Barely Surviving // TWD // Daryl Dixon #Wattys2016

Chapter XLIII -- Together

"We have to dare to be ourselves,

however frightening or strange that self may prove to be."

May Sarton

Daryl's POV

Three days after we came back from Woodbury I woke up really early, even earlier than I'm used to. I walked outside and saw one of the most beautiful sunrises I had ever seen, filling me with hope and positive emotions for the day.

I had so many things in my head that I just couldn't go back to sleep, even when I still was a bit tired and not well rested.

Not long after the sunrise, I saw Rick walking out of the prison as he normally does, just to check everything is in order inside and outside. He waved at me and I waved back.

I had been wanting to discuss something with Rick for the last three days but I hadn't found the right time, especially now that we brought back so many people and our hands were a bit busy and I had chickened out as well, finding excuses to prolong it and not having to talk to him but now it was just us, the perfect moment to discuss this and I couldn't help but feel really nervous about it, which was so strange for me.

I waited for Rick to approach me, I knew he was going to walk close to me sooner or later and I decided that if no one else wakes up by the time he comes here then it's my sign to tell him.

As Rick kept doing his usual round around the fence and every minute coming closer and closer to me, I glanced at the door over and and over again, half wishing someone to come out of it would be my sign to not say anything, but no one did come out.

"Hey, Rick!" I exclaimed when Rick was only a about five feet away from me. I walked towards him, shortening the distance between us, feeling my heartbeat increasing a bit and my hands started to sweat.

Rick started a normal conversation, first asking how I was and then speaking about the people from Woodbury and the Governor, who had disappeared from the surface of the earth for now.

"Hey, are you alright?" Rick asked me, noticing I kept fidgeting and playing with my fingers, habits I never do.

"Actually I wanted to talk to you about something."

"Alright," he said, standing up straighter in front of me and nodded at me, in a way to tell me I had his full attention. "What is it?"

"It's uh, it's about Cecilia." I bit my lip nervously but soon stopped, I was never like this.

"What about her?" he asked and I could sense the slight nervousness in his voice. "Is she okay?"

"She's fine, she is. No need to worry about her." I sighed. "Look, this is not easy for me and I actually feel really embarrassed by doing this but I feel like I should."

"Just tell me, Daryl."

I glanced down at the ground for a few seconds, sighing again. I had never felt so insecure about something and never really discussed anything like this with anyone, so I was in unknown territory, feeling so... vulnerable. I looked up at Rick again as I built up as much courage as I could manage.

"I like her, Rick," I told him, his eyes got bigger for a second or two before he composed himself again. "And we are together, like, together together, ya know?"

"Oh."

"I wouldn't be discussing this if she were... you know, a few years older and if her mum wouldn't be so against the idea of us being together, even being just friends," I said. "I tried to ignore what I felt because she's just a girl and once I realized they were too strong to just pretend they didn't exist I still couldn't help but feel it would be wrong but..." I sighed. "But it happened and I just wanted to tell you because we were thinking about telling the others, wanted to know your opinion first."