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caseylicious · 6 months ago

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Wait (Daryl Dixon x Mute! Reader)

requested by @caseylicious !! ur request was so long i can't but it here but it was such a read and i loved it. i changed somethings accidentally so sorry if it's not what you expected 🥲

Summary: You and Daryl are the only two that understand each other.

WC: 2.6k

Daryl was pissed, you could see it on his face.

Pacing back and forth, he was trying to blow off some steam. The newcomer, Rick, had handcuffed Merle to a roof. What a great first impression. Looking at Daryl you could tell he was conflicted about the whole entire situation. His brother was one of the last things he had from the old world, and even if he dragged Daryl down, Daryl still cared.

Taking out your beat-up notebook, you quickly wrote down what you thought. ‘He’ll be okay.’ Daryl paused his pacing to read your note. He scoffed and sat down next to you, placing his head in his hands.

“Can’t lose him, one of the last things I got,” he mumbled into his hands. You could barely make out what he had said, but you could sense the hurt he was feeling. Placing a hand on his arm, you squeezed it slightly which caused him to look up at you. Flashing him a bright smile, he chuckled a bit and stood up. “Who woulda thought the mute one would be the most empathic,” he grabbed his crossbow and slung it over his shoulder, promptly walking away.

It was common for Daryl to make comments like that about your relationship. When you had joined the group at the Quarry, they were cold toward you. Some of them were sweet, like Carol and her daughter, but some of the others just read you as “stubborn.” Your only form of communication was through an old notebook and an almost dead pen you had found on your travels. It felt silly, but you couldn’t bring yourself to speak. But more than anyone, Shane was annoyed with you. He constantly never sent you out claiming “your notebook can’t save you from a geek.” It was annoying for sure, but you brushed it off.

On one of his rants Shane had insulted you again, you had just rolled your eyes and walked away. As you stormed off you heard a rough voice come to your defense. The voice you quickly recognized to be Daryl’s. “They don’ owe ya shit!” for some reason Shane’s insult had set him off, starting an argument between him and Shane. That was the first time anyone had defended you against the asshole, and you were grateful.

Later on, you walked over to the Dixon’s tent, expecting to find Daryl around. Unfortunately having to deal with Merle first. Surprisingly though, he didn’t give you too much trouble just telling you “would be nice to hear ya speak.” Which comments like those just made you roll your eyes, especially when there was no need for words.

Daryl emerged from the woods and thankfully got Merle to back off from you. “Wha’s up,” Daryl looked at you, wiping off his arrows while talking to you. You had brought your notebook with you and quickly flipped to a blank page and wrote a quick ‘thank you’ and held it up to his face. He squinted slightly as he read it, and a small smirk was painted onto his face. “Ain’t nothing, tired of his ass treatin’ ya like tha’” he moved his arm in a slight shrug motion and looked down at the arrow in his hand. On a smaller section of the same page, you quickly wrote down another message, ‘Seriously though, means a lot.’ You flashed him one last smile before retreating to your tent for the night. And you knew he was smiling back.

From that point on you and Daryl had become an unlikely duo at the camp. He would take you out hunting considering you were the quietest one there. He showed you how to track, how to shoot, and how to skin. While the skinning was your least favorite part, your grossed out expressions entertained him each time.

You had also become his ranting buddy, if he was pissed off he’d come to you to rant, even if you couldn’t respond. He enjoyed that you listened, you didn’t just dismiss him or brush him off.

He had started to understand you via your facial expressions now too.

The feeling of being understood was something foreign to you. You hadn’t always been nonverbal, and you had a feeling he knew that. Everything had just been so stressful that it just felt easier to not speak. If you speak, you run the risk of saying something wrong or saying something at the wrong time. Or at least that is how you saw it. This was a whole new thing you had to navigate, it really wasn’t easy at all. But luckily you had Daryl make you feel better about it.

And here you are, watching Daryl run off with the group to find his brother. As much as you weren’t a fan of Merle, you were hoping he would bring him back “home.” Each waking hour he was gone you felt more anxious. You understood he had to run off into the city, but him still not being back by nightfall worried you.

Morning came and they were still gone, now you were extra worried. The hours dragged on and on. Everything felt slow. Night fell and it was time for dinner, which was actually better than usual. Amy and Andrea went all out fishing earlier that day. As you ate, you listened to the conversations around you, most it being about Dale’s watch. Everyone seemed somewhat happy, it was refreshing. You had noticed Amy get up and leave, you were too focused on finishing your dinner to listen to the conversation anymore.

But soon you couldn’t ignore them, Amy’s scream piercing the air as you all got up. Walkers, they finally got to you. Everyone had sprung to action, but there were so many and most of your fighters were on the run. With your knife you were taking out as many walkers as you could. The more you kept fighting the more they made their way over to you.

The walker behind you had caught you off guard as you felt it grab you. Another one was coming toward you but before you could even act a bolt flew past you right into the walker's head. It fell to the ground and you grabbed the arrow out of its head after getting the rest off of you.

He’s back, but he didn’t look happy about it. Looking at them, everyone who had left was back. With no Merle, and that's when it clicked. You looked at him and he just nodded in response. He didn’t even want to look up at you.

All the action died down, everyone had decided to leave moving, burning, and burying the bodies until tomorrow morning. Some bodies did need to get moved, like Ed’s, but that was about it. There was a numb feeling that spread across the whole group as everyone separated into their own tents. Daryl was included in that, leaving you behind to go to him and Merle's spot.

Running back to your own spot, you grabbed the items you needed to communicate and proceeded to Daryl’s tent. When you got there you wrote down a quick ‘want company?’ before unzipping his tent slightly and sticking your arm in with the note. You heard shuffling inside the tent before he goes and zips the rest of the tent open. Meeting Daryl’s eyes he moved his head in a ‘come in’ motion and you let yourself it. You made your spot right in front of him, sitting criss cross while he held his knees up to his chest.

He looked stern, like he was thinking about something really hard. His jaw was clenching. Presumably out of anger for what happened to Merle. Getting another page ready to write, Daryl had already beat you to the conversation. “Merle’s gone. Chopped off his hand,” with the way he spoke it sounded like he had a lump in this throat. He had been crying, which you figured. Losing a brother couldn’t have been easy.

“Assholes don’ even care,” he grumbled under his breath. He was trying to compose himself, but he really had no control over it. Looking up at you, your face softened when you saw his tears stain his face. Without even thinking you held out your arms to let him hug you if he wanted. Which you guessed he did. Quickly, he wrapped his arms around you and buried his face in your shoulder.

Ever since that night you and Daryl had created a routine of spending the night together. They usually just consisted of you both sitting around, enjoying the company. Sometimes Daryl would rant to you about the day, or rant about anyone who pissed him off. Stories about his life before the apocalypse would come up. He wouldn’t talk in much detail and the stories would usually consist of Merle being an idiot. Which would make you smile like an idiot.

As time went on, Daryl changed. And so did the group itself. So many tragedies had hit. With each location you’ve been to Daryl got more and more closed off to the group. He had blamed himself for Sophia. He thought he should’ve tried harder, should’ve looked longer, just should’ve done better. It affected him in the worst way possible.

It made him quiet, but even with his silent demeanor, you could tell how he was feeling. It was obvious with all of his body language. If he was nervous or anxious he’d bite his thumb or play with his hands. If he was angry, he would look tense with his jaw clenching and pacing back and forth. There was just a lot about him that showed how he was feeling, and you always knew how to make him feel better.

You had lost your notebook during the mess of leaving the Greene farm, so communication between you and the rest of the group was shot. When first getting to the prison you tried hard to find something to write with, but with no luck. Beth had given you journal paper sometimes, but that had to get used sparingly. After a while you had just given up on the idea altogether. Just hoping facial expressions and gestures could get the job done.

It only worked for one person though, and it was Daryl. The others took a while to understand you. Daryl didn’t, he always immediately understood. He would speak up for you, it was consistent, and it didn’t go unnoticed. Every now and then you would catch Carol and Rick swapping glances whenever Daryl spoke for you. They noticed how you were with him too, you knew how to calm him down or how to make him feel better. You just knew.

It looked like you both were into each other. And while there was truth to that, you couldn’t do anything about it now. You realized at the farm that you felt more deeply about him than you originally thought. Forcing yourself to hide it wasn’t easy though, but you were certain he didn’t feel the same. Very certain. Or at least you chose to tell yourself that to cut the feelings out. It would be hard to voice your feelings without an actual way to do it, and also when you felt so uncertain about feeling safe.

“I’ve seen the way he looks at you, totally into you.” Looking up, you were met with Carol’s playful grin. The both of you were preparing breakfast for the group and just doing it in comfortable silence until now. Shaking your head you kept doing what you were doing with Carol giggling at your antics. “C’mon, we all see it,” she said. You responded by shrugging as you walked away to set something on the common room tables just trying to get her to change the subject. Carol just rolled her eyes and walked to set some stuff down too.

“Fine, I won’t bother you about it anymore. But don’t say I never told you so.” Carol walked out of the room to grab the group for breakfast as you just stood there. Left to process what she said. Maybe she was right, but you couldn’t bear to think about that.

Even with the safeness of the prison, somehow trouble still managed to find its way to you all. With the newfound enemy of Woodbury, you were all living on edge of a battle. Rick had been trying to make deals but with what happened with Glenn and Maggie, nothing pleased him. The Governor wants Michonne, and the prison's resources. Rick wasn’t going to budge though. Not if the people he cared about were at stake. Not to mention, Daryl had managed to get Merle back too. Turns out Merle ended up in Woodbury and unsurprisingly he was. one of the Governor's right-hand men. Daryl seemed happy to have him back, or as happy as he could be now.

A lot of what was happening had managed to fly under your nose. Busy with Judith and helping out where you were needed, all the business was foreign to you. It became your business though when you went to Daryl’s area and he was gone, and so was Merle. It had worried you to say the least, did he and Merle run again? You were really hoping, praying even, that you were wrong.

Soon enough, he was back. Thankfully uninjured physically, but you could see in his eyes something happened out there. Before you could try and communicate with him, he was needed by Rick. The Governor finally took action. Rick and Daryl had managed to drive them out, immediately heading out to take care of them for good with Michonne.

It took a couple of hours for them to come back and when they did, they had all of Woodbury’s residents with them. It surprised you to see how many people they had and making room for them was rough at first. But you all made it work.

All the excitement had calmed down for the night. The routines were turning back to normal as you watched as Daryl went to go take his watch shift. And you silently followed him. Just trying to get some alone time with him and just wanting to check up. As he stood in the watchtower you slowly walked up behind him. You slid your arms around his stomach and rested them there, head on his back. He had stiffened up at first, but soon relaxed when he saw it was your arms.

Daryl stared off into space for a while before completely breaking down. He didn’t want to say why, but you knew. Merle hadn’t come back; you assumed the worst. He had turned around to you with his head down and he buried it in your shoulder. It reminded you of when he had first lost Merle making this so much harder. Both of you stayed like that for as long as he needed.

His sobbing had stopped, at least audibly. But you still stood there hugging. Just enjoying each other's touch. Rubbing his back, you gulped. As bad as the moment had seemed, you just had to finally tell him the one thing that has been eating you alive. Just at least hoping it would help him.

“I love you.” You had said it so quietly that he was unsure if he had even heard you. Daryl pulled off you slowly holding your shoulders. He flashed a confused look at you and then you opened your mouth. Repeating it again, but louder so he knew it was real.

His rough hand moved to the back of your head as he pulled you into himself this time. “Never thought I’d hear ya speak, let alone say tha’,” A light chuckle left his lips as his grasp around you had tightened.

“Love ya too.”

just gotta say, s1-s2 daryl always has my heart omg

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