To The Bone - Daryl Dixon x Reader
Plot: You canât stop shivering and Daryl canât sleep.Â
Word Count:⨠1.2k (I canât believe I wrote something this short)
Warnings: nothing I can think of?Â
A/N: it has been so cold lately, hence this small, barely proof-read fic. I hope it gives u some warmth :*
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The farm fell and winter came.Â
There wasnât a moment more heartbreaking to lose your home. Where the walls that fostered generations of Greenes wouldâve warmed your heart, the cold and sprawling forest took their place.Â
Some nights the walls of a different home kept you warm. Homes that once belonged to people you would never know, absolute strangers that were just gone; dead or lost.
Tonight was not one of those nights.Â
Tonight, there were no strangers whose pictures still lined the wallsâ because there werenât any walls. Only the forest and a small fire. Barely embers.Â
Rickâs voice echoed in your head frequently these days. An hour wouldnât pass before he had another demand to make. His last, before patrolling the campâs boarders with T-Dog and Daryl, was to keep the fire down. Since the incident with Randallâs group and the herd that ripped through the farm, you had a pretty good guess who they were; the living and the dead. A fester of fear and exhaustion lodged in the back of your throat the night you lost the farm, and itâd kept you in line with Rickâs order since.Â
The fire was nothing but a soft glow. Enough light to see the colour of the fallen leaves beside your head, but that was it. No warmth and certainly no comfort was found in the glowing ashes.Â
Your shivering had started an hour ago and despite your best efforts to curl under the scratchy blanket, the damp floor of the forest chilled you to the bone. The others had fallen asleep by now, lulled by the aches of exhaustion and the body heat of their closest family, and if you hadnât spent an extra hour on guard duty, you were sure Lori wouldâve pulled you in alongside her and Carl. But the constant worries in your mind kept you awake and alertâ so your guard shifts lingered longer and longer with each night, and by the time you retreated, your âbedâ for the night was only yours.Â
Months ago, when the farmhouse had been packed with suitcases and sleeping bags, you wouldâve cherished the space. That was before the empty air became cold and bitter, biting at whatever slivers of exposed skin it could find.Â
Now, being alone felt almost like another type of fight. A struggle to just get through the night without catching frostnip.Â
There were footsteps ahead of you. It took a moment too long to register itâ blame the exhaustionâ but when you had, your mind was awake again. Light and calculated, they avoided the crunch of crisp fallen leaves like they knew the forest floor off by heart.Â
You knew it even before your eyes peeked open. Fighting against the weight of your eyelids, you narrowly watched his shadowy frame sneak through the sleeping bodies of your people, until he moved around the fire and behind you. Your eyes shut again and you listened for the soft rustle of him laying down a blanket.Â
Another shiver hit and your muscles clenched.
Beyond the clatter of your teeth, a second or two passed in silence. Eventually, your shiver subsided and your body relaxed again, but your jaw was still stiff from the frigid air. You yanked the blanket up further, covering you up to your red-tipped nose, and waited for the tension to pass.Â
Something touched your shoulderâ a handâ and your head snapped to the side. It was Daryl, crouched behind you.Â
ââS jusâ me,â he mumbled.Â
In one swoop, he draped his blanket onto yours and laid down on his side beside you.Â
âCome âere,â his voice was low. Not only quiet but soft, like he was worried it might break if he spoke any louder.Â
The blanket helped initially, you felt an extra layer of coziness engulf you, but when he finally moved closerâŚÂ
It was almost instant, the way your body melted into his.Â
So tender and whole that every bit of you that had frozen from the constant death and heartbreak cracked open. Itâd been months since you felt even a hint of comfort, since youâd even been touched beyond Maggieâs supportive hand at your shoulder. The way you curled into him was almost instinct; your nerves, once turned to ice, finally thawed again and felt.Â
Against your better wishes, your voice shuddered, âAre you sure?âÂ
His arm snaked around you, pulling you closer by the waist.Â
âCanât sleep with your teeth clatterinâ so loud.âÂ
You huffed a breath, huddling your shaky fingers closer to your lips to catch a moment of the hot air. Even with his body heat sinking into your skin, your body was still stiff with the last effects of the chill, and you shivered once more.Â
He moved youâ you couldnât register where his hands touched specifically, but there were spots of heat up your arms and around your shoulders, like the touch of his skin was separated by thick gloves instead of the thin sweater you wore. You vaguely registered how cold your skin mustâve been for the sensation of his touch to be so numbed. Without any protest, nor much thought, you followed his directions, guiding you deeper into him. Even if it hadnât been for that pesky crush of yours making you a willing listener of the man, his body heat alone was enough to convince you entirely. As long as you never had to feel that cold and disheartened again, youâd do whatever he asked. His hands stopped moving when you were facing him, forehead touching his chest and face almost completely hidden under the blanket.Â
Save those big, beautiful eyes that you looked up at him with.Â
âThank you,â your voice was smothered under the thick fabric, but he knew what you meant from your stare alone.Â
He mumbled something, but you barely heard it, finding distraction in the way his chest rumbled with the effortâ or the quick pound of his heart.Â
Daryl wasnât particularly known as an affectionate man, hell, the stories youâd heard of his interactions with Merle sounded more like resentment than love. And for a while there, when he pulled away after Sophia, you wondered if he knew love existed beyond what his brother defined it as.Â
His pounding heart made sense, then. A life of inexperience didnât give him the necessary bravado for sudden, almost intimate, contact with a person he only met a few months ago. No matter how necessary it mightâve been with the dropping temperature, holding you in his embrace seemed like an understandable source of nerves.Â
The feeling along your back, the slow rub of his thumb down your spine, became less fuzzy as your skin warmed up. By the time you lost your last chill, his heart slowed to a steady pace, and you could even feel the way heâd chewed his nail down to the edge through your shirt.Â
When you inhaled, the air was still cold, but it was tolerable.Â
His heat sunk into you, deeper with every beat of his heart.
Daryl held you throughout his sleep. You werenât sure how inviting your body could have been after hours of lonely shivers, but he held you closer and closer as the night passed.Â
Perhaps he just needed a little comfort, too.Â
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A/N: if daryl was ooc in this⌠no he wasnât <3
alsoâ not sure if I should put a read more on this or not bc its so short⌠please lmk if it was taking up too much room in the tags/on ur dash :)Â
if youâre reading this, thank you! I hope you enjoyed this fic. please feel free to leave feedback, it helps so much and I love to read it. have a lovely day <3
