(For the full effect, play September by Daughtry while you read.🖤)
The rain soaked through the thin cotton of your shirt, and your skin soon become slick with the chilled feel of the droplets that poured down upon you.
The sudden rain showers cut through the thick air of the humid Georgia September afternoon. The blistering sun becoming hidden behind the clouds aching to release their raindrops. And a breeze blew by you, making the water feel colder against your skin.
But as a smile stretched softly across your lips, you looked to the person who stood in the rain with you. And you had never felt warmer than right there with him.
The sound of raindrops hitting the roof above echoed around you as you opened the front door. You had found the small empty cabin just in time as the storm came blowing in quickly and without warning.
The roof reached out just far enough that you could sit on the first porch step and still stay perfectly dry. But you were out enough to feel the wind blow against your tired body and smell the Earth in the chilled air. The essence of dirt and rain swirled around you as your senses held onto the scent. For it was a mix that reminded you of someone; remembering the way you could smell the Earth against his flesh when he held you. The way the rain had a scent when drenched in his long brown tangles and the way the wind felt like comfort when it touched every article of clothing he wore.
He loved the rain, you recall as you watch the downpour continue across the open forest in front of you. Each droplet falling quicker than the last. Creating puddles in the dark mud as the rain seemed to flood over the grass still green from the summer months.
He loved watching it fall from the sky, listening to each drop ping off of roofs or off of tree branches he stood beneath. He loved the scent the rain left behind. The rich scent of soil left behind as the clouds disappeared.
He loved rain showers while you hated them.
You hated the grey clouds that blew in whenever rain was near. You hated the cold that suddenly took over the warm temperatures. You hated the way the rain effected you, causing a sadness to settle over you as the world look so dark and bleak with the rain.
But Daryl Dixon loved watching the rain... and you loved watching him.
His head tilts upward as he allows the rain to wash over him, streaming down his face as it rolls further down his neck. The raindrops making his tanned skin look darker and glossy almost.
"This is crazy!" You shout to him over the sound of the falling rain. "We should head inside!"
You can't help but laugh as he looks down and over to you with a faint smirk gracing his lips. Here you both stood, out on the front lawn in a rainstorm. Drenched to the bone in precipitation that was beginning to make you shiver from the chill.
You wrapped your arms around yourself, trying to preserve any warmth left. And your hair that laid flat over your shoulders only absorbed the water like a towel. You shook your head as another laugh escaped you, not believing you were still standing out in the rain like this.
But as he looks to you, grasping your eye by locking his sight with yours, he holds his arm out. His palm facing upward as he holds it out for you to take, and in that moment you completely forgot about your dislike for the rain.
And as the dark clouds blew in with the wind and the rain showers, you took hold of Daryl Dixon's hand... and you didn't let go.
As the rain falls in front of you, a single drop wets a trail down your cheek. A streak that burns your flesh, but you know it isn't rain. How could it be? This droplet was nothing more than a hot tear falling from your saddened eye.
Rubbing your palms smoothly across your jean clothed thighs, you stood to your feet. Wicking the tear away quickly, before it could permanently brand your skin like it felt it could. But just as you begin to turn for the door, a shadow catches your eye. A movement. One deep within the tree lines, moving into the clearing feet away from you.
Turning your head back that way to look, your hand feels for the knife positioned in your back pocket. A walker perhaps, stumbling through the mud. But even with the blowing rain, your eyes catch sight of something. A person, and as he walks further into the lighter clearing, you see exactly who it is.
He walks slowly, hesitantly almost or as though he's taking every second to look you over. His dusty navy shirt clings to his body, highlighting the muscle he had gained over the years of hardship and growth. But his hair still sticks to the sides of his face as rain and sweat roll down his skin. And his eyes look to you with a raw honesty you always got from him. A look only Daryl Dixon could give you.
Your hand falls from its hold on the handle of your knife, and you find your feet slowly descending down the porch steps. One at a time. Inching towards him at a snail's pace as you can do nothing but stare at him silently in utter shock. Daryl's feet guide him to the patch of grass in the empty clearing before you, and he stops. His boots unmoving from his spot on the ground.
But you... your feet dash forward from their spot on the steps. And soon you're running towards Daryl Dixon in the rain.
The wind had begun to pick up, blowing through the branches of the trees with a harsh gust. And it only caused the downpour to swirl around the two of you, but as Daryl pulled you close, it felt as though you couldn't be touched. As though the rain and the storm couldn't get to you as he drew you near. His hand a force field of sorts as soon as yours slipped into his grasp.
You smiled wider as Daryl looked to you with his own small cheeky smirk. The rain completely flooding down his body that your other hand reaches out to hold. Your palm laying flat against his chest that feels weighed down by the rain that had soaked through his shirt.
"What are we doing?" You whisper to Daryl, somehow knowing even through the wind and rain he'll hear your voice.
Daryl shrugs as he pulls you even closer go him. "I'm gonna miss ye, when ye leave."
It was something he didn't bring up much, not as often as you knew the two of you needed to talk about it. He feared the day you had to leave, but as the middle of September was here... that day too was soon.
"Its four years, then I'll be back."
Daryl's blue eyes look down into yours as the rain encompasses his face. "Lot can happen in four years."
You nod solemnly, looking down at your feet until Daryl stops you. Reaching both hands out, he holds your face steady. His thumbs wiping rain off one droplet after another.
"But no matter what happens, I'm gonna be right here. Waitin for ye."
"I love you Daryl." You whisper to the man who had been your best friend all your life. Your greatest love.
Daryl looks back at you, but instead of repeating the words you whispered, he shows you instead.
You stop just a foot away from him, your feet suddenly becoming stuck where you stand. Not by the mud or the puddles forming, but by the shock of seeing him standing so real before you now.
Your lips move to speak, but no words escape. Instead, you both stand there still and silent as the rain continues to pour down onto you. Rolling down your face, causing your eyes to squint and your body to shiver slightly from the chill rushing over your skin.
"Daryl?" Your voice finally croaks out a single word. And you can hear the raw disbelief and ache in your voice. All the pain you had felt seeping into his name as you call to him softly. And you feel a droplet burn down your cheek, and you know it's a tear and not the rain.
He kissed differently than he looked like he would. You learned it long ago when the two of you shared your first kiss.
You had expected a certain roughness from the redneck, a passionate fiery kiss that made you ache for more. But Daryl had kissed you slowly, timidly almost... but even so you found yourself aching for more anyhow.
And here you stood, experiencing that same direct but tender kiss from him as rain flooded down onto your bodies. And even after the years of kisses you shared... you still couldn't get enough.
Slowly, your feet begin to move. And you step the last two steps closer to the man who looks to you with his blinding eyes of bright blue. They took your breath away then, and they still do to this day.
You could taste the rain on his lips.
You could smell the wind on his skin.
You could feel your future in his arms.
Your eyes look up at him, his rain soaked tangles hanging low over his face. And your lips part as if you want to say something, but all that escapes is a breath of air followed by another heart ripping tear.
You kissed him as though you would never get the chance again, but Daryl kissed you like he knew he would get the chance again.
"I've missed you." You whisper with a cry in your throat to the man who is still yet to say a word.
Reaching your hand out, raindrops sliding off as you extend it forward, you reach for Daryl's hand. Aching to feel the warmth his flesh provided and the need to just feel him after all this time.
Your arms clung to him like he was the only thing keeping you intact but he held you as though you were a part of him.
The moment the very tips of your fingers graze his flesh, he vanishes. All that remains is the forest and the rain. The clouds and the living decay. He disappeared as though he was never there to begin with... and deep inside of your broken heart you knew he hadn't been.
Whether it was to torment you or to remind you, you weren't sure. All you knew was that the memories of his life and that September day in the rain years ago stayed with you.
Daryl Dixon had left this world long ago... yet his memory lived on.
A/N: This one just came to me... and the song definitely makes it. I hope you guys enjoyed it!💚