Vec: *looking At Daryl In Adoration As He Tinkers With His Bike*

Vec: *looking at Daryl in adoration as he tinkers with his bike*

Daryl: Why ya lookin’ at me like that?

Vec: Someone’s using their right to bare arms.

Daryl: …

Daryl: ...

Daryl: ...

Vec: I’m so sorry.

Daryl: Ya lucky I love ya.

(Vec is my OC)

Small, soft ways Daryl Dixon will show his affection:

Untucking your hair out from your clothing, his fingers so gentle.

Grazing a thumb over your cheek/chin.

Rubbing circles on your back when sitting next to each other.

Leaving you short, sweet notes when he’s gone from the other side of the bed. “Remember to eat. I’ll be back soon x”

Smirking slightly when he catches you trying on his winged jacket. You go to take it off and he shakes his head. “Nah, it looks good on you.”

Bringing you apples every day because he knows they’re your favourite fruit. He might leave one on the pillow next to you in the morning, next to his note. Tuck a couple away in your backpack, etc.

Wants you with him when he cooks, says he wants the company but wants to make sure you get the nutrients you need, like fish and red meat, lettuce and eggs. He never cared about that stuff for himself, never needed to, but with you, he wants you at your best, able to look after yourself.

At meetings he makes sure to involve you, values your opinion and makes sure you’re heard. Even if your ideas aren’t great.

Defends you in public, corrects you in private.

Let’s himself be vulnerable with you, lying in your lap while you stroke his hair, opening up to you about the darkness of his past and his mental health.

Kisses you on your forehead. (Also really enjoys forehead kisses too).

Squeezes your hand when you’re his backpack on his bike.

Masterlist

Started: 9/30/24

Updated: 10/10/24

Total Works: 5

The Walking Dead:

Finding Myself, Finding You:

➼ Chapter One

➼ Chapter Two

➼ Chapter Three

➼ Chapter Four

➼ Chapter Five

➼ Chapter Six

➼ Chapter Seven

➼ Chapter Eight

➼ Chapter Nine

➼ Chapter Ten

➼ Chapter Eleven

➼ Chapter Twelve

➼ Chapter Thirteen

➼ Chapter Fourteen

➼ Chapter Fifteen

➼ Chapter Sixteen

➼ Chapter Seventeen

Incorrect Quotes (I guess that's what I'd call these):

➼ Original Idea #1

➼ That one Tiktok Audio

➼ Original Idea #2

➼ Original Idea #3

Oneshots (coming soon):

Finding Myself, Finding You: Chapter Five

Masterlist

AO3 link

Story is 18+ for mature content/themes, minors do not interact please

TW/CWs for this story--implied/referenced past rape, canonical violence, non-canonical violence, blood, gore, referenced past suicide, swearing, surgery, excessive drinking, nightmares, panic attacks, mention of scars, vomiting, amputation, medical procedures, non-con medical procedures, referenced past medical torture, referenced past drugging, attempted sexual assault, panic attacks, mental health struggles, referenced sibling death, referenced parent death

Each chapter will have its own TW/CWs listed

This story, Lydia Vector, her family & bestie (c) me, TheVeganDarkElf

TWD & its characters (c) AMC & Robert Kirkman, the writer of the comic series

TW/CWs for this chapter--swearing, typical TWD violence (killing walkers), Daryl being kind of mean, mentions of a sex toy, mentions of blood (if you squint, maybe?)

Word count: 2.4k

After some time, Eric brought breakfast upstairs, and we spent probably a few hours there, just chatting and getting to know each other. They told me about how they met, their families, how they ended up in Alexandria. I told them about my family, some of the things I’d seen working in the ER, my best friend on the other side of the country. They also told me more about the other residents of Alexandria. It was nice to just be able to sit back and shoot the shit with other people. To be able to commune with my fellow humans again, to spend hours simply talking with other people--it brought me a feeling of peace that I didn’t know would be possible again in a world like this.

Eventually, there was a knock on their front door, and Eric got up to answer it. Shortly thereafter, there was an additional set of footsteps coming up the stairs.

“Vector!” I heard Rick call out. I cocked my head back as I heard him step into the room.

“‘Sup cowboy?” I asked him. Aaron chuckled softly. “Are my medical services required?” He shook his head.

“I want you to go out on a run with Daryl,” he explained. I felt my breath catch in my throat, and those butterflies from this morning returned and continued their dance in my stomach.

“Hmm-what?” I choked out.

“A short one. I think it’d be good for you to see what they’re like. Since you’re our medic, you won’t really be going outside the walls if we can help it,” he said. I let you a small sigh and nodded.

“Does this mean I can have my weapons back?”

“Yes, they’re all downstairs.”

“Kay, I’ll be down in a sec,” I replied. I felt Aaron place a hand on my shoulder as Rick made his way down the stairs. I grabbed a couple rolls of gauze and pads, as I always like to have some on my person. The rest were left on the nightstand next to Aaron. I looked back over my shoulder and saw him smiling at me. “Don’t say anything. I want to throw up. Now do you remember the medication instructions?”

“Sure do,” he replied. I put my backpack over my shoulders and propped myself up to my feet.

“If you need anything, I should be back soon,” I said, then lowering my voice to a whisper, “wish me luck.”

“You’ll be fine,” he assured. I gave him a small smile before turning and heading down the stairs. I grabbed my weapons off the table, sliding my leg holster back on and putting one of the guns in it. I stopped and thanked Eric for their hospitality before heading outside.

There was no sign of Daryl, so I started making my way to the front gate. As I passed by our place, though, he and Rick came outside.

“The new girl? Ya serious?” Daryl said, clearly irritated.

“She claims to have amazing combat skills,” Rick responded, looking over at me, “let her prove it.” I folded my arms across my chest and locked eyes with Daryl, shoving the flutters back down into my stomach.

“I mean, if you really want, I can prove it right now. Unless you're scared” I smirked, “and don’t worry. When you get bit, I can amputate your foot as well.” Daryl shoulder-checked Rick as he walked past us, his crossbow swaying against his back. I looked back at Rick and gave him an “oh no” face.

“Thoughts and prayers,” I mouthed, crossing my fingers and turning to follow Daryl to the front gate.

I spent the short walk trying not to throw up. My anxiety was through the roof, and I started overthinking about what I would say. A gentle breeze blew through his hair. It looked so soft, which complimented how rugged the rest of his appearance was. Near the front gate, there was a small car waiting for us. I was under the assumption we would be walking, but hopefully, a car meant that there would be a good amount we would be bringing back. I buckled myself up, and once the ok was given to open the gate, we were off. I didn’t know where we were going, but he seemed to. My eyes fell to my rope scars, and feeling triggered, I pulled my knife out and whipped it open, holding the handle and resting it on my leg pointing upwards. I guess Daryl could see it in his peripheral vision.

“I ain’t gonna hurt ya,” he said, keeping his eyes ahead of him.

“I don’t know that,” I replied, looking over at him and eyeing him up and down. He had his left arm resting on the windowsill, right hand on the steering wheel. He looked so calm, like this was just another day for him, like he’d done this a thousand times. Like the world hadn’t completely fallen apart around him. Just the sight of him made me swoon.

“Don’t ya think if I wanted, Id’da done somethin’ already?”

“I guess, yeah.”

There was silence for what felt like ages. Uncomfortable silence. Usually, I wasn’t one to be bothered by such a thing, but this time was different. I wanted to get to know this beautiful human. I wanted to know that he didn’t hate me.

“So…Daryl…what, uh…what did you do…before…before all of this?” He didn’t say a word, didn’t even look at me. I was already kicking myself.

“Well, I guess I’ll talk about myself then. I was literally a month away from finishing my residency, and my brothers were home from deployment. I think the last surgery I did was a skin graft for a burn victim. Uh, my favorite color is blue—“

“Why?” I was surprised to hear anything come out of him, let alone a question that would allow the conversation to continue.

“Oh, uh, I guess I’d never thought about that. Maybe beca—“

“No, why are ya still goin’ on?” I leaned back and stared out the passenger window. That one did sting a little bit. I figured maybe talking about the world before all of this may have been a touchy subject.

“Ooh, do you wanna see my more unique weapon?” If he didn’t want to talk, I thought I could potentially get a laugh out of him. I put my knife away and reached into my bag, moving shit around until I grabbed it and pulled it out. I held it up, making a semi-enthusiastic face.

“The hell’s that?” he asked.

“It’s a vibrator,” I said, smacking the top part against my hand, “it doesn’t work, but you hit ‘em upside the temple with this end, and they’re down. Plus, there’s just something so woman about stabbing a Walker through the eye with a sex toy.” I smiled, hoping maybe he’d at least chuckle or giggle a little. But nothing. I put the vibrator back in my bag, feeling defeated.

After another period of silence that felt like ages, we pulled up to a small pharmacy in the middle of nowhere. It looked rather desolate, so there hopefully wouldn’t be too many Walkers to deal with. I turned to Daryl as he slowly pulled up and put the car in park.

“You’re not much of a talker, are you?”

“Smart girl. No wonder you’re a doctor.” I was a bit taken aback. It was like he was being snide…but also kind of complimenting me at the same time? And I quite liked when he called me “smart girl.”

“I think you should talk more, Daryl.” I swallowed hard before continuing. “I like your voice. I could listen to you talk all day.” I opened my door and quickly hopped out, unsheathing my spear and looking around to make sure the coast was clear. I turned back and looked into the car, seeing him still sitting there, this time staring at me. ”Are you coming or not?” I shut the door and started making my way towards the pharmacy. I heard him get out, close his door, and lock the car.

He stepped ahead of me and pried the sliding doors open just enough for us to fit through. The only light that illuminated the small building was coming in from the front door and the windows around the top. He start slowly heading inside, his soft footfalls hardly making a sound.

“Hold on, I got this,” I whispered. I whistled loudly, the sound echoing off the walls. I heard some shuffling, and a few Walkers appeared from a couple different aisles, slowly sauntering their way toward us.

“Are ya stupid?” Daryl scolded.

“Rick wanted me to prove my combat skills, so that’s what I’m doing,” I explained.

I stepped by him and launched my spear forward at the first one, hitting it square in the forehead. I yanked it out and propped myself up onto one of the shelves to the left, climbing up it like a small ladder and flinging myself over the top to the next aisle. I landed on my feet and whipped around to the next Walker, stabbing up through the bottom of its jaw and through the top of its head. I dropped my spear with it as it fell and ran to the one behind it, taking it out with my knife. Lastly, I ran back to the aisle that was to the right of the one I started in. This last one was a bit taller than me, so I backed up to take a slight running head start. I launched myself into the air and dropkicked the Walker to the ground, using my knife to finish it off. Once I was sure it was finished, I wiped the knife off on this Walker’s shirt and walked back to Daryl. He looked surprised that not only had I finished them off which such speed, but I did it by myself. Before either of us could say anything, another one rounded the corner and started coming at us.

“Oh, looks like I missed one,” I said, turning back to Daryl and making eye contact with him. I threw my knife back over my shoulder, hitting the Walker in the head and hearing their limp body fall to the ground. “You’re welcome.” I smirked and maintained eye contact for a moment. His eyes were the most stunning shade of blue I’d ever seen. I thought for just a second about being flirty and saying that my favorite color is blue because it’s the color of his eyes, but I didn’t have the guts to be that forward. I had already made the comment about his voice, which could be interpreted as flirty, and I didn’t even know what possessed me to do that.

I turned back to retrieve my knife, and he headed over to the opposite side of the building to check for other people who may have been hiding out. I headed to the right side to do the same. Once we knew for sure the coast was clear, we started scavenging for things.

“Aw hell yeah,” I exclaimed, picking up a box off of the ground, “I found tampons!” I heard Daryl make a sound from a few aisles over. I couldn't decipher whether it was a scoff or a chuckle. “Listen, you try bleeding out of a hole in your body every 4 weeks with almost no way to really deal with it. This shit is like gold for women now.” I shoved the box into my bag and grabbed another one that I could see. I heard him putting things into what I guessed was a box that he found. We rummaged around for a bit before I found another thing to be excited about.

“Holy shit, is that a can of soup?” I picked up the lone can of tomato soup and tossed it into my bag. I stood up and got on my tiptoes to look over the aisles. I could see Daryl a couple of aisles away. “Everything looks incredible when you’ve been surviving off of freeze-dried astronaut food for longer than you can remember.” I walked my way over to the actual pharmacy section of the store, hoping I’d be able to scrounge up more painkillers and antibiotics. We got lucky, and I was able to find those things, as well as barbicide, bandages, anti-itch cream, and a myriad more.

I stood up, fanning myself off. It was scorching in there, and there was almost no airflow. The only air coming in was from the front door, which I was nowhere near. My chest was already lifted from the sports bra I was wearing, but I used my forearms to lift them a bit more, trying to get literally any airflow underneath to help myself cool off.

“You wanna know what’s annoying about having breasts, Daryl?”

“Nah, but I’m sure ya gonna tell me anyway.”

“It’s like having two heat packs strapped to the front of your body at all times, and there’s nothing you can do about it,” I explained, “it’s fucking hot up in this bitch.” A bead of sweat dripped down behind my glasses and into my eye.

“Well we about cleared the place out,” he said, coming in through the pharmacy door, “help me grab this.” I nodded and followed him out. He had found four boxes that he used to fill with various items.

“Wow, we really did luck out,” I said, grabbing two of them and stacking them on top of each other, lifting them from the handles of the one on the bottom, “I mean, it’s obvious why.” We started heading back to the car, looking around out the front door to make sure the coast was clear first.

“Why?” He popped the trunk open and set the boxes he was carrying down, scooting over so I could place mine in.

“Because I’m a good luck charm,” I joked, “maybe I should come out on these runs more often. And don’t forget to tell Rick that my combat skills are exactly as good as I say they are.”

For half a second, I swear I thought I saw him blush, just a little, but he turned away too quickly for me to get a good look.