As it turned out, Daryl Dixon didn't eat.
Or at least, that's what Amity had assumed upon wandering into his kitchen and snooping through his cabinets to find that most of them were empty aside from a few random cans with old peeling labels.
"So, you're a take-out kind of man, I'm going to assume." She commented, closing the fourth cabinet she had pulled open just to frown at the bare bones inside of it.
The original plan had been to start fixing some semblance of dinner as a bit of a thank you to her host, but she was finding that to not be possible with the ingredients he had on hand.
"Ya always this nosy?" A gruff voice asked from behind her, startling Amity as she whipped her head around to see that Daryl was only standing a step or two behind her.
She had thought he was in the living room and hadn't heard him enter the kitchen.
"Are you always that sneaky?" She asked in return, a hand pressing against her chest as she willed her heart to slow back to a normal pace after the small startle he had given her.
"Ain't sneakin', you're just not that observant," Daryl told her and if Amity hadn't known better, she would have sworn that the corner of his lips had twitched up into a bit of a smirk.
"I didn't know I had to be on edge about random mechanics sneaking up on me." She retorted, barely suppressing the urge to stick her tongue out at the man.
"Random? It's my damn house, woman." Daryl reminded her and the redhead shrugged.
"Fair point." She conceded, turning back to the empty cabinets. "But really, Daryl. Here I am, trying to be nice and make you dinner and you have nothing to work with."
Shaking her head, Amity pursed her lips and turned to look at the man, finding that he was staring at her with eyes slightly wider than normal.
It appeared that she had caught him off guard with what she had said.
Smiling a bit to herself, Amity thought fast before the man converted his shock into grumbly defensiveness and moved to walk past him.
"Grab your keys, Toretto. I need to buy some groceries." She chirped over her shoulder as she collected her purse and hunted down her shoes.
She heard a scoff of disdain from behind her then a pause as she slid her feet into her shoes.
"Toretto?" Daryl questioned, echoing Amity's nickname for him back to her.
She turned around to look at him with a confusion that soon morphed into disbelief.
"Toretto. Like, Dom Toretto. Fast and Furious." She clarified but was quickly catching on to the fact that he had no idea what she was talking about.
"I'm in your house currently, Daryl, so I know you couldn't have been living under a rock all this time." Amity sighed, shaking her head, but smiled when the man came over to her with his keys obviously in his hands.
"Ain't never seen those." He told her, confirming her suspicions, but the woman was perturbed. She already added on to her current game plan.
"I'll just have to browse the DVD section of the store then. You're a mechanic, you'll like the movies, I'm sure." She said, leading the way out the door and to his truck.
She heard Daryl grumbling to himself behind her but couldn't quite pick-out what he was on about aside from a few choice words.
"-like a damn puppy-"
Choosing to let him talk to himself if he so pleased, Amity hopped up into the gray truck and closed the door behind her, waiting for Daryl to join her.
"So, when's the last time you went grocery shopping for yourself?" Amity asked, her tone teasing.
"Shuddup," Daryl replied flatly in return.
The drive to the local supermarket was a longer one than from Daryl's work and as they parked, Amity could practically feel the tension rolling off of Daryl's shoulders.
"Problem, Dixon?" She asked, looking at him curiously but he didn't return her gaze.
"I don't come 'round here a lot." He replied and Amity nodded slowly, still confused.
"I gathered that by your empty cabinets." She said, but he shook his head.
"No, I don't come out 'round here because... ya know what, whatever, just forget it!" Daryl snapped and with that, he was making a swift exit from the vehicle, closing the door rather roughly behind him.
Amity was confused, but not off-put. She had gathered by now that Daryl's bark was worse than his bite ( at least seemingly when faced with her ) and that it was more of a defense mechanism when he was uncomfortable than it being brought out of actual anger or annoyance.
With a sigh, the woman pushed open the door of the truck and followed after the grumbling older man who was heading for the front entrance of the grocery store.
She noticed a couple of patron's eyes widening at the sight of his approach while they passed them on the way to the parking lot. She couldn't be sure if it was due to knowing the man or simply the presence of the angry scowl that was decorating his face.
Either way, Amity met their looks with a kind smile as she hurried to join his side.
Without pointing out the obvious displeasure that he was presenting at their outing, Amity was determined to have a successful shopping trip.
Moving through the automatic doors, the woman went to grab a shopping cart. She tugged it out of its line with the others and moved to push it but was stopped by two larger rougher hands gently moving hers away and taking their place.
Amity's confusion lasted only a moment before she was smiling softly up at Daryl, fighting off the heat that threatened to rise in her cheeks at his rather chivalrous gesture.
It seemed that he was grumbly, sure, but still more than a willing participant in their outing as he began to push the cart through the store at her side.
"Okay, Daryl- what do you fancy for dinner?" She asked the man as they moved through the produce aisle, her hands hovering over zucchini and squash.
"Not that." The mechanic stated, his gruff tone doing nothing to stop her amused chuckle at his obvious dislike of the vegetables.
"Then I need some input, Cowboy."
As Daryl considered her request, Amity moved off to grab herself a juice and a snack pack of grapes from the refrigerated shelves then returned to his side, placing her wares gently in the metal cart.
"I like most things," Daryl said, his voice soft in a way that kept Amity from pointing out just how unhelpful his statement was to her cause.
"How about some fried chicken? Mashed potatoes and peas?" She offered.
The man seemed to consider her words before nodding.
"No peas though." He stated.
"Corn?" She countered.
"You got a deal."
In all honesty, Daryl would have been happy with whatever the woman had decided to make them. He was still confused over why she felt like cooking for him anyway, but though he didn't know much he knew enough to never turn down the offer of a homecooked meal.
Laughing lightly at their bartering, Amity quickly led the pair through the shop.
She felt eyes on her back all the while and the covered whispers that sounded around them had her forcing herself not to bristle.
Daryl was doing enough of that for the both of them.
The man's blue eyes were narrowed, casting a glare around the store at anyone who bothered to so much as glance their way.
"The last thing we need is the chicken," Amity informed her shopping companion, walking at the front of the cart as they turned out of their current aisle.
As she finished her statement, the redhead found herself knocking gently into a chest and hands were quickly at her elbows to steady her.
Looking up slightly, Amity found the dark eyes of a man who looked momentarily stunned before offering her a beaming smile.
"Sorry about that. I promise I wasn't trying to bulldoze you over. You okay?" He asked kindly.
Finding her head, Amity smiled before taking a step back from the stranger while nodding.
"I'm fine and I'm sorry too. I wasn't looking where I was going." She apologized, looking at the man who seemed more than ready to wave off her apology until another figure appeared at his back and distracted them both.
"Oh, uh, Leta Hollingsworth." The familiar man said and Amity nearly laughed.
"That's me," Amity confirmed with a chuckle, recognizing that the man had listed the book she bought off of him earlier rather than having mistaken her name.
"'s not." A gruff voice said from behind her and Amity looked over her shoulder to spot Daryl eyeing the trio with something akin to irritation.
She immediately offered him an apologetic smile for leaving him momentarily out of the loop. She understood how that could be frustrating.
"No, I'm Amity, but Leta Hollingsworth is the psychologist that the book I bought off of Jared here earlier was about." She quickly explained, gesturing to the red-haired man who had turned up after the dark-haired man had bumped into her.
Now turning her attention to said man once more, Amity's brow furrowed slightly.
"And this is..." She began.
"Cameron, my brother." Jared filled in her silence with a smile.
"Cameron," Amity confirmed the name with a smile at both of the brothers. "Nice to see you again, Jared- it really is a small town, and it's nice to meet you, Cameron. This is-"
She had begun to turn to gesture at Daryl who had now taken a few steps forward to be more at her side, but Cameron spoke before she could introduce the man.
"Daryl Dixon." He said with a nod in the mechanic's direction.
It was a gesture that wasn't returned though Daryl grunted out a noise of acknowledgment.
"We all went to school together. Different years." Jared explained as he caught Amity's confused look.
"Like you said, it's a small town," Cameron added with a chuckle.
"Chicken," Daryl growled out suddenly as he eyed Cameron, the word serving as a sudden reminded to Amity about the task at hand though Cameron had looked momentarily offended.
"Oh right!" She exclaimed before looking at the two men in front of her.
"Again, it was nice to see you again, Jared and to meet you, Cameron, but we really need to get the rest of the stuff for dinner tonight." She excused them both with a friendly smile, ignoring the apparent surprise that the two brothers expressed at her words.
"Oh, of course. It was nice meeting you as well, Amity. Do you plan on being in town long?" Cameron asked, his tone warm.
Amity wasn't sure how to answer that question and cast a glance over to Daryl only to find him staring down Cameron with a hard look in his eyes.
"Uh, I'm not exactly sure." She answered after a moment's hesitation but Cameron didn't seem perturbed by her lack of certainty.
"Well if you get the time then you should stop by Jare's bookstore again. It needs a new set of eyes browsing and my office is just next door." The man suggested.
"Oh?" Amity said in response, a questioning noise brought out of polite social norms rather than true interest.
"Cam's a big-time lawyer," Jared explained, seemingly the only one willing to keep Amity in the know. "Well, uh, as much as you can be in a town like this." He added, seeming to tease his brother a bit.
"Oh, well if I get the time then I'll try to stop by," Amity said, trying to keep up pleasantries though her words were mainly directed at Jared.
The ginger man was sweet, a bit shy and seemingly nervous, but still sweet. She found herself more unsure about his brother, especially with Daryl's reaction to him.
"I'll see you then- uh, that is if you get the chance," Jared said and with that, the two pairs parted ways.
As they continued through the store, Amity tried to pick back up the casual conversation that Daryl and she had going before she ran into the other two men but it seemed the interaction had glued the mechanic's lips shut.
With a bit of resignation, Amity wrapped up their shopping trip and paid for the groceries after a bit of arguing with Daryl over it before she had shoved her card at the wide-eyed teen cashier.
Daryl loaded them into his truck with ease and as the passenger's side door shut and she buckled her seatbelt, the redhead felt herself let out a long slow breath of air.
This small town had led to more whiplash than she had ever accounted for and a majority of it was due to the tumultuous man climbing in at her side.
His rough fingers twisted the key in the ignition, starting the truck with a roar, and Amity prepared herself for a silent journey back to his home.