Dog’s Day - Daryl Dixon x Reader
When you had asked Daryl if you could wash Dog, you had never anticipated how difficult of a task that it was going to be.
When the hunter first brought his pet to the Hilltop, you were spellbound. He had bounced up to you and placed his two huge paws on your shoulders to greet you, jumping down to run circle upon circle around your legs whilst you giggled wildly.
Daryl had watched on in bemusement, not knowing whether or not to interrupt the moment between you, or what was even going on to begin with. He hadn’t seen you in years since he disappeared to go in search of Rick’s body, and now when he finally caught a glimpse of you again, Dog had decided that he was going to jump ahead on the greeting.
You both had always had a quite tentative relationship. He had found you with the Atlanta group when they went back to look for Merle, and at the time he wasn’t interested in making anymore friends. He had tried to resent you at first given how they had brought back the wrong person to camp, and his brother was still left out in the city to die, but you wore down his walls with your smiles day in day out until he found himself seeking you out.
“What’s his name?” You grinned, looking up at the hunter whilst you scratched Dog behind the ears.
“Dog.”
You raised an eyebrow. “Couldn’t come up with anything more creative, Dixon?”
“Wha, it works! He comes when I call.” You rolled your eyes.
“Do you think I could give him a bath? He stinks like walkers.” Daryl fought the smile that threatened to rise to his lips when you scrunched up your nose.
“Sure, just don’t turn him into a big slobbery lap dog. Supposed to be a huntin’ dog.”
You waved your hand whilst leading Dog up to the house. “Yeah, yeah you got it. You could do with a shower too!”
Daryl turned away, facing blazing as he stormed away from the house.
Getting Dog into the tub wasn’t the hard part; it was keeping yourself out of it. You had enough soap on hand to lather up his filthy fur and you screwed up your nose as you watched the dirt wash down the drain.
“Has he never taken you near a river or something, what the hell…” You trailed off, muttering to yourself. Meanwhile, Dog was having the time of his life with all the attention you were bestowing on him, licking at your face and your hands anytime you bent remotely near his head.
You reached around the pooch to try and wash the soap off his far side and that was when his teeth latched onto the back of your shirt and he pulled you into the bathtub with him.
Water sloshed over the sides and onto the tiled floor as you shrieked, pushing your now wet hair out of your face. You had dropped the showerhead when you had fallen in and it was now spraying everywhere over the walls and the ceiling. Dog took the opportunity to lick some of the suds out of your face, his tail wagging frantically and lapping more water up the walls.
Daryl had heard your shrieking from outside and had come rushing up the stairs. He threw the bathroom door open so hard it had slammed off the adjacent wall. But nothing could have prepared him for the sight that greeted him.
You were shivering and soaked through to the bone with filthy bath water and Dog was hovering over the top of you, his tongue lolling out of the side of his mouth. You jumped when Daryl threw the door open and smiled weakly at him.
“So, it didn’t exactly go to plan…”
A small smirk on his face, Daryl closed the bathroom door and helped pull Dog out of the bath and onto a dry towel. Reaching your hand up, you thought he was going to help you out too.
Your face coloured when Daryl grabbed your face gently and pulled you up closer to him, leaning in and kissing you before either of you could have given it a second thought. You grabbed onto his arms to stop yourself from slipping back into the tub and smiled against his lips, his own face matching yours when he pulled away.
“Jeez, I’m going to volunteer to bath that dog more often.”
