Archive of Our Own ^beta

Dating Luke is kinda like dating a crow. One of his favorite things to do was to give Dino random shit, of course Dino loved it. He loved every time Luke handed him the strangest things, from rocks, to a cat once. Truly it was one of his favorite things, and Dino now possessed quite the collection of random things and because jewelry was one of Luke's favorite things to give to Dino, Dino also now has a quite extensive collection of jewelry, that Luke loved to see Dino wear, so often Dino had at least one piece of jewelry from Luke on.

“This reminded me of you.” Dino looked up from his journal to his boyfriend, who had his arm stretched out, showing Dino something. Dino blinked at it, it was a rock, as it was normally on race weekends, there wasn't much else to find on the ground around the paddock, but still he smiled up at his beaming boyfriend.

“I love it ljubavi.” Dino said, reaching up to grab it, kissing Luke’s hand gently. “Where did you find it?” Dino asked, he always liked to ask Luke more about his random objects. It was nice to hear about Luke’s thought process when it came to finding his objects and how he felt it connected to Dino. I made Dino feel loved.

“I went for a walk and I saw it because the sun was glinting off of it making it shine, and that reminded me of how you shine I guess.” Luke shrugged, clearly a little shy as always. Dino knew Luke loved to tell Dino how he found the objects and why they reminded him of Dino, but Dino also knew that it always made Luke a little self conscious.

Dino held out his hand for Luke pulling him down next to him on the ground. He wrapped an arm around Luke’s shoulders pulling him closer. “I think you shine too, min käraste.” Dino said. Luke laughed, resting his head on Dino’s shoulder.

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Dino was leaning in the Ferrari garage, he had a FP1 with Ferrari today, and could feel the nerves coursing through his body. He was sad that Luke didn’t have FP1 with Williams this weekend, but it would be okay, he could go without his boyfriend’s silly little routine of giving him something that reminded him of Dino. The routine that had started to become his nerve soother.

He tapped his fingers anxiously against the car, watching the people move around him. He missed his boyfriend, he wished desperately that Luke was there, with a rock, or a stick, or really anything. He wished Luke was there to calm his nerves.

“Baby!” Dino looked up at the sound of his boyfriend’s voice. Luke waved to him, as he rushed into the Ferrari garage, where he really shouldn't be right now.

“What are you doing here? You should be in the F2 paddock, not here.” Dino said, his voice only a little scolding, really he knew he mostly sounded relieved, because if he was honest he was so relieved at seeing Luke.

“I needed to give you this.” Luke carefully held out his hand to show Dino a small bracelet, a friendship bracelet, it was yellow and blue. “It reminded me of you.” Luke whispered, pulling Dino closer.

Dino could feel tears at the edges of his eyes. “Oh…” was all he could muster up. He felt as if he said more he would start to sob. Dino knew Luke could have waited, Luke could have waited for when they next saw each other, Luke didn’t need to be here in the wrong paddock so close to race time, with a gift that put tears in Dino’s eyes, and yet here he was. A soft smile on his face, as he carefully tied the bracelet onto Dino’s wrist.

“I know you're going to do amazing baby. I’m going to watch it when I’m done with my race.”

“You probably won’t catch it live.” Whispered out Dino, his voice wobbling.

“I know, I wish I could, but I’ll watch every second of the replays.” Luke said, before pulling away from Dino. “You know I wish I could stay here forever, but I do have my own race to get back to, and I am going to have to run.” said Luke scratching at the back of his neck.

He leaned down, kissing Dino lightly on the nose, before bolting out of the garage. Dino watched him, hand rubbing at the bracelet. The whole race Dino could feel the bracelet on his wrist, the whole time it made him feel like Luke was there with him, encouraging him, telling him he could do it. Dino got his best result in an F1 car that FP1.

When Dino returned to the F2 paddock and was greeted by Luke, he was pulled tightly into a hug. “Look at you!” Luke shouted excitedly. “Holy fuck you did so good! I knew you would!” Dino smiled wide.

“How did you know?” he giggled, wrapping his arms tightly around Luke.

“Because you're amazing.” Luke said, pulling Dino away slightly so he could look at the Swede’s face. “I haven't gotten the chance to watch it yet, but Arvid showed me some of your times, and holy fuck baby, you’re the best.” At that Luke pulled him back in for another tight hug.

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Dino had gotten Luke many gifts in their years of dating, from food to jewelry. Gift giving had never really been Dino’s expertise, but still, he knew how much gifts meant to Luke and so he gave as many as he could to the other. This gift however, was going to be something else. Tucked neatly in the pocket of Dino’s jacket, ready for just the right moment. A ring.

Luke had given Dino many a ring, sapphires, diamonds, and plain bands of gold, but none of them would be like this one. Engraved LB46 and DB38 next to each other, with the small engraving of “this reminded me of you” the simple phrase having become a small joke between the two of them, due to how often Luke had said that or a variation of it to Dino when he presented an item to the other.

Dino hoped upon hope Luke would say yes. They had been together for six years now, they had raced side by side in Formula 1 for two, and Dino had never been happier. The only thing he wanted now (besides a world championship) was to be able to call Luke his husband.

They were on the beach together, the same beach where they had had their first date. Dino had set up a whole picnic, it was a bit too cold for swimming, but the ocean breeze around them reminded Dino of the many times they had come back to this beach to remember their first date.

Dino fidgeted nervously, as he waited for Luke to come back from his adventure exploring the beach. When Luke returned he was going to propose. There was a photographer around, pretending to be taking photos of the beach.

Finally Luke was back, he had a shell in hand. “This reminded me of you.” Luke said, holding out the shell for Dino to take. Dino took it, running it over in his hands.

“I love it.” he whispered, “I love you.” Luke looked at him confused. “Luke,” Dino started, moving to get onto one knee, and he could see the change in emotions on his boyfriend, hopefully soon to be fiancee's face. “Will you marry me?” Dino asked, holding out the ring for his shocked boyfriend.

Luke stared at it, saying nothing for a long while, Dino could see tears in Luke’s eyes. Luke carefully picked up the ring inspecting it. “Does this say, ‘this reminded me of you’ on it?” Luke asked in a small voice.

“It does, right next to our names and numbers.” Dino said, pointing it out to Luke.

“Dino… fuck Dino, this is the most amazing… I don’t even know what to say.” Luke said, stumbling over his words and he pulled Dino up.

“Yes, I would hope.” Dino said, pulling Luke close.

“Yes, yes of course I will marry you Dino, I would love nothing more.” Dino smiled, bigger than he ever had in his life, bigger than when he won his first Formula 1 race.

“I can’t wait to be your husband.” Dino said, and slid the ring onto his fiancee’s finger.

“Me neither.” Luke whispered, watching the silver metal band slip on, before pulling Dino into a kiss.