Disclaimer: Don't own Walking Dead
Title: Helpful Advice
Pairing: Carl/Beth
Summary: Carl wants to ask Beth to be his girlfriend. He gets advice from the most unlikely people. Glenn, Daryl and Rick. What can go wrong?
AN: This is gonna be fun for all of you Carl/Beth fans and to those who love to see things go horribly wrong in a comedic way. This takes place after my oneshot 'Annoyance'. Sit back, laugh and enjoy.
Carl was nervously scrapping the hem of his feet across the cold prison grounds, trying to form a sentence in his mouth while he stared at the cell with a certain girl in it. Ever since he had that talk with Beth in his cell about his usefulness, he had one desire that was beating around in his head.
He wanted to ask Beth to be his girlfriend.
Ever since that one conversation that they had, his feelings for her grew and the constant nagging at the back of his head was telling him to go and ask her the question. What was the worse she could do?
Say no, harshly reject him and then there would be nothing but awkwardness around them that most likely wouldn't go away.
Yeah, Carl was more nervous now.
He fixed his hair, straightened his hat and checked his breath. For someone that has hardly brushed his teeth ever since the world had gone to hell, his breath surprisingly wasn't that bad. He was also sure he looked alright, not having a mirror to check anyway. He buried the last second nervousness and knocked on her cell. When she turned her head to smile at him, he felt the nerves come back with the smile she gave him. He really liked her smile. It reminded Carl about how pretty she was.
"Hey Carl. You need something?" she asked. She was cleaning out her gun before she heard the raddle of the bars of her cage. She felt her lips form into a smile upon seeing the boy. She can never not smile when he was around. She liked the boy a lot. He was a cool boy who can always make you feel good about yourself when you were down. He made her feel good a few times when she was down in the dumps about something. When she panicked upon fighting her first walker, Carl gave her the courage and confidence she needed to kill it. She was waiting to see where things went between them before she made a move on him.
Carl lost the sentence that took him ten minutes to think of and started to spout out some nonsense gibberish that he couldn't understand. He was embarrassing himself in front of her like an idiot. "No…it's stupid. Forget it." He turned on his heel and left before he could embarrass himself some more.
Beth softened her eyes at seeing him walk away. He looked really embarrassed for some reason. Was he going to ask her something and then backed out?
She would ask him when he calmed down.
…
"Goddamn I'm an idiot!" Carl criticized himself. He left the cellblock and somehow ended up at the guard tower. He didn't care where he was going as long as he didn't run back into Beth again. He couldn't see her until she forgot about the embarrassing scene that just happened between them. "All I had to do was ask her if she wanted to be my girlfriend. Why is that so hard to do?"
"Is Carl crushing on a girl?" Glenn's amused voice called from the guard tower door. He almost laughed at the pale look that the kid's face turned into after hearing that he wasn't alone. "Well, are you?"
Carl nervously looked around for something to save him. His mother, another group member, hell Carl would even take a walker as a way to get out of this. He slowly looked to the shit-eating grin that was taking over Glenn's face. Out of all people to run into, Glenn was probably one of the worst ones. This guy couldn't keep any secrets, so the likelihood of him spilling the beans to someone about him having a crush on Beth was really high.
"Ummm…no?"
"Don't even try to hide it. I was like that too when I was your age. I can easily see that you like someone,"
"How do you know I'm not just really emotionally upset about…" Carl stopped, trying to think of something to add to that sentence.
Glenn smirked, "Uh-huh. About what?"
"Ummm…I don't know," Carl admitted defeat. "I got nothing."
"So, who's the lucky girl?" Glenn leaned against the guard tower with his arms folded across his chest.
"Don't you have a guard tower to be, I don't know…guarding?"
"Nothing interesting is going on. No walkers, no signs of trouble from our prison neighbors, no sign of anything actually. We can just stand here and wait for you to squeal. All kids do eventually." Glenn joked.
"Why should I tell you? You're terrible at keeping secrets."
Glenn stumbled on that one, "Hey! I'm better,"
"No, you're not. When Daryl asked where one of his arrows were last month, you stuttered like an idiot and it was obvious it was you."
"Hey, you can't blame me! I sat on it and it snapped. Of course I would try and keep it a secret."
"But yet, you still can't do that."
"Just tell me who you like."
"Will you keep it a secret?"
Glenn made a scouts sign, "Scouts honor."
Carl looked over his shoulder to make sure no one was coming and let out a sigh, "I like Beth."
"Of course its her. There's no one else you might have a crush on."
The embarrassment came back, "I tried to ask her to be my girlfriend."
"She reject you?"
"I couldn't get the words out."
"I know how that feels," Glenn recalled a few of his feeble attempts to score girls before the apocalypse. He was just glad that he had Maggie now. He didn't have to embarrass himself anymore and it felt good. That's why he felt bad for Carl now. He knew how he felt.
"How did you ask Maggie to be your girlfriend?" Carl asked. While Glenn was the worst person to ask to keep a secret, he might be one of the best ones to ask advice for on how to ask Beth to be his girlfriend. If someone like Glenn got someone like Maggie, he had to have done something right.
Glenn felt his face heat up at Carl's question. "Well…it just sorta happened. I really didn't have to ask her. It just fell into place after we, well…you know." He waved it off.
"Sex," Carl gave the guy a bored look. "I'm not an idiot, Glenn."
"Yeah, after we had sex. I wouldn't recommend you do that since you are too young. Plus, your dad and mom will skin my hide if you did what I did." Carl smirked. They would kick Glenn's ass if Carl listened to him about sex. "If you want Beth to be your girlfriend, best advice I can give you is to be yourself. That's what got me and Maggie going for as long as we have. At least according to her."
Carl smiled, "Thanks for the advice, Glenn. I'll be sure to take it."
Glenn smiled back, "No prob bro,"
Carl smirked and took off, "Especially about the sex."
Glenn started to sweat, "Carl!" he called after the boy, who all but vanished back inside the prison. "I'm dead."
…
"Glenn said that you like a certain farm girl,"
Carl looked away from his food to stare at the smirking face of Daryl Dixon. He knew it. He knew it. Glenn squealed and ratted out his crush on Beth to Daryl. Who's to say that the girl in question didn't already know?
"He's a liar," Carl countered right after.
"I heard most of your conversation. Just didn't know who you liked." Daryl smirked. "He broke almost right away when I gave him the look."
"The look?"
Daryl hardened his eyes and furrowed his eyebrows down onto Carl. The intimidating gaze of Daryl caused Carl to squeak and back down slightly in his seat in the cafeteria. No wonder Glenn broke down. Daryl might've been more easygoing and more smiles, he was still a scary guy when he wanted to be.
"Okay, I do."
Daryl dropped the look and replaced the intimidating look with a smirk. "Yeah, thought so. Chinaman might've given you some okay advice and all, but take it from me, kid. If you want to impress her, you gotta act cool and not like an idiot."
"Too late for that," Carl sighed in defeat. He didn't expect to be having this conversation with Daryl of all people. Daryl was the loner of their group. He never really stepped outside of his little boundary unless it was necessary. It surprised Carl that he was helping him, or at least trying to.
"It's never too late kid. Just act cool and give her a lot of attention and soon she'll be all over you."
"How do you know that?"
"If there's one thing Merle was good at, it was for getting girls to notice him no matter what he did." Daryl explained. Merle could act any way to a girl and they would still throw themselves at him. It intrigued Daryl greatly.
"Why are you helping me?"
"'Cause if you don't do it, then you'll mope around here for weeks for not doing anything to get her to notice you and I really don't wanna deal with a moping teenager. It'll be like dealing with a sober Merle who won't shut up about getting some drugs."
Carl blinked at Daryl's reasoning. He was helping him just for him. He didn't care. If he could get advice that would help him win Beth in the end, he didn't care. He would do whatever it took for him to get the blonde girl in the end.
"My advice to you kid, always be relaxed and act cool and she'll be wanting to get in your pants in no time."
"I'm thirteen!" Carl gasped.
Daryl shrugged, "Nothing wrong with planning ahead."
Daryl had a point.
What was with Glenn and Daryl about sex?
…
"My boy is growing up,"
"Son of a bitch," Carl cursed under his breath. Half an hour after his little chat with Daryl found Carl inside of his cell preparing his plan to ask Beth to be his girlfriend. But here was his dad with a smirk of pride on his face and a look that said 'The Asian Boy Squealed.'
"You should know, son to never trust Glenn with a secret." Rick playfully teased his embarrassed boy. "You finally have a crush on a girl."
"Dad," Carl whined, hiding his eyes in his hat by tilting the headwear down.
Rick laughed, "It's nothing to be ashamed of. It's O.K to like a girl at your age."
"I embarrassed myself in front of her today. I tried to ask her to be my girlfriend but I couldn't get the words out. I just stuttered and looked like an idiot,"
"You were just nervous. And it's funny how it's the end of the world and the only thing that scares you now is asking a girl to go out with you."
"That's irony, dad."
Rick laughed, "Kinda."
Carl seemed to hesitate with what he wanted to say next. He sucked it up and figured it couldn't hurt, "How did you get mom to like you?"
Rick really didn't want to talk about Lori, but figured he could suck it up for his son. "Well…I was the nice guy in school and because of that; people didn't pay me much mind. Shane and your mother were the only people who dealt with me because of it. Your mother saw something, what it was I don't have a damn clue, but she said that she liked me because I was nice. It went on from there for awhile."
"Just because you were a nice guy, you and mom lasted for many years."
Rick laughed, "You make me sound like I'm an old guy."
"Compared to me, dad, you are ancient."
"My advice, Carl, be nice to her and don't act like an ass. Girls think they like that kind of guy, but they don't."
"So…don't be Shane."
"Yeah don't be Shane."
…
"Hey Beth," Carl coolly called after her in the prison yard. Once again, Glenn told someone about his crush on Beth. This time it was Maggie, who said that it was really cute that he liked her. She offered some last minute encouragement by telling him that her sister wouldn't reject him and that she was getting some sun in the prison yard they cleared out.
Beth noticed him standing there and smiled at him, "Hey Carl."
"Do your feet hurt?"
"Kinda," she answered.
"'Cause you been running through my mind." Daryl gave him a crappy pick-up line to use. Needless to say, it sounded as dumb coming from Carl as it did for Daryl.
"O…K," she looked at him confused. Why was he using a pick-up line on her?
"I have this question that I've been waiting to ask you, baby." Damn Glenn and his stupid nicknames.
"The one you tried to ask me before?"
"Yep and it would mean a lot if you can answer it." Carl was doing a crappy job of trying to mix being nice, being cool and being himself. He probably looked dumber then he did before.
"What's your question?" Beth gave him all of her attention. By the way he was acting and by his embarrassment from before, she had a pretty good idea on what he wanted to ask her.
Carl cleared his throat, "Would you do me the honor of being my g-" he stopped. The nerves came back and everything Glenn, Daryl and Rick told him vanished from his head. He was back to square one again. "Never mind," he made a move to run.
Beth wasn't gonna let him get away and grabbed his hand. "Just ask me,"
"I'm afraid," Carl admitted.
"Afraid of what?"
"Afraid if I ask you you'll reject me and break my heart," Carl was close to cutting his hand off and running away from her. He was scared. He was frightened. He wanted to crawl under his bed and hide there like the frightened child he was.
Beth looked him in the eyes, Carl getting even more nervous. "Ask me…please?"
Carl figured that he might as well. If it went bad, he could easily hide himself in the cafeteria for ten months. It worked for the prisoners; it could work for him too. Sucking up what little courage he had, he shouted it out in an 'I don't give a shit' attitude.
"Will you be my girlfriend!?"
"I would love too,"
"You see? This is why I- Did you say yes?"
Beth laughed and nodded, "Yeah. I like you Carl. Why were you so scared to ask me?"
"For fear of rejection."
"Who gave you those pick-up lines?"
"Daryl and Glenn."
Beth giggled, "Don't take advice from them again. I like you for you. Just always be yourself. You're a nice and sweet boy. Don't change that."
"Dad and Glenn said that,"
"I was gonna ask you after I saw how things went between us, but I guess now is good to."
"You were serious?"
A light peck on the lips was his answer. "Of course."
"So cute,"
Carl turned his head so fast it almost snapped. There, in the yard, was everyone in the group. Even Oscar and Axel were there. And there in the front with a stupid grin on his face was Glenn, who looked apologetic.
"Damn you Glenn!"
End of Helpful Advice
Ha, I had to put that ending in. Glenn and his inability to keep a secret.
My next one-shot will be their date I promised in Knight in a Cowboy Hat and then I'll start a longer story with these two. Many people want to see one from me and I figured what the hell? I finally decided to start it at the farm because there's so much that I can do there. Check on either Saturday or Sunday, maybe not Saturday because it's my birthday that day.
Hope you enjoyed and drop a review to tell me which conversation you liked most. I liked the Glenn one because Glenn is funny.
Have a nice day.
