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Belle Has A Pressing Thought On Her Mind, But She Keeps Getting Distracted (S3-S4 time-jump, canon)

"I really like daisies. Especially when you pick the petals off and it tells you if he loves you or not." Mika giggled, twirling a flower between her fingers absentmindedly.

Lizzie shrugged, her hands buried in the soft blades of grass. "Daisies are okay, I guess. I think tulips are better. They have nicer colours." She admitted, her eyes distant in thought.

Mika shook her head as she sat up from her laying position. "Yeah, but you can't make chains from tulips. I mean, you could but I don't think it would work." She frowned, picturing in her mind what it would look like.

Belle picked at the grass as the sisters discussed various topics, her thoughts constantly going back to one particular thing.

"You're my best friend, of course you can keep it."

"What about you, Belle?" Mika's innocent question broke her thoughts, the older girl shaking her head as she brought herself back into the present.

"My favourite flower?" She repeated, biting her lip as she considered an answer. "Purple is my favourite colour, so anything purple."

Belle cared about Lizzie and Mika a lot, but she couldn't help but find them irritating today. It wasn't anything they had done, she just had a lot on her mind today.

What did he mean "you're my best friend"?

She wasn't sure why she kept pulling apart the statement and analysing it, but there was something in his tone that she noticed. Something hesitant, almost as though he didn't quite believe it.

Was there another person that Carl would consider his best friend? That couldn't be it, there was only really one other kid he spoke to and that was Patrick. He was a nice guy and they hung out a lot, but there wasn't the same click between them as there was between Carl and Belle. It's like they were made to be friends.

Belle looked down at the so called gift wrapping her arms, a simple shirt that Carl offered to her when she finished cleaning out the pig pen. Hers was covered in mud and food scraps and it was the logical thing to do, so she wasn't sure why she hadn't stopped thinking about it.

"You're my best friend, of course you can keep it."

It was a warm flannel material, patterned with gray and blue checks that she had seen a hundred times before. It was something he wore a lot, at least twice a week whenever it was at the top of the clean laundry pile. She had washed it herself several times, often hanging it out to dry before folding it and settling it on the end of his bed.

She had seen him pull it close when the cool breeze picked up if they sat outside. She had watched Judith grip it between her small fingers whenever her older brother picked her up, and wipe her mucky hands on the shoulders after she had eaten.

It was a completely plain, boring shirt but all of a sudden, it meant everything to her.

They were teenagers, they were incredibly close and had spent so much time together. She would be the first to admit that sometimes she caught the way his gaze softened when he looked at her, or how her heartbeat unexpectedly sped up if he even smiled at her. It was a specific smile, not a happy one or a cheerful one. The one he made when she simply looked at him at the same time he looked at her. Barely there, just the corners. She loved that smile-

'What the hell are you even talking about?'

Belle shook the thoughts from her mind, trying to focus on the now arguing sisters. Something about who got to sleep on the top bunk tonight, she wasn't sure. She knew it was Mika's turn, but because Lizzie slept in Belle's room the night before she figured she deserved a second go.

"Belle, tell Lizzie that it's my turn, please." Mika begged, her voice whiny as she tugged at her hand.

"No, it's not. Tell her, Belle." Lizzie pleaded in return, both girls looking to the oldest girl for an answer. Ever since they met they considered her a decision maker, someone who could take charge when she needed to. In other words, she was bossy.

Belle stretched her arms, her lips turned into a frown. "How about one of you gets top bunk in your room, and whoever doesn't can have top bunk in my room." She suggested, waiting for the sisters to figure something out.

"Dibs on Belle's room!" Mika cheered, bouncing in her seat as she got there first. Lizzie shrugged dejectedly, acting as if she wasn't bothered. In truth, she wished she had called Dibs because there was nothing the girls enjoyed more than sleeping over in Belle's room.

"That's not fair." She huffed, her disappointed gaze on the ground. "If I knew we were gonna call Dibs then I would've won."

Belle smiled sweetly at the girl, flicking a dandelion bud in her direction. "If Mika gets tonight, then you get tomorrow. We can even try on some clothes, I know Daryl and Sasha just came back from a run. I definitely saw at least three trash bags of clothes." She promised, watching her face light up at the words.

Mika shuffled closer to Belle's side, her feature curious as she glanced down. "Is that where you got this from?" She wondered, her fingers gently tugging at the shirt on her shoulders.

"...Uh-huh. It fell out when I was moving them inside." She lied, for some reason feeling slightly awkward. Admitting that Carl gave it to her seemed like she would be admitting an entirely other thing, something she wasn't quite ready to admit.

'But there is something to admit, right?'

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I wrote this because I miss Lizzie and Mika and we didn't get much of a chance to see them with Belle

Anyways Carl and Belle are cute I think they should get together what do you think?