WORLD PAINTED BLOOD ||Daryl Dixon|| #Wattys2020

3

((Warning: swearing))

*The food was good and Mia was one of a few people who could get Daryl talking. Or maybe it was just the wine loosening his tongue. In any case, things felt so normal for the first time in his entire life. He hadn’t experienced anything like this even before the world fell. He’d never sat in such a beautiful dining room having dinner with wine and casual conversation. And he never thought he’d wanted any of that until he met Mia.

“Hey, are you sure you don’t wanna just sleep in the extra bedroom?” Mia asked as she finished washing the pot she’d boiled the water in,

“I mean, I know you’re not driving but still.”

“Nah,”

Daryl replied, slurring a little as he tipped his glass back and swallowed the last of his wine, “Not that long of a walk.”

“Yeah I know,” Mia said, turning around and drying her hands on her dish towel,

“But you look so tired.”

“I ain’t tired at all,”

Daryl argued. Mia chuckled and approached him, taking the glass from his hands and setting it aside. Daryl’s eyelids were heavy but he stubbornly forced them open.

“Is that right?”

she said. She pushed his hair off his forehead, looking into his blue eyes and smiling at the redness in his cheeks. He was becoming too tired to fight her on the subject. Grabbing his hand, she pulled him to his feet,

“Come on. I’ve got an extra bedroom that hasn’t been slept in since I got here. It’s very, very comfortable.”

Daryl groaned, “I can walk home, Mia. It ain’t that big of a deal.”

“Just relax,”

Mia retorted. She brought Daryl upstairs and he grudgingly allowed her to lead him. Though he attempted to continue going straight down the hall, she turned him to the first door on the left. The bedroom was bare, just a bed with white and turquoise bedding and a dresser. Mia did mention that she didn’t use this bedroom so Daryl expected it to be plain. For it being an untouched bedroom, she did maintain it rather well as there wasn’t a speck of dust to be found and there wasn’t even a pillow out of place on the bed.

Mia stopped him and started getting the bed ready, moving the decorative pillows to the dresser and pulling back the comforter. She fluffed the pillows and then approached Daryl again, “You’re okay with sleeping in your clothes?”

“Not like you have anything that would fit me,” he said.

“I have something that might fit you,”

Mia replied, “Some old sweatpants. They belonged to someone I used to travel with but I’ve washed them so they’re clean.”

Daryl wasn’t sure why even in his tipsy head, the thought of Mia travelling with a man annoyed him. He pushed the thought out of his mind and shook his head, “Nah. I’m good sleepin’ like this.”

“At least take this off,”

Mia said. Before Daryl could ask her what she meant, she was standing behind him pulling his leather jacket off of him, her fingertips grazing his arm slightly as she pulled the jacket down his arms. Her fingers were cold but he didn’t mind it as the alcohol had warmed him up more than he would’ve liked. She urged him forward, “And your shoes.”

“I can take those off myself,” Daryl said, taking a seat on the bed, most likely making the white sheets filthy with the dirt and dust all over his pants. Mia didn’t say anything so he continued, unlacing his boots and kicking them off his feet. Mia picked his boots up and set them down next to the dresser while Daryl laid down on the bed, resting his arm over his forehead.