Since that day Daryl would try to go to Alma's café as often as he possibly could, which wasn't necessarily all that often, but still often enough for Alma to take quite the liking to him.
Alma learned that Daryl had a lot of baggage, and after a lot of calm encouraging and close to zero pressuring he had actually let her in to his little fort. And contrary to Daryls beliefs the young DiAngelo didn't run away. She didn't even pity him. She just quieted down for a minute before slowly nodding and continuing onto the next topic of discussion. And for that he would be forever grateful because it was at that point that he knew how much he respected the petite girl.
Weeks of acquaintance-ship turned into months of friendship and finally a year of some intense crushing on each other. Alma could almost immediately identify the emotion when it ruptured in her chest after knowing the handsome redneck for about 182 days (which Alma knew for sure due to her trusty journal she so religiously wrote in whenever something happens).
Daryl however wasn't sure what was going on, being in tune with his emotions weren't really something he had mastered after all. But as time went on he found himself almost being pulled toward Alma, but instead of feeling like a moth drawn to a flame, he kinda felt like a cat drawn to its pray. Whenever he was around the overly kind woman, the one who smiled at strangers and offered her aid to people that most people would either run away from or spit at, he felt like a monster. How could he, the useless younger son of an alcoholic father and a criminal brother ever think it was fine to take up so much of her time.
One sunny day in the middle of July, a year and a half after their initial meeting, Daryl was left to deal with his feelings, weather he wanted to or not.
Alma was waiting outside of the café in white ripped shorts, a flowy blue tank top, aviator sunglasses and light colored vans. Baxter was standing patiently by her side as she was smiling and humming. Daryl approached her cautiously, not the least bit calmed by the innocent smile she threw his way.
"The hell you doin' outside the café, ain't it a week day?" Daryl questioned, eyeing her casual attire. It was quite the change from the multiple variations of white long-sleeved shirts and black pants (or maybe the occasional black skirt).
"WEEEEE," Alma said, animatedly motioning between the two of them before she grabbed ahold of his arm, pulling him towards the bus stop, "are going to the zoo!"
Daryl stiffened up when she touched him but gradually relaxed under her touch. Baxter walked on Daryls other side, occasionally licking his hand, to which Daryl responded by momentarily moving his hand away before giving up when he noticed the hurt puppy eyes the toller got, not knowing what he did wrong.
They stopped and stood wordlessly, Alma still holding onto his arm, waiting for the bus that would take them from the outskirts to Zoo Atlanta.
"Why're you going to tha zoo? I mean…why're you going with…." before Daryl could finish Alma turned her head up towards him and smiled.
"With you?" she guessed, cocking her head to the left.
Daryl only nodded, looking at his torn up boots.
Alma giggled and squeezed his arm lightly.
"We are friends, right?" Daryl nods, still looking at the ground with great interest. "And friends do stuff together. We only meet at the café. Don't get me wrong, I love our little..." she took a small pause "…breakfast slash lunch slash dinner slash coffee dates but we have known each other for over a year and never been out to do anything! And I know you told me you sold some of that meat you got from the last trip you took and so I thought maybe you would want to go out for the day! Was I wrong?" she asked, now almost worried that she had crossed some sort of unspoken boundary.
Unfortunate for her, Daryl were still stuck on the word 'dates'. He felt like if she had been anyone else, he would have told them to fuck off and shoved her off of him. But coming from her, the words and actions nearly made him stutter.
Daryl could feel her inquisitive eyes on him and guessed that he had somehow missed the question. So he stubbornly pushed down the flutter from somewhere deep inside of him and turned his head to the side, muttering a 'whatever'.
And no matter how bitter he would have seemed to everyone else, Alma once again squeezed his arm and happily turned back to watch the passersby.
When they got off the bus Daryl realized that they were a fairly long walk away from the zoo, but Alma appeared to know where she was going. Baxter was just a few paces ahead, obviously also in on the plan. Daryl huffed out a breath, feeling irrationally left out.
They stopped in front of a big red house with white house-corners. The toller ran up towards the porch and started barking, alerting the older couple who seemed to be living there. The young Dixon stopped and looked down at Alma with an uncertain expression.
Alma smiled widely and pulled him with her towards the duo only letting him go to show the pair some love in the form of bear-hugs and kisses on both of their cheeks.
"Daryl, this is Mable and Davide DiAngelo, the creators of the most beautiful work of art in Atlanta!" Alma said gesturing toward her parents and then herself taking a light bow before releasing another giggle. Mable shook her head while looking lovingly at her not-so-little girl. Davide's eyes however where stuck on Daryl, not judging him, but most definitely studying him.
"And mother, papa, this is the one and only hunter extraordinaire, and one of my best peripheries friend Daryl Dixon!" Alma exclaimed, reclaiming her place next to him and smiling brightly.
Her mother quickly enveloped him in a tight hug, making him stiffen up, but he was too busy trying his best not to offend anyone to react as he usually would.
"Ahhh, hallo Dachyl, you seem like a real….ahh…boy from a farm!" Almas father said happily in a broad accent, grabbing Daryls hand with his right one and patting his shoulder with the left one.
"Country-boy papa, it's called being a country-boy" shouted a voice from inside the house.
"Yes, yes, yes." Davide said, nodding his head.
"Well, we will keep a close eye on little Baxter 'til next week if that's alright with you Queenie, Julian wants to bring him to the mountains over the upcoming weekend!" Maple said, brushing her thumb over her daughters' cheek. Alma nodded her head happily.
Before leaving she shouted a 'LOVE YOU' into the house earning a 'yeah you too' from who Daryl deduced to be Julian.
The rest of the day passed by swimmingly, they went to the zoo, ate some food and watched a few of the shows. But mostly they just strolled around the different enclosures. Turns out Alma holds a lot of information about a lot of unnecessary things.
In the end the young woman actually managed to get Daryl on the carousel, though it took a lot of whining and ego-stroking to convince him.
On the carousel is where he realized. It was like he had suddenly been doused in cold water. At the time he probably wouldn't have called it love, but one thing he knew for sure was that he somehow didn't want her to not be around him.
Daryl was so lost in this fact that he hadn't noticed the ride stop, and he hadn't noticed her stand right next to him looking up with curious eyes. He was also so lost in this new revelation of emotions that he hadn't noticed his own actions until his lips were already firmly planted on hers.