Don't you know Daryl?
Daryl x Reader in which...
you were with the group briefly at the quarry before leaving with your (ex)boyfriend to try and find your family in Washington. you're reunited with who's left of the group and the people that had since joined once they get to Alexandria. It never even crossed your mind that one of the Dixon brothers would still be around.
wc: 2.2k
note: this came to me listening to "when did you get hot?" by sabrina carpenter :p
you left the quarry when the men went on a search party for Merle.
the last time you'd been in contact with your family they had told you they'd been rerouted by the military to a secure neighburhood on the outskirts of Washington. they begged you to join them. then silence for weeks.
being with a group at the camp you all set up wasn't a bad deal. things had been going okay. but when Lori's husband appeared from thin air you started to feel things shifting. people were on edge. tense. panicked. and panick would get you all killed.
he seemed like a good man. truly, he did. you wouldnt have gone back, not for a man like Merle. but he did without hesitantion. still, you'd wanted to leave for Washington since you fisrt set up camp there. and you had a feeling that if you hadn't been able to convince them before, you weren't going to convince them now. Lori's husdand didn't look like the type to be convinced of anything he didn't decide himself.
so, you packed your bags. gathered supplies and weapons. hugged the kids tight, the only good things around anymore. got on your car with your boyfriend and drove off.
you thought about the group often when things got quiet on the road. but especially in the safety of your own home in Alexandria. you wanted to believe they were alive, that they'd found a way to fortify the camp, build something like Deanna and Roger had built there. but nothing could ever shake the feeling that they were all gone.
then one day, you're walking to Deanna's to give a book back to her husband when you spot Aaron outside with a group. you reckon she must be interviewing them one by one. as she usually does. most of them standing outside as others are inside being taped.
as you walk closer you realise they're quite a large group. 10? maybe a bit more? it's unusual. they're standing on the porch stairs almost in a circle. close, alert, ready. most of them with their backs turn to you.
that is until a large man with red hair moves slightly to the right and you are finally able to see them behind him. older, tired, dirty, but them. clear as day it was them. Carl in his father's hat standing next to Gleen holding the sweetest little baby girl you'd ever seen.
you stop dead in your tracks just staring. blinking, forcing your vision. trying to be completly sure that your brain isn't playing a cruel trick on you. Carl is here. Gleen is here. they are alive, they made it. and they found you.
he must've felt your eyes on him. 'cause the moment you start walking again, a new spring in your step, Gleen's eyes find yours.
"What the..." you could see him muttering, a confused expression covering his face, as he starts to walk down the steps and through the group.
they all turn to follow him with their eyes. a woman you don't know calls for him. you can see Carl's eyes follow Gleen's gaze. you can see the moment he too recognizes you.
in a second they are by your side, the baby already in someone else's arms. Carl almost pushs Gleen out the way just to get to hug you first. you'd been close before, playing with him and Sophia when their mother's were occupied. or simply needed a break from it all. setting up classes everyday so they could still learn something. give them some sort of routine to keep them going.
they loved it. you loved it even more.
Gleen had been a close friend too. helping you find the funny side of life when things got too dark. you'd been happy in Alexandria. safe, taken care off. but you missed laughing with them. surviving with someone created a bond deeper than the ones that flourish inside the safety of the walls. even if you were only with them for a month or so.
in the middle of being bombarded with questions and hugs, Aaron approches you and asks that you leave the reunion for after the tapes. Deanna would prefer to interview them before they made contact with people inside.
so, you spare a few more glances to your friends and the group behind them. rick waves at you and you wave back. then you leave, promising to find them later.
you get more time to catch up with everyone at Deanna's party. You meet Gleen's wife, Maggie. Carl's sister, Judith. You reunite with Carol and Rick, and meet the rest of their group. when you don't see Lori or Sophia you know better than to ask. you know better than to look at them with pity too. they know what they lost, no need to remind them.
you're all standing and talking by a window when Carol grins and motions for Gleen to look outside.
"he's been standing there for a minute. think he'll ever come in?"
Gleen snorts as he peaks out. "if Daryl comes in than the world has really ended."
"Daryl?" you ask surprised, suddendly moving to look out the window too. "he's here?"
he was standing by the porch steps, only partially iluminated by the lights coming from inside. he looked so different. his hair was longer, darker. he was bigger. and he looked more than just a year older, like surviving so long outside had robbed him of years of his life.
he was almost like an entirely different man altogether. but his eyes were him, his tight jaw was him, the way he sawyed his weight from foot to foot nervously was him.
he cleaned up nice too.
"yeah. you didn't know he came with us?" Carol asks softly.
"I... I figured he'd left with Merle. Never even crossed my mind that they'd stay with you guys. I mean... they werent very... communal?"
that earns a few smiles and nods of aggreamnet.
"Merle left. Daryl didnt." Glenn explains.
"you know, you didn't really get to know him. without Merle's icky shadow hanging over him, I mean. he's a good man. he saved us just as much as Rick did." Carol adds.
you'd never been particularly close with Daryl, very much the opposite. the Dixon's weren't exatcly the type of people one wanted around. especially when the world was ending and taking all rules with it.
but as you consider Carol's words you think about those times at the quarry. Daryl had never really been a problem. he followed his brother's lead and that was the issue for the most part. but, on the rare occasions you caught him by himself he never struck you as a dangerous man. an unfriendly one surely, but not dangerous. guess he learnt to make some friends along the way.
the next day you hear that Aaron chose Daryl to go look for people with him. that isn't nothing. that is a lot, actually. it is an importante job, a very humane job that requires more than just being able to track silently through the woods. it requires empathy, an hability to read people, and a need to help otheres bigger than a need to keep yourself safe.
if Aaron chose Daryl than he really was nothing like the man you left behind. he'd truly grown. and you're slightly intrigued by it.
a couple nights later you're strolling around the neighburhood, waiting for sleep to remeber to visit you when you spot the younger Dixon sitting on the porch. smoking, of course, cleaning his crossbow. you feel bad about having thought so little of him. about not having welcomed him in as you did the others. he'd been here for days and you still hadn't even said hi. it isn't like you at all.
but the truth is he makes you nervous. he's always made you nervous. you praise yourself for being able to read people well, hell you rely on it. but he's always been so closed off. only intense stares and grunts you couldn't decifer. he always seemed mad, but clearly that couldn't be the case anymore.
he catches you staring at him. 'cause of course he does.
"need somethin?" he huffs looking back down.
"no, just... wanted to say hi. haven't had the chance yet" you explain still not moving from your spot.
"hi" he greets, looking at you like you're crazy.
"hi" you offer back, looking at him like you're trying to figure him out.
"you're different" you continue, walking closer.
"guess" he mumbles. going back to cleaning his crossbow to avoid looking you in the eyes.
"maybe not that different" you joke. his lack of conversation skills seemed to not have improved with the apocalypse.
he snorts at that. almost smiles too. you catch it.
you move to sit down next to him on the stairs. surprisingly, he makes space for you.
you both stay quiet for a bit. Daryl doesn't really know what to say. he's not even sure why you're trying to talk to him in the first place. it's not like you were friends before.
however, you know exatcly what you want to talk about. you still have so many questions. you want to know everything. how they survived out there, how they found you, how your friends died.
"Sophia and Lori?" you ask quietly after a while.
"nah. didn't make it" he says. pulling another cigarrete out. if this is what you wanna talk about he's gonna need another one. he offers one to you, which you refuse.
"the others too?"
"uhm" he agrees.
"Merle?" you try, tentatively. Gleen said he left, so maybe... but the way his shoulders tense and he looks away teel you otherwise. "i'm really sorry."
he huffs. "didn't take you for ma brothers biggest fan" he tries to joke.
"i'm not. he was a jerk. i'm still sorry" you offer softly. hoping he understands that you're not as sorry that Merle died as you are that he lost a brother.
he grunts in understandment. it's weird, you'd never been able to get him before but now it's finally like you speak the same language.
"could you tell me how they died? i can't ask Carol, nor Rick. i won't ask Carl" you ask softly, like you know you're asking for too much.
"could ask Gleen." he retorts.
"yeah, but. Gleen's not here and i don't want his wife to think I'm probing around or something. don't want to make a bad impression. she seems cool."
weird. Daryl didn't remeber you being this self concious. Maggie wouldn't care. hell, nobody would care. they all already liked ya so, what were ya so scared about?
"thought you had a boyfriend" he asks.
"had being the key word there" you laugh unamused. "he's alive. he's just an asshole"
he goes quiet again and you can feel him contemplainting whether he wants to talk about it or not. whether it's worth the pain. whether you're worth it. you'd understand if he didn't want to. you expect him to not want to. but once again you're reminded that this Daryl is not the same Daryl from the quarry.
"Amy got bit. camp got attacked the night we came back from looking for Merle." he starts.
he keeps going from there. sometimes needing to stop for a while. skipping Merle's death, you notice. you don't ask tho.
quite the opposite you assure him multiple times that he doesn't need to keep going. that it was alright. you'd left. it was your fault you didn't know. he didn't owe you anything. yet he still kept talking.
you hear Daryl say more that night than the entire time you spent together before. you could tell some deaths really stuck to him. you tried to keep your tears in. you could mourn their loses later.
"thought you was dead too." he added once he was over. "was sure you didn't even made it out the state"
"turns out Mike's a terrible boyfriend, but a great fighter" you explain softly.
"least he's good fa somethin'"
"yeah" you laugh. it was genuinely funny. you don't think he'd ever made you laugh before. it's weird. it's nice.
Daryl hand't realized he missed your laughter. handn't realized he'd missed you at all. sitting there speaking to him like you are seeing him for the first time ever. and maybe you are. you still sound the same. you look the same too. just a little sadder maybe.
you realise his crossbow is clean and his cigarrete's on it's last life too so, you get up to leave. you don't want to take more of his time. Daryl's social battery has to be even smaller than yours. you shouldn't push it on your first day.
"thank you. i'm really happy you made it, Daryl. i think you're gonna like it here." you tell him with a sweet smile. you mean it too and he can tell.
which makes it about all the kindness he can take from you in a day so, the only thing he manages to offer back is an appreciative grunt and a nod.
you wave goodnight as you dissapear into the darkness of the Alexandria streets. you like this new version of Daryl. and Daryl hasn't disliked any version of you yet.
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