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The buzzing coming from the bedside table only lasted for a second before the alarm joined in to wake Eddie up. His eyes cracked open just to scowl at the phone.
Mr. Sun came up and he smiled at me
Said it’s gonna be the best day, just wait and see
Eddie’s gentle shove at Richie’s shoulder was met only with a soft grunt.
“Richie. Richie.” The whisper yelling didn’t seem to be accomplishing anything. “Kurwa,” he mumbled to himself as he was rolling on top of his husband to reach over and turn the alarm off. When the phone was silenced, Eddie glanced out the window to see the sky was several shades darker than it usually was when they both finally got out of bed.
“Richie please. Get up. Or at least tell me why the alarm is so early,” Eddie said as he flopped back onto his pillow. Richie shuffled around enough to face him, eyes still closed.
“Important day today, Eds. We’re going to Monaco.”
The confusion came back as Eddie finally checked his own phone, frowning when he saw the date.
“Monaco is not for another 2 days. I already have our luggage pulled out of the closet, but we are not supposed to be packed until Wednesday, kochanie.”
At this point, Richie had sat up and started rubbing his eyes, grinning down at Eddie. Without his glasses on he had to squint, but Eddie could still see a faint glint in his eye that implied they were both in for something big today.
“Don’t worry about it,” Richie said, getting out of the warm bed and walking over to the closet. He pulled down two small backpacks, seemingly filled with only the essentials, from the top shelf of the closet and held them up. “Thought ahead,” he said, his grin getting wider.
Eddie was still mildly confused, but he was more interested than anything, so he smiled back and played along. He scooted up and leaned back against the headboard of the bed so he was still covered by enough of the blanket to keep the chilly morning air from getting to him.
“And why are we going two days early then? I thought you hate Monaco.”
“Oh, I do, I can’t stand that place,” Richie said, shoving his glasses on his face and his feet into slippers. “But,” ducking to give Eddie a kiss, “I do kind of owe it some appreciation for giving me you, don’t I?”
Eddie scoffed and rolled his eyes, though there was no real annoyance there.
“I am Polish, asshole.”
Richie leaned over to grab a pillow, loosely swinging it at Eddie.
“You know what I mean! Plus, we’re gonna see Frank this weekend anyway when you get pole and win again, so there’s no use going all the way over there now, is there? Might as well get a head start on the headache.”
Eddie just looked at his husband for a moment, still unable to understand fully how they ended up this happy together. Monaco seemed like ages ago. Finally, he decided against grilling Richie on their real reason for leaving their home so early in the week, something they avoided doing so often that there were several races Eddie was almost late to media day for, getting up to get dressed instead.
“Is the car ready to go?”
“Charged her up last night, yeah. And, before you ask,” Richie cuts off when he sees Eddie open his mouth for another question, “I set the coffee pot up last night so we have fresh mugs ready to go and I have the car snack bag already packed and in the fridge.” He looked over his shoulder, pleased to see Eddie looking impressed, if a little baffled.
“You really do love me, yes?”
“Always, baby.”
Eddie grinned to himself and pulled a shirt out of the closet, getting ready to tug it over his head before hearing Richie call from the hallway.
“No Ferrari shirts today, Mr. Kaspbrak, it is not media day!”
***
“Why are you closing my eyes this long? I am not sure you can see, four eyes.”
“Aw, come on Eds, let me surprise you! I’ve got this one in the bag, just one more minute.”
Cars were driving by and Eddie could hear a few people walking on the sidewalk around them. He was sure he looked like a moron walking around with Richie covering his eyes from behind, but his husband seemed so happy that he wouldn’t dare throw in an actual complaint and ruin the mood.
“We’re crossing the street, hang on.” Richie took one of his hands away from Eddie’s eyes to grab his hand and give a little squeeze. “Curb, step down.” A familiar smell floated through the air that Eddie couldn’t quite place as they kept walking. “Just a few more feet and we’re good to go.”
After what seemed like ages but was likely only a few minutes of walking blind, Richie practically vibrating with excitement the whole time, Eddie was allowed to open his eyes and saw the same café the two of them met at the year before. A smile came to Eddie’s face and he was suddenly glad that Richie talked him out of the Ferrari shirt so they could be more likely to get a moment or two of peace before people recognized either of them.
“Richie, you did not have to bring me all the way here early for this.”
“Aw shut up, it’s just a coffee shop,” Richie replied, poorly hiding how pleased he was that the surprise actually worked.
The two of them walked in and Eddie stood back as Richie expertly recited his own simple order followed by an order with entirely too much sugar (even Eddie could admit his taste in coffee was a little over the top) before they both moved to a table near the back. The weather was nice enough that they were able to move to an outside table and only be asked for pictures or autographs twice for their hour-long stay.
***
Walking hand in hand through Monaco was bound to draw a little attention, fans either already living here or coming early to adjust to the insanity that is Monaco before the grand prix. They were lucky, only having to take a few pictures and sign a few things (Richie was beaming every time someone recognized him too, though he always managed to bring the attention back to Eddie since “oh it’s his weekend though, I mean, have you seen him this season?”) before being left alone again to wander around. Richie hadn’t planned anything specific other than the café and a surprise dinner that night, so the rest of the day was open to do whatever they wanted.
They were both having such a good time, Eddie was hesitant to speak up about the thing that had been bothering him since breakfast. He slowed to a stop and grabbed Richie’s other hand to make them look straight into each other’s eyes, though his own gaze slipped to the ground for a moment as he searched for the words.
“I did not…forget, you know. About the anniversary. I knew it was today, I just did not think you would go so big with it.” Eddie looked up to see Richie’s face go through a few different emotions before settling on worried.
“Do you not like it? We can go back to the hotel, shit, we can go back home if that’s what you want, Eds. I just thought you’d like to revisit the good things before this weekend got packed. If you don’t like it–”
“No! No, I like it a lot, it is just. I just want you to know that I know what today is. I am in this with you, this is a big deal to me too. This is perfect, so much fun with you. Thank you.” Eddie pushed up to give Richie a quick peck on the lips before shuffling around awkwardly for a second, wanting to move on from the conversation as soon as possible. Richie, thankfully, understood the urge and started walking slowly again, asking where they wanted to stop for lunch.
***
As the afternoon faded into evening, Richie seemed to be getting more anxious for their dinner plans. He kept checking his phone every few minutes, typing out quick messages and sighing in different tones when a new message would come in. They were only laying in the hotel, some terrible Italian slasher playing on the tv as they both did their own thing in comfortable (near) silence.
“Richie. Richie, look at me,” Eddie urged, setting down his tablet and turning the desk chair to face his husband, who was pacing around near the kitchen. “Kochanie, what is wrong? Just dinner, yes?”
“Yeah, it’s just Bill and Mikey being stupid, don’t worry about it,” Richie claimed as he slid his phone into his pocket and climbed up onto the bed. He held his arms out for Eddie and Eddie smiled as he put his tablet down and crawled into bed too. “You’re right, it’s just dinner. When do you wanna leave? It’s a bit of a drive.”
Seeing as he had literally just settled into Richie’s arms, a bit of a relaxing period seemed necessary and he said as much. They settled on a 30 minute nap, Richie reaching to set an alarm on his phone before Eddie grabbed his wrist and reached over for his own phone.
“If I have to hear Spongebob singing again today it will not be good for you,” he poked at Richie’s shoulder before settling back into the bed, curled into his husband’s arms and head on Richie’s chest.
***
Getting dressed to go out was the easy part; Richie trying to get to the place without Eddie figuring out where they were going proved to be a bit of a challenge.
“Richie, you are going to crash if the GPS is not just connected to the car. I do not know this place as well as you think I do, just plug your phone into the car. If we crash then the surprise will be for nothing anyway!”
“Eddie baby, I know what I’m doing, alright? This isn’t my first rodeo. Just sit back and relax, I’ll even let you put on one of your boring old man podcasts on the way, alright?”
“Richie,” Eddie started again before Richie looked over, a smile on his face but a worried look in his eye. “I just want us to be safe,” he mumbled, grabbing his own phone to pick a podcast episode. There was a new one on Le Mans gossip that he hadn’t gotten around to listening to yet.
Richie turned back to the outside of the car, slowly pulling out of his parking spot and turning up the podcast.
“I promise we’ll be fine, babe. Just sit back and relax. It’ll be about an hour.” He dragged one hand off of the steering wheel to squeeze Eddie’s hand for a second before placing it back on the wheel and making his way onto the street.
The hour went by quickly, helped by Richie’s constant chatter that kept them both laughing once the podcast ended and they didn’t want to turn on music. Eddie had to admit he had no clue where they were going, though he knew they were going back in the direction of their house and was starting to get a little confused; it seemed to be the most frequent feeling of the day.
“Richie, please do not tell me we are going back home after all of this. Even with our car, that is not very good travel planning, not very friendly to the planet.” Eddie looked out the window and didn’t see much, though that could be chalked up to the fact that it was quickly getting dark.
Richie didn’t say anything, just grinned as a few minutes later he turned the turn signal on and went down a dirt road. Eddie could see a little bit of light up ahead against the otherwise completely dark sky. As they got closer, a grin spread across his own face when he realized what was happening.
“Eddie, Richie! Get your asses out here, we’ve been workin’ on this shit all day!” Bill waved to both of them as they climbed out of the car. He turned to gesture to the table that had been carefully set outside of a little cottage, a few tall candles already set in the center and lit up. Richie caught Bill’s eye and winked as they both got settled into the seats pulled out for them.
“Mikeyyyyy! Georgie!” Bill yelled towards the cottage behind them. When there was only muffled talking and clinking of dishes inside, Bill rolled his eyes, muttering to himself as he went to the door to check what was happening.
Eventually, all three of the Hanlons made it out the door, arms full of dishes of some of Eddie’s favorite foods: steak, steamed vegetables, tiramisu, even some shitty boxed mac and cheese that he couldn’t kick no matter what his diet plan said.
Eddie made eye contact with Richie as the food was being set down on the table, happy to see that his husband looked just as amused and endeared as he felt. God, everyone was trying so hard to make this anniversary perfect.
Once the table was set, Mike, Bill, and Georgie made themselves scarce, Mike reminding both of them to just holler if they needed anything. Bill pulled Georgie into a headlock as they walked into the cottage, probably giving him shit for nearly dropping the dessert before even making it out the door to the table.
Eddie looked back across the table to see Richie already looking at him. They both gently smiled at each other before Richie picked up his fork, picking around at some vegetables before picking his head up again.
“Happy anniversary, Eds. Was it a good one?”
“The best, Richie.”