Chapter 2
Hey guys! So, I thought I would explain a little bit of things in this story. First, Daryl may seem OOC, but this is his friend that he's known for twenty years, so he's going to be a totally different person around her. Second, I'm still kind of new to the whole fanfiction thing, so if any of you have advice, I'd be happy to take it. And don't worry, I'm not rushing the relationship in this chapter. It may seem like it, but I'm not. It'll happen later on. They're just really, really close friends right now.
Also, I've decided that with every chapter up until I reach twenty one, I'm going to include a scene fro their past like the one listed below. This one starts from the beginning of their friendship. I'm looking forward to continuing this story. Thanks for the followers! It really means a lot.
And OMG THEY WON THREE PCA'S TONIGHT GOOF JOB WALKING DEAD! AND LET ME JUST SAY WHEN NORMAN WAS PRESENTING I WAS DYING. XD
Ok, on with the story!
4th Grade
"Lily, pass me the ball!" Annabelle yells at the top of her lungs, waving her hands in front of her opponent. Lily cringes.
"Yell a bit louder, Anna. I don't think the town over heard you!" she yells back, passing the ball. Anna sticks out her tongue and dribbles the basketball down the court towards the hoop, easily dodging the others and getting to the other side. She makes it to the basket, threw the ball in, and cheers as it swooshes through the basket, ending the game.
"16 points! We win!" Joey yells, Anna and Lily's other teammate.
"Nice job!" Lily says, high-fiving her teammates while smirking at the other team. "We always win," she says. Lacey, the opponent, and her team, glare at her.
"We want a rematch!" Anna snorts.
"Sure! But prepare to be beaten again!"
"Heck no! We'll win this time!" Lily laughs.
"Please! We beat you once! We can beat you again!" she yells, throwing her arms up in the air. Anna laughs, smiling at her friend.
"I'm gonna go get a drink!" she whispers to Lily. "Keep tormenting them. I wanna see where this goes fro here!" Lily snickers at her friend and nods, a bright smile on her face.
Anna runs through the playground, dodging all the screaming and playing students. She rounds the corner to get into the building, trying to get to the water fountain right outside the door, but trips on what seems to be a human leg, and she falls, knees first, onto the concrete, letting out a resounding "Oof!" when she hits the bottom.
"Are ya ok?" someone asks fro above. She looks up and stares at the person who had accidently tripped her. Daryl Dixon.
He was in her class. Sat in the back and always caused trouble. But personally, she always liked it. She hated Ms. Bednark as much as he did, and when he said stuff that drove her insane, she always had a small smile on her face. It was fun to see him piss her off.
But what made him know was that he was in the 4th grade. He had started going to Kindergarten a year later then everyone else his age, and he got left back several times. Now, he was repeating 4th grade, and he was in Anna's class, when he should be a freshman in high school. He was 15, she was 10.
Maybe that's the reason he's alone right now.
"Yeah," she replies. He doesn't do anything for a second except look down at her, but then gingerly offers her a hand for her to take. She smiles at him, taking it as he helped her up. He seemed surprised she even looked at him. Everyone looked drop dead terrified when he was around. No one ever came near him, let alone talk to him.
"Sorry," he mumbles when she dusts off the dirt on her knees. She shakes her head.
"It's nothing. I was running to fast. No problem." She goes for the handle to the door, but stops in reaching it. She turns back to him, leaning against the door. "What're you doing here all by yourself?" she asks sweetly.
At first, he looks at her like she has three heads, astonished that someone was actually speaking to him. He hadn't talked with anyone this year, except threatening people. He was thinking of just ignoring her to see if she would go away. But there was something about the smile on her face that made him talk.
"Don't got no one to talk to," he replies, leaning against the wall again. She nods.
"Huh," she replies, leaning off the door. She walks over to his right, leaning on the part of the wall next to him. His brow furrows.
"What're ya doing?" he asks. She simply smiles again, her perfectly straight teeth showing.
"Going to the moon. What does it look like? Now you have someone to talk to." He raises an eyebrow at her before chuckling slightly, shaking his head.
"Ya don't want to be friends with me, kid." In retaliation, she raises one of her eyebrows.
"You're a kid, too, you know? And why not? Just because you torture Ms. Bednark doesn't mean you're a bad guy. Personally, I love when you do that. It makes me smile. Sometimes it's the highlight of my day. I hate that bitch." He laughs at her use of words.
"Whoa! Your mama know ya use that kind of language?" he taunts. She snorts in reply.
"Please. That woman knows nothing about what I do at school." She's silent for a moment, enjoying the gleeful screams of the younger children playing tag. "I saw you hunting the other day. At West Woods? Using a crossbow?" He nods.
"Yeah, I was there. With my brother. Why?" Her mocha eyes lit up when talking about it.
"I've always wanted to go hunting. It seems like so much fun. Plus, my brother told me it's a great stress reliever, which is always nice." He was still surprised at the fact that she said she wanted to hunt.
"Ya wanna learn how to hunt?" he asked surprised. She nods, that bright smile still on her face.
"So much! But my mother says it's 'un-lady-like,'" she says using air quotes. She snorts. "If she knew what I did at school, she would know I'm anything but a lady." He chuckles a little.
"Ya don't seem like the kind of girl who would do that kind of stuff." She scoffs.
"Well, obviously you need to learn a bit more about me. First things first, I'm not a lady half the time. There, now you know," she laughs, trying to have a straight face but failing miserably. And because her laughter is just that contagious, he starts to laugh as well. When she's calmed down enough, she asks him another question. "What did you get on that math test?"
He suddenly looks down, a painful look coming over his face. "Not so well," he replies…well, more like mumbles. She nods in understanding, but then an idea sparks up in her head. A smile forms on her face.
"Hey, look here. I have an idea," she says. He looks up, a confused look on his face. "I have a proposition for you." He raises an eyebrow.
"What kind of proposition?" She smiles.
"I'm top of our class. At least as far as I know. If you can teach me how to hunt, I'll tutor you and make sure you do better on the next test." He seems hesitant.
"What about your mama and all that?" She shakes her head.
"I can tell her I'm going to Lily's house. She always believes me when I say that. We can just meet up somewhere. What do you say?" He looks down.
"I don't know." She rolls her eyes.
"What're you afraid of? Come on, it's just a little fun. And in retaliation you'll do better in school…please, Daryl?" He looks up at the sound of her name, eyes wide for a split second, but they retract to his regular size a moment later. He sighs, nodding.
"Fine," he replies. She smiles.
"Trust me. It'll be great. And maybe I can help you torture Ms. Bednark as well…?" she asks hesitantly. He smirks at this, making her snicker slightly. She goes to ask another question when she hears her name being called.
"ANNABELLE!" she hears from Lily on the other side of the playground. Anna slaps her head.
"Crap. I need to head back to her or she'll kill me. I'll see you in class, ok? Bye!" she says, running back to her friends on the court. He stares at her until she's out of sight.
'This girl has no clue what she's getting into,' he thinks, snickering to himself. 'Annabelle…'
Present
The two stepped into Anna's tent, a huge smile on Anna's face. She still couldn't believe Daryl was standing right in front of her.
"What're ya smiling about?" he asks suspiciously. She simply grins back.
"The fact that you're still alive. I can't believe this…you're staying in here tonight so make yourself comfy on the mattress," she says, patting the other side of her bed. He shakes his head.
"No, I can take the ground," he says, placing his crossbow in the corner. She raises an eyebrow at him, an amused look spread across her face.
"Daryl, we've shared a bed before. Stop being chivalrous and get in here. The ground is freezing." He snorts in response, but eventually settles next to her on the bed, taking off his vest. Anna noticed it was the same one that had the angel wings on the back. 'He's had that since we were in high school,' she thinks, laughing inwardly.
Except she didn't. She laughed out loud.
"Ok, what is your problem , girl?" he asks, turning to face her. But even she could see the mischievous glint in his eyes. She laughed again in response. "What?" he asks again, but this time laughing a little. She calmed herself down a little to answer.
"Nothing, just the fact that you're STILL wearing the same vest that you've had since high school," she chuckles, taking off her sweatshirt she was wearing.
"Can't help it. Means a lot," he says, a small half smile on his face directed at her. She smiles in return. "The one thing I had on me that reminded me of ya."
"Yeah, that's because I got it for you, cowboy," she says.
"Back to nicknames, are we? Alright…princess." She groans in response, turning to him, crossing her arms over her chest, an annoyed look on her face.
"Out of all the nicknames you had for me you choose the one that you know annoys that hell out of me?" He nods.
"That's the point, princess." She rolls her eyes and takes off her tank to change into her t-shirt for sleep, but not before hearing Daryl mutter, "Jesus."
She turns to him, t-shirt in hand, ready to explain all the cuts and bruises on her body, when she finds him off the bed and in front of her, already looking closely at them, taking her arms in his hands, trying to see any finger prints. "Daryl-"
"Who the hell did this?" he growled. She shakes her head. She knew he would react like this.
"No one. It's just me being clumsy throughout this whole entire apocalypse. No one…touched me. Nothing like that." His eyes are still narrowed. "Daryl," she says tiredly. He sighs, letting go of her arms.
"Ya better be telling me the truth, Anna," he mutters, getting into the bed. She chuckles, sitting next to him and throwing on her shirt. "Cause I swear to God if anyone-"
"Touched me you would put an arrow right through their eyes? It's the truth. Nothing's wrong. But, since you are here, tell me about your adventures in this world. Been a year. Tell me about your group and all that," she says, leaning in closer to hear.
And so he did. She learnt about the original Atlanta group and all the members, what had happened and what he did. All the deaths and close calls. He told her about Sophia, and how he spent hours on end looking for that little girl, getting shot in the process. He tells her about the farm, the CDC, the eight, long, gruesome months without shelter, and then the prison and how they cleared it all out.
Then he went into detail about one of the leaders, Rick Grimes, and how his wife had died in child birth, and how he went insane. But that he has regained a little bit of his old self now. The Governor came next, and he talked about how he was taken and found his brother who had been left in Atlanta. Told her about the fights, and told her about taking in the Woodberry people into the prison, and then up to the present, where he was out on a hunting trip and he found their camp.
She listened the whole entire time.
"Whatever happened to Merle?" she asks quietly. He looks down, that same painful expression she had gotten used to. She immediately understood. "I'm so sorry, Daryl," she says, placing an arm around his shoulders. He shakes his head.
"It's fine. He was an asshole anyway."
"He's still family, and you keep family in this kind of world, even if said family are assholes." He snickers quietly, shaking his head.
"If I'm supposed to keep my family close, why weren't ya there?" he asks. She bursts out laughing, but covers her mouth, as not to disturb the kids. "Hey, I'm not joking."
"Did you ever think about me?" she asks sincerely. He looks at her, a sincere smile on his face.
"Ya kiddin' me?" he says softly. "Everyday. I thought about ya, Aria, Scarlett, hoping ya and the kids were safe. But I didn't think ya would be down here surviving. I thought ya would be back in the city or some shit like that." She chuckles softly.
"Yeah, we were visiting family down here when the world turned to shit. Bad sense of timing. But at least I found you," she says, placing her head on his shoulder. "I'd wonder if you were ok too. But then I thought, 'This Is Daryl we're talking about. He'll be fine.' But you can never be to safe."
He was silent for a second before murmuring, "I'm just glad yer safe." She fells something on her head and realizes Daryl kissed her forehead. She smiles at him.
"Me too." She grabs a water bottle and hands it to him. "Here, have some water. I got more in my pack." He grabbed it from her hands and opened the top, loving the feeling of cold, fresh water running down his dry throat. "So, tell me a little more about this group. What about that chick, uh…Carol! You said you guys were close. Are you together?"
Water comes flying out of his mouth.
She starts to laugh really hard, trying to conceal it in her pillow, while he was busy coughing up his lungs. She pats his back as he does this, but was still laughing at his reaction.
When he had calmed down enough, he looked at her. Just looked at her. She giggled. "I'll take that as a no," she laughs, leaning back against the mattress again. "Night, Dixon."
"Oh no, you're not getting away that easily," he growls, doing the unthinkable to her: Tickling her. Her one weakness.
"No…Daryl, stop!" she laughs, trying hard not to wake up the kids in the tent over. "Daryl, please!" she laughs. By now he was practically on top of her, ticking her sides. Her face was red.
"Not until ya say sorry!" he replied.
"Never!" she says, trying to stop her laughter, but he's still got her pinned.
"Come on, ya know ya want to," he replies. She's still laughing.
"Fine, I'm sorry for asking! It was a stupid question!" she finally says, laughing out. He smirks down at her and moves his hands away from her sides, finally giving her time to breath. "You suck, Daryl," she chuckles.
"I know," he replies. She looks up at him, and is instantly trapped in his gaze. His icy blue eyes were staring down at her, and he had a small smile on his face. 'I haven't had that much fun in ages,' he thought.
Her cheeks are a bright red from him staring at her, but thank God there was still red there from laughing so hard. She would be mortified if she was actually blushing in front of him. No words were exchanged between the two, but Anna felt Daryl move his hands upward to her hands. He sighs.
"I don't want to leave ya," he says softly. Taking the initiative, Anna intertwines their fingers. "Ya need to come back with me." She smiles.
"I was wondering when you would ask that. Aria was wondering, too." He chuckles.
"She was, was she?" Anna nods.
"Seems she wants to go back and be with some kids her age. She's gotten sick of Scarlett and I." He snickers, letting go of her hands and laying next to her.
"Just to warn ya, even though Rick had slightly gained back some of his older self, he's still very wary when it comes to new people after what happened with the Governor." She rolls her eyes.
"As long as your there, I'm pretty sure we'll be fine. Plus, I have kids, so that's got to get me some brownie points."
"Anna-"
"Go to sleep, Dixon. You're tickling tired me out." She feels him chuckle beside her, and she closes her eyes. But when she hears the soft snores coming from Daryl, that's when she finally gets to sleep.