All Hope Lost ( TWD FanFiction )

I Let You Win

I wasted no time grabbing my pajamas and a change of clothes for tomorrow. I didn't want to give Aaron and Eric the chance to change their minds, and I didn't want to leave Carl with them for too long, in case he said something he wasn't supposed to.

I threw the clothes in to my bookbag, along with my toothbrush and the mancala board, before sprinting down the stairs.

"Goodnight, don't make us regret our decision."

I rolled my eyes and quickly gave them each a hug, grabbing Carl's hand and then pulling him along behind me, out the front door and on to the sidewalk, "I cannot believe that worked."

"Neither can I. I thought for sure the glare you gave me would ruin it, but I was wrong."

I threw a weak punch at his shoulder, which made him laugh.

"Your Dad doesn't really know about this, so how am I getting in?"

"It won't be that hard, don't worry about it."

He kissed my cheek and then took my hand, leading me up the front steps and through the front door.

When we walked in, Carl shut the door and then walked ahead, to scope out the living room. Michonne had just sat next to Rick on the couch, and they were both watching Judith through the baby monitor, so we tiptoed over to the staircase, quietly making our way up and in to Carl's room.

He locked the door before turning around and clearing a spot on his bed for me to sit.

His room was fairly empty, apart from the furniture and a clothes basket full of folded laundry. A small stack of comics laid messily on his bedside table while the rest sprawled across the left side of his bed.

I pulled the mancala board from my bookbag and then threw it to the side, hopping on to his bed and making myself comfortable, "You ready to lose?"

"I let you win."

*****

Carl and I played so many games of mancala that I lost count, but I know for a fact that it was well in the double digits.

Even though we spend so much time together already, we never ran out of things to talk about. Carl talked way more than I did. He told me a more in depth story of how he was shot and how his group came across Maggie and her Dad's farm. He told me about the prison and about Judith's birth.

"You tired yet?"

"Of winning? No."

I picked up the last few pebbles on my side of the board and tossed them in to my store, which obviously had more pebbles than Carl's.

He rolled his eyes and yawned loudly, falling back on to his pillows, "Well, I'm tired..."

I quickly rearranged the pebbles so that I could close the game and put it back in my bag. Carl watched as I pulled out my pajamas and hurriedly made my way over to the connected bathroom, shutting and locking the door behind me.

I slipped the pair of sweatpants up my hips and then tied the strings tight, also slipping an oversized t-shirt over my head. Nearly all of my hair had fallen out of it's braid, but I was too lazy to undo and tie it again.

When I let myself out of the bathroom, Carl was trying his best to pull a henley top over his bandages, but he didn't do his best. Because they slipped off of his eye and fumbled to the ground.

He cursed under his breath and fell to his knees, scooping them up angrily and tossing them to the side.

That's when he noticed me staring.