Oneshots, imagines, and ideas, oh my! *discontinued*

Daryl Dixon Imagine

Daryl Dixon Imagine-A negative+A negative

Request for: Scarletgrave

Warnings: Uh....I don't know how to classify it. I don't think it's bad? Read at your own risk, no smut.

Daryl Dixon Imagine

Of course he had noticed it before. In all the time that he spent 'noticing' her, how could he have missed it? It made sense that he was the only one to pick up on it. He knew the signs, every last one of them. As he was growing up, it wasn't uncommon to find abused girls living around him, but they were different. They took what happened to them, the neglect, the pain, and turned it into failure and their taste in men suffered. He'd seen so many girls shy away whenever a man bigger than herself raised his voice, but it was different when she did it. Maybe it was because she was so strong, so cold and calculating and brilliant, maybe that's why it made him cringe whenever she jumped.

She seemed a less skittish than she was, so nobody really noticed how she would tense or flinch whenever Rick got louder, or back at the beginning when Shane would pitch a fit. The one thing they did notice was that forever reason, he got just a bit softer when she was around, in every aspect of the word. They just assumed that it had been a crush all along, but it wasn't, not back then. It was a dying plant, watered by a tall glass of pity with just a few drops of untaught kindness for someone who had obviously suffered so much. Even still, what it grew into was nothing short of amazing. She didn't really get better at hiding it, people around her just got better at not noticing it, but he still noticed. She had always noticed him watching, seeing, and at the beginning she hated him for it.

Her view of men certainly wasn't untouched, she had suffered enough to hate a good percentage of them at face value. She realized that he was, in fact, softer around her, and she hated it. She often found herself trying to subtly egg him on, but he never shouted, never hit things around him, never stomped his foot if she was a mile away. Back then, this bothered her to no end. She spent endless hours watching him to deduce what he gained out of such blatant pity, to no avail. He was quite the riddle.

Neither of them realized that when one wasn't looking at the other, the other was more than likely looking at  them. Dangerous feelings budded  as slowly as they could, but the 'live in the present' message rung through to them, and they got together during the hard winter. It was more of an acceptance, really, little romance was moved between them, but a silent contract was placed. When we're safe-when we're safer, we'll be together.

He found that during this time, darting around over Georgia, she stuck closer to him, and she found that Daryl was better off if someone was sleeping near him. It was a little bond of trust, between the two, which eventually bloomed into a relationship before they knew it. Even when the world is over, humanity will go to desperate measures to survive. As time progressed, nothing changed on the surface of their relationship. Muttered endearments when things got too tough, silent support, and the considering nods when one would come back alive. Little things.

One thing that did change, really change, was the way he behaved around her after they got to the prison. By then, they were established as a long-term couple, which suited either perfectly fine. It was hardly healthy, but by apocalypse standards it was the romance of the century. She noticed the change, and couldn't quite put her finger on whether she liked it or not. It was a protective edge he had gotten, slightly jealous and possessive. Any other time, any other man, she would have instantly ended it. Jealous possessive men were the bane of her existence, she was one of the few abused girls who learned from her torture. This was different, though - this was Daryl. She accepted that he was like this because of one thing, that even she could see, the penalizing factor for him in every argument. He never raised a hand to her, never raised his voice or threw things, he didn't even stomp his foot on the ground. This was why it worked.

She knew that he wasn't much better off, and though they never spoke about it, it didn't make them any less close. They didn't need to talk about it, they already knew. Because of this, it suited him perfectly fine when she lightly traced the marks on his back, reading his story as though the scars were braille. She didn't mind either, when he would run his rough hands over her marks, as if to wash away the horror. With each new scar that the terror brought, a new layer added to their own secret bond. It was insanely frightening, of course, they never knew when they would loose what they had. For Daryl especially, seeing as he never expected to have a family in the first place.

She knew, though, that everything would be alright. Daryl was a negative, and she was a negative, but it's well known that two negatives make a positive. He reminded himself of this as his hands wavered, from the scars on her body to the bulge at her stomach. It was a terrible mistake, too, they both knew that, but they shared yet another secret-they were both caught, dead excited and terrified for whatever would happen.

It's my own damn fault, they both thought, alone yet together unknowingly. I fell in love with someone,

Just

Like

Me.

Was that any good? I tried changing it up! Though I never said Y/n, this is a reader insert. Clear that up real fast. :)

-HowDULL