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They'd both been inside that house in the middle of the cemetery for about a day. Eating, relaxing, and singing. Daryl of course wasn't, he only enjoyed listening to her sing.
Beth tapped on the piano she found inside the funeral home and sung softly, "And we'll buy...a beer to shotgun. And we'll lay in the lawn...and we'll be good."
Behind her, Daryl had his crossbow slung over his shoulder and cleared his throat, "Place is nailed up tight. Lotsa supplies and stuff y'know..."
"What're you doin?" Beth watched him clamber into the coffin inside the piano room.
"This is the comfiest bed I've had in years." Daryl answered. He laid back in the coffin and sighed, "Keep singing."
Beth kept singing 'Be Good' on her piano and Daryl listened from his bed made for dead people. Her voice was soft and smooth, and Daryl actually felt like smiling as he heard her sing but didn't. Her fingers stopped tapping against the piano's keys and Beth turned to Daryl.
"Hey, that does look pretty comfy. Mind if I join?" she asked.
"Uh..." Daryl shot up off the coffin and blinked, "Beth I don't think..."
Before he could answer properly she joined him on the coffin and laid down next to him. Her kind blue eyes met his dark ones and Beth spoke to him, "Comfy huh?"
"Uh..." Daryl was speechless when she laid on his chest and snuggled up tight to him.
Daryl felt his hand reach the back of her head and began to caress the blonde ponytail Beth was wearing. However, his thoughts exploded in his mind. What do you think you're doing asshole? This is an eighteen year old kid! You're like her older brother, get your hand off her! What the hell would Hershel say?
The other side of his head spoke louder. Come on! It's not so bad! It's like we're...screw it, it's not so bad...The hell'd Merle say? Merle? God nevermind...
"Daryl?" Beth murmured into his chest and didn't mind that he was caressing her yellow hair.
"Yeah?" He asked in his usual light growl, still feeling the blonde locks on her head.
She started to feel herself drift off to sleep, "Do you ever think we'll get outta this? We'll ever find a place to settle down? A real home?"
Daryl blinked and closed his eyes with her, "Beth...I don't tell anyone 'bout this...but there's this beach...and...I'm there..."
"You talking about a dream you had?" Beth's light voice reached his rough ears again.
He nodded, "Yeah...and..."
After she fell asleep on his chest and was snoring ever so softly, Daryl murmured in his deep scratchy voice knowing she couldn't hear him, "You're there with me...holding my hand..." He fell asleep.
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Beth yawned when she woke up in the coffin. Daryl wasn't there and was rummaging about the kitchen in the graveyard's funeral home.
"I uh..." He cleared his throat as the girl approached with messy blonde hair, "I made you some breakfast." Daryl slid the cereal bowl across the wooden table towards her.
"Thanks." Beth sat down and began to eat breakfast at the table. She paused after swallowing some cereal, "Hey did we sleep together last night?"
"Yeah." Daryl gulped and shook his head, "Mean we slept in the coffin but we didn't..." He trailed and there was a scratching noise at the door. Daryl looked to Beth at the table, "Stay back. I'll check it."
He opened the door and saw a scraggly one eyed white furred dog. He knelt with crossbow in hand and tried to rub the dog's head, "Hey...c'mere boy." It ran away but Beth appeared in the hallway leading from the front entrance.
"Did he want to come in?" she asked.
"I told you to stay back." Daryl growled.
She looked at him, "Yeah but Daryl, you said there was a dog."
He put a hand on her shoulder, "Maybe he'll come back around..."
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"I'm gonna leave a thank you note." Beth kept scribbling on the card she planned to leave for the owner of the graveyard's funeral home.
"Wow." Daryl was scooping marmalade out of his jar in the seat next to her, and continued placing the spoon in his mouth.
Beth noticed the look on Daryl's face, "For when they come back...If...they come back..." She looked at him, "Even if they're not gonna come back I'm still gonna say thanks."
"Maybe we can just stay here...and if they come back we make it work." Daryl suggested.
"So you do think there are good people around?" Beth smiled at him, "What changed your mind?"
Daryl was making eye contact with her, "Mhm."
Beth broke the eye contact quickly, "Don't...mhm...what changed your mind?"
He just stared at her, and eventually it sunk in for Beth that it was her.
"Oh." She mumbled.
At that moment there was a clanking noise from the cans Daryl set up outside the funeral home.
Daryl stood up from the table and picked up his crossbow, "I'm gonna give that mutt one more chance..."
He walked to the front door and was right, the one eyed dog he saw earlier was there. But it was being held by the collar by a tall teenage boy with brown hair and brown eyes. In his collar free hand he held a bo staff covered in walker blood, and there was a small horde of killed undead at his feet on the porch of the funeral home. Daryl raised his crossbow but the boy blinked at it.
"Hell're you doing in my house?" The stranger asked.
Beth appeared at Daryl's shoulder and Daryl kept pointing his crossbow at the boy's head.
"This your house?" Daryl growled.
He nodded and gripped the dog's collar, "Uh huh. This is my dog too. Name's Joe."
"Like cotton eyed Joe?" Beth actually snickered.
"No, named him after my dad. His friends called him Eastman, but his real name was Joseph." The boy nodded again and eyed the bolt Daryl had pointed at his face, "Can I come into my own home?"
Daryl lowered his crossbow and nodded quietly.
"Those uh...dead..." The boy let his bo staff rest against a chair in the kitchen Daryl and Beth were having dinner together at, and his scraggly white furred dog was panting as he sat obediently at his side, "What do you call 'em?"
"Walkers." Beth and Daryl answered together. They looked at each other for a quick second, before looking away.
The boy sat back in his chair, "I was out scavenging and I found them on the porch. Seems like I did you two a favor takin' 'em out."
"You took them all out yourself?" Beth blinked at the stranger across the table from him.
He nodded and saw all the soda pop drinks and other things Daryl and Beth had opened, "I see you've enjoyed my food."
"What's your name?" Beth asked as Daryl saw the boy pet the top of his dogs head.
"Marcus. Yours?"
"I'm Beth." She pointed to the crossbowman at her side, "This is Daryl." He nodded to Marcus.
"Nice to meet you both. I don't mind having you here, I plan on staying here forever if I have to."
"Forever. Why?" Beth blinked.
Marcus yawned as he kept rubbing the top of Joe's head, "Before everything went to hell, some bastard named Crighton tried to kill me and my mom. He got my mom, but I got away. Dad wanted to starve him in a cell in his house he built in the woods, but a horde showed up about a month ago and we both got separated. He said we'd meet here if anything happened but..."
"He hasn't showed up." Beth nodded.
"Yeah...so I'm still waiting for him."
Beth saw the bo staff covered in walker blood at Marcus' side, "He teach you how to use that?"
"Mhm. He knows Aikido and Karate, and he taught me for a pretty long time. This other guy, Morgan, he showed up and learned from us too a while back." Marcus sighed and rubbed his eyes, "If you either of you need a bath, I can heat up some water, there's a tub upstairs."
Beth slid the thank you letter she wrote for him across the table to Marcus, "Thanks for letting us stay here. I could use a bath."
"Cool. I'll go get the water." Marcus left the table and his one eyed dog obediently followed him out of the kitchen of the funeral home.
Beth turned to Daryl, "Should we tell him?"
"Tell him what?" Daryl murmured in his deep voice.
"His dad's probably dead."
"We don't know that Beth."
Beth sighed and Daryl felt like holding Beth's hand when he saw the slightly saddened look on her pretty face.
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