Here it is! Sorry guys, I know I'm bad at updating but I have a new story I'm working on so hopefully, whenever I update that, I'll update this too. Anyway, thank you to whoever is still with me, I promise this story isn't dead. Far from it. And hopefully you like this chapter! Enjoy!

Chapter 26

Rick was just waiting for July. He'd come up with as many excuses as he could for not coming to the parties that Glenn was hosting. His friends were getting suspicious but they let him go. He was glad when there was only a few days left of the month. His birthday was coming up too, which meant he'd be able to drive soon. He really wanted that car. But for now he had to spend his days at home with Daryl, which was about as fun as you'd think. Even though they'd talked a little bit, it wasn't anywhere near being friendship. Those conversations also didn't take the awkwardness of being alone with Daryl away. Today was going to be one of those days. Rick was lying on the couch, wondering if he was going to be able to take the last few days of June. Daryl walked into the room with a sandwich, saw Rick lying there, and walked straight back out of the room. Rick sighed softly and closed his eyes, hoping that he would fall asleep and get the day done with. To bad that didn't work. In ten minutes he was up and around. He heard water running from upstairs and guessed that Daryl was showering. At least he wouldn't bother Rick for a little while.

Rick got himself some food and then heard a crashing noise coming from down the basement. He stopped moving and waited for another noise. After about two minutes he walked towards the stairs and headed down. He heard the shower shut off and hoped that maybe he could avoid the other boy by hanging out in the basement. He walked around looking for any sign of what could've been the noise he heard. He found a pile of boxes that had seemed to have fallen over. He let out the breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. He heard footsteps upstairs and guessed that Daryl was looking for him to see if he was gone. Rick turned back to go upstairs and walked right into a shelving unit that he hadn't seen before.

"Ow. What the hell!" he said angrily. Something loud fell off of the shelf and landed on the ground, making a very loud crash. He was glad it didn't break.

He heard Daryl at the top of the steps, "What the hell are you doing down here?"

Rick pushed himself away from the shelves, "Just looking around. God damn my foot hurts."

He hadn't meant to say that last part and he heard Daryl snort from the top of the stairs.

He was surprised when he heard the stairs creak and then Daryl say, "God that is a freakin cold breeze coming in through this door up here."

Rick didn't know how to respond to it. He heard Daryl go back up the stairs and pull the basement door shut to keep the outdoor breeze from blowing in the window and into the basement.

Rick froze, "Daryl?"

The kid appeared at the bottom of the steps. He was actually one interesting sight. His hair was plastered to his head but it stuck up in the back and he was wearing shorts with a thin T-Shirt that was pulled tight across him. He had a half-eaten cookie in his hand.

"Huh?" Daryl asked taking a bite out of his treat.

Rick glanced up the stairs to the closed door, "Why did you close that?"

Daryl looked up while chewing, "That summer breeze was cold. I got wet hair. Not going to freeze for no reason."

Rick slowly put his head in his hands, "That door has an automated lock on it. It locks whenever it gets shut. You can't get out from the inside."

Daryl looked at him with a disgusted look, "What?"

Rick didn't look up, "The door isn't going to open. It has an automated lock."

Daryl leaned against the wall with that ever-present anger on his face, "Well whose freakin idiotic idea was that? Who puts an automatic lock on a basement door? Are you keeping valuable shit down here or something?"

Rick glared at him, "My dad never told me why we have one. I just know we have one. That's why I left the door open."

Daryl punched the wall, "Well you could've told me that! Could've yelled up to me not to shut the door."

Rick shook his head, "How was I supposed to know that you were going to shut the door over a little breeze? It's not my fault that you were going to grow ice crystals on your head because the wind was blowing."

Daryl looked like he wanted to punch Rick but he took his anger out on the wall instead.

Rick watched him before saying, "Can you please stop punching the wall?"

Daryl glared at him before running up the stairs. Rick went to the bottom of the stairs as he watched the other boy shove on the door with his shoulder for a good ten minutes. Finally, exhausted by the effort, Daryl slid down the door and sat with his back against it, his head in his hands. Rick found a chair down in one part of the basement and sat down.

"Didn't you bring your cell phone with you? Can't you call your friends or your dad? Tell them that you locked us in the basement?" Daryl called from the top of the stairs.

"I locked us in the basement? Me? You're the one that closed the door. If there's anyone at fault it's you!" Rick said angrily.

Daryl came down the steps and sat down on the floor glaring at Rick, "Well don't you have your phone?"

Rick rubbed the back of his neck, "I left it upstairs in my room because it was charging."

Daryl's head found the wall a few times.

Rick looked at him, "Well why don't you call someone? I'm sure you have yours."

Daryl gave him the 'are-you-as-stupid-as-you-look' look, "Yes I do. But let's see who I can text. Hm. Shane. Yes let's tell Shane that we're locked in your basement. That'll go over well. Next is Merle. I bet he'd laugh a lot at this situation. Phil. I bet he wouldn't respond. Maggie won't answer my texts anymore and Andrea hasn't talked to me in forever. I could call my old house. I bet that would go over well. And you're down here in the basement with me. I'm sure you can get us out."

Rick wasn't expecting a detailed analysis of Daryl's contacts and he was especially surprised that he was in it.

Rick looked over at him, "How did you get my number in there?"

Daryl looked at the ground, "Out of all that you're only worried about how I got your number. Well, I figured that I'd probably need it eventually so I went through your phone one day when you were gone. By the way it is really sweet how Lori sends little hearts at the end of her messages."

Rick rolled his eyes and didn't respond, "My dad won't get home until close to four. It's twelve-thirty now."

Daryl groaned and his head met the wall a few more times. They stayed like that for a good half-hour before Daryl finally yelled, "How the hell are we going to do this? We have to stay down here for another three hours! There's nothing to do!"

The boredom was getting to Rick as well. He pulled over one of the boxes from the pile that had fallen over and started looking through it. He pulled out an old picture of his family. He looked down at it and felt tears pricking his eyes. His whole family. When his mom was still with him. It had been taken that year too. The year she'd died. They'd been at the beach. He was eight years old and his mom had gotten a stranger to take a picture of the three of them standing by one of the sand castles Rick had built. They were all so happy then. That's what his mom had been good at. Anyone would do anything for her if she asked. That's why they had this picture and plenty other ones. He folded the picture up and put it in his pocket. He wanted to keep it. They didn't have many pictures of her up anywhere anymore. It was too painful. But he wanted this one. He needed that reminder of her. He saw Daryl watching him from the other side of the room but when he looked up the other boy looked away.

Rick kept searching through the box, seeing if he could scavenge anything.

Daryl looked at him again, "What's in there?"

Rick glanced up from his work, "Things. Stuff. From a while ago."

Daryl nodded and slowly scooted over, "Like what? We didn't have a lot of things like that at my house before."

Rick shrugged, "Well we have pictures from vacations and stuff. Then there's old school stuff that I did when I was little that my dad was saving."

Daryl smirked as he pulled out some drawing that Rick had done a long time ago, "This is very beautiful. Gotta wonder how a five year old pulled this off."

Rick smiled slightly and grabbed the picture away from Daryl. The other boy went rummaging through the box again and pulled up a journal, "Oh this is going to be good."

Rick reached for the journal but Daryl got up and flipped it open. Rick chased after him, "C'mon Daryl give it back."

Daryl was laughing as he read the pages, "February 1st, Today was a fun day. We went outside for recess today and I played with my friends. It was cold. We tried to catch snowflakes but they melted when they touched us." Daryl looked at him with a smirk, "You were a genius when you were younger. What happened to you?"

Rick lunged at him again but Daryl ran around a table and flipped to another page, "March 8th, Miguel got in trouble today because he broke all the crayons. He also knocked the books off the shelves. I think he is going to get kicked out of school because he was really bad." Daryl was bent over with laughter, "Did teachers really let you write that kind of stuff? That's brilliant. Miguel was a rebel all right." Rick finally managed to get a hold of his stuff again but not before Daryl had cackled over a few more entries.

Rick checked his watch. Two. Crap. Daryl sat back on the floor by the box as Rick joined him. Rick reached into the box again and pulled out some piece of paper with writing on it. As a bonus there was a large spider on it.

"Whoa shit!" he yelled as he flipped the paper over and backed up. The spider flipped off of the paper and landed on Daryl's leg. The other boy freaked as he jumped up and kicked his leg out over and over until the spider flipped off and ran up Rick's fingers. Rick leaped up this time and swiped the spider onto the floor. Daryl came running over carrying a hammer and he slammed the thing on top of the spider. Daryl glanced at the head of the hammer and then showed Rick the remains of the bug. Daryl then proceeded to toss the hammer as far away from them as possible. The two boys stood there in silence and then Rick heard a snort. He turned to see Daryl turning away from him with a smile playing on his lips. Rick grinned slightly and started laughing. The two boys laughed quietly for a few minutes before they headed over to the box.

Rick dug around a little more and pulled out something from one of his school projects. Daryl was leaning against a box not far away from him, with his eyes closed. Rick smiled slightly at the project. It was one of those little things that they did for Mother's Day. The things that the little kids brought home on that day and their mom's pretended to be so excited about even though they knew it was coming.

Daryl glanced over at him, "What's that?"

Rick just shook his head, "School project from a while ago."

Daryl moved over and pulled out something that Rick had even forgotten about. It was one of those Christmas things. They had each gotten to make a little ornament for their trees at home. He had put little stars on his for his dad being a sheriff.

Daryl glanced at him again, "What's this?"

Rick smiled slightly, "Christmas tree ornament."

Daryl nodded, "Ok. It's nice."

Rick looked at Daryl who seemed slightly fascinated by the small object, "It's nothing special. Just something that I made a while ago."

Daryl nodded but he still studied the ornament, "Are the stars on there because your dad is a sheriff?"

Rick nodded, "Yea."

Daryl looked at the ornament for a while before putting it gently in the box. It was quiet for a little while before he spoke again, "Didn't get to see a lot of those before. We didn't really celebrate Christmas at my house. Didn't have time. Merle would always give me something though."

Daryl smiled slightly, "Nothing big. Just something. I remember when I was eight years old he got me a hunting knife. He said he bought it but I knew he stole it. It was still the best thing I'd ever gotten."

Rick nodded, "I never got a knife for Christmas that's for sure. But I do believe one time I got a dirt bike. I think I crashed it the first time I rode it."

Daryl nodded, "I'll bet you did."

Rick grinned at the ground, "Never was good at driving motorized things when I was little."

Daryl leaned back again and looked at the ceiling, "What's it like? What did you do on Christmas?"

Rick thought for a while, "Well I know that I'd wake up really early all the time. I'd always stay up late and see if I could hear bells. You know? From Santa's sleigh? Never did though."

Daryl frowned, "Who?" Rick looked at him, "Santa Claus? The guy who comes down the chimney and leaves presents for the little kids?"

Daryl shook his head, "Sounds more like a creeper to me."

Rick smirked, "Yea I guess. It was a shocker when I found out he was really my dad."

Daryl grinned, "I'll bet. Keep going."

Rick went on, "We'd have all of my family members over for a big dinner and we'd exchange more presents and then everyone would leave. I'd just play the whole day."

Daryl nodded, "That sounds nice."

Rick smiled, "It was."

He thought for a moment. This was another one of those conversations but for once, this one wasn't awkward. Was this progress? Rick counted it. He'd actually enjoyed explaining the holiday. It gave him some memories too. He checked his watch again. Three.

Daryl glanced at Rick's watch, "Are you kidding me? How did only one hour pass?"

Rick shrugged, "I don't know."

Now that the conversation was over it was back to being the annoying Daryl and the annoyed Rick. The closed off Daryl and the bored Rick. Back to the usual. Rick packed up the box and put it away. He also stacked the boxes up again. He didn't want them falling over again. There was too much memorable stuff in these. Daryl was picking at a crack in the tile. Rick looked around the basement and grinned when his eyes fell on one of his dad's old guns.

Daryl watched him as he picked it up, "What the hell are you doing?"

Rick shrugged, "I just want to look at it. I won't shoot it. It's probably not even loaded."

He checked the gun for ammo and found it empty. He showed Daryl who nodded and then relaxed against the wall. Rick squinted through the scope of the rifle he was holding.

"Wow. I really want to shoot this. You think we could get away with shooting it outside somewhere?"

Daryl pretended to think for a minute, "Let me think here. NO."

Rick rolled his eyes and set the rifle down.

Three-thirty. Daryl was pacing. Rick was sitting on the stairs.

"I was going to go outside today. Go and get some food from one of the fast food places in town. Maybe go to the park and climb a tree. Go buy a computer game. But no. I got stuck in a basement with you," Daryl said.

Rick groaned as that was the third time that Daryl had said close to those exact words, "And I've told you that it's not my fault we got stuck down here. We only have to wait a half-hour and then my dad will be home."

Daryl sat on the floor, "Thank god you don't live by yourself. We would all starve to death."

Rick looked over at him, "If you really can't wait thirty minutes then you can see if there's anything in the closet over there. Sometimes my dad keeps food in there if there's not enough room in the pantry."

Daryl shook his head, "I'm fine."

The two boys sat in silence for another ten minutes before Daryl went on again, "Locked in the basement. There's an automated lock on the basement door. That makes all the sense in the world. Let's put an automated lock on the basement door so we can trap kids down there when their parents aren't home. We can always lock the robbers down there too."

Rick stood up and pushed Daryl away from him, "Will you shut up? You've been going on like this forever. I know that this is hell for you but we only have to wait fifteen minutes. Just don't talk anymore."

Daryl opened his mouth, shut it, and then sat down on the ground near Rick.

Rick heard the front door open and his dad call for them. Daryl was up in a flash running to the stairs, "Help!"

Rick chased after him, "Dad! We're in the basement!"

Daryl was pounding on the door, "Open the door!"

It took a minute but the door finally opened and Daryl and Rick looked up at the sheriff.

Rick's dad looked confused, "Why did you guys lock yourselves in the basement?"

The two boys glanced at each other before Rick spoke, "The door got blown shut by the wind. It was pretty breezy this afternoon. I came down here because I heard a noise. When I went to go back up I hit my foot on something and Daryl came to see what happened. The door blew shut behind him."

Daryl looked surprised that Rick hadn't told what had really happened. That Daryl had shut the door with no knowledge of the automated lock. The two climbed out of the basement and Daryl went up to his room. Rick lied out on the floor of the living room, glad he was out of the basement.

Daryl came down a few minutes later and bent over Rick with a book in his hand, "Can I borrow this?"

Rick nodded at him, "Have fun. That's a good one."

Daryl nodded and lied down on his back on the couch, opening Rick's copy of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Dinner came soon and Rick was happy. He had been starving ever since they'd gotten out of the basement. Daryl seemed like he was hungry as well but he went back to not eating right away. Rick's dad left to go upstairs for a minute after he served the two boys their food. Rick bit into his cheeseburger and glanced at Daryl who was looking at his food.

He sighed inwardly before trying something, "You know you can eat whenever you want."

Daryl glanced over at him but didn't say anything and continued to look down at his food. Well, he'd tried. His dad came back down the stairs and sat in between the two boys. It was quiet again for a while.

"So what did you guys do except for getting locked down the basement?" his dad asked.

Rick shrugged, "Nothing I just hung out here."

It was quiet again for a little bit before Daryl spoke quietly, "I decided to never go near the basement again."

Everyone glanced over at him and Rick smiled as he took a bite of his burger. The smile turned into a laugh and he coughed once on his food. Daryl looked up from his food with a small grin on his face and met Rick's eyes. Rick's dad laughed slightly as he saw the two boys getting along.

Rick finished his food and saw Daryl start eating. His dad got up, knowing that Daryl ate slow and went into the living room. A lot of the time Rick would leave the other boy to finish eating alone but he decided that after today he would stay.

Daryl looked over at him, "You can go if you want. I don't mind. Used to eating on my own."

Rick shook his head, "I'm fine. I don't have anything to do. What do you think of the book?"

Daryl shrugged, "Its ok."

Rick nodded, "I think it's pretty funny."

Daryl kept eating slowly, "I think that Rodrick is a lot like Merle. He gets away with everything and is mean to his younger brother. You're a lot like Manny. Everyone adores you and you have a perfect life. Nothing ever goes wrong for you. I'm like Greg. I get trouble from my older brother and blamed for things he does. Then when I try to pick on you it doesn't work and I get into even more trouble."

Rick glanced over at him. Daryl was staring intently down at his half-eaten food. He actually saw the connections that Daryl had made except for one. Rick got up and headed towards the stairs, "You're wrong Daryl. I don't have the perfect life you think I do."

And that's that! Hope you enjoyed! If you did, please leave a review! I love them! And follow or favorite too! The boys are finally getting along? Maybe? Will they ever?