daryl knew he was gay from a really young age, and it made his home situation exponentially worse. he didn’t ever talk about it, not even to merle, and any skin mags he bought stayed hidden in a box in the woods. he wasn’t stupid -he wasn’t about to leave evidence of that around the trailer where his daddy might see and try even harder to beat it out of him
the only person he ever vaguely alluded to being gay to was the counselor when he was in high school. she was a nice lady, always had time for him, and didn’t try to pretend it’d be easy, but made sure he knew it was okay.
his first time with a guy was behind a gay bar in atlanta at 24, eight months after his daddy finally bit the dust. he’d been so desperate for touch and love that the moment the guy kissed him he cried just a little, and the guy was nice enough not to mention it
he had an on-off thing with said guy for a couple years, and it wasn’t ever really serious, but if asked he’d probably say it was the first guy he was in love with
the first time he saw rick felt a little like being kicked directly in the heart; the guy was so stupidly pretty and had such an easy sway to his hips it was almost impossible to stay mad at him. right up until he told him he’d gone and left merle up a fucking building attached to a drainpipe
his trust for rick built quick partially because the guy proved himself - he didn’t try to make anyone else walk into the line of fire when he could do it himself, and he went back into atlanta with daryl, which really did go a long, long way for daryl trusting him. also: pretty.
he started to fall in love with rick somewhere between the cdc and the farm, and it made him volatile to a ridiculous amount because christ, the one person in the group who doesn’t treat you like absolute scum and you go and get a crush, you fucking idiot-
he was STUPIDLY ass-over-tits in love with rick up until alexandria, and would do anything to gain his approval. it made it even worse (better) that he didn’t actually have to do anything at all - rick already approved of him
he clings easily to any gay people he finds. tara, denise, aaron, eric -he trusted them from the moment he met them with a fierceness that almost scared him. tara and he, on the long long weeks and months on the road, would occasionally talk about being the resident gays of the group. it was nice to have someone to talk to who wouldn’t judge. it was the quickest someone ever became family to him
he would have done anything for aaron and eric, too. aaron was so so nice and kind and understanding and okay so maybe daryl had a BIT of a crush and maybe he eventually developed some sort of feelings for eric too, but by the time he was even slightly ready to talk about it the saviors came along and fucked everything up
he was definitely flirting with jesus. aaron, eric, tara and denise all mocked him ENDLESSLY about it when he told them, and he might’ve scoffed and been supposedly pissed off but under that he was just so so happy how far he’d come from the scared kid hiding mags in the woods, to being a man who could talk about his attraction to his loved ones faces without flinching
he was never really in the closet with the family as much as he was in the closet to the whole world most of the time. he started letting his guard slip after the farm, and the first person to notice, weirdly, was carl. he’d asked daryl if he ever had a boyfriend, because “you’re really cool, you’d have a cool boyfriend!”. after that it was carol, and she constantly made joking quips about them hooking up because of it
rick took until walking in on he and jesus grinding all up on each other to realise he was gay. tactically smart though he was, he had no logic center in his brain at all.
“you’re telling me he didn’t realise you’re gay? when you own fingerless gloves?”
“fuck off.” a small pause. “but i KNOW?”
the first for real relationship he gets into is with jesus, and after aaron loses his arm, he gets pulled into the fold. daryl spent so much time with him trying to get him to adjust, and then jesus was going out goddamn everywhere searching for some kind of prosthetic before getting earl to make one it felt kind of inevitable
gracie has three dads, and all of them are wrapped around her little finger
nothing bad ever happens to them after that. they all live a big gay happy life being teased by their family and raising a kid between going out on runs-turned-dates
Title: The Sky Begins To Roar
Fandom: The Walking Dead (TV)
Pairings: Daryl Dixon/Rick Grimes, Daryl Dixon/OMC
Characters: Daryl Dixon, Rick Grimes, Carol Peletier, Sophia Peletier
Length: 10 chapters, ~46,000 words
Tags: alternate universe, friendship, found family, trust-building, pining, whump, Carol and Daryl friendship, Daryl/Rick pre-slash, praise kink, internalized homophobia, homophobic slurs, domestic abuse, OMC/Daryl dubious consent, OMC/Daryl humiliation, non-graphic drug-use, references to infidelity, contemplation of self-harm, unrealistic handling of issues, minor appearance of other TWD characters
Summary: The apocalypse didn’t happen, and so Carol remains in an abusive relationship. When Daryl meets her, he finds himself in a position to help her. Wanting to help Carol also, Rick enlists Daryl’s aid. Sophia just wants to be a normal twelve-year-old.
Daryl’s never had this many people counting on him before. It changes him, though he’ll never be what Rick seems to think he is.
the walking dead season seven: (7x06) swear
these people got what they deserved. they chose to kill and to terrorize people, but that's not why we killed them. we didn't do it to make the world a better place. we did it because we wanted to stay alive, just like you.
