TROUBLE [twd]

fatherly talks

"Can you stop outwardly making scenes?" Ryan all but begs.

"Me calling out Shane for locking me in the cell like some pound dog is making a scene? Sorry, I was the one behind those bars, not you," Sakiko crosses her arms.

"That doesn't mean you go stomping in when the others are fighting with a bunch of prisoners we don't even know and Hershel is fighting for his life!" Ryan snaps, "You're being just as selfish as they are."

Sakiko's eyes set into a glare, hating that Ryan- the one usually on her side, was turning on her.

"Hershel could die. Then, what?" Ryan asks, tears settling in his eyes.

"If Shane would have just let me go like I said-"

"We can't change that, Kiko! We can't. He went, he tried, and he got bit. Hershel was bit. We can't go back and put that walker down just the same we can't reattach his leg."

Sakiko shakes her head, the words not wanting to engrave in her brain as her current reality.

Hershel wasn't bit. They weren't going to lose him. There was no way.

"Maggie and Beth are hanging on by a thread. Glenn is trying his best while Rick, Daryl, and T are trying to figure out what to do about the prisoners. Do you think that you and Shane arguing is helping anyone in anyway?"

Sakiko sighs, slumping against the wall and hiding her face. Ryan exhales a breath of his own, tugging her off the wall and into his arms for a hug. Surprisingly, Sakiko finds the motion relaxing and wraps her arms around his waist. When was the last time she'd hugged anyone outside of Daryl or Nanami?

Footsteps echo and Ryan and Sakiko part to see Carl walking by.

"Bout time someone did something," Carl says with a shrug.

"What?" Ryan questions.

Carl holds the bag up that he was carrying before ducking into the cell that held Hershel.

"Were those bandages?" Ryan asks and Sakiko could only nod.

--

"The farm was a bust. They aren't there anymore, so now what?" Nanami asks, looking over to Merle from the passenger seat.

"Well it's been about a year y'all been there.. I'd say they're far out by now. But, we at least can tick this area off our map," Merle assures.

He sets his other hand to rest on the steering wheel- only metal now as his blade was in the backseat. Nanami couldn't help but stare at it.

"Did it hurt?" Nanami wonders.

"My feelings or the hand?" Merle jokes, "Answer is yeah to both, I guess."

"Why didn't you just cut the chain? Pick the lock?"

"Blade was too dull for the chain. Nothing was small enough to pick the lock," Merle recalls.

"Makes for a hell of a weapon now," Nanami offers.

"Yeah, that it does," Merle agrees, glancing to his own wound.

"It's like you are a weapon."

"Son, I was a weapon long before I had a detachable blade," Merle laughs.

"Cause of your situation?"

"Gave me more guts growin' up. I'm sure you get that, though, eh?"

Nanami purses his lips, humming an unsure tone. Sakiko was the one that had been held at knife point before he even knew what was happening in their house. Sakiko was the one that defended herself long before the world went down.

"You're the one that stabbed that nutcase, right?" Merle asks.

Nanami cringes at the memory, "Yeah.. Only because he was threatening us.. He had a knife to Kiko's throat."

Merle nods, biting at his bottom lip, "What would you do for the people you love now? Or to keep yourself safe?"

Trying to even think of that was hard since he hadn't seen Sakiko or Daryl in so long. Michonne was there and for her.. Well, for Michonne he would do just about anything.

"Why?" Nanami settles on asking instead.

"Cause I'm gonna make a weapon out of you, son. So's you ain't gotta worry about it. You can fend for yourself and not rely on others. Not like before."

Nanami has to reach to the cigarette pack between them in the console- the premises were stressing him out.

"Time to be a man, son," Merle sighs, "And Uncle Merle's gonna show you how."

--

Sakiko sat on top of the weapon's cage, sharpening her knives. Daryl nearly walked right past her until he heard the noise.

"How the hell you get up there?" he asks.

"Not telling. Then, you'll know how to get me down," she scrunches her nose.

"That's fair," he shrugs, jumping to sit on top of one of the tables.

It's quiet save for the scraping of metal and it drives Sakiko's mind haywire.

"What? You gonna tell me how much I screwed up, too?" she asks, setting her knife in her lap.

"Son of a bitch locked you in a cell. You were mad, I get it. I was too when I found out," Daryl admits.

Sakiko looks to her knives, sighing heavily, "I just.. Sometimes I do things before I think. And I know it's not the best but.. I can't stop it."

"You think with your heart. Ain't nothing wrong with that. Just gotta learn to be more careful when you let it out. If it were any other time, I wouldn't have minded. But, we ain't know nothing about those prisoners. They don't seem like they're up to any good either. If you would've got caught in the middle of something going to shit.. That wouldn't have made anything better."

"What's gonna happen with them?" she wonders, "Those prisoners?"

"They're gonna clear out the other cell block. We're gonna help them and they're giving us half their food they still got."

"Not a bad deal," she mumbles.

"It ain't," Daryl agrees, "But, I still don't trust 'em."

"What about Hershel? Is he gonna be okay?"

"It's looking that way," Daryl nods.

"So.. Will that really work, then? Cutting off the place you get bit?"

Daryl nods again with a soft 'mhm' that makes Sakiko exhale a pent up breath she wasn't aware she was even holding.

"Everything's gonna be just fine, Kiko. We got a good place here."

"We've been here two days and there's new people we don't know and Hershel got bit," she reminds, "Is it good?"

"We gotta make it good first," Daryl rephrases, "But, we will."

Locking eyes, Daryl sends her a delicate smile. Resting her head against the wall, Sakiko returns it.

They were going to be fine. They were going to make it fine. Then, they would make it good. And things will be safe.