Freya's POV
I glare at Duane and he smiles back.
"Give me the candy" I say, he shakes his head and holds up the bag of candy.
"No way" he says, I reach my arm up but he has his height. Then I get an idea.
"Ya sure?" I ask, he grins.
"Ain't no way I'm giving this to you" he says, I lean up more and attach my lips to his. I hear a thump and realize he dropped the bag of candy, but I don't stop kissing him. He hums while kissing me back.
"I'll be damned" we both jump away and look at Caroline, I'm blushing so bad.
"Caroline!" Duane whines, I giggle and hide my face.
"You two get downstairs" she says, amusement in her eyes.
"I-" I hide my face.
"Come on, I need to keep eye on you and Duane while they're gone" she says, gesturing for us to go with her, I huff.
Ever since Amethyst and Dad have started... whatever the hell they started is. It's not dating, I know that. But, everything's still the same as before. Except they don't despise each other as much.
Dad isn't always only keeping his eye on me though, it's split between me and Amethyst, which is kinda nice. Now, it's easier to get into some trouble, like sneaking out the gates.
"When is everyone gonna be back?" I ask Caroline, she shrugs. Dad and Rick, and more from Alexandria, Hilltop, The Kingdom left to go fight the Saviours yesterday.
Dad didn't want Amethyst to go, so she waited til Dad left Alexandria and met up with the Kingdom. I don't know if she made it.
"Are you worried?" Duane asks me, I shake my head.
"Come on" Caroline says, pushing Duane and I into the living room. We sit on the couch while she feeds Judith.
"We left the drawing books at the Grimes's" I say, facepalming, Duane nods and we both stand up.
"We'll be right back" I say to her, Caroline gives me a thumbs up, I smile at her before following Duane out the front door.
I look up at Duane with a pout.
"I miss dad" I say, he hums.
"They'll be back soon" he says, I nod as we walk up the Grimes's porch.
"Michonne!" I call, seeing her put her sword over her shoulder.
"Why are you two over here?" she asks, I make an oh sound.
"We forgot our drawing books" I say, grabbing the stuff from under the couch, we say bye to Michonne and exit the house.
Duane asks me about when I found the group, asking about Dad first.
"I remember in Atlanta. Dad hated me at first, Merle on the other hand? I'm pretty sure he was just amused that there was a kid that could kinda hunt" I say, trying to not step on the cracks in the sidewalk.
"Pretty sure Dad thought I was just some stupid kid that was gonna get herself killed at some point" I say, amused.
"What about when you first met Roxy and Amethyst?" I ask, he sighs.
"Roxy pulled me out of the herd of walkers, you know what she said to me?" he says, I shake my head.
"It was actually kind of funny. She said, 'Come on kid, I'm not gonna let you prove those horror movie theories to be true" he says, laughing at the end.
"At first, I didn't understand it. But I ended up laughing at the worst possible time when I did get it" he says, chuckling at the memory.
"Roxy was okay with me, she kept the herd far from me, any walkers that came close were taken out by an arrow in some buildings, that was Amethyst" he says.
"Amethyst on the other hand. She wasn't like how she is now. It was like she didn't even have a soul, like she was a walker" he says, frowning.
"I didn't find out why she was like that until a few days later. She was talking to someone by the campfire, Roxy and I were sleeping in the back of a truck. I woke up and saw her talking to someone that wasn't even there. Roxy told me to ignore it, that it's normal for her to do nowadays" he says, I frown in confusion, I haven't heard Amethyst talk to the air.
"I heard Amethyst say Sadie. Roxy completely shut down and didn't say anything else. Apparently, Sadie was Roxy's daughter..... Roxy always told me it was Amethyst's fault that Sadie died" he says, my eyes go wide. That explains some of the fights they had.
"How did Sadie die? What happened?" I ask, he shrugs.
"I don't know. I only know that Amethyst stopped talking to the air when I found out, instead, she started doing it when she went hunting. She started leaving Roxy and I when we were moving so she could go 'hunt'" he says, making air quotes around the word hunt.
I sigh and we walk up the steps of the house, walking in and plopping on the floor to start drawing.
Duane's POV
I stare at the blank paper as I remember.
Flashback
I push my way through the herd, using what Freya taught me to kill walkers. I can't find him.
"Dad!" I yell, screaming when a walker grabs my arm and I stab them. I go to holler for dad again but a hand goes over my mouth and pulls me away from the walkers and into the forest.
My eyes follow the arm that's holding my hand and my eyes land on a woman. We don't say anything and I just follow her through the forest until we reach a small town. Walkers don't get even 6 feet to us until there's an arrow in their head.
"Come on kid, I'm not gonna let you prove those horror movie theories to be true!" she hollers at me and drags me behind a building.
We stop behind a building and we both try to get air back in our lungs, I go to ask why she helped me but she holds her index finger up. I wait and when she finally looks up at me, she speaks.
"Are you okay? No scratches or bites?" she asks, I shake my head, she sighs in relief.
"Good, that's good" she says, pushing open the back door to a building, I help her push a broken-down counter in front of it.
"Come on, upstairs" she says, I nod and follow her.
"Amethyst!" the woman says, I follow her through a door and see a masked woman.
"Oh, I'm Roxy, that's my little sister, Amethyst, she doesn't really talk, hasn't for a while, so when she doesn't answer, she's not being rude" she tells me, I nod.
"Thanks for helping me out there, but my dad, I need to find him" I say, Amethyst quickly looks at me, then to Roxy, she holds up a paper.
I'll go find
The paper says, Roxy shrugs.
"Go ahead" she says, Amethyst stares at Roxy before looking back at me.
"She wants to know your dad's name" Roxy says.
"Morgan, I'm Duane" I say, Amethyst nods.
"I'll go with-" I start but Roxy stops me.
"She has to get her arrows anyway" Roxy says, Amethyst nods, crawling out the window.
"Wait! Stop her" I say, Roxy shakes her head.
"She's fine, she made a makeshift ladder. Let me look at that" she says, gesturing to my head.
"I hit it on somethin'" I mumble, she nods and pokes at it, making me flinch.
"That's a doozy" she says.
About maybe a few hours later, Amethyst climbs through the window, Roxy is downstairs so it's just us. I look at her and see bloody bandages on her neck.
"Hi" I say, she shakes her head and hands me a paper.
I didn't find him. I'm sorry.
I frown, actually feeling tears come to my eyes. Amethyst sits in front of me.
"I'm sorry, Duane" she says in a monotone voice, I flinch.
"I'll try to find your father" she says, more emotion in her voice and she goes quiet, nothing else is said.
Months later, I've been with Roxy and Amethyst for a while now. Roxy's fun to talk to, Amethyst doesn't talk but she finds fun stuff to do when her and I are bored. She's also not as soulless like when I first met her. I will actually say we could be considered good friends.
Right now, I'm in a tree house in a backyard, Roxy and Amethyst went to go scrounge for food. I reach for my gun when I hear yelling in the house, peeking out the window, I see people with Ws on their foreheads. But my eyes land on the woman they're holding down, Roxy. I see Amethyst trying to get to Roxy but failing because there's three guys holding her back. Amethyst is soon out of my sight.
I go to climb out of the treehouse but I hear a loud scream and cover my ears, I run back to the window and see it was Amethyst who screamed.
She's gonna draw walkers over here! I see the walkers already near the house and trying to get through the door, the others get distracted by the walkers, except one man who ripped Roxy's shirt and is trying to get her jeans open.
I shut my eyes when I see Amethyst cut his hands off with her machete. Amethyst pulls up Roxy and gets her out of the house when walkers break into the room. I run to the hatch in the treehouse floor and open it, first Roxy climbs through, then Amethyst.
I hand Roxy a blanket and she wraps it around her shoulders. There're tears in her eyes and Amethyst kneels in front of her, wiping the tears from her eyes, she writes on a paper and hands it to her.
"Everything will be okay" Roxy reads out, her voice shaky, Amethyst turns to me and puts her hands on my shoulders, soon, she removes her hands and writes a note, asking if I'm okay.
"I don't know. Are you? You kinda.... went psycho on a couple of those guys" I say, she doesn't respond and starts writing, flipping the paper and writing more.
I don't regret it.
My morality doesn't matter in this world.
My family does. I will be the fucking wall dangerous
shit slams against for my family.
I look at the other side and literally feel a smile on my face.
I'd do it again. For Roxy, and for you, Duane.
You're officially under my protection now.
Welcome to my family, kiddo
I drop the note and wrap my arms around Amethyst then Roxy.
"Amethyst" Roxy says, her arms still around me in a hug, Amethyst looks up from her spot on the other side of the treehouse, "Thank you" Roxy says, Amethyst just shrugs and writes in a notebook.
It's my job as your little sister.
Roxy sighs and leans her head on mine.
"We're gonna be here for a bit. A day at most" Roxy says, Amethyst nods, grabbing her sniper rifle.
"What are you gonna do?" I ask, confused, she ran out of ammo for that weeks ago, Amethyst makes a growling\grunt sound before writing in her notebook.
I'm gonna look for herds nearby
Roxy hums.
"Alright, don't die" Roxy says with a slight tone, Amethyst shrugs before going to the window and climbing out it, soon, Roxy and I hear thumping on the roof.
"Want to play cards?" I ask, Roxy stares at me before nodding.
Flashback Over
"Hey, Duane?" Freya asks, I look at her, she smiles at me.
"Do you know what Amethyst did before the end? I already did some of the others, except Amethyst" Freya says, I look at the pile of papers next to her and see a sheriff hat and badge, military stuff on another paper. I hum.
"I think so, lemme think" I mumble, thinking again.
Flashback
I huff and lean against Amethyst, my back against her arm. We're sitting on top of a flipped over bus. I look at Amethyst, her sniper rifle lays next to her but she holds her bow in her hand.
"Why do you keep the rifle?" I ask, she grabs her notebook and writes.
Father and brother-in-law
"Your dad taught you how to shoot? My dad tried to teach me too" I say, she looks at me and a slight laugh comes from her before she looks at the notebook.
Father taught me, my brother-in-law gave me the rifle,
Roxy didn't want guns in their house.
He didn't want to sell it, guns stay in the family.
I read the note, the moon barely giving enough light.
"Roxy's husband was in the military, right?" I ask, she nods and I wonder.
"What did you do before.... all this?" I ask, gesturing around, she doesn't answer, she writes something down quickly.
Substitute marksman, kinda
My eyes widen.
"Really!?" I ask, she covers my mouth. She removes her hand and makes me pay attention to our surroundings as she writes.
I was preparing to be a marksman for the army.
I could snipe, but I had health issues that ruined
any chance of that, but I kinda became a
substitute, illegal? Pretty sure. But I got paid
under the table
I laugh quietly, I decide to stop bugging her, now I know more about my friend. She was a frickin sniper!
A bump to my shoulder catches my attention, Amethyst hands me a note.
Go get some sleep
I nod, and climb off the bus, walking to the campfire and laying down on my blanket.
Flashback Over
"She did odd jobs, nothin' specific" I mumble, Freya nods.
Freya's POV
I glare at the sky in annoyance.
Dad still hasn't come home yet. Amethyst hasn't either.
With a huff, I close my eyes, tired. I haven't been able to sleep.
I hear someone lie next to me.
"I'm not going inside" I say, I hear a familiar grunt.
"Missed ya too, Bloody" I gasp and open my eyes, Dad is laying next to me. I hug him and he sits up.
"I missed you!" I say, not letting him go.
"I know, kid" he says, hugging me back. After a while, we get up and I start dragging him to Amethyst and Roxy's house.
"Are you gonna leave again?" I ask, he doesn't respond.
"Duane! Dad's back!" I yell, Dad looks around the room, I smirk at him when he looks towards the stairs.
"Don't" he says, I pout.
"She's not here" I say, he looks towards the kitchen when we hear baby cries.
"Uhmm" I hum when we get to the kitchen, Duane is sitting in a chair, his shirt wet, and Judith is crying, her bottle on the floor, lid off. Dad grabs Judith and calms her down while I laugh at Duane.
"You good?" I ask, Duane glares at me before walking out of the kitchen, I start laughing again.
"Atta girl" Dad says to Judith, holding his hand up to her and she high fives him.
"I- Are you training Judith to torture Duane?" I ask, Dad shakes his head.
"Nah, that's all her" he says, Judith giggles and I roll my eyes.
"If you're gonna look for Amethyst around here, she isn't in Alexandria" I say, Dad gives me a look as he puts Judith back in her chair.
"What? She go huntin?" he asks, I shake my head.
"She joined Ezekiel in the fight, she hasn't come back yet" I say, seeing the slight panic move in his eyes, he nods.
"..Ok" he says, I look at him curiously.
I know he doesn't like emotions, so how am I gonna play this?
"I talked to her yesterday, kind of" I say, taking the small radio off my belt, I hold it out towards Dad.
"She should be signing on in a couple minutes" I say, he looks at the radio and I shake it a bit.
"I have to leave now anyway, Sophia, and I are gonna get Carl and Duane to help us make paper flowers for the baby's room" I say, putting the radio on the table, grabbing Judith to take with me.
"By the way, Dad" I say, looking at him with a goofy smile, "We use a line that nobody knows of" I say, leaving the kitchen and then the house.
__________________
3rd Person POV
Daryl sits in the kitchen chair, he grabs the radio and goes to click the speaking button but static comes through.
"Freya" a voice comes through, Daryl clicks the button.
"Ya never listen to me, huh, Arrow?" he says.
"Damn it, right when I plan tell her you come home" Amethyst says back.
"You know damn well you had to stay here" Daryl says.
"I'm not china doll, Redneck. I fight, I help them!" she responds back.
"I fucking know" Daryl says, it's silent for a bit.
"....I was tell Freya I'm go home now. Don't be mad please" Amethyst says, Daryl lets out a breath, his patience with her wearing thin.
"I ain't" he says.
"....."
Daryl grunts when she doesn't respond.
"You breathin? No wounds?" he asks.
"Yes. No" is the response he gets back.
"Then I ain't mad. Get back here, alright" he says.
"Yes, sir" Amethyst responds, Daryl grins.
"What happened ta redneck?" he asks.
"I have many name for you, Redneck. Some meant for later time" she says, then the radio goes silent. Daryl turns off the radio and leans back in the chair.
"Just get back here" he grumbles, slightly amused by her sudden flirting, but annoyed by her choice of timing.