Mushaboom • Daryl Dixon

26

Daryl

"It's gonna rain soon.. hurry up already."

"Daryl I swear if it's just a squirrel or something-"

"It ain't, just hurry before the rain wipes the tracks clean." Rachel sighed out of frustration but her eyes kept searching.

"Look at the prints, look at the pacing, how it moves." She stared at the foliage where I was motioning towards. Still looked just as lost as she did a minute ago. She crouched down and moved some leaves outta the way. "Well its bigger than a squirrel.. a raccoon?"
I jerked my chin ahead, where the tracks continued, "C'mon"

"A possum?"

"Just keep going, you'll see in a bit. We got maybe five minutes before the rain hits.." I knelt down next to her, "Follow the patterns. That's it's movements, ya look for those patterns- there."

She nodded and crept farther down the tracks, "This all here, it's heading down towards the creek." She said, finally with certainty in her voice.

I nodded and brought my finger to my lips as we continued to the creep towards where it was, motioning for her to keep quiet. We were getting close.

I handed her the crossbow and she nodded once, tracking the animal on her own. I followed closely behind; the tracks led us to a tree. She looked to me and smiled as she realized what she had been tracking. At the bottom of the tree there was an opening with a raccoon and a baby curled up inside. She brought the crossbow over her shoulder like I would, and laced her fingers with mine.

It was almost as if on cue when the rain began to fall. She looked up to me and smiled; I scrunched my nose, "C'mon, before ya get soaked and bitch about it." She punched my arm and I laughed. I ran up ahead and she came after me, but almost as soon as we got back to my truck, the girl slipped in mud.

I quickly ran over to her to see if she was alright, but once I saw she was fine I started laughing. She looked pissed for a sec, "Shut up!" She tried containing a smirk of embarrassment from creepin' on her face which made it even more easy to tease her about it. I laughed like a fool, "Dude- ya totally fell on your ass!"

"Daryl! I swear-"

"Look! It left a fucking print!" I leaned forward laughing, as I pointed at her butt print in the mud, and before I knew it, I was laid flat on my own ass and she was on top of me giggling.

"Hell nah!" I grabbed a handful of mud and threw it at her. At first she gasped, but soon that frenzied grin appeared. She brought a handful of mud to my face and smeared it across my cheek.

Now she was the laughing fool and I watched her have her laughing fit with amusement. Her nose would crinkle every time she'd laugh and the damn cute overload took hold. I brought her face down to mine and kissed her full of the lips.

She didn't hesitate to kiss me back, and once she brought her guard down, I brought a pile of mud to the top of her head. She gasped and pulled away, "OH MY GOD." She hit my chest but I brought her back down and crashed my lips onto hers.

When the rain began to fall hard, I pulled away and looked up at her in awe. I couldn't get enough of her. "Let's get home before we get sick or some dumb shit like that." She brushed her lips briefly against mine before we headed out.