So, speaking of a Bethyl reunion and taking into account the marvelous damaged nature of our beloved Daryl Dixon, it's gunna be totally anticlimactic I'm talking, we see Beth and she's safe and the camera's on Daryl's face and he's just surprised and then cold, shuttered, but Beth runs to him anyway and throws her arms around him. Remember the last interaction they had was her screaming she wasn't going to leave, and before that, that look on his face that made her breath oh with all the weight on Atlas' shoulders.
So it's gunna be just like the first time Beth hugged him; stiff and unyielding and full of flinching. He might touch her arm to steady her coz she's hit him at a sprint, rock back on his heels. Maybe he'll brush a hand over her hair, maybe he sucks in a deep breath that could be just replacing the wind she knocked out of him, except it comes with a rush of her smelling like sweat and earth and motor oil.
Then he'll push her away, shrug off her hurt expression, mutter something about being glad she's okay. He'll palm her off to Rick and Michonne and Carl, or Maggie and Glenn, or if he's still with the Claimers it'll be time to go and if any one of them think of laying a finger on her, then they've got a bolt with their name on it sitting in his crossbow.
But there'll be a hundred tiny things over weeks and weeks and weeks while they're dealing with whatever the fallout from Terminus is, surviving each day as it steamrolls over them. These little things Daryl does when she's not looking that speak volumes for how much he's missed her, for how much he craves her sunlight. Like saving the choicest bits of game for her, or covering her with his jacket and not talking about it, like fixing a busted shoelace or grumpily encouraging her to sing. Beth'll figure out that they don't talk about it, and that's okay, because all she really needs is Daryl to have her back, Daryl's gruff voice by the campfire, Daryl's steadying hands teaching her to survive, to be stronger and faster. And this goes on for ages. I mean for like a whole season. I don't want anything beyond that breathless 'oh' for so long that all the Bethylers are slavering, sobbing messes. (I know, I'm a masochist) Because that is the only way to keep Daryl in character.
And their first kiss is gunna be a flashback to the first time Daryl loses her. He'll be hoarse and wild and every inch of him will be trembling because they got separated by Walkers or something, except Beth tracks him while he's tracking her and when he sees her he just grabs her, drops his crossbow, and holds her so tightly it leaves bruises. So she squeaks and tells him he's hurting her and he lets her go so fast, like she's burned him, and then he yells at her, screams at her, till she tells him he's gunna bring every Walker down on them, terrified not because of that but because Daryl doesn't get emotional like this and she's worried she's really, really messed up and she's almost in tears, but she's angry too, because it's not her fault! And there is absolutely no way too tell who kisses first, but it's chaste and wet and sudden and turns into one of those hugs where they just cling to one another.
Cue another episode of Daryl not talking about it and Beth getting angry at him for leading her on and being a little heartbroken but mostly just patiently trying to help him and putting her own wants to the back of her mind because Daryl is basically her right arm now.
Aaannndd then they're sitting around somewhere and somebody else makes a comment about their relationship, and Daryl's about to get defensive, but Beth's like "I'd call him my boyfriend but he hates that, and he hates lover too" and oh my God, Daryl just goes red and storms off, makes some nasty comment hoping to throw her off, but Beth shakes her head at him like it's cute or something. Then she finds him sitting by himself smoking and just lays her feelings on the line, lays everything out, honestly, tears up a little bit because she's pretty sure Daryl's going to break her heart, and he's bewildered, shocked, slightly dismayed, because she's telling him he's worth it and he's precious and loved and she needs him. And then he makes that same Mmmmhmmm noise he'd made the first time she realised how he felt and she laughs at him and kisses his cheek and then he stares at her for a while before getting this really determined look on his face and cupping her face and kissing her properly and their family see: Carl wolf-whistles, Michonne smacks him upside the head for it, Rick smiles, Maggie and Glenn hold each other and everything's just perfect and everyone's happy and oh, yeah, there's no zombies anymore and they find a bunker that's safe and they live happily ever after.
