I do not own The Walking Dead.

Previously:

"Hey, hey, still got three more to go, Birdy, don't go thanking me yet! Might've been a fluke."

Ha! Fluke her ass! She'd show him.

Faye would be the one catching birds for him to pluck in no time!

"A'ight. I'm gonna count for ya, 'kay?"

Faye swore she was going to wipe that damn smirk of Daryl's face if it killed her.

"I got this." The girl nodded, deciding to simply leave the bangs that fell onto her face as she did so. They were currently in the woods outside the prison, not too far, but enough for Daryl to be on his guard despite the smug expression.

(Having said that, Daryl was probably always on guard.)

"'Course ya do. On three," He crossed his arms as she wrapped her fingers around the bowstring. "One, two, three."

Clenching her teeth, Faye tugged hard on the crossbow, desperate to prove she could do it herself. Which she couldn't, but that was too hard to admit for someone as stubborn as she was.

But, apparently, two tries didn't give her enough arm strength to load the crossbow.

This was bullshit, in Faye's opinion. Then again, who was she to question the laws of physics?

(She was questioning whether this classed as physics, however.)

Hearing Daryl count past fifteen seconds, the girl gave one last hard tug accompanied with a grunt before letting go. Her first instincts were to flap her fingers around like the first time, but instead, she settled for massaging the redness out of them.

"Why- why do they make it so hard to shoot a damn walker? Do they want me to be torn to pieces?" Faye groaned. "Can't I just wear gloves of something? That might help, a little at least."

"Nah. Gloves are for pussies." Daryl only seemed to realise his language after he said it. It amused Faye how he always tried to censor himself around her – he always had this sheepish look if he forgot to. "You'll do it eventually. Spent too much time on ya little legs-"

"I do not have little legs!"

"- and not enough on ya arm strength. Sixteen seconds 'fore ya stopped. Next time, ya making it t' twenty."

Four seconds more couldn't be that hard, could it? Well, he wouldn't have said it if he didn't think she could. What was she even freaking out about? Four damn seconds. Four damn seconds to prove herself.

"Probably ain't gonna be deer round here, so we're gonna set some traps, maybe get some squirrels or rabbits if we find the tracks." The hunter explained as he loaded the crossbow. "Come on, let's find a spot."

Walking along, Faye trying to replicate Daryl's soft steps as they did so, the girl couldn't help but notice the quite sounds of the forest. It was a pleasant change to the new found buzz of the prison. Later on in the day before, Rick had returned from a run with three new people. She had no idea if she was okay with that. It had taken long enough to 'accept' the newcomers, and now they were bringing in more?

The problem with the ex-Woodbury folks was that they knew their past, everything they had done. Maybe not done to the last detail, but the group knew what they were capable of.

New people, though?

Faye couldn't decide what was worse: Knowing all the horrible things strangers had been through and all the bad things they'd done – or not knowing anything at all.

Sticking her hands in the pockets of her jeans, Faye kicked a stick along as she walked.

Well done, Faye, now you've put yourself in a depressed mood. She didn't like being in that mood. Being in that mood reminded her of Carl and that made her heart hurt lately. Only, it was the Carl that was anti-social, the Carl who played with guns instead of Lego, the Carl who was a murderer.

So, it made her heart hurt.

(It was worse this time, though, because it wasn't often she admitted Carl killed someone without a pathetic attempt to defend his actions.)

"Hey," Daryl clicked his fingers, Faye's head jerking up in response. She quickly recovered and brushed her bangs behind her ear.

"What? Is this a good place?" She said casually.

"Nah," He said, just as casually. "Jus' that ya kick things around like a moody kid when ya got stuff on ya mind."

Faye pulled a face. "When have I ever done that? Like, ever?"

"Ain't listing the times, all this talkin' 'll scare away anything in the area. Spit it out."

The girl shrugged. "People."

"Who?"

"Just people," She replied. "In general."

She wasn't completely sure, but Faye could've sworn she heard Daryl grumble 'moody teenager, not kid then'. He probably had, knowing him. "This 'bout Rick bringin' more people back."

Again, she shrugged, speeding up a little to walk by him. "It's mixed in there, yeah."

"People are good, people are bad, we deal with it, we move on." The finality in Daryl's voice confused Faye. She listened to most of what he said like it was a fact of life, but she knew it wasn't that simple.

"It's just that simple? You're telling me that sums up life as it is now, that's why we take people in, that's why we save them but put ourselves at risk in the process?"

Daryl stopped, Faye a moment after him. "We let people in because it's the right thing to do. That's makes us the good people and they just have to deal with it and move on. Three questions, Faye, that's what Rick says we're doing now. Three questions and a gut feeling."

"Okay. Well, that made a whole lot of sense and then none whatsoever." The girl raised her eyebrows. "Care to explain?"

"If we find people, we ask 'em three questions. I added the gut feeling bit." The hunter said, eyes wandering around the area thy stood in as he spoke. "How many walkers have you killed? How many people have you killed? Why?"

Faye thought them through. The walkers told them how capable they were, how well hey could take care of themselves. On the other hand, it could tell them they could overpower this person if they needed to. That made sense.

The people were a simple reason – it told them whether they were bring a psychopath back to their home.

Why told them whether they were really a psychopath or whether they were unfortunate and misunderstood.

Faye liked to think they themselves fell into the unfortunate and misunderstood category.

"This is where ya gotta trust us, Faye. We ain't gonna bring anyone bad back to the prison. Dealt with worse people than groups barely being able to scrape by. Think ya can do that?"

"I'm not three, Daryl." She criticized, but gave a little smile anyway. "I can do that."

The man gave a little grunt and nod of approval before turning to his left. "Good, 'cause I got us a trail."

A trail? Awesome!

Faye smiled. This was a way to distract herself. "What is it? A rabbit or a squirrel or what?"

The man gestured to his left. "Have a look."

Crouching down, she brushed away some of the leaves to find the prints he was talking about. They were light, but they weren't all the same size. No claws were there, as far as she could see at least.

Come on, Faye, this was a test.

(Bad description. Faye was terrible at tests.)

It was a chance to prove herself to Daryl before they'd even started.

(That was better.)

"It's not a squirrel." She began.

The hunter pushed her for more. "Why not?"

"They're too big to be a squirrel, no claws either." Faye smiled as an old memory surfaced. When Daryl asked her why she was 'grinning like an idiot' – which she totally was not – she explained. "This one time, we were at this park. Weren't supposed to, but people always fed the squirrels there, so loads of 'em always came. Dad told us not to go near them 'cause the only thing we had to feed 'em with was ice cream. But, Andy being Andy, decided to go find one, which we did. Only, he teased the damn thing and got too close so it jumped from the tree and scratched his face I the process. He had to get shots, and he squirmed like a little baby." The girl chuckled quietly. "It was funny as hell."

Daryl gave a little smile, letting her have the moment. "Never known a squirrel do nothin' like that. Bit Merle 'couple of times, but never scratched up his face."

"It might have been injured, or hungry, but I don't know. Still funny." Faye tilted her head to the side, expression now sad. It was nice to think about that, but it hurt more. "Don't know why I remembered that. I normally don't."

He didn't reply, leaving her to her thoughts for a while. After a minute of silence as she looked over the trail again, the memory disappearing into her mind and quickly as it came, Faye continued. "Some of the prints are small, and some of them are big. Does that mean there are two different animals?"

"Nope. Jus' different size feet." Daryl allowed the topic to be changed. "What animal needs big back feet?"

"I dunno."

"Think then."

"Erm…" She thought for a moment longer. "A hare? 'Cause it's gotta do all the jumping."

At the shake of his head, Faye drooped her head. What else could it be? "On the right lines, but they're too big to be a hare. What's like… I dunno… the hare's cousin."

The girl grinned. That was easy! "Rabbit!"

Daryl nodded. "There ya go. Now, come on, let's track the thing."

Careful to avoid standing on the tracks, Faye began to walk when Daryl stopped her, handing over the crossbow. He spoke as he did so. "'Nother thing, gotta new rule." Leaning of he flicked her bangs, not really doing anything other than getting it in her eyes. With the crossbow, though, she couldn't replace them again. His point began to get cross. "When we're huntin', the hairs goes up. Okay?"

She gave him a sheepish look that would probably get her nowhere. "I don't have a hair tie."

Also, she just plainly like having her hair down. Daryl, however, was not having it. "Borrow one then. It'll get in the way, and you'll miss something. Could get grabbed too, lucky I ain't makin' ya cut it."

Like hell was he cutting her hair! It took ages to get it this long! She was quite proud of it, actually, not that she would ever tell anyone that. Most of her life had been spent with short hair, she could actually do something with it now. Plus, her hair was now covering the scar from her bullet wound. If her hair was up, it would be on display for anyone to see, and Faye didn't feel ready for that. "Fine."

They spent a while tracking, Daryl occasionally guiding her in the right direction if the trail ran a little thin. Eventually, the hunter gave her a signal to slow down, steps quieter than before. She guessed that meant they were close.

Her heartbeat picked up a little when she heard the tell-tale rustling of their prey. Raising the crossbow back up to eye level, Faye only had to peek her head around the tree to see the rabbit on it's hind legs. Luckily though, it wasn't facing her. The wind must have been in the other direction, she was lucky.

Giving Daryl one last questioning glance, at which she received a nod, Faye took a few more seconds to refine her aim before pulling the trigger and letting the arrow fly.

After a tense few seconds of squirming, the rabbit fell limp and Faye jogged over to inspect the body. The arrow had pierced through it's body – probably it's heart, too – and red now stained it's white fur. There was a feeling of guilt, but she didn't pay attention to that anymore. She'd seen Daryl do this plenty of times.

Picking up the creature, arrow now pulled out, the girl turned and grinned at Daryl, who was ambling over at his own pace. "I got it!"

"Hell yeah, ya did," Daryl gave a little grin of his own. "First in a long line a rabbits 'n squirrels. Let's set up some traps 'n get any more critters we find, then head back."

"Cool, okay." Faye couldn't wait until she shot a bird. It would probably be a lot harder, but she totally had this amazing plan to get her own back at Daryl and tell him not to butcher it. It would be hilarious.

Just trust her, it would!

"So, I did good, right?" Faye said, putting the rabbit into her pack as she followed Daryl.

He nodded, seemingly joining her good mood. She liked that. "Did good, yeah."

"Well, I'm getting taught by the best!"

The man shrugged. "Wouldn't say that. But, ya getting Dixon tricks. Ain't just anybody who gets that."

(He always knew what to say to make her happy. Daryl was observant like that.)

The grin returned to her face. "Really? Awesome! Don't worry, I'll zip it and lock it."

"… Okay."

"Put it in your pocket."

…

"Never gonna stop it."

"Faye."

"Shooting like a rocket."

"Faye!"

"Okay, okay, I'll drop it."

"Quit it!"

"Hey!" She laughed. "That last one was an accident!"

('Course it was.)

"You're back!" Carl said, walking up to Faye as she finished handing out plates of food. Carol had kept her busy with jobs since she got back, and the girl didn't even have chance to go see Carl. That annoyed her. Greatly.

"Hey! Sorry, I would've come to find you but Carol gave me a load of stuff to do, and there are lots of people-"

"I know, don't worry. She shouldn't be giving you so much work, the stitches just came out and you already went on a hunting trip."

Faye shrugged. "I can handle it. It's not hard, just boring. I thought, maybe, what with all the other people here, there would be less work for us to do."

"Well, we still have the rest of the evening, let me steal you from Carol." Carl smirked.

Whether he was joking or not, it made Faye blush.

"Alright, we could get some food first, if you're hungry." She suggested.

The boy frowned a little. "Aren't you hungry too?"

Grinning, Faye replied. "I've been sneaking little bits when I was cooking the stuff. Carol got annoyed, but I carried on anyway. There's too many people to eat here, anyway, I don't like it."

He returned the look, and the girl preferred his suggestion by far. "I've still got a Big Cat from the Comic Book House-"

Faye's eyes lit up. The 'Comic Book House' wasn't just any nerdy kids home, it was a goldmine. It had been a rare happy day of bliss in those winter months on the road. Whoever lived there had not only great taste in comics, but sweets too, and the two children had a feast with a jar of Nutella and M&M's. Their backpacks had had every space available crammed with the sweets and cartoons by the time they left. It was a genuinely sad moment when they had to leave that house, it wasn't often they found a gem like that.

"-and I found this place we could go to. Come on!"

His smile was infectious. "You kept it 'till now?"

"I was waiting for a special occasion, this counts. Now, come on, I've been waiting to show you this for so long." Grabbing her hand, the boy pulled her out the cell block and towards their own. "We'll stop off at my room and then we'll go."

"Go where?"

"You'll see!"

Under normal circumstances, Faye would have questioned him more, but the way her friend's eyes didn't seem so weighed down stopped her. If this made him happy, even if it was just for a little while, she'd go along with whatever he felt like. It reminded her of what he was like before.

So, following him as he dragged her along – only, it wasn't dragging, because she was willingly holding his hand as he lead her around – she only commented when he started to take them around the back of a building, where they were out of sight.

"Erm, Carl, are you sure this is okay?"

"'Course it is."

"You know, because we aren't sure everywhere is safe yet."

"We'll be fine."

"And no one will get here in time if something happens."

"I can take care of it."

Faye frowned. And he called her stubborn. "I'm not saying you can't-"

He stopped, almost making Faye bump into him. "Look, I've been here before, It looks safe enough and nothing that wants to rip flesh off our bodies is here. Trust me?"

Well, when he put it bluntly… "I trust you."

He nodded at her before simply looking at her for a few seconds. Was he trying to make her blush?

After a moment, though, the realisation that they were still holding hands seemed to hit him, and he quickly let go.

Ha! Now he was the one blushing. How did he like that?

Turning on his heels, Carl continued walking as if nothing had happened. "Keep up, hypocrite."

"Why don't you tell me where we're going, dumbass?"

He turned his head to look at her, a cocky grin on the boy's face. "That would spoil the surprise!"

Groaning, she followed him.

A minute later, the two children approached another one of the wired fence. The barbed wire on top concerned Faye a little, as Carl was pushing a wheeled bin over as if to climb it, but she then saw that the side supposedly attached to the wall actually wasn't. Climbing on the bin, the boy extended his arm to her, and she accepted it, pulling herself up. The drop down wasn't too far and the need stop was another one of the doors leading into the cell block.

"Is this Cell Block B we're behind?" Faye asked.

Carl nodded, opening the door. Oh. She had expected it to be locked. "Yeah, the one you cleared out for the prisoners."

The prisoners were still a touchy subject. There was the obvious reason, and the fact that they were all dead.

"We haven't explored it much, and I got bored this one time, so I did some exploring. Found this."

Following after him, the room was dark.

"Well, what an amazing surprise you had for me." Faye said sarcastically.

Suddenly, a light shone in Faye's eyes. Her immediate reaction was to jerk back, and Carl chuckled a little. "That's why I brought the flashlights."

He handed her one and, with a little guidance, the boy revealed the set of stairs leading upwards. She was sceptical. After all, this little trip had involved climbing over fences and dark rooms which she didn't know were completely safe.

The stairs made her knees ache a little. "How high is this going?"

Suddenly the stairs stopped, flattening out onto a landing. "All done. No more climbing." Raising their flashlights, a door was revealed. "Go on!"

Rolling her eyes, Faye did as he said and suddenly she was hit with cool air.

They were on the roof?

"Carl! What are doing on the roof?"

To this, the wolfish smile simply returned. "Sit down over this way, it's got the best view."

"This is nuts!" Faye breathed, but couldn't stop replicating Carl's happy look.

"That's what makes it great! Now, sit down!"

The edges of the roof were slightly raised and were enough to stop anyone seeing they were here, but not enough to block their view even while sitting down.

Sat shoulder to shoulder with Carl, Faye pulled her feet up, leaning back on her hands. Her eyes swept the view, and she couldn't remember a time she'd seen anything like it. "This is just… amazing."

"I know." Carl said. "I was waiting for the right time to show you. Which reminds me,"

Putting his hand in the pocket of his jacket, he produced the final Big Cat of Comic Book House. "Wanna share?"

Faye raised her eyebrows. "Take a guess, dumbass, hand over the chocolate!"

Carl laughed, opening the wrapper and sticking in back in the pocket of his jeans. After splitting it in half, the girl held her piece up, chocolate staining her fingers. "To the Comic Book House!"

Catching on quickly, Carl raised his with her. "For all it's contributions to our supply of sugar and comics!"

"Cheers!" The two bumped their share's of the chocolate bar together before taking a bite.

Or, at least, Faye took a bite. Carl had apparently got the wrong idea and shoved to whole thing into his mouth. Covering her mouth as the girl immediately burst out into giggles, a sheepish look on the boy's face as he tried to swallow the whole thing.

Faye probably should have been more concerned than amused when he started to cough, but she burst out laughing as she hit his back. Once he'd finally calmed down and was sure he wouldn't choke to death on a candy bar, the girl returned to simply giggling. "You're such a dork!"

"Yeah, but I'm the best dork you know."

"How many dorks do I know?"

…

"Glenn's a dork when he wants to be."

Faye nodded. "That's true. Alright, you beat Glenn at being a dork."

"Good." He finished simply.

A comfortable silence set in soon after, and the cool air was pleasant as the sun began to set.

Everything was fine and peaceful until she heard a rustle beside her. Swivelling her eyes left, Faye saw Carl stretch and…

Oh my God, Carl was doing the thing they do in the movies where the yawn and stretch and put their arm around the girl and oh my God that was so cheesy but oh my God it was adorable and oh my God Faye couldn't find a reason to complain.

He seemed tense as his arm finally settled around her shoulder, but relaxed when the girl didn't protest. If anything, she moved closer to him because the cool air was enough of a reason to use Carl's body heat as an excuse for what she was doing.

Maybe this memory could rival the Comic Book House. Maybe Faye was enjoying it just that much, and didn't give a damn about it.

And so, the two children sat on the roof of the prison, watching the sun go down with the sweet taste of chocolate lingering in their mouths.