A/N: 12/26/2014 Depending on you guys' time zone, I may have missed the daily update (it's only 9:37pm over here right now) but at least you're getting it now, right? I hope everyone had an awesome Christmas! (=^_^=)/

wildcow258: Aww, thank you! I love it to bits when reviewers take the time to copy down their favorite parts of any given chapter, since I know ff doesn't allow you to just copy and paste. Yeah, I love that Daryl quote. It's one of my top favorites (I use it to trash talk with my sister all the time) XD

Prettyprincess45: Thank you! :)

chemfemme: Thanks ;)

Poppy P: 'I'm sure she considered the fact that Daryl would knock her off his bike'. Lol! I loved reading that XD Thank you for reviewing!

Terp4Life: Oooh thank you! I am ecstatic this is one of those super special stories that you just can't wait for. Hope you like this one! ^^

Reading time: 3 mins.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead.

Chapter ten: Funny~

It had been eight months since they had left the farm.

They never stayed in one place anymore, not for more than a few days.

But then they found the prison.

It was bland and gray and dirty, but to them, it was Heaven. It was thick and heavy and cold and safe, and it had been so long since any of them had dared to use the word. It was overrun with walkers past the gates, but inside the fences, it was safe enough for them to spend the night. Rick had told them they would clear it out tomorrow, but for now, they would rest.

Daryl stood quietly with Carol atop an overturned bus, away from the others, as he chowed on the food she'd brought him. You'd never eat if I didn't bring you something, she'd always say.

They'd cleared out the walkers outside the gates so they could set up camp, and Carol had only just recently been weilding a gun (they'd practiced, but he didn't trust her to actually use one in a real situation until the past month or so). They'd spent a lot of time together. And so he didn't miss the way she flinched and clenched her jaw when she twisted her neck to face him.

"...What's wrong?" he asked, and her gaze snapped up to his.

"Oh, just the...rifle, I'm...I'm not used to the kickback," she replied, wincing as she tilted her head and rotated her shoulder.

He paused in his chewing, swallowed, and set down the tray of food she'd brought him to give her his undivided attention. He made a swirling motion with his finger, signaling her to turn around, and she looked at him questioningly, but nevertheless obeyed.

His fingers dug into her shoulder, trying to get past the armor of bone and into the aching muscles, but immediately soothed his grip when she bit her lip to keep from making a sound of discomfort.

He continued to massage her shoulder for a few more moments to try and ease her pain, but then he realized that he had no idea what he was doing and people usually needed degrees for this type of thing and this was far too intimate for their kind of relationship, and then she looked at him over her shoulder and he just stopped.

He looked down at his feet, at the ground, at the fences - anywhere but at the woman standing in front of him.

"...We should head back," he said finally, wanting nothing more than to move on.

"I dunno," she said, shrugging. "It's pretty romantic-" she gestured to the night air. "...Wanna screw around?"

He stared at her, eyes bugging out of his skull, cheeks flushing at her alleged invitation.

But then she looked at him and smiled, and then she burst out laughing, and then some of the red drained from his face and he could think again.

He didn't know what else to say, so he decided to merely brush it off with a well-placed, "Pfft."

She laughed again, and he moved into a crouching position to hop down from the bus. "I'll go down first," he called over his shoulder.

She laughed. "Even better."

He turned his head to hide his smile. "Stop."

She only laughed again in response, and as he hopped off the bus and turned to help her down, he held back a chuckle.

As they made their way back to the group, a thought came to him.

There was something else he could add to the growing list of things that Carol was.

Funny.

A/N: Up next: Dead.

If anyone would like to share what they got for Christmas, I'm all ears. I love reading that stuff (I got a couple of video games, the Alien film quadrilogy, comics, candy, a spirograph, and a hair brush). You can just pm me if you don't wanna leave it in a review :)

See you tomorrow!