TROUBLE [twd]

mirrors of each other

"There you go!" Merle cheers on.

Nanami keeps the rifle aimed to the three walkers- the last of eight he'd shot down.

His shoulder was now aching from the kickback of the gun, but he stayed focused. His stomach was hurting from the position where he was laying on the wall of Woodbury, but he still kept shooting.

"Two!" Merle knocks his fist against the metal like his own personal way of clapping.

The shell from the next shot flies back, scratching Nanami's eye. He cringes, bringing his arm up to wipe the side it hit with his sleeve before settling back on sight.

"One more, son. You got it," Merle nods, feeling somewhat proud of the teen.

Shooting the last walker down, Nanami sighs and rests his forehead against the wall, arm nearly numb from how much he'd been shooting.

"Don't tire out on me just yet," Merle squats down, patting Nanami's back, "We've still gotta move the bodies."

"What?" Nanami complains.

"Governor don't want no one seeing 'em. Thinks it'll bring everyone's mood down," Merle explains, standing and walking to the ladder.

"Maybe the people in here should face it so they don't go soft and weak," Nanami grumbles, pulling his pained body to his knees and crawling over to the ladder.

"That's what I was thinking when I got here," Merle admits, hopping onto the road below, "But, maybe it's for the best."

"Why would-" Nanami pauses, his mouth open in pain as he begins to descend the ladder, he finishes speaking through clenched teeth, "-that be for the best? Why do some people put all the work in for others to freeload?"

Jumping to the ground on the other side of the wall, Nanami clutches his arm as he now couldn't feel his fingers.

"So it's like life before," Merle shrugs, grabbing a leg of one of the deader-dead walkers.

"You and I didn't have a life like this before," Nanami reminds, grabbing the other leg to help Merle, "We've been the ones giving and being taken from. When is it our turn to have a break?"

"When we're dead, son," Merle grunts as they tug the body, "We'll rest when we're dead."

"Then just kill me already," Nanami mumbles.

--

"Do you think we could make this place even better than better?" Sakiko wonders as Daryl lifts a walker's body into the trailer to be moved.

"Though we had this talk?" he asks, patting her back and pointing to the next body to move.

"I mean.. This is the first time I've ever had my own room," she explains, "Could we like.. decorate our rooms?"

"You wanna go on a run and risk your ass for some posters?" he teases as they pull the body to the truck.

"At least some new bed sheets," she frowns, "These smell dead and.. prison-ey."

"Kiko, we're living in a prison. Everything's gonna be 'prison-ey'."

"Doesn't mean it has to look like it," she offers, "It could just look like.. a fortified mansion."

"With bars on each door," Daryl adds.

"You're not helping," she shoots him a glare.

"Neither are you.. Pull harder, don't make me carry all the weight."

Sakiko sighs, returning to tugging the bodies to the truck.

After they've moved the ones in the courtyard, Daryl nods for her to get in the truck and she follows quickly. Hopping in the passenger seat, Daryl drives them to the lower gates that Carl opens before down the road.

He looks over to Sakiko who had her head rested on the door, eyes closed as she feels the breeze of the midday.

"We can go on a run once the bodies are clear and Hershel is up and going," Daryl decides with a sigh.

"Really?" she asks, perking her head up to look at him.

Daryl huffs a laugh, glancing to her before the road once again, "Sure thing."

Grinning widely, Sakiko lays her head back on the door. Daryl couldn't help the smile on his own lips at the sight- he'd almost forgotten just how long it's been since he'd seen her smile like that.

--

"All right and these are gonna be our usual loading spots. Through here is our pantry where we keep the food stocked," Merle points Nanami around.

Nanami takes a mental note of everything this far as Merle continues, "This door leads to our essentials. Batteries, ass wipes.. All that."

"What about medicine? That in here, too?" Nanami wonders.

"We got a doctor's office stationed a few buildings down. Everything to do with medicine stays there so Doc. Stevens knows where it is. She's our only doc and she's a bossy little thing."

Closing the doors, the pair are met with the warm afternoon once again.

"I figure you and I can go on a run by the end of the week. I'll show you the ropes," Merle offers.

"Just us?" Nanami clarifies.

"Who else? 'less you want Martinez to come and back us up."

"No, it's just.. I didn't think you'd want me to do that yet. Not until my training was better, at least."

"How else are you gonna train if you don't go out there?"

--

"What are those prisoners like?" Sakiko asks, curious.

"Why? You gonna fight them?" Ryan teases.

"Daryl won't let me around them," she sighs, "I was just wondering."

"There's.. well.. There was five," Ryan corrects himself, "One of them got bit when clearing their block. Then.."

"Then..?" Sakiko repeats.

"Another threw a walker at Rick when they were clearing. Shane killed him. Then, Rick and Shane got into a fight about it. Shane told Rick he couldn't do what needed to be done so he did it himself.. Another prisoner tried to attack them for killing his friend and they chased him off into a herd."

"Daryl said he didn't trust them," Sakiko recalls, "He was right.. Again."

"There's only two of them left.. Guess the plan stays the same and they're going to live in the other block."

"I'm also guessing that the others are keeping a close eye on them?" Sakiko questions.

"What else would we do?" Ryan chuckles.

Sakiko wanted to respond with multiple outcomes.. Put the men through tests to see if they can be trusted, exile them away from the prison, kill them.. But, she keeps the thoughts to herself. The peaceful and brutal.

𝒶𝓊𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓇 𝓇𝒶𝓂𝒷𝓁𝑒𝓈--

I LOVE THE DYNAMICS BETWEEN DIXON BROS AND OTANI TWINS HI

like they're mirroring so much (hence the title of chapter) but it's also v v v v v different in how they speak and interact with each other

i love this little dysfunctional family