I do not own The Walking Dead.

Previously:

Maybe this memory could rival the Comic Book House. Maybe Faye was enjoying it just that much, and didn't give a damn about it.

And so, the two children sat on the roof of the prison, watching the sun go down with the sweet taste of chocolate lingering in their mouths.

Faye threw the tennis ball, Carl catching it with ease. "You know, we could have access to all the roofs, if we looked for the back entrance."

"Could do," He replied, flinging it back. "We'd have to look when no one was watching though. Sneaking around the back of buildings isn't exactly safe anymore."

"Since when was it safe in the first place? Could be paedophiles, drug dealers, murderers-"

Carl cut her off. "Shut up, Faye."

The girl grinned with a snort, returning the ball. "The point is, everything is dangerous. Even with the fences, it's still dangerous. So, I think, we either be in danger and be boring, or we be in danger and have fun!"

The two were currently walking out the courtyard, across from each other as they threw the tennis ball that they'd found lying around the cell block. One of the Woodb- children must have dropped it at some point, but, for now, Faye and Carl had claimed it for their own. They could return it later.

"Since when were you a rebel?" He smirked, and wasn't really scolding her. If anything, he seemed to be encouraging it.

"Since Carol went on lock down, that's when. I don't know how many plates I can clean before my fingers go all wrinkly forever." Faye shrugged as she caught the ball again.

"There aren't that many. More since they came, but not that many."

Oh. He was calling the newcomers 'they' again. She'd thought they had made progress. What had set him back again?

Faye ignored it, choosing to bring it up later.

(The list of things to bring up later was long. Too long. The list of things to bring up later had begun the second that bus drove into the prison, how much more was it going to take until Faye put her damn foot down-)

"Well, there's cooking and making beds and washing clothes." Faye paused before remembering something. "Hey, did you know they're putting in the water pipe today?"

At his nod, she continued. "Just think, we could get the showers going! How great is that gonna be?! And we wouldn't have to worry about going outside the fences to get drinking water either, we'll have a pump and everything." Faye raised her eyebrows. "Come on, dork, you're allowed to be excited about this."

"I am! Just don't need to get all hyper about it." Before she had a chance to be insulted by this, he continued and distracted her by a particularly hard throw of the ball. "It'll be nice to have a shower though."

"Exactly." Faye nodded in approval as she passed the ball a final time, the two children now walking together again. "Back on the subject of roof finding, shall we do it?"

The boy shrugged. "Got nothing else to do."

Quirking her eyebrows, she questioned him. "What do you even do while I'm busy?"

In her mind, she had a damn good point. What did he do without her? Carl's relationship with Rick, while improving, was not at its best. The leader was still going on runs and it was as if he was too scared to… well… do anything with Carl. It wasn't as if they never talked, but the boy was never given any jobs by his father.

But scared wasn't the right word. Being scared wasn't allowed in this world anymore. Scared was a word for cowards. Rick was not a coward. He lead an attack against the Governor, he wasn't scared.

Faye didn't know what it was, but it was holding him and Carl back.

It wasn't only that, though. Carl showed zero interest in bonding with any of the other children. And while Faye herself wasn't the most sociable of kids - especially when you considered Mika and Lizzie were more than willing to be her friend, and Faye was still holding those ever-so-slightly-more-strange-than-they-should-be blonde girls – the boy was worse. It wasn't that she didn't like having him to herself-

(No, no, she liked that very much. Probably too much.)

-but it was holding him back, and Faye did not want that.

"I dunno, stuff." He replied with a shrug. "Stay with Judith, clean guns, read comic books. I helped out on the fences a few times."

"Yeah, you helped out on the fences with me, idiot. Am I really that forgettable?" The girl folded her arms and turned her head away. Did she look convincing? She didn't really need it to be, but it would be entertaining if he thought she was annoyed.

"No, you're not, and stop trying to make me feel bad!" He elbowed her in the ribs lightly, grinning wryly.

Faye elbowed him back twice as hard. "Well, maybe you should remember when I stab more walkers than you."

"Hey, I got more than you did!" He pushed her back, but it clearly lacked any real strength. He was so holding back on her.

Ha! Bitch, please, she did not need to be held back on.

Faye pushed Carl over on to the floor, grinning as he protested. "You go be boring alone, I'll go be boring with Carol, and then we'll meet round the back of B and find the rest of the roof entrances. Later, dumbass!"

With as much swag as she could muster, Faye strutted away.

She was quite good at exits, if she did say so herself.

Faye's original plan, after nagging Carol to let her off early, had been to get there first and surprise Carl.

But, apparently, he had had the same idea, minus the hassle of escaping chores. The girl knew this because the large trashcan had already been pushed against the fence and the wire had been pulled back as far as it could be.

So, her plan had backfired, but still. It still gave her an excuse to give up cleaning plates for a while, though, so it wasn't completely useless.

(Not to mention spending more time with Carl was also a very wonderful effect.)

"Carl!" Faye called out, making sure not to be loud. The two might have reassured each other that this place was safe, but neither of them was stupid enough to take chances. Well, stupid enough to take big chances, there was still the fact that they came here in the first place. "You out here?"

It took a few seconds, but soon the tell-tale sheriff hat poked its way out from behind the wall just as Faye's boots hit the ground. "Why are you early?"

"Lovely to see you too!" Faye said as she walked towards him. "Why are you early?"

"I was gonna surprise you!"

"Well, I was gonna surprise you!" She smirked, quickly deciding to let up on the argument. "It doesn't matter, okay? See, look, I'm surprised that you're here."

Rolling his eyes at her lame attempt, but gave a small smile as he gestured for her to follow. "Come on, we're burning daylight."

Seeing that Carl was keeping an eye out for anything dangerous, Faye looked at him from the corner of her eye.

His brown hair was getting a bit longer now, but it was a good kind of long. Not long enough to be all hippy-ish, but long enough that… that… she didn't know. The point was she did not want him to cut it. The point was it looked good.

And his eyes? She loved his eyes. They were this gorgeous shade of electric blue-

Why was she admiring Carl's eyes? And hair?

(Duh! Because he was hot-)

She had a job to do! That job was to find secret entrances to roofs.

…

That was sounded weird, now she thought about it, but who cares. Carl didn't find it weird, and they were the only ones who knew about it. Hopefully. How much did the adults actually keep tabs on them? Seriously, they'd gotten away with climbing on the damn roof! They were getting away with things that very second!

It was both amusing and concerning to consider how much free reign they had.

From the corner of her eye yet again, Carl smirked. "Whatcha thinking about?"

Faye played dumb. It didn't take much. "Huh?"

"You're being quiet. Faye Robbins is not quiet. So, I guess that means you're just being loud in your head."

The girl frowned. "…I'm not sure how to take that comment."

"Just answer the question then." Carl suggested.

Shrugging, she did as he said. "I was thinking about how it's weird how we can pretty much get away with anything around here."

(Not to mention your very pretty face-)

"I'm not complaining. They're too busy most of the time to keep an eye on us, and then there's the times they try to make us busy."

Oh, dear. This was the wrong thing to say. Now Carl was in one of those moods, where it was him against the world. Why Faye didn't suck it up and tell him to stop being a whiny kid, she didn't know. Maybe, one of these days, she would. Her patience was being drawn thinner.

"Well, more you than me." The boy continued, tone gradually getting more annoyed. "Why don't you just tell Carol to get lost?"

"I kind of said it that one time you were on the run." Faye pursed her lips, hoping this was enough for Carl to drop the subject. She'd certainly told Carol something back then. Maybe that was what triggered the woman's current behaviour.

Holy crap, it probably was-

Carl cut off Faye's epiphany. "That doesn't count. You were just having a go at her in general."

"Eh, I said it to her today."

The boy raised his eyebrows. "You told her to get lost?"

"Not exactly." Faye held up her hands in surrender. "I told her I had things to do that were more important than cleaning."

"And she just accepted that?"

Jeez, what side was he on here? "I have to make up for it tomorrow, so don't expect to see me for long. Care to join me?"

The boy snorted. "I'll pass." Jerk.

He'd pay. Next time he ended up doing work – which Faye was determined to make happen, because it wasn't fair that he got away with doing nothing whatsoever – she wouldn't help him one bit. How did he like them apples?!

(As always, top notch threats from Faye Robbins.)

"Whatever. Don't need your help, I'm capable. I just won't give you any fresh sheets for your bed. Sweet dreams, Carly!"

The boy scowled. "I can find the pot, Faye."

She only laughed, glad to take his mind off the adults. "Aha! I'm doing the cooking too, I'll just put it where no one will ever find it!"

"Yeah, but then you'll be a bad maid." Carl smirked. Those kinds of jokes always riled her up.

"Carl Grimes, I would rather shave my hair than be your maid." Faye crossed her arms. "Ha! Maid. Go shove it up your ass."

"So impolite, maybe I should report you to your manager." The boy replied smoothly, stroking his chin as if it was a hard decision.

"Jerk. Where's that damn ball, I should throw it in your face."

A cocky grin suddenly grew on Carl's face. He didn't. The jerk! He had the ball, didn't he; he had the damn ball-

"Look what I've got!"

Shaking it in front of her face, the boy was undeniably smug.

Quickly snatching it from his hands, Faye drew her arm back to throw the ball as hard as she could – only to have Carl duck in the nick of time. Watching as it soared over his head, the tennis ball bounced around the corner, over a barely visible line of bins.

Carl eventually stood up, the two children standing for a few seconds.

Faye was the one to eventually break the silence. "Aim aside, that was a pretty good throw."

The boy nodded-

(Good, because Faye had been working on her arm strength ever since Daryl had mentioned it and although the progress was little, she was more than willing to fight over it.)

-but had a sly smile. "I am so not getting that."

"Oh, come on!" Faye complained as she walked forward. There had been trash cans before, but this place looked like the full damn package – where all the waste went. She could smell it from back behind the corner, to think what it would be like once she got close almost made the child gag. "What are you, a coward?"

"No," He titled his head sideways as he spoke. "Just someone who doesn't want to puke. You threw it!"

"Fine, wimp, but you better wait behind me! No going off and finding the stairs on your own."

Once he gave her his word, Faye made her way over to the bins. Her face scrunched up as she got close, the stench was vile. They'd have to tell the adults to get rid of this sometime, it was disgusting.

Not bothering to conceal her groans of revulsion as she tip toed through a few bags and swatted away a few of the flies – cursing as she heard Carl laugh at her – before clambering onto one of the containers. Looking down, she saw all the stuff that had been left behind. The trash collector must not have come for a long time. Before everything went down, that was.

Deciding to be quick about it, Faye hopped down, almost slipping over on something that the girl did not want to know the identity of.

A green spot in her vision revealed the tennis ball. Looking around, she was in a small area, with a small passage way not too far away from her. Maybe this was the direction they had to go in anyway.

Walking to the ball, Faye picked it up and tossed it between her hands, debating to be annoyed with it for making her wade through the trash or be proud of the throw. She went with the latter.

Turning around, the girl was about to run back towards Carl when her body met something hard, and she was sent falling backwards onto her back, tennis ball rolling out of her hand.

A tall walker towered above her, blood splattering onto her clothes as it let out a gruesome snarl.

Faye's eyes widened in shock as she lost her voice.

When she found it, it was in the form of a cry.

"Carl!"

Author's Notes:

Sorry it's a day late, I had a serious case of writer's block. I feel like there was too much talking in this chapter, but the next few shouldn't have quite as much. Maybe it's my imagination.

Thank you for the fantastic reviews, I had a feeling you would like that scene. I'd had it planned for so long, it felt great to finally send it out.

Anyway, haven't done a cliffie in a while, so I thought I'd be cruel.

See you on Saturday!

Please review, I love to hear your thoughts and advice.

Thanks.

Cobalt Flame.