Waaaay back in April, gagewhitney gave me a prompt on tumblr (the prompt being 'blue skies'), and I've only just managed to actually write something for it. Now I've done this, I can get back to Through the Fog :D Enjoy.
Andrea adjusted her grip on the rifle that was laid across her legs and leaned a little further back in her deck chair. It was nearing the end of her watch, and she was looking forward to being able to walk around and stretch her legs properly after being sat on top of Dale's RV for a large portion of the afternoon.
The feeling of the warm sun on her face was pleasant, so she closed her eyes and allowed herself to briefly soak up the Georgia rays. It almost felt like the world was back to normal, like she had just walked out of court after a particularly harrowing trial and sat at her favourite bench in the park across from the courthouse, like she used to do to relax. She found it comforting to be able to relive that sense of calm, something that she hadn't experienced in what felt like years.
The sense of calm was shattered, however, by the metallic ringing of the ladder rungs at the back of the RV as someone climbed them. Andrea sighed in a mixture of annoyance at having her moment of peace disturbed and relief that someone was finally coming to take over guard-duty. She smiled as a very familiar baseball cap appeared over the edge of the RVs roof, quickly followed by the smiling face of Glenn.
"Hey, Andrea." Glenn greeted her. Andrea studied him as he clambered over the edge of the roof and moved to where she was sitting. He seemed relaxed, happy; something that had been in short supply in recent months, and Andrea didn't need to ask to know the reason behind the almost ever-present smile on the young Koreans face.
"Hey. You look pleased with yourself," Glenn's eyebrows furrowed in confusion at her observation, "how's Maggie?" The teasing tone that accompanied the seemingly innocent question sent a red glow rushing to Glenn's cheeks.
"She's, uh, fine, I guess." He mumbled, relieving Andrea of the rifle in her lap. Andrea raised an eyebrow and smirked at him, chuckling when his blush deepened and he shuffled uncomfortably. Glenn held out a hand and helped Andrea out of her chair, "Go get some rest." He gave her a gentle push towards the ladder and moved towards the front of the RV, his dark eyes already scanning the paddocks and trees surrounding the farm.
Andrea spared one last glance at the young man before climbing off the RV. Rolling her shoulders to work out the kinks that had set in during the long hours of her watch. By the firepit, Shane was sat with his guns on a blanket at his feet, while Carl sat with his father and eagerly watched his hero expertly take apart and clean the firearms. She was unsurprised to see Lori and Carol hanging laundry over a makeshift line.
She turned away from the camp and wandered aimlessly until she could no longer hear the distant laughter of the other members of the group. The field she stood in was closer to the woods than what she was sure Dale would be comfortable with, and in the back of her mind, she absently wondered if, subconsciously, that was one of the reasons she had ended up there.
Glancing around her, she looked for a spot of ground that was densely grassy and looked as comfortable as any patch of solid ground could be. Once she had found a spot to her liking, she lowered herself to the ground and laid back, tucking an arm behind her head. She closed her eyes, and let the sun warm her face.
She didn't know how long she'd been asleep for when she was startled awake by the sound of something heavy dropping to the floor barely a few feet from her. In a series of fast, adrenaline-fuelled movements, Andrea was crouching with her Ladysmith aimed expertly at the source of the noise. She barely managed to register the brief expression of surprise that crossed Daryl Dixon's face as he was confronted with the barrel of her handgun before he replaced it with crooked smirk.
"Jesus Christ, Dixon!" Andrea breathed, quickly lowering the gun and putting the safety back on. Daryl quirked an eyebrow and tracked her movements with his eyes as she returned the weapon to the holster at her hip. She let her eyes linger on his dirt-streaked face for a long moment before dropping them to the buck lying at his feet, "They're going to love that."
Daryl shrugged nonchalantly, "Beats squirrel." He glanced quickly in the general direction of the camp before narrowing his eyes at her, "What're you doin' out here all by y'self?"
Andrea leaned back on her hands and stared up at the rugged southerner, "I like the quiet." She answered softly.
"Yeah well, s'not safe." He grunted, surprising her by dropping inelegantly down beside her.
Andrea rolled her eyes, "God, you sound just like Dale. I'm fine, besides, I have my gun with me." She tapped the holster confidently, which only elicited a snort of amusement and derision from Daryl.
"Whatever y'say, Blondie, hell, I jus' snuck up on you, and it weren't like I was bein' quiet neither."
"Yeah, and you nearly got your head blown off for your trouble," Andrea shot back.
Daryl shrugged, "Hell, maybe you wouldn't'a missed this time."
Andrea scoffed at him and laid back against the grass, keeping her eyes trained on his face, "It's not like I missed the last time." Her eyes widened as she was watched him copy her actions; straightening his legs and laying flat, folding his hands behind his head to prop it up slightly off the cool, hard ground.
"Yeah well, you sure as hell didn't kill me neither." Andrea was almost certain he was teasing her underneath the rebuke, but his stony face gave away nothing. She turned her face towards the blue skies and white clouds above her and watched as the fluffy masses swirled and mixed together to make new formations. Andrea smiled as an almost recognisable shape appeared in the sky above her. It had been a long time since she'd taken the time to cloud watch.
"What'chu grinnin' for, Blondie?" Andrea blushed lightly and tipped her head to look at the man beside her. She hadn't even noticed that he'd been watching her.
"Nothing, that cloud up there looks like a dog." She pointed in the general direction of said cloud and smiled shyly at him when his expression morphed from curious to bewildered.
"'Scuse me?" He glanced briefly upwards and furrowed his eyebrows when he saw nothing but basic cloud formations, "The hell you talkin' about?"
Andrea sighed and scooted a little closer to his side, being careful not to touch him. She sought out her cloud and pointed at it directly. "There, see? There's the head and ears, there's the body, and that bit's the tail." She traced the outline of it in the air with her finger as she went. When she was finished, she tilted her head to the side and blushed again; Daryl was staring at her as if she had finally lost the plot.
"Damn, Blondie, it's just a bunch o' clouds, ain't nothin' special."
Andrea frowned at him, "You never did any cloud watching when you were a kid?" she asked curiously.
Daryl's eyes widened slightly as he registered her question, "Fuck no, I ain't some kinda pansy."
Andrea smiled and nodded in understanding, "I used to do it all the time with my Dad when I was a kid, we'd go to this park and sit at the top of this big hill and see how many different things we could see in the clouds. It was fun." Her smiled turned sad at the though of her father and his and her mother's unknown fate. "When I got older I'd do it to relax, or when I just wanted some time alone."
Beside her, Daryl grunted, "That's nice, I guess." He replied unsurely. Andrea hummed in affirmation and focused her gaze on the sky again.
They laid together, watching the clouds pass them by, in a companionable silence until Andrea gestured lazily to another set of clouds. "That one looks like a rabbit."
Daryl followed the line of her finger and gazed at the supposed rabbit. He squinted and turn his head this way and that before finally turning to look at her. "That's a squirrel." He said bluntly, surprising a laugh out of the blonde woman, "What?"
Andrea forced her laughter to stop and grinned at him, "How is that a squirrel? It looks nothing like a squirrel." She giggled again when he glared at the fluffy shapes.
"Blondie, I know rabbits and I know squirrels, that ain't no rabbit." He gestured wildly in the air, and Andrea bit her lower lip hard to stop herself giggling again.
"No, no, no, that's a rabbit, look at its little tail, and the big ears!" she pointed out the features and looked at him imploringly.
"Nah, that's a squirrel," he grinned and grabbed her hand, making her extend her finger and tracing the outline of the 'squirrel'. The butterflies that suddenly made their presence in her stomach known at his touch, made her bite down on her lip again. He had a surprisingly gentle touch for someone of such an unpredictable, hot-tempered nature, and she found that she liked the roughness of callused fingers as they manipulated her more than willing hand into following his directions.
He stopped to look down at her, and Andrea thought she almost imagined hearing the small intake of breath, not that she knew who it had come from. In another life, her old life, she could honestly say that she would never have given Daryl Dixon, the rugged, dirt-streaked southerner, a second glance, but as he leaned slightly over her, she couldn't imagine anyone else looking at her the way he was at that moment, be it during her old life or her post-apocalyptic one. And when he kissed her, leaving her breathless and wanting more, she couldn't imagine anyone but him leaving her feeling that way.
She loosened her grip on his plaid shirt and lightly touched his kiss-swollen lips with the tips of her fingers, "I still say it's a rabbit."