Wren and the Dixons - Pre-Apocalypse Headcanons
Hi, Hello! My first post on here and it's all about my Walking Dead OC who I simply cannot get out of my head. I love him dearly!
I have many, many more hcs, so please let me know if you'd like to hear more about our little Birdie! Also, I apologise if my writing isn't up to scratch. The last time I actually wrote anything was back in high school, around five(?) years ago now.
That being said, please enjoy :)
Warnings/Tags: headcanons, pre-apocalypse, implied child abuse, implied csa (one line, thanks Merle), mentioned drug and alcohol use (THANKS MERLE), FtM original character, angst, IT'S ALL BACKSTORY BABYYYY
Wren, who shows up in the Dixon's life one cold December night and just... never leaves
Daryl and Merle are hunting in the woods behind their trailer park when they stumble across this scrawny little thing, curled up alone under a tree and shaking like a wet puppy
It's only at Daryl's insistence that they try to take the poor guy home - "It's below freezin', Merle. Lucky the little thing ain't lost it's fingers yet." - but he snaps and growls like a wild animal, baring his teeth when the brothers get too close. Big, scared eyes staring them down
Luckily for Wren, our boys are better with wild animals than they are people. It takes some time, (and a lot of soft, nonsensical muttering, like they're trying to calm a spooked horse), but they get him off the cool dirt eventually, half-carrying him all the way back to their trailer when his shaky legs can't hold his weight
Wren, who doesn't speak a single word for weeks, and still manages to win over both brothers with his face full of shiny piercings, and his colourful, faded hair, and his too-big eyes. They let him live in their cramped little home like it was never an option for him to leave
Merle breaks the dam eventually. He's high as a kite when his pestering turns into something crueler. Far too accurate assumptions about the Teen's home life cutting so deeply and painfully that he snaps
He just won't shut up, rambling on-and-on about how, "Daddy must 'a hated you, huh? All those shiny bits 'a metal, girly hair, hell, all of you's fuckin' girly."
"Or- maybe he liked it a little too much? Havin' some little fairy-boy for a kid."
Merle earns a bite for that before Daryl can step in, a deep one that leaves a scar right in the middle of his forearm. He gets some choice words too, mostly in the form of rather colourful names, screamed at the top of Wren's lungs
Although he loses his voice screaming so much and so loudly, the whole incident must shock Wren's system into giving him his words back, because the very next day, he's talking like he never stopped
Some much needed explanations are given over the next few nights, difficult conversations aided by cheep beer and joints, about how Wren's parents kicked him out of their house, their family. The final straw wasn't his piercings or his 'acting-out' at school, but him stupidly thinking -hoping- that his parents would accept him for who he is. A son, rather than a daughter
Wren, who sobs into his pillow that night when the brothers don't kick him out. Instead, they ask what feels like one-million questions about the whole thing
It takes a long time, but they're the first people that bother to try to understand, and after a while, the first people to actually support Wren. Merle even gets sober for a few months to help save for his top surgery while Daryl picks up as many extra shifts as he can at the little mechanic shop down the road
Wren, who eventually drags Merle along to therapy under the guise of needing someone to be there with him - for emotional support, he swears.
Merle will not book sessions for himself, but maybe, just maybe, hearing what the psychologist has to say about Wren's issues helps him start to sort through his own
Merle still uses, still lashes out with words and fists, but the devastated look on Wren's face after he earns himself a few months in the county jail keeps him out of the system almost entirely
For once in his sorry life, Merle Dixon actually tries to be a better man, someone that Wren and his baby brother can depend on
Wren, that dumbass little punk who quickly becomes the light of the Dixon's lives - the birdie on their shoulders.
