A/N: This ones for my bae Mary, a prompt request that truthfully took a hell of a lot longer than it should have.
Carl Grimes notices things, and Beth is not jealous. Or so she says.
Post-Reunion Bethyl One-Shot
"Eyes For You"
"You see that?" Carl grimes whisper shouted across the picnic table at her.
Beth rolled her eyes, not so much as lifting her gaze from the handgun she was cleaning. She loaded the clip with a sharp snap, placing the red rag she'd been cleaning it with back in the pocket of her jeans.
"See what?"
Carl looked at her with a wide eyed stare, prompting Beth to return it with one of her own. Initially, Beth figured this was one of Carl's antics to just get her to look in the other direction as some sort of game, but the look in his eyes this time made her think otherwise. She looked around to see what he was referring to, but came up empty.
"Carl," she said in an exasperated tone, rolling her eyes again, "I don't know what you're-"
"Look. Right there." He said, jabbing his slender finger in the direction just past her shoulder; just out of her eyesight. Groaning in irritation, she turned her head ever so slightly to finally see what he was getting at.
At first, she saw nothing. But then she did. Oh.
Oh.
It was only then that Beth was aware of the faint giggling of a woman. It may seem faint, judging by the distance between the woman in question and herself, but if she could hear if from this far away, Beth knew the woman was being unesecarilly loud.
Besides that, the woman in question had her hand thrown back over her shoulder, leaning in towards Daryl's ridged form and batting her eyelashes at him.
Daryl seemed reasonably uncomfortable around the woman, which made Beth's lips curl into a slight smile. However, the smile faded rather quickly when the woman placed her hand gently on Daryl's sleeveless bicep. Daryl looked down, then stepped out of her reach.
Beth's eye twitched.
She huffed and turned her attention back to the already loaded and cleaned gun, occupying her mind and hands with something other than walking over to the chick (of whom she'd saved from that damn hospital), and strangling her where she stood.
I'm not jealous. She reminded herself.
"I'm gonna go say say something."
"No you will not." Beth reprimanded at Carl, whom had already began to rise to his feet with the intention of walking over to Daryl and the woman and making a scene. He didn't argue, just simply plopped himself back down onto the bench with a disgruntled huff himself.
It wasn't a secret, but it also wasn't exactly some common known fact that Beth and Daryl were a thing. If that's even what it was considered. The group itself, the ones that were her family, had their ideas and their speculations, but nothing was ever put out there as common knowledge; At least not to the extent of, let's say, Glenn and Maggie.
But Daryl and Beth liked it that way. Preferred it that way to be honest. It was something that was natural to the both of them, like breathing had always been. In private, when it was just the two of them, it was different. But during the day, the two went about their daily lives as they always had.
And besides that, Beth never really put all that much thought into the possibility of another woman showing interest in Daryl that way. Mostly because there was nobody in their tight knit group that would. Maggie was with Glenn, Michonne was with Rick, Carl and Judith, well that was self explanatory. There was Sasha, whom was with Bob. Rosita and Abraham whom were attached at the hip, and Tara, who Beth had come to know was a lesbian.
So who'd that leave? Eugene? Well. If they were being honest with themselves, the group as a whole didn't think he was all together in the upstairs region to begin with. He was intelligent, sure. But honestly, the guy had worse social skills than Beth ever imagined anyone could.
"So you're just not going to say anything?" Carl glared at her almost as though she'd done something wrong, "You're just gonna let her touch your man like that?"
"Jesus, Carl. The hell's the matter with you?" Beth whispered through clenched teeth, hunching over the table and hoping nobody heard Carl's sudden and audible outburst.
"Nothing!" He shouted, and Beth flinched. Carl looked around to make sure that nobody was looking or listening in on their conversation, continuing in a smaller voice; "I just-That's Daryl."
"I know who he is, Carl." Beth said with frustration. All but tasting the irritation in her own voice. And truthfully, she wasn't sure if she was irritated at Carl prying, or at the giggling that continued to resound through her ears.
"I don't see what you're getting at."
"If that were me-"
"-You thinking about dating Daryl, now?"
"I would go over there and give her a piece of my mind." Carl ignored her interjection, finishing his sentence.
"And what exactly am I supposed to say?"
Carl shrugged, grabbing an orange out of a bag that Sasha and Bob had retrieved on their previous run earlier that morning, peeling the skin slowly and biting into it.
"Carl." She said, trying to get his attention away from the fruit and back to where they were in the conversation. He grinned at her, and she watched as a stream of juice trickled out of his mouth and down the side of his face. She scrunched her face at him.
"You're disgusting." She said, picking up a piece of the skin and chucking it at him, unable to stifle her laughter at just how ridiculous he looked.
He wiped his chin on his checkered sleeve; "I'm just saying. She's touching what belongs to you."
"I don't own him, Carl. He's not a dog or a house." She shook her head at the absurdity of the conversation; "Besides. Daryl's a big boy. He can handle himself."
"It's not Daryl I'm worried about." Carl grumbled, standing up and brushing off his jeans before taking off in the direction of his father.
Beth chanced a glance back over her shoulder to the scene in question and frowned. Daryl now was headed her way, shouldering his crossbow and shuffling away from the woman quickly. The woman, she noted, had a look on her face that Beth knew immediately. Mostly because she'd had that same look herself. Only when she was looking at one person in particular.
That made her blood start to sear in her veins.
"Hey."
"Hey yourself."
Beth wanted to smack herself for making her disdain so apparent. The tone of her voice practically spelled out her anger without having to say much of anything at all. And of course, as with just about anything, Daryl noticed.
Daryl sat down on the bench, placing his crossbow down on the table in front of him; "Ya alright?"
"'M fine."
"Don't sound fine." He replied. Beth glanced over to see the skeptical look in Daryl's eye, eyebrow cocked at that damn smirk on his face as he always had, grabbing an orange from the basket just as Carl had done moments ago and peeling it in the same manner:
"Well I am. Why do you ask?"
That earned an even more pronounced brow raise from the hunter, seeming to let it go though, he turned his attention back to the orange in his hands.
"Gonna go on a run tomorrow." He grumbled, flicking the peels of the orange to the top of the moldy picnic table.
"Where are we going?"
"We," Daryl over annunciated the word with a pointed look, "ain't goin' nowhere. Rick's comin'. Probably be best that ya stay here with Jude."
"That's it?" Beth asked, a little miffed. "Just you 'n rick?"
"Nah." His voice muffled by a slice of the fruit in his mouth, "Bringin' what's her name." Daryl jerked his thumb over his shoulder back in the direction he'd been standing in before, "Ty 'n Sasha too."
Beth was unable to resist the roll of her eyes and the scoff that came bubbling out of her throat unwillingly. Truth be told, she'd rolled her eyes so hard she was surprised they didn't completely go into the back of her head.
"Heather." Beth corrected, unable to mask the obvious annoyance that poured out of her voice.
"Hm?"
"Heather. Her names Heather."
"Right." Daryl said, and Beth finally looked over to see a glint of amusement in his eyes. And didn't that just aggravate her even more.
Beth huffed again, lifting the gun into her hands and pulling that rag back out of her pocket. She had to keep her eyes and hands focused on something because now she felt like she was going to strangle Daryl. Strangle Daryl, then go find Heather and give her a piece of her mind. Or strangle her too. She wasn't exactly sure.
She figured her movements must have been jerky and angry, because Daryl reached over and stilled both of her small hands with his much larger one.
"Alright," he said sighing loudly, "the hell's wrong with you?"
"Nothing."
"Don't lie to me, Greene. Y'aint no good at it."
Beth rolled her eyes again, not daring to look over at him again because she knew her face would probably falter and give everything she was feeling away. "I'm fine, Daryl. Really."
Beth looked up just in time to catch the Heather chick walking past the table, sending Beth a small wave, to which Beth squinted her eyes. Watching as Heather walked towards the fire pit, flaunting her hips back and forth. Beth snorted.
Because she wasn't looking at his face, she didn't get to see the sly smile that crept onto Daryl's face as he watched the exchange, and the way Beth's face has scrunched up and twisted as the one chick in question walked by. Daryl knew exactly what was going on, and he'd be lying if he said he wasn't slightly amused.
"Beth." He said, getting her attention as she flicked her eyes over to meet his. She could practically feel the jealousy running through the blood in her veins, but she was wildly unprepared for the smug and amused look on his face.
"What?" She said, her tone completely betraying her and making her sound just as annoyed and pissed off as she truly was inside.
"Ain't no need to be jealous, that girl is just a little overly friendly."
Beth scoffed, "Jealous? I'm not jealous."
"Yeah, ya are."
"Am not."
"Are too.
"Am not!" She practically screeched, looking around warily and realizing that all eyes on the camp were suddenly on her. She wanted to curl up and disappear.
Daryl tentatively reached over, slinging his arm around Beth's shoulder and pulled her closer to him, ignoring the little and pretty cute disgruntled huff that came out of her as he did so. He leaned down a little bit, pressing his mouth close to her ear.
"I only got eyes for one girl, ya oughta know that by now."
"That so?" She grumbled back, melting into the warmth of his body against her own will.
"Mhm." He said, and to her surprise, Daryl pressed his lips to the side of her temple gently. It was likely the first public display of affection that they'd shown to anyone in their tight knit group. "Whattya say we get outta here an' go huntin'. Ya could use the extra trainin' ya know. Ain't got shit else to do around here."
"Daryl Dixon," Beth said, lifting her face away from its spot on his chest to meet his eyes with her own, "if I didn't know any better, I'd think you were asking me on a date."
"I reckon I am." He said, standing up and pulling Beth right along with him.
Beth smiled and walked next to him as they made their way out into the Georgia woods; One hand holding the crossbow, and the other clasped tightly into his own.