A/N. Just a little Rickyl because they are my favourite Bromance ever!
My Brother's Song
Blood on blood
One on one
Blood On Blood. Bon Jovi
Daryl Dixon lost a brother once.
Even before Merle disappeared, he had lost him long time ago. The day he ran away from their house and left him behind Daryl thought he could never forgive him, but Merle was Merle and he was his only family, so he had come to do it eventually. They could share their shit with each other and that was enough for Daryl for a while.
"Blood is everything."
Merle loved to say those kind of silly things when they were about to get in trouble and Daryl didn't feel comfortable with it.
"You gotta watch my back, man. I'm your brother. Blood is everything."
Daryl didn't like it. He knew how blackmail sounded like and the whole family thing take as an excuse to be a jackass was almost insulting for him, but he never had anybody else. When the world fell apart it was the same thing for him. He was just carried away by the circumstances until he met Rick. By the time Merle died, Daryl had found a place to belong. He missed Merle in some kind of dysfunctional way but Rick and the rest of the group were his family. A real one.
Daryl had lost a brother twice.
The governor attacked the prison and the world fell apart again, crushing harder than ever. Everybody he had ever cared about was gone except Beth for a while before she disappeared too. She had kept faith afterwards and she didn't want to stop looking for their people, but Daryl knew that stupid world better, or he think he knew. The probability was one in a fucking million and it was just nonsense to think otherwise. Rick was the best man he ever knew and Daryl had trust him with his life but he was missing if not dead. Before him he had never respected a man, he had never had such faith in nobody. He had never felt respected or needed. Rick Grimes was everything a brother should be and he was gone.
Except he wasn't.
Daryl wasn't sure at first when he saw him in the middle of the dark, but then he saw Michonne and the vision of his friends hunted down by those nasty people hit him right in the chest. He made a quick calculation of the possibilities, and even shooting fast enough to release Rick and Michonne, the rest of the guys could very easily kill them all.
So he offered himself as an exchange.
"You gotta watch my back. Blood is everything."
Daryl didn't understand it right then with Merle. Not really. He did what it was supposed to be done those times, even if he didn't feel it that way. But those men were hurting the people he cared about in front of his eyes and Daryl didn't know what else to do. He couldn't lose them again like that now that they were impossibly reunited once again.
When the hell broke loose that night he had just one thing in mind. Survive. Survive because they were alive, because he had part of his family back, because his brother was back. Survive because Beth was right and good things could happen even in this world. He owed her.
"I know who I'm now, Daryl." They were sitting for a while outside that car. The silence of the road was reassuring them if just for once. "I will do anything to protect my family. I'm in peace with that."
Daryl nodded.
"I know." He could felt his broken lip aching and bleeding again but he smiled. "I'm so damn happy to see you, brother."
Rick's hands were still shaken a bit but he smiled back.
Blood is everything.
He did understand it now.
Bring on the motherfucking hell, then. He was ready. They will bleed together.