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anticiiiipation · 10 months

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Fruit & Time (Daryl x Reader)

In which (Y/n) is a pre-apocalypse pop-star dealing with the consequences of her social influence on those she meets. But what happens when she meets someone who has no idea who the hell she even is?

At first, the cold was a welcomed change from what had been torturing you for months, the humid air and destructive heat of the south. But the change of weather brought much more pain to you than relief.

For months, you had been spending your nights in the trees, fending for yourself deep in the forest. It was the easiest way to stay away from the dead, but more importantly, people. It was a hard lifestyle to adjust to, but worth it. Plus, you weren’t half bad at staying alive. Maybe a little bad at staying sane, but you kept most of it together all things considered. You had a system.

You would rise with the sun, untying yourself from the branch you’d made your bed and drop your backpack from whichever tree you had chosen the night before. You’d use your rope and rock climbing harness to lower yourself down the tree. (Both supplies you found in an abandoned nature retreat a few months back)

You’d then, if you were lucky, go find the nearest running water and freshen up as well as try to purify (as best you could) as much water as you could carry. And the rest of your day was spent scavenging through the woods for something to eat. Your favorite was acorns, or mushrooms. You only liked mushrooms if they were cooked though.

Sometimes you could dry out and fry some mushrooms and store them for later too. Like a little treat for later.

In all honesty, you didn’t find it to be the most exciting life, especially when you had to kill the already dead. But it was life now. Everything and everyone you knew from before was gone.

You sighed, looking up at a tall tree that shot straight up twenty feet.

You had found your bed for the night…

Tying one side of your rope to your harness, and the other side to one of the harness clips, you casted your arm back, aiming for one of the higher branches.

With a weak grunt, you threw the hunk of metal up..

And completely missed the branch.

In fact, the clip went up fifteen feet, then directly down over your big, vulnerable head.

You yelped and covered yourself, prematurely wincing as you awaited impact.

The clip made a thud as it landed in the dirt right next to you.

You sighed with relief, picking it up and trying again.

This time, the rope swung over the branch and you lowered it down from the other side, snapping the murderous clip into your harness.

You pulled, testing the weight of the branch. It didn’t budge and you smiled triumphantly.

Then you began the worst part of your day. Climbing the tree.

It didn’t take that long, honestly. But you wouldn’t call have called yourself a star athlete even before everything happened. At least some things really don’t change.

You used your lackluster upper body strength and the rope to reach a low hanging branch and managed to pull yourself up the rest of the way. Skillfully, you slithered your way to the desired branch and pulled your rope up.

The sun began setting and the cold was already setting in. God, this weather was an issue..

You reached around and pulled the ratty blanket? It was better described as a depressed piece of cloth. Regardless, you pulled it from your backpack, shrugging it over your shoulders.

Your feet swung in the wind, numbed by miles of walking and the beginnings of winter. You shuffled, wondering if sitting on tree branches every night was changing the shape of your butt. You frowned. You hoped not. You liked your butt..

As a treat, you even busted out your fried mushrooms and snacked on them like they were the worlds worst french fries.

Your snack was cut short when a herd of the dead began to stumble through the trees.

They were going west, and you watched their heads from above as they stumbled past you.

You were headed east. It was the only goal you had.

Its what you had agreed on…

You were high enough to avoid catching any of their attention, so you just watched and plugged your nose. It was like people-watching, but now it was a little more sad. Instead of looking at the woman with blue hair and wondering about her life, you look at her corpse stumble past and wonder how she ended up how she is.

Still, it wasn’t boring. "Morbidly fascinating" is what Daniel would call it. God, that pretentious dork would rant about the dead like he was the professor of it. After everything, losing his mom, his brother, and all of our friends, he would still talk about everything he could with the passion of the sun.

You wiped the sweat from your face, eyeing every movement surrounding your group as you moved through the empty streets of some abandoned So-Cal suburb.

"It’ll be a few more years of this at most." Daniel spoke generally to anyone listening.

"How’s that?" Bea humored him. You rolled your eyes.

"Well, these things are rotting, right? They have a shelf life then. An expiration date. Given a few years, at least in the hot places around the world, they’ll all be nothing but bones."

"Wow.." Bea awed. "How do you know this stuff?"

"Common sense?" You teased, a bit annoyed by Bea’s gawking. Daniel frowned at you. "He only sounds smart cause of that accent." You "whispered" at Bea. The brit in question scoffed.

"You don't think I’m smart?!" Daniel put his hand on his heart.

You gave him an exaggerated sympathetic smile. "Of course not, sweetie."

He grinned for a second, then scowled once he realized what you really meant.

He pulled you by your hips, stopping as the group continued forward.

His hand traveled up your arm and found your hand as he rested his head over your shoulder.

"If I’m the idiot, then you’re an imbecile." He pulled your hand in front of your face, the shiny engagement ring shimmering in your face.

You scoffed and leaned your head back on his chest. "Your defense is that I’m even dumber for wanting to marry you?" You asked.

"Yes, absolutely." He argued.

"Then that makes you the one who asked to marry an imbecile, making you, officially, a moron." You turned and poked his chest.

"Ooh, then you agreed to marry a moron!"

"I absolutely did."

He beamed like he was the sun itself and leaned down to kiss you.

You had to push him away after he kept leaning into you to the point that your back was bending.

"We have to catch up, you big moron." You teased.

"That’s not fair." He argued.

"What? We agreed you’re a moron, didn’t we?"

"See, no. You created a paradox when you said-"

"Daniel?"

"Yes?"

"Let’s go."

"Yes ma’am."

You wiped at tear from your face, deciding that the moon was a much better point of focus. Daniel was growing more distant in your memory as of late. You decided forgetting made you much sadder than constantly thinking about him. About losing him..

The wind blew and felt as if it froze the tear on your cheek.

You had maybe a month before it would be too cold to keep sleeping in trees. Then what? Any town or building you could find is an open invitation for people. You didn’t want to risk it. For you, being around anyone was like playing Russian roulette.

You wondered if there were any caves around, but scoffed once you realized in your eight months of traveling you hadn’t seen a single cave.

And then that made you wonder about bears. You wondered if there were bears around. And you wondered what it would take to tame a bear. You’d probably need to tame a baby, but that means you’d have to kill it’s mom. You frowned. That seems cruel. Plus, would the baby even trust you if you killed it’s mom in front of it? And how could you even kill a-

There was a noise you could only describe as.. sharp? that startled you, making you freeze and tuck your legs back.

Shuffling then came from the bush right in front of you, and about ten of the dead stumbled towards the noise from either side.

You had your back firmly against the trunk of the tree, trying to squint through the darkness, the full moon giving you a sliver of assistance.

Another sharp whizzing sound came, and a clearly living person emerged from ahead of you, large, shadow-concealed weapon extended as more of the dead staggered towards them.

You let out a sharp breath as the figure dropped the weapon and pulled out a knife, dropping the dead like flies.

To your left, you spotted at least five more of the things staggering through the trees, completely out of the person’s line of sight.

It was some sort of complex, instinctual force within you, throwing the open end of your rope down and clicking your flashlight on.

You illuminated the figure, a man with a crossbow, and he looked up to you with wide eyes.

"HEY!" You called, shining the light on the rope below.

He looked down at it then back up at you, and as more of the dead staggered into sight, he had no choice but to pull himself up the tree, swinging his feet over the lowest branch just before he was about to be made into a dead person’s dinner.

He began moving higher, and you kept your light trained on him, hand obviously shaking with uncertainty and fear.

The man noticed your fear and stopped climbing, situated on one of the lower branches.

The dead piled at the bottom of the tree, clawing at the bark from all sides.

"Are you okay..?" You said with a hoarse voice from months of not speaking.

He was breathing heavily, looking down at the small group.

He looked up towards you and squinted, light shining directly in his face.

"I’m fine.. thanks." He said, voice even more gravely than yours.

"Yeah.. no prob." You cleared your throat.

"Can you turn that thing off?" He asked, noticeably trying to be more polite than he was probably feeling.

You gulped, hesitant.

"That’s just gonna bring more of em here." He warned.

You knew he was right but it was still nerve wracking. You’d be plunged into darkness with a strange southern man without anywhere to go.

A reluctant click came, and you were casted in complete darkness for a moment.

You were frozen with fear as you waited for your eyes to adjust to the darkness. You didn’t really know what to expect. Your mind conjured up a huge monster lurching towards you, as if the world wasn’t scary enough already.

When your eyes finally did adjust to the darkness, he was in the exact same position, looking just as concerned as you.

You were too scared to consider it, but he was trying to see the mysterious, light shrouded figure who had saved him. Your breath began to steady as you watched him, unmoving. The sound of growls and gurgles on the ground was the only thing that let you know that the world wasn’t frozen.

You were able to clock the fear in his own eyes as the moon moved past the canopy of leaves above.

"I’m (Y/n)." You said, making an attempt at a polite smile instead of wide eyes and deathly silence.

"How’d you end up’ up here?" He asked after a second.

"Oh, I chose to be up here." You explained.

"It’s cold." He stated.

You shrugged. He saw the action as you were completely made of shadow, moon directly behind you, casting a glow around your mysterious form. It was almost ethereal looking, but your nervous voice made the scene more comical than anything.

"Are you alone?" You asked him, breaking through the silence.

"I have a group. A community."

You didn’t want to pry about any of that so you opted for silence again.

"You alone?" He asked, looking around the empty forest.

"No." You answered quickly, pitch rising. "I.. my fiancé is with me."

His head moved. He was looking around.

"He’s not here now. He’s getting supplies." You lied. "But he’ll be back.. and don’t try anything cause he knows how to hunt and he’ll find you." You were being cowardly, you knew that, but in a situation like this, better to lie then end up dead.

"What-? I ain’t-" he was taken aback. "You’re fine. I jus’ wanna know if I was gonna get jumped."

You squinted as the moon disappeared behind the trees next to you, casted into darkness with the stranger once again.

"If someone does, they’re not with me." I assured him.

I saw the shadow of his shoulders fall a little. Just a little though.

"What’s your name?" You asked.

Silence followed for a minute.

"Daryl."

You nodded, forgetting he couldn’t see you.

"How’d you get pinned like that?" You pried.

"I was drivin’ n a walker was in the middle of the road. Couldn’t see it until I had to swerve into a tree and ended up out here.." Daryl explained, almost sounding angry or ashamed.

"You were out driving alone?" You asked.

He hesitated. "Yeah.. I’m out here by myself."

Your heart sank, ashamed by your lie when he was so obviously willing to tell you the truth.

"Hungry?" You asked, shame manifesting.

"Nah." He said. "..thanks, though.."

"Mm." You nodded, pulling your mushrooms back out and quietly eating.

"Your fiancé, he comin’ back now?"

"Why??" You hounded, mouth full.

"Does he have a way to know what he’s gonna come back to?" He looked at the slowly dispersing herd below.

"He’s gonna be fine." You said with an unintentional bitterness.

"Right.." the man didn’t want to cause an issue.

You pulled your blanket tighter, pit in your stomach sinking even further.

"You two, when he gets back, n’ if you’re interested, might be able to come back with me."

"To your community?" Yoh asked.

"Mm. You’d both have to answer some questions first, but we’ve got almost forty people and it’s a big place."

"I can’t." You said quickly. "We can’t."

"Why’s that?" He challenged.

You didn’t answer, hoping he’d drop it.

"You’re alone out here." He accused. "That right?"

You huffed. "I told you-"

"I don’t believe that."

You swallowed the lump in your throat.

"I’m fine out here by myself." You admitted.

"We’ve got more than enough room. It’s getting too cold to sleep in trees." He reasoned.

"Thanks, really, but I can’t." You told him sympathetically.

"How many walkers have you killed?" He asked, ignoring what you had said in its entirety. Though at the time, you thought that he had just dropped it.

"Maybe a hundred? Why?" You asked.

"How many people have you killed?" He asked.

You shuffled uncomfortably for a second.

"Three."

"Why?"

"Two of them, they were both bit. Had to.." you picked at the bark in front of you. "One of them cause he deserved it." Your chest rose with anger.

"What’s that mean?" He pried.

"Someone who hurts women." You stated simply. He understood instantly and you could tell.

"You sure bout stayin out here?" He asked.

You blinked back your tears. "I’m sure."

"Right." He said, barely a whisper.

The night grew quieter and your eyelids became heavy after a while. Even as you dozed off you knew how dumb it was to sleep in front of this stranger.

Maybe it was the months of isolation, but you didn’t feel as if you were in danger and without intention, you slipped into a cold sleep.

When Ao3 eventually comes back, you can find 40+ more chapters of this there :,)

#twd #twd daryl #daryl dixion x reader #daryl dixon #i miss ao3 #twd fanfiction #fanfic

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