Silence

4/8

You kept going to the woods with Daryl, he always went hunting alone, but you both took patrol once a day around the perimeter of the warehouse, and when you were sure everything was safe, Daryl would take you deeper into the woods to try to find a trail and write you things about tracking. And so, little by little, you began learning more about tracking, even though you were far away from being able to track something yourself.

Little by little, you began knowing more about Daryl too. Almost every day, you both shared your watch too, and after some days like that, you still wanted to know more about Daryl, and so you decided to act on it. You had written him a sentence about you, just the place where you had been born, and Daryl had seemed confused about what you were doing or what you wanted, until finally he got that you wanted him to write something about himself too. He'd seemed awkward and uncomfortable, to the point you had almost taken back the notebook to write that he didn't need too, but finally he'd written you the place where he'd been born.

And so each day you learned a new thing about him. He still seemed a bit awkward about it, always looking nervously at you when you read whatever it was, but now he didn't hesitate to write something, and you felt that slowly, he was opening up, and you were glad to have his trust, which you felt was hard to win. Sometimes, when you felt like it, you wrote him more things about yourself than only a sentence, but never told him to write you more than he'd be comfortable with.

By now, he knew that you'd worked as a social worker before the apocalypse, that your mother and sister had died during the first days, and that you had a cat who ran away when everything started, and you never knew where he went but how you daydreamed he was safe and sound, hiding somewhere. You told him about your father too, how he'd died when you and your sister were teens. You told him silly things too, like how much you missed your favourite snacks or shows.

You loved to pass time with Daryl, to, little by little, learn things about him, and you loved that it really seemed that Daryl liked to spend time with you too. However, sometimes you caught yourself thinking a bit too much about Daryl, your mind wandering to him when you less expected it, a smile tugging at your lips when you thought about him, and you couldn't help your smile every time you saw him.

You had even caught your belly doing some weird twirls once or twice, your heart fluttering in a certain way...you really didn't need something like that, but you didn't know how to stop it. You found yourself wondering what Daryl might think if he knew...he was kind to you, even if shy, he seemed to enjoy your company and friendship, but you couldn't know if he might be interested in something else. He was so shy, though, you were afraid to ask. You didn't want to embarrass yourself and him, and you certainly didn't want to make things awkward between you two.

You were lost in thought once more, wondering about all that, when you felt Daryl elbowing you softly, and you realized he was handing you the notebook but you had zoned out a bit. You signed a sorry, blushing, but Daryl just seemed amused at you.

He had written a word, and you signed it to him, practicing. You both did that often too, Daryl was quite a quick learner. He didn't join Maggie, Carol and you when you practice together, but you had seen him practicing alone. You hadn't said anything, not wanting to embarrass him maybe, and also, it was sweet, and he seemed so cute...you really should stop thinking like that about him, but you couldn't help it. You were grateful he was making an effort to learn, though, just like Maggie and Carol, and some other people in the group were slowly picking up things too. Daryl'd also practice alone with you, and you couldn't lie, you loved those moments with him.

"You're good," you signed to Daryl, smiling when he caught the meaning, and he just shrugged shyly. You took the notebook and wrote, "you learn really fast," grinning at Daryl when he read it, but it just seemed to make him shyer. "I appreciate the effort," you wrote down, and Daryl just shrugged again but gave you that tiny smile that made you feel weird things.