Mara's stomach dropped at his last words and she let him walk by her without trying to stop him.
She could feel the flush in her cheeks shift from excitement to mortification.
She'd just been rejected by Daryl.
Mara had to admit she hadn't been planning on kissing him but it had just happened. She had gotten so caught up in the fight and then she realised she was straddling him and his hard body was beneath her. His eyes were heated and it was so easy to confuse anger with sex.
Besides she thought they got along in a weird unique way and she found his raw masculinity attractive.
Mara buried her face in her hands and groaned. How stupid had she been?
She managed to avoid Daryl for the rest of the night. The next morning she went running with Christine and Maggie joined them.
When they were finished they stood in a circle, stretching out their tired muscles.
"So are you gonna say what's wrong?" Christine asked.
Mara shrugged. "Nothing is wrong."
Christine scoffed. "You've been acting off all morning." Maggie nodded her confirmation.
"It's super embarrassing. I don't want to talk about it."
She had said the wrong thing. The other women leaned in closer, intrigued by what had happened.
"Is it too late to change my answer to period cramps?"
"Spill. Now." Maggie instructed.
"Ok but you two can't tell anyone." Mara pointed at both of them to emphasis her point. Christine nodded and Maggie mimed crossing her heart.
"I kissed Daryl last night," she confessed. Mara winced when Maggie and Christine let out gasping noises.
"Settle down, he rejected me," Mara bit out.
"What?"
"Yeah, he seemed into it and I offered to, you know, then he sorta yelled at me and walked away."
Maggie shook her head. "And they say women are the crazy ones."
"It's fine. I've just gotta avoid him for a couple of days to process the humiliation."
The women paused their girl talk at the arrival of Nathan. Mara was sad. Sure the subject matter had been depressing but there was something wonderfully normal standing there with her friends bitching about a boy.
"Mara, we need you to make a run into towns with Daryl today. Hit up any hunting stores you can find. We need more weapons."
"Aw c'mon! Are you kidding me?" Mara cried.
Nathan looked confused. "What's going on?" He asked slowly.
"Nothing, you're just trying to ruin my life is all," Mara snapped and brushed passed him.
As she walked away she could hear Nathan say, "I don't understand what happened."
"Don't worry about it Sarg. She's just working through some frustrations."
Mara turned around to flip off Christine, who just finger waved back at her.
She found Daryl leaning against the car, scuffing the toe of his shoe in the dirt. His posture was defensive. "What took you so long?" he demanded aggressively.
Mara held up one finger to silence him. The sound of his voice made her want to curl up into a ball or punch him in the face. She walked around to the other side of the car and slammed the door shut behind her.
Daryl was in a foul mood too and the radiating hostility was creating a tension in the car. Daryl drove a little faster than he should of but Mara didn't care. She'd be damned if she was talking to the idiot. He'd made it perfectly clear what he thought of her.
They made it to a neighbouring town without incident and when they got out it was with great effort the Mara redirected her thoughts to the work at hand. She couldn't afford to make a rash decision because it might get her killed.
Daryl was less in control of his bad temper. He kicked open the door to the hunting shop and loose glass shards shattered to the floor. Mara winced. "Be careful!"
Daryl headed straight to the archery section and began shoving supplies into a bag. Mara scanned the shop for spooks since Daryl seemed unconcerned with them.
As he left, he threw a bag to Mara hard. She caught it but the impact threw her back a bit and she glared at his retreating back. They stuffed the bags in the car and Daryl headed off to the supermarket without so much as a word or a cursory glance up and down the street.
Mara followed at a wary distance, not trusting this Daryl at all.
"What are we doing in here?" Mara dared asked.
"Gettin' food supplies," Daryl answered. "You hit your head of somethin'?"
Mara had had enough. She moved around him to block his path. Daryl laughed meanly and went to step around her but she grabbed both of his arms.
"What the fuck is your problem?"
Daryl jerked out of her grasp. "My problem? You're my problem."
"What the hell did I do?" Mara demanded.
Daryl was getting more agitated. They had to resolve this quick or he was likely to do something stupid and dangerous.
"You think it's funny to mess with people."
"I'm really not following you?" and she wasn't. Mara had no idea what Daryl was saying.
"Last night," he growled. "You took your stupid pranks one step too far."
Mara was floored. It dawned on her suddenly what he was talking about.
"You think I kissed you and offered you sex as a joke?"
Daryl blushed. He couldn't even talk about kissing without going a flaming red. He turned his attention to the closest shelf. "Why else would you?"
Mara couldn't believe she was having this conversation.
"Because I'm attracted to you."
Mara saw Daryl's shoulders tense. He thought she was making fun of him again. Who had damaged Daryl so badly that he couldn't believe a woman would find him attractive?
"I'm serious. You're a good fighter, you're a decent guy and you have nice arms." Mara couldn't help smiling at the last part.
Daryl finally looked at her and his eyes were still mistrustful.
Mara sighed. "Look Daryl, I don't know why you're obsessed with the idea I'm out to humiliate you. I'm not."
Daryl was becoming less self-protective and started to relax. "So that was a genuine offer?"
Mara wanted to shake him. Yes, she wanted to say, I like you. I've liked you for a while now. But she didn't say that. She certainly didn't want to confess to having a crush on Daryl. That admission would likely have him running for the hills. She's only just acknowledged it herself within the last few minutes.
"I was just suggesting we have some casual, string free fun at the end of the world. After all we could be dead tomorrow," is what she did say. Mara wished she was braver but even though she knew the reasons he had turned her down, it didn't make it hurt any less.
"Oh," was all Daryl could say. Mara got the sense that sex was low down on the list of things Daryl could discuss confidently, he was too self-conscious and insecure. That much was evident.
"'Oh' indeed," Mara said with a smile. "So now that we've established I wasn't using my vagina as a sneaky trap to disgrace you, you think we can be friends again?"
The blush that had been fading roared back into life. "Only if you promise not to say that word again." He staunched off into the aisles and Mara resisted the urge to yell 'vagina' at his back.
She did roll her eyes when he called back, "c'mon we're wastin' daylight."
...
Daryl was still a bit surprised by what Mara had said. She wanted to have sex with him. He could only imagine the things Merle would say if he knew.
Merle would tell him to stop being a pussy and fuck her silly, she was hot for it. But he couldn't do that. He liked Mara. The realisation stopped him in his tracks.
Somehow she had wormed her way into his affections and he considered her as part of the group. She was a friend and that was the problem. Daryl didn't know much but he knew you weren't supposed to go around having sex with your friends.
If he was honest with himself, Mara was a bit more than a friend and he thought having sex with her would mean something. Which was another reason to avoid going there, full stop.
Besides Mara had set the boundaries. No strings and just fun. They were just friends. He turned around to see where his friend had gotten to. She was reaching up to one of the higher shelves to grab something he couldn't see. The raised arms exposed that same slice of flesh he'd seen before. Now he knew firsthand how soft her skin was. He couldn't help but think of her sprawled on top of him, of her hungry lips on his.
He quickly averted his gaze. He could feel his body reacting to those thoughts. This wasn't the time or place. He was jealous of her easy way of talking about sex. The thought of having a rational conversation about it made Daryl cringe.
He was walking through the alcohol section when on impulse he grabbed a bottle of bourbon. Hell, he'd save it for a rainy day. He'd earned one night of drunken oblivion after all the shit they'd been through in the last year.
They piled up the car with a much smaller haul than last time. They'd managed to scrounge up a little bit more petrol which would keep them going.
The ride home was comfortable. There was no more angry tension in the car.
When they got back to the prison Daryl noticed Maggie and Christine giving him speculative looks and he wondered how much Mara had told them. He kept forgetting that Mara wasn't a closed off private person and didn't have the same issues sharing what happened in her life with people.
He wished she'd kept that one under wraps though. In retrospect after how curt he'd been with Mara he definitely would have come across as the bad guy.
Christine evidently thought so as she fixed him with one of her cool stares.
The next day he rolled out of bed to go on patrol. He was very nearly happy to be going out with Mara. He went down to the table where Carol and Mara were sitting next to each other. Carol was saying something that was making Mara laugh. As an instinct Daryl wondered if he was the topic of discussion but he shook it off. After talking to Mara yesterday he was going to have to stop leaping to the conclusion that people were making fun of him.
"You ready for a day out in the woods?" he asked as he sat down next to Mara.
Mara paused with a spoon to her mouth. "I thought Rick told you. He's asked me to go with Glenn to fiddle with the generators."
"Nice that he feels a need to keep me informed," Daryl grumbled.
"Actually I got to get going." She shovelled a few more mouthfuls of food in on top of each other. "Catch ya," she said, giving everyone a clear view of the contents of her mouth.
"You're disgustin'," Daryl called after her. He noticed there was still food in her bowel. "And wasteful," he added dragging the food over and taking the spoon in his own hand.
He had just taken his own mouthful when he noticed Carol staring at him with a knowing smile.
"What?" he demanded.
"Nothin'."
"Usually means something'."
"I just don't want to say anything to set you off," Carol said.
"When has that ever stopped you speakin' your mind?"
"I just think it's nice that you're getting close with someone else."
Daryl gave her a dead pan expression. "I'm close with you."
"You know what I mean."
"Ok I need you to stop talkin' like Mara's my girlfriend now. We're just friends."
"Who kissed!"
Daryl's spoon clattered to the bowel. "Does everyone know that happened?"
"I reckon so."Carol laughed at his aghast face. "Don't look so sour. We only know a handful of people. Gossip is gonna spread fast."
"It was a one-time thing."
"And that's why you're so disappointed that she can't come with you today."
Daryl blushed, knowing he'd been caught out. "I wasn't," he stammered out a weak protest. Carol just laughed again.
"But if Mara is with Glenn today, who is with me?"
Christine appeared in the cell block. "'Sup, Wrong Turn?"
"Aw, shit!"
Daryl led Christine in to the woods. She was as quiet as Mara always was on patrol but for some reason the silence felt oppressive instead of useful. He had the feeling she wanted to say something but was waiting for the right time.
Daryl let that carry on for about an hour until he determined that there were no tracks, human or walker, to be found.
"Y'got somethin' on your mind?"
"Look Dixon, I know your deal. Mara can't recognise it because she's nice and normal-"
"I know that," Daryl interrupted.
"No, I mean nice and normal! Her family is normal. Her last boyfriend was studying to be a doctor. She's never had her heart broken, she's never experienced proper grief."
"What are you sayin'?"
"I'm saying that for some reason she is in to you."
"We're just friends," Daryl used the same excuse he had just used with Carol but Christine wasn't buying it either.
"Dude, she's likes you. She's protecting herself because she doesn't think you feel the same but she likes you."
"And that's a bad thing?"
Daryl was surprised when Christine didn't immediately agree with him. "I'm saying I know that you're damaged."
Daryl fixed her with a hard look.
"I know because I am too. When I realised my fiancé was dead, I guess I died a bit too."
Daryl was horrified to see Christine tear up a little bit.
"What I'm saying is that I can see it in you because it's in me. But it's not in Mara. Mara's not totally oblivious to it but she doesn't understand truly how damaged people push away people who care about them."
"I've never had many people care 'bout me to push 'em away."
"I never thought the day would come when I'd be encouraging my best friend to hook up with a redneck but I swear to god Dixon, if you hurt Mara I will kill you, wait until you come back and then kill you again."
"Damn, anyone tell you you're a lil bit scary?"
"Oh yeah, tonnes of people."
Daryl opened his mouth to answer than froze. "Duck!"
Christine complied instantly. Daryl raised his crossbow and shot a walker across the clearing. The shot went straight through its eye.
"Dixon, you're an asshole but fuck you're good with that thing."
"I do what I do," he replied with a little more swag.
AN: I like this chapter. It was one of those moments when it all gelled in my head. Anyway I watched the last three episodes. Not overly fussed on the finale honestly. I felt it was a bit anti-climactic. Let me know your thoughts on the series or this chapter! I'm just in the mood to discuss TWD. Review or I'll set the Governor on to y'all... just kidding. Review because you're good people.
MD666