AN: A lot of the Daryl/OC pieces out in the fabulous fanfiction universe begin with either the OC or Daryl being trapped by a walker horde, the other rescuing them, etc etc etc. Don't get me wrong- I love those stories just as much as y'all do! I wanted to challenge myself to create a character that Daryl would fall in love with in a moment of relative safety. The character and Daryl's reaction to her were inspired by Norman Reedus's remark, ""The thing about that is, I really want to play him sort of- he's not the type of guy that's gonna like, throw you up against the tree in the moonlight. I want him to be awkward as possible, so um, I mean, once that happens, it happens," and "If Daryl falls in love with you, he's going to love you for the rest of his life."
I honestly don't know how long this is going to be! I'm just kind of flying with it. If you guys have any suggestions, wishes, and other such fantastical things, shout them over to me please! Happy reading!
The sun was rising later and later, Daryl noticed as he lazily made his way down the front porch. It was nearly 8 AM, and the rays were just starting to peek over the top of the Alexandria wall.
"Gonna get cold soon," he muttered to Rick, who was sitting at the bottom stair of the porch, watching the same scene. Rick gave him a small smile as a greeting and nodded.
"At least this time we have actual shelter," Rick responded, and Daryl gave a grunt in reply. Yes, shelter was good. The houses were great, actually. Just…it was still taking some getting used to, white picket fences and side-paneled houses. For Rick, and many of the other "family" members, it was returning to a previous life. For Daryl, it was living in a luxury he never thought he would experience.
"Where are you heading out to?" Rick asked Daryl.
"Gonna head over to Aaron's, got a bike he wants me to fix up."
Rick smiled again at the news. He had been mildly concerned about Daryl finding a place in the new town, especially with some of the social standards set within the walls. While Aaron and Eric had been Rick's last guess for Daryl to form a connection with, he was glad to see the hunter trusting beyond the original group.
"Well good luck on that. I'll be patrolling around with Michonne today," Rick said as he got to his feet. "We'll swing by and see if you need any help."
"Aight, see ya," Daryl nodded as he headed down the driveway.
Daryl arrived at Aaron and Eric's and stopped on the front lawn. The garage door was open, revealing his day's work, but neither men were out. Daryl contemplated knocking on the door, but wasn't sure if the open garage was a sign that they didn't want him to come into the house.
He looked around, making sure no one else was out on the street to witness his being stumped like an idiot. He had no idea what kind of social protocol there was for this. Heck, when he was a kid, he never went over to any other houses! The neighborhood kids all played in the empty lots outside. Here, in clean suburbia, he was out of his element.
"Normally, I'd ask if you were lost," a voice whispered in his ear, and the hunter almost jumped six feet into the air.
"Shit!" he swore, turning to see a tall, lean woman standing behind his shoulder, her eyes laughing at him as she politely tried to hide the smile on her lips. "Jesus woman, ain't anyone ever told ya not to sneak up on folks?"
She shrugged nonchalantly. "Guess I missed that day in school. By the looks of it, you missed the day on how to knock on front doors?"
He glared at her, feeling annoyed that she had seen his social ineptitude. "I fuckin' know how to knock!"
She looked confused and mildly amused at his defensiveness, then turned her face towards the house. "AARON! ERIC! GET OUT HERE!"
Motions were heard from inside the house, and then the front door cracked open and a bleary-eyed Aaron poked his head out. "Jesus Christ, Ry, it's 8 in the morning! There's no need for shouting!" He then saw Daryl and said, "Morning Daryl. You're here early."
"Sorry, didn't realize…" Daryl muttered.
"No, no, it's fine. The garage is open, so you can just pop by whenever you feel like it. Eric and I usually are up around 9, LIKE MOST PEOPLE." He explained, shooting a glare at the girl's direction.
"That's probably why I get the most done," the girl smirked back playfully at him. "Angel here would have been standing on your lawn till 9 and lost daylight."
Daryl gave her a befuddled look at the name she gave him. "Angel?"
She tapped the wings on the back of his leather vest. "You must have also missed the day on introducing yourself before people have to assign nicknames to refer to you."
Aaron rolled his eyes at her bantering. "Ry, I swear, must you harass everyone?"
"Nope, just the newcomers lost in a four-block town," she smiled. "I gotta get back to my run." Daryl looked down at her attire and noticed that she was wearing black running tights and a long-sleeved, tight blue shirt. "Nice to meet you, Angel. I'm glad we got to review calling on neighbors together, I was getting rusty myself. Aaron, as always, it was a joy to see your smiling face at this lovely hour."
"Get off my lawn, Ry, and you better not ever come back before 10 AM," Aaron said, but winked at her and gave her a smile as she took off. Daryl shook his head at her retreating back and headed for the open garage.
"Well, since I was so rudely awakened, I'll be down in a few minutes," Aaron told him, and disappeared back into the house.
Daryl was propping up the back tire to get a better look at the underside of the bike when Aaron entered the garage space, this time fully dressed and hair combed.
"How's it looking?" Aaron asked him.
"Not too bad," Daryl told him. The bike and all the parts were in decent shape; it was just going to be a matter of putting them back together again. "Should have her up and runnin' in a few days. Might have to go get a few more parts, but nothin' major."
"Ok. Let me know what parts you need, and maybe draw a basic description. I can give the list to Ry and she can go get them."
Daryl looked up at him in surprise. "Ry? You mean that girl from earlier?"
"Yep. She's our runner."
Daryl gave him a look of confusion. Aaron smiled at him and gave a small laugh.
"Sorry. I've been here for too long, obviously. Some of our terms are becoming a part of my natural vocabulary. A runner is someone who goes on supply runs without a vehicle. Bringing your group in took a bit more gas than we anticipated, and cost us two vehicles…"
"Sorry bout that," Daryl muttered.
"It's fine. All part of the world now, right? But we're trying to cut down on fuel and vehicles until we have a chance to recover from that. So Ry goes out on foot, or on her bike if it's a longer trip, and comes back. Necessities or things we need to get our vehicles back into shape, mostly. She does patrols for large biter groups in a radius around the fence, too."
"Interestin', "Daryl responded. "She been here since the beginning?"
"No…," Aaron trailed off. "Look, her story is her own and no one here knows much about her past. In fact, what we call her isn't even her name."
"Ry ain't her name?"
"Well, Ry is short for Rylynn. When she was brought into Alexandria she barely spoke for a few days. When she finally came out of her shell, it was mostly to talk about current things, not her past. She wouldn't tell us the name of the people who she had been travelling with, or her home town, or even where she had been all this time. She didn't even tell anyone her own name. At her welcome party, she picked up Eric's guitar and played this beautiful piece. When Eric asked what it was called, she said, 'Rylynn'. So that's what we've been calling her."
"So what, she's like a weird mystery or somethin'?"
"No. She's perfectly normal, as far as we can tell. High functioning, despite all she went through out there. Social, even though we think she was alone for a while. She just doesn't seem to want to remember anything that came before this."
"It's a personal thing," a female voice echoed off the walls. Daryl jumped again and knocked his head on the kickstand.
"Fuck!" he swore, rubbing his head. "Can't ya just say hello when ya show up?!"
"Rylynn, sorry," Aaron said, ashamed that he had been gossiping about her.
"It's all fine, Aaron. I don't' expect people to just forget that I don't' talk about what came before. Like I said, it's a personal decision I make." She looked over at Daryl. "Well, now you know what I'm called. Care to share yours?"
"My apologies again," Aaron said, offering Daryl his hand and hauling him to his feet. "Daryl, this is Rylynn, better known as Ry. Ry, this is Daryl. He is a member of Rick's group."
"I've heard things about you. Lone wolf, hunter type." Ry said, watching Daryl's face as she laid out the assessment of him.
"Close enough," Daryl mumbled.
Aaron cut in. "He's fixing up the motorcycle for me and then he and I will be heading out to recruit more people together."
A genuine grin split Ry's face. "That's wonderful! I didn't like the idea of you going out alone. Can I still come with you guys occasionally?"
"Sure," Aaron said, and Daryl shot him an exasperated look.
"What?" Ry said, mildly offended. "I'm obviously quiet on my feet- quiet enough to sneak up on you. Twice."
"Won't happen again," Daryl promised her somewhat aggressively. He expected her to back off, or shy away, but instead she openly laughed.
"You have nothing to prove, Daryl. I'm not a threat to anyone's status or place here."
He was taken aback by her to-the-core observation, but she was too busy turning her attention back to Aaron to notice.
"I remembered that I came by earlier to talk about a replacement vehicle with you. What are we looking for? I want to keep my eyes out on my runs and was thinking of…"
Daryl left the two to their conversation and turned his attention back to the bike, but occasionally snuck a peek at the girl conversing with his friend. She was long and lean, with not a lot of extra meat on her. Definitely built like an endurance athlete. Her skin was on the darker side, but he suspected that was due to a tan from running all summer long. She had a sharp profile but soft eyes, and her long hair was more gold on the bottom, a dark brown on the top. She must have dyed it blonde before the world went to hell, and the brown must be her true colors…
"Ok, well I'll keep my eyes out for that type of car. Keep your fingers crossed."
"Aaron, hand me that c-clamp," Daryl called from under the bike. A pair of hands appeared under the bike with a c-clamp, but Daryl was surprised to see pink polish on the nails.
"Thanks," he muttered. A few seconds later, the hands appeared again with an f-clamp.
"I don't need that right now," he grumbled.
"You will once you get to that intake valve," Ry responded, and placed it next to his head. He looked up at the intake valve and saw that he would need it to clamp the piece in place before securing it properly.
"Uh…thanks," he responded, finally making eye contact with his newfound respect. As soon as he did, he felt his fingertips go numb. Her eyes were a blend of grey and gold specks, and while the color was stunning enough, what struck him was the expression in her eyes. It was kindness and laughter and honesty, wrapped in confidence and exuding empathy.
She gave him a small smile that seemed to fill the garage. "No problem, Daryl. I hope I see you around."
And then she was turning on her heel, running down the driveway, and was gone.
AN: So, what do you think? Feedback is always appreciated. I know we didn't get too much backstory on Ry…in fact, we don't even know her real name! I suppose we will have to unravel the mystery with Daryl.