Back To Black (And White)

Chapter 1

Guess who's finally writing again? It's me bc I'm bored and school is ending soon and I kinda want something to write and I'm hoping this will legitimately be a chapter fic with some sort of a schedule, but that will ultimately depend on if my motivation will come out of hibernation for at least five minutes :') also i hope u know gotdam well I will only make Daryl talk southern and I will nOT TYPE THE WHOLE POV IN BROKEN SOUTHERN SLANG Y A L L. also dont expect daryl to actually call paul his actual name for a while lmao. P.S. this will not follow canon 100% because my lazy ass don't care. Also I'm gonna skip the long ass fight between them to get to the good shit™. Stg just this first chapter has taken over a week I'm the worst forget that schedule for now b o i s. No beta yet so any mistakes are my own and the result of sleep deprivation and general laziness.

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Daryl's POV

I'd always been told I'd see the world as monochromatic until the day I died because, according to Merle and my Paw, Nobody could ever love such an ugly son'ova'bitch like me, and Why in sam hell would you even need a soulmate? Love is worthless. The day Lori died and Rick had a breakdown screamin' his head off over the world losing color, I started agreeing that all love does is hurt you and makes you too vulnerable for this world.

Word around Alexandria, both Michonne and Rick have started seein' the colors again. Good for them, I guess. It's just never been in my immediate interests. I did try once though, back in high school. Merle ended up wooing her from me and bangin' her the same night she turned me down to prom. I ended up sneaking his whiskey stash in revenge. He of course found out and beat me up so bad I had to run into the woods to hide from him. Forget my rambling but since then, I just assumed love and dating and all that bullshit would just never be worth shit. Torn from my thoughts Rick knocked on the stair railing I was leaning on. "You still up for that run today? Got a few gas stations we could hit up."

I grunted in reply and made my way towards the vehicle he had out for us.
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Somehow along the way we managed to find untouched food truck. There's boxes upon boxes still wrapped in plastic. Rick said we could send others out to retrieve the car so we could take this truck and head back around to Alexandria. Along the other road we stopped by a gas station to pick up a special request.

It took a while but eventually we got the vending machine down on the ground, but right as Rick was surveying it some random prick in a trench coat ran into him and stumbled away from impact. Rick and I had our pistols out faster than a blink. He spoke with a breathy, surprised voice, his hands raised to about his elbows.

"Hi."

"Back up, now!" I gestured with my pistol at his arms.

"Keep 'em up." Rick inched towards him.

Taking this moment of a standstill, I took a once-over of this guy. Long grey hair, grey clothes, clunky boots, shitty smirk, eyebrows raised, colored eyes. Wait, what the fuck did I just say? Why the fuck are his eyes not monocromatic? I glanced back at Rick and sure enough his eyes were still the usual light grey. Now, back to trench coat. His eyes were definitely not on the black-white scale at all. Apparently he saw something too because he hadn't stopped staring at me since Rick pushed him, but I'm not gonna fall for that bullshit. "So," he spoke again, "are you gonna shoot me or just stand there trying to look intimidating." I snorted and Rick moved a step closer, making the guy put his hands up in almost mock surrender. "I'm sorry for running into you. Have about a pack of around a dozen undead after me. I'm saying you have about 10 or 11 minutes, so I'm gonna get going-"

"I'm Rick. This is Daryl. What's your name?" Rick drawled as he lowered his gun.

"The name's Paul Rovia, but my friends used to call me Jesus. Your pick." He put his arms out in a holy-like gesture that made me snort. I could tell Rick was holding back a chuckle or a smirk. We stood and looked at each other for a few seconds, before I hesitantly lowered mine as well.