Alma is out in the woods where she is happiest. Though, her happiness gets dimmed by the grouch teaching her to hunt. She'd only been apprenticing Daryl for about a week and a half. She had opposing days to Enid's lessons so he wouldn't have to deal with the both of them. They weren't obnoxious or anything. It was pretty standard teenage fare. He found out quick he did not want to put up with it. Both girls felt free when allowed out in the wilds. The problem was their idea of freedom didn't quite gel with Daryl's idea of hunting. Which usually consisted of silence and inebriation. But since alcohol was scarce at the end of the world, it was usually silence and brooding.

As soon as she was out of Grady, Alma started working with the compound bow Lupe stole from the Claimers. She wouldn't be splitting arrows in twain anytime soon, but she was improving every day. There's no denying that a gun had its utility in their miserable world, but a bow and arrow is a delightful weapon to use. Daryl said once she got good enough with the standard arrows he found for her, he'd teach her how to make her own. That was particularly exciting for her.

They've been tracking a buck for a few days. It's circled the area for a while now and it seems they always just miss each other. Great news for the buck, bad news for Alexandria.

Alma is stuck in her thoughts as she trails Daryl, step by step by step. Lupe has been secluded in their house with visits from Carol, Rosita, or Denise to check her stitches. They're healing well. Likely because everyone stumbles upon Lupe before she starts getting herself into trouble. Carol stopped her from trying to sneak out for target practice. Denise caught her trying to lift heavy boxes in the garage. Rosita and Abraham caught her climbing onto the kitchen counter to get something out of a shelf. They had to physically pull her down. Alma walked in on a cleared out living room where she was going to practice with her batons. All of these incidents concluded the same way. Lupe grumbles while someone reprimands her. They have to herd her back into the bedroom and ensure she lays down. Alma had the unfortunate discomfort of coming home to her sister handcuffed to her bed once. She couldn't figure out if it was Carol, Rosita, or Denise that did it. It was a pretty level spread between the three, and Lupe, also a grouch, refused to talk about it.

Something buzzes beneath Alma's skin, making her feel agitated. She thinks about the past week and all the help she's had trying to keep her sister going and how much she appreciates it. They aren't Lupe, they couldn't be, but she thinks of these people as her family now.

A realization hits her in the chest with an OOF, and she stutters to a noisy stop. Daryl turns to look at her with a scowl for the interruption. He thinks they're close to the buck, but Alma has a right mind to punch him in the nose.

"You haven't visited my sister once."

Her eyes are wide and trained on him like he's the forest floor. She's looking for subtle tracks and hints of leaves rustled the wrong way. But Daryl's about as easy to read as a Sandra Boynton book.

"Why?" She scowls, gaze narrowing. His entire body coils up and his eyes blink open in shock and fear. The bangs could only hide so much. It's about what she expected from him. She sighs, still scowling. Getting those two to talk about their emotions is worse than setting snares in a desperate winter. "She's bored as hell. She could use the company."

"Don't think she'd want to see me then," Daryl rumbles out low, turning back to the trees.

"Why?" Alma follows, switching to full pestering mode. "That's silly. You're friends, right?

"Don'know," he grumbles, "never really had no friends but my brother's."

Alma exhales through a flapping lower lip. Her shoulders slump due to the weight of his morosity. "Well, you do now." She starts ticking off her fingers. "Rick, Glenn, Carol, Maggie, Beth, Michonne, Noah, Abraham, Carl, Eugene, Tyreese, Sasha - come on! Everyone in the group! That includes me. And Lupe!" She turns one of those fingers on him, pointing hard like an accusation. "She'd probably like to see you, so don't be such a chicken!"

Daryl scoffs but doesn't even bother to look back. "Got too much to do. Stop talking."

Alma's face twists into a sardonic smile. "Ah, so you're avoiding her."

"I'm avoiding noise that's gonna scare away the deer," he snaps, "shut up."

"You're ridiculous, you know that?" Alma sidles up to him with a glare. "Maggie told me Rick had to hold you back from going after Pete with your knife." Daryl tenses a little at that. "You were ready to kill him, weren't you?"

He tenses up a whole lot more. "He deserves worse," he snarls.

"Yeah, I don't disagree, I want his head mounted on my wall!" Alma steps in front of Daryl to make him stop and stares up to his eyes through his bangs. "But were you gonna kill him for being a threat to the community and an abuser, or a threat to my sister?"

It feels like Daryl chews on his lips for an entire day. He curses under his breath and drops his head. "Maybe both…"

Alma smiles real wide and is not easy on the smugness. "Hey look at that, you are self-aware!"

Daryl's head pops up. He glares at her hard and shoves by as he bites out, "Shut up…"

Alma snickers and follows. "Well, I wouldn't talk so much if I didn't need to practically drag you kicking and screaming to conclusions about your own damn head. You gonna just face the fact that you like my sister and want to be with her?"

Daryl growls, "I don't."

Alma scowls and growls right back, "What the fuck does that mean?"

Daryl barks, "Just means I don't!" He glares out into the trees and his feet fall a little harder than he wants them to. The fear and sadness swirl in his chest till an aching anger comes out his mouth, "Gittin' with someone now? What's the fuckin' point? Ain't no guarantees in this world. Won't make a commitment I can't keep."

Alma scoffs. "What like, you'd screw around on her?"

"Fuck no!" Daryl replies a little too earnest for all those denials he's making. He notices the error quick and buckles it all back in with a sigh. "I mean, like I'll fuckin' die, or she will, and then we'll lose each other." He glares over at Alma. "So I'll ask you again, what's the goddamn point making more pain for ourselves?"

Alma doesn't miss the way his voice cracks. She sighs too, with a widening ache in her chest. "All that stuff that comes before it, I guess?" She snorts, thinking of brown hair and light giggles that float on the air. "We all die," she says with a smile. "You wanna leave this world after only allowing room for fear?"

Daryl picks up his pace and tries to surpass her.

Alma's got real long legs though. "Jeez, you really are a coward," she retorts with venom.

He stalls and turns on her, spitting mad and deathly still. "A what?"

"A coward!" She repeats, slower and louder. She rolls her eyes at the anger twitching on his face. "You are! You're afraid of being happy cause you don't want it taken away. You'd rather be miserable and cranky, cause that's what you know is easy and familiar." He blinks at her, stunned. "I mean, it's obvious, and something everyone does. You think it was easy for me to admit my feelings about Enid? No! I am terrified. We're kids! When this all started I was ready to die within the first few days." She sighs, sounding too tired for her age. "I still am. But what's the point of staying scared all the time? What's the point of anything if you just do nothing?"

"I ain't doin' nothin'," Daryl bites out as he storms away. "I got plenty of shit to do, like hunt a fuckin' deer!" He snarls over his shoulder.

"Yeah, to keep your mind off of how scared you are of liking my sister!"

Daryl sighs. "Goddamnit…" He drops his head in his free hand, lowering his bow as he wipes his face. He's about ready to start screaming and never stop if Alma doesn't quit pestering him about her sister. Worse, it's not just about Lupe. Alma is seeing right through him. She's making him understand feelings he's never had before, and still wants to pretend he hadn't.

He already knew he wasn't good enough for Lupe. She was smarter than hell and a real goddamn knock out, literally and figuratively. He'd never seen so much compassion and ruthlessness jam-packed into one little body. She seemed more like the right hand of Mother Nature. Persephone in the flesh, come to trod through his hell, bringing life to the darkness. He didn't know how bad he wanted it till it was right there in front of him. But he still couldn't grasp all that beauty. Not in his paltry hands, covered in blood as they were.

Alma pushes past him in a huff and Daryl stands there stunned. Her stride is silent, and she stops, raising her bow in a near perfect stance. She looses an arrow and it flies, nice and true, thunking into a target. Daryl hears the leaves rustle as something thumps into the dirt. He stomps forward to stare over Alma's shoulder and gapes. The buck lies there in the middle of a wide swath of sparse trees, an arrow right through its eye.

Alma ignores him as she moves forward. She's pissed as all hell until she reaches the animal. Going down onto one knee, she removes the shaft. She mutters a few kind words about what the animal will supply for her community. Her last words are an apology for his death.

While she cleans the arrow with her rag, she stands and walks back over to Daryl. She narrows her eyes at him. "Quit hesitatin'." She walks past and sticks her nose in the air. "You carry it back, Mr. Alligator Wrestler. Unlike some people, I got more important shit to do that I can't keep avoiding forever."

Daryl scoffs and goes to do as he's told. Alma waits for him so he won't have to fight off walkers by himself. She doesn't acknowledge him much on the way back to Alexandria though. She doesn't even bother to help him take care of the carcass once they're inside the gates. He figures he deserves that.

Alma goes straight home to her cranky sister. When she gets inside and goes upstairs, she finds Lupe on her stomach with a bunch of pillows beneath her. She's reading again. Sasha and Tyreese had been kind enough to stop by and drop off some books. So she's read every mediocre classic within the walls of Alexandria. The kids all scrounged together their comics, manga, and graphic novels. They hoped to get her through the next week when Denise can clear her. Despite Lupe being bored out of her mind, she at least has that going for her.

"Hol-ah mayor-ah!" (Hello old woman!) Alma sing songs from the doorway.

Lupe looks up, eyes bleary, but a smile on her face. "Hey querida, (my love,) how was hunt'n?" She grunts.

Alma grins and shrugs. "It was fine. Daryl was being grumpy and mopey."

"As opposed to his usual grumpy and brooding?" Lupe snickers, putting down her book.

Alma's smile curls in the corners. "'Cept around you, when he gets all grumpy and blushy."

Lupe stiffens like a mouse hearing something coming from the tall grass. She scoffs at her sister and forces herself to relax. "You know the pale ones get pinker than us normal brown folks out in all that sun."

Alma giggles behind her hand. "Cállate," she mutters. "You'd love it if he got all hot'n'bothered under the ringed collar for you."

Lupe cringes and lets her face fall into the pillows. She groans loud. "Es tan obvio?" (Is it obvious?) She asks into the stuffing.

"Ni madre!" (No way!) Alma assures her, laying the sarcasm on thick.

Lupe groans into the pillow again. She pops her head up, hair frizzed from trying to smother herself and/or the feelings. "Mira, I don't know what all this is, okay? I'm like…" She sort of freezes up and then cringes at herself. "Ugh, I fucking like him."

"Hermana..." Alma clicks her tongue at her as she crosses her arms and scowls. "Un gringo? Malinchista!" (Sister... A white boy? Traitor to the Culture!)

Lupe guffaws and slaps a hand over her mouth to hide her smile and the horrid sound that precluded it. "Eres metiche y te odio!" (You're nosy and I hate you!) She rasps through her laughter. "Dios mio, no se que hacer." (My god, I don't know what to do.)

"Do you think he likes you back?" Alma asks, trying to play off her excitement despite her desire to scream 'GOTCHA!'

Lupe shrugs. "I don't know. Maybe?" She squints up at her sister. "You know, you don't have to hear none of this if you don't want to. I kept it out of your ears for years cause it seemed like way too much drama to place at your feet. It's silly adult bullshit"

Alma sighs. "Well, I'm not really a kid anymore. I'm pretty naive when it comes to relationship stuff, but you aren't. You're always real smart when it comes to people, even though you don't like them. We can talk it out. That'll help."

Lupe grins. She moves to get up with a cringe and sits on her backside, crossing her ankles in front. "You were always best with people but didn't like to assume the worst about them." She snorts. "I don't see through him like everyone else. He's different from a lot of the others. He's straightforward but plays everything so close to the vest."

She sighs hard. She's never had a long-lasting romantic relationship. She's read a lot about them to try and understand why she felt so dysfunctional as part of a couple. And it wasn't like she ever really got the chance to try, working all the time. Most people didn't want a woman raising her kid sister either. It didn't matter much to her in all that time because her priorities were always on Alma. Most people couldn't handle that. The ones who did, who were good to her, well, occasionally, good things don't always work out at the right time. Now, no time was ever the right time.

"Dijo…" (He said...) Lupe swallows hard. Her stomach clenches in distress because of the emotions whirling through her. "Dijo que yo es importante para él." (He said I'm important to him.) Her face cringes a little. "Pero, dijo que soy como familia." (But, he said I was like family.)

"Maggie y Glenn son familia," (Maggie and Glen are family,) Alma replies. "Dijo el que eres como una hermana?" (He say you're like a sister?)

"No, pero -," (No, but -,) Lupe gets interrupted by the faint sound of a knock at their front door. She frowns and Alma reflects it. Neither of them is expecting company.

"BRB," Alma says, turning to head down to the first floor. She freezes at the foot of the stairs when she sees the familiar silhouette through the shade on the door's window. She grins. "Es para ti! (It's for you!) I'm going over to Enid's for dinner!" She yells and runs for the door. Slipping out, Alma gives zero explanation. But she does give a double thumbs up as she passes.