"No, no you don't Merle, glad to see you made yourself a hand." You gestured toward the metal cap with a knife duck taped to it. Your eyes though never left Daryl's, you so desperately wanted to go to him, be wrapped up in his embrace but then again you were so angry you were scared you might just kill him.
"Well if this is all you wanted to show me Rick I think I'll be heading back to the others." You said as you started to turn back towards the doorway.
"Stop." Rick snapped causing you to stop dead in your tracks.
"Rick..." You started
"Just yesterday you were tellin me you didn't understand why he left, and now he's back and you don't even wanna ask?"
"Get out." You growled causing all the men to try and leave, however when Daryl is walked by you grabbed his hand, stopping him in his tracks. As the door separating you from the group slammed close you slowly let go, and made your way to a table top to sit on, and look at Daryl, who was looking at the floor.
"I thought you were dead baby. When I saw the group come back without you I figured some walker got you or worse. I fainted just thinking about it, but when I woke up I was informed that you were alive and well, and that I would understand why you were wandering the forest with Merle. Tell me babe, how should I understand the fact that you left me?"
"Sunshine, you have to understand, he's my brother, my kin, someone I thought was dead. I left without thinking and planned on returning for you when the time was right, until I realized that Merle never changed like I though and that I needed to come home to the woman who loved me more then my brother ever did."
"But you still left me, with nothing more then a broken promise and a 'she'll understand'."
"I came back didn't I? [Y/N] I'm here in one piece, I was safe like you wanted."
"Daryl how did you think I was going to react when Rick told me you left?"
"I figured you would be pissed, you would come find us, join us."
"You really though Rick would have let me leave by myself, for however long you've been gone I have had a watch, they would have never let me go after you because it was suicide!"
"You are smart you would have found a way."
"And how would you feel when you came back today and was told I was gone! What if when you went looking for me I turned up died, turned into one of those things and you were the only one who could put me down? How would you feel because if that was me, and I found you and Merle dead, I have no problem putting your douche of a brother down but you... Daryl... I couldn't. Hell I would kill myself before I killed you."
"You wouldn't end up as one of them Sunshine..."
"The point isn't would I, the point is you broke my heart when you left, I love you more then myself and when you didn't come back i didn't k ow what to do. I shut down and you..."
"Never stopped thinking about you, thinking of how without you with me out in though woods I felt empty like I did before I found you. I love you so much, and I came back, partly because Merle is a dick but mostly because life without you Sunshine is dark and dull."
You looked at him in silence and then suddenly the nickname made sense.
"So what was it like growing up as Daryl Fucking Dixon?" You asked one day as you both laid on the couch, just staring at a blank tv, since the cable company had just shut it off. You also didn't know his middle name, only that it was the same as his father's and there was no way he was going to bring up his no good asshole of a father.
"Well I can tell you it was nothing like yours probably." He chuckled
"Daryl I think in the whole year and nine month we been dating we have never talked about what it was like growin up. So how do you even know?"
"Simple my folks didn't live in a two story Mini mansion at the end of the rich side of the Northern Georgia mountain towns. We lived on the poor side of town in a one floor house with a tiny backyard and even smaller front yard. The house only had two bedrooms, one bath, a living room, and a kitchen, both houses were like that."
"Did you move houses a lot?"
"As a kid no only once but after I moved out at 18 I was in a new spot every week or two."
"Was that before I meet you?"
"[Y/N] in the time it took from meeting you to asking you out I switched homes maybe two dozen times."
"How did you end up in the apartment then?"
"Well after we started dating I asked Merle if he could double my money, told him he could crash there as long as he helped me buy the place to impress you."
"Makes sense now, shocked he actually had the money conceding that he spends it all on cocaine and whiskey."
"Hey he spends it on more then just that, he also uses it to buy hookers so he can get his dick sucked." You both chuckled at that one.
"Was he always like that growing up?"
"Merle, no he was just affected by certain events in our lives. Remember how I said as a kid we only moved houses once?"
"Yea."
"Well we had to move because of my ma, see she used to like the bottle along with a cigarette or 12 she tried to hid it from us but me and Merle, we knew. Now we weren't that wealthy so we had one used bike, which belonged to Merle. Well he never let me touch that bike and so while my friends were riding around on their bikes I was chasing them, one day we heard sirens and so all my friends raced towards 'em hoping they would see a dead body or a real life murder scene, as they flew down the main road we all lived on I was chasing behind 'em, and by the time I reach 'em they were all just staring at me, and when I caught my breath and looked at where we were, and then it set in."
"It was your house, wasn't it?" You asked him as he squeezed your hand a little tighter.
"It was my house, and my mama was inside. My brother was in juve at the time so it was just me and Pops, looking for a new home. He ended up settling for a home just like the last one, except instead of just drinking my father had now decided it was mine and Merle's fault for everything. So once he came back from juve my father decided we both needed lashings for all our "wrong doings", which could range anywhere between chewing with our mouths open to Merle stealing Pop's whiskey in the middle of the night. See once Merle turned 18 though he bailed, left me high and dry with dear ole Daddy."
You just leaned into him more, moving your ass from the cushion to his lap, your arms wrapping around his neck and your head leaned back against his shoulder, his arms wrapping around you before he continued, "You know before I met you I thought my life was always going to look dark, like nothing was going to look up for dear old Daryl William Dixon, trust me when I took that job at the coffee shop it wasn't because I though it would lead me to the girl of my dreams, it was because Merle used the last of the money to buy a gram of cocaine and I was tried of livin on the street. And then you walked in, and the whole damn world lit up." He smiled as kiss the top of your temple, and then the lights went out.
"Shit we forgot to pay the electric again." You laughed
"Hey Sunshine." Daryl called from your living room a few hours later, after you both went to the store to buy a bunch of candles and some beer.
"Sunshine!"he called again, after several seconds of no response he finally got up and found you in the kitchen.
"[Y/N]." He said as you turned around to look at him, "didn't you hear me calling you?"
"You were saying Sunshine?" You reminded him
"I know, you call me Babe, I call you Sunshine, ok Sunshine?"
You reached out and found his hand, pulling him closer to you. When he was stuck between your two knees You wrapped your arms around his torso and rested your head in his chest, his arms finding their way around your shoulders and his chin rested on your head. You weren't sure how long you stayed like that but it seemed too short. He finally pulled away only to pick you up bridal style and whispered into your ear, "You promised me Red Lace when I got back."
"Baby you can have all the red lace you want, but we better tell the others not to go in the other cell blocks, don't need Carl being traumatized." You smiled as he went running for the stairs, for you knew there was no way he would leave you again.
