhere between “a small plate of pasta and a chicken parm, please,” his jaw dropped. 

“What do you mean you can’t drive?” Daniel said, incredulous. His brows were knit in confusion. He was staring at her as if she’d just told him the world was ending tomorrow. “How old are you?”

“I knew it was a good idea to get this out of the way as early as now,” Isabel said, contemplative. Daniel shot her another look. “I’m twenty seven, for the record.”

“And you’ve never driven a car?” Daniel asked, still in disbelief.

“Nope.”

“Not even once? Even, like, just to test it?”

Isabel took a sip of her water, suddenly regretting broaching the subject. “I almost did once, but I think that’s a story for another day.”

She wasn’t going to bum him out by talking about her mum. 

“Fine,” Daniel allowed. “But seriously, though, in this day and age, driving is a life skill.”

“So I’ve been told.”

“That needs to change,” he went on. “You not knowing.”

Isabel rested her chin against her open palm before pushing her own sunglasses up to her head. “There’s beauty in not knowing everything,” she said, attempting to sound sage.

Daniel laughed. She was quickly learning that each time he did, it was humanly impossible not to join in. Or at the very least, smile back. “Maybe that’s why we met. So I could teach you,” he theorized.

“Following that logic, it could also be because I’m supposed to teach you how to sing,” Isabel surmised. “Unless…?”

“I couldn’t sing to save my life,” Daniel confirmed. “Really, though. If you need someone to teach you, consider this a continuing offer.”

“Yeah, and on the day I take the driver’s test, I’ll tell the teacher an actual racecar driver taught me beforehand.”

“They might let you off the hook, even.”

Isabel scratched out the third iteration of the lyric she was writing and sighed. She hated to admit it, but she was stuck in a rut, which was the last thing she wanted. Not with the bigger label she had just signed with and the steady rise in her streams. In the past year, two of her songs have been featured in movie soundtracks, which wasn’t a lot, but according to her manager Susie, it was a good sign. 

“Got anything for me yet, sunshine?”

Isabel smiled as she turned on her video. Susie was eating a bowl of cereal, in between yelling out instructions to whatever band she had in the studio.

“Nothing yet, unfortunately,” Isabel admitted.

Susie made a face but smiled anyway.  “You’ll get there. How’s your dad?”

“Still stubborn,” Isabel replied with a slight laugh. “I had to call it a night yesterday at The Clover because he couldn’t figure out his new security system.”

“Parents,” Susie said. “Visited your mum yet?”

“Haven’t yet,” Isabel said. She sometimes needed to prep mentally before stopping by the cemetery, even after all these years.

“Good,” Susie said, causing Isabel to quirk a brow. “Because I just got word earlier today that the single off the last album hit silver. I’ll make sure to send you the plaque before you visit.”

Isabel felt her jaw drop as Susie laughed. It wasn’t until the guys in the booth—some younger lads who called themselves ‘The Only Way’—joined in yelling congratulations.

“I can’t believe you chose to tell me this way,” Isabel said accusingly in between tears.

As they talked more about what this could do for her overall streams, the topic evolved to possible themes for whatever album she had brewing next.

“You know, dating usually helps with the creative process,” Susie said, her tone laced with intent. “Met anyone interesting lately?”

Isabel rolled her eyes, but remembered Daniel. “Writing love songs is overrated,” she said. 

“You’re young,” Susie said. “Love songs mean everything when you’re young.”

“I don’t know,” Isabel said, shrugging. “Maybe they’re just not my thing.”

Chapter Text

3.

The plan to move back to Perth after his retirement wasn’t something Daniel actively sought or planned for. It just felt like the safest thing—the best thing, really, for him mentally. He would be travelling a lot for Enchante, anyway, so that would account for his restlessness. He also knew himself well. It would hurt to stay in Monaco.

Home—his real home—would be good for him. Close to family. Quiet. Familiar. He could spend more time at the farm.

More and more, he was incorporating some of his old routines from childhood, from before he moved to Europe. He’d run in the mornings, drive the tractor around the farm, and work with his hands. He would even stop by and check in with his dad to see if he needed any help with his business.

Some days it almost felt like back when he was training for karting events, until he’d remember there weren't any races to look forward to anymore.

The meetings he’d take for Enchanté and even brand deals were interesting breaks from the monotony, although most days, he wasn’t quite sure if he enjoyed them or if he was just in search of a goal. A target.

“That’s the driver in you,” Blake, his manager, would tell him. “That need to look at the numbers. The stats. The record to beat.”

And Daniel agreed.

The question was, however, what was he going to do about it?

“All good on my end,” he said, grinning and waving everyone in the virtual call goodbye. As soon as he closed his laptop, he stared at his living room, not knowing what to do next.

“Is this what the next fifty years are going to be like?” he asked himself.

Out of habit, he unlocked his phone and opened Instagram. Although if he were being honest, he’d opened the app with a set intention.

Isabel’s latest Story was the first circle in the row at the top of his screen. The first slide was of two plates of pancakes and the man whom Daniel assumed was her father. They shared the same eyes, and their mouths curved the same way when they smiled. The next slide was a selfie of her outside, wearing a plain blue tee and jeans, with a caption that said she was combining a walk with a trip to the studio.

danielricciardo: Are you going on a walk because it’s some sort of routine or because you have no choice since you don’t drive?

isabelcas: both 

Daniel laughed, not really thinking his next words through until he had hit send.

danielricciardo: Got any lunch plans?

They agreed to meet at a nice all-day breakfast a few blocks away from her studio. She was already there by the time he arrived, sitting in a nice corner booth.

Like before, she had her sunglasses set atop her head. “Trying to make up for the extra minutes last time?” he asked.

She looked up from the menu and smiled. “I ordered the ‘heavy breakfast for lunch’ set.”

“What’s that?” Daniel asked, sliding into the seat in front of her.

Isabel shrugged. “No idea, guess we’ll find out together,” she said. “Also, are these lunches going to be a standing appointment because we should probably come to some sort of agreement.”

“Well, that depends. Do you want them to be a standing appointment?” Daniel mused.

“I was under the impression that you already have several, honestly.”

“I could make room for one more.”

Isabel rolled her eyes but smiled anyway. “You know, I’ve been doing my homework on you.”

This time, Daniel rolled his eyes, his expression shifting. “And what have you learned?”

“That you’re an eight-time Grand Prix winner,” Isabel noted. “Impressive.”

“Never got the World Championship, though.”

“Still very impressive,” Isabel pointed out. 

“Not as impressive as opening for Blink-182 at eighteen and playing your first music festival during the same summer, I think,” he said lightly. Isabel bit back a smile as Daniel laughed. “I told you, I know my stuff.”

“Yes, but we’re talking about you.”

“What’s more to say about me, though?” he said with another laugh. “I drove cars in circles for a bit, that’s pretty much it.”

“At over a hundred kilometres an hour,” Isabel said.

Daniel shrugged. “It was three hundred, at least, actually,” he said, indulging her a bit before setting his elbows on the table and leaning forward. “What are you recording? New album?”

“Not quite yet. I’m still writing,” Isabel replied. “My manager thinks I need to crank out a few love songs, seeing as how well they do for streams.”

Daniel quirked a brow, curiosity piqued. “You don’t like love songs?”

“It’s not that I don’t like them,” she said, right as the waitress set two large plates of food in front of them, filled with beans, waffles, hashbrowns, scrambled eggs, tomatoes, and bacon. “Okay, so they weren’t kidding about the large servings.”

“I’m not complaining, I love breakfast food at any time of the day,” Daniel said between a mouthful of scrambled eggs. “So love songs. What’s the deal?”

She gave it some thought. “I don’t know, I guess it’s because they always need to have a subject? I suppose I’m not a fan of associating songs with certain people—although it’s inevitable, honestly—and that’s kind of a must with love songs. You can tell if a love song isn’t authentic. Like, it’s obvious when the songwriter isn’t coming from somewhere personal.”

Daniel nodded intently; the gesture made her laugh as he bit his toast. “So you need a subject,” he summarized.

Isabel rolled her eyes. “I don’t.”

“But you just said so yourself, love songs need to be authentic.”

“They do,” she agreed. “And that’s why I’m struggling with it right now because it’s not like I have the time to date or develop a crush on someone.”

“You say it as if you need to put active effort into it.”

She laughed. “Guys have it so different,” she said. “Or maybe that’s just me. I don’t know, I feel like I can’t like someone unless I actually know them.”

Daniel snorted. “You’re telling me you’ve never had a dumb crush? As in someone you liked just because.”

She shook her head, and he laughed. “Maybe it’s true what they say about never meeting your heroes. You’re a hypocrite.”

“I’m your hero? I’m touched.”

“I’m a fan, you know what I mean,” he said. “Point is, you don’t need to put that much thought into liking someone. Seriously.”

“Maybe,” she allowed. “But just enough to write a song about them? I need more to be able to do that.” 

“Would teaching you how to drive be more than enough?” he quipped.

She rolled her eyes. “That’s what this is about, isn’t it? You want to be a muse.”

“Well, not to brag, but it wouldn’t be the first time.”

Isabel raised a brow, and he grinned.

“Dave and the guys gave me a shoutout in one of their songs,” he said, proud. “Last track in their ‘angel in realtime.’ album.”

She stared at him, her brows furrowed as she began humming the song to herself before opening her phone. “Oh my god, okay, so you weren’t joking,” she said as soon as she finally found the lyric.

“I wasn’t!” Daniel said, triumphant. “They even let me come in one day to bang on a drum, and it made the cut.”

“I wonder which day that was because they also had me come in at some point to help with backing vocals,” Isabel recalled.

“You mean we could have met even earlier? Interesting,” Daniel said.

“You’re really gunning for another song about you, aren’t you?”

“Depends. Is it working?”

“No.”

“Ah, a man can dream,” he said with a sigh and a false pretense of disappointment. “How long are you in town for, by the way? Or are you taking a break from touring?”

“Not sure, really,” Isabel replied, popping a bit of hashbrown into her mouth. “I’m mostly going to be camping out in the studio for the time being until we get this album ready. After that, I think I might do a few local shows to prep for next year.”

“What’s that like?” Daniel asked, genuinely curious. “Touring, I mean.”

Isabel set her chin against her palm, and the edges of the cardigan she wore on top of her dress reached her fingertips. “It was exciting at first, but living out of your suitcase has its tough moments, I suppose,” she said. “Although I’m sure travelling a lot for your, um, old job must have been a little similar.”

“I’m willing to bet touring was more interesting,” Daniel said. He found it amusing how she kept circling the topic back to him, only for him to volley right back. “It’s not like we were allowed to play music in the car.”

“I was actually wondering about that!” Isabel said. “I’ve seen videos of you talking to those guys in the garage. Like, was that all there was? No music in between?”

Daniel shook his head. “No,” he said. “I always used to tell them I could have driven faster with music on, but it’s against the rules. It’s just you out there with the team in constant communication.”

“Sounds stressful.”

“It was,” he agreed. “Anyway, so love songs.”

“You really aren’t letting this go, are you?”

“I’m really not,” Daniel said, smirking. “There’s this really good one from your debut. ‘Fly Away’ was it?”

Her expression shifted, almost as if she didn’t expect him to say that. “That wasn’t exactly a love song.”

“Wasn’t it? The bridge was really good.”

Isabel smiled, a small blush creeping along the base of her neck. “I actually wrote that one for my mum.”

“Oh, that’s really sweet,” Daniel said. Isabel nodded, lightly touching the letter ‘A’ pendant hanging from her necklace. “She must have loved it.”

“I mean, I hope she did,” Isabel said with an awkward laugh. Daniel quirked a brow. “She, ah, passed when I was sixteen.”

“Oh,” was all he could say. He should have known when to shut up. Then again, it was constantly made known to him that he was incapable of doing that. “I’m so sorry.”

“No, no, it’s okay,” Isabel said quickly, waving a hand. “I like talking about her. It gives me comfort. It’s just always super weird the first time I bring it up to anyone I meet. They always feel bad about it, but really, it’s okay.”

She smiled at him, a dimple marking the corner of one cheek. “I actually love that you love that song. It’s one of my favorites. It’s been a while since anyone’s brought it up to me.”

“Well, like I said, I’m a fan.”

“I’m still not writing a song about you.” 

Chapter Text

4.

“I really don’t understand why we can’t just live together again,” Isabel pointed out, eyeing her father warily as he carried two large boxes with evident effort. He refused her help the three times she offered and almost shoved her aside when she insisted. “You clearly need someone around the house.”

“I can handle myself, anak,” her father replied, ever stubborn. He took pride in his independence and how he insisted that Isabel live freely without worrying about him, unlike the other conservative Asian families they knew. “How was the tour? Working on the new album already?”

“The tour was good,” Isabel said, walking around and looking at the new photos her dad had put up of her mother and her when she was younger. “The label’s pretty happy, especially with the single hitting Silver. The producers for that movie I did a song for are even telling them that we submit it for nominations.”

Her father’s face lit up, and for a moment, he almost looked boyish. “Ah, I’m so proud of you,” he said. “See, I told you, all that hard work would pay off one day.”

The smartest person in the world could have told her father that the universe was imploding tomorrow, but if Isabel said otherwise, he’d believe her. Her father’s ceaseless belief and childlike faith in her got her through the worst of times. Especially following her mother’s passing.

“Love you, Papa,” Isabel said as her father kissed her head.

“Love you too, Isa.”

She followed him to the kitchen and helped set the table. As they ate, she talked about the tour and the album, while her father nodded enthusiastically. He laughed at all her jokes and asked questions, but there was something different about him. Here and there, she’d notice him wincing. It wasn’t until he got up to get some water, only to sit abruptly back down, that she finally found it in her to speak her mind.

“Papa, are you okay?” she asked, eyeing the way her father’s wince progressed into a frown. 

“It’s my back,” he said, his voice slightly strained. “It’s been acting up a lot.”

“Should I take you to the hospital?” Isabel asked, panic quickly rising in her voice. She didn’t even wait for her father to nod; instead, she immediately scrambled to find a way to book a car. 

It took her at least half an hour. 

And it broke her heart having to watch her father and be able to do absolutely nothing. It wasn’t until they were safely in the hospital that she found the courage to ask. 

“How long has this been going on?”

Her father was quiet. Instead of meeting her eye, he looked around the passing nurses and doctors, almost like a child. “It comes and it goes,” he said with a sigh after a while. “The medicine my doctor prescribes helps, but some days it doesn’t. Nothing to worry about, really. He says it comes with age.”

Isabel wanted to cry. “But how do you manage when you’re…alone?”

“I drive myself.” Her face must have looked horrid because her father snorted. “If you weren’t freaking out earlier, I would have done the same thing!”

“It’s your back! You shouldn’t be driving in that state!” Isabel said, alarmed by the nonchalance in her father’s tone. 

“Sometimes I call one of your uncles,” her father replied, still dismissive. “Anak, it’s fine. It wasn’t like you could drive earlier. And besides, we got here anyway.”

Isabel bit her tongue to keep herself from arguing. Because he was right. It wasn’t like she could have driven them there anyway. 

isabelcas: Are those driving lessons still on the table?

danielricciardo: What changed your mind?

isabelcas: I’ll tell you over brunch. 

danielricciardo: Ah yes, our standing appointment. Same place?

isabelcas: Same place. 

Daniel sat at the same booth, only this time with a bright blue shirt. He had his sunglasses in one hand and his phone in the other, but looked up from scrolling as soon as she slid into the booth across from him. 

“We should really start keeping score about who comes earlier to these things,” Daniel said by way of greeting. Isabel resisted the urge to roll her eyes, mentally reminding herself that she was asking him a favor here. “Already ordered us the usual.”

“We’ve been here once, how has it already become ‘the usual,’” she pointed out. “But fine, I’m good with that.”

“You seem to be in a mood.”

She let out a sigh. “Sorry.”

Daniel waved a hand. “Don’t mention it,” he said, leaning back against his seat. “So what’s troubling you? Why do you suddenly want to drive?”

Isabel bit her lip as she thought about it, on the verge of changing her mind. She should have at least asked Dave about him to find out whether Daniel was actually nice or not. She barely knew him, after all. 

But she brushed the hesitation aside and told him about her dad. By the time she finished, she half-expected him to judge her. Maybe even give her a lecture about how he was right. But he didn’t.

Instead, Daniel nodded, looking as if he was pondering over a thought as he spread ketchup on his hashbrown. “Do you ever do anything for yourself?” he asked. 

Isabel quirked a brow, shocked but admittedly a little annoyed. “What?”

Daniel shrugged, a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Just seems like you do a lot for your dad.”

“Well, one could argue he did everything for me, so,” Isabel pointed out, crossing her arms. “It all evens out.”

“Touché,” Daniel said with another nod. “Fine, I’ll do it. Consider it my new post-retirement project.”

“God, to retire in your thirties,” Isabel said with a shake of her head, but with a smile on her face. 

“I know,” Daniel replied with a wink. “I’m one lucky guy.”

Isabel rolled her eyes but silently agreed. Later, as soon as she got home, she texted Dave. 

Isabel Castañeda: Random question

Dave Le’aupepe: shoot

Isabel Castañeda: Should I be worried about this Daniel guy?

She watched the three dots on the corner of her screen rapidly move, indicating Dave typing, before he paused. It took him two whole minutes to reply with, “I can vouch for him.”

Isabel smirked. 

Isabel Castañeda: Why does that still not make me feel better

Dave Le’aupepe: u know, sab, sometimes being scared can be a good thing

Chapter Text

5.

If he had to describe it, Daniel would say that he had a good relationship with his parents. He loved them. But it was a fact of life that the older and wiser one got, the same was not entirely true for one’s parents, who tended to be fussier. Sometimes, even more stubborn over time.

“With you moving back to Perth and with the ranch just a few minutes away, I honestly thought you’d be around here more often,” His mother said, making a display of her disappointment with a hurt look on her face.

“Well, I’m here now, Mum,” Daniel replied as he got a serving of salad. 

“Your mother is right, we don’t see you enough,” his father put in. “You can’t possibly be spending all your time just working on the ranch.”

“I also have the brand,” Daniel pointed out. “And some other collabs and stuff.”

“And no time for your ageing parents,” his mother joked, but always with that hint of seriousness. 

“Fine, I’m sorry,” Daniel said with a defeated sigh. He could hear Isaac laughing in the other room as he watched TV. He smiled. He loved his sister’s kids. His mother must’ve seen the look on her face because she raised a brow.

“You could have some of your own, you know,” she tutted. “You are 37. Almost 38.”

Daniel laughed. “Yes, Mum, because I could definitely just walk up to a woman and ask if she could bear my children.”

“Why not?” his father said, laughing as well. 

“You know, I recently had a chat with Jemma,” his mum started. Daniel made no effort to hide his annoyance and groaned, which his mother took offense from. “What? She’d seen one of my posts and gave it a like so, I sent her a message asking how she was.”

“Mum, we broke up over ten years ago,” Daniel said.

“But you were together for eight years,” his mum rebutted. 

“Still! We’ve been broken up for much longer,” he pointed out. “I would have understood if it were Heidi. It would still be weird, but at least she was more recent.”

“She was too young for you,” his mum replied, her nose crinkled. Daniel rolled his eyes. Heidi and his mum, for the most part, got along when they were still together. But she’d made it known early on that it seemed that they wanted different things. 

And when they broke up for that exact reason, his mum was more than happy to gloat.

“Although, I will say, if you asked her to marry you, I think she would have said yes,” his mum continued, thoughtful. “Then again, I still don’t think it would have worked. There was something missing in you when you were with her.”

“What does that even mean?” Daniel asked, his annoyance increasing. 

“Don’t indulge her,” his father advised. “I mean, I agree, you probably should settle down soon. But really, don’t indulge your mother. Her mind works in mysterious ways.”

“You aren’t getting any younger, Daniel,” his mother continued anyway, shooting his father a look. “But if you insist on staying a bachelor, at least make time for your parents.”

Isabel stood outside the Morning Star, which was quickly becoming their “regular place.” She wore a pair of faded denim shorts that accented her long, tanned legs, and a large shirt with a Star Wars poster on it. 

“Nice shoes,” Daniel greeted. Isabel looked up from her phone, her mouth curling into a small smile at the sight of him in his Raptor, with the window rolled down. She had been wearing black Old Skools, just like the ones he was wearing. 

She handed him a small paper bag with a sandwich inside. “Consider it as payment,” she said, and he grinned. He never said no to food. As he took the small package, she saw his shoes and laughed. 

“It’s a good thing no one else is gonna see us, then,” she said. 

“Why not?” Daniel asked, putting the car back into drive as he took a bite of his sandwich. 

“I’ve always found couples who coordinate their outfits annoying,” Isabel said with a shrug. 

“Ah, is that what we are now? A couple?”

She rolled her eyes. “A student and her teacher,” she corrected. 

“Now you’re just making it weird.”

“Well, we do have the age gap for it,” Isabel said with a quirked brow. Daniel laughed. “Aren’t you, like, 39?”

“I’m 37,” Daniel said, still laughing before shooting her an incredulous look. He thought about his mum pointing out his age earlier that day and how it annoyed him. This time, it was different. “You’re putting me in a tough spot, you know. My mum raised me to believe I should never ask a woman her age. I know you’ve mentioned it before, but I can’t remember it at the moment.”

“I’m lifting the rules of niceties, then, take a guess,” Isabel said, smirking. “It might jog your memory.”

“I’m not falling for that.”

“I’m serious.”

He stared at her for a bit as the stoplight ahead of them blinked red. “25,” he answered. 

Isabel scoffed, but the look in his eye made it progress into a real, genuine laugh. “That’s the default number you go with every time, isn’t it?”

“I’m amazed by how quickly you’re starting to know me,” Daniel mused. 

“Take a real guess,” Isabel insisted. “Seriously.”

“That is my serious guess. You do not look a day over 25,” Daniel replied, matching her tone. He grabbed his sunglasses from the dash and set it over his nose as Isabel crossed her arms. 

“You’re two years off. I’m 27,” she finally said.

Daniel grinned as he set aside the remnants of his sandwich. “That was my first guess in my head, really,” he said. “But also, that age gap does not give student-teacher energy.”

“I was kidding,” Isabel said. “I didn’t think you’d be this serious.”

“Well, one could argue that driving is serious business,” Daniel said, thoughtful as he glanced at her from his periphery. 

“You’re not going to teach me on a track today, are you?” Isabel asked.

“No, I thought my farm would be better,” Daniel said, smirking. He hadn’t realized he hadn’t asked her about the details of where they were going until just then. 

“You have a farm?”

“Yeah, so the road’s going to be a little tougher,” Daniel admitted. “But it’s the best place to learn, I think.”

Daniel listened to the quiet hum of the engine and stared out at the empty dirt path ahead of them. He’d chosen this specific spot because it was clear of trees and it was a good distance from the lake. The space also had a few good meters of flat earth before hitting some slopes, and farm animals rarely frequented this spot.

Still, Isabel stared out at the scenery as though she were about to drive the car up a mountain.

“Step on the gas,” Daniel said, breaking the growing silence. “Like I showed you earlier.”

Isabel’s neck snapped in his direction as she stared at him, mortified. “Why?”

“Because at the rate we’re going, we may as well walk,” Daniel sighed. “I swear, it’s gonna be okay.”

They had moved, by his estimate, approximately five feet since they switched positions with her behind the wheel.

“I’m scared,” Isabel blurted, her cheeks flushed.

“Why?”

“I don’t know!” she said, looking both frustrated and embarrassed. “What if we crash?”

“Into what?” Daniel gestured to the emptiness before them. “There’s literally nothing ahead of us. I made sure of it.”

Isabel bit her lip and stared at her hands on the wheel. Daniel racked his head for any comfort he could give her, but smiled when, finally, she gently stepped on the gas. The car inched forward.

“There you go,” he said with a small laugh. “Lean into it some more, I swear it’s going to be—”

Isabel floored it before he could finish his sentence, driving straight ahead. And while she continued looking terrified, he laughed.

“Now we’re talking!” he hollered. He’d been having trouble with the dashboard’s Bluetooth connection and had yet to fix it, so he couldn’t connect his phone and play music. The AUX was busted too, and so, with Isabel busy behind the wheel, Daniel tinkered with the radio. “Looks like you’re gonna have to drive some more for us to get a signal.”

“Is this an attempt at giving me some sort of goal?”

“You’re a fast learner,” Daniel noted with a grin. “You should probably slow down now, though.”

He would have preferred it if she eased into the slower pace. Instead, she hit the brakes. 

“Ow,” Isabel whined as the force of the sudden stop pushed them forward in their seats. She rubbed at a spot on her collarbone that her seatbelt snagged onto.

“Okay, so braking is also sort of important,” Daniel said, wincing.

They stared at each other for a moment, Isabel with her hand still on her shoulder and him, rubbing the back of his neck. He pursed his lips, about to make some sly comment, when Isabel laughed. And so did he. Because, as he was quickly coming to learn, it was so easy to let go with her. To laugh, to not think. To not worry about where he was supposed to go next.

And so they spent the rest of the afternoon with him yelling out instructions and Isabel doing her best—sometimes succeeding, sometimes failing—to follow through. By the time they’d circled back to the grassy lawn that led to the main house, it was late afternoon.

“I didn’t think this would be that exhausting,” Isabel said, wiping sweat off her brow.

Daniel chuckled. “And we’ve only just scratched the surface,” he said. “You still need to figure out your pace.”

“Hey, but you have to admit today wasn’t so bad for a first—” she cut herself off midsentence as the radio came to life, finally catching a decent signal. Daniel instantly caught the hum of the familiar intro and grinned as he turned up the volume.

“IT STARTED ON THE DAY WE MET,” he shamelessly screamed, singing along to Isabel’s voice. She attempted a frown and crossed her arms, only to end up laughing as Daniel reached out for her hand to lift up in the air with his. “FIRST NIGHT, I CALLED MY SISTER AND TOLD HER I WAS FALLING IN LOVE.”

“You weren’t kidding when you said you were a fan, then.”

“Oh, I don’t play about music. Ever,” Daniel said with a wink. Isabel laughed, and he continued singing as she started the car again and drove to the main house.

Chapter Text

6.

Even when he was racing, Daniel generally did not hate doing interviews. He wouldn’t say he liked them, as others would claim or assume. It was part of the job, that was it.

But there were some interviews that had the tell-tale signs of a downward spiral from the get-go. In this case, it was the interviewer’s lack of actual questions related to karting, but rather, not-so-subtle hints about Formula 1.

“It’s been really nice just to have the opportunity to give back. I started karting when I was nine, and I’m glad this series is taking off,” Daniel said, as he and the journalist—a twenty-something guy from a new sports website—walked around the small track. Daniel smiled and waved at the excited parents and kids milling around the karts. He had started the series in 2019, and since then, the club had grown.

“Is it weird being on a track and not racing, though?” The journalist asked. He was on the skinnier side and wore blue plastic glasses that reminded Daniel of a toy. He’d forgotten what the kid’s name was, but was growing far too disinterested to ask for it again. 

Still, Daniel smiled. 

“Well, I haven’t been on a track like this for a race since I was a kid,” Daniel said, throwing in a slight laugh to mask his growing annoyance.

“Don’t you miss it, though? That feeling of being on a track and prepping to get into a car yourself?”

Daniel prayed to whoever was listening that his smile would hold. Many have pointed out that he made a lot of wrong choices—he trusted the wrong people, he made bad calls, and he was always somehow at the wrong place at the wrong time. To him, though, his consistent mistake was choosing to shrug things off and being the bigger person.

“I try not to think about it much,” he said, choosing the safer answer than the one he had in mind. “I find that it keeps me grounded in the present better.”

“There have been rumors going around about Max Verstappen’s contract at Red Bull with the bad season he’s been having. Do you think—”

“Max is a four-time World Champion,” Daniel cut in with another smile. “No matter how bad things look, never count him out. Anyway, I think I need to talk to some of the organisers about the podium ceremony for the kids later. It was nice meeting you.”

The journalist tried following him with a string of incoherent questions, but luckily for Daniel, he was blocked by several of the race organisers who needed his sign-off. He smiled and made small talk with everyone else, laughing in all the right parts of each conversation. From his periphery, he watched the young journalist eye him with a curious look before typing away on his phone, probably already prepping some unfairly spun headline.

He was on autopilot for most of the race, but did his best to be chipper for the winning kids during the awarding ceremony. It wasn’t until he was back in his car that he got a text from Isabel asking if they could have a shortened lesson that day since she had a gig later that night.

danielricciardo: You’re getting tired of me already?

isabelcas: Don’t give me that attitude. I was gonna ask if you wanted to come right after.

danielricciardo: Well, I never say no to invites.

Isabel pushed her sunglasses higher up her nose as she waved the unmistakable takeout bag from Morning Star over her head, and Daniel stopped the car before her. 

“Today’s payment,” she said with a grin.

“Maybe these lessons aren’t so bad after all,” Daniel noted as Isabel fastened her seatbelt. 

“Please, we both know you’re doing this because you still want to get a song written about you,” Isabel reminded. 

“I will neither confirm nor deny,” Daniel replied sagely. “So, I’m assuming we have two hours tops today? Because of your gig and all?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” Isabel said with a pout. She had flicked her hair over her shoulder when she quirked her brow, noticing something in the back of the car. “What’s that for?”

Daniel briefly glanced in the direction she was pointing, and he laughed. He had placed a spare helmet in the backseat the night before and had forgotten about it. “From what I've seen so far, you either drive like a grandma or a NASCAR driver. I need to be prepared,” he said. He left it there as a joke, but remembering how she did last time…it was better to be safe than sorry. 

Isabel made a face, as if she were attempting to be upset, only for her laughter to betray her. “Wow, thanks for the faith,” she said, right as Daniel turned a corner. “What were you up to this morning?”

“Watched a karting race,” Daniel replied with a shrug. “You messaged me at the perfect time, actually. Saved me from a bad interview.”

“Why was it bad?”

“Way too many questions about, you know…my old life.”

“You say it as if you used to hunt people for sport or something,” Isabel said. Daniel bit back a laugh as they watched the gate to the farm open.

“I prefer avoiding questions about that part of my life these days, I suppose,” Daniel explained. 

“Understandable,” Isabel said after a while as Daniel continued driving to their old starting point. “You’re still figuring out who you are outside of the track.”

“Exactly,” Daniel said before coming to a stop. “But today’s one of those ‘semi-adjacent’ days because I’m a driving instructor.”

Isabel matched his smile as they simultaneously opened their doors to switch seats. By the time their two hours were up, Daniel was both surprised by how quickly the time passed and how he was somehow enjoying these lessons so far. It wasn’t as if this was his first time trying to teach someone else how to drive. But it was, by far, the least stressful experience. If anything, it was enjoyable. 

“I suppose the helmet was unnecessary today,” Daniel commented as he let Isabel drive the car all the way back to the main house. “You were in grandma mode today.”

“Only because I didn’t want you to bring out the helmet,” Isabel said, rolling her eyes. She struggled with the clutch for a moment, right as the dirt gave way to concrete, when her phone began to ring. 

“Not until you’ve parked,” Daniel tutted as Isabel eyed the caller ID. 

“We aren’t even on an actual road; we’re at your farm,” she pointed out. 

“I told you, driving is serious business,” Daniel said as he shook his head. Still, he grabbed the phone for her and swiped it open anyway, setting the call to speakerphone. It was someone called Susie. 

“Hey Susie,” Isabel said, her eyes straight ahead. “What’s up? And before you say anything, you’re on speakerphone.”

“Good,” the woman called Susie replied, her voice evidently giddy. “You got nominated.”

“Sweet, by a local radio station or something?”

“Love, by the Grammys.”

Daniel stared at the phone, then at Isabel, whose brows furrowed before catching his eye. The car abruptly halted, but for once, Daniel wasn’t annoyed about it. “The Grammys?” Isabel repeated, her voice in disbelief.  

“Best New Artist,” Susie confirmed. In the background of the call, people were cheering and applauding. Daniel watched the shock on Isabel’s face morph into glee as Daniel reached over to shake her shoulders and quietly celebrate. She beamed at him before finally letting out a delighted scream. 

“So you’re here because you’re just friends?” Dave asked, smiling over his beer. Daniel resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the not-so-subtle implication in his tone. 

“Just friends,” he confirmed. “She says she needed someone to teach her how to drive.”

At that, Dave laughed. 

“One day the two of you will thank me, then,” he said, right as Jung ordered them another round. It wasn’t a surprise to Daniel that they were set to play a set, too. In fact, he’d texted Dave if he and the guys would be there, just so he could have people to talk to, because as expected, Isabel was busy. 

He had been there for nearly an hour before he spotted Isabel emerging backstage with a few people whom Daniel assumed were producers. Isabel had switched out of the standard shorts-and-shirt combo she wore during their sessions and into a short black dress. As soon as it seemed like they were wrapping up their conversation, Daniel shifted in his seat, thinking he should probably go say hi, only for another guy to replace the producers. 

He would have missed it had he blinked, but there was something that changed in Isabel’s expression as soon as he stood in front of her. She smiled at him, but it didn’t quite meet her eyes as the guy started talking. 

“I should probably go say hi,” Daniel said to Dave, nodding towards Isabel’s direction. Dave looked from Daniel to Isabel and the guy she was talking to, before smirking. 

“You go do that,” he agreed, the implication in his voice still present.  

“Who’s that guy she’s talking to?” Daniel asked before going, just to be sure. The smirk on Dave’s face progressed to a grin. 

“Some guy from 5 Seconds of Summer,” he said. “They opened for One Direction a few years ago.”

“Good to know,” Daniel said, before finally getting up. 

Onstage, a cover band was now playing an acoustic rendition of an old Backstreet Boys song as the guy eyed Daniel approaching from over Isabel’s shoulder. He wore a black sleeveless tee, and his black hair was streaked with blonde tinges that made Daniel want to laugh. 

“Hey,” Daniel cut in, lightly placing a hand on Isabel’s shoulder. When Isabel looked up at him, her expression softened. “Sorry to interrupt, I just didn’t want to miss you.”

“You came,” Isabel said brightly. “And no, you weren’t interrupting at all. Cal, this is Daniel. Daniel, Cal.”

Daniel extended a hand to “Cal,” who eyed his hand warily before shaking it. “Hey, mate, nice to meet you,” Daniel said, as Cal muttered something similar back. He had bushy eyebrows and several random tattoos lining his arms that made Daniel proud of his own.

Isabel watched the two of them, pursing her mouth as though she were about to change the subject, only to be interrupted by a blonde guy in heavy eye makeup. He wore a crumpled suit, had a weird goatee, and was evidently drunk. The new guy was laughing as he threw an arm around Cal’s shoulders, slightly tipping over if not for Cal setting him back on his feet.

“Isaaaa,” he slurred upon seeing Isabel, who smiled back at him.

“Ashton,” she acknowledged. “Been a while.”

“Too long, you mean,” the guy named Ashton giggled. Behind him, two other guys materialized. Another blonde and a pale guy with equally pale white hair and heavy bangs.

“Hey, Isabel,” the two new boys chorused, right as Ashton’s drunken gaze landed on Daniel.

“I know you,” Ashton said, lightly wagging a finger at him. “You’re Daniel Ricciardo. Huge fan. Huge fan, mate.”

Daniel forced out a smile. He hadn’t expected that. “Oh, thanks, mate,” he said.

“That race you won against Sebastian Vettel, fucking awesome, man,” Ashton continued, slurring in between bouts of impressed giggles. “Biblical.”

“Thanks,” Daniel said again before directing his attention back to Isabel. He lightly touched her shoulder again before setting a hand on her waist. Cal eyed the small gesture, which confirmed his suspicions. “Hey, Dave and the guys actually have a great table, but I think they’re coming on in a few minutes…?”

“I should definitely go say hi then,” Isabel said, quickly taking the hint and grabbing the bait. She waved at Cal and the rest of his sad friends. “Bye, guys!”

Daniel suppressed a grin as they walked away together. Dave and everyone else were still at the table by the time they got back. He quirked a brow at Daniel discreetly, his eyes lingering on Isabel before shooting Daniel a look. Daniel laughed it off, but he knew it would be a point of conversation later.

“We’re just about to prep for our set,” Dave said to Isabel.

“Well, it’s good that this is a great booth then,” Isabel replied with a wink as she and Daniel wished them luck. 

He let Isabel slide into the booth first, then followed suit. As Dave and everyone else headed for the stage, Daniel waved a waiter over to get them a fresh round of drinks. Isabel smiled thankfully, making small talk about the next few acts. 

And as much as Daniel tried to pay attention, his gaze was transfixed on a spot from over Isabel’s shoulder—on Calum, who was evidently watching them.

“So, I’m guessing that guy was an ex?” he finally asked as Isabel paused to take a sip of her drink. She made a face before rolling her eyes.

“Was it that obvious?”

“Well, I can see him watching us from here,” Daniel said, smirking. “He’s got that look on his face.”

Isabel laughed. “What look?”

“Like he’s trying to figure out if we’re together,” Daniel replied with a slight laugh.

Again, Isabel rolled her eyes but laughed with him. She took another sip of her drink before gathering her hair and pulling it up in a high ponytail. Daniel quirked a brow, not at the gesture but rather, because of the faint mark he had never noticed before on the back of her neck.

“You have a tattoo?”

Isabel looked back at him, puzzled, until she realized what he’d meant. She touched the spot. “Oh, this? Yeah. Got it when I turned 21.”

She shifted in her seat to give him a better look. Underneath the bar’s lights, the ink almost looked faded as Daniel traced a finger over the small numbers. “Coordinates?”

Isabel nodded, leaning back against her seat. Daniel set his palm against the back of her neck before sliding it down her shoulder in one quick movement. “He’s still watching,” he said quietly in her ear, eyeing her sulking ex over on the opposite corner of the room. Isabel laughed but nestled into him, her frame fitting perfectly in the curve between his arm and torso.

“Why do I get the feeling you’re enjoying this?” Isabel said. 

Daniel shrugged. “So coordinates,” he continued. When Isabel shot him a look, he grinned. “It’ll look more natural if we’re having an actual conversation.”

“Oh, you are enjoying this,” Isabel concluded, before indulging him anyway. “It’s the coordinates of my mum’s birthplace. Just to remind me she was here.”

“That’s sweet.”

Isabel smiled, looking at him as she touched the angel tattooed on his arm. “What about your ink? Surely, some of these have a story.”

“They do,” he agreed. “But it’ll take a while to go through each one.”

Isabel pretended to think about it. “I have time.”

Daniel grinned. He knew this was all just a show for her ex, but that didn’t stop him from enjoying it. With his arm still around her shoulders, he toyed with her hair as she fully played along and leaned closer to him. 

“I got this one because I love music,” he said, showing her the treble clef on his wrist. 

“I should probably get one of those,” Isabel said, tracing the small symbol with her finger. She had soft hands, but the pads of her fingertips were rough from years of guitar playing. “What about that ‘LA’ one. Did you live out there?”

Daniel laughed, a little embarrassed. “I got that one while I was drunk with a couple of friends,” he explained anyway. By the time he’d gotten through the tattoos on his thighs, Dave and the rest of the guys had finished their set. They stayed for another round of drinks before Daniel said he should probably call it a night. 

“Want me to drive you home?” He asked Isabel before he got up. Isabel nodded right as Dave laughed and made some joke about the two of them. “By the way, have you gotten your learner’s permit yet?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” Isabel said with a slight laugh. “I know that puts me at risk with you officially making me drive all the time.”

“Stay safe, you two!” Donnie called after them. 

They were near the exit when Daniel said, “I knew I should have brought the Porsche. Or the McLaren, at least.”

Isabel rolled her eyes as he opened the door for her. “Why?”

Daniel smirked, discreetly nodding towards the left. “Because your ex is still watching,” he said. Isabel didn’t even bother looking back as she grinned and followed Daniel to his truck. He waited until she was fully buckled up and they were out of the parking lot before he asked, “Will you kill me if I ask what happened with that guy?”

Isabel gave it some thought before letting out a laugh he was positive wasn’t all too genuine. “We broke up ages ago. We were together for, like, two years. He cheated. A bunch of times, actually. His argument was that they were mostly groupies, but that just made it worse for me,” she said. 

Daniel made a face.

“That’s…gross,” he said. He wasn’t sure what word to use, but “gross” felt like the best one to use in the moment. 

“I know,” Isabel said, as if she was used to getting the same response. 

“And he had the nerve to talk to you earlier?”

Isabel rolled her eyes and shot him a look. “He’s a guy,” she said. 

This time, Daniel laughed. “What does that have to do with anything?”

Again, Isabel shot her another annoyed look. “Is this the part where you’re going to act like you’ve never been an asshole to a girl just to impress me?”

“I’ve had my moments, I’ll admit that,” Daniel allowed. “But I'm proud of my track record. Pretty clean. Never cheated.” 

“Really?”

“Yes, really,” Daniel said as he stopped for a red light. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

Isabel thought about it for a beat as the traffic light blinked green again. “I don’t know, what am I supposed to say? Am I supposed to give you praise for not cheating?”

This time, it was Daniel’s turn to roll his eyes. “My point is that you sound as if you expected him to cheat,” he explained anyway.

“He was on tour,” Isabel replied with a shrug. “It sounds like I’m condoning it, I know, but I guess I just got fed the same excuse for way too long that I turned numb or something.”

“Cheating aside, was he a good guy at least?” Daniel asked after a while, letting the silence marinate for a bit. 

“He was okay,” Isabel said with another shrug. “The sex was forgettable.”

Daniel laughed again, a genuine one this time. “I wasn’t asking about the sex,” he said. 

“You were about to,” Isabel shot back. “I can tell.”

“I was not.”

“Don’t get the wrong impression, I don’t kiss and tell,” Isabel quickly clarified. “But considering that he cheated…”

“No, no, I agree,” Daniel said. “It’s fair game. So, he was that bad, huh?”

Isabel’s lower lip jutted out as she thought about the relationship again, before leaning her head back against her seat. “He’d come to see me when he could, sometimes with whatever merch he could get his hands on, just so he could say he came bearing gifts, which I really don’t mind. I also got to meet the guys from One Direction at some point because of him,” she recalled. 

“Yeah, Dave told me that earlier. I thought he was joking. Their vibe seemed to be more…I don’t know, rock band, not boy band.”

“That was what they were going for,” Isabel agreed. 

“To no avail?”

“Unfortunately.”

“He seemed way too dorky for you anyway,” Daniel said as he turned onto a new street. Isabel smiled, watching him from the passenger seat. 

“But seriously though, you’ve never cheated?”

Daniel laughed. “Why does that sound so hard to believe? I’m this close to being offended,” he said. 

“I don’t know, I just assumed that with your old job’s lifestyle… with all the traveling,” she trailed off.

“A couple of the other drivers sleep around, that’s for sure,” Daniel agreed, his mind suddenly flooding with images of crazy nights he would very much rather forget and things he had seen against his will. “But that’s none of my business. It wasn’t for me.”

“So you just casually dated?” Isabel asked. 

He considered his next words carefully, knowing full well where this was going. “I had a girlfriend during my early years,” Daniel said, choosing to be honest. 

“Oh?”

“We were together since high school,” Daniel continued, unsure why he was even telling her this. 

Isabel gave a low whistle. “Wow.”

“That surprised you, didn’t it?”

“It did,” Isabel admitted. “So, how long were you together?”

“Eight years,” Daniel replied. He didn’t talk about Jemma much, not because of any lingering feelings or hurt. He didn’t like talking about her because it was hard. There was always this odd look that passed over people’s eyes each time he shared that he was with someone for eight years, and somehow, it ended. Isabel was no different. 

“This was a long time ago,” Daniel explained, defaulting to his usual disclaimer every time he talked about Jemma. “At this point, we’ve been broken up longer than we ever were together.”

“I sometimes forget you’re that older than me,” Isabel said. 

“I am, aren’t I?” Daniel agreed, thankful for the sudden redirection. He glanced at her from his periphery and saw that she was watching him intently, not as if he were some weirdo who couldn’t maintain relationships. 

“Phones still had keypads when you were growing up,” she continued.

“You were born in 1999, you had a phone like that at some point too, don’t lie,” he said as she laughed.  

“So eight years, huh?” Isabel said once her laughter had subsided. He wasn’t completely out of the woods yet. “How long did the next relationship last?”

She was good. He had to give her that. 

“Five, six years. Give or take,” Daniel replied anyway, still unsure as to why he was telling her all this. He could have lied, but he didn’t. “It wasn’t, um, straightforward. We took breaks in between.”

“Curiouser and curiouser. Tell me more.”

“I hate how this conversation was initially about you, but now you’ve managed to flip the subject and make it entirely about me,” Daniel said. 

“Well, your anecdotes are way more interesting,” Isabel pointed out.  

“You literally dated a guy who toured with One Direction.”

“He opened for them,” Isabel corrected. “And we’ve established that he’s a loser.”

“Fair point,” Daniel allowed. 

They were silent for a moment until Isabel perked up again and said, “Can I guess what happened?”

Daniel laughed. “Fine, I’d like to see you try,” he said. 

“The eight-year relationship was definitely serious,” Isabel started, a concentrated look passing over her face. “It probably took you some time to recover, so that’s why the five-to-six-year relationship was on-off.”

When Daniel said nothing in reply, she said, “I’m right, aren’t I?”

“I think in both relationships, we each wanted different things,” Daniel said, unsure if the correction even mattered. “They were bound to end.”

“Bound to end,” Isabel repeated, followed by another low whistle. “That’s bleak.”

“Well, what about you?” Daniel said, surely he had to get something out of her now. “Did you ever date after what’s-his-face?”

“I did,” she replied. “Another singer. We dated for about a year. Then, after that, it was an actor. Lasted three years. Now I’m here, single for two years.”

“Mysterious.”

Isabel rolled her eyes but laughed, and for the rest of the drive, they exchanged odd dating stories and the most random anecdotes. By the time Daniel stopped the car in front of the house Isabel pointed out was hers, he hadn’t realized that he had been driving for almost an hour. 

They bid each other good night, but as Isabel neared her front door, Daniel rolled down the passenger side window and called out, “Hey Isabel.”

She turned around. “Yeah?”

“Don’t forget about your driving lessons tomorrow.”

She smiled. 

“Same time as before?”

He nodded. “We can go get brunch.”

Chapter Text

7. 

Isabel traced her mother’s name engraved on the tombstone, smiling as she hummed her favorite song. “So, that’s how life has been,” she said, after a moment. She made it a habit to “talk” to her mother whenever she visited. “Look out for me up there?” she added, before touching two finger tips against her lips and then setting them against the cold tombstone.

“Miss you, Mrs. C!” Sienna added, touching the stone as well before looping her arm with Isabel’s. 

Sienna and Isabel had been best friends since high school. They bonded over their weird mutual love for crappy horror movies and musical theater. Back then, Sienna also loved singing. But as they grew older, she became more inclined towards acting. And so, where Isabel would stay up all night to play gigs and record songs on school nights, Sienna would be driving around everywhere to get to auditions. That was their third shared, beloved ground — chasing their dreams. 

Isabel buckled her seatbelt as Sienna pulled out of the cemetery. She had just finished wrapping her latest movie and would be home for a while, which was perfect. Isabel couldn’t remember the last time their schedules aligned like this. As Sienna talked about her last day of filming, Isabel considered telling her about Daniel. It felt right. They were best friends, after all. And again, the timing was perfect.  

But as they fell into a comfortable silence, she distracted herself by scrolling on her phone. Ever since the Grammy nominations were announced, she has had an even larger uptick in followers.

“It’s our year, Isa, I’m telling you,” Sienna said with a knowing smile, catching Isabel looking at her profile. “About time, too.”

Isabel nodded. “I know,” she agreed. “And on that note, there’s something I haven’t told you, actually.”

Sienna grinned. “Is it a guy?”

“How did you know?” Isabel asked, shocked. 

Sienna laughed, flicking her blonde hair over one shoulder before briefly catching Isabel’s eye. “I knew it,” she said. “Well, tell me who it is. Is it that guy from that band who shared a studio with you a few months back?”

“No, he’s Australian, actually. Daniel Ricciardo?”

“The F1 guy?”

Again, Isabel stared at her in disbelief. “I can’t believe you know him,” Isabel said. 

Sienna scoffed, “Everyone knows him.”

“I didn’t,” Isabel pointed out.

“Of course, you didn’t,” Sienna laughed. “Life is funny that way. How did you even meet him?”

“At a gig,” Isabel replied with a shrug.” He’s also friends with Dave.”

“Dave, as in Dave from Gangs of Youth?”

“Yes,” Isabel said. Although Sienna had long focused on her acting, she still had her ties to the music industry. That, and she still enjoyed tagging along to Isabel’s gigs from time to time.

“At least we know he has taste,” Sienna smirked. “So what’s the situation like?”

“I’m not sure whether there’s even a situation just yet,” Isabel said honestly. It was the first time she was saying this out loud.

“Why?”

“We’re just hanging out,” Isabel said. “He’s been teaching me how to drive.”

Sienna laughed as she made a left turn. “You’ve been getting lessons from a race car driver?” she repeated. When Isabel nodded, she laughed again. “This sounds like the plot of a movie.”

“Stop it,” Isabel said, rolling her eyes. “Although the other night, we ran into Cal. That felt like something out of a movie.”

“Cal, as in Calum, your ex?” Sienna said, making a face. “Ew.”

“I know,” Isabel agreed. “Anyway, Daniel became all touchy-feely because of it since he knew Cal was watching.”

Sienna tutted. “Interesting,” she said. 

“But I think he did it to be a friend, you know,” Isabel continued as Sienna parked the car. “He could tell Cal was jealous, and he wanted to help.”

“Seems like a great friend then,” Sienna said with another slight laugh. Isabel shot her a look as she followed her friend out of the car. “I’m just saying, would you really go through all that for someone who’s just your friend?”

Isabel never thought of it that way. And truthfully, she would rather not think about it. She didn’t need to get any ideas. 

Isabel frowned as she ran a hand through her hair. Next to her, Daniel made a face as he noted the look on her face. “You’re getting better,” he said. 

“I almost ran over a squirrel,” Isabel reminded. 

Daniel smiled thinly. “Still,” he said with a shrug. “Progress is progress. In fact, I’m pretty sure you can take the test soon.”

Isabel laughed. “I don’t like failing,” she said. 

“You won’t,” Daniel said as he gestured for her to start the car again. She obliged. Right as the main house came into view, he shifted in his seat. “You probably just need a change of pace.”

Isabel quirked a brow as she parked the car. “What does that even mean?”

“You need to drive a different car,” Daniel said simply, as if this should have been obvious to her. 

“I am not driving your Porsche,” Isabel cut in before he could continue. At this, Daniel laughed. 

“Oh, you definitely aren’t, you’re not ready for that quite yet,” Daniel agreed. “I was thinking of a go-kart.”

This time, Isabel laughed. “No way,” she said. “I am not getting on a kart.”

“Why not!”

“Because!” Isabel retorted, shifting to fully face him. Daniel grinned. “I am not going to break my neck!”

“You won’t, I swear,” Daniel said, dramatically putting a hand over his heart for effect. “It’ll be way easier than driving this car, actually. This is a stick shift. Karts only have two pedals.”

They stared at one another for a moment, but before Daniel could point out the hesitation, Isabel raised a hand. “The answer is no,” she said, before pulling out the keys to the car to hand over to him.

“It’ll be fun, I promise,” Daniel whined as they both got out of the car and switched seats. 

Isabel laughed again as she buckled in. “A lot of bad ideas were initially advertised as ‘fun,’” she said. 

“And I’m willing to bet at least half delivered and were actually fun,” Daniel said with another grin before starting the car again. Isabel decided not to argue further, choosing to accept the lesson quickly unfolding: there were some things you simply did not argue with Daniel about. Primary among this list was anything that he considered fun. 

As promised, the kart did, in fact, only have two pedals. What Daniel failed to mention, however, was that the steering wheel was much harder to turn than that of a regular car, and that she had to wear a helmet. 

“Do your feet feel okay?” Daniel asked as he readjusted Isabel’s seat for what felt like the nth time. She kicked the pedal for effect, showing how snug it fit against her sneaker. 

“I guess?” she said, still hesitant. They were both wearing helmets, which made their voices sound muffled. But she was positive he was smiling under his balaclava. “If I die, my blood is on your hands.”

“You’re being dramatic,” Daniel said before strapping her in. “This is fun, I promise.”

“I should charge you each time you say that,” Isabel mumbled, only for Daniel to laugh in response. She lightly pushed against the pedals, careful not to press her weight all the way as she waited for Daniel to get ready in the kart behind hers. 

“I’ll follow your lead!” she heard him call after a few more moments. She took in a sharp intake of breath, wondering how she let him do this in the first place. She did think it was a bad idea in theory. But admittedly, she was curious. 

And so she stepped on the right pedal, gently at first, until the sound of the small kart coming to life and the wind grazing the skin of her arms further sparked her curiosity. 

She stepped on it some more. And then some more. A little more. Until everything around her blurred and she sped past the markers spread across the track, only finding a sense of reality each time she made a sharp turn. The steering wheel was stiffer than an ordinary car’s and so she made an extra effort with each shift. She could hear Daniel cheering from behind as he kept his promise and trailed behind her.

They were four laps in when she made a mistake.

She had miscalculated a turn. She hadn’t realized she was crashing until the nose of the kart hit the barrier. She tried hitting the brake but it was no use. She had already collided. In what felt like a span of a second, Daniel was next to her, still in his helmet as he reached for her shoulder.

“Are you okay?” he asked. Isabel nodded, feeling oddly numb as she let Daniel undo the straps of her seatbelt before mechanically getting up. “Are you sure?” he asked, giving her a once-over.

Again, Isabel nodded as she stared at the kart. It looked fine, except for the unmistakable dent in the left front wing. When she looked back at Daniel, he had already taken off his helmet and balaclava and was still assessing whether she had sustained any injuries. “Is the kart going to be okay?” Isabel asked. Daniel stared at her, confused, until realization dawned on him.

“The kart doesn’t matter,” he said before asking for the nth time, “Are you okay?”

“I am, I really am,” Isabel confirmed, yet still wondering why the crash itself hadn’t scared her, despite how her mind lingered on the thought of her mum. “I’m okay.”