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chapter seventy-nine | the sanctuary not-for-all
LAUREL FOLLOWED HER family down the train tracks with Daryl beside her. Carl, Ethan, and Cassie were walking between the couple and Rick and Michonne. Leaves crunched underneath Laurel's boots as she pulled a small blanket further around her. It's all they could find to keep her warm beside a red jacket that they gave Cassie instead. Ethan found the small blanket and offered it to Laurel.
Laurel watched as Cassie pulled the red hood over her head, covering her face because of the larger size and Carl chuckled at her. Cassie pulled the hood back, showing a genuine smile Laurel hasn't seen in a while. Ethan rolled his eyes at the teens next to him, pulling the hood back over Cassie's face and holding it until she tripped on a wooden plank because she couldn't see. The little sister retaliated with a harsh slap on the bicep that Ethan pretended it hurt.
Her attention drifted to the man next to her when he tapped her elbow once, causing her to slow down to a stop and turn toward him. She met his gaze, noticing his features were tight. Their family ahead of them didn't notice the couple stopped and kept walking.
Laurel stood patiently, watching him struggle inwardly before he opened his mouth, then closed it again and repeat. She gripped her blanket with one hand and snuck the other under, grabbing his hand, "what is it?"
He huffed, not in annoyance with her but with himself. Since she found him, saved him and the others, and found out about their troubles while they were apart, Daryl has felt guilty. For not knowing she was not dead. That he never looked for her or for her siblings. He should have at least looked for them. Beth had hoped but he didn't. "I didn't look for you guys," he mumbled, beginning to pull his hand from hers but she gripped it tight.
He tried to shy away from her gaze as she tried to understand his hidden meaning, the unspoken words he was too afraid to say. She stepped closer to him until they were chest to chest so he had to look at her, "It's okay. I was dead," she said as if it was a stupid thing for him to doubt. It probably was but he still felt the guilt in his gut. "I know you will still beat yourself up about it even if you know I think you did nothing wrong, so, I forgive you."
He let out a breath as she said the last three words. Her lips twitched before she stood on her tip-toes and placed a soft kiss on his lips, hoping to kiss away his guilt. He grunted and pressed his lips harder onto hers, letting go of her hand only to wrap his around her to hold her close. He was starved of her and when she wrapped her arms around him tighter, pressing her lips against his even harder, he knew she was too.
A whistle reached their ears but the couple ignored it until someone whistled louder. Laurel chuckled a bit after she broke away from him, glancing at the group quite a bit away, staring at them with grins she could see from afar. She looked back up at Daryl to see his eyes still on her and smiled, a real smile.
"Let's go find the rest of our family."
Laurel and Daryl were both blushing by the time they caught up with her siblings and the others. They teased the couple with a wink and knowing grins. After a few short glares, they stood at a fallen Terminus sign, one that Laurel has seen when tracking Daryl and what he called the claimers.
