Going Nowhere

Going Nowhere

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Febuwhump Prompt - Won't Regain Consciousness

Prompt - ‘I thought I'd lost you.’

Despite the early morning, the sun was beating down causing sweat to bead on your forehead. You wiped at it with your arm as you headed down to where the rest of the groups were gathered, a map spread out in front of them as they pulled another day of searching for Sophia.

“I’m gonna borrow a horse,” You heard Daryl say to Rick, pointing at something on the map, “head up to this ridge there, gives me as good a view as any to spot her.”

Rick hummed as he glanced at the map, nodding as his fingers traced it.

“Looks good to me.” He said.

“Maybe you’ll see your chupacabra up there too.” You heard T-Dog laugh as you came to a stop next to Daryl and nudged him gently.

“You saw a chupacabra?” You asked over Rick who repeated the word, smiling as Daryl grunted.

“You’ve never heard the story? Course not,” Dale answered his own question with a shake of his head, “The first night in camp, we’re all together, Daryl tells us the whole thing reminds him of the time he went squirrel hunting and saw a chupacabra.”

“Cool,” You grinned as Jimmy laughed, Daryl turning to the kid with a glare.

“Somethin’ funny to you?” He snapped and Jimmy just smiled.

“You believe in bloodsucking dogs?”

“You believe in dead people walkin’ around?” You snorted and Rick rolled his eyes, though there was a fond smile on his face as he turned back to the map.

“Y/N, you can head down-” He began pointing somewhere to the left off the map but you cut him off with a shake of your head.

“I’m going with Daryl.” You told him, leaving no room for argument, though Daryl glared at you half heartedly.

“Like hell you are.” He said, causing you to grin at him, watching as he shook his head at you.

“Come on, you want me out there on my own?” You asked, watching as the glare fell from his face and he grumbled under his breath about how he should have left you to the walkers so he could have a goddamn minute to himself but still he nodded and gestured for you to follow him to the stables.

Daryl gave you a hand as you struggled to climb onto the horse but eventually you were both on, your arms wrapping tightly around Daryl’s waist, burying your face in his back as the horse took off in a run.

It didn’t take too long before you were nearly at the area Daryl wanted to scope out, him stopping a few times along the way to shoot some squirrels, taking great delight in the way you grimaced each time he did.

“Do you have to do that?” You asked him as the horse slowed down.

“Do ya want to eat?” He shot back, smirking over his shoulder as you looked at the dead squirrels with a frown.

The horse kept walking as you and Daryl looked around from atop of it, Daryl searching for any hint of tracks whereas you weren’t quite as skilled as him and looked for more obvious clues but looked back to Daryl as he brought the horse to a halt.

“Stay here a second,” Daryl told you as he climbed off the horse and made his way down to the lake, looking around at something you couldn’t see before he bent down, you raising an eyebrow as you strained to try and see what he had found.

“S’her doll.” He told you as he made his way back onto the horse, holding the doll in his hands like it was the most precious thing in the world and right now it probably was. “Let’s keep looking.”

The horse trotted on for a while longer as the two of you kept your eyes peeled before you were letting out a yell of shock as the horse reared up on it’s back legs and threw both you and Daryl off it.

You felt your head connect with a tree painfully hard, your eyes falling shut on their own accord and though you struggled to, you couldn’t bring yourself to open them, letting out a pained groan as you passed out.

Eventually you blinked awake, not sure how much time had passed but you glanced around, cursing yourself for passing out right where a walker could have gotten to you but then you tensed as you looked around, noticing both Daryl and the horse were missing.

“Daryl,” You called softly out, not wanting to be too loud in fear of attracting walkers, especially when Daryl wasn’t around to save you at the last second.

You felt fear flood through your system as you forced yourself up, leaning against the tree in an attempt to stop the world from spinning before you shakily took a step forward, wishing like hell you’d let Daryl teach you how to track because you were clueless right now as you stood in the woods without a single idea where to go.

You checked the entire area and saw no sign of the man and with a shaky hand you took your knife from your boot and started going in the direction you were heading, hoping Daryl had had the same idea and he just hadn’t been able to get back to you.

He was going to be fine, you forced yourself to think, trying desperately to shove the fear away and remember everything the missing man had taught you should you ever get separated.

You remembered laughing when he had told you that, remembered telling him you’d never get separated because you’d stick to him like glue, you remembered the eye roll you got for the comment but there was a softness to it. After months of working to break down Daryl’s walls, getting him to believe somebody could care about him, somebody could trust him, the two of you had actually become rather close and if anybody was looking for one of you they just had to find the other.

You felt sick as you thought of a life without Daryl and pushed the thought out of your head, blinking away the tears knowing that the man would smack you upside the head if he could see you now.

Daryl, himself, was struggling with his own feelings, cursing himself as he fell down the cliff he’d managed to get half way up, crying as the arrow in his side shifted painfully. Listening to Merle as he badgered on and on at him.

“I liked it better when you was missin’.” Daryl muttered as he pulled himself up another rock, grabbing hold of a branch to steady himself, looking down at how far he’d climbed again before glancing back up at Merle who waited at the top.

“Look at you, baby brother,” Merle laughed, “Bleedin’ from your side and ya still thinkin’ about that girly you left back there.”

“You’d best shut the hell up.” Daryl snarled, groaning as he climbed again.

“You gotta crush on the pretty lady, Darlylina?” He continued laughing and Daryl felt a surge of anger run through him, never liking when Merle spoke about you, cursing himself as he thought about you alone in the woods because of that damn horse. “She don’t care about you, hell nobody does. Ain’t nobody give a shit about you, baby brother, nobody but me.”

“Like to see you say that t’her face.” Daryl chuckled breathlessly, imagining your reaction to those words.

“Don’t think I’ll get the chance, I’m afraid,” Merle said, leaning further down as he lowered his voice, “Girls weak, she’s probably dead already.”

Those were the words Daryl needed to hear as he pulled himself up, blindly reaching for Merle as he struggled to get his body safely onto the flat bit of land, pictures of your lifeless body flashing through his mind, skin torn off as walkers fed on you.

You jumped as you heard a rustle to your side, snapping around in that direction with your knife raised only to let out a huff of relief as you saw the borrowed horse waiting in the bushes.

“S’alright, I’m not gonna hurt you,” You murmured gently, raising your hands non threateningly and pausing as the horse took a step back, “It’s ok, we’re good, take your time,” You told it, reaching one hand forward and waiting until the horse placed its head into it.

“Good job,” You praised as you brushed your fingers along her head. “No chance you know where Daryl is, huh? No? Suppose we better go save him for once then.” You smiled as you grabbed the reins and led the horse in a random direction, not quite ready to get back on it just yet.

You heard a noise in the distance, it sounded like somebody was talking faintly and you hoped like hell it was Daryl and not some random strangers ready to ambush you. You were only just about able to kill the walkers, you didn’t know what you’d do if you came across hostile people.

As you got closer you heard groaning and panting and slowed your steps, careful not to step on any twigs that would give you away as you scanned the area, not seeing where the noise was coming from until two arms appeared over the edge of a cliff and you watched Daryl struggled to pull himself up.

You quickly let go off the horse and made your way over to him, hoping he still had some strength in him because no way were you going to be able to carry him up on your own.

“Daryl,” you gasped, falling onto your knees and grabbing his arms, he let you grab onto him and used you to pull himself up, falling onto the ground with a groan and holding the arrow wound.

Your eyes immediately fell to the wound and you looked at him with wide eyes.

“What happened?” You asked, helping him sit up.

“Damn horse threw me off a cliff, s’what happened.” He groaned, taking a second to catch his breath before he turned to you, looking you up and down as he inspected you for cuts or bites. “What ‘bout you, you’re ok?”

“Oh I’m fine, me and nature are at one with each other now and just in case we’re counting, I totally saved your arse.” You grinned at him, hoping to relieve some of the tension in his shoulders.

And it worked, you watched as he relaxed upon seeing you were really ok before he let out a scoff.

“Saved my arse,” He grumbled before gesturing for you to help him up, “I pulled myself up that damn cliff but you missed it, too busy becomin’ one with nature.”

“Hey, you’re always telling me I need to!” You laughed as you pulled him up.

“No more complain’ about sleepin’ outside then, or eating squirrels?” He asked, thankful to see the damn horse as there was no way he could have walked back to the farm.

“I wouldn’t go that far,” You said, smiling at him as he helped you onto the horse before he climbed on himself with a wince, “more like less complaining when we have to walk through them.”

“I’ll take it.” He murmured, his lips tilting up into a smile as you wrapped your arms around him, weary of the wound but also not trusting the horse.

“So what’s with the ear necklace?” You asked as Daryl jumped off the horse and handed you the reins, you didn’t want to take the horse back to the stables alone but Daryl insisted.

“I dealt with walkers while you were napping.” He smirked at you causing you to roll your eyes as you knew he wouldn’t let you forget passing out for a while.

“Yeah, yeah, don’t forget I saved your arse.” You called as he made his way up to the farm and you continued through the woods to get to the stables.

As you were putting the horse back into her pen you heard a gunshot ring out and felt your blood run cold as you quickly locked the startled horse in and ran out as fast as you could over to where your group had set up camp, seeing most of the men already in the distance.

Your heart stopped as you saw where they were, knowing Daryl would come back in that way.

“Lori,” You yelled, causing her to turn around, “what happened?”

“I don’t know, Andrea shot at a walker but I don’t-” She began but you cut her off with a curse and took off running with tears in your eyes.

“Y/N!” She called but you didn’t stop to look back, just kept running until you were with Rick, Shane and T-dog and coming to a sudden halt as you saw Daryl on the floor, a sob leaving you as you fell to your knees and shook him.

“Wake up, c’mon Daryl, please,” Rick pulled you away from him, gently pushing you into Glenn’s arms where you turned and sobbed into his chest as Shane and Rick picked his limp body up.

“She just skimmed his head,” Rick told you, causing you to let out another sob, “He’ll be fine, he’s just passed out.”

“Hey guys,” You all turned to look at T-Dog who held the doll Daryl had found. “Isn’t this Sophia’s?”

Everybody looked at you and you nodded.

“Can you please just get him some help?” You managed to ask and you all made your way up to the house, Hershel already waiting for you at the door.

You tried to go into the bedroom with Daryl but Hershel stopped you with a hand on your shoulder and a sympathetic smile.

“I need space to work, I’ll call you when I’m finished.” He promised and nodded to Rick who gently wrapped his arm around your shoulder and led you downstairs to where most of the group were.

“Is he gonna be ok?” Maggie asked, looking at your pale face and the tears falling down your cheeks.

“He should be fine.” Rick answered and led you over to the sofa, watching sadly as you let yourself be sat down next to Glenn without a word, looking more lost than he’d ever seen you before.

“Did you find anything about Sophia?” Carol asked after a few moments of silence and you looked up at her in disbelief as your lower lip quivered.

“Seriously, he’s just been shot.” You managed but shook your head. “He found a doll.” Was all you said before standing up and heading out onto the porch alone, tears still falling down your face, missing the way Carol went to follow you but was stopped by Rick’s hand.

You didn't know just how long you stood outside for before Rick came to join you, sitting down next to you on the floor with your backs to the wall. Hershel had told him that whilst Daryl was stable he was still out cold and asked him what he wanted to do about you.

Rick had told him to leave it to him, though he hadn’t known you for long, it had taken only five minutes of observing you and Daryl to see how close you were, watching as the man always positioned you behind him, putting himself between you and any threat, watched as you followed him around, your smiley, cheerful attitude a stark comparison to his eye rollls and grumbled words.

It was obvious that in the world before you and Daryl would never have crossed paths but he was glad you’d found each other.

“Is he ok?” You asked quietly when Rick hadn’t said anything for a few moments.

“Hershel said he’s stable.” Rick said, voice as soft as yours as you watched the sky turn pink as the sunset.

“Can I see him?” In all the time you’d known Daryl he had never been hurt before, sure he’d had a couple of cuts and bruises but nothing more than that.

Now he was laying in the house somewhere because he had been shot in the head.

“Y/N,” Rick sighed, causing you to smile in an attempt to hold back more tears.

“You said he was stable.” You forced out.

“He is,” Rick assured, “but he’s not waking up.”

“What?” You whimpered, finally turning to face Rick who smiled sadly at your watery eyes.

“Hershel said that his body is exhausted, whatever happened out there took a lot of his energy and the gunshot didn’t help.”

You scrunched your eyes shut as Rick pulled you against his chest, his hand coming up to cup the back off your head and he held you close and let you sob against him.

You don’t know how long you cried but eventually you pulled away from him and wiped at your cheeks.

“Y/N-“ Rick began but you cut him off with a shake of your head before you stood up and headed silently into the house.

You stood in the doorway to the bedroom Daryl had been placed in, barely choking down a sob as you looked at Daryl who lay pale and still in the bed, a bandage covering the gunshot wound and a blanket covering his body.

It was a long few moments before you let yourself enter the room, carefully taking a seat on the bed, making sure you were on his uninjured side.

It was strange seeing Daryl like this and you blinked hard against the tears, as you took his hand gently in yours, brushing your thumb against the skin. Your mouth opened and closed a few times, trying to find some words but having none.

You weren’t aware of time passing, weren’t aware of anything outside of the room. You vaguely recalled somebody coming into the room, softly touching your shoulder as they left a plate on the nightstand for you but you didn’t acknowledge it, just focused on the rise and fall of Daryl’s chest, waiting for a sign that he was ok.

You felt exhaustion pull heavily at your eyes and you found it harder and harder to stay awake but knew you couldn’t leave Daryl, you just couldn’t do it. You carefully moved so you were laying down on the side of the bed, keeping space between you as you did.

“Wake up.” You pleaded softly, voice barely above a whisper.

Four days had passed by much the same way with you laying next to Daryl, watching closely as you waited for any sign of life but none came. People came in and out of the room, trying to get you to eat something and stay hydrated but you didn’t pay them any attention and didn’t notice yourself get weaker as each day passed, your focus purely on Daryl.

Maggie leaned against the door frame, smiling sadly in at you as she watched you hold Daryl’s hand, murmuring soft words she couldn’t hear.

“How’s he doin’?” She asked softly as she entered the room, making her way over to the chair at the side of the bed.

“Same as before,” You told her and she winced at how dry your voice sounded.

“You gotta drink something, Y/N.” She told you, holding a glass of water in your direction but you made no move for it, eyes locked on yours and Daryl’s entwined fingers. She suppressed a sigh and tried a new tactic, “How long have y’all been together?”

She watched as your eyebrows knitted together as confusion spread across your face causing her to tilt her head questioningly as you finally looked away from the unconscious man.

“What?” You asked, “We’re not together.”

Maggie felt her eyes widen in shock as she looked down at you with a raised eyebrow.

“Of course you are.” Maggie said like it was the most obvious fact in the world and you let out a huff of laughter as you shook your head.

“Daryl doesn’t like me like that, hell it took me long enough to get him to like me like this.” You smiled, trying to clear your throat but wincing in pain. Maggie held the water out to you again and you took it with a shaky hand, not letting go of Daryl’s with the other.

“Y/N, I’ve never, never, seen two people look at each other the way you and Daryl do. That man’d do anything for you without a single thought to himself and I’ve seen you follow him blindly, trusting his every move.” She told you with a smile, watching as you frowned and looked down at your joined hands again. “You love him, right?”

Moments passed as you thought over Maggie’s question, not that you needed to think about it, you already knew the answer. Of course you loved Daryl, you’d never met anybody like him before. Nobody, not even before the world ended, made you feel anything close to how Daryl Dixon made you feel and you had never felt this scared over the thought of losing somebody before, everytime you thought about all the ways things could go wrong, Daryl dying had never seemed like a possibility before.

You nodded slowly, looking back up to Maggie with wide eyes causing her to smile softly at you.

“Yeah, I do.” You confessed aloud for the first time.

“You should tell him,” She said, watching as you shook your head, “He feels the same about you, trust me.”

And with that she stood up, pausing in the doorway to see you’d already turned back to Daryl.

“Hey Y/N,” She said, watching you glance back at her with a soft hum, “Make sure you eat.”

“How are they?” Andrea asked as Maggie made her way down stairs.

“They’re going t’be just fine.” She told her with a smile on her face.

Two more days passed before Daryl awoke with a groan, scrunching his eyes closed before prying them open. Sunlight flooded into the room with a soft, golden glow as his eyes flickered down to you fast asleep on his chest, hand fisting his shirt as you did.

He smiled down at you before his eyes blinked shut again and he fell back to sleep, exhausted despite being out cold for nearly a week.

The next time Daryl opened his eyes, the room was brighter and you were still asleep. He savoured the feeling of you pressed against his chest as he lifted his arm and brought his hand up to your hair, running his fingers through it and smiling as you cuddled closer into him, mumbling something he couldn’t make out before humming happily into his chest.

He saw the exact moment you realised he was awake, feeling as you tensed against him before you shot up of his chest and looked down at him with wide, watery eyes before a shaky smile spread across your face as you flung yourself back down into his chest, hugging him tightly whilst being mindful of his injuries.

Daryl froze for a second before he let his arms wrap around you, his face buried in your hair as he held you close, listening as you sniffed back tears.

“I’m so glad you’re awake.” You mumbled into his chest.

“Sorry, I scared ya.” He whispered, tightening his hold on you and the two of you were more than content to lay in each other’s arms until you were pulling back far enough to look up at him.

“You okay? You need me to get Hershel?” You asked, your eyes flickering over to the gunshot wound on his head.

“M’alright,” He told you honestly because sure the wound ached but he didn’t want you leaving his arms any time soon.

You nodded and leaned back into his chest, listening to the comforting beat of his heart and relaxing for the first time in days.

It wasn’t long after that when Hershel checked in and gave Daryl the all clear, his wounds were healing nicely and he was told to keep hydrated and take it easy, advice you knew you’d have to force the man to listen to.

Hershel had offered to let Daryl stay in the bedroom as long as he needed but Daryl just shrugged him off, thanking him before he led you down to where the camp was set up, greeting everyone and assuring them he was fine before he headed towards his tent, you following closely behind.

“Ya okay?” Daryl asked softly as the two of you lay in the tent, Daryl’s arm around your shoulder as he held you close.

You let the question hang in the air for a few moments, Maggie’s words heavy in your mind. You wanted to tell Daryl how you felt but you didn’t want to ruin what you had with him now, the bond you two had was rare, it was something few people had and you’d be damned if you were going to screw it up.

But at the same time the only thoughts you’d had the last few days had been about Daryl’s dead body and it hurt you more than you thought anything ever could. You didn’t want to live with regrets, didn’t want to waste the time you had with him.

As you opened your mouth to say something you were cut off as the flap off the tent was pulled back and Andrea walked in with a guilty expression.

“I feel like shit.” She said, pausing in the entryway.

“Yeah,” Daryl huffed, “You and me both.”

Andrea watched as Daryl smiled and you glared, such a strong contrast to how the two of you usually were, usually Daryl was the one who glared and grumbled and you were the one always smiling and friendly.

“I really am sorry,” She told him, “If there’s anything I can do-”

“Nah, you were protectin’ the group,” Daryl told her, squeezing your shoulder as he did, causing you to look away from Andrea and bury your head in his chest. Andrea smiled and turned to leave, stopping when Daryl called her name, “Shoot me again, best pray I’m dead.”

“You gonna tell me what’s goin’ on in that head of yours, huh?” He asked once she was gone and you shook your head, losing any bravery you had only minutes before. “C’mon, Y/N/N, ya can tell me anythin’, you know that.”

He was right you did know that but you didn’t know how to come out and say it - end of the world and you still felt like a kid with their first crush.

Daryl waited in silence, knowing you’d cave eventually and had to fight back a smile as you finally started talking after five minutes of silence passed.

“I thought I’d lost you,” You told him quietly and he stayed silent, knowing that if he interrupted you now you wouldn’t start again, “I thought I lost you and all I could think was he doesn’t know how I feel, he’s going to die not knowing I loved him more than anybody. Watching you in that bed, seeing you like that…I’ve never been more scared in my whole life, not when the dead started walking, not when I was surrounded in the woods alone, nothing has ever scared me more.”

“You love me?” Daryl asked softly, eyes widening as he pushed you away far enough so he could look down at you, hating the fear in your eyes as you nodded at him.

“Yeah, I do.” You forced out softly, feeling like your throat was going to close up any minute as you couldn’t read Daryl’s face.

Daryl let the words sink in, working through the shock that somebody as perfect as you could love a nobody like him. Thinking back to all those times you looked at him like he hung the damn stars in the sky. He’d known how he felt about you for months but was never brave enough to say it, even at the end of civilization you two were still from completely different worlds and he knew you could never feel the same way.

Yet here you were confessing your feelings to him and he felt his heart beat speed up as a smile finally spread across his face, his hand coming up to cup your cheek, thumb brushing your cheekbone before he leaned down, slowly and pressed his lips to yours.

It was the best thing you’d ever felt, that soft brush of his lips against your own as both of you nervously kissed each other, slowly gaining more confidence but the kiss stayed soft and slow until you were pulling away, foreheads pressing together as you looked at Daryl with the softest, most adoring expression he’d ever seen and didn’t feel even a little bit worthy of.

“I love you too,” He whispered the confession before leaning close to peck your lips. “Ain’t ever gotta worry ‘bout losing me, I ain’t going nowhere.” He promised as he pulled you into his arms, feeling you smile into his chest.

There wasn’t any chance in hell Daryl was ever going to leave you, he’d kill a thousand walkers, kill any person who even looked at you funny, to make sure the two of you lived a long, happy life together.

__________

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Don't Stop Believin'

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Febuwhump Prompt - "How Long Has It Been?"

Prompt - ‘Don't you stop believin', once you do there ain't any damn hope for the rest of us.’

The night seemed to pass in silence and by morning it was no better, though what could anybody say? People had died, good people had died. Your gaze shifted over to Andrea who had yet to move from Amy’s body before you turned to look at Daryl, wincing as he brought a pickaxe down on another walker’s skull.

You heard the group talking, worried for the woman, and watched as the new guy, Rick, walked over to her, speaking gently only to have a gun pointed to his head.

“Hell,” You heard Daryl say as they continued discussing what to do, “I’ll take the shot from here.”

You rolled your eyes as you stood up, the statement was met with angry outbursts as expected.

“C’mon,” you said to him, grabbing his upper arm and pushing him away from the small group that was gathered only for him to shake you off with a glare as he marched over to Glenn, picking the axe up again only for a teary-eyed Glenn to start shouting at him about where the dead went.

You went to follow him but were stopped as a hand grabbed your arm. You felt your eyebrows pull together as you looked from it and up to Shane who shook his head at you. You glared at him before looking back to Daryl and pulling your arm out of Shane’s hold with a grunt, turning away from both men.

It wasn’t long before the arguing started up again, you glancing over when you heard Daryl shout.

“Y’all left my brother for dead, you had this comin’.” He told them.

“Hey,” You started but were cut off by Jacqui’s yell, all of you looking at her, eyes widening when she told you Jim had been bit. T-dog stepped forward, grabbing the man in his arms as Daryl lifted his shirt and upon seeing the bite he took moved over to you, gently pushing you back as he placed himself between you and Jim.

“I say we put him out of his damn misery right now,” Daryl said as the group argued over what to do next.

“You’d want that, would you?” Shane asked with a scoff.

“Yeah, and I’d thank you for it.” Daryl shot back, taking a step closer to Shane.

“I hate to say it, but Daryl’s right-” Dale began but Daryl cut him off.

“Thank you, someone with some damn sense.” He said before he launched himself at Jim, pickaxe swung and ready to kill but he was stopped when a gun was aimed to his head causing you to take a step forward.

“We don’t kill the living.” Rick said, causing you and Daryl to let out a joint scoff.

“He says with a gun to a man's head.” You said, watching as Rick turned to glare at you.

“Get him out of here.” He said to you, and you rolled your eyes at the man before you grabbed Daryl’s arm and pulled him away.

“You need t’calm down,” You told him as you pulled him away from everyone, watching as he looked at you in disbelief, “I know you’re pissed as hell for Merle, you have every right to be but now isn’t the time.”

“Yeah, whatever.” Daryl said with an eye roll as he swung the pickaxe down on another walker.

Eventually the group decided to head into the city and towards the CDC on nothing but a theory. The next morning you were all packed up, shoving your bag in the bed of the truck next to Daryl’s bike, the two of you leaning against it as the rest of the group said their goodbyes to the family who decided Birmingham was a better option, you couldn’t say you blamed them either. This CDC business didn’t seem like a sure thing, hell even Shane hadn’t been sold on it, but Daryl was going and that was good enough for you.

Shane gave the group a nod before he told them they should get moving. You climbed into the car with Daryl, glad it was just the two of you as you’d had enough of the constant arguing between the group.

You glanced over at Daryl as he drove, staring straight ahead and chewing on his thumb. You knew he was worried about Merle and hated that you had no words to say to him for the first time since he’d saved you.

Daryl had been out hunting alone one day and came across you, alone and tired and about to be bitten by a group of walkers. You only had a knife and couldn’t deal with them all, so with an eye roll Daryl lifted his crossbow and took them out easily leaving you panting and looking up at him with wide eyes.

From that moment on you’d become Daryl’s own shadow, a permanent fixture in his life, worming your way in without his permission. And it was without his permission because that man had put up every wall, snarled and snapped at you, tried to put as much distance as he could between the two of you, but you were nothing if not persistent and somehow Daryl found himself accepting that you were there to stay, accepting and finding that he didn’t mind.

Merle had found it hilarious, this girl who in the other world wouldn’t have given somebody like Daryl Dixon another glance was hanging around him like he was fucking Brad Pitt or whoever it was these days.

You couldn’t help but smile as you remembered Merle’s words, remember the slight pinkness that spread across Daryl’s cheeks as he shoved his brother's hands off of him with a grumbled ‘shut up’.

“What you smilin’ at?” He asked as he glanced over at you.

“The day we met.” You told him, watching as he looked away from the road and at you with a scoff.

“The day you nearly died, ya mean?”

“I had it under control.” Was the rehearsed response he expected, you’d been saying it since that day even though the pair of you knew it wasn’t true, without Daryl you would never have lasted this long.

“Sure ya did,” He chuckled, turning back to the road.

You turned in your seat, bringing your legs up to cross them together as you faced Daryl. He glanced at you questioningly but you stayed silent for a few moments.

“I’m really sorry about Merle.” You told him quietly, looking away from him and down to your hands, fiddling with your fingers.

“Don’t be,” Daryl said, tone hardening before he shook his head, “He’s a tough sonofabitch, he’ll be alright wherever he is.”

“We’ll find him,” You promised him, laughing softly at the doubtful look he shot at you.

It took a little over four hours before you arrived at the CDC, climbing out of the truck and scrunching your nose up at the smell of the dead. You walked over to the pavement, sticking with Daryl with your knife raised.

As you walked closer to the building the smell became worse, everyone coughing and you gagged, smiling gratefully as you took the red bandana from Daryl and held it to your nose, choosing to breathe in Daryl’s scent over this any day.

You watched, feeling any bit of hope you had leave you, as Rick banged desperately against the shutters, begging to be let into no avail.

“We gotta go, now.” Daryl said, turning around and grabbing your arm as he pulled you back in the direction of the vehicles.

“He’s right,” Lori said, “Rick, we can’t be in the city at dark.”

“The camera moved.” He said before he went back to banging at the shutters, Shane grabbing him around the neck and pulling him away, but you all froze as the shutters lifted and the door opened.

You let out a huff of disbelief, looking up at Daryl who raised an eyebrow down at you.

It wasn’t long before you were all sitting around a table, actual food and alcohol spread out before you. Daryl sat next to you, happily sharing a bottle between the two of you as everybody laughed and talked.

After getting some food, Jenner showed you all down to where you could sleep and shower causing you to all laugh in relief. Everybody went their separate ways, Daryl followed you and the two of you paused outside of one of the rooms.

You both turned to face each other, words on the tip of your tongues but nothing coming out.

“Together?” You managed to ask because something about sharing a room was different to sleeping close together outside.

“Together.” Daryl murmured and opened the door, holding it open for you to enter.

You laughed loudly as you flopped down onto the sofa, letting your eyes fall closed as you savoured the soft feeling underneath you, missing the way Daryl’s lips turned upwards as he watched you from the door before he shook his head.

“You want to shower first?” You asked as you sat up, gesturing towards the bathroom.

“S’all yours.” He told you softly.

That night you tried to offer the sofa to Daryl but he was adamant about sleeping on the floor, blanket bundled around him as he lay in your eye line.

“You think there’s a cure here?” You mumbled tiredly, the hot shower and alcohol running through your system were doing their best to make you sleepy.

Daryl scoffed into the darkness; arm flung over his eyes as he thought about your question.

“Nah, I don’t.” He told you, just as quietly as you had spoken.

“Me neither.” You admitted causing him to open an eye and squint over at you, out of the two of you, you were the hopeful one, the one with wonder and belief in a better future.

“Don’t you stop believin’,” He mumbled, and you barely caught the words but managed to make them out, a smile spreading across your face, “You stop believin’, ain’t no damn hope for the rest of us.”

“How long has it been?” You asked him quietly, “since you gave up on a cure?”

“Hell if I remember, Y/N/N, I knew the world had gone to shit long before damn walkers started roaming ‘round.” He told you honestly, practically feeling the frown he couldn’t see through the dark and for some reason he wanted to say something else, something to make you happy. “Then I met this dumbass who nearly got herself killed in the woods, damn walkers tryna take chunks outta her. The same dumbass got me believin’ that there must be somethin’ good left in this damn world.”

“I had it under control.” You told him after a few moments had passed, voice soft and a smile clear in it.

“Nah, you didn’t,” Daryl told you with a chuckle, “don’t matter though, I’ll deal with them all, gotta make sure you stay alive.”

“I’m terrified,” you confessed quietly, “of walkers, of there never being a cure, of what’s to come but there’s this part of me that’s glad for the damn end of the world because I wouldn’t have met you otherwise.” You told him with a laugh, letting your hand dangle off the edge of the sofa, stretching in Daryl’s direction.

You fell asleep that night with a smile and a warm feeling in your stomach that had nothing to do with the alcohol in your system and everything to do with the hand in yours.

Good things never lasted though and that warm, happy feeling was replaced with sickness and dread as you stared at the screen showing how the disease infected the brain, watched how the brain stems became active again though the human part remained dead. You felt your eyes tear up as you struggled for breath, looking over to Daryl who looked as unnerved as you felt.

“You’re not listening to him,” Andrea said, back against the worktable, “There’s nothing anywhere, no scientists, no cure…nothing.”

Her words sent ice through your veins, turning your blood cold as anxiety turned you sick and you struggled to hold back tears as you stared at the screen, watching as the walker was put down.

“Man, I’m gonna get shit faced again.” Daryl said into the silence causing you to let out a startled and slightly manic laugh.

“Count me in.” You said and followed him out of the room.

The two of you sat together on the sofa, the room sombre as you passed a bottle back and forth between you.

You didn’t know how long you sat there before an alarm sounded and the lights went off for a moment before the emergency power set in. You turned to Daryl with wide, scared eyes and he hated it. He hated that you always turned to him because he didn’t have an answer, all he knew was he had to get you out of there.

“We’re gettin’ out of here now.” Rick shared the sentiment it seemed and you all made your way down to the computer room, seeing Jenner sat there.

“What’s happenin’, doc?” Daryl yelled just before the door shut, sealing you all in the room.

Your eyes widened in panic as you looked from the door to Jenner and then to Daryl.

“You sonofabitch!” He snarled, lunging for the doctor. Rick barely caught the man before he got there and shoved him over to you, you catching him by the arm and digging your nails into his skin in fear.

“Jenner, open the door.” Rick demanded.

You listened with dread as Jenner explained exactly what the CDC was, just how many secrets it held, how many dangerous things that were contained within the walls.

“V.I, what’s H.I.T.S?” Rick asked and you let out a shuddering breath as she explained it, closing your eyes as tears escaped them.

“High-Impulse Thermobaric fuel-air explosives consists of a two-stage aerosol ignition that produces a blast wave of significantly greater power and duration than any other known explosive except nuclear. The vacuum-pressure effect ignites the oxygen between 5,000° and 6,000° and is used when the greatest loss of life and damage to structures is desired.” The voice explained.

You choked on a sob as you turned into Daryl’s chest, the man tensing for a moment before he wrapped his arms around you.

“It sets the air on fire, no pain, no grief, just…nothing.” Jenner said and you felt Daryl tighten his grip on you.

“Open the damn door.” He said, his voice scarily calm.

“It’s better this way.” Jenner told you and you felt Daryl let go of you and picked the pickaxe up before making his way over to the door and began trying to break it open.

“It won’t work,” Jenner told him, voice devoid of emotions, “that door is designed to withstand a rocket launcher.”

You watched as Daryl flew down over to Jenner, pickaxe raised to swing down on him.

“Yeah, well your damn head ain’t.” He snarled but was, once again, held back and dragged away from the man.

“This is our extinction event.” The scientist said and your nose flared as you tried to keep the tears at bay but his words turned your blood cold.

You jumped, stepping closer to Daryl as Shane started shooting computers, sparks flying from them as Rick wrestled the gun off of him.

“You done?” He asked and Shane looked up at him in defeat.

“Guess we all are.” He said coldly.

Jenner started talking about test subject 19, his wife and you almost, almost, smiled as Daryl rolled his eyes before he picked up the pickaxe again and made his way over to the indestructible door and began hitting it.

You followed him over, taking a seat on the railings as you watched him.

“Daryl,” You called softly, and he paused for a second to look over at you,

“Could help, ya know.” He mumbled as he turned back to the door.

“Took us dying for you to let me use the pickaxe?” You asked, finding it wasn’t as hard as it should be to smile.

Daryl went to reply but before he could the door opened and relief flooded your system. Daryl grabbed your hand tightly, pulling you off the railing and out of the door, not sparing a glance back.

“Yeah, it did,” Daryl said, causing you to look at him questioningly before he tossed a pickaxe over at you. “Get ‘em open.” He gestured towards the windows.

You barely caught the axe but did as he said, running over to the windows and trying to smash them.

“Who throws a pickaxe at somebody?” You asked with a grunt, fear taking over as they didn’t crack under the pressure.

Pretty quickly the others joined you and Daryl trying to get out of the building, smashing anything they could find at the windows, firing bullets at it and finally Carol pulled a grenade out of her bag causing everybody's eyes to widen.

Daryl grabbed you and practically threw you onto the floor seconds before Rick set the grenade off, you all watching in relief as the windows shattered and quickly ran over to the truck, climbing in and looking over at Daryl.

“Holy shit.” Was all you could manage causing him to chuckle breathlessly as the two of you watched Dale and Andrea stumble out of the building.

“Get down,” Daryl yelled, and you did as he said just as the building exploded, watching in horror as the fire engulfed it and realising how close you were to being in that.

Daryl panted next to you, eyes darting over to you to assure himself that you were here, you were fine, you were alive.

He’d gotten you out, he’d gotten you out and you were safe.

__________

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Not Getting Rid of Me

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Febuwhump Prompt - Black Eye

Prompt - ‘It's been a rough few days and nothing sounds better than falling asleep in your arms.’

The air around you was hot, too hot, to the point where you could feel the sweat dripping off you. The heat, it was never a good thing when mixed with exhaustion and today was no exception as you listened as the group argued amongst themselves, glancing back at you every so often as you sat with your hands cuffed to the chair.

“I’m tellin’ ya she knows ‘im.” One of the men insisted, pointing over at you like that would help make his point.

“Man, I’m tired of hearing your damn voice. We’ve been at this for two days, she ain’t saying shit and Castle ain’t comin’ for her.” Another said as he pushed against the first man's chest.

“You wanna do that again?” The first man said, stepping forward only to be shoved back by the man you assumed was in charge.

“Shut the hell up, the pair of ya,” He snapped before he walked over to you and squatted down. From here you could see the beads of sweat on his own forehead. “Now girly, we don’t wanna be hurting ya but the thing is Frank Castle hurt a lot of my men so now I gotta deal with that, you understand, right sweetheart?”

You licked your looks, raising an eyebrow at the man before you tilted your head back only to bring it smashing down against his seconds later, eyes scrunching in pain as you pulled away before you pried them open to see the man on the floor holding his bleeding nose.

“Oh, you’re gonna regret that doll.” He warned you, spitting out a mouthful of blood as his friends helped him stand.

“Call me doll again and you’ll be the one regretting it.” You snarled, tugging against your restraints as you cursed the day you ever met Frank Castle whilst also begging for him to hurry up and find you.

“I like you, such a feisty thing ain’t ya? Too bad I gotta kill ya, slowly, painfully, coulda been nice, keepin’ ya around.” He said, brushing a strand of hair from your face causing you to lean back as far as you could with a glare. “Hell, I’ll make ya a deal, just tell me about the big, bag Punisher and I let you go.”

“I already told you,” You repeated for the twenty fifth time in the past two days, “I don’t know Frank Castle.”

“Ya expecting me to believe that, are ya? No, no, no, ya see I know ya lying to me, girly, my man said he saw Castle sneaking in and outta ya apartment, so no more bullshit now, alright? Just tell us where he is.” The man said and you didn’t even bother to respond, just shifted in your seat as you stared up at him, defiantly jutting your chin out causing him to grin.

“Ya really are a tough little thing, ain’t ya?” He told you before he swung his fist back and let it connect to your face, a pained cry leaving your lips as his brass knuckles connected with your cheek, cutting into the skin as blood leaked from the wounds.

“That was just a warning.” He told you before his fist hit your cheek once more as you desperately tried to blink back tears, face scrunched up in pain as you felt more blood pool around the cuts and slide down your cheeks.

Frank smashed the low life’s race against the brick wall before dragging him back using the strong grip he had on the guy's hair.

“I’m only gonna ask you this once more,” Frank murmured into his ear, “Who’s looking for me?”

The guy denied all knowledge once again and Frank grinned.

“Alright,” he said, pulling the guy's head back and getting ready to smash it against the wall again.

“Wait, wait, wait, maybe I know somethin’.” He said, causing Frank to pause just before his face connected with the wall. “Yeah, yeah, The Punisher right, s’what they’re callin’ you, yeah maybe some guys were talking bout you.”

“What guys?” Frank asked, losing his patience, two days of punching, shooting and killing people in this heat wave and he was still no closer to finding you.

He knew, he knew he should’ve been more careful, knew he should never have got involved with you because something like this was always going to happen.

“I don’t know,,” he said and Frank pulled his head back and the guy began sputtering again, “whoa hold up man, hold up, they were British right, they were British, s’all I know, s’all I know, s’all I know.”

Frank threw the guy on the ground and turned away, walking away with his guns drawn knowing exactly who had taken you.

It didn’t take him long to pull up to a bar, flinging the doors open and standing in the doorway with his gun raised. The room fell silent as the bartender raised a hand non threateningly, the other reaching beneath the bar.

“We don’t want any trouble.” He said, British accent filling the silence.

“You’re gonna tell me where she is and you’re gonna tell me now.” Frank said quietly, calmly, shooting a bullet into the man’s shoulder as he drew his own gun.

“I said,” he said, pressing the gun against the guy’s chest, “you’re gonna tell me where she is.”

“Hey, I don’t know who you’re talking about!” He protested.

“The guys following me took my girl, I don’t appreciate that much, so you’re gonna tell me where they’re hiding her or I’m gonna kill you, slowly, maybe I start by cutting off your fingers one at a time-“

“Alright, alright, their secrets aren’t worth my life,” the bartender gave in easily, raising his hands, “there’s a warehouse, not too far from here, that’s where they’re holdin’ her, I swear.”

Frank got the directions before he headed out of the bar, slamming the door of his van shut as he hit the gas, breaking every speeding law but that was the best of his long list of crimes.

You watched as the man lifted a pair of pliers off the work table before he crouched down in front of you.

“Now dear, this is only gonna hurt a hell of a lot.” He told you with a grin before he placed the pliers under one of your fingernails and began to pull, causing you to let out a scream.

Frank climbed out of the car, freezing as he heard your scream echo from somewhere inside the building. It took him a second to shake himself into action, grabbing his guns and making quick, but quiet, work of sneaking into the warehouse, hating that he had to follow the sound of your screams.

You withered against the restraints as your fingernails were pulled off, slowly and painfully, throwing you head back in agony. As the man moved onto the next fingernail you bucked up against the seat, trying to move any part of your body but you couldn’t, ankles and wrists tied to the chair and you let out another scream, sobbing loudly as you pleaded with him to stop, begging him.

“You want it to stop?” He laughed, shoving his face under yours. “All you have to do is tell me where the big, bad punisher is.”

You sobbed, panting for breath at the short break you were given before you shook your head, mouthing the word ‘no’ repeatedly but no sound came out.

“No, no,” he laughed, looking down at you in disbelief before over to the others in the room. “You believe this girl? Tough bitch.”

You started screaming again as he took one of your nailless finger tips in his hand, squeezing down painfully before the sound of gunshots filled the room.

You looked up, forcing your eyes open before slumping in your seat in utter relief as you watched Frank shoot down the men in the room before he marched over and grabbed the man hurting you, throwing him up against the wall and aiming the gun right between his eyes.

“You think you can touch my girl?” He snarled, pressing the gun painfully against the guy's head causing him to try and shake it off but Frank was giving him no room to move. “Hey, you think just cause you got beef with me that means you can touch my girl!”

“Hey, relax, she’s fine.” The guy said, making things worse for himself.

“Oh she’s fine is she?” Frank asked sarcastically, “Yeah cause the way I see it is my girls strapped to a chair, missing two fingernails and sporting some nasty cuts and a black eye, so you wanna tell me she’s fine again?”

The guy realised he had no way out, his men were dead on the floor and he’d pissed Frank Castle off big time. So he whimpered pathetically as he began begging for his life but Frank just smirked at him.

“You know, you’re real lucky my girl needs me right now otherwise I’d make you suffer, I’d hurt you the way you hurt her and then some but she needs me so I guess a good ol’ fashion bullet is just gonna have to do the trick.”

“No, no, no, please, please.” The guy’s cries were silenced as the sound of a single gunshot echoed around the room before Frank turned to you, crouching in front of you and cupping your injury free cheek.

“Hey, you’re alright baby, I’m here.” Frank kept up his steady, soft stream of reassuring words as he freed you of your restraints before helping you stand, wrapping your arm around him as he took your weight and practically carried you out of the room.

The drive home was silent as you clung to Frank’s hand, his thumb brushing over your skin comfortingly and it wasn’t long before you were at his apartment and being led to his bedroom and settled gently in the bed, sat up with the covers around you.

Frank was gentle as he cleaned your fingers, pressing kisses around the skin when you winced and whimpered then he turned his attention to your face. He was careful as he cleaned the cuts, thankful that they were only shallow and only needed a quick clean.

He let his thumb brush just below your bruised eyes, wincing as you winced.

“I’m so, so sorry, baby.” He murmured, eyes wide as he took in your injuries. “I never should have let this happen, told you you were better off without me and let you talk me around.”

“Hey, you’re not getting rid of me, Frank.” You laughed shakily and he let out a huff of laughter because here you were in pain and injured because of him and instead of feeling sorry for yourself which you had every right to do you were taking his hand in his and looking up at him with a comforting smile.

“Should let me go,” He said quietly, shifting so he lay next to you with his head resting on your hair and his arms around you, “should tell me to walk out of that damn door and never come back.”

“Or I could tell you that I’ve had a really hard few days and all I want to do is fall asleep with you next to me.” You said, pulling back to tilt your head up at him.

He couldn’t help the soft smile that pulled on his lips before he leaned down to press a kiss to your forehead, letting his lips linger there for a few moments before he pulled away and helped you lay down, taking you back into his arms and holding you close, mindful of your injuries.

“Never gonna let you out of my sight again.” He mumbled into your hair, smiling at the soft chuckle you let out as you cuddled closer to him.

“Sounds good to me.” You told him sleepily, feeling your eyelids blinking closed and not having the energy to open them again.

“Go t’sleep, baby, I’m right here.” And you did as the man said because despite everything you knew there was no safer place than at Frank Castle’s side.

_______________

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That's My Job

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Febuwhump Prompt - No anaesthesia

Prompt - ‘Protecting you is the only thing I care about, it's my job to make sure you're ok.’

The rain hammered down, soaking you and your clothes leaving you shivering as you slumped against a tree. You knew it had been stupid to go off on your own, even stupider not to tell anybody where you were going, but you just wanted some time to yourself.

It hadn’t been easy to sneak out, what with the threat of the Whispers hanging about but you managed it and now you were paying the price. You were a skilled enough fighter especially compared to how you were in the beginning but you had been with this group months into the outbreak and, after he warmed up to you and accepted you weren’t going to leave his side despite his best efforts to pull away from you, Daryl had trained you himself.

He rolled his eyes one day as he watched you struggle with a walker before he put an arrow in its skull and grumbled about how you had to protect yourself better. You had smiled up at him and begged him to teach you how to use his bow and the look he gave you still made you smile despite the blood soaking your pants.

He’d started easy, hand to hand fighting then taught you how to use a knife, taught you how to track and then he finally taught you how to use the bow and arrow. Even though you joked and flirted your way through his lessons you had paid attention and eventually you were able to handle your own against walkers and humans alike.

Each time you used the skills Daryl taught you, you watched him smile over at you and nod proudly before turning back to whatever he was fighting.

So it wasn’t like you couldn’t deal with the walkers, you’d proved over and over that you were more than capable. What you weren’t capable of doing what watching out for obstacles as you pulled back from the walker and ended up falling down a steep hill, a sharp branch had dug its way through your pants and pierced your thigh from top to bottom leaving you slumped at the bottom of a muddy hill, crawling until you were slumped behind a tree, bleeding out quickly.

The rain was that horrible kind of rain, freezing cold coming down hard and fast, stinging the slice on your thigh as it did and you had to bite your lip to keep from crying out, tilting your head back as you arched your back against the tree in pain.

You really hoped Daryl realised you were missing sooner rather than later.

You didn’t know how long you sat there for, burning pain in your thigh, but eventually you felt your eyes beginning to drift closed. Your head nodded up and down as you pried them open, knowing that if you fell asleep now then you were as good as dead, either from the blood loss or from a walker bite.

But it was a struggle, the light headedness from the blood loss had you scrunching your eyes shut to fight against the spinning and you felt like you were going to throw up at any minute.

You felt your eyes blink shut heavily and couldn’t find the strength to open them again.

Daryl hadn’t noticed you were missing, too busy up making sure they were prepared for when the whispers’ inevitably made their move. It wasn’t until Judith came to find him, calling his name to get his attention that he knew something was wrong.

He made his way over to Judith, kneeling down so he was eye level with her.

“Everything ok?” He asked, looking her up and down but other than her flushed cheeks and panting breath she seemed fine.

“I can’t find Y/N.” She told Daryl, worry clear in her voice.

“What d’ya mean you can’t find Y/N?” He asked, scanning the area like that’d make you magically appear from around the corner.

“I looked everywhere and asked the others but nobody’s seen her.”

Daryl silently cursed as he stood up preparing to go out looking for you. He knew you liked to roam the perimeter sometimes but you’d be warned against as of late, no way did he want you out there alone, not with the Whisper’s getting cockier.

“I’m coming too!” Judith yelled as she ran after him causing him to stop in his tracks to look down at her.

“No, you ain’t, you’re gonna stay here and keep an eye on things.” He told her before he took off again, rolling his eyes in annoyance as freezing cold rain started pouring down heavily.

Daryl jumped onto his bike turning to Judith who watched him with wide eyes.

“Go on, you got your job, I got mine.”

He waited until she nodded before starting the bike and heading out, picking a direction and hoping it was the right one.

Daryl felt like he had searched every damn bit of the woods as he shut the bike off once more and started looking around, you still nowhere to be seen. He was soaked wet through and as more time passed the worry began to grow until it was consuming him.

He stepped over a fallen tree trunk, dealt with a walker and almost fell on his butt down a steep hill before coming to the conclusion that you weren’t here. He let out a frustrated string of curses, glancing around once more before he left and paused when he saw a walker laying dead in the distance.

He knew it was a long shot, knew anybody could have killed it and he should probably just head back to his bike and look somewhere else but with a sigh he headed over to it, frowning as he looked around and saw nothing more than the walker.

Then he heard a snarl coming from down the steep hill he’d almost fallen down before. He turned towards the sound and looked down before moving into action because there, faintly in the mud, not yet washed away by the rain, were marks created by somebody falling down the hill.

“Y/N!” He yelled, looking around and not seeing you.

His eyes darted in every direction before he spotted the walker, it was trapped under a tree but trying to grab something. Quickly, Daryl made his way over to it and almost collapsed in relief as he saw you sat against a tree but any relief he felt was washed away when he saw your closed eyes and bleeding thigh.

“Shit,” he cursed as he made his way over to you, sitting down on the wet and muddy floor and rooting through his pockets for anything he could use to stitch you up.

There was already so much blood, your entire upper right pants leg was practically stained red and the lower part had a fair bit of blood stuck to it too. He had no clue just how long you’d been out here bleeding, cursing himself for not realising you were missing sooner, but he knew he couldn’t move you, didn’t know how long you’d been unconscious for.

No, he had to stitch you up out here and then get you back. He just hoped like hell you’d stay asleep because giving you stitches without anaesthetic was something he’d only had to do twice and it was a nightmare he never wanted to experience again.

It took him a few goes to pull your jeans off, the blood and rain causing it to stick to the wound and he winced for you as he had to pull it off roughly causing more blood to leak from the wound.

Thankfully he had the supplies to help, knowing that even with his best attempts to stitch you up he needed to get you back home and to the clinic as soon as possible. He took a breath before placing the needle at one end of the cut and pushed it through the skin but didn’t get much further than that as your eyes shot open and you let out a whine of pain, hand reaching out to grab his wrist.

“Hey, hey, s’just me.” Daryl said, voice low and rough as he took your hand off his wrist, not wanting you to nudge the needle and hurt yourself even more.

“Daryl?” You slurred out, scrunching your eyes shut before looking at him through half lidded eyes.

“Yeah, baby, it’s me. I gotta stitch you up, Y/N/N.” He told you, moving your hand to the side and cursing everything that you’d woken up before he’d even started.

“No, it’s fine,” you told him, trying to push him away but too weak to lift your arms, “don’t need stitches.”

Daryl looked at your bloody thigh and thought differently and with an eye roll he shifted, spreading his legs out on either side of you and pinned your hands down underneath them causing you to whine again.

“Sh, quicker we do this quicker we get out of the damn rain and back home, yeah?” He said, turning his attention back to your thigh and pushing the needle through before tugging on the thread and glancing up at you as you let out a cry of pain, tears pooling up in your eyes.

“Please, Daryl, stop.” You begged miserably but Daryl continued, pushing the needle through again knowing you needed this despite how badly your crying made him want to stop.

“Doing good, Y/N/N,” he told you quietly, trying to block out your pained gasps and high pitched whines as he continued to stitch you back up. “S’that’s it, good girl.” He kept up the steady stream of praise, getting half way through before you sat further up.

He looked up at you, ready to gently push you back down until he saw your face and quickly moved his leg, gently tilting your head to the side just in time for you to throw up, crying miserably as you did.

“Alright, you’re alright,” Daryl assured as he rubbed your back gently waiting until you had finished vomiting to gently move you so you were slumped against the tree, completely soaked and shivering.

“Gonna get you stitched and then we’ll go home, alright?” Daryl asked, not expecting an answer.

He watched as you blinked at him tiredly and then turned back to the cut that was half stitched. He picked the needle back up and tried to go as fast as he could whilst making sure the stitches were good enough until you got back.

“Just a few more then we’ll go.” He murmured, eyes focused on the wound as he got lost in the repetitive motion.

The rain was washing away the blood now that your jeans were off and the wound was nearly stitched but even without all the blood surrounding it it still looked nasty and had Daryl wincing in sympathy. It ran diagonally from the top of your thigh and stopped just before your knee, the cut was jagged and some parts were deeper than others but he was pretty sure his stitches were decent enough to last at least until you got home.

It felt like hours to you but eventually Daryl was pulling away and looking at his work before he wiped his hands on his pants. He looked down at your jeans that were pulled down below your knees before he moved to take them off fully, leaving them on the ground and standing up before leaning down to pull you up as gently as he could.

You let out a pained groan as Daryl scooped you up in his arms, carrying you bridal style so as to not hurt the cut on your thigh even more, he already knew that the ride home would be hell on your leg, the speed of the bike on the uneven floor would make for a long, bumpy ride back.

It wasn’t long before he was placing you on the bike before climbing on himself, having to wrap your arms around him and warning you to stay awake and hold on.

He was right, it was hell on your thigh and you spent the entire ride back in more pain than you thought possible, your face firmly buried in Daryl’s back as you sobbed and cursed, feeling every bump and dent in the ground.

You felt yourself swaying with dizziness, the world around you seemed to spin as you tightened your grip on Daryl, fighting to keep your eyes open but felt them fall shut and you just barely managed to mumble Daryl’s name before you passed out.

“Shit,” Daryl cursed for the fiftieth time that day as he slowed down, holding your arms around him and doing his best to make sure you stayed upright on the bike as he continued to make his way home.

Thankfully you weren’t that far away, another ten minutes and you were pulling up, the gates opening for you as you did. Daryl made quick work of parking the bike before he picked you up again and making his way up to the clinic, hoping like hell Denise was already there.

Thankfully she was along with a worried Judith who sat on the bed, hopping off immediately once she saw you and Daryl.

“Is she gonna be ok?” She asked as soon as Daryl walked in.

“Course she will be,” Daryl told her before turning to Denise. “I stitched her up but I don’t know how long she was out for.”

“Let’s have a look then,” She said and pulled a glove on turning to you and poking and prodding at your thigh. “You did a nice job with the stitches, other than keeping her sugar levels up and getting some vitamins in her and letting her rest there’s not much else we can do. Keep her here tonight, we’ll keep an eye on her. Keep the stitches clean and she should be fine. Though she’ll probably have a bad cold as well if she was out in that storm.” She said, looking out of the window and seeing the rain pouring down, before looking back to Daryl who had taken a seat on the chair next to the bed.

“You did good, Daryl.” She said, patting his shoulder before heading into the other room to check her other patient.

“She’s gonna be ok?” Judith asked again in a small voice causing Daryl’s eyes to soften.

“Told you, she’s gonna be just fine.” He assured her with a smile as he took your hand in his. “Just gotta take real good care of her.”

“We can do that.” Judith nodded, walking over to Daryl and sitting on his knee, Daryl wrapping his free arm around her.

“Yeah we can,” Daryl agreed because at the end of the day that was his job, taking care of you was his main purpose and the fact that you managed to get hurt weighed heavily on him. “You should get home.” Daryl said as he noticed Judith lean against his chest and close her eyes.

“Know I’m here,” Judith mumbled him with a shrug, “I wanted to make sure Y/N was ok, I knew you’d find her, you always protect her.”

Daryl couldn’t help but smile at that because, yeah, he did and besides the few incidents like this one he had to say he thought he’d done a pretty good job about it.

“Go t’sleep, kid.” Daryl said and Judith was quick to follow his instruction.

Daryl sat in the chair, his eyes resting on you, watching your chest rise and fall letting him know you were ok. Eventually he felt his eyes get heavy and leaned his head back on the chair, letting them fall closed.

He didn’t know how long he had drifted off for but he woke up to you squeezing his hand and quickly opened his eyes to look at you. Before he could speak you shushed him gently, gesturing to Judith who was still asleep against his chest, before smiling softly at the two of them.

“How you feelin’?” Daryl asked quietly, voice barely above a whisper but you heard him fine, the only other noise to be heard was the howling wind and sound of rain coming from outside.

“Sore but better than I was.” You told him, shifting slightly and wincing at the pain that shot through your leg.

“Stay still,” Daryl told you with a fond eye roll, “the hell happened, Y/N/N?”

“I just wanted to clear my head for a bit, you know? The walker came from nowhere and I dealt with it but it caught me as it went down and I ended up slipping down that hill and slicing my leg on a branch or something.” You told him, wincing as you remembered the pain. “Thanks for stitching me up.”

“Make my job real damn hard, you know?” He told you with a smile causing you to laugh softly.

“Your job?” You asked.

“Keepin’ you safe, can’t do that when you’re sneaking off and falling down hills.” You looked at him for a moment, your face softening as you squeezed his hand again.

“Thank you,” You told him, swallowing past the sudden lump in your throat, “for protecting me. All these years and I never once thanked you for it. Hell, we both know without you I’d have been a walker's chew toy years ago.” You told him, chuckling quietly.

“You don’t gotta thank me, darlin’, s’my job.” He told you again and he was close enough that he could bring your hand to his lips and press a kiss to them without shifting you or Judith. “Even if you are a pain in the ass.”

“You know you love me.” You grinned at him, the grin melting into a smile at his words.

“I do, so damn much,” He told you honestly, “So no more sneaking off without telling me.” He warned.

“No promises.” You smirked, feeling happier than you should considering you were laying in a hospital bed with however many stitches holding your thigh together but when Daryl was around you just couldn’t help it.

__________

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I Gotchu

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Febuwhump Prompt - Used as an experiment

Prompt - ‘I'd fight the whole world for you, so rest now, you're safe with me.’

Frank had been sitting on the same rooftop for three days now, watching as people came and went from the building across the street. He knew the routines, he knew the shift changes, he knew which routes were patrolled and yet he still didn’t know what for, he didn’t know why this gang had shifted from killing every night to hiding away in an abandoned warehouse.

Sometimes he heard screams echoing from inside, heard them from his position all the way across the street and grimaced as he thought of what was happening inside. Tomorrow night he was going to move in, rid the world of the newest gang to pop up in Hell’s Kitchen and get in and out before he had Red on his arse, spouting the word of God and redemption to him.

A small chuckle made its way out of Frank’s throat before he heard the screaming start up. It was always the same scream, scared and in pain but try as he might Frank couldn’t get even a hint of what was happening.

He listened to those screams for hours before he sat down with a grunt and started assembling his weapons. Frank was a strong man but even he couldn’t listen to those screams anymore and what was the difference between going in today and going in tomorrow.

He waited until well into the night before he finally stood up again and made his way down to the building in between the shift changes, knowing that he could sneak in through the side doors and start taking the gang members down quick and easy from there.

It was laughably easy to walk into the warehouse, even more laughable how quickly he killed seven men, silently making his way through the building. He could still hear the screams and made his way towards them, checking all the rooms as he went.

The warehouse was big but it didn’t take him long to arrive at a metal door, rolling his eyes as he saw he couldn’t enter without a damn badge. He looked around at the dead bodies he’d left behind him before squatting down and rummaging through the pockets, nodding as he found the card and let himself through the doors.

“Shit,” he muttered as he looked around, this section of the building was nothing like the rundown shit hole he’d just come through, no this bit was clean and sterile, it smelt strongly like a hospital causing Frank to turn his nose up and walk further into the room.

There was only one door in the room, another metal one but he couldn’t see anywhere to scan in so tried his luck with pushing the door open, raising his gun as it opened for him quietly.

“Stop!” The voice screamed again causing Frank to stop in his tracks next to the door that shut with a quiet click that couldn’t be heard over the begging.

“Stop, stop! Please!” The voice screamed, vocal cords sounding hoarse and the screams were mixed with sobs and cut off when the need to breathe became too much, the sound of panting filling the room.

Frank watched, unnoticed in the shadows, as a girl writhed against the restraints that tied her wrists to the big, metal chair, restraints also tied your ankles and torso to ensure she couldn’t escape.

Frank thought it seemed a bit overkill, you looked tiny against the size of the chair, face sunken from lack of food, skin grey as you threw your head back in pain. Frank continued to watch, trying to see where the pain was coming from as the men in the room stood away from you, all staring at chart boards and the information that was showing on the computer screens.

That’s when Frank saw the white pads stuck to your temples and knew enough to know they were shocking you.

He watched as you bucked up in the seat, an ear deafening scream leaving your mouth as Frank watched in confusion as every object in the room began to float higher and higher before smashing down to the ground.

The other men in the room looked at their ruined computers before looking at you with disturbing grins and wild eyes.

Frank watched as one of the men stepped forward until he was next to you, leaning down slightly so he was face to face as he ran a finger along your cheek down to your chin and pulled your head up.

You looked up at him panting and Frank could see the defeat in your eyes, tears made their way silently down your face.

Frank lifted the gun up, aiming it at the man who stood close to you and took the shot without hesitation causing everybody’s attention to snap to him, everybody but yours. You just closed your eyes as you felt defeat run through you.

It was a quick fight, if you could even call Frank turning his gun on the other men in the room and taking them out before they could even draw their own weapons a fight. Then he moved the gun so it rested on his back and made his way over to you, crouching down so he was below you.

“Hey,” He said, voice quiet and gentle but he made sure not to touch you, “You’re gonna be just fine, m’gonna get you outta here.”

You let your eyes open, looking down at the man who shot you a comforting smile, letting your eyebrows knit together in confusion.

“You’re not-” You began but cut yourself off as you started coughing, turning your head into your shoulder before taking a deep breath, voice hoarse after days of screaming and no water, “You’re not with them?”

“Not with them,” Frank confirmed, still smiling as he stood up, “I’ve gotta take these off you, alright?”

“Please,” You gasped, tilting your head towards him, “Please, please get them off.”

“Alright, I gotchu, you’re ok.” He murmured as he pulled the shock pads off as gently as he could, trying not to let the smile fall as he watched you wince and grimace. “Sorry,” He said as he had to tug harder to pull one from your temple.

It didn’t take too long for him to get you unhooked but when he helped you up from the chair he had to grab you before you hit the floor, legs weak and jelly like after days of not moving.

“I gotchu,” Frank told you again, wrapping your arm around his neck, his arm resting around your waist as he began to lead you out of the room.

It was slow work getting you out of the building, he had no trouble taking your weight himself, watching as your eyes closed and your head drifted onto his shoulder.

“Hey, you awake?” He asked once he finally got you both outside.

“M’awake,” you slurred, relishing in the feel of the cold air and the wind against your skin.

“Attagirl,” He praised and a small, tired smile made its way onto your face, “You got somewhere I can take you?” He asked as he crossed the street and made his way over to the van.

“They killed everyone,” You told him, blinking against the sudden flood of tears. “Killed them all.” You cried, lips pursing as you tried to hold back a sob but failed.

Frank looked at you sympathetically before turning you so your head rested on his chest, your hand coming up to grip the vest as you cried, remembering as the gang busted into the tiny apartment, killing everybody in sight, everybody who was there because they had nowhere else to go.

You had used your gifts, ripping the guns from their hands but you were too late.

“I was too late,” You mumbled against the vest and Frank shushed you, his palm resting against your hair as he held you close.

“C’mon,” He said once the tears had slowed down, leaving you sniffing and pulling away. Frank let his hand move from the back of your head over to your cheeks, using his thumbs to gently brush away the tears. “We’ll go back to my place, yeah, get some food in you.”

You didn’t hesitate to climb into the van as he opened the door for you, you probably should have but what more did you have to lose? Besides, the man had just saved you and there was something about him that seemed trustworthy.

The car drive was silent as you closed your eyes and let your head rest against the cold window, at some point falling into a light slumber. Frank glanced over at you and smiled before he turned into the first food place he saw and parked the van up.

“Hey, I’ll be right back, alright?” Frank said quietly, watching how your eyes snapped open as you turned to him but before you could speak he was already talking, voice low and calm, “I’ll be right back, just gonna grab us some food. You’ll be fine, I ain’t letting anything happen to you.”

You looked at him for a moment, seeing nothing on his face to indicate he was lying and nodded uncertainty.

“Attagirl,” Frank murmured before climbing out of the van.

Your knitted eyebrows relaxed as you smiled at the retreating figure before you settled back against the window and let your eyes close once more.

When you woke again you could smell fast food and felt the van come to a gentle stop but kept your eyes closed and only seconds later you heard the man’s seat belt unbuckle and the rustle of the food bag.

Frank got out of the van and made his way around to your side, watching as you blinked tiredly and sat up. He opened the door and reached over you to unbuckle your belt before he carefully helped you from the car, wrapping his arm around your shoulder and taking most of your weight as he led you up to his apartment.

“Shush,” Frank muttered to the dog who immediately started barking and dancing around his legs as the two of you entered the apartment. “C’mon.” He mumbled to you as he led you over to the sofa and gently lowered you onto down, watching you reach forward and pet Max as he went over to shut the door.

It wasn’t long before the two of you were settled in and eating, you were never more thankful for food than in that moment, days without anything to eat or drink had you feeling so weak, add that with the experiments and you were in desperate need of rest.

“So,” Frank said, pausing to take a sip of his drink, “what’s your name anyway?”

“Y/N,” You told him softly, holding out a french fry to the dog and missing the fond eye roll Frank gave.

“How’d you end up with them?” He asked, leaning back in his seat and giving you his full attention.

You shifted in your own seat before clearing your throat and looking over to Frank.

“Do you know who they were?” You asked him instead, watching as he raised an eyebrow at you and then shook his head. “The men in the room I was in, they were scientists. I was a part of their study years ago when I was a kid, I was sick and one of the doctors told my parents about a new drug that could save my life but it wasn’t approved yet so it all had to be administered privately. My parents signed me out of the hospital that day and then I don’t remember much just that I never saw my parents again. Whatever they did to me gave me these, these,” Here you trailed off, looking away from Frank and down at the dog who had settled in between your knees.

You smiled as you leaned forward and began petting the dog, finding it was easier to tell your story that way.

“These abilities.” You finally settled on. “I was there for a long time and then one day the pain was too much, you know? I didn’t even mean to do it, didn’t know how I did it but one minute they were pinning me down and injecting me with something and the next,” You paused again to let out a shuddering breath, blinking against the tears, “The next they were all pinned to the wall, each of them with needles barely an inch away from their faces.”

Frank listened to your story, trying to keep his face neutral so that he didn’t scare you when inside he was furious. How the hell could people do that to a kid? A scared little kid who was ripped away from her parents and turned into something she didn’t want to be. His heart ached for you and as he saw a tear make its way down your cheek he stood up and took a seat on the sofa next to you, gently cupping the back of your head and guiding you over to him.

“You’re ok, you’re safe now,” He murmured as he held you close.

You willingly went and buried your face in his chest, hand coming up to fist the shirt he wore as you desperately tried to hold back the tears but a few more managed to trickle down your cheek.

It took a few moments before you were able to take a deep, steadying breath, the sound of Frank’s heartbeat in your ear helped calm you down and eventually you began talking again, thankful that Frank was being so patient with you.

“I ran after that, ran as far as I could and did my best to survive on my own but it’s hard, you know? I was ten when they took me, I had no education, no family, I had nothing. I was staying at shelters and getting food where I could but then I met this man, his name was Paul, and he told me that he and a couple of others had an apartment they shared, they invited me in. I probably shouldn’t have followed him but it was freezing and it turned out fine so,” You shrugged, feeling Frank chuckle beneath you.

“I was staying with them, I was with them for a year and I let myself think I was safe but then a few days ago when everyone was asleep these people broke the door down and just started shooting everybody and I, I just froze,” Frank watched you close your eyes again, no doubt reliving the moment.

He let his hand move from your head to around your shoulders giving you a grounding, gentle squeeze, smiling sympathetically as you took a deep breath.

“They killed everyone and I couldn’t do anything. They knocked me out and the next thing I know I’m being strapped to a chair and shocked because I refused to help them.”

“What did they need help with?” Frank asked gently.

“They didn’t tell me,” You said, wracking your brain for any information that could help, “Something about a devil and making things hard for the gang they had working for them.”

Frank let out a soft chuckle because of course fucking Red wasn’t going to let a new gang wreak havoc on his city.

“Yeah that sounds like him,” Frank said, “Why’d a bunch of scientists need a gang?”

“They were taking the kids,” You told him with a grimace, “Injecting them with whatever they injected me with except not exactly because everyone gets different abilities.”

“They’re using gangs to take kids?” He snarled, “Was that all of them with you or is there more?”

“S’all of them.” You told him tiredly, feeling your eyes pull shut and you struggled when you tried to open them so decided just to let them stay closed.

“Good.” Frank said darkly, he assumed there would be more gang members involved but Red seemed to be causing enough trouble there but Frank would still keep an eye on it.

By the time he pulled himself away from his thoughts you had fallen asleep, his shirt loosely held in your fist and Frank couldn’t stop his face from softening into a smile, letting himself stay there for another minute or two before he gently pulled himself away from you, shushing Max as he stood up and went in search of a blanket for you.

Your eyes opened heavily as you felt yourself being pushed down so you were laying on your side.

“Shh, you’re good, go back to sleep, I gotchu,” Frank murmured as he placed a thick blanket around you and tucked a pillow under your head.

You nodded sleepily at him, smiling as you felt the man brush some hair from your face and let yourself do as he said, trusting that you were safe with him.

“I gotchu,” He repeated and for the first time in as long as you could remember you slept through the night without a single nightmare under the watchful eye of Frank Castle and his dog.

_______________

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My Devil, My Shadow

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Prompt - ‘Because losing her would mean losing yourself.'

The first thing Matt took notice of as he walked back into his apartment was the pulsing on the neon from the billboard outside before he focused in on you. He could hear your heartbeat and your breathing both keeping a steady pace that let him know you were asleep. Hearing you shift as the door shut gently, Matt chuckled to himself, no idea how you could fall asleep with the light show outside seeping into his living room.

He hadn’t been gone long either, only stepping out for five minutes to walk Claire down to the street after she had, once again, helped him out. The two of them exchanged words before he headed back up to you.

The Devil and you had crossed paths long ago, first before Fisk had been arrested and since then the two of you teaming up happened regularly enough that a friendship had been formed…ok so maybe Matt wanted more than just a friendship but how could he not? How could he listen to your laugh, a laugh that was able to flip his mood in a matter of seconds, a laugh that felt like a summer's day, how could he listen to you ramble on for hours on stake outs and not fall for you?

He didn’t need to see you to know you were beautiful. Matt didn’t have a mental picture of you in his head, not one like he wanted as he hadn’t had the chance to trail his fingers delicately across your features, the chance to cup your face in his hands, a chance to feel the way you smiled under them. He couldn’t even ask Foggy what you looked like as every picture captured of you showed the suit you wore, like him your face was hidden from the world, the all black fabric helped you blend into the night so the media had, rather creatively, dubbed you Shadow.

Matt remembered the first time you had been written about, how you waved the paper in his face as you told him the name you’d been given.

“Shadow?” You laughed as the two of you sat together on a rooftop, legs dangling over the edge as the sounds of the city passed. “I mean out of all the names they could have chosen, Shadow? A bit on the nose, right?”

“I don’t know,” Matt said, grinning ahead, “It does suit you, I mean now that I think about it you are like my own shadow.”

He was fully prepared for the smack to the chest he received for that one but Matt didn’t need to see you to know you were smiling too.

Tonight had been bad.

Matt hadn’t heard from you for a few days, the two of you had burner phones with only the other's number saved to it. Most nights you found each other in the middle of a fight or perched on a rooftop. After three or so days Matt had begun to worry that you had gotten hurt, surely you would have called him though?

After a bit of digging he finally got a lead, apparently you were investigating a human trafficking ring that had recently popped up in the Kitchen and they didn’t like that you were getting too close.

Nobody had seen you since.

It hadn’t taken Matt long from there to get a location, panic running through him but he pushed it down and focused all his senses on finding you. He couldn’t lose you, not when he had gotten so little time with you. His blood ran cold at the thought of finding you dead, no grounding heartbeat for him to listen to, no laugh or small touches.

Frank’s words about Matt being one bad day away from turning into him seemed to hit a bit too close right now and he forced the words from his head.

Matt shook his head, forcing himself to focus as he took out the guards at the front of an abandoned building. He could count at least ten more heartbeats inside and froze for a moment, titling his head as he listened to each one, desperately hoping that one of them was yours.

There, he thought, it was unsteady and weak but it was yours. You were still alive but Matt could hear your breathing was also laboured and with that he made quick work of taking out the rest of guards before following your heartbeat.

Matt found the room you were in and didn’t hesitate to push the door open with a loud bang, shocking the lone guard who had been left with you. He used the man's shock to his advantage and with a quick few punches the man was out cold.

He didn’t waste any time turning his attention to you, kneeling down in front of you and untying your hands. At this point you could barely keep your eyes open, it hurt to breathe but you pushed through the pain to look at the Devil who rescued you.

“It’s good to see you, D.” You whispered, voice strained from screaming.

Matt let out a wet chuckle as he heard your breathing, determining you had at least three cracked ribs. He finally let his hands trail your body starting at your wrists and wincing at the cuts, he gently ran his hands up your arms, feeling more cuts and forming bruises, before he came to your shoulders.

“Don’t you ever scare me like that again.” He said just as softly, voice thick with emotion as he let himself touch your face.

He started by placing his hands on your jawline before moving up to cup your cheeks. He felt your lips twitch into a smile followed by a hiss of pain and a metallic smell that told him you’d reopened your split lips. Before he pulled away he let his thumb trace your cheekbone, smiling himself as he felt you lean into the touch.

“Let’s get out of here.” He said, gently helping you to stand before taking your weight as he led you from the building, burner phone already in his hand as he called for Claire.

“Didn’t I stitch you back together yesterday?” She asked as soon as she picked up the phone, causing Matt to smile.

“It’s not me this time,” Matt told her, frowning as you let out a soft groan.

“You found her?” Claire asked.

“I found her,” he confirmed, “my place is closer if you-”

“I’ll meet you there.” She told him before saying goodbye.

Thankfully it wasn’t a long walk and the fresh air was helping you come to faster. Once you were completely aware of your surroundings you froze causing Matt to stumble slightly as he still had you leaning heavily against him.

“Shadow?” He asked in concern, tilting his head as he tried to determine if you had aggravated any of your injuries.

“My mask,” You said, still looking at Matt. Matt’s eyes widened under his own mask as he too realised that you thought he could see your face. “You know who I am.”

And what was Matt supposed to say? Actually your identity is still a secret because I’m blind but please don’t freak out, yeah that’d go down well. Though part of him did want to tell you who he was, part of him had been thinking about taking the mask off for a while now. He liked you and he didn’t just want to know you as Shadow or have you only know the Devil, he wanted you to incorporate yourself into every part of Matt Murdock’s life and him into your life, he wanted to know everything about you, starting with your name.

Once you were better, Matt promised himself, once you were better he’d tell you who he was. Now his only priority was getting you back to his apartment and into Claire’s hands.

“I’m fine really.” You insisted, watching as the Devil smiled and Claire rolled her eyes.

“If I don’t stitch the wound, it’ll just keep bleeding and you’ll get an infection, trust me you want to deal with this now.” The nurse told you, ignoring your pout as she leaned closer to you and began closing the wound.

You let out a cry of pain as the needle did its work but Matt sat on the floor next to the sofa, your hand in his, and kept up a steady one-sided conversation that helped distract you.

“A couple of blocks away there’s a group celebrating a birthday, it’s the boys 21st. They’re all singing to him and it’s not bad considering the amount of alcohol in their system,” Matt felt you shift on the sofa so that you were facing him and smiled to himself.

“Two floors down a baby is crying, she’s hungry but her mom is really stressed out. She doesn’t know what to do so she’s trying to rock her to sleep. About five blocks to the right a group of students are out drinking after finishing their finals, one of them is sober and making sure another doesn’t wander off.”

This was something the two of you had done since you found out exactly what Matt’s abilities were. On the quieter times of your shared moments together you always asked him to tell you about the city and Matt was always more than happy to comply, the two of you laying on a rooftop somewhere and the words whispered only for you to hear. He felt your breathing soften, no longer focused on Claire stitching your torso but solely on Matt’s words, he couldn’t fight back the smile as he squeezed your hand.

Claire watched on with a raised eyebrow. It had been so long since she’d seen Matt like this, oftentimes he was far too stressed and pushing himself to the limit but since this Shadow, since you, came onto the scene Matt had started taking it easier, still doing his job but there was a softness to him now. So when he showed up bruised, beaten and bleeding but determined to get back out there she had been scared for him. Finding out you had gone missing was enough to send Matt spiralling so she hated to think just how he’d react to finding you dead.

She wasn’t sure Matt would survive that.

It wasn’t long before Claire was pulling off her gloves and giving you care advice that she just knew you wouldn’t follow, not if you were anything like Matt.

“Keep an eye on her, make sure she doesn’t rip her stitches.” Claire told Matt as she packed her bag.

“I’ll keep her safe.” Matt told her and she didn’t doubt those words for even a second. As far as she was concerned you held a lot of power over Matt, if something happened to you that might be the push he needed to cross the line he never wanted to cross.

She watched as you smiled up at Matt, it was a tired smile but my god was it blinding. Claire knew then that as far as you had gotten Matt wrapped around your little finger he was just as tightly wound around yours.

“I’ll walk you out,” Matt told her before turning to you, “Will you be okay?” He asked softly and Claire almost felt bad that Matt couldn’t see just how you were looking at him.

“For the few minutes you’ll be gone, I think I can manage to stay alive.” You grinned up at him causing him to roll his eyes. “Thank you, Claire.” You said, waving at her as the two of them left the apartment, leaving you alone to sink further into the sofa.

You shut your eyes tightly as thoughts of the men who attacked you filled your head and accidentally ended up falling asleep.

“She likes you, you know?” Claire told him as they walked down the stairs.

“You think?” He asked, sure he could feel your heartbeat and the way your cheeks flushed but could you like him, was it possible for you to feel the same way he did? “Trust me, if you could see the way she looked at you, you’d have no doubts,” Claire said and the steady beat of her heart showed she meant the words, filling Matt with hope. If Claire didn’t think he stood a chance with you she would have told him no matter how much it’d hurt. “You ever going to show her the person under the mask?”

Matt stayed silent as they descended down another flight of stairs before speaking.

“When she’s better. She’s been through enough. The last thing I want is for her to panic over the whole,” Here Matt paused to wave a hand in front of his face, “blind thing.”

“She knows what you can do.” Claire told him and Matt nodded because sure you knew his abilities but finding out a blind person could do the things he could, it would come as a shock and then you’d panic over him before calming down.

“She does,” he agreed easily, “but even without that I can’t just go up and tell her now, she can’t get up and walk out of my apartment if she wanted to.”

“Matt, listen to me,” Claire said as they came to the door, turning to face him as she spoke, “She isn’t going to leave when you take the mask off, I promise you. Plus she’s going to be a pain when it comes to healing and cleaning her stitches so she’s going to need something to take her mind off it. I say you tell her first chance you get. You deserve to be happy, you, Matt Murdock.”

Matt gave her a shaky smile because it was exactly what he needed to hear. There was a part of him that felt selfish but Claire was right, he deserved to be happy and nothing could possibly make him happier than you.

“Thank you, Claire.” He said softly.

“I’m glad you found each other.” She told him, tone matching his, and with that she left the apartment building leaving Matt alone with a grin on his face.

As he reentered his apartment, taking in the neon pulsing through the billboard outside and your soft, even breathing, he paused in the entryway, leaning against the wall and just let himself listen to you for a moment. He listened to you breathe, letting him know you were alive, he had saved you before they could do anymore damage. Despite the stitches and the bruises you were ok, you would be ok.

Matt would make sure of it.

With soft steps he made his way over to the sofa and picked you up in his arms, smiling as you curled into him, murmuring words he couldn’t catch. He was gentle as he placed you on his bed and wrapped the blanket around you, hesitating for only a moment before he allowed himself to lean down and kiss your head.

Claire was right because of course she was and Matt vowed to show you the man under the mask, vowed to tell you how he felt because he had come too close to losing you.

-

The next morning you woke up with a groan, hand going to your side before pausing and remembering the stitches. As you shifted your eyebrows knitted together as you felt the softness of the sheets and opened your eyes to see what was most definitely not your bedroom.

Hadn’t you fallen asleep on the Devil’s sofa?

With a shrug you pulled yourself into a sitting position, wincing at the ache in your torso, before the smell of food invaded your senses and it hit you just how hungry you were. It took a few attempts for you to stand up but you managed and padded out of the bedroom and saw the Devil cooking breakfast.

“Morning.” You said softly.

The Devil turned to smile at you, that smile always made your heart beat faster and never failed to put a smile on your own face. It was one of the first things you’d loved about him.

“Good morning,” He said as he placed the pan on the counter before making his way around to you, hand hovering over your wound before you nodded at him, that was the permission he needed to gently examine the stitches before he pulled away and pulled a chair out for you. “Breakfast will be ready soon.”

It wasn’t long before you and Matt were sitting next to each other with a plate of food in front of you. You dug in, not having eaten anything of substance for however long you were captured.

Matt made light conversation though he knew you had picked up on his nervousness. He figured it was best to rip the bandaid off and tell you as soon as possible.

“There’s something I wanted to tell you, something I should have told you months ago, something that shouldn’t have taken me nearly losing you to admit too.” He began and he felt your heartbeat quicken as he did, he didn’t know whether it was a good sign or not but he’d started now. “I really like you, Shadow, I have for a long time now. Being with you makes everything feel so much better, you make everything easier. I want you in my life, not just the Devil’s but in mine.” And with that Matt let his hands reach for the mask, your eyes widening as he did, before he gently pulled it off and placed it on the table.

It was silent for far too long in Matt’s opinion, your heartbeat hadn’t settled down yet and he could sense your mouth moving but no words came out. He was just about ready to jam the mask back on and pretend all this hadn’t happened when you spoke.

“Y/N,” You blurted out and Matt could tell it wasn’t what you had meant to say but still you continued, “My name’s Y/N.”

“Matt.” He told you and, God, didn’t his smile look even better now that you could see his whole face, see the way his eyes crinkled and his face lit up. “So,” Matt began but you cut him off.

“Sorry, sorry, I like you too, Matt. I have done for so long and I-I’m so glad it was you who saved me last night, I wanted it to be you so bad.” You told him, smiling as he leaned forward and cupped your cheek in his hand.

“Can I kiss you?” He whispered, feeling you nod and with that he leaned forward softly pressing your lips together.

The kiss started off slow and soft but eventually it heated up, the kiss conveying all those months of hiding your feelings, making up for all the times you could have kissed but didn’t.

Eventually Matt pulled away but didn’t didn’t go far as he rested his forehead against yours. The silence spread for a long while, the two of you more than happy to stay in your own little bubble where the other was safe.

You broke it though once something clicked in your head now that you had gotten the confession out of the way.

“You’re blind.” You told him watching as he pulled away from you.

“So I’ve been told.” He chuckled, feeling slightly self conscious now that he didn’t have the mask to cover his eyes but hearing your laugh was enough to push those feelings aside.

“Shut up,” you laughed, “Matt I’ve seen what you can do-”

“And you know how enhanced my other senses are,” He told you, gently cutting you off. “I don’t need sight to see, my other senses make up for it. Like right now I don’t need to see you to know that your eyebrows are furrowed together or that you're biting your lip to hold back a smile. I don’t need to see you to know that your cheeks are flushed making you look even more adorable.” He said, taking great delight in both your giggle and the gentle smack to his chest.

“You really can’t see?” You asked in amazement.

Matt was right you had seen what he was capable of, the man could do things that people with fully functioning sight couldn’t do. His enhanced senses allowed him to easily beat groups of people up without a single gun. You were in awe of his fighting style before, how he always seemed to be two steps ahead of his opponent but now you were even more amazed.

“Not conventionally.” Matt said, causing you to laugh.

“You’re incredible.” You told him before leaning in to kiss the smirk off his lips.

“You know I’ll keep you safe right?” Matt asked softly as the two of you pulled away, Matt’s face shifting with the words, he felt you reach up and cup his cheek, recalling the words Foggy used, Matt Murdock wore his emotions on his face. You could see how determined he was to keep his promise, how much it had scared him when you’d gone missing.

So instead of telling him you were more than capable of protecting yourself, something you had always told him when you’d first met before you finally let him past your walls, you nodded.

“You watch my back, I watch yours, right D?” You questioned back instead because that was the way things were between the two of you, had been for as long as you’d been working together. You protected your Devil and he, well he would…

“Always protect you, my shadow.” He murmured before pulling you in for another kiss that conveyed just how much he meant his words.

_______

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