Broken Soul ☆ Daniel Ricciardo

40 | Welcome home

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Barry Manilow - Home Again:
'In my life I have seen far away places, wild and serene but nothing I saw prepared me for the mat on the floor saying "welcome home"'

Emilia had loved every single moment of travelling around the world with Daniel to join him at his final three races of the season, but she was glad to head back over to Australia to spend the winter break and Christmas in her boyfriend's home country tomorrow. They were currently in Abu Dhabi and Daniel was still having some post-race interviews at the track, while Emilia had gone back to the hotel a little early to finish some work. She had felt tired the last couple of days and figured the travelling was really catching up on her now. Their flight was leaving early tomorrow morning, so after she pressed 'send' on her last email, Emilia changed into one of Daniel's t-shirts and crawled into bed.

She turned on the tv for some background noise while she scrolled through her Instagram waiting for Daniel to return to their room. Emilia ordered some room service because she heard her stomach growl, even though she wasn't hungry at all, but she knew Daniel would appreciate a good meal when he came back. She ordered him some cheesy fries and the biggest burger they had, knowing he could eat what he wanted for the coming weeks. Of course, he needed to be fit again in January so it wasn't a good idea to completely stuff his face with sweets, but he deserved a treat for the good season he just wrapped up.

Right when Emilia turned away from the door again after one of the hotel staff rolled the room service cart in their room, Daniel walked in. "Oh my gosh, that smells delicious". He said while he stepped over to Emilia to embrace her and place a soft kiss on her lips. "And you look delicious". Emilia scrunched her nose, not really in the mood for food at the moment and the strong scent of the onions gave her a funny feeling in her stomach. Daniel lifted the coverings off the food to see what she had ordered and Emilia saw hearts appear in his eyes when he saw the burger. "You know me too well, babe". He said, sitting down on the end of the bed to enjoy his food.

They watched a few episodes of Friends, still enjoying watching the series together and they were creasing with laughter in no time. Daniel took a shower right before they went to sleep and Emilia crawled up to his chest to hear his heartbeat. He had fallen asleep quite quickly while Emilia still wasn't feeling very well. The fatigue was getting the best of her and she couldn't wait to be at Daniel's house in Australia and enjoy some days at the beach, doing nothing but get a good tan and have a rest. Emilia felt her stomach cramp together and she shot up because of the nauseous feeling that washed over her.

She ran towards the bathroom to empty her stomach in the toilet and looked at herself in the mirror afterwards. 'I can't wait for this to be over for a while' She thought while she brushed her teeth to get the horrible taste out of her mouth and flicked the light off shortly after to crawl into bed with her boyfriend right away. Emilia tossed and turned for a while before she fell asleep and even her dreams reminded her of her desire for a beach and some peace and quiet.

The next day was even longer than Emilia had anticipated. The couple woke up really early to catch their 7 AM flight to Australia and when they arrived at the airport they soon found out that their flight had been delayed. Daniel decided to drag Emilia to some of the duty-free stores in the airport and even though she was still really tired and not really in the mood, the sight of beautiful jewellery and lovely smelling perfume quickly cheered her up. In the end, Daniel bought her another gorgeous necklace and a bottle of insanely expensive perfume and the look in his eyes told Emilia not to speak up about it because he wanted to treat her.

Eventually, the time they had to spend before they could finally board the plane went by quicker than they anticipated and they had to run to get to the gate in time. The plane took off soon after and Emilia closed her eyes almost immediately, trying to get some more sleep on their way to Australia. The flight was about 13 hours long and about halfway through, Daniel woke up his girlfriend. She had been sleeping for about six hours now and he didn't want her sleep schedule to be completely messed up when they arrived in Australia.