Behind the Crossbow

Supply run

You awoke to the tonality of Alexandria's entrance gates being rolled open. You scale out of bed and get dressed before making your way to the gate with your rifle hung around your shoulder by its ragged strap. You arrive at the gate to see Michonne had returned from her trip to oceanside, so you hug and smile at her before stepping back to see if there were any updates about the other communities.

You get distracted by the faint smell of cigarette smoke lingering in the air, so you turn around to see Daryl stood behind you, staring at you. He realises you've noticed him so he looks away hoping you didn't see him glaring. He flicks his burnt out cigarette on the ground and lifts his shoulders, adjusting his posture. You throw a faint smile at him but all you got back was a glare, nothing unusual.
"We need volunteers to go on a supply run, preferably 2 we need medicine." calls out Michonne.
"Mhh i'll go" Daryl says in his deep, southern accent while looking over at you.
"Yeah..yeah I will too" you respond, returning the same look Daryl gave you. This was your chance to form a connection with him
"Okay, thank you!" Michonne replied touching your arm and smiling at you, "Be careful, you too Daryl."
"Mmm" he mumbles back before heading out the gate with his crossbow over his shoulder and his bike ready to go.

You follow him outside the gate as it gets shut behind you. He turns the handle on his bike and cranks it on. You look over at him but he already had his eyes on you.
"Are you seriously going to make me walk?" You ask with a smile on your face
"Yeh..why?" he replies, with a slight smirk on his face.
"Asshole!" you walk over to him, "Move up im getting on." you lift one leg onto the other side of his motorbike before fidgeting until you get comfortable.
"I'll be slow alrigh', you ain't got a helmet an' i'm assumin' you ain't been on one before." Daryl says in his deep voice, waiting for you to reply.
"No, I haven't" you say after him followed by an awkward laugh.
"Alrigh' hold on." he says slowly picking up the speed on his bike. Your arms wrap around his waist, and you rest your head on his neck gently. You can feel his warmth of his body radiating against you. You felt so safe. You begin to feel butterflies grow in your stomach, and you feel a smile plaster across your face.

The bike slowly comes to a halt, you slowly unhook your arms from around his waist.
"Shit I ran out of gas, we uh..we gotta walk.." he says tucking his long, waved hair behind his ears.
You sigh but you didn't really mind, after all you were still spending time with him. You begin to walk along the roadside, surrounded by greenery.
"So..we gonna talk or you just gonna ignore me this whole trip?" you laugh slightly after saying it waiting for him to reply.
"Uhm..we can talk. What you wanna talk 'bout?" he replies, looking over at you holding his crossbow over his shoulder.
"What did you do..you know before all this shit?" you ask before looking over at him, slightly closing the gap between you both.
He looks away, before answering "I didn't do nothin'...I didn't have a job or whatever.."
"Oh, how come?" you ask with a confused innocent look on your face.
He looks back at you, "I uhm..I weren't at home..my house was shit..don't wanna talk 'bout it."
"Oh..I'm sorry.." you reply. He stays silent after and you two eventually make it to an abandoned gas station.

"Have we already been here?" You ask.
"Nah, don't think so.." Daryl replies, approaching the entrance. "Don't take unnecessary shit, ok?"
"Wasn't planning on it." You reply smiling and sarcastically rolling your eyes.
You enter and begin to fill your bag with tinned food and Daryl jumps over the counter to find some more cigarettes. One of the cans slipped from your grip.
"Oh shit." You mumble to yourself, bending over to pick up the canned beans. Out of the corner of your eye, you catch a glimpse of Daryl staring at you while you're bent over and a smile plasters across your face.
"Nice view?" You ask, trying to annoy him.
He breaks his stare, looking away and acting like he didn't know what you was on about.

All of a sudden you hear a groan coming from under the shelves and something grips onto your leg, pulling you to the floor. You begin vigorously kicking your legs to get the walker off you.
"Stay still." Daryl groans before aining his crossbow and shooting an arrow straight through the walkers head. He leans down to pull the arrow but as he does your eyes meet. Your butterflies grew in your stomach yet again. His turquoise orbs locked in with yours. You couldn't look away from eachother. You felt the chemistry between you two spark. He stood back up, offering a hand as you did too.
"You alrigh'?" he asks, concerned about your safety after you just got attacked by a walker.
You give a nod of confirmation and you continue filling your bags with the supplies.

The altitudinous trees enclosed around you as you walked down the road back to Alexandria. You kept thinking about what happened. Your thoughts were running through you head simultaneously, you tried to make sense of it. Maybe you were just overthinking it. You just shook it off like it was nothing and continued making your way back to Alexandria.