Disclaimer: I own nothing from The Walking Dead.
Prompt by bexisthewalkingcaryl (TheWalkingCaryl)
Sophia's First Date
"She ain't old enough," Daryl grumbled, fiddling with a piece of stick he'd been whittling earlier. Now it was just a pointed, splintered piece of wood with no use except as kindling.
"How old were you when you went on your first date?" Carol asked, raising an eyebrow as she sat on porch swing with a sleeping baby boy in her arms.
"Define date," Daryl replied, eyeing her through his shaggy hair. Carol smirked at him.
"For little ears' sakes," she said, nodding to their four-year-old daughter sitting next to Carol on the swing brushing her dolly's hair, "let's say dinner and a movie."
"I dunno. Seventeen?" Daryl replied.
"Liar," Carol snorted.
"Fine. Fifteen."
"And she's seventeen. I was fourteen. Pizza and soda. And some god-awful movie I can't even remember the name of."
"Your parents were ok with that?" Daryl balked.
"My parents didn't know about that," Carol teased. "They thought I was studying at my friend's house."
"You lied to 'em?" he asked. "Shit, don't be tellin' Sophia that. Don't be puttin' no ideas in her head." Carol grinned at that, standing up, cradling the baby close.
"Well, here she comes now," Carol said with a shrug. "You're her father. If you want to break her heart, you're going to have to do that all by yourself." Daryl glared at his wife. "What? You know Carl! He's a good kid."
"Don't trust him."
"You've known him since he was twelve. You've saved his life how many times? You know him."
"He's a sixteen-year-old boy. Don't trust him." Daryl tossed the piece of stick away, as Carol turned to head into the house.
"Daddy? Can I go on a date?" Four-year-old Sarah asked with a grin, batting her big, blue eyes at him.
"Not 'til you're forty, darlin'," Daryl replied, kissing her on the top of the head. "Go inside and help yer mama with your brother."
"Ok, daddy," she replied, putting her doll aside, hopping off the porch swing and hurrying into the house. Sophia came walking up the steps, a scowl on her face.
"Soph? You ok?"
"I hate men!" she yelled, storming up to the front door.
"Whoa. Hey!" he hollered, standing up and putting his hand on the door, stopping her. "What happened? That Grimes kid do somethin'?"
"It's what he didn't do!" she seethed, cheeks burning red.
"Well if he didn't do somethin', that makes me like him a little better."
"Daddy!" Sophia groaned, rolling her eyes. "He…ugh. Where's Mom?"
"Inside," he said with a nod toward the house. "But she's got the little'uns. You sure you don't wanna talk to me?"
"Not really. You're friends with Rick, so it'll get back to Carl."
"I'm your dad. Ain't gonna tell nobody nothin', unless that little shit put his hands on you. Then he's gonna have to deal with me."
"Daddy, he didn't," Sophia promised. That was when a look of horror crossed her face, and she turned toward the house.
"What?"
"He's coming! Let me go. I don't want to talk to him." Daryl nodded, taking his hand off the door and letting Sophia take refuge inside. He turned to see Carl Grimes taking long strides, Sheriff's hat tipped to one side as he rushed up the steps of the Dixon home.
"I have to talk to her," Carl insisted.
"You ain't doin' nothin' 'til you explain why my kid's so damned upset," Daryl pointed out, poking Carl in the shoulder with one strong index finger. Carl took a step back.
"I didn't do anything," Carl insisted. "And that might be the problem." Carl groaned, taking his hat off and sitting down on the porch swing. "How the hell do you talk to women?"
"Why you askin' me?"
"Well, you're married. You have two kids with Carol. You're raising her daughter. I mean, you had to have talked to her sometime."
"Carol and me? That took time. You're just a kid. You ain't s'posed to know how to talk to women."
"So you don't know either?"
"Not a damned clue. Guess I'm just lucky Carol made the first move." He smirked at the younger boy who looked absolutely devastated. "Why ain't you talkin' to your dad about this?"
"Because he's too busy being Sheriff Grimes and making sure Judith stays out of trouble. You know, you named her right when you called her Asskicker. She plays rough." Carl slumped in the swing. "Is she really mad?"
"She said she hates men."
"Well, that sucks," Carl replied with a sigh.
"So what is it you didn't do?"
"Huh?"
"She said ya didn't do somethin', and it's what got her so mad. What didn't ya do?"
"Oh," Carl muttered. "Look, it was after school. Some of the kids were gonna go try and hop the wall. I told them it was stupid, because it's dangerous, and they all know what's out there. If it's not walkers, it's wild animals or the few Wolves that're still camping out in the woods . Then Enid walks over. She bats her eyelashes at me and says she wants me to come. I didn't see Sophia coming over, but I think she did, so she leaned in and kissed me."
"Ok, so what's the problem? You kiss her back or somethin'?"
"I don't know. I just…I froze. And when Enid pulled away, she looked over my shoulder. I turned around, and there was Sophia. I went after her, but she ran, and she came home." He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know what to do."
"You didn't stop her," Daryl finally decided.
"Who? Sophia?"
"No. The other girl."
"Enid?"
"Boy, you're tellin' me you don't know why Sophia's so upset? That girl kissed you, and you just stood there. Ya didn't tell her you liked Sophia? You didn't tell her to stop?"
"I didn't know what to do. Nobody's ever kissed me before." And there it was.
"So your first kiss was some girl you don't even like, and Sophia's still waitin' on hers. Or at least she better be." He glared at the front door. Carl's face went pale.
"Oh," he said slowly. "Oh!" Realization hit him. "I'm so stupid. I gotta talk to her. I gotta make it right."
"You run on home. When Sophia gets calmed down, I'll tell her you wanna talk to her. You just go on. She sees you're still here talkin' to me, and you know she ain't gonna listen."
"Alright," Carl replied with a sigh. "Just…tell her I'm sorry, alright."
"That ain't for me to do, Grimes," Daryl said with a shake of his head. "Now go on." Carl nodded, heading off down the porch steps. Daryl shook his head, chuckling to himself as he headed into the house. Carol was standing at the edge of the stairs then, staring up and shaking her head.
"What's wrong with her?" she asked. "By the time she came in, I couldn't understand a word through all the crying."
"Carl messed up. One of the other girls kissed him."
"And he was supposed to be her first kiss," Carol said with a nod, sucking her teeth for a second, shaking her head.
"How'd you know?"
"She told me last night. She thought that on her first date, she'd get her first kiss, and it would be his first kiss, and it would be magical." She shrugged her shoulders. "I should go talk to her."
"Let me go."
"What?" Carol asked with an amused grin. "I hate to break it to you, Pookie, but you do remember when we talked about our feelings, don't you?"
"No," he muttered.
"Exactly, because you couldn't get the words out."
"You did plenty of talkin' for the both of us," he teased.
"Exactly. I'll talk to her."
"I'm serious. I can do it," Daryl said with a shrug. "I'm her dad, ain't I?" It was true. He and Sophia had formed a very tight bond after Ed's death. She'd gone missing in the woods for almost a week, and Daryl had been the one to find her and bring her back. It hadn't taken long for Sophia to look up to him as a father figure, and somewhere down the line, sometime after he and Carol had finally faced their feelings and taken their relationship to the next level, Sophia had started calling him daddy. It was natural as the rain or the wind in the leaves. She was his daughter, and he was her dad. Nobody questioned it, and that was just the way it was.
"Alright, Dad. Go on and see what magic you can work." Carol gave him a little swat on the behind, and he stumbled up the first step.
"You're gonna pay for that one," he pointed out.
"Hope so," she said with a wink, heading off toward the kitchen, leaving Daryl to his fatherly duties. She busied herself in the kitchen, staring out into the back yard that met with the back yard of Rick Grimes' house. She could see Carl sitting out on the porch watching their house, and she shook her head, smiling to herself. In some ways, she was reminded of Daryl in the days before he finally mustered up the courage to kiss her and make his feelings known. He'd never been a man of words. He'd been a man of action, and boy had he taken action.
She shivered when she remembered the first time his lips met hers, the way the stubble on his chin was rough against her cheek, the way his hand threaded through her hair, pulling her in, the way his tongue slid over hers. She smiled, and her skin warmed at the memory. That had been almost five years ago, about a week after Daryl had found Sophia in the woods. It hadn't been much longer after that that Carol had gotten pregnant with Sarah.
To say she'd been happy with the pregnancy would have been a lie. Both of them had been terrified and feeling guilty for the pregnancy, because neither of them had wanted to bring a child into that kind of life. But it had happened, and they'd dealt with it, and thankfully, they'd found the safe zone before Sarah's birth, and she'd never had to know what life outside the walls were like. God willing, she never would. There had been threats to their safety, of course, but it hadn't been anything they couldn't handle or overcome. Life in the safe zone for the past three years had been quiet. It almost resembled the way things were before, except for the large, steel walls surrounding the community and the fact that most of their food consisted of home grown vegetables and personally raised livestock from the little farm they'd set up at the edge of town. It worked for the group, and survivors trickled in maybe once or twice a year. The outside world belonged to the walkers.
She was distracted from her thoughts by a pair of strong arms encircling her waist. She smiled when she felt his lips against her neck.
"How'd it go?" she asked.
"You tell me," he said, nodding toward the Grimes' backyard, which Sophia was now running toward. Carl stood up on the porch, half in shock, half in anticipation, holding his hat in his hands.
"What'd you say to her?" Carol asked, gasping softly as she watched her daughter throw her arms around the boy's neck.
"Told her that not all first kisses are what they should be. Told her that sometimes people gotta make a few mistakes 'fore they get things right." Carol smiled, leaning back against his chest and gently rubbing her hand over his arms that were lovingly cradling her around the ribs. "Told her that kid's only got eyes for her, and she'd be throwin' away a good thing if she don't see that."
"That's sweet," Carol said softly. Just as Carl was about to kiss Sophia, Carol turned in Daryl's arms, drawing his gaze down to hers. "We shouldn't be staring. Let's go find something else to do and leave them be."
"They'll be gone a while. Told Soph she could have that first date, after all."
"You big softie," Carol giggled, kissing her husband lovingly.
"Hey now, I got a reputation to protect, ya know?" he insisted with a smirk. "Sent her out there with my buck knife in case he tries to get fresh."
"Daryl Dixon!" Carol laughed. She nuzzled his nose with her own, pressing her lips against his. Then she pulled away, taking his hand in hers, leading him out of the kitchen.
"Where we goin'?"
"Upstairs. Kids are napping. I thought maybe you might wanna try to get fresh with me." She wiggled her eyebrows at him then, and then let go of his hand, hurrying up the stairs. Daryl considered the idea for about half a second before hurrying up the stairs in full pursuit of his wife.