Whenever Carol felt out of sorts she cooked, it was a pleasant and soothing distraction; following a set series of instructions to achieve the desired outcome, with no surprises along the way.
And she liked that.
It allowed her mind to focus on the task at hand while her problems quietly chattered in the back of her mind until she came to a resolve. So as she stood in the kitchen that morning, pajama clad and shoe-less, with her short curls sticking out in all directions, she waited for an epiphany of some sort. In the past twenty four hours she'd suffered a case of mild separation anxiety from her daughter, walked the streets in the wee hours and kissed her best friend. On the lips. For a very long time. However, as she sorted the last batch of cookies away into containers, realization washed over her and her epiphany struck.
It was not baked goods or fresh foodstuffs she craved, it was the company of her best friend.
On any regular day they would have caught up so the girls could play, she imagined they would have been sipping on coffee and refereeing whatever game the girls were playing, or settling a television control dispute. Only they weren't, and Carol felt like it was because of the kissing.
She wasn't exactly sure who had initiated the kiss she and Daryl had shared several hours earlier, but she kissed back and, if she was honest, she enjoyed it. She just didn't know how Daryl was feeling, and so she hadn't invited him over as she might have any other day, because she was giving him some time. But after several hours of hiding away in her house, she needed to get to the bottom of things, mostly because the curiosity was killing her over whether or not Daryl wanted to be more than friends, but first and foremost because Carol didn't want the circumstances to affect Lily and Sophia's friendship. And so, in a moment of boldness, she changed into something suitable to wear on her brief trip out of the house, pulled on the pair of sneakers she left by the door and marched across the street, into Dixon territory.
Daryl awoke with a sharp jolt and sprung up from where he'd fallen asleep on the sofa. With a loud thunk he rolled onto the floor and let out a low hiss at the sudden feel of his body meeting the floor, nonetheless he scrambled up to his feet and searched for the sound that had woken him, for several beats the house was silent but then he heard it, a soft knocking at the door. Fishing through his pocket he dug out his phone and clicked it on to check the time, and discovered it was late morning, he also discovered several calls from a private number (guaranteed to be Merle) and a single text from Lily (Can you pick me up around noon? Thanks). Shoving it back into his pocket and scrubbing at his eyes he shambled to the door. When he swung it open he was not surprised to see Carol standing on the porch. He threw a quick glance to her lips before looking down at the ground and shuffling out of the doorway and joining her on the porch, where he finally met her gaze.
"Did I wake you up?" Carol asked, her eyes scanning over his face as she shifted her weight to one side. Daryl coughed and shook his head.
"No," he lied, receiving a disbelieving look from Carol he ducked his head and shrugged. "Yeah." He admitted. He was glad to be awake though, he would have hated it if he'd been late to pick up Lily or made himself late for work.
"Good," she half jested, a smile creeping onto her face. She thought about turning around and going home then, but reminded herself that the last time she'd avoided this she'd ended up with a surplus of baked goods and pancakes. "Since you're up, did you want to come over for breakfast? - You look like you could use some coffee." She didn't miss the way he perked up at the sound of coffee.
"Yeah, sure." He agreed, Carol nodded at him.
"Come over when you're ready." And with that, she spun on her heel to leave Daryl standing on the porch, staring after her.
The table was set for two; two mugs, two plates with toppling towers of pancakes and two sets of silverware, even though Carol was highly aware Daryl seldom used either fork nor knife. From the kitchen the clock radio crackled away so quietly Carol couldn't even really hear what was being said, and sitting in the refrigerator there were enough cookies for a small army and an Eiffel tower sized stack of freshly cooked pancakes, it was a stack of shame, and it was stowed away safely out of sight for the time being.
Daryl stood by the kitchen counter at Carol's house, idly glancing at the few knickknacks on display, as he always did when he came over. His favorite was the little ceramic deer that sat on the window sill on the far side of the kitchen.
"Coffee?" Carol asked, jarring Daryl out of his thoughts. He nodded and walked toward the table, where Carol was already comfortably in her seat, by the time Daryl was seated a steaming mug was being slid across the table to him, which he accepted and took a gulp from. The coffee was a little sweeter than he usually would have taken it but it wasn't bad at all and he continued to swig from the mug. "What time you get to sleep last night?" Carol's face crinkled as she watched Daryl place his mug down in favor of shoveling food into his mouth.
"Late." He said around a mouthful that was maybe a little too large. Carol nodded and began to poke at her own pancake, which she had absentmindedly shredded with her fork.
"Me too," Carol mumbled before taking a bite and swallowing. "Glenn texted me this morning, by the way. I think you might just be his new best friend." The change of pace in the conversation was well received and a mischievous smile tugged at Carol's lips and she leaned back a little in her seat at the same time Daryl leaned forward in his. He took a momentary pause from chomping and slurping to look at Carol with a furrowed brow.
"Huh?" He sat up a little straighter and his eyes narrowed. Carol nodded and smiled.
"He asked for your number, I think he wants to hang out sometime and he and Maggie need a hand with some stuff." Carol had to bite the inside of her cheek to stifle her chuckles as she saw Daryl's facial expression, mouth hanging open and an eyebrow raised, he looked like a deer in headlights, but he quickly shook it off and went back to stabbing at the food on his plate.
"Gonna have ta' pass on that one." He muttered, quirking his brow. Carol fixed him with a look and frowned.
"Glenn's a nice guy, you guys had fun last night, I had fun, it was fun." The mention of the night before made Daryl think of how he and Carol had kissed and he felt himself blushing, he shrugged and gave a sigh.
"What's the kid want?" He grumbled, keeping his eyes on his shoes until he could feel the heat creeping out of his cheeks.
"His family are coming down to stay and he needs a hand to move some stuff around, think you could manage it? Please, for me?" Ultimate puppy face on, Carol leaned on the table and rested her head against her fist while taking small bites of her meal. At the time, she wasn't aware that the magic words 'for me' more or less won her that round.
"Guess I could do that." Daryl rolled his eyes and Carol clapped her hands together before standing from her seat.
"Great, I'll have him call or text or something." She trailed off as she picked up her plate and mug before depositing the dirty dishes in the kitchen sink. Daryl picked up his own plate (which he'd cleared long before Carol was done eating) and his mug, which was also empty, and followed along after her. Leaning around her, he dumped them in the water to soak.
It wasn't until Carol spun around from facing the counter that Daryl realized he was standing so very close to her, he felt his heart start to beat a little faster.
"Sorry, was tryna-" he gestured toward the sink and fidgeted with nervous energy. Daryl felt comfortable around Carol and it was nice to be so close to her, at the same time though she gave him the jitters and he'd damned if he knew how she did it all at once.
"It's fine," she shook her head and smiled, although neither made an attempt to move. Carol sunk her teeth into her lower lip and gnawed at the skin there for a few moments. "Hey, listen, about last night," she began.
Daryl braced himself for the worst and he could feel his hands sweating. Then he started doing what he did best: over thinking. She was mad, or she didn't like it, or thought it was stupid.
"I meant it when I said I had fun and I meant it when I said-" it was romantic? "Well, you know. I'm happy we went together, Daryl." She nodded and Daryl felt all his worry leave him, partly because he knew she was talking about what happened between them on the porch, but mostly because he could feel Carol's warm hand slipping into his, he only wished his hand wasn't so sweaty. Still, Carol didn't seem to mind and she gave his hand a gentle squeeze. "Maybe we could do it again sometime… if you wanted."
"Yeah." All Daryl could manage was a simple 'yeah' and a foot shuffle and a tiny nod before he felt Carol's hand leave his. And he had to admit, he missed it being there, his brow drew together and he looked up to Carol.
"But for now, we have to pick the girls up. They're probably exhausted."
"Sophia, wake up." Lily gently nudged her friend back into the land of the wakeful. Ever since being woken up Sophia had been dozing off onto Lily's shoulder as they waited on the steps out front to be picked up. You'd never seen a sorrier looking bunch than the four preteens who sat on the steps. Not only was a sleepy Sophia falling asleep on everyone and everything, she was a sleep huggger, and wound her arms around whatever she dozed on. Lily looked like a mess, with her bright red curls sticking up and her eyes looking watery and bloodshot, not to mention the grime on her face. Next to the girls, one Duane Jones was nursing a candy induced stomach cramp and on the grass in front of the trio Carl Grimes was repeatedly poking everyone in the shins and untying their shoes.
And they hadn't slept one damn wink.
At midnight, the television and lights had gone off and the younger children had gone to bed, but not Carl Grimes. He didn't want to go to bed, he wanted to tell spooky stories, and so that's what he did, until a game of truth or dare took launch sometime around two in the morning. From there onward it was a downward spiral and the children had woken that morning slumped in a pile of sleeping bags, stuffed animals and candy bars.
"Sleep well, guys?" An overly enthusiastic Amy bounced over to the group, earning herself some very bemused glares. Nonetheless, she persisted and handed them each a flyer. "Since we have enough people, we're thinking of putting on a play. Sound like something you guys would be interested in?" She offered a sheet of paper to them each to look over and Lily and Sophia exchanged a look.
"We'll do it." Lily shrugged, accepting a sheet of paper on a clipboard and a pen from Amy so she could write her and Sophia's name down (as Sophia seemed just a little too out of it to write much of anything). The boys jotted their names down too before returning to their original state. For a few moments there was a quiet chatter over the group, which was quickly broken by the beep of a car horn as Carol and Daryl pulled up at the side of the road, the two guardians walked ( maybe just a little too quickly) towards their respective wards.
Moments later Carol was met with a sleepy bear hug from Sophia and Daryl was given some sort of side-on awkward hug from Lily, who promptly handed him the flyer with the information on the upcoming play. Similarly, Sophia handed her mom the flyer she had been given and the two girls waited for the adults to read. Daryl looked at his niece with an unreadable expression
"It's a play, Daryl." Lily beamed, he raised an eyebrow.
"I know, I can read." He said sarcastically. Sophia, who was wrapped around her mom's legs, looked up toward the adults' faces.
"Can we do it?" She asked, Carol exchanged a look with Daryl and they each gave some sort of shrug, a quick "yeah" was said to the girls before they gave a small cheer.
"We're going to be famous." Lily excitedly whispered with Sophia before the tired twosome crawled into the backseat of Carol's car and curled up for a nap. It dawned on Carol that Daryl probably had precious little experience with tired children and she turned to face him.
"You working today?" She asked, he nodded and looked at the girls in the backseat, who had almost already fallen asleep.
"Lil' later this afternoon." He replied.
"I'll watch the girls, you can't keep going to work on three hours sleep." She gently chided, Daryl rolled his eyes. "Really, it'll be no trouble." She added, Daryl decided to take her up on the offer so he might get some shut eye before work.
"I can pick Lily up around six 'r seven." He told her, she nodded as she walked by Daryl to climb back into the car, giving Daryl a little nudge on the way.
A.N: I'm an asshole and you can throw things at me, let the bricks fly. I keep saying I'm going to update and then ugh. School is killing me and then I posted a few other fanfics and now I'm scrambling to try to update stuff but here it is in writing: I will be updating regularly again, mostly because I'm about to finish some half-yearlies :D Anyway, what did you think? I hope it doesn't all seem too rushed or choppy eheh *hides*. I also thought it was a little OOC but idk. What did you guys think of it? I hope you liked it :)
TL;DR: I'm a walnut who never updates and when I do it sucks but I'm finishing some exams and so my updates will be regular again (and hopefully suck less).
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Next chapter: Carol force feeds Daryl, Merle calls and Lily and Daryl have a painful but necessary chat.