Love & survival (Daryl Dixon x oc)

Thirty-one

*Two months later*

It was snowing. It had been freezing for the past week or two. We still hadn't found the place Rick was hoping to find. We were currently camping in a house. We barely had any food. Daryl and I were hunting. We had gotten even closer, as friends. Best friends.

"Oh my god! Look!" I said thrilled pointed towards a frozen pond.

"What? Where-" He asked. I jumped up and down and I grabbed his arm and started running towards it.

"Just follow me." I tapped my foot to see it the ice was strong enough, it was. I put my bag on the ground and stepped on it, it held my weight. I slid to the middle and did a stif pirouette. "Ta-da." The smile that was imprinted on my face was huge.

"There ain't no way I'm comin' on there." He said and he gave me a half-smile. I slid back to him and grabbed his arm again and tried to drag him with me, but instead I face-planted. I forgot that ice was slippery and Daryl was pretty heavy. 

Nevertheless I managed to make him fall with me and complete my task, Daryl was now on the ice.

I burst out in laughter when I saw he had snow all over his face. "Shut up!" Daryl chuckled. "You're scaring the squirrels away." He couldn't help but laugh at me, I was also covered in snow.

I got up and helped Daryl do the same. I slid around a couple of times while he had trouble balancing. I kept laughing at him and he had a concentrated look on his face. He slipped right infront of me wich caused me to fall on top of him. Now we were both laughing. "Get... off... You're... heavy." He managed to say in between his laughter.

"I'm heavy?"

"Yeah, you are." He said wich caused me to fall quiet. I got off of him. "You okay? Did ye get hurt? Did I say somethin'?"

"I'm fine, I'm just... I dunno." 

"Everyone lost weight, you know." He started. "Well, everyone exept Lori."

"I know, I know. I- I've never been the most confident about myself, about my body and when people mention my weight, for example. I just get really insecure." I looked down at the ice. I had lost a lot of weight since the outbreak. We barely had any food and were constantly on the move. 

Daryl placed his hand on my shoulder and pulled me into a hug. I started crying. "You don't have to be okay, ye know." He said.

"I know, but.."

"You want people to think you're strong. Even before, right?" He asked gently.

"Yeah" I sniffed.

"That's why you found it hard to leave the army?"

"Yeah..."

He pulled out of the hug and place his hands on my cheeks. A lopsided smile appeared on my face as I wiped my tears away. "It's alright to not be alright, alright?"

"Yeah... I just- after Dale.. I-" I couldn't finish before I broke down in to tears again. My head rested on his shoulder. We stayed like that for a while. 

Until the ice started to crack.

Shit

Before we could do anything we fell into the water. 

Cold, cold, cold, cold, cold, cold, cold, cold, cold, cold, cold, cold, cold, cold, cold.

Daryl pulled me out of the freezing water. He held me close to him to try and warm us up. "That was so fucking cold." I shiverd. We were both soaked and trembeling. "Lucky for us I put my bag on land." 

"Why?" He asked.

"There's a blanket in there." When I finished my sentence Daryl didn't hesitate and grabbed the blanket out of my bag and put it around me. "Don't you want-?"

"Nah, I'm fine."

"You don't have to be okay."

"'M good. You need to warm up."

"So do you." I said. Daryl shook his head and grabbed his crossbow. "Daryl" I spoke loudly. "Get your ass under this blanket, right now."

"No!"

"Yes!" I protested and threw the blanket at him.

"No! Emris, you need to warm up." He threw it back at me.

"You do too!"

"Nah, I don't. You have to keep yourself warm."

"Don't 'Nah' me. You have to warm up aswell! That water was absolutely fucking freezing and you're soaked!" I didn't realise we were now both yelling.

"So are you!"

"Well, then get under here with me, 'cause I ain't letting you freeze to death." 

"Fine." He walked over to me and swung his crossbow to his back and lifted me in his arms. What the fuck?  "Get the blanket." 

I did as he asked and got the blanket over the both of us. He started walking back to the group.

---

"What the hell happened to you two?" Glenn chuckled when we got back.

"We went ice skating." I replied as Daryl put me back on my feet and put the blanket around me. "And the ice broke." I added.

"Couldn't find anythin' out there." Daryl answerd Rick's not yet asked question as he came into the scene.

"We found some beans. Saved a can for you two." Rick told us. We nodded and walked inside. Everyone stared at us as we came into the living room. "We went ice skating on our way back... The ice broke." I explained. Akwardd...

Daryl and I went to the corner of the room and opened the saved canned beans. We sat under our blanket, wich was now wet but it still kept us sort of warm. "You eat it." Daryl wisperd so nobody could hear exept me and rested his head on the wall. He was still shivering from the cold. He tried to hide it but failed for my eyes.

When I finished half of the beans I shook Daryl to wake him. I tried to hand him the other half but he refused. "You need to eat." 

"So do you." I wisperd back.

"'M good."

"No you're not. You're starving, you haven't eaten anything for three days. So, shut up and eat the damn beans." I started to wisper-yell. He didn't say anything and took the beans and ate them in under a minute. I took five.

"Why did you take so long to eat two bites?" Daryl asked me

"I hate beans."

"Okay, well, 'm gonna take a nap."

"Sweet dreams."

"Shut up"