Note to self, hurricane is surprisingly inspiring weather.
It's past midnight so it's technically Monday now.
My zone is on standby for evacuation as of yesterday but mark my words I will not miss an update. Not even the 2nd biggest Atlantic coastal hurricane in history will break my streak (almost 3 years now) of never missing an update!
I wanted to post asap because it's almost a guarantee that I won't have power today, so enjoy this extra long juicy chp~
Of course Daryl was in the last room she checked, pacing a hole in the floor with his thumbnail in his mouth.
Daryl noticed her almost straight away and halted. "Ey."
Eve gave him an awkward smile as she closed the door. "Hey."
That threw him off. A verbal reply. It's just as jarring as the first time he ever heard her speak. He just assumes she's not going to so often that sometimes it really throws him.
Eve swallowed hard, feeling her throat muscles almost grind as she moved farther into the room despite wanting to do anything but press her back against the door and be ready to fling it open and take off. But that wouldn't be fair. One look at Daryl and she knows she's not the only one who wants to run from this and would rather just not deal with it, but a bigger part knows — and wants — to get the water clear again so they can get back to being comfortable. And this is the fastest way to do that.
"We — I thought it'd be ok if we just let it go and let bygones be bygones but I was wrong. We should talk about..." Eve made an out of character shaky gesture with her hand towards the wall.
"Yeah." Daryl looked at his shoes, folding his arms across his chest. His voice a tad gruffer than usual.
Eve wiped her palms on her thighs, an uncomfortable sweat beginning to collect in all sorts of places, like she's been cornered by something she can't fight and she's so close to making a run for it she might jump out that window just for a shortcut.
Thank all of creation she's the type of person to just get the hard part over with when there's no way around it.
So she sighed, using it to brace herself, deciding to lay all her cards on the table.
She's not gonna feel any less awkward or any less uncomfortable no matter how this conversation goes or how tactful she — or either of them try to be, so she might as well adjust and get it over with.
"Let's just— let's start with how you— we both feel about it."
'Off to a great start here' Eve could do without her own inner commentary right now but that would be boring for the universe.
Daryl nodded, his lips pinched tight together like he's put a sour in his mouth. He looks like he's being spoon-fed salt with a little lemon juice to wash it down.
A long silence passed, neither speaking up, both waiting for someone else to say it first.
They both sort of knew who would crack first. If there's no anger involved, Daryl's a lock box for things he doesn't wanna talk about. Eve's lip-zip in a tense atmosphere only breaks out when there's physical danger.
"I don't …" Eve wracked her brain for words, for the right way to put this to try and diffuse the tension a little. Cracking a joke probably isn't the best idea, Daryl would likely scoff but that won't help loosen his lips — ... Or will it? No no no— if she tries to come up with a joke right now it'll completely miss and make things worse.
"I ain't angry bout it." Daryl finally swallowed his discomfort to rescue Eve from herself.
'What?' Eve paused and stared at him. It didn't even occur to her that that's something someone might be angry about. — She has no idea why but, that's a thing some people are tetchy about.
She removed her tongue from her molars, not even aware until that moment that she's been tonguing them like there's caramel stuck in her teeth, and straightened her back a little.
"Me neither."
"What ..." Daryl stopped mid-start, rethinking asking but his mouth opened on it's own again to continue but Eve beat him to it.
"I don't think it was bad. Do you?"
"Nah" The word slipped out a little faster than expected, but only because he already knew the answer (ironically unaware of that fact).
Eve nodded, chewing her lips as she looked around the room, taking stock of it so she didn't have to look at Daryl. The beige carpet is surprisingly clean for how long it's been unattended. There's a bench underneath the two windows on the right-side wall when coming in from the door.
The whole room is shades of beige and dark wood, but the bed in the far left corner is a twin-size with a pink & white bedspread. Little fairy lights that have probably long run out of power strung on the wall above them.
Directly across from the door, behind Daryl there's a shelf built into the wall, crammed with all sorts of things. From stuffed animals to college textbooks, to trinkets and knick-knacks from all over the place.
The white dresser against the wall directly left of coming in the door is spilling over with very teenage girl things and as messy as a teenage boys room; just confined to the dresser.
The walk-in closet right next to it is worse. And not just because you can see directly into it by standing one step into the room and looking directly left.
Eve's tempted to go wrench that closet door shut (if she can find it), just to put her mind at ease about something possibly jumping out of there to grab her the second she looks away.
You can rationalize that they've been here long enough that if something was in there, it would've gotten out by now, but that doesn't change how she feels about it.
Part of her wishes she hadn't noticed it, but now that she knows, thinking about not knowing it was ever there, is somehow worse.
'Think Daryl would help me push that dresser in front of it?' Eve poked her tongue into her cheek and Daryl followed her eyes to the closet.
She either wants to go hide in it, or something about it's messing with her.
Either way, he sighed under his breath and went over before Eve even noticed he'd moved, and stepped inside to reach for the handle and pulled the door shut. Successful in bringing her attention back.
Good lord, sometimes she's so hard to keep on track — or to get off track — that he questions if she's adhd or somethin'. He doesn't know a lot about that sort of stuff, but he's seen his fair share of that particular one after sitting next to someone for his entire junior year who popped pills for it like tic tacs.
Eve gave him a sheepish smile, the apples of her cheeks tinting red in the dark before she turned and went to sit at the window bench. She pulled her legs up criss-cross applesauce, and somehow fits with this room like it's her own. Aside from the pink bedspread. She strikes Daryl as more of a dark purple kinda girl. Then again, she spends so much time looking at the sky, he could see blue too.
Daryl followed her to the window and leaned on the frame, looking out at the massive backyard and up to the deep blue sky, little white speckles pushing their way through the cold veil which is indescribable by any words he knows, maybe he could find them if he was anything of a wordsmith but he ain't. All he can say is that on nights like this, somehow you can just see the cold even if it looks no different than it did during the summer time.
'Ugh' Daryl mentally groaned at himself. Now he knows why Rick scrubs his hand down his face when talking to the group sometimes. He hates this. The awkward tension is disappearing but he still has no idea what to say — if there even is anything to say.
He couldn't stop thinking about it since it happened. How one stupid accident has tangled their partnership in an awkward web, but even now after getting an answer to one of his many questions, he still doesn't know how to ask the others that've been pestering him almost non-stop.
The forerunner being, does this change things?
Daryl almost deadpanned. Well he just figured out how to word it.
Having the sentence, turns out, doesn't change how difficult it is to ask it.
He stood there in silence, shifting on his feet, trying not to clear his throat, and got close to actually saying it several times before his throat just choked him silent, until he finally grew frustrated enough that he just looked at her and spat it out.
"Does this change things?"
Eve looked at him, her mouth opened like she had a reply but it's obvious she doesn't after nothing came out but then again, he's not always fluent in Eve speak.
Eve licked her lips and readjusted herself, taking a loaded breath before answering. "I thought it didn't, but yeah. I think it does. What about you?"
Daryl sighed and nodded, answering with a gruff, "Yeah." as he glanced back out the window for a second.
"It doesn't need to be a bad thing." It wasn't a question but Eve looked at him like it was all the same. She doesn't wanna just assume they have the same stance on this. They agree on a lot of things, but with them and their backgrounds, there are some … tricky territories.
"Glenn told me to figure out how I feel about it before we talked but… to be honest, I don't know how I feel about it."
"Me neither." Daryl admitted. And he can say with 100% certainty he would not have admitted that to anyone, except her.
"But I do know how I don't feel about it." Eve stated, already feeling her face go up 100 degrees and her voice dropped to barely above a mutter. "I didn't … not like it."
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