Moving on
A/N: I'm dyslectic, so be kind! After lousing my FF password for years I'm back! Enjoy my stuff 3
Who: Daryl & Rick.
Where: 3rd season! In the prison.
Spoilers: Season 3 ep 15.
Warnings: Yaoi, sex and sorrow.
Back story/notes: Daryl is just coming back from the search of his brother, who had become a walker and he had to kill. The attack from Woodbery won't be talked about in this story because it's not what I want to focus on. Also each chapter will be 1-3 pages short.
Thanks: To Spklvr for looking over this story and correcting my sure to be many mistakes!
Chapter one.
It had been days sense the Merle incident, but Daryl hadn't moved from the bed. The group had done their best to comfort him without results. Rick had kept his distance sense Daryl came back. Every night he would lie awake, thinking of different approaches to make Daryl feel better. The only thing they all had in common was that by the end of it he would be holding the man in his arms as they both fell asleep.
It was mid day when Rick finally got the courage to walked towards Daryl's cell. His footsteps where light, echoing in the block, letting Daryl know he was coming.
"Daryl," Rick said as he leaned towards the cell door, "I don't know what to say." The only thing he had found out during last night's sleep was that he didn't want Daryl to be alone, even if it meant awkward silences between them.
"That makes two of us."
Rick sits down on the bed, looking straight ahead at the wall with his hands on his knees.
"Anything I can do?" he asked and looked at him.
"Nah." Daryl was fiddling with one of his arrows.
"Going to teach me how to use a crossbow soon?" Rick asked. He figured it felt right talking about arrows and crossbows since he seem to be fiddling with that stuff whenever he was bored, happy or sad.
"Ya want to learn to use a crossbow?" Daryl looked at him with a raised eyebrow. Whatever he had expected Rick to say, it wasn't that.
"Yes." Not really, but it might get Daryl out of his depression, or at least out of bed to start with. "We should save the bullets to emergencies. Arrows can be used again." Daryl appeared to be thinking it over, then handed Rick the arrow.
"Alright then," he said.
The crossbow felt unnatural in his hands, and multiple times during the first day of training did he reconsider his idea. However, every time he thought about quitting he looked at Daryl. The man was finally outside in the sun, and seemed happy to focus on training him, instead of drowning in memories of his brother. As practice targets they had collected a few dead walkers, and put them in a standing position against a wall far from the others, so they could train in peace.
"Man, what target were ya aiming at?" Daryl asked as the arrow came in between two targets.
"Where you this hopeless when you started out?" Rick asked after some hours of training and yet he wasn't close to landing a target.
"Nah, I'm a natural." He smiled. Never had a smile looked so good as it did on the redneck. It had been a while since he had fallen in love with the man, having had some long debates with himself on the matter. He had reached the conclusion after everything that had happened. This wouldn't be the strangest thing happening to him. Maybe he even would find some happiness. Now that he had the man all to himself on the training ground, he would use every excuse he could think off to make this romantic. Like golf lessons with Lori had been. He knew the timing could have been better, Daryl probably wasn't even thinking of him that way. Dealing with his dead brother is hard enough, but maybe this was just the thing that could help him move on? Or perhaps it was just the excuse he told himself to lift the guilt he had.
Sometimes he would intentionality hold the bow wrong just so Daryl would correct him. He would come up close and correct his hands. His face would be at Ricks shoulder. So close, yet so far.
As the dark fell upon them they returned to the group, just in time for dinner.
"Beans, lovely" Daryl said as he sat down with the group.
"How was practice?" Hershel asked.
"Could be better," Rick replied as they all started eating.
"Could be worse," Daryl said, patting Rick on the shoulder.
"Well, it seems to be just what you two need," Carol said smiling.
Dinner went by as usual, and for a moment Rick felt at ease. It wasn't until he went to bed he realized he hadn't seen Lori's ghost all day. Maybe he needed this training as much as Daryl did.