Pairing: Reader X Daryl Dixon (The Walking Dead)
Inspiration: “30 Days Without an Accident” (S4E1)
Prompt: After a supply run goes wrong and you witness your close friend (Zach) get killed by walkers you try to get some alone time away from everyone at the prison. However, it isn’t long before Daryl stumbles upon you and decides to try his hand at comforting you.
Warnings: Swearing, mentions of a gruesome death, spoilers if you haven’t gotten to the episode yet, (Y/N) smokes cigarettes in this
A/N: I feel like I started this imagine really strong and then it kinda went down hill at the end but I hope you guys still like it!!
You kept replaying the image of Zach with the walker’s teeth sunk into his neck over and over again. The visual feeling so real that you could practically hear his screams ringing in your ears.
Two hours. It had been two hours since you had seen your best friend’s life be taken away, just adding to the list of casualties you had witnessed ever since the world turned to shit an unknown number of months ago.
The moment the car had come to a stop back in the jail yard after the incident you decided some alone time was needed. That decision was what had landed you where you were sitting now, your back pressed up against the cold wall in one of the prison’s many mysterious corridors.
You weren’t 100% sure where this particular hallway led, all you knew was that it was people, both of the living and non-living status, free.
You let yourself sink into your body, your head falling back and resting on the wall as your eyes closed, the image of Zach’s bloody body flashing onto your eyelids. Your eyes remained closed however.
Every time someone close to you died you went through the same few phases for getting over it and moving on. The first phase was reliving it and this was the phase you were in right now. For the next handful of days you would see the scene play out every time you closed your eyes, each time the image seeming slightly more faded until it would disappear completely.
Your eyes only shot open when you heard the sound of a foot scuff down the hallway. When you looked in the direction of the noise you saw a calm Daryl standing several feet away from you, his body leaned up against the same wall you were sitting against. You watched as he silently reached into his back pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes.
His fingers fiddled with the top of the pack before reaching in and pulling out two long sticks, placing them both in between his lips before his hand returned back to his pocket, this time to pull out a lighter. We brought the flame up to both the cigarettes, there ends catching fire for a brief moment before subsiding into embers.
“Here.” he spoke in his normal gravely voice, removing one of the cigarettes from his lips and handing it down to you.
You took it in between your own fingers after only a moment of hesitation. You had never smoked before the apocalypse and you had never expected that while living in a walker infested world you would pick up on the bad habit. However you had.
You took a drag from the cigarette as Daryl slid his body down to the ground next to you, his own cigarette hanging from his lips loosely, looking like it could fall at any moment.
“You know cryin’ about it won’t help.” Daryl spoke, his tone relaxed even though his words were harsh.
“I’m not crying.” you stated firmly as you let your eyes close once again, the image of the incident reappearing once again causing your brow to furrow.
“Might as well be.” Daryl muttered, bringing his hand up to remove the cigarette from his mouth, a puff of smoke following it.
The two of you sat quietly for several moments, the two cigarettes slowly diminishing in size as time went on. You and Daryl hadn’t clicked like he had with everyone else who came from Woodbury. All your fellow townspeople had seen him almost immediately as their hero, thanking him every time he brought in food or came back from a supply run. You on the other hand had never thanked him.
It wasn’t because you were a selfish brat or believed that what he was doing was nothing to be impressed by, but rather you knew the type of person Daryl was. After all, your best friend before the apocalypse had been just like him.
He did what he had to do because he had to do it, not because he wanted praise or to be put up on this platform. Thanking him every time he brought back a deer did nothing for him, so why waste your breath.
“At least he’s out of this shit hole.” Daryl spoke suddenly, his voice breaking the silence that had fallen. You glanced at the man that sat next to you, his eyes locked straight forward at the barred window that was letting in dim outside light.
“Yeah.” you agreed, your gaze following his outside the dirty window. “I’m gonna miss him.” you added in a smaller voice.
Part of you wanted that sentence to remain a thought in your mind, however another part of you knew you needed to say it. That was your second phase after all, admitting that you were a human who has emotions and knowing that you’re allowed to state them on occasion, even though the world had taught you within the past couple of months that emotions meant weakness.
“We all miss people.” Daryl spoke in an equally small voice, as if he too meant to keep his thought silent. You glanced back at Daryl as the words escaped his mouth. As horrible as it might sound, you couldn’t imagine Daryl missing anyone.
“Who do you miss?” you asked after a few moments of admiring his face. You couldn’t help but let his features soak into your memory.
His eyes darted quickly from the window to you and then back as if the question caught him off guard. You saw his Adam’s apple rise and fall as he swallowed before releasing another puff of smoke into the corridor air.
“My brother.” he responded finally. You could see his muscles tense, his fist clenching at whatever memories he had of the man flooded back to him.
Without even thinking you let your hand move on to his white knuckles, your touch almost immediately causing his fists to relax. Your softness on his roughness caused a small tingle between your skin, however you didn’t move your hand away as the tingle grew. Rather, you relaxed your hand even more until most of your forearm was resting on top of his.
You saw him glance down at your hand and you expected him to lurch his arm away. However, he didn’t. Instead he let his fist unroll and turn over so your palms were resting in one another.
As silence fell back over the corridor you let your head nuzzle carefully on his shoulder. Your body calming at his touch. Smoke escaping both your mouths at the same time. Your eyes closing once again, this time with no visuals of Zach.
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