#pythzn

The blonde visibly flinched at every following shot after that, sure that another one would hit him or her. Before she had even a moment to react to the shots that landed so close to them she was being pushed behind him, Negan using himself as a shield. She didn’t like the idea of this, they were sitting ducks until this person had to reload. She should have counted, how many bullets had it been so far? Five? What if she counted wrong? 

Ripley's attention was quickly ripped away from the woman when she heard the startling news announcement come from a radio nearby. There had been another attack, multiple lives lost on both sides. That is exaclty what happens when civillians take justice into their own hands.

It was the third day of him not feeling well. Daryl wasn’t the type to complain but Rick had noticed and all but demanded he get checked out by Siddiq. In Daryl’s mind, if he was conscious and not bit then he was fine but Rick had disagreed, so to keep the peace, he went. It only took Siddiq about three minutes to realize Daryl was running a low fever, which hadn’t phased Daryl much. But after a thorough examination with Siddiq poking and prodding him all over, the diagnosis came down and Daryl had to pick his jaw up off the ground. 

He was going into heat.

It’d been years since his last one, before the world ended and not a single one since. Living rough on the road, barely enough food to survive, the stress, the exhaustion, it didn’t surprise him they stopped. It certainly wasn’t the right time to try and reproduce. Then at the prison, despite the better food and conditions, he hadn’t gone into heat then either. At that point he figured maybe they’d stopped naturally, even though he’d been a bit young for that, or that maybe the rough living had done permanent damage to his body, rendered him infertile. Either way, he didn’t expect to get another one ever again.

It had become so foreign to him that he hadn’t even recognized the early signs of it. Siddiq said he had about two days before he’d need to ride it out, take it easy for four or five days until it passed. He was not looking forward to that, or to tell Rick, he felt embarrassed for being so stupid about it. Still, he made his way back to their home, head hanging a little low even as he walked in the front door. He saw Rick in the kitchen and no kids in sight so it felt like a good time to broach the subject.

🔫 If there was a damn perfect way to get Rick’s attention, they’d found it...

It was stupid to have just focused on the Saviors. They knew other groups were out there, and these days people didn’t just welcome each other with open arms. There was always something else - and it wasn’t that Carl didn’t know that. It was that he hadn’t expected it - to find another group so nearby. They clearly had a goal, but not the means to achieve it. It hadn’t taken long for them to make it clear they wanted Alexandria, but that meant they wanted war. If nothing else, that was one thing the Saviors could vouch for.

But they didn’t just want the place. The wanted the people in it too. That meant they wanted to replace Rick, and they didn’t seem to care if they had to kill him or not - but they wanted Alexandria. There was a feeling of guilt that Carl hadn’t ever noticed other people around the area, because they clearly had a good idea about the place. They had been around. For all the times he’d be outside the walls, he’d been mostly careful of walkers and Saviors. For some reason, the idea of anyone else as a group being in the area hadn’t really crossed his mind enough to keep him on alert about it.

He knew these people knew what they were doing from the beginning, but they hadn’t targeted him on a whim. They were waiting specifically for him, and he knew he was easier to get to than Rick. He wasn’t as dangerous - he held back more. There were still times that damn switch Shane used to bring up just wouldn’t turn off. If he was going to get captured anyway and not killed, the least he could have done was shoot as many of them as possible.

     The blonde had kissed a total of two BOYS before, Zach and Jimmy. Jimmy was just little pecks—innocent and sweet. Zach wasn’t much more than that, a couple times making out but it never had the chance to blossom past that as his life was tragically cut short. Those were boys though, Negan was a MAN and this felt a lot different. He had stubble on his cheeks, his hands calloused but gentle on her skin—causing goosebumps to form along her arms. 

    Beth couldn’t help but to melt into the kiss, her lips slowly parting as her arms loosely wrapped around his neck—fingertips slowly running through the back of his hair. This all felt TOO good, his touches—his kiss, all of it was so GENTLE. 

    For the first time in a long time, she felt wanted—she had spent so many times in front of the mirror scrutinizing her appearance now that her porcelain face had two scars etched on it. The blonde only saw the gashes in her face and not the beauty behind those—or how those SCARS told a story and that made her different.  

Everything was set up for his arrival, Beth was in charge of getting the barn apartment clean and ready—the last person that lived there was her brother before he moved into the dorms and he was a slob. She trotted down the steps going from the apartment to the barn, large barn doors swung open and she saw her daddy’s truck, just getting back from the airport. 

The whole story was tragic, but at least Negan was doing his best to move forward and what better way to do that than in a brand new state? The blonde tied up her messy blonde hair into a ponytail before walking over to the truck, Hershel getting out and offering his youngest daughter a smile. 

Rick felt like he could finally breathe. It was over, really over and he’d made it, they’d won. Negan was defeated, he hadn’t killed him, he’d kept that hope alive, for Carl and now they could rebuild, shape the world into the one Carl envisioned, had told him about. Rick honestly felt like he could sleep for the rest of his life. There was so much left to do, but for now there was only one person he wanted to see, needed to see. He’d gone looking for Daryl but hadn’t found him until Rick got home and was all but tackled against the door as soon as he’d walked through. He kissed back with the same sense of urgency, with the same need and passion. They were alive. Both of them. Rick needed to feel that, feel it together and Daryl seemed to be one the same page. “Clothes off.” Rick commanded without a second thought, already tugging his own shirt over his head and tossing it to the floor.

Realistically, he should be focused on other things. There were more important things than fucking but right now he just needed Rick, desperately. He knew when Rick and Negan were out in the field that Rick could have all too easily met a similar fate as Glenn and Abraham and that had Daryl shaking. It was okay though, Rick was okay, and Daryl just needed to have this time with him to reassure himself because he was still running on pure adrenaline.