2020 Season

MONTE CARLO, MONACO

RACING HAS HALTED DUE TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC. DAKOTA MCMANUS HAS SINCE MOVED IN WITH ALPHATAURI DRIVER DANILL KVYAT AFTER PUBLIC HEALTH RESTRICTIONS PREVENT HER FROM FLYING HOME TO AUSTRALIA

WHEN DAKOTA KISSED DANY.

Dakota had taken up residence in Dany's apartment three months ago. Overnight, her thick mystery novels had appeared on coffee tables next to his Russian literature. Small bottles of bath and body works found their way into his shower. The guest bedroom looked lived in, Dakota's things strewn everywhere.

She sold her apartment in Faenza, nobody wanted to rent and Air BnB wouldn't get her anywhere due to the pandemic. Mac was scared of staying alone, but she didn;t want to intrude on Pierre and his girlfriend.

But everybody else was countries away. Monaco. Switzerland. Canada.

In the end, she had decided that the change of scenery would do her some good. After his relationship with Kelley Piquet fell apart, she knew that Daniil needed her. Actually, the two needed the same thing. 

Neither could bear to be alone.

More than once, the mental anguish had gotten to Dakota. The restrictions, the harsh reality, the never ending stream of bad news. The isolation. All of her family were back in Australia. When she had first abandoned Australia for Italy, she'd had her grandfather with her. But he went back to Queensland a year prior, when he first realized that there might be something wrong with his health.

He'd told Dakota to stay put, that she was needed at the Factory more than he was.

And more than once, when the intrusive thoughts crept in during the middle of the night, she found her way into Daniil's bed. Not to sleep with him, but to have the comfort of knowing she wasn't alone. The comfort of the Russian's arms around her frail frame to remind her that everything was going to be okay.

She was curled up on the guest bedroom bed, AirPods in and music playing softly, her head throbbing in the background as she flicked through pictures from home. Her and Daniel Ricciardo racing stock cars in the Outback. Surfing with her brother Jackson last time he was on shore leave. Her and Virginia at the Spice Girls concert in London. Virginia had flown out to the U.K just for that occasion.

She missed normal, missed the comfort of a routine, knowing that everything was going to be okay.

But it wasn't.

It felt like nothing was ever going to be okay again.

"Dakota?" Dany's voice was quiet as he called her name from the doorway. "Kota, are you alright?"

"No." She said, voice equally as soft as she felt the mattress dip next to her, indicating that the Russian had come to join her. "Homesick. And I can feel a migraine coming on."

Dakota sat up slowly, closing her eyes from the sudden vertigo. She wasn't taking care of herself properly, and she knew that. She was spending too much time indoors, and she was paler than ever. When she was living in Italy, lockdown measures were so strict that she couldn't even go outside and bike the path around her condo. Some days, she didn't even want to get out of bed. It was bordering on a hardcore depression when Pierre had stepped in and said she couldn't go on like that.

Three days later, she was calling Daniil and asking if he wouldn't mind if she moved in. 

"I should be home in the Outback, and granddad's karting track. Surfing before anybody shows up at the best local spots." Her knees were drawn into her chest, head resting on the Russian's shoulder. 

"I know." Daniil said softly, pressing his lips to her hairline. Of the driver lineup for the first half of Toro Rosso's 2019 lineup, Dany had always been closer to Dakota than Alex was. Pierre had talked to them both ahead of the season, knowing that he would be moving to Red Bull, and had asked them both to look out for her.

And Dany had been doing that ever since.

"But I'm not going to let you sit here and feel sorry for yourself. Now that my house is child and girlfriend free, moping is my job."

"We're as bad as each other."

"I think you need to go outside and see that life is still going on. Go stand on the balcony for a bit and feel the breeze on your face, it's enlightening."

Dakota rolled her eyes, but inside, she knew the AlphaTauri driver was right, and she managed to force herself to go outside. She was practically wearing pajamas, but she didn't think that anybody would care.

Looking out on Monte Carlo, she just felt numb. It was a feeling she couldn't describe, and had been feeling for the past few months. It was an almost dissociation. The city was supposed to be bustling and full of life.

Right now, the streets were basically empty.

"Monte Carlo shouldn't be this quiet." She remarked as Daniil came back, passing her a half empty bottle of Smirnoff.

She should have known by that point that she never made smart choices when she had been drinking heavily.

But she still wouldn't learn.

She downed a large gulp, passing the bottle back to the Russian. Leaning over the wrought iron balcony, she wondered how she had gotten here. 

Dakota wondered why her colleagues and best friends got to go home to their families and significant others, but she was stuck freeloading off a man who was going through a breakup. She wondered why there was something about her that made her undatable, why none of her relationships had ever worked out in the sense that she had never moved in with any of them, hardly ever gotten as far as 'I love you' because she was so scared of getting hurt.

Dan passed her back the bottle, and she closed her eyes as she felt the clear liquid burn down her throat. When she gave the bottle back, she also passed Dany one of her AirPods, skipping over a depressing Taylor Swift ballad and going straight to Master of Puppets.

"Come crawling faster..." she sang softly under her breath as the duo kept passing the galss bottle back and forth. She was remebering the better times. The concert in Brazil, confetti raining down on her and a few other crew members. "Obey your master."

"Your life burns faster." Daniil joined in, his voice off key and laughable, something he was doing just to try and get his younger colleague to smile. "Obey your master."

"Master of puppets I'm pulling your strings!" They were singing louder now, in unison with the bottle basically forgotten as they focused on trying out out karaoke the other, James Hetfield's voice guiding them in the background.

To this day, Dakota still doesn't know why she did it. She had almost buried the memory, everything with Charles digging it back up again. The media attention. The lost job offers.

She needed to feel something.

She was desperate to feel anything.

Which is why she found herself pressing her lips to Dany's. And she was even more shocked when he kissed her back, hands steady around her waist.

They were practically devouring each other, tongues a tangled mess as they stood in the center of the balcony, for all of Monte Carlo to see, the Russian slowly backing her against the wall, neither stopping to take a breath until Dakota's phone began to ring, the voice assist reading out the caller identification over the earbuds.

Call from Mumsy

"Shit!" Dakota shouted, pushing Dany away and lunging for her phone, which she left on the patio table. She swiped left to answer, slipping inside and closing the screen door behind her. 

Still shocked about what just happened, Daniil was frozen in place. What the fuck had they just done? Was he really that desperate? That he'd kiss the one girl he'd sworn was off limits? the one he loved like a sister?

And that's when he saw the girl fall to her knees in the middle of the kitchen, one hand clasped over her mouth. And when he opened the screen door, he could hear Dakota's shuddering sobs.

"Mac? What happened?"

"It's granddad, Dany." She could barely get the words out, the driver kneeling down to her level and comfortingly resting his hands on her shoulders. "He's in intensive care. He had a stroke."