Okay, here is the next one!

This was a prompt from anonymous on Tumblr.

Beth leaves a surprise gift in Daryl's pocket for Christmas.

The group was celebrating the holidays. Of course they had no real way of knowing what month it actually was, let alone what day. That didn't stop them from declaring this random winter day as Christmas. The house they had holed up in had a single box of decorations, and the girls had been so excited to pin up the cartoon Santa window stickers, and string the lights all over the house, even if they didn't have power to turn them on.

It was nice that they were able to find the time to pretend it was Christmas. No one had been able to go shopping, or play Secret Santa, but they had each other and that was what mattered...which was why Daryl was confused when he woke up for watch that night. He had been given the luxury of getting some shut eye in one of the rooms, so he deemed it acceptable to sleep in his worn out boxers that could hardly be called underwear at this point, sick of feeling the constant rubbing of the dirty denim on his legs while he tried to get comfortable.

Once he was out of bed, he went to go pull his pants on. When they settled on his narrow hips, he noticed a weight in his front pocket. He rarely put anything in his pockets, not like he had a wallet or anything these days, so it struck him as odd. Reaching inside, his fingers wrapped around something slightly heavy wrapped that felt like paper. Pulling it out, he saw that whatever it was, had been wrapped in newspaper. Not just plain newspaper though, it had been scribbled all over with a red marker. There was even some green string to tie it up with, a neat little bow and all.

Written in black on the red paper were a few words. To Daryl, From Santa.

'Never got nothing from Santa Claus!' The memory of his voice was harsh and he inwardly cringed.

He tore the string off with his teeth and then used his fingers to rip open the wrapping. Inside was a stone. A rock to any other person, but Daryl, it felt like home.

Beth was sitting with Daryl while he had watched. He had long since given up on trying to get her to go get some sleep, knowing how stubborn the Greene girls could be. He didn't mind her being here. He never seemed to be bothered by her presence. In fact, he felt more at peace knowing she was right by his side, after all the things he had felt while she was gone. He got the sense that Beth probably felt the same way when she was around him.

Her sweet voice broke through his thoughts. "I miss being a kid sometimes. I mean...I wouldn't want to be a child while all of this was going on, but I miss really just being a kid." He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. She wasn't even looking at him. Sometimes she would just talk, share things without even realizing what she was doing. He took some pride in that, assuming that meant she was pretty comfortable around him. "I had this doll..." Daryl chuckled. "Oh shut up. She was my favorite. I could just play with her in my room for hours. Coming up with all sorts of different scenarios for her to play out. Sometimes I would lose myself, and I'd have no idea of what was going on in the world around me." She sighed, and when she spoke again, she sounded sad. "Judith will never know what that's like...she won't ever just be able to play with dolls, without being constantly alert for impending danger."

"Just how it is now. Gotta keep safe." It bothered him too, but his words were the truth.

"You're right...it just...really sucks."

He nodded. "Yeah, it does."

"What'd you like to do as a kid?"

Daryl turned to look at her and raised his brow. Beth shared many things with him, but rarely did she ask him questions. It caught him off guard. "Not much of anything really. Not a whole lot to do." It wasn't that he didn't feel comfortable with her to share, but he really didn't know the answer to the question.

"Come on...not one thing?" She nudged her shoulder against his and he inhaled, enjoying the feel of her body touching his, even for just a second.

"Alright, there was one thing. Spent a lot of time in the woods, but you probably could have guessed that. There was this lake, real small...probably more of a pond. I found it one day out there hiking around. And then when things would get bad, I'd go back. It was the first place I ever learned how to skip a stone. Ended up doin' it all the time...got pretty good at it." He stole another glance at her and saw that she was smiling at him. "Never mind, that was stupid." His insecurity reared it's ugly head. He suddenly wished he could grab the words out of the air and shove them back down his throat.

"It's not stupid...it's real nice, Daryl." She always knew what to say, always the right thing, even something so simple. "Thanks for sharing that with me." He just shrugged in response.

In his hand was more than a rock, it was the perfect skipping stone. He discarded the paper on the floor and wrapped his fist around the smooth stone. He smiled to himself as he shoved it into his jacket pocket. He planned on keeping it there to touch whenever he pleased.

He finished getting dressed and grabbed his crossbow, making his way out to the front of the house. He relieved Glenn, and took a seat on the porch banister, leaning his back against the column. He wasn't out there for more than ten minutes when the front door opened and out came Beth. She was fully dressed, her jacket wrapped tightly around her, her pale hands gripping the fabric.

She came to sit beside him, and it felt so normal, almost a routine at this point. She wasn't ever officially assigned to watch, but she shared the duties with Daryl. He felt protected enough when she had his back.

"Did ya get it?"

"Get what?" He smirked, knowing she would not put up with him playing stupid.

"Don't do that! I happen to know that Santa brought you a gift."

He pulled the stone from his pocket. "I got it."

The beaming smile on her face made his stomach flutter. "And?"

"It's the best give I've ever gotten...probably the only real gift I've ever gotten." Once again, he spoke the truth.

"I will be sure to inform Santa that he did well."

"Yeah, you do that." She giggled at him and he was glad to see she was enjoying herself.

"Merry Christmas, Daryl." She leaned over to hug him. He inhaled the scent of her hair as his face was buried in it.

His response came out muffled, but Beth understood. "Merry Christmas, Santa."

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