AN: It's short, but it's something. Sorry for the wait! If you're still reading I appreciate it!

...

The sound of a stick cracking somewhere in the woods jarred Daryl from sleep. He blinked wearily, his eyes still coming to focus on the dark surroundings even as his ears were alert to every sound that bled through the night.

His first move was to check his immediate surroundings and aside from a small dying fire, he was alone. Where the fuck was Aaron? He had said he would take watch and Daryl had trusted him to do so. He knew he should have never trusted anyone else. He knew better and had Merle still been around he would have surely smacked Daryl in the back of his head for the error in judgment. The rules had always been clear: trust no one.

Rising to his feet he moved silently around the fire as he removed his knife from his waist, ready and willing to take out anything that deemed a threat. The low light from the fire was just enough to provide him with the direction that Aaron had traveled in and he headed that way. A tingling sensation traveled across his skin giving him the feeling that something wasn't right. That's when he heard it. The unmistakable groan coming from a man. A groan that sounded as far from pain as possible.

Aaron. And that was when the pieces fell together for Daryl. He paused midstep, halfway between continuing out of curiosity and turning back due to embarrassment. His thoughts hung in the balance, faltering in the middle of a single heartbeat, a repeated low groan falling from another man's lips. He knew that he should turn back, especially given the fact that Aaron had no idea that he was even awake, let alone playing audience to his time meant to be spent alone.

Yet he stayed.

He stood with one hand propped against the trunk of a nearby tree, ears attuned to every moan that followed. He refused to think about why he still stood there or why he suddenly found himself so curious. No, he wouldn't think about those things because it had nothing to do with it. He was simply sticking nearby to make sure that the damn man didn't get himself killed. That was all.

Another soft moan, more drawn out this time was immediately followed by a hard grunt and more shuffling. With a pounding pulse, Daryl realized that if he didn't move back toward their camp then Aaron was likely to run into him in a few minutes. His hunter instincts carried him safely back to the glowing embers where he lay back down upon the ground trying to calm his racing heart.

He could hear Aaron moving through the woods now, his footsteps soft, but not nearly as silent as they should be. He listened until Aaron stepped back into the circle of cans they had made, a cheap alarm system made to buy them a few minutes in the case of walkers stumbling too close.

Daryl closed his eyes, but his mind refused to rest. He wished for daylight or even a straggling walker, anything to distract him for a minute. He didn't understand his thoughts, but more than that it was the way that his body reacted that confused him the most. He listened to Aaron make himself comfortable and tried to forget about the pounding erection between his legs.

...

"Hey, you okay?" Aaron asked.

They walked down the edge of a field just after daybreak. Daryl already had three squirrels stringed onto his belt and was working on the fourth, doing his best to ignore Aaron who seemed hell-bent on making his presence known.

"Yeah. Of course I'm okay," Daryl huffed. His voice came out harsher than he had intended, but his pride refused to allow him to take it back. He wouldn't even let himself glance in Aaron's direction and that bothered him.

This whole thing bothered him.

"You don't seem okay," Aaron continued as if Daryl hadn't just growled at him, "In fact, you seem kind of pissed off which confuses me since yesterday you were fine. I'm curious to know if it's something that I did?"

Daryl cursed under his breath and wiped at the sweat that gathered on his brow. He watched the fourth squirrel run for cover up a nearby tree and ground his teeth together in frustration. "Well curiosity killed the fuckin' cat. Ever hear of that?"

Aaron slowly came to a full stop, hands resting on his hips as he pinned Daryl with a stare. "As a matter of fact I have. I would also like to point out that the saying has nothing to do with me or this situation."

"Oh, it has everything to do with it," Daryl muttered under his breath.

"What?"

"Nothing. Forget it and let's move on. Unless you want to spend the rest of our miserable lives out here in the woods," Daryl replied.

"You know what I think?" Aaron commented as they began walking again.

"I know you're gonna tell me regardless of what I answer," Daryl responded. He swept his eyes up in the trees, trying and failing to spot any wildlife. He was irritated, having finally fallen asleep only to awaken with morning wood to rival the hardest of trees in the forest. He was taking his frustrations out on Aaron which he realized was wrong, but was helpless to stop himself from doing so. Life was a real bitch sometimes.

"I think you need to get laid, Daryl."

That stopped Daryl in his tracks and he could feel Aaron no more than a hair's breadth away from him, nearly running into him at his sudden stop. Daryl huffed out a laugh at the irony of that statement. Without thinking he spun around and stepped into Aaron's space, staring the other man down intensely.

"And just how do you suppose I do that? You see any volunteers? You gonna volunteer?" He joked.

"I thought that you and Carol..."

"That we were what? Fucking? Let me set something straight with you right now, city boy. Carol's a lot classier than that. She's been through hell and back, coming out stronger than any woman I've ever met. The last thing she needs is another man to fuck things up for her."

"Hmph, that's interesting," Aaron remarked. He side-stepped Daryl, but Daryl was quicker and cut him off from leaving.

"What's interesting?"

"The way you two are around each other I thought...I mean, if you're not with her...You're not with anyone?"

Daryl shrugged, "That so hard to believe?" Why did he even care what this man thought? He hadn't cared what people thought before so why start now? Dixon's didn't need anyone. They were meant to survive on their own and he was doing a damn fine job. The last thing he needed was some college-educated city boy trying to tell him any different.

"But you're into women, right?" Aaron pressed, his eyes so focused on Daryl's facial expression that he began to shift uncomfortably.

Sliding his eyes away from that gaze, Daryl could feel his face blooming red. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a squirrel dart across the ground and he lifted his bow, taking aim as his eyes tracked the animal's movements. Thankful for the distraction now more than ever, he let the bolt fly, a sense of pride filling him as he hit his mark.

He strode past Aaron, aware of the man's stare as he ignored him and picked up the squirrel, reclaiming his bolt in the process. He was fully aware of the fact that he hadn't answered Aaron's question and nor did he intend to. He wasn't the type to sit and have conversations about his sex life or lack thereof. Those kinds of things were nobody's business but his own and he definitely wasn't talking about it with Aaron. Fuck that.

How the hell did they get into that conversation anyway?

More importantly, how was Daryl supposed to answer a question even he himself wasn't sure of the answer to?