Haunted | Daryl Dixon

34. From Favors to Friendship

"Hey, I need a favor-"

"No."

Daniel blinked once, "You haven't even heard-"

"No." Evelyn repeated, raising an eyebrow in his direction, "If I know you like I think I do, I won't like the direction this is heading in."

The man rolled his eyes and waved a hand, "So dramatic, E. When have I ever-"

"Do you really need me to start counting off times where your 'favors' have led to very unfavorable outcomes?" She continued from where she was leaning, forearms braced against the counter separating the two of them.

His eyebrows furrowed, "It never has-" This time, he cut himself off as his face dropped when realization dawned on him, "Oh. You're right."

Evelyn threw her head back with a laugh, "I'm just messing with you. What do you need?"

"I need you to be nice to people." He said simply, copying her position and leaning to face her.

"Excuse me?"

He rushed to explain, "You're not exactly the most friendly and open to new people that we meet-"

"For good reason." She now stood up straight, arms crossed over her chest as she warily eyed the man in front of her, unsure of where this was going.

"-But this place seems really nice," He continued as if she hadn't said anything, "And I don't think you want to come off as... hostile as you sometimes do." He tried to put it lightly.

"You worry about being nice. I'll worry about being smart." She sassed back.

A sigh left his lips, and his demeanor suddenly grew serious, one of the very rare times the woman had ever seen him do so, "Listen, we just got off of the road. And the entire group was struggling- badly. I honestly don't know how much longer we would have made it if Aaron didn't show up."

Evelyn's mouth snapped shut, a soberness falling over her.

"I was only slightly joking about the being nice part. I just wanna make sure that we're as careful as we can be so that we don't get thrown out of here. I think it would be a nice place to stay for a while." His eyes lifted to meet hers.

Wright pursed her lips, arms still crossed, "Fine." She finally relented, "I'll try to... make friends or something."

Daniel's face lit up immediately, "Just be your usual charming self, and the rest will come easy."

Evelyn snorted and rolled her eyes once more.

.·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙　✩　*̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙

With a huff, Evelyn lifted her head and pushed a fistfull of hair out of her face in the process, squinting her eyes against the bright sun.

Currently, her group was scattered across the entirety of Alexandria, exploring and settling in on their own terms.

She had checked in with Finn earlier that morning, and the boy had parted ways with her after about half an hour, mentioning going to hang out with some of the other kids. All the woman could think about though, was how happy she was that he finally put in enough effort to have friends. Even if it was in the middle of the end of the world.

With hardly anything to do, Evelyn had set off towards the communal gardens set up in the middle of the town in hopes of keeping herself busy to prevent her mind from wandering. As soon as she let that happen, she would start overthinking things, becoming that overly cautious version of herself.