#danyuki

“J’mappelle Yuki. Croissant.” ➡️ “Buongiorno, carpaccio”

Yuki doesn’t mean to be such a catch. By this, he means that he doesn’t mean to allure his colleagues. Him coming into Formula 1 at twenty, bright-eyed and loudmouthed and sassy, is not uncommon. What is common is that his teammates have all been well, old and attracted to that sort of thing. 

Him and Pierre shared the smallest age gap of four years and yet, he still treated him like he was a child, pinching and poking him like he was ecstatic to have someone to coddle over for the first time. It was endearing, framed most of their dynamic, but didn’t make sense might given his girlfriend was even younger than Yuki, but he digresses.

Nyck was five years older than him, which didn’t change their relationship that much more than what a lack of shared interests and lifestyle already did with him and Pierre. Nyck definitely didn’t baby him as much as Pierre did but they never had the time to properly learn each other properly before he was sacked. 

In comes Daniel Ricciardo, who precedes Yuki by more than a decade. When Daniel was just about to hit high school, Yuki was learning how to walk, which is more shocking for the Australian to learn than it is Yuki. He will be working with the elderly more often than Daniel will be working with young adults in the span of their careers. And with how the sport is proceeding, him, Oscar, and Logan might be the last of the generation.

Again, he digresses.

Daniel is funny. Nice smile with big teeth and a laugh that you can hear even when he’s left the room. It’s nice to be surrounded by that kind of positivity and energy. They’re only two races in but he’s a welcome addition to the team. For one, there isn’t a perpetual dark cloud around his motorhome after free practices or qualifying or races just yet, but the debriefs are valuable and productive with him around, given his intimate knowledge of not only the sport but compounded by how much the team trusts him. Less could be said for Nyck, who’d lost rapport around about Azerbaijan and even then, it was already dwindling. He makes Yuki laugh and though he’s much less impressionable than he was when he first started, he still likes Daniel.

But Daniel definitely likes him more. 

Maybe it’s the change of scenery. Getting back into a car after six months, not having a teammate who will out-qualify him consistently, or just having at team who loves you a lot, who you spent some of your most formative years at. Anywho, he’s happy to see Yuki in the morning, espresso cup in hand as he fist bumps him and asks him how he slept. The newness yet familiarity of it all gives Daniel a natural shot of happiness in the morning and makes him nudge at Yuki when they’re sitting on a golf buggy next to each other, asking him if he knows any good restaurants in Faenza he can recommend. 

Or maybe it’s just Yuki’s overflowing charm. He isn’t as comfortable with Daniel as he was with Pierre, could hardly be when that friendship was something they forged over time, and his seat is at constant threat of being pulled out from under him. He knows how quickly they can and will do it, knows how quickly his seat would be filled up again by some wide-eyed, naive junior or a washed-up F1 driver whom Alpha Tauri would put cautious faith into. 

But Daniel is nothing but persistent. Not only in his career but in wheedling Yuki to give him his time of day. He’s got experience with that sort of thing, successfully wrestling Lando into doe-eyed submission by the end of his tenure at McLaren. But Yuki is not so easy to get to. 

If he spends five years at Alpha Tauri like Pierre did, cycling through teammates like Pierre did, he’d be hard pressed to let Daniel in when all he will do is leave and take that Red Bull seat with him. 

“Yuki!” he bellows when Yuki walks into hospitality. He’s got a cup of coffee in his hand and his drink bottle in the other, Pyry hanging around him with his backpack on. Blake, Daniel’s manager, gives him a fist bump as well. Michael is somewhere around here, avoiding Daniel, which is pretty common nowadays. They’re not actively beefing but Yuki knows Michael would much rather walk all the way to Ferrari to say hi to Josh than give Daniel more than a ‘how’re you going mate?’. 

“Buongiorno,” Yuki says, picking up a piece of fruit and a protein bar. Daniel smiles and trails after him as he sits down on his table. Michael is in the room, is what Yuki learns when he gets a text from his trainer reading, ‘In your driver’s room YT’ before Yuki even needs to message him with a ‘wya m8’.

“How did you sleep?” 

“Good. No time difference, plus after sim work on Tuesday and working out with Michael on Wednesday, I am so exhausted,” Yuki replies through a mouthful of the protein bar, covering his mouth and Daniel nods in understanding.

“Yeah me too. The sim felt hopeful with the new front wing but won’t know until tomorrow. How did—what did you work on with Michael?” 

Yuki lifts an eyebrow.

“Just normal things, you know the neck and the gym. More stretching since I have been feeling tightness since last week. But you know, the usual.” Daniel nods again thoughtfully and Yuki wonders what he’s getting at.

“Right, right… what about summer break? Do you have any plans or… y’know something small or just like—” 

“What is this? A press conference?” Yuki quips and Daniel shrugs, looking imperceptibly at Yuki. 

“I’m just curious! Sue me for making conversation with my teammate,” he exclaims, blinking those huge brown eyes at him and Yuki surveys him suspiciously. 

“Well, I am going back to Japan to see my friends and family. But I will be in Italy or Europe for the last week, going to the beach and things like that.” 

“Cool, cool. Maybe I’ll catch you around in the last week. I’ll be in Monaco, then Faenza to catch up on some sim work.”

“Okay,” he replies nonchalantly. If he wanted to ask Yuki out, he could afford to be more forward about it. Maybe he’ll be spending time with Lando and Max, doing whatever it is drivers who live in Monaco do. Yuki would rather eat his way through Europe and spend time with his friends from home but to each their own. 

He wants to make plans with Alex or Pierre just to see if it’ll make Daniel jealous but suppresses the urge and finishes his protein bar.

“See you later for media, eh?” Yuki puts a hand out as he stands up and Daniel claps and holds it with a firm grip.

“See ya later Yukes.”

That’s a new one. He cracks a smile at his teammate before walking off to his room, where Michael has already started up Yuki’s training playlist. 

Here’s to beating his teammate before summer break. 

And so he does. Makes it to Q2 and qualifies P11 while Daniel hangs out the back in P19. It’s unfortunate but not so much that Yuki is sad for him. He will get all the encouragement he needs from the team before he’ll want it from Yuki. Imagine that, Yuki, eleven years his junior with three years in the sport, giving Daniel a pat on the back and a ‘you’ll get ‘em next time’. 

Daniel’s nice but not that kind. He’s got another ten to prove himself so Yuki is not worried about morale. What does get him nervous is that Daniel approaches him on Saturday night.

“Good session Yuki!” 

“Thanks man,” Yuki daps him up and Daniel squeezes him tight. He’s taller than Pierre and his head fits right in his shoulder. The sweat, grime and rain squelches uncomfortably but he appreciates the warmth and praise. 

Yuki’s whisked away by Michael and Jana before they can keep up the conversation but he’d rather do post-qualifying interviews than talk to Daniel about track limits. 

He guesses this is how it goes, this weird dance where bringing Alpha Tauri out of the bottom rank is their only shared goal. He will be civil and he will be open to whatever marketing makes them do, even if it’s Daniel caressing him on the arm apropos of nothing.

Maybe he can get a free meal out of Daniel some time soon, or a piece of Enchante merch for free. It’s way nicer than Pierre’s and Yuki would gladly swerve on the insane prices. He’s not sure he’d be able to break even if he sold his merch for the same.

Daniel has big hands. 

That’s one of the first things Yuki notices about him, big hands always gesturing, fluttering like birds in the air while he talks. Everyone always unconsciously clusters around him to listen, ducking their heads and smiling and laughing.

It seems effortless, the way he commands their attention. 

Yuki’s been getting better at talking, at saying the right things at the right times to make people laugh. Especially without Pierre now, the flashes of blue and pink in the corner of his vision but never beside him. He’s short with Nyck— tries not to feel bad about it. It’s not his fault. It just isn’t anything like what he had with Pierre.

He sees Daniel much more nowadays. 

They — the team — like pairing them together, iPhones and cameras raised as they chat and try to be funny and try to say the right things.

Daniel’s good at listening to him, and Yuki tries not to bend under the weight of his attention, blabbers until he’s not sure if he’s even saying anything that makes sense, except Daniel is nodding and smiling and asking questions in all the right places so he must be doing something correctly.

Daniel gives out his physical attention so easily, always touching and patting and hitting, big hands on Yuki’s shoulders, skirting down his back. The attention feels good, and warm against his skin.

They cluster together, the five of them: Max and Checo, Daniel, Yuki, and Nyck standing off to the side a bit. Checo is looking at something else, and Max has ducked his head down to hear something Nyck is saying.

There’s chatter, and bursts of laughter in the background. Miami is so loud; the smell of the ocean and sunbaked concrete, people in skimpy shorts and long stretches of tanned skin, smiling white teeth and strong American accents. 

Yuki finds it easier, and more difficult, the American-ness. They pronounce their words so particularly, and he doesn’t know whether it’s better than the clipped accented Italian voices he’s so used to. 

“Hey,” Daniel says, interrupting his train of thought, “you’ve been looking good man.”

He’s smiling— wide mouth and glowing skin, confident tilt to his shoulders.

“Uh—“ Yuki stutters, brain chugging back to life, “uh, thanks, yeah, you too. Your uh—“ he can’t think of the name of it, “fashion? The Met Gala. That looked cool.”

Daniel laughs, tilting his head back to reveal the long smooth lines of his neck, thick and muscular.

“Yeah, thanks. It was super fun. Didn’t wear anything too extreme but it was, y’know,” he wiggles his eyebrows and Yuki laughs. Daniel continues, “but yeah I mean, you’ve been working out like crazy right? With Michael. It’s cool, that you guys are getting along.”

“Yeah,” Yuki beams, and this is a comfortable topic now, “yeah we are getting along super well, and he’s so cool. I met his family, you know—“

“I heard,” Daniel says, “that’s awesome. They’re really nice, right?”

“Yes,” Yuki nods, quick and enthusiastic, “yes so nice!”

“It looks like the work’s been paying off,” Daniel steps back and looks Yuki up and down. He stands up straighter, suddenly aware of his body under the slow hot drag of Daniel’s gaze. Daniel reaches out and squeezes at his bicep, the warm heavy weight of his palm, long fingers curving around the soft curve of his muscles. He makes an appraising noise, and Yuki feels his mouth dry, licks his lips. 

“I’m very strong now,” he doesn’t know what to say, wants to fill the suddenly electric air, “his schedules are so intense.”

“Mm,” Daniel nods, closing his eyes to remember, “yeah and his bootcamps. Oh man,” he shudders dramatically, “I mean, great, but he’s really got you working down to the minute, right?”

“Yes,” Yuki rolls his shoulders, even talking about it making him remember the slow deep aching muscles after a hard day, “but it’s nice, when he does the massage.”

He mimics the motion of Michael’s hands, fists spreading into flat palms, imitations of pushing at planes of muscle in the air. 

“Yeah, you’re right,” Daniel says, grinning, “that definitely is the best part. Cause it means it’s all over, too.”

Like it’s obvious they are feeling out each other’s boundaries and the half the laughing is actually nervous giggling

Daniel immediately defaulting to touching because that’s the killer move to set Lando and Max laughing but realising it makes Yuki a bit uncomfortable and stopping, Yuki trying to reciprocate awkwardly and then defaulting to saying random words in Italian because that’s what makes Pierre laugh and maybe it’ll work for Daniel too, and it does, and Yuki just slowly starting to relax, and just the careful sounding out of each other’s sense of humour it’s so cute and respectful and heartwarming