Never Have I Ever Fallen in Love

Chapter 18

"Y'know, for someone who went on a hunting trip to clear their head, you was gone an awful long time." I said in a mockingly sweet voice from my place in the middle of the tent.

"Whatever."

"Has everyone gone to their tents?"

He grunted in reply.

I rolled my eyes at his ignorance then returned to the vicious exercise of press ups. They were the first ones I had done for months and my body could definitely relate to the absence of them.

"What ya doin'?" his voice sounded again and I could hear the scowl that he undoubtedly had on his face. I ignored him and stretched my arms once again so my body wasn't touching the floor. I let out a final puff of air and collapsed with a soft thud on the ground. A sharp rock poked through the tent floor and harshly jabbed me on my stomach where my bullet wound was still healing. Wincing slightly, I turned over onto my back and gazed up at the man that had just walked in. He was standing and watching  me with narrowed eyes and crossed arms.

"What?" I questioned then slung my arms over my face in an attempt of blocking his hard gaze out.

"Nothin'." he muttered glumly. So glumly in fact that I actually removed my arms from my face and looked up at him again in surprise.

"Don't seem that way..."

"Smoke?" he ignored my statement and sauntered over towards his cot where the other bag we had got from the run was laying. I watched as he unzipped the zip and started rummaging around inside, pulling out various different cans and bottles until, I could only assume, he found what he was looking for. 

And I was right.

He pulled out several packs of king sized smokes. I sat up quickly and watched as he successfully quickly opened one of the packets, pulled one out, grabbed a lighter from his back pocket then lit it. He took a deep drag of it then removed it from his lips. He glanced over to me and held it up in front of my face, offering it to me and I took it gratefully. Daryl quickly joined me on the floor and we both sat there facing each other, smoking a long awaited smoke and glancing at each other occasionally.

"So..." Daryl said eventually after several minutes of silence. "I ain't one for...this mushy shit. You know that better than anyone, Scout..." he spoke slowly between drags. My eyes snapped up to him and nodded for him to go on. "But...I'm...eh. Fucks sake. Scout just...know that I'm sorry. For...acting like a dick towards yer. I'm a Dixon, I guess. Dixon's don't do this...friendly...shit...us Dixons fight." he continued. "We spend nights in jail cells. We hate everyone but our family and the skank we had picked up for the night and even them we throw out after we've done with them. But...you was like family towards me. You're different. You aren't cheap. You aren't easy. And you sure as hell ain't like many other women."

I watched silently as he did something that he found the most hardest to do: he told me what he was thinking. He apologized. Hell, who was this and what the hell has he done with the old Daryl Dixon?

"Look Scout..." he sighed heavily. "When you...when you nearly got bit on the run...I guess I just freaked out. I thought you were on a goner. I thought you were gonna die. And I was just mad because...you let it happen. You almost died cos you wasn't looking. You wasn't looking Scout and you coulda died. I guess I just..." He puffed out another puff of smoke and glanced over at me. "I don't ever say sorry, Scout..."

"I know. Don't think I ever heard the word leave your mouth when we were..."

I swallowed and lifted the cigarette up to my mouth. I took the last puff of it them bent forward slightly and stubbed it out on the bottom of my boot. He did the same then leaned back against a pole keeping the tent from collapsing.

"Daryl Dixon has a soft side? Shocker of the century!" I joked.

He smirked at me slightly and I smiled back slightly and suddenly, the atmosphere in the tent lifted slightly.

"Shut up." he muttered.

"So...how long did it take you to come up with that speech then, huh?"

"Ha. Long enough." I chuckled at his reply.

"Got any of the good stuff in there?" I quickly changed the subject and nodded towards the bag with half it's contents spilling out onto Daryl's cot and sleeping bag. He shook his head.

"Naah. Didn't get the chance to grab any before I had to come save yer ass." I sighed and fell onto my back.

"God damn it. I could really do with a drink."

"Yeah, I feel ya..."

I lifted my head up from the floor to look at him and saw that he was staring at me.

"What ya looking at?" I asked, suddenly self conscious when he didn't move his gaze from me when I caught him looking at me.

"Nothin'. Nothin' at all..." he trailed off then reached for the packet of smokes again. He held them up and I nodded at him then watched him go through the entire routine of lighting it again. I reached for the cigarette when he was done and successfully grasped it without having to leave the floor. I stared up at the tent roof and inhaled deeply. The rush I got from the smoke travelled through my body and I breathed out happily.

Suddenly, a thump sounded to the next to me and I jumped slightly. I twisted my head to see that Daryl had joined me on the floor and he to was admiring the tent ceiling.

"So...you couldn't have just been hunting when you was in the woods..." I started.

He grunted. "I was just...thinking." he said simply and I decided to drop it. It was none of my business, I guess.

"What 'bout you? Did ya enjoy stumbling around camp followed by their eyes?"

I laughed lightly and shook my head. "Didn't do anything that interesting. Helped Lori. Scared her half to death though..." I laughed bitterly and thought back to the conversation me and Lori had. How could she even do something like that to Rick?

"Sup with Officer Friendly's woman?" he asked in a bored tone.

I narrowed at my eyes at the question and swallowed deeply. "Promised her I wouldn't say anything. Damn bitch. " he snorted and stretched his arm then put it behind my head. "I just wished that bitches and all of their dramas were the first ones to go." I rolled my eyes at my obvious statement.

"It'll sort itself out." he shrugged and puffed out smoke.

"Well, wise words? From Daryl fucking Dixon? Seriously...who the hell are you?"

"Someone who made the worst fucking mistake ever." he muttered through his teeth.

"Huh?" I turned my head to look at him then cocked an eyebrow. "What the hell are you talking about now?"

"Nothin'...I think we should get some sleep. Now that we got all...that...out of the way." he said, meaning our conversation about him being sorry.

"Yeah...I think I'm gonna stay here yanno...it's comfier than that pile of shit over there..." I nodded over to Daryl's cot. He grunted in reply then kicked his boots off using his feet. He stubbed his smoke out on the tent floor instead of his boot this time. I stretched my leg up into the air then bent it so I could reach the sole and I put my cigarette out on it instead of on the floor like Daryl then I to kicked my boots off.

I flattened myself fully on the floor as Daryl reached over me to get his sleeping bag off of his cot. The cans that had fallen out of his bag and onto his sleeping bag fell onto the floor with a clatter. I groaned and flinched to the left,closer to Daryl, as one of them hit my thigh. He chuckled as he threw the sleeping bag lazily over us and I sighed. We didn't get too close to each other yet I was still close enough to feel the heat radiating off of him.

"Well...uh...night them, Dare."

"Yeah..." he mumbled, turning onto his side so he was facing me. "Night..."

I closed my eyes and before too long, I was soon drifting into darkness.

"I made the mistake of letting you go...I regret it everyday of my life..." I heard someone whisper in my ear. 

It was the last thing I heard before I fully drifted into complete darkness and I didn't have time to mumble anything back.