Fighter

Chapter 21: Morning

I woke up to light movement coming from beside me, I slowly open my eyes, allowing the sun's harsh rays to shine directly in my eyes, immediately regretting it.

"Mornin'." A raspy voice comes from beside me.

"Morning." I yawn, lightly, rolling over on my side to face him. "Hi." I whisper, looking into his eyes.

"Hi." He smiles, "how'd ya sleep?" He questions, tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear and cupping my cheek lightly. He seems very affectionate this morning and I love it, I really don't want to go back down to the others. I'm much happier to stay up here with him all day, if only... "Skylar." He draws out, my name sounding so good rolling off his tongue. "Are you listenin' to a word I was sayin'?" He questions, eyebrow raised.

"Sorry." I blush profoundly, "I kinda zoned out." I look down at his chest.

"I kinda noticed." He mocks, laughing lightly at my embarrassment. "I asked how'd ya sleep?" He repeats.

"Like a baby, how about you?" I ask looking at the small bags under his eyes, obviously he slept better than he did before, there's barely any bags today.

"Like a drunk." He laughs to himself, looking out the window to the sun rising. "We should probably go back inside, before people start come lookin'." He mutters, looking back down at me. I groan, rolling on my back and bunching up in the blankets and sleeping bags.

"I don't wanna." I whine.

"Come on, what'll it take to get yer ass down there?" He questions, moving closer to me. I bring my finger to my chin, pretending to be deep in taught. "How 'bout a little bit of this?" He asks, slowly trailing his lips along my neck. My eyes flutter shut. "How 'bout some of these?" He asks, lightly sucking the skin, getting closer and closer to my lips. "How 'bout..." He trails off, lips lightly brushing mine. "You get your pretty little ass down those stairs now, before I make you?" He whispers lowly. My stomach is doing backflips at his sudden lowness of his voice as he looks me in the eyes.

"Make me." I whisper back. Amusement clear in his eyes as he swiftly throws me over his shoulder, grabbing his crossbow and t-shirt and climbing down the ladder and out into the courtyard.

"Daryl let me down!" I laugh, pounding his back lightly.

"You didn't wanna get up, so I got you up." He shrugs, walking towards the main doors.

"Well clearly I'm up now." I huff, flopping on his back, knowing he won't budge. He opens the metal door with one hand and finally puts me down as he closes it with the other. He quickly throws his shirt on as we walk through the foyer.

"Is anyone up y-" I begin to question but was cut off by a big brown ball of fur comes racing towards us, jumping up and licking me. "Oh my God Chewy get off me!" I laugh as he licks me all over the place. "I'm back see, all in one piece." I show him as he barks happily, probably waking up the others.

"Someone shut that damn dog up!" Merle groggy voice yells from around the corner.

"Guessin' we should go?" Daryl asks, poking his head around the corner to see if anyone else is up.

"Yeah..." I pout, looking down at Chewy as he chases his tail.

"Come on now." He sighs, walking over and wrapping his arms around my waist. "What's wrong?"

"How long... how long are we gonna have to hide this," I motion in between us, "for?"

"I don't know." He sighs, resting his head on top of mine. "I'm not all that comfortable with 'this' being out 'there'." He explains.