glitch — daniel ricciardo.
© fleursbae 2022, do not repost, modify or translate!
synopsis: daniel realizes he wants to be more than friends
request? yes “may i ask for glitch with daniel?
pairing: daniel ricciardo x actress!reader
a/n: it is the first time that im posting after a long time so i’m a little nervous to be honest, this isn’t revised and there are probably some grammar errors.
warnings: angst, self doubts, cursing, soft, overall fluffy.
wc: 1202k.
tag list: @alternativemadchen @sikeyeehaw @teamkforeva @frenchyjuju @youkantebeserious @serenagiuppo @words-4u
everything started as innocent as one friendship can be. it was one of the most boring events she was ever invited to in her life, and the regret of accepting the invitation was running through her veins. regret, regret, regret, the only word in her mind at the moment.
her career came with inevitable moments, and a few prices for living a dream. becoming an actress was a dream, being able to portray different characters, and emotions, tell different stories, live incredible memories, and make amazing friends was all worth it at the end of the day. it was at that same boring, that she met him.
him, he loved doing different events. being a formula one driver had its peaks but being invited to movie premieres, concerts, and award shows, and getting to know people from different industries that he admired ever since he knew himself was priceless. in places like that, he would even forget that he was even famous. he felt the same way as a child.
he approached her first — with that big smile on his face, the one able to light a whole room, of course — but when she tells the story of how they met, she always mentions the fact that his smile was noticeable to everyone in that room. the first thing she noticed about him: was his beautiful smile and the curls of his hair.
a simple:
“you were part of that one movie, right?”
“i was in plenty of movies, i think you have to be a little more specific!"
was enough for the two of them to become friends, and she was more than thrilled to be.
at the beginning of it all, they smiled at each other with no intentions behind it,
and after that, they were inseparable.
even though she didn’t have all the time in the world, she would always make up some exceptions for him. how could she not? between schedules, always visiting when possible, attending races, and listening to his complaints about the recent problems with his career. a lot.
daniel never had a friend that way before.
in his long career, he never felt that people were interested in him for who he was, there were always various reasons for one to approach him and in most cases, daniel most of the times felt that his personality wasn’t even one of them. every time, tired of being used.
and just like that, they became confidants.
the feelings came with time, slowly entering his heart, the little things along the way that made daniel question if that was a friend the friends really do or something else.
first thing: physical touch.
it began when she held his hand for the first time.
and after that, every time she touched him, his heart began to almost explode.
in the beginning, he thought he was having a heart attack. daniel’s heart raced faster than his car. he was so worried by the certain feeling he’s never experienced before.
“hey, are you okay? you look a little pale, is anything wrong?” she gentled and whispered in his ear.
bang. another heartache.
“i think i’m fine…?”
and then he realized what it was.
he knew it was innocent to her, he knew it was wrong to feel that way about a friend but he just couldn’t help himself. every kiss and every hug felt like pure magic, pure chemistry. daniel never felt that way with anyone, not even his ex-girlfriends and ex-flings, it was something different, something he was looking for his entire life and it just felt right.
every touch made his heartache, the way it never ached before.
it was only the start.
second thing – and the worst: jealousy.
daniel’s heart dropped to the floor when he saw her kissing someone else.
the moment he watched that scene develop itself, he regretted accepting her invitation to visit the set for her new movie, one she was proud of the character. he never felt that kind of pain before in his life, he had been in ugly accidents during his career but nothing felt more painful than seeing her kiss someone else.
it was bad. really bad that he needed to take a minute for himself to recompose. lots of hands, kisses, and love affirmation words on the scene and he felt the need to throw up.
daniel’s brain tried to rationalize the situation, tried to think straight, and tried to not let his emotions get in the way, he didn’t want to ruin the day because of his stupid feeling, and deep down he knew it wasn’t her, it was a character and he knew she didn’t have feelings for the guy because she never even mentioned him in their conversations, but still, it hurt for him to watch.
“cut. nice job guys, for a second i thought that you two were in love.”
she ran to daniel with a big smile on her face.
“what did you think? did you like it?” she was excited.
“it was great!” he almost cried. “the kiss, looked real, i even thought that guy shoved his tongue on your throat.”
she laughed a bit.
“oh god, did you notice? it was my idea, i thought it would make it more real!”
“well, seemed pretty real to me!”
the knife went straight to daniel’s heart.
third thing: the way she encouraged him.
daniel couldn’t deny that he was in the worst phase of his career. somewhere along the way, he lost his confidence and began to doubt if he should retire from the sport. all those glory years were minimalized, every mistake he made would create a big headline, and the comments were hurtful to him. daniel was tired.
he wanted to race more than ever, he truly did. but every weekend race felt like a failure, even the ones he did great things. daniel felt like a loser.
and the mclaren announcement was the last straw for him.
“i feel so stupid.”
“you shouldn’t feel that way, danny, you really shouldn’t. they are truly stupid for letting you go that way, they fuck up every single one of your races, and when it isn’t a fucked-up strategy, it’s that stupid car, how are they expecting you to win something like that? that car is a shit box.”
“i don’t know what to say.”
“you know what, i’ll open a team just for you to race! i’ll use all of my money and i’ll create the best team, get a lot of sponsors and you are going to win a lot of races and even championships! and after that-“
daniel interrupted her with a kiss.
a passionate one, sweet, kind, electric one.
“we were supposed to be just friends” she whispered.
“i know and i’m not even sorry. do you have any idea of how much i’ve been thinking about this moment? and i think i might be in love with you. do you have any idea how i felt after seeing you kiss that guy? and how i feel every time that you touch me, even knowing that it’s innocent and we’re just-“
she interrupted him with a kiss.