Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead.
"Something about moving into an abandoned insane asylum is bad juju, Rick," Glenn said, bringing his bags in through the front entrance.
"I think it's rather fitting," Maggie shrugged. She was just pleased that they finally had a place to settle down since escaping Terminus. Though it pained them to separate from their new friends, Abraham, Rosita, and Eugene headed off to Washington while the rest of Team Prison stuck around in Georgia. Truth be told, there wasn't much choice in the matter. When Daryl told Maggie what had happened to Beth, both of them refused to leave the area until they found her. A couple of months spent dwindling about, searching for a hopeless girl in a hopeless cause, and the rest of the group grew restless. It was only luck that they happened to take refuge in an old house off the road- the very same house Beth's captor had kept her in. She said little about the events that happened, but the more Daryl thought of it, the less he wanted to know. Therefore, they made a silent agreement not to speak of the time she was away- a deal Maggie was also eager to be a part of.
There was still a shift in dynamic, as there always was when they discovered one of their own had not really been dead after all. Just as when Daryl found Carol starving in the prison, there was a joyous reunion and plenty of hugs to go around. The most notable changes, however, were not Beth's "sudden badassery" as Glenn so poetically put it, nor her change of occupation from babysitter to fighter, but rather her relationship with Daryl Dixon.
As Rick observed Daryl hand Beth his crossbow to bring inside, he wracked his brain to attempt to remember when he had ever seen them interact whatsoever before they were separated together. He came up with nothing. Though Daryl did look upset whenever she was brought up in conversation before she was found, it didn't occur to him just how close they might have gotten. Beth handled Daryl's most valuable possession as though she had held it a thousand times, and perhaps she had. As the group headed into the patients' chambers of the asylum, Beth took her things and Daryl's crossbow, found his eyes, and mouthed, "These two?" gesturing to neighboring rooms. Daryl gave her a nod. Rick rose his eyebrows at the scene, but shrugged, patting his son's back in toward the room they would share.
Once they were all moved in, the group went to explore the rest of the asylum. They cleared it of Walkers earlier, but hadn't gotten as good a look around. Maggie let out a squeal of delight as she found the kitchen.
"Beth, look! It's so nice!" Beth walked over toward her sister, feeling out the area. It was a fairly nice kitchen compared to what one would imagine an asylum's kitchen would look like. She couldn't remember the last time she cooked a meal.
"Oh it's perfect… How about Carol, Maggie, and I cook a nice meal tonight? Sort of a homecoming, you know? 'Thank God we're not on the road anymore' supper," Beth said, but she wasn't looking for an answer. She was already raiding the cupboards.
"I think that sounds quite nice," Rick said.
"Daryl?" Beth asked, her voice ringing bright. She didn't look at him, as she was busy on her hands and knees digging through the cupboards in search of canned food.
"Hmm?" he said, acknowledging her.
"Do you mind hunting us something to eat?" she said. They both knew what a favor she was doing him. He wasn't one to play house, and it had been a long while since he got a moment alone. She tore her eyes from the cupboard briefly to meet his, giving him a smile. He gave her a small one back, but still shrugged his shoulders, as though it were no favor at all.
"Sure," he said, picking up his crossbow and heading out toward the forest.
The kitchen extended off the dining area, which was being set up by the males of the group later that evening. "Why don't y'all make yourselves even a bit useful?" Maggie had said, handing them plates. Sasha clumped with them, not one for cooking. Tyrese spared a quick look outside, and let out a loud laugh, pointing to the sight in front of him: Daryl pulling in a large buck by the hooves.
"We're eating gooood tonight!" Tyrese sang out, running outside to help him bring it in. Maggie cleared off the island in the kitchen to make room for the deer. Beth warmed up her canned beans and vegetables, smiling to herself at the sight from the corner of her eye. While Carol and Maggie left the kitchen to give their thanks to Daryl, she didn't find it necessary. He wasn't one for too much attention, and he knew she was grateful already. Daryl lifted the animal onto the large counter in the center of the kitchen. The two of them stood alone in the kitchen, while everybody else spoke animatedly in the dining room just a few feet away.
"Alright, I'll clean it up," Beth said. "Thank you!"
"You?" he asked, amused. "You're gonna gut and clean this?"
"What? You don't think I can?"
"No, no it's not that. I just didn't know you were that comfortable around blood…"
"Well I did grow up on a farm, Daryl. I watched you skin a snake, didn't I?"
"Yeah, but this is different. Not so clean," he insisted. He approached her, reaching around her for a large cleaver. His hand set gently on her lower back, almost instinctually. Neither seemed bothered by the proximity. She turned her head and they found their faces just inches from each other.
"Well then teach me," she said. They were unaware of the way the room next to theirs got suddenly quiet, the inhabitants listening and watching. Rick wasn't the only one curious as to how things changed between them. Their words were teasing, almost flirtatious, and foreign to everybody who hadn't seen their journey before.
"Stubborn girl…" he muttered, taking the cleaver in one hand, her shoulder in the other, and guided her toward the buck.
"Alright, cut right there," he said, pointing to the deer while handing her the cleaver.
"Right there?" she asked.
"Mhm."
Beth, though tough, was still a bit surprised by the blood splatter. She tried to hide the disgusted look on her face, but he caught it and smirked at her.
"No, no! I can do this!" she said. He nodded with amusement, perching himself up on the counter with the deer, watching.
Beth cut deeper, and blood pooled out of the deer. She cringed.
"I'll do it, you know. You don't gotta," he said.
"I'm not scared of a little blood, Daryl," she insisted. He hopped down from the counter.
"Oh really? Not even a little?" he asked.
"Nope!" she said, her voice a little higher than usual.
Daryl took his finger and dabbed it into the cut she just made, getting the tip of his finger bloody, teasingly moving it closer and closer to her face.
"I am perfectly content, thank you," she said, crossing her arms over her chest.
"I don't get it, Greene. You've been covered in Walker blood. Even human blood. But a little deer and you're-," he said as he brought his finger dangerously close to the tip of her nose. "All squeamish."
Beth, determined to not be outdone, took her finger and repeated his motions, coating her finger in blood. Only this time, she took her finger to his cheek and put a long line of blood right across his face. She laughed at him as he wiped it off on his shirt.
"I can't believe you just did that!" he shouted, smiling. She shrugged, unable to contain her amusement. Daryl grabbed her waist with his clean hand and gave her a red nose just like Rudolph. She squealed, and ran around to the other side of the island. She dipped two fingers into the deer, running at him, just managing to get blood in his hair before he caught her wrist and pinned her arms behind her.
"No, Daryl, no no no-," she started, half-laughing half-shouting as he dipped her over the counter, her face getting closer and closer to the deer's open wound. Her face was just an inch from getting in the blood before he let her go.
"Shoulda seen your face. Priceless," he said, letting out a loud laugh and turning away from her, doubling over. Her ears perked up. It was the first time she had ever heard him laugh. It was loud, obnoxious, and conventionally annoying, but somehow music to her ears. Beth dipped her entire hand back in the blood, and jumped onto his back. She ran her blood-soaked hand through his hair, laughing harder than ever.
"Well that wasn't a serious piggy-back at all," she remarked, as she jumped off.
"I've got blood everywhere!" he shouted, running his hands through his hair as they came back red.
"Oh come on, I've seen you dirtier than this," she said.
"Yeah well back atcha. I'm gonna get you back. Just you wait," he said, rubbing the blood from his hand onto her shirt. Beth laughed harder, putting her hand on his chest to balance herself. It was only then that they grew aware of their audience. The rest of the group stood in awe of the scene in front of them, partially disturbed, partially wondering, and most of all confused.
"Well that was… gross," Glenn said, crinkling his nose.
A/N: I don't know- I liked the idea that they had gotten so comfortable that they would do something disgusting like this. And I liked the idea of the others thinking, "What the hell…" Anyways tell me what you think.