The next morning Daryl woke up in his own bed, for the first time since the prison. The curtains weren't closed so the sun shone directly into his face. He closed his eyes and cuddled himself closer into the sheets. They were very soft and smelled like lavender. He draped the blanket over his head to keep out the light out but shortly before he could fell back asleep, he heard sounds downstairs. Finally realizing were he was, he dragged himself up and looked around the room.

Aaron had cleared out the guestroom for him. The bags with his stuff were stashed into the cupboard next to the door and his crossbow was sitting on the table under the window. His pants and his vest were still lying on the chair that was sitting right next to the bed. He made a quick sniff test on the pants and decide that they might needed a wash so he grabbed them and and some socks and underwear that he had in his bag and walked downstairs.

He headed to the washing machine in the gangway between the house and the garage and throw his dirty clothes into the machine but decided to put the shirt he was wearing in too, after he took a look at it. He had worn it for weeks now and it just didn't feel right to wear something dirty like that around here. Aaron was still busy with preparing breakfast when he walked by so he decided to take a quick shower. Rick and the others were used to his smell but in this clean house that wasn't his he felt like he would be intruding. The warm water running over his body felt nice and the shower gel smelt a lot like Aaron.

He pulled a towel around his waist and headed to the kitchen to see what Aaron had prepared for breakfast. Taking a seat at the kitchen table he was surprised to see a cooked egg on his table with something that looked liked a grilled cheese sandwich, made of self-made bread. "You have chickens around here?" Daryl asked while taking a big bite of his sandwich and chewing loudly. He noticed Aaron staring at him, with another grilled cheese balancing on his spatula : Daryl grabbed Aaron's wrist and directed it towards the plate on the other side of the table so the grilled cheese landed on it.

Aaron pulled himself together and took a seat across from Daryl, slightly blushing. They ate their breakfast in silence until Aaron finally spoke up. "The meeting starts in an hour, so maybe you put some clothes on." He said still trying to not look at Daryl's bare chest.

Daryl noticed that Aaron hadn't eaten much of his breakfast when he shot a glance back at him, but when he saw Aaron's somewhat mesmerized look on his back side he started to feel unconscious. His walk became kinda shaky, when he finally realized that he was almost naked in front of Aaron. Was he checking him out? Or was it because of the scars of his father's abuse? Daryl didn't dare to look back again and hurried up to get back to his room.

The community meeting revolved mostly about making sure that no one else entered the town and planning runs to restore the supplies. Aaron didn't say much until Carol nudged him. He made a few gestures towards her to keep her mouth shut, but Deanna obviously caught it nevertheless. "Is there something you wanna tell us, Aaron?" Deanna asked.

Aaron's face paled immediately so Daryl decided to jump in. He explained Aaron's tracing idea and then waited for the protests of the other people, but it never came. They all seemed to think about it.

Deanna finally spoke up "Well, the idea itself isn't bad, but I don't know how you imagine to to apply it to one their vehicles."

Aaron stood up and tried to gather himself for what he had to say next "This guy Daryl met said they will come back and if they will... why don't we just let him take what they want?" He looked around and saw anger and disbelief written all over their faces. "We could attach the color on the trailer and hand it over to them with the supplies they want. Well, and then we follow the trail."

Deanna studied the faces in front of her. "How about we focus our energy on replenishing our supplies and trying to find one of these other communities this guy was talking about?"

Aaron looked taken aback but tried to pull himself together when Deanna looked him straight in the eyes.

"You and Eric checked out all the areas in a 200 mile radius besides the ones in the west." Deanna traced her hand over a map that she had laid out on a podium in front of her.

"Yes, because the roads there were blocked. There was no way to get the bus through this."

"But now it's not about bringing people in, it's about finding allies. And with Daryl s bike you have the opportunity to get through the blockage. If we're able to find another community we might be able to defend ourselves if we join forces.

Aaron gritted his teeth but didn't dare to protest because he could see Deanna's point, somehow.

"Just try to find other places with people. When you do, don't try to approach them yourself. Just report back and we'll handle it from there." Deanna said sternly. "I think that's enough for tonight. We'll have another meeting in a week from now."

Aaron stormed out of the room and Daryl decided to follow him. He caught up with Aaron very quickly and stepped in front of him to stop him in his tracks and Aaron did. Aaron looked upset when he raised his face to Daryl.

"What do you want, Daryl?" Aaron asked, sounding rather tired than angry.

"I think Deanna's right. We should find these other communities. We know that the Wolves probably had attacked them too. Maybe they will know more about them. Maybe they'll help us. And if they don't... who says we can't use them to trail these bastards anyway?"

Aaron let sink in Daryl's words and seemed to realized what he was saying between the lines. "You think you'll manage to get up at 8 in the morning?" Aaron asked. "I'll make you a killer breakfast and you'd better enjoy it because I'm pretty sure we'll be on the road for a few days."

Daryl slightly smiled at him and started walking back to Aaron's house. After a few steps he turned around. "I like my eggs over easy."

They hit the road around 9 a. m. the next day, their backpack filled with Carol's sandwiches, canned noodles and stale candy bars so they wouldn't have to look for food for at least two days. Daryl realized that Aaron has been right about the difficulties to follow the highway to the west when he saw all that cars that blocked the road. But with his bike and due to the fact that there have been a couple of very dry weeks, they were able to drive around the hundred cars that blocked the streets by driving through the fields beside the roads a couple of times.

A few miles later the streets finally became negotiable and they managed to make a couple of miles without needing to make any detours in the fields. After a few minutes Aaron tipped Daryl on the shoulder to get his attention. "I think we should stop."

Daryl slowed the bike down and stopped it in an area we're they had a good oversight, then he turned his head to Aaron. "Why would we stop? The path seems clear."

Aaron made a gesture to street towards them. "Yeah, but doesn't it look too clear?" He asked and looked at the cars that were sitting beside the road, like their owners just had left them there after they run of gas but managed to at least get them of the road that they wouldn't be in the way. "Do you see how many cars are here, yet none of them is on the street."

Daryl studied the street before him and suddenly realized what Aaron meant. "It's like someone had roamed them aside. You think it's a trap?"

"No. I think whoever did this, cleared the road to make it easier to get through. You know what that means?" Aaron asked when he looked at Daryl. "There are people here."

"You think it's a trap?" Daryl asked after he thought about Aaron's conclusion.

"I don't think so. Have you noticed that we haven't seen any walkers for miles? I think they've cleared this area so they would have it easier to go on runs or whatever." Aaron now looked excited. "I think there could be a community nearby!" He exclaimed happily.

"Okay, calm down, kiddo. We don't know how long it has been since those streets got cleared. How do you expect to find them?"

"We wait for them to pass by." Aaron answered and then thought about their next move for a minute. "I guess our best bet would be to follow this route until we come across a crossroad. I think our odds to see someone coming by would be way better there.

"Alright, let's go then" Daryl said. "You know, you can be a real smart-ass sometimes." He added when he started the bike again and looked at Aaron with a grim face.

"I know, but that's why you love me." Aaron said with a big smile and Daryl gripped the handles very tight because for a second he thought Aaron had figured out his feelings. But when he saw Aaron's smirk, he realized that he might overreacted and Aaron's was just messing with him, so he roared the engine and focused back on the way before him.

Half an hour later, they finally found the crossroad they were looking for and Daryl directed his bike behind a billboard to hide it from sight.

Aaron climbed of the bike. "I think this could work. Let's stay here at long as we can. If we're lucky someone will come through here and then we follow them." He opened his backpack and took out two of Carol's sandwiches and handed one of them to Daryl, while he took a seat on the left side of the billboard so he could peek around it to watch the roads. Daryl took the sandwiches and placed himself on the other side.

"How long to you plan on staying here?" Daryl asked after he took a bite and chewed loudly.

Aaron shot him an amused smile. It remembered him of the night he had invited Daryl over to eat spaghetti but he didn't dare to get too much into it because it would just remind him about Eric so he shook it off. "As long our supplies last. We can make it back to Alexandria in half a day now that we know what we're dealing with."

It was almost dark when they've finished their meal and it started to get a little chilly. Aaron pulled his jacket tighter around himself to keep warm. Daryl saw his movement. "Maybe tomorrow we should build some sort of shelter if we're going to stay here for a few days. A fire is out of the question if we want to avoid that anybody will spot us but a shelter would at least prevent us from the wind."

Aaron nodded and stifled a yawn, that didn't escape Daryl's attention. "You look tired. I'll keep first watch and wake you in a few hours so you can take over."

"Thanks." Aaron said and laid down. He felt sleepiness wash over him rather quickly despite the uncomfortable ground, but he felt safe around Daryl and after the last few sleepless nights he now welcomed the comfort of a good night sleep.

He had a weird dream about him and Daryl living in the suburbs, in a world without zombies, where Daryl was apparently a lawyer or something because he was wearing a suit and they shared breakfast before Daryl headed off to work in a black Prius. Daryl looked very handsome in this unusual outfit and Aaron felt taken back to the time when Eric and he had that sort of life, when he wasn't on a mission in some place far away in the world to bring medicine and supplies to villagers in war-zones. The dream suddenly ended when he felt Daryl shaking his shoulder to wake him up. Aaron blinked a few times before he realized where he was. He looked around and noticed that the sun was almost rising.

"Why didn't you wake me sooner? I thought we would take turns in watching." Aaron asked, still a little sleepy.

Daryl avoided his gaze and Aaron could have sworn to see a slight blush on his cheeks. "You looked so peaceful and I figured that you needed some rest. I guess you didn't catch much sleep over the last week." Daryl sat down beside him and after a minute or so he asked "You smiled in your sleep... did you have a nice dream?"

Now it was Aaron's turn to blush. He cleared his throat before he answered. "Yeah, I had a dream about Eric, when we had first moved in our house. We had a few weeks to settle in before I had to go to the Sudan and just enjoyed each other's company. It felt like home, the first real home I ever had."

Although he was lying about the person in his dream, he didn't lie about the warmth he had felt. Being around Daryl made him feel accepted and secure. He never had a straight friend like Daryl who just accepted him for what he was and didn't expect him to jump him any second. That's why he felt kind of bad that in his dream it seemed like they lived as a domesticated couple even if there hasn't been anything sexual in it. He also felt like he betrayed Eric. Eric was the first love of his life and he wasn't dead for a week and now he already started to fall for another guy. A guy that would never feel about him that way anyway just made it worst.

He guessed that Daryl wasn't the kind of guy who made friends easily, and he didn't want to betray his trust by having inappropriate dreams about him. Daryl didn't comment on what he had said and seemed to be in deep thoughts when Aaron finally dared to look at him. Aaron secretly studied his profile when Daryl continued to watch their surroundings with a stoic gaze.

When he was sure that Daryl wasn't aware of him watching him, he took his time to study the man beside him more thorough. He saw the small lines around his mouth that seemed like Daryl was chewing on his cheeks to keep himself from saying something and the slight burrowing of his brows. Aaron was unsure how to interpret that. Was Daryl uncomfortable with the thought of him being gay or was it something else...? He couldn't tell. Daryl never seemed to have a problem with him and Eric but maybe he'd just tried to be social for once.

He shook his head in attemp to take his mind of Daryl's insight and started to go through their stash. Calculating the food and water they had, he came to the conclusion that their supplies would proably not last long enough to stay here more than a week, if they wouldn't find something drinkable in the next few days. "I think we should look for some water. We have enough food, but to survive on that and stay alert, we need more fluids."

Daryl nodded and stood up. "I'll go look for some water. Maybe I can shoot some squirrels on my way there... or some possums... for dinner." He shot Aaron a shy smile when he said that before he walked of the forest nearby.

Aaron had waited the whole day for Daryl to come back to their camp. But when he did he saw, that the misshaped shadow that was walking towards him, was in fact Daryl with something big strapped to his back, he let out a sigh of relief.

The next second Daryl placed the thing that he had carried in front in front of him and it took Aaron a second to realize what it was.

"It that a goat?!" He finally managed to spudder out.

"Yes, I came across her when I made my way back to you and she was trapped in a bear trap. There was no way to get her out there so I thought I should save her the suffer and made her our meal for tonight and the days following." Daryl said with a slightly sad undertone. He caressed her fur for a few seconds before he took out a knife and stated to skin the animal. Aaron just sat there and watch it silently. in awe. Daryl was a hunter for sure, but he valued life more than anybody else he had met since it all has started, even it was only an animal. Aaron knew that Daryl had killed people too, but only for the need of survival of his "family" and he knew that he never had taken it lightly. He could see the pain in Daryl's eyes. He had to keep himself from reaching out and stroking Daryl's cheek to comfort him. He didn't even realized that he had raised his hands towards Daryl until the said one looked at him confused. "What'cha doing?"

Aaron felt his cheeks burning red and the only anwser he could come with was "I thought the fur would make a nice attachement to a jacket I was working on..."

Daryl raised an eyebrow and then shrugged and turned his attention back to the goat. What he didn't see was, that after that Aaron crushed his head to the ground in attempt to get rid of every feeling or thought he had about Mr. Daryl Dixon. After a few seconds of dizziness he realized, that it didn't worked at all, so he just laid back and waited until Daryl was finished with skinning and gutting.

After a week they were still there, hiding behind the billboard, eating smoked goat meat and sometimes beans and other canned vegetables from their stahsh and watching the crossroad in front of them. Sometimes Daryl would go out for a hunt while Aaron stayed at their camp to keep watch.

Today they were lying around lazily because they've still had enough meat from the day before, when Daryl actually managed to shoot two rabbits and waited for something to happen. Aaron was sitting and watching the road and once in a while his gaze drifted to Daryl who was taking a nap.

His was lost in thoughts about the handsome man lying in the grass just a few steps away from him when he heard something that sounded like an engine. He sat straight up and concentrated on the noise and tried to figure out where it came from. Meanwhile he moved to Daryl and shook his shoulder to wake him up. Startled by the sudden touch, Daryl throw his arms up in surprise and accidentaly hit Aaron in the face. Aaron let out a sound of surprise and pain what caused Daryl to awake fully. Seeing what he has done he placed his hands at Aaron's face and checked for a broken nose or something.

"You ok?" He asked while he touched Aaron's nose and cheekbones to make sure nothing was broken. Aaron, still a littly dizy from the punch he just received just stared at him. At that moment a vehicle suddenly passed by the road. Aaron and Daryl both frozed, still gazing at each other and silently talking through their eyes to not move, because any sudden movement could draw attention to them. After a few seconds Aaron finally dared to ask "Was that what I think it was or did you knock me harder than I thought?"

Daryl didn't wait to answer and rushed to the road to watch the passing vehicle. "Who the hell would drive a tractor in this time and age? It's slow and loud as fuck."

Aaron appeared beside him "Whoever it is, I've got the feeling they're not alone."

"You thinking a community?" Daryl asked and Aaron just nodded. "Well, let's follow them then."

They jumped on Daryl bike, not bothering to gather their stuff. In any case, they could come back later to fetch them. They kept a secure distance from the vehicle in front of them, not worried about the noise because they were sure, whoever was on the tractor couln't hear them over the noise of their own vehicle. Ten minutes later the tractor turned left, into a small road that leaded to a small hill and disappeared out of their sight behind some kind of wall. Daryl stopped the bike behind a bunch of trees and inspected the hill. The wall was mainly build of long, wooden sticks that were rammed into the ground, aimed mostly to the outside, apparently meant keep out walkers. Behind that he could see railings that seemed to surround several smaller and bigger buildings.

Daryl parked the bike and he and Aaron slowly sneaked up the hill to get a better look at whatever they've discovered. When they reached the first wall, they dodged behind the stakes. They saw the tractor pulling into a building that looked like a huge barn.

At first Daryl thought they've discovered a farm, but when he took a closer look to the surroundings of the barn, he realized that they were way too many small huts around the big building. No farm would need that many homes for they farmers and their helper. Before he could continue his analyse Aaron suddenly spoke up.

"I think this was a commune. I've read about some kind of cult that lived around here, when I was out for runs and I think that this might be the place where they lived."

"Like some kind of hippie community?" Daryl asked with a disgusted look on his face.

"Well, kinda. They believed in love, peace and living in harmony with nature. " Aaron tried to explain, but after looking at Daryl's impression he added deadpan. "Yeah, a hippie commmunity."

Daryl snorted and continued to watch the small village. Suddenly he heard the clicking of a gun being loaded behind them and without thinking jumped behind Aaron to protect him from shot that never came. He didn't realized that he had closed his eyes to await the fnal blow but after a few seconds of silence he dared to open his eyes and glanced at the guy standing over them.

He couldn't make out much of his features because of the fedora he wore, drawn so that Daryl could see no more than his mouth. Despite that he was dressed in a beige shirt, a brown leather vest and matching brown cargo pants. Daryl tried to stand up, but the guy readjusted the lining of his gun so he stopped immediately. They both stared at each other for a few second before the other man let out a light chuckle and lowered his gun. "Bloody hell!"

These two words triggered something in Daryl. He squinted and dared to take a closer look at the man in front of him.

"Scotty?!"