Daryl woke to the feeling of something poking his cheekbone repeatedly. He reached out and swatted at the rude awakening, only to get a small laugh and continued poking in return. He cracked an eye open and saw that the offensive object was a finger. He turned to his side and saw that he was in his room on the bed, he didn't remember falling asleep. Carl stood before him with a small smile and Judith on his hip.
"Carol's making breakfast, she told me to wake you up," he looked around Daryl's room as he relayed his message and sat down on the bed next to Daryl's legs. Daryl pressed an arm over his eyes and tried to ignore the light pouring through the window now that he was awake. Maybe he could fall back asleep and not wake up for a few days. The sudden familiar weight of Judith crawling on top of him prevented him from doing just that. "You can feed Judith if you want, she hasn't eaten yet." Daryl cradled the small girl to his chest as he sat up and nudged Carl up with his leg. Judith gave a little squeal of delight when he stood up and brought her closer to press a raspberry to her cheek. He gave a narrowed look to Carl as she patted his face.
"More like she wouldn't eat and now I have ta do it," that's been a new thing. Lately she'd only eat when Daryl or Rick fed her.
Everyone had thought it was absolutely hilarious when Michonne had tried to feed her a while back and Judith had scrunched up her face and cried the most pathetic crocodile tears he'd ever seen. Michonne had been startled and tried to calm her down before any walkers passing by could hear.
She stopped immediately only to start up again as Michonne tried a second time. She passed her to Maggie who tried and failed, who passed her to Glenn much with the same results. Glenn passed her to Daryl as a joke, who had no problem getting her to down her lunch. Glenn had thrown his hands in the air with a bewildered "Really!" only to have everyone in camp laughing and telling him to keep it down.
Daryl had felt a twinge of pride and fondness for a brief moment, and only a brief moment. Almost immediately after the feeding fiasco happened a third time later that night everyone jokingly started calling Daryl 'Judith's other dad', including Rick, that traitor. It was like they got off on his mortification, the sick bastards.
Carl shrugged as if if to say 'what do you want me to do about it' and walked out the room. Daryl following close behind lightly combing Judith's hair to the side, out of her face. She grabbed his fingers in retaliation and he let her drag them down to her mouth where she chewed on one of them a little. Actually, even though she had a mouth full of teeth now Daryl wasn't sure it qualified as chewing as much as it did just drooling. Carl made a beeline for his own sanctuary upstairs, as Daryl followed the smell of food through the first floor.
Once in the kitchen Daryl found Judith's food on the counter. Glenn and Michonne sat close by giving mischievous smiles. Daryl sat the little girl on the counter and started to feed her little spoons of mashed peas, all the while glaring at his two friends.
"Fuckin' traitors" he grumbled as he brought his attention back to Judith.
"Hey, I tried. She just wasn't having it" Michonne said as she ate her own breakfast a smirk growing bigger. "I hear you got some new clothes." She made a point of looking over his still ratty clothes and raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah."
"There a reason you still got those on"
"t' spite Maggie" he shrugged. He wasn't really sure what else to say. How do you tell people it seems weird to be wearing new, clean clothes. It shouldn't be weird, he should want to have new clothes. He was always happy to get them when they were out on the road. Now though, it seemed wrong, the clothes were too nice.
"Hey! That's my wife you're talking about man." Glenn held a hand over his mouth to cover up the food he was chewing, once he swallowed he gave Daryl a kind smile. "She told me all about the trip you guys took to the pantry yesterday. Thanks for that, I know that was probably the last thing you wanted to do. I think she's getting a little stir crazy, she needed something to do."
"She ain't the only one." Daryl muttered as he looked around the kitchen. "where is everyone? Thought Carl said Carol was making food," they seemed to be the only people in the house. Glenn snorted.
"Is that what he told you to get you up?" Daryl glared at the ceiling hoping Carl could feel it all the way in the attic. Glenn laughed a little. "Sorry man. Carol's out being all neighborly, making friends," Glenn made air quotes around 'making friends'. "Maggie, Tara, Noah, Eugene and Rosita are playing monopoly next door, which is why I left. I think Sasha's trying to find out about doing target practice, Abe and Rick went to meet with Deanna." Daryl nodded. Glenn hadn't mentioned the priest, couldn't really blame him though, none of them were really close to him. "Michonne and I are going to take Carl and Jude down to that pond they have. Swim a little, the town people said it would be okay. Want to come with?"
"Think I'll stay here." Daryl threw the spoon he'd been feeding Judith with into the sink when she finished her food, and rummaged through the cabinets for his own meal. He could hear Glenn talking to the little girl about their big plans for the day only to get little laughs in reply. Everyone was just waiting for the day she'd start talking back.
"I guess it's just too close to taking a bath, huh?" He could hear the smile without having to see Michonne's face. He pulled out some stale cereal, and turned toward her, with his own small, sarcastic smile.
"Can't have people getting the wrong idea now." Michonne and Glenn laughed as Carl came stomping down the stairs with a couple towels. Daryl threw a piece of his cereal at the boy for his previous deception, "ya punk." Carl just laughed a little and tried to rush his swimming companions out the door. It was nice to see Carl happy like this, he got to be a kid again, at least for a little while. He and Michonne were already out the door with Judith, talking excitedly about water games they liked best before the turn. Glenn stayed back a little and was looking at Daryl.
"Sure you don't want to come?" Daryl snorted.
"Yeah, I'll probably sleep some more or read something," he waved half half-heartedly at the bookshelf he could see across the way. Glenn nodded.
"Okay. Probably for the best, just in case Tara loses that game," he pointed in the direction of the other house. "she wasn't winning when I left. You know how serious she can get about games, she might burn the house down in retaliation if she loses." Daryl scoffed at that. He once played a game of cards with Tara and Abe and had been slightly alarmed at her competitiveness. He had thought Abe would be the sore loser, but they had both been momentarily shocked by the words that came out of her mouth when she lost. Now it was just funny.
"Not promising anything'" Glenn laughed and clapped his hand down on Daryl's shoulder before leaving him alone in the house.
An couple hours later Daryl found himself engrossed in a book Carol had left on the coffee table for him. It was relaxing, but apparently too relaxing because he almost feel off the couch when someone knocked on the door. He frowned at the door, if it had been his family they would have just walked in, which meant it was one of the people from the town. If he ignored it they would eventually go away. Except they knocked again. Fuck.
He glared at the door and made his way over, opening the door just a crack, glaring at whoever was on the other side of the barrier, it was Aaron. He sighed and opened the door wider offering the man entrance into the house. He liked Aaron, he didn't know what it was about the man that he liked but he felt comfortable around him.
"Oh no, that's okay" Aaron said as he stayed where he was on the porch. "I was actually just wondering if you wouldn't mind helping Eric and I with a building project back at our place. Rosita mentioned you were quite the handy man." He shifted a little under Daryl's steady gaze, he looked nervous maybe. "If you're busy I unde-"
"Sure" Daryl cut him off. Aaron looks surprised, he can't blame him, he's surprised at himself.
"Thanks. Our house is just down the road." He already knew that, Aaron had pointed it out to all of them when they had first gotten there in case they needed anything. Daryl cringed at the people who turned to look at him as they made their way down the street, Aaron going on about something. They were trying to be discrete, but Daryl was much too observant to miss they turned away fast when he looked their way, maybe he was just being paranoid.
He walked a little faster, Aaron also picking up the speed and opening the side door to his house for Daryl. They had a nice little house. It was cozy, not as barren as the house he was currently staying in. Eric popped up around the corner when he heard them.
"Oh thank God, we have no idea what we're doing." He sounded so exasperated and defeated Daryl had to bite his lip from smiling at the other mans pain. He tensed as Eric grabbed his arm and pulled him further into the house, Aaron following. He was herded upstairs to what looked to be their bedroom. On the ground was a pile of polished wood and some tools. "It's supposed to be a desk." He hands Daryl a set of directions that showed how to put it together.
"Don't be fooled, it's not as easy as the directions make it look" Aaron quipped, looking over his shoulder. He snorted and got to work sorting through the pieces on the floor. Aaron joined him on the floor as his boyfriend left the room saying something about getting some snacks.
After much debating, swearing and bickering, they finally got all the pieces together to resemble the picture on the front of the directions. They sat against the wall looking at the finished product, as they ate some of the crackers and iced tea that Eric had brought up. Daryl inspected the few random screws and planks of wood by the foot of the bed.
"Why are there extra pieces?"
"Shhh" Aaron bumped their shoulders together. "We're not talking about it, it's fine." He got up and kicked them under the bed, making his way over to their masterpiece, "Help me move it?" Daryl's muscles ached as he eased himself up, if this had been a fight he's pretty sure the desk won. They made their way down to the dining room when they were finished. Eric had set the table for three, Daryl noticed. He shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other.
"Hope you're hungry, I made a lot, you boys deserve it" Eric called from the kitchen. Daryl sat awkwardly at the table as Aaron went to help his boyfriend. Eric made him dinner, well, Aaron and him. It was weird. Why was everything weird for him all of a sudden? The house, the clothes, the hospitality, how at ease he was with Aaron and Eric, but not the rest of the people in the town.
Once they brought the food to the table they all helped them selves and Eric went on and on about who annoyed him the most and what he heard the neighbors saying about him and Aaron.
"Anyway, how about you Daryl, how have you been doing since getting to Alexandria? I know it can't be easy, I've heard some of the stuff that people are saying when your family isn't around. You're kind of the topic of conversation, and not really the good kind."
Daryl stared at Eric as he talked, quickly forgetting his food. He looked to his side at Aaron who looked slightly mortified that Eric had said that.
"I kind of thought I was imagining that, jus' being paranoid." Daryl said slowly.
"Ignore them," Eric huffed as he stabbed some of the carrots on his plate with vigor. " they're kind of assholes, sometimes. They used to go on and on about Aaron and I, still do actually. They don't know what they're talking about."
Daryl nodded slowly as he pushed the food around on his plate. Now he got why he felt comfortable with these two. They knew what it was like to be different and get judged for it.
"We just wanted to you to know you're welcome here anytime," Aaron said as he gave Daryl a small smile, "that might just make them talk more though, coming over here."
"Fuck 'em" Daryl said, Eric laughed and raised his glass to him before he looked over at Aaron. They seemed to be having a silent conversation between themselves.
"If you want to get out of town, which you seem like you do, I was thinking you could help me recruit, now that Eric's out of commission." Aaron finally spoke up. "I'd like to have you with me, you know what you're doing out there," he stated.
"Sure." The word left his mouth before he could even bother to think about what that meant for him, his family. Rick was going to be pissed that he didn't talk to him first, but he found he didn't care much. He just needed out, and this was it. Aaron was nice enough, he wouldn't mind having him around outside the walls, he was reliable, from what he'd seen. He didn't see a reason not to trust him.
"Great" Aaron beamed, "I'll talk to Deanna tomorrow and get it all approved with her." Daryl nodded absent-minded. Later that night, after he's finished eating and he's walking back toward his own house he notices that no ones out on the street, he's the only one. It's late, maybe midnight, but he knows Rick's probably waiting up for him.
He thinks about what Eric had said. 'You're kind of the topic of conversation, and not really the good kind.' Fuck 'em, he'd said.
They don't know shit. He thought.
That was the funny thing though, when ever he saw someone looking at him or caught someone whispering about him, it felt like they did know. It felt like they knew him better then he knew himself. It felt like it was only a matter of time before his family saw the same thing they were seeing. When they did they wouldn't want him around anymore. That thought hit Daryl hard, like a punch to his chest, he had to stop as he realized breathing was getting harder. He made his way over to a tree and slid down it. His breath catching more easily now and his vision blurring.
Fuck. Get it together Dixon.
