Thank you so much Danny2016! I'm so glad you're still into it!
Here's a small one for you, all the new followers and every anonymous readers!
Unfortunately, this is the walking dead, and it won't remain cute forever... ;)

EPISODE 20 – Walk with Me – Part IV

We hunt for the rest of the day and clean up what we caught by the time the sun goes down. Then, beside a small fire, he puts up the tent while I cook one of the smaller birds we got. Tomorrow, we'll get back to the others. We didn't have time for a break all afternoon. Only, each time we were close, when I passed him by, when I leaned over him to get something I needed, I always let my hand graze on his shoulders, linger on his stomach, brush on his thigh. I won't let the moment we've had just pass. I won't let him become withdrawn and inaccessible again. What little progress I've made, I intend to preserve.

And, by the end of the day, he's got used to it. Now, as he comes to sit by my side for dinner, I feel his fingers trail on my nape. I let my hair loose because I've noticed he likes them. And we eat in comfortable silence.

"Ye can go, I'll take first watch," I tell him.

He's smothered the fire, and I can see him stretch to try and stay awake. He nods, but then comes back with the blanket he puts on my back. I grab his hand before he pulls away. So I can kiss his palm. I know, by now, that he's obviously not used to tenderness. I'm guessing I wasn't his first, but still, the look he throws me says I may be the first to do that. I get it. I was like him once. I was broken. Before my saints put me back together. Now that they're gone, I imagine that, what they did for me, I can do for someone else.

Thus, I pull him down to me, and he sits backward on the log. Softly, I caress his cheek, and pepper kisses on his temple, his eye, his cheekbone, down to the corner of his mouth, then his neck and the pulse point above his collarbone. His hand clutches my hair tightly. And he pushes me slightly back, clearing his throat.

"We can't do that… It's not safe in the dark."

We haven't seen a single walker since yesterday, though he's right. We're too exposed.

I smile: "I wasn't suggesting that. But I'm glad to know ye're thinking about it."

He huffs and squints at me as if I was a misbehaved kid. "Just wake me up when the moon gets over that tree." If it were a full moon, maybe we would see enough of our surroundings to afford messing around.

When he stands back up, I sigh:

"Goodnight, Daryl."

And, showing me I did win a little, he leans in, forces my chin up, and lays a soft kiss on my lips.

"G'night, Red."

He wakes up the second I enter the tent despite it being the middle of the night. Though he lets me lie beside him and trace lazy circles on his chest. When he stirs, I rest my head there. His hands come to brush my arms up and down, though he soon pushes me back again to straighten up. The look he gives me as he exits is the same I give him. Full of unsated lust. However, in this world, no one can afford to be reckless.

"Whatcha lookin' at?" he asks as we're striding down the hill the next day.

"Ye. Who else?"

He huffs, like I'm being ridiculous.

"Ye know, ye're a good-looking guy. I won't believe I'm the first to try and seduce ye…"

He growls and rolls his eyes. Though my unwavering look is enough to insist.

"I ain't a likeable guy." He shrugs as if he had accepted that a long time ago.

"Are ye kidding? I like ye. Carol likes ye. Young Beth is throwing side glances at ye like ye're eye candy." His own eyes widen at me and I burst out laughing. "She does!"

Though I quickly become serious again: "And Rick trusts ye. We all do."

His face closes down, as if I'd said something wrong. And he continues walking without a word.

"Ye might try, but ye won't convince me ye're a bad person anymore," I poke.

"Yeah? Ye wanna know the few girls I've been with before?" he explodes, and I wonder if I haven't crossed another line. "My brother fuckin' paid them. And not classy whores either. Just poor girls that would've rather be anywhere else."

I'm shaken. I've been on the other side of that bargain. When ye don't have anything left to offer but yerself. When ye do it for survival. And he reads it on my expression, the disgust.

We remain silent for a good part of the day. Just carrying our game back, collecting the traps, cleaning up what we caught. Then, watching him, I realise something I had never thought about before: sometimes these clients can be awful men, but sometimes they're just as lost and sad as the workers.

Thus, I suddenly raise my voice so he won't have any choice but to hear me: "Ye know, there's no pride in being experienced either. I've been screwing around since I was a teenager. I have slept with men out of desperation as well. Am I better than ye?"

He stares at me in complete silence.

"Well," I decide to continue, driving my knife in the hare I'm gutting now, "I don't care what ye did." And I raise my head to stare him back. "I know ye. I trust ye. And I won't stop trusting ye just because it makes ye uncomfortable."

He grumbles something unintelligible. And we straighten up to get on our way. But I can very well sense that he wants to say something. He just doesn't know how. So, I wait.

However, it doesn't come out. He can't yet. Thus, slowly, cautiously, I step closer. And I wrap my arms around him. Once again, he doesn't move, but he doesn't recoil either. I let my head rest against his chest, breathe in his neck. He doesn't hug me back, though, after a while, he takes a long breath as well, and I feel his fingers play with my loose hair.

When I finally pull back to look and grin at him, he only chews his lips, his eyes to the ground.

"Trust me, I have ways to make ye smile again," I say as a promise.

And he scoffs at me, so that's a half victory.