Darkness fell over the forest just as you and Daryl approached a run down shack of a home. One that seemed familiar even if you had never been here before. Crickets chirped around you in the dark, and you could hear the wind rustling through the branches.
With nightfall, came cooler weather. Chillier than that of the blistering humid daytime. And you basked in the way the moon fell over you like sunlight, yet didn't bring in the same exhasting heat.
Daryl opens up the front door, checking the house for walkers before letting you follow him inside. Once clear, you step inside the small house. Instantly stepping on papers and trash lining the floor, and the place smelled of stale smoke and dirt.
"It's a pigsty in here." You comment, kicking around some of the larger prices of garbage covering the floor boards.
"Yeah, but for now, a safe pigsty at that." Daryl comments, looking through the cupboards in the sad looking kitchen.
The surroundings inside the four walls sadden you, how dank and depressing it all is. Yet it reminds you of a different time.
"This chair makes me think of Dad's. The one he'd sit in for hours, smoking and drinking. Passing out in it when he would get home from the bars." You say outloud, your voice seeming loud in the dusty silent room.
If the room wasn't depressing enough before, this topic was sure to bring in the grey clouds.
"And this," You say moving towards something pink and plastic and useless that your father would no doubt have cluttering his home. "Makes me think of the things he would shoot for target practice."
Daryl walks over to you, taking a look at the ugly pink plastic used as an ash tray that you move aside.
"Moonshine out back makes me think of him more." He tells you, and taking a seat on the cluttered floor you wonder how much more he'll say. As it's almost never that he talks about this stuff with you.
Daryl takes a seat in one of the old recliner chairs and looks around the dank room. You know he had it worse, both he and Merle did. And suddenly you feel guilty for bringing up the past he tried so hard to escape.
"Home sweet home." Daryl mutters and you look to your older brother, and for a short second you can almost see the pain he's concealed from you all these long years.
* * *
The crickets chirp loudly, their sound almost echoing around you as you sit on the wooden porch with Daryl. The cool night air feels good compared to the stuffy and suffocating room inside. The history of your pasts threatening to strangle you both. But out here, in the fresh air, you can both breathe again.
"It was always you and me against the world, you know." Your voice breaks the silence that had grown between you and Daryl. And as your words enter the night air, he looks over at you.
"I always felt it was, I mean Merle was there but... You know how he was." You try explaining, thinking about your oldest brother. A thought you tried not thinking about much since his passing.
"I just always felt it was you and me. Back then, and now." You say, turning your head to the side looking off at the forest surrounding the house.
"Always tried bein what he wasn't, what dad wasn't, for ye." Daryl says, his arms resting loosly over his knees that are bent in front of him.
"Don't know how well I did." He shrugs, and looks downward toward the wood panels of the porch.
"I hate when you do that you know." You say, a small smile playing at the corners of your lips as you raise an eyebrow.
Daryl looks up at you, resting his head back against the wood. "What?"
"That. Doubting yourself. You've been doing it all your life, and frankly it gets a bit irritating." You say, your tone light and playful. But your words honest and to the point.
"Who else was gonna teach me to hunt huh?"
You recall the summer morning he took you out into the woods with him, and the way he was patient as you were only just learning. He spoke softly and repeated things even though he hated to repeat himself. He taught you. But to be honest, the best part of that day was just spending a day out with your big brother.
"And who sat up at night with me when Dad got real loud and wasted?"
There were too many of those nights to remember, and although you never had it as bad as your brothers, it was still hard. You found yourself crying yourself to sleep many nights and on those nights, Daryl would come in and sit with you. Comforting you silently, even when he was healing from your father's cruel hand.
"You taught me how to drive stick, even though you suck at it." You say and hold back a laugh at the look Daryl shoots you.
"You walked me home from school almost every day. You beat up the boy who bullied me on the playground. You took me to the doctor when I got sick."
Daryl watches as you list all of the things he did that you held onto. Things he didn't really recall till now, and things he didn't know meant so much to you. Little things.
"You raised me Daryl. So I don't know how you can sit there questioning if you were good enough."
"You were there for me Daryl, you showed up. That's all I really ever wanted."
Daryl's heart beat harder inside of his chest as he stares at you, watching as your blue eyes meet his own.
"Ain't never not gonna be there for ya." Daryl mumbles softly to you, but you catch every word.
Leaning your head back like he does against the wood, you stare at you older brother with a smile spread softly across your lips. Listening to the thump of your heart and call of the crickets in the night.
"You and me against the world." You whisper into the darkness.
"Me and you." Daryl whispers back to you, and you swore you could hear his own small smile.
A/N: I love this one! An idea I haven't tried before but I'm very happy with how it came out!💕
