Daryl had never put his arm around a woman before but he'd always wanted to. He remembered watching movies with his mom when he was a kid and seeing the cool biker guy casually slip his arm around a girl to show the world she was spoken for. The girls in those movies would always sink into the guy and smile. They always looked so happy to just be there in his arms.
When Carol started talking about the herd building up overnight she sounded so dejected; so unlike the strong woman he knew she was now. He glanced over at her and saw the look of worry on her face and knew he needed to do something to change that. He wanted to make her feel better. She had dealt with so much shit in her life already she deserved a moment of reprieve. He wanted to make her happy and he thought back to the women from the biker movies. They always looked happy when a man held them.
Daryl had wrapped his own arm around Carol's shoulders before he realized what he was doing. The last time he had been this close to her was that day he found her miraculously alive in the tombs. The way his hands had slipped around her body then to cradle her against his chest had been pure natural instinct.
What the hell did he do with his hand now though? Did he open it and hold onto her? How tight should he hold on? How tight was too tight?
After a moment he settled for leaving his fist closed but angling Carol's body closer to his own. Good lord, it felt good holding her like this. It felt…right. He finally understood why those guys in those movies always looked so smug when they did this.
He waited for her reaction, watching her face to see if his move was okay. Only thing was she wasn't responding.
Maybe he shouldn't have touched her like that after all. Carol was his friend. They shared something special. Daryl didn't want to screw that up. But seeing her look so forlorn didn't sit right with him. He had no experience with comforting a woman but he wanted to offer her solace nonetheless.
Carol silently looked at the hand clamped on her shoulder. When she turned back to him there was a shy smile gracing her face. Daryl felt his nervous smile grow in return as he watched her reaction. She looked surprised but happy. It felt good to see her smiling and know he was the one responsible for that. Those bikers from the movies had definitely been onto something.
A look flickered across Carol's face while she gazed up at him. There was a sparkle in her eye that he hadn't seen there since that first night at the prison when she'd asked if he wanted to screw around.
What was he supposed to do now? The movies never showed what happened next.
A/N: Thanks for reading. This mini fic was created in response to the U.S.S. Caryl Head Cannon Challenge in regards to the freshly release Season 4 Ep 1 promo picture of Daryl with his arm casually flung around Carol's shoulders.
In 500 words or less (exactly 500 for me) you had to describe the moment that was pictured between the two. I hope you enjoyed my take on what could be going on here between these two crazy kids. Firstly, this was something new for me. Considering that the chapters I currently put out for my other fics are getting longer and longer each time using only 500 words was definitely a challenge for me here. Secondly, if any of you are familiar with my stories and how I write you'll know it takes me forever to get one chapter done. The bulk of what you just read took me half an hour today to complete, with several hours later spent tinkering away on it. Again, completely new process for me. Very satisfying to get something done so quickly I must say.
But enough of my boring ramblings. Thanks again for reading my thoughts on a photo. I spent way too much time analysing this!