Title: Hopeless Dreams.
Author: Myself.
Fandom: The Walking Dead
Rating: M for adult themes, violence, bad language.
Pairing: Daryl Dixon/Beth Greene (Bethyl)
Disclaimer: Much to my dismay, I do not own The Walking Dead, Beth Greene or Daryl Dixon, though I wish I did. This is set after Too Far Gone in Season 4.

Hello! This is my first entry here, I hope you like the beginning to what I hope will be an exciting, tense and adorable fanfic of this cutesy pairing.

Please rate and leave comments- constructive criticism and compliments are both a joy to receive, I'd also like to know how many people would like to see this continue and see what happens next! :)

ALSO: I'd also like to point out that I am from England, and though I have tried to make the story as American-sounding as possible due to its setting etc, I have still spelled words using British English so don't think I'm an idiot who can't spell lol!

Enjoy.

Chapter 1: Run.

"We gotta go, Beth. We gotta go."

The conviction in his voice let her know he wouldn't take no for an answer. His eyes pierced hers, burning through her and willing her to find strength to run. Turning back one last time to scan the prison yard for a trace of her family, she could see a dozen walkers ambling closer to them. She found that strength by some miracle, and she ran. They both ran and ran and ran, until Beth felt like her lungs were going to collapse and the contents of her stomach empty all over herself. She was sore from the constant slapping of the carbine rifle against her back. Daryl, as fit as he was, could feel his legs aching so terribly he thought they might disintegrate. Hours might have passed, they still hadn't stopped. Hadn't gotten a chance to, seeing as walkers plagued their path at every turn.
"Damn" he thought. Those bastards probably heard every explosion, every gunshot and every scream from the prison, most likely they were shuffling in that direction from miles around.
"Daryl! Daryl..." Beth whimpered, slowing her pace to a stop. He turned around and was met with a dishevelled Beth with bright red eyes, doubled over with both pain and distress. "We gotta go back... We can't... Daryl, we need to go back" she cried, tears now streaming down her cheeks.
"We can't. Don't you understand that we can't? You saw how that was, there's nothing left there" was his harsh reply.
Through sobs she pleaded "please, we've got 'ta, we-".
"What part of 'we can't' don't ya get? There's ain't nothing there to go back to!" he spat.
At this Beth cried even harder, so hard that she couldn't breathe, and her whimpers now turned to empty, silent gasps for air. Daryl saw her face drop as he spoke. He realised the severity of his words now, the callousness in his tone and he internally cursed himself. Why did he always have to speak before thinking? Her father had just been murdered in front of her, her sister is nowhere to be found and the baby she practically raised for eight months is probably dead, and he's shouting at her? He knew he was being a jerk but Daryl being Daryl found it hard to apologise. His face softened and he moved closer to her, his hand outstretched to touch her, but as it reached her shoulder she flinched and jerked away, as if she was disgusted by him. Just seeing the look of contempt on her face made his heart sink.

"Look, Beth. I'm sorry."
Now too exhausted to fight back anymore she succumbed to his attempts of comforting her. He was standing inches away from her now, bringing his arms around her shoulders and awkwardly drawing her into his chest. She didn't reciprocate though secretly she welcomed the contact. He wasn't good at this stuff, he felt uncomfortable and gauche as he held her. She smelled of all the things you'd expect someone to in the apocalypse: mud, sweat and dirty cotton, but Daryl would swear that past all that there was a hint of vanilla.
"Maggie is out there though, we need to find her! And Judith, I lost her, I lost her, Daryl! Please..." she bawled, snivels interspersed between her words.
"We will find them, but not now. It's me and you for now, kid, but we'll find them soon. I promise", his voice was softer than Beth had ever heard it now. They broke apart and just at that moment a walker stumbled into view. Daryl dispatched it with one swift stab of his knife, yet as that one fell to the ground and he glanced up, a dozen more staggered out of the tree line to the road they were standing on.
"Shit. Beth, c'mon quick" and he ran past her, grabbing her arm on the way and the unlikely pair started off again down the road.

...

The sun was finally setting on Georgia, creating a striking, swirling sky of oranges and reds. Beth was staring intently at the sun which was now peeking behind a cloud on the horizon, silently admiring the fact that beauty such as this can be found in even the ugliest of Worlds. They had at last stopped running and found a moderately safe clearing in the forest to set up camp for the night. Daryl was cooking skewered squirrel over a low fire he had made, and despite the fact that she was starving, Beth really wasn't looking forward to squirrel skewers.
"Here ya go, get tha' down ya". Daryl passed her the meat and she took it without a word. She hadn't said much at all for hours actually. Quiet little Bethy she was, but even this was unlike her, Daryl thought. But then, what must she be feeling right now? She stared into the fire, the skewer gripped tight between her fingers, though she still hadn't tucked in.
"Come on, Beth. I made that lovely for ya!" he forced a smile in the hope it could cheer her up but instead Beth glared at him with an uneasy half smile-half frown.
"I'm not hungry" was her stern reply, though it lacked certitude as though it pained her to lie.
"Quit your bull', girl. 'Bin hearing your stomach growl for hours", he retorted.
Instead of replying, Beth set the squirrel down and crawled to a relatively dry spot on the ground to sleep.
"I wouldn' sleep on that bare grass if I were you. 'Ground here is full o' June bug larvae".
He had to be kidding. All the human guts she's seen in the past year and he thinks she's gonna worry about beetles? Beth snorted in derision.

Sighing, Daryl joined her on the ground. "Here" he whispered as he piled leaves into a small nest beside her, completing the makeshift bed by taking off his angel wing vest and moulding it into a pillow for her. The young woman turned on her side to observe the older man's handiwork before glancing up and focusing her eyes on his. "Thank you" she murmured, almost so quiet it was as if she had only mouthed it. They continued staring into each other's eyes for what seemed like an eternity, though was probably no longer than ten seconds. His eyes had a beautiful blue hue, much like her own; they didn't sparkle like Beth's though, it was more like they were reflecting all the pain he'd ever felt right back at her, and she felt like she was looking deep into his sad soul. Suddenly Daryl felt awkward, stifling an uncomfortable snort and diverting his gaze elsewhere. "Pfft, come of it, girl", he grunted.
"Wha'dya mean?" Beth asked, in the most innocent voice she could make. She was still looking at him, confused about the whole situation, like, how did she find herself lost in Daryl Dixon's eyes just then? Daryl Dixon's? She knew exactly what he meant, but decided to play it off like nothing important happened, rather than getting defensive.
"Nothin'", Daryl shrugged. He wondered for a moment if he'd imagined the whole thing. No, of course not. Despite him being confident he was not and never will be attracted to Beth in any way, shape or form, he couldn't help but feel slightly disheartened at her plain rejection. God dammit, Daryl, keep it together.

They quickly said their goodnights as Daryl created his own little nest and snuggled up in his own arms in an attempt to keep warm. Understandably though, it was incredibly hard to fall asleep on rough leaves, crinkling with every toss and turn, the threat of Walkers, or worse, other people, constantly looming over them. Ten minutes passed. Then fifteen minutes. By the time the pair had been trying to drift off for twenty minutes, Daryl packed it in and decided he ought to keep watch anyway. He laid against a fallen tree branch, over thinking that moment between him and the young girl who was pretending to sleep a metre away from him. His mind was filled with the same scene, playing over and over so many times he began to question how much of it he was now fabricating.

An uncomfortable silence surrounded them, until Daryl broke the ice.

"Beth... Are you awake?".