My first try at a one-shot! Thought I'd give it a go and what better excuse than a little Christmas story.
For weeks now, all Maggie could talk about was Christmas. On runs she would get excited if they saw something – anything – that could be used as Christmas decorations. She'd moan about there not being any Christmas trees in the nearby woods, but when Tyreese had brought back a box of tinsel from a run, Beth had somewhat begrudgingly helped her sister bring festive cheer to the prison.
Carol helped some, amongst Merle's lewd comments about filling stockings, and with help from the kids Beth also created paper decorations and managed to fill the cell blocks and common areas. Since the outbreak had started she had been trying hard to keep track of the day, and whilst it wasn't always 100% accurate thanks to being on the move, her vague estimates had still managed to excite Maggie.
"Wonder just how slow walkers get in the snow?" Glenn had mused over dinner one day. It peaked the interest of Maggie, Daryl and Beth at the table.
" 'Bout winter now," grunted Daryl never looking up from his bowl. "Maybe ya'll find out."
"Only a few weeks until Christmas I think," smiled Beth. "I mean, it's really a rough guess but it's around mid-November now-"
"Why didn't you say so earlier," squealed Maggie. "It's gonna be harder getting supplies for Christmas now, so we need to try straight away…" And so it began.
Now their home looked like Santa had thrown up everywhere, no corner, nook or wall left un-decorated.
"Your first real…ish Christmas Judith," cooed Beth. She'd been a little reluctant about celebrating the holidays given their living circumstances of trying to avoid death on a daily basis, but Beth had now come around to the idea when it came to this baby girl in her arms.
"Uncle Daryl's gonna see about getting turkey, and Auntie Michonne got you-" Her sentence, and Judith's baby babbling, were cut short as they bumped into something in the doorway.
"Sorry Beth," smiled Zach. "Sorry Judy."
"Um, Judith," Beth tried to correct as kindly as possible. "Run go ok?"
"Yeah, yeah, everything's good." He continued to stand between her and the doorway with a goofy smile. "So your sister went a little crazy with the Christmas theme huh?"
"Yep," she politely, and awkwardly, smiled. "If you'll excuse me-"
"And she included mistletoe." They both looked up to see the offending object.
"You know… that's actually fake," Beth lied. "Maggie was so insistent so, just some leaves and berries." She quickly took her chance whilst Zach tried to find a response. "Excuse me."
She edged round him whilst he looked up to the hanging greenery and aimed for her cell as quickly as possible.
X-X-X
The second time it happened it was much more public, and much more embarrassing.
The prison residents were finishing up their meal when Beth noticed Zach looking at her from across the room. She averted her eyes but obviously not quickly enough, seeing how he tried to flash her a smile.
"Beth?" called Maggie. "Can you just help me with these dishes a minute?"
Maggie was trying to juggle armfuls of plates. If she wasn't so thankful for the distraction she would have laughed at the image of her sister, who would have rather mucked out the horses than help in the kitchen back at the farm, cleaning up after everyone and all with a large glob of food still stuck in her hair from Judith's projectile display during dinner.
"Why are you helping here anyway?" giggled Beth. "Our whole time here you've never done this. In fact you've been saying how there needs to be more guys helping with this stuff."
"I have no idea what you're talking about!"
"Really?" Beth grinned. "Just a few days ago you practically scared Tyreese into helping in the kitchen. Who would have thought that a guy that big could be scared by a girl."
"Well…" Maggie paused as they deposited the dishes into the kitchen and headed back to the door. "I guess I figured I should start helping inside the prison as well as outside. Plus I am leading by example."
"Hey Beth." Once again Zach managed to sneak up on her – she should really suggest he start wearing a bell around here. She didn't think she'd be more surprised if it was a walker stood in the doorway.
"Hi." This polite chit-chat was feeling more and more like déjà vu every time she saw him. He glanced at Maggie stood beside her.
"Oh I'm sorry,did you want to get in the kitchen?" Beth assumed.
"No, no," his hasty answer stopped her from moving back out the way. "Mmm, I just, uh…"
"Look at that timing," chirped Maggie. As if Beth wasn't already puzzled by Zach's incoherent talking, now she looked at her sister like she had sprouted a second head.
"Huh?"
Maggie grinned and looked upwards. Beth didn't even have to follow her gaze to understand what she was talking about. Obviously every time she'd run into Zach now – sometimes quite literally – it would be under that damn mistletoe. Just her luck she thought with a sigh.
"You two know what that means," teased Maggie. Between her giddy expression and Zach's goofy smile Beth felt like the only sane person here. How was she supposed to get out of this one? Zach was nice, from what she could tell, but they'd never spent much time together. She'd never felt that way about him, and she knew she never would. Kissing him, even innocently under the mistletoe, could give him the wrong idea.
"Beth?" interrupted Carol. She had never been so happy to see the older woman as she suddenly popped up from behind Zach. "Seems Judith's missing you. She's acting up and I know you have the magic touch."
She very willingly took the baby in question, noticing the gummy smile as Beth settled her in her arms.
"I better go get her settled for her nap," she smiled. If she was paying closer attention Beth would probably find it weird how Zach once again looked to Maggie as she passed with the gurgling baby. But in all honesty she was too busy trying to remember to thank Carol next time she saw her.
As she made her way through the common area towards the cells she caught sight of Daryl deep in conversation with Rick and Merle. His hunter senses must have kicked in, knowing he was being watched, and offered her – and most likely his favourite baby – a small upturn of his lips. The butterflies in her stomach were flitting around so much, she quickly averted her eyes and picked up her pace before people noticed the pink rising in her cheeks.
X-X-X
Daryl had been even busier than usual today. Guard duty, fence duty, hunting, these were all things he was more than willing to do. Everyone had their place here and these were the jobs for him. Simple.
But since the people of Woodbury turned up Rick's idea for a council was put in place, and it was insisted that Daryl be a part of it. Whenever there were meetings, and even informal talks in the common area, he was expected to put forward his opinion, and to put it quite simply, Daryl Dixon was not a people person. In all fairness he's found his position amongst their group from the farm, they were his family now.
Still didn't mean he liked the pressure of choosing on important decisions that affected everyone here.
He was caked in dry walker blood, tired, and aching from head to toe. Years ago he had found how at home the crossbow felt in his hands, but that didn't mean it was easy to be constantly armed and aimed. The weight and stance made his back ache and he was daydreaming about how good it would feel to have a shower under the luke-warm spray, thanks to the recent idea of heating water through a make-shift boiler system. Thank-you to whichever ex-Woodbury resident for thinking of that one!
He was heading towards the shower block when he swore he could hear Merle's voice. Was his mumbling a conversation? He tracked the noise to an office used for storage and realised instantly who he was listening to.
"What a snivelling little shit."
"Well luckily I got in there just in time," replied Carol. "And you don't have to go talking about Zach like that."
Zach? What had he gone and done?
"Like you don't agree with me." Daryl could practically hear Merle's smirk through the concrete wall.
"I didn't say that," admitted Carol. "Doesn't mean you have to go saying it quite like that though." She sighed into the silence. "But like I already said, he was obviously trying to make a move under the mistletoe. But I quickly interrupted and pretended I needed Beth's help with Judith."
Now Beth? What was happening around here today?
"Whatever the kid's playing at, we just need to make sure he stays the fuck away from blondie," continued Merle. "And figure out how she can put a smile on lil' brother's miserable face, a good-"
"Do not finish that sentence!" Carol's stern voice warned.
"Howd' ya know I wasn't gonna say good kiss?"
The silence spoke volumes, mostly that she was probably giving him that 'who you trying to kid' face, the one they all frequently used when it came to Merle.
"Whatever," he grumbled. "After we get 'em both under that mistletoe they can do whatever the fuck they want."
"I'm going to pretend you didn't just say those last words."
Merle's husky chuckle was the last thing to reach Daryl's ears as he carried on his walk to the showers.
So Carol and Merle were trying to set him up with Beth?
'Interesting…' he mused to himself.
X-X-X
Christmas was tomorrow. Or more specifically, they knew it was somewhere around the 25th already so the residents of the prison had picked tomorrow in particular to celebrate as the big day.
Beth had managed to knit Hershel a scarf (admittedly with more than one hole but to be fair she was still new to the whole knitting thing) and she'd managed to put together a makeshift scrapbook using Glenn's polaroids for Maggie.
'Speaking of Maggie' she thought, 'what was that yesterday? As if me and Zach weren't tongue-tied enough but she has to witness the whole thing. Great. Thank God for Carol. But what is it with Zach all of a sudden? We hardly talked much before a few days ago, now I'm bumping into him left, right and centre-'
Speak of the devil. Of course it was her luck that he'd be striding up towards her whilst she was thinking about him. What, had she magically summoned him?
"Hey Beth," he smiled.
"Hi Zach. Look-"
"Please just let me say something first." To be completely honest she didn't know what she was even going to say before he interrupted.
"I decided to just tell you straight," he explained. "Forget the whole mistletoe thing, and just tell you outright that I know."
"Know what?"
"Maggie told me…" Her confused face prompted him to continue. "That you like me? She said you were too shy so I should make you feel more comfortable by using mistletoe."
She continued to stare at him, at a loss for words.
"You don't know what I'm talking about do you?"
Beth shook her head no.
"Maggie made it up didn't she?"
This time her head nodded in agreement. She really needed to articulate something.
"Look I'm sorry you got caught up in this," she finally managed ot say. "But I've never said that to Maggie."
"Well, if you ever decide that she was right," smirked Zach with a wink and brushed past her out of sight.
He was either trying to flirt – and failed miserably – or he was extremely cocky. In that moment Beth couldn't care less about either scenario, she was too pre-occupied with thoughts about a certain older sister.
X-X-X
It turned out this whole revenge thing was a lot harder than she first thought. For the past hour Beth had been in her room, sitting, pacing, mumbling, trying to bounce around ideas, which is difficult to do when your cohort is a baby. But she just couldn't think of anything.
What made Maggie think she could do this to her? With Zach of all people, getting him to 'bump into her' so much. This was a conspiracy!
Her movements were interrupted by the quiet knocking of knuckles on the cell bars.
"Hey," Daryl greeted softly as he stepped around the curtain.
"Hi," she smiled.
"So uh, I never really saw the appeal of this stuff before." He pulled out a sprig of mistletoe from behind his back and shyly looked at her from under his eyelashes.
Beth quickly caught on to his train of thought and closed the distance between them, unable to stop herself from smiling against his lips. Every time they kissed, even the smallest of pecks, she could feel herself becoming that little bit light-headed.
"So what brought on this surprise," beamed Beth. "Not that I'm complaining."
"Just heard something earlier about the perks of this stuff," explained Daryl, holding up the greenery in front of their faces.
"Oh really? Because from my experience I've learnt just how irritating, and frankly how awkward, it is."
He gave her a puzzled expression.
"I've had to avoid Zach a couple times now," she clarified.
"I know." Beth opened her mouth to say something. "And I ain't mad… at you," earning a small giggle from the blonde. "I overheard Carol and Merle talking 'bout trying to set us two up and Zach getting in the way."
"Oh, well it turns out that Zach was doing that because Maggie told him I liked him – wrongly obviously" she was quick to add.
Daryl's hand at her waist slid down to squeeze her hip, whilst Beth allowed her hands to reach form his shoulders round to hold onto the hair at the back of his neck.
"So what do you think? Should we finally tell people about us?" asked Beth.
"What, and let Merle think he's right about somethin? Sets a pretty dangerous precedent don't ya think?" he joked. Once again she giggled, she loved when he did that and he loved how he was able to make her laugh.
"Maybe wait until after we've had Christmas?"
"Well in the meantime you can help me think up a plan for revenge on Maggie," this time earning a soft chuckle from him. "And how to get rid of Zach, he's driving me insane. At this rate it's all gonna blow up in one giant shitstorm."
"Cursing and talking bad bout' someone? Looks like I must be rubbing off on you girl."
Beth turned her head to look at the baby jabbering away in the playpen.
"Loks like the days are numbered on just you knowing about us, huh Ju-Ju?" As if understanding every word said by her favourite babysitter Judith gurgled a giddy laugh and offered them both a big slobbery smile.
"Merry Christmas Greene, love ya."
"Love you too Mr Dixon."
There you go - I have definitely never written the word 'mistletoe' so much in my life!
Thank you for reading x