LIGHT A FIRE

{Author's Note: Here we go my lovelies: chapter 15! Trust me, you will LOVE this chapter ;). Enjoy! Please read & review if you have time. x}

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the character(s) you don't recognise.
Lyrics: Sparks Fly by Julia Sheer (Taylor Swift Cover).

You touch me once and it's really something,
You find that I'm even better than you imagined I would be…

-+-
[IN THE WOODS| WITH DARYL & JOE'S GROUP]

I didn't trust them.
It felt as though all of the effort I had put in to escape Harry and his army of rapists was all in vain.
Judging a book by its cover was something I would never of done before, but now it's vital to trust your gut instincts and first impression.
Joe was a very clever man; maybe not so much 'book smart', but he definitely had the gift of the gab.
Though what scared me even more was how Daryl acted as though he belonged with these men.
It was as though all of the previous years where I spent time in showing him that he is not defined by what people say, no longer mattered.

"So," Joe had bounded over to me with a knowing smirk on his face, "How did a girl like you end up with Daryl? Not that I'm sayin' he isn't good enough, but you look…well, as Len put it, 'a prime bit of meat'."

I flinched inwardly at his choice of words as I didn't dare turn my head towards either him or Len, instead I kept my eyes trained on the back of Daryl's vest.
"Daryl is a good man, there is not a vicious bone in his body-"

Joe scoffed, "Let me tell you somethin' Tessa-it is Tessa, right?"
He paused briefly to wait for me nodding my head in acknowledgement, as he smiled and continued smugly, "Before all of this, I'm betting that you were a good little preacher's daughter with no money worries or a criminal record-am I right?"

"My Father was a financial director of a company, actually."

"But you still walked the line?"

"For the most part." I answered him back shortly, already knowing exactly what he was trying to get at.

Joe watched me closely as he said, "You've lived a very sheltered life Tessa, and that's fine! We can't hold that against you. But Daryl? He's one of us."

At his last comment I had turned swiftly to look at him in fierce defiance, "He is nothing like you!"

Something dark shifted behind Joe's eyes before his lips curved upwards in amusement, "Isn't he? You could never understand him the way we do Tessa. Do you know what I see when I look at you? I see a scared girl who needs a man to look out for her! Do you know what I see with Daryl?" He smirked, "I see a man who has been forced to domesticate himself; you're stunting his personal growth."

I scoffed in shock and anger, "Do you hear yourself?! I know exactly what type of men you and your group are! And you're right about one thing, I am scared…"

He nodded, "Well, it is to be expect-"

"But not for myself! I'm scared for Daryl being manipulated by-"
I was forced to stop myself short as once again my injury was starting to ache as the painkillers I had been given a couple of hours earlier were starting to wear off.

"You know, usually when people are hospitable, it is the polite thing to thank them, not to criticise…"
Joe had leant into my ear to mutter that comment.
"He fits in with us; plain and simple. Are you scared that you'll lose your lap dog?"

My lips twitched in anger as I muttered back lowly, "No…I'm scared that he'll end up losing control and waste his last arrows on you assholes."

I felt him stiffen against me before he suddenly laughed and pulled away from my body, "I like you! You have fire…you're gonna need that around here!"

Daryl had turned around by that point to watch us closely, I could see him silently communicating to me on whether or not I needed any help.

Shaking my head, I just carried on trudging forwards.
What could I say to him? That I don't trust who we were with?
Daryl isn't stupid; he knows how dangerous they are as much as me.

"Here, boys! We'll set up camp here for the night! I'm sure that our lady friend is feeling the strain of her injury?"
Joe had called out to them all before giving me an amused glance.

"I offered to help her with it!" Len had smirked at me as he winked, "I have been told that I have magic hands…"

I shuddered before moving closer to Daryl who was shooting him a glare that reminded me of the age-old saying; 'if looks could kill'.

"You okay?" He chewed on his bottom lip in agitation as his stare never left Len.

"Daryl?" I sighed softly before placing my hand on his cheek and turning his face towards mine, "We need to go and ditch these guys. They are dangerous."

He made a face, "It ain't that easy…"

"They will kill us!" I whispered to him sharply.

"They'll kill us if we leave too! We need to wait…"

Frustration took over, as I swore under my breath, "We never get a moment's rest, do we?"

He shook his head before indicating to the dense woodlands, "Wanna go huntin' with me? Teach you a few things…"

A natural smile touched my lips, "Really? You trust me to hold your crossbow?"

"Yeah, just don't drop it."

"I'm not that clumsy!" I laughed softly before following him away from where the others were settling down.
A part of me wondered whether this lesson was just to keep me safe from Joe and his friends, but whatever the reason was, I looked forward to learning new skills.

-+-
[IN THE WOODS| WITH DARYL| EARLY MORNING]

"You wanna hold it?"

"It's going to be heavy, right? And you'll just do your typical macho manly shrug and say that it's fine?"

Daryl smirked as he made a big effort of shrugging and saying, "It's fine."

I laughed before carefully taking the crossbow off him, gasping at how the weapon was even more heavier than I thought it would be.
'No wonder he has arms like that…' I thought perversely as I had to bit down on my bottom lip hard to vanquish the feelings that entered my head.

Clearing my throat, I held up the weapon the best that I could as I looked around, "So, what do I do with it?"

He had come over to wrap his arms around mine to help me hold up the crossbow better as he rested his chin on my shoulder, carefully avoiding the graze.
"Look down the scope at what you wanna shoot at, take a deep breath…keep your finger like that…" He moved one of his hands down to enclose around my hand that was hovering over the trigger as I could feel shivers dance up my spine.
"Then you shoot…"

I closed my eyes, feeling the warmth of his body seep into mine, "What if I miss?" Whispering, I managed to open my eyes slowly but still kept my gaze focused ahead.

"You won't." His lips brushed against the crook of my neck as he had moved his head to check for signs of any wildlife around us.

Then it happened.
I blamed the lack of painkillers, or needing some form of human contact after the horrors of the last few days, but either way; I initiated something that was only the beginning.

Dropping the crossbow to the ground by our feet, I turned around and reached up with steady hands to pull his face down towards mine, my lips meeting his in a passionate kiss that sent my body hard up against Daryl's.

Gasping against his lips, I was about to pull back when I felt his hands come up to fist themselves in my long hair as his lips attacked mine with their own intense need.
I melted into him, it was almost as though we were letting out all of our frustrations and anger at the events of the last few months by owning up to our feelings.
Pulling away briefly to drag in air, I let out a shocked gasp at the expression on his face.
It was one I had never seen before; and one that only I wanted to be able to evoke from him.

We only got a second to catch our breath before our lips met again in a frenzy that was weakening me at the knees.
I could taste him, feel him and smell his intoxicating scent.
It was almost too much to handle.
My back then hit the tree as I moaned against his lips, bringing my hands up to entangle my fingers in his hair and stroke the smooth strands away from his face.
I didn't want any distractions.

All of a sudden the sound of scuffling alerted me that we weren't alone, as I placed my hand on Daryl's cheek to carefully pull out of his embrace.
I was rendered speechless as my cheeks were flushed red.
His taste still lingered on my lips as I forced myself to turn away from him because I caught sight of a small rabbit engrossed in the grass near to us.
Unfortunately, food always takes preference.

"Get my crossbow, remember what I taught you?" His voice still echoed memories of our passionate embrace.

Nodding, I heaved the crossbow up as I felt him once again coming up behind me to help me.

"Look down the scope…" I whispered gently.

"Take a deep breath…" Daryl repeated into my ear.

I smiled to myself as I forgot all about the fact that I was essentially killing an animal.
Realisation that I was in deep did nothing but make me more determined to impress him.
My finger pressed down on the trigger slowly as the arrow flew through the air, hitting the cottontail at the same moment another arrow hit it.

"The hell?!" Daryl cursed angrily as he took the crossbow from me and turned to see Len come out of the trees with a smug smirk on his face, "That's ours!"

"My arrow hit that first, it's claimed!" He retorted back with a glare at watching Daryl go over to the dead animal and pull out both arrows before throwing Len's away.

I watched him move closer to Daryl as my eyebrows furrowed and I stood protectively in between them, "This was our rabbit…"

Len scoffed as he looked down at me, "He already got some tail! This one's mine!"

Daryl scowled, "The hell it is!"

Both of them had moved closer as I was made even more aware of how my petite frame would do nothing to stop them from killing each other.
"Daryl-"

"I see you in the woods! Actin' like you're a damn big man with your girl!" Len glared nastily, "You ain't nothin'! She won't last around here…"

I could see Daryl's hand reach for his knife as I widened my eyes and made a move to stop him before the others come and we have a full blown fight on our hands.

"Easy fellas, easy…see if we can't figure out what's really the problem here." Joe had come to inspect what all the commotion was about, as I found myself stiffening.
"Did you claim it?" He glanced at Len expectantly.

"Hell yeah!"

Joe looked over at Daryl calmly, "Well, there you go. That critter belongs to Len…"
At not seeing Daryl make a move to hand it over, he sighed and continued with, " Looks like you may be wanting an explanation. See, going it alone, that ain't an option nowadays. Still, it is survival of the fittest; that's a paradox right there. So I laid out some rules of the road to keep things from going Darwin every couple hours. Keep our merry band together and stress-free. All you got to do is claim.
That's how you mark your territory…"
He paused briefly to look over at me, "…your prey, your bed at night. One word, claimed."

Len scoffed in disbelief as he began to pace around.

"I ain't claimin' nothin'!" Daryl replied back darkly as he still kept a firm grip on the rabbit.

"We gonna teach him right? The rules say we gotta teach him!" Len looked hopeful.

I watched Joe look over at Daryl thoughtfully, "It wouldn't be fair to punish you for violating a rule you never even knew existed."

Daryl narrowed his eyes at them both whilst still maintaining a firm grip on the rabbit, "There ain't no rules no more…"

"Oh, there are. You know that. That's why I didn't kill you for the crossbow."
He then made a move for the rabbit which Daryl tried to dodge.
"Easy there, partner. Claimed; that's all you got to say."

Joe gave Daryl a strong look as he took a hold of the rabbit and placed it against the same tree where just moments earlier Daryl had my body pressed up against, as he brought his machete down onto it.
Thus cutting it cleanly it half.
He threw Len one half before giving Daryl the other, as he looked amused, "Ass end is still an end…"

Len gave us both a scornful glance before storming off back towards their camp, as I sighed and shook my head.

"We're going to have to go back…"

"Tessa…" He was looking at me nervously.

"Daryl…we need to wait for the right moment, as this isn't it…" I smiled forlornly before walking on.