LOYAL [TWD] (third book to TROUBLE)

reminiscent

"I'm sorry," Daryl tries again.

Sakiko sniffles, fighting to keep her tears at bay.

"Kiko.." Daryl sighs.

Sakiko looks over at him, the stars and moon their only light.

"What if that was me?"

"Don't do that," he pleads.

"If Shinsuke didn't put a bullet in his head the second shit got real.. Of he somehow made it all these years and became something like that-"

"Sakiko, don't."

"It gets worse and worse, dad. She.." Sakiko pauses to keep the sob down, "She's gonna kill that girl."

Daryl lowers his head in shame.

Sakiko puts her head back, tears leaking. She places her hand on Dog's head where he was laying in her lap.

"I told her that I'd die for Lydia. Now, she's back with them. Alpha knows that I care for her. She's gonna think Lydia cares for me. You know just as well as I do how dangerous that is."

Daryl hated that he knew she was right.

Ths woman would see it as weakness. Just like she saw everything else but this.. it was different. It was leverage to use against Lydia. It was her sick and twisted 'reason'.

"Then and now.. you're the only person I've trusted in my life. Even.." she scoffs, "Even Nanami let me down."

Daryl didn't know what else to say. He'd tried for the first couple of yesrs after Nanami had left to get it through to Sakiko that Nanami was struggling, too.

"He always said that I was your favorite."

"I never picked favorites between you. Not once."

"I did," Sakiko admits, "I chose you."

Daryl gives her a look.

"You trusted me. You trained me. You showed me right from wrong even when things were in between and gray."

Sakiko wipes her eyes.

"I knew that I could survive on my own. I could've done it time and time again.. But, I always came back from running away because I hoped that'd you'd be waiting for me."

"I'm still here.. I ain't.." Daryl fries to figure her words out.

"Maggie, Glenn, Ezekiel, Carol.. They saw more in me. They saw a leader. They.. They would've listened to my call earlier. They would've fought with me."

Daryl understands at once.

He handed over Lydia against Sakiko's wishes. He defied her leadership.

He did it for Sakiko, though. He did it for Kitsune.

"I saw myself when I was talking to her. I saw the locked doors to keep him out. I saw the scars. I felt the belt. I heard the screams. I saw the fear.. I.." Sakiko's voice breaks.

Her words fall short and she hodes her face in her hands, crying to herself.

Daryl sighs once more, chest feeling heavy.

"And when I walked away from her.. I saw you. I saw a chance. Hope. I heard those kind words. I felt the guiding hand. I.." she whimpers, looking over to Daryl, "I saw you, dad. And I.. I wanted to give her the chance you gave me."

"Kiko.."

"I don't know where I would've ended up without you. Before the dead started walking.. maybe he would've already-"

"Don't," he cuts her off, nig able to even imagine how mu h worse things could've gone.

"You saved me. You brought me back to life multiple times," she tries, "From Atlanta to gettung shot to here to just.. being there. You saved me, dad."

"You saved me," Daryl tells Sakiko, "You saved me first."

Sakiko reaches over and Daryl takes her hand. He pulls their interlo ked fingers up, kissing her knuckles gently.

"After all these years.. I never thanked you for it all."

"You ain't gotta," he denies.

"I do.." Sakiko argues with a ssd smile on her face.

Daryl clears his throat, blinking his own tears away.

"Thank you," Sakiko squeezes his hand.

Daryl rests his head on the back of her hand.

"But.. Now you know why I have to."

"Yeah.." Daryl breathes.

"Sakiko?" a gentle voice asks.

"Addy?" Sakiko questions, sitting up straighter and clearing her eyes.

Addy vlimbs the ladder to where Sakiko and Daryl were, a paper in hand.

"Henry.. He's gone."

𝒶𝓊𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓇 𝓇𝒶𝓂𝒷𝓁𝑒𝓈--

tis i here with the sad girl hours hello