Walking Dead Oneshots

Love Like This (Daryl x Reader)

Prompt: "I never imagined it was possible to feel love like this."

Reader Sex: Any

Reader Gender: Any

Pairing: Daryl x Reader

Summary: Daryl saves the reader from a horde of walkers. The reader falls for Daryl instantly, but Daryl is a little reluctant to express his feelings.

Word Count: 2,628

Warnings: Cannon violence, slight mention of PTSD, no smut, just fluff

A/N: This was written for @'s 500 Follower's Challenge! So, I wrote this trying to take my mind off of things that have happened lately and I decided to go for a fluffy fic. I hope it turned out okay!

Fic:

He'd become your guardian angel. Well, he wasn't exactly an angel, but with the vest he wore, you couldn't help but see him that way. You owed him your life. It was about a year into the apocalypse when your group had been taken out by a horde of walkers, you being the only one left alive. You had just three bullets left, a mere fly swatter against a group of walkers like that. There had been an old RV and you'd been able to barricade yourself inside, the walkers clawing at the windows in an attempt to tear your body limb from limb. Your plan was to wait them out and make a run for it when the herd thinned out. It made you feel like a coward, hiding in relative safety after your friends had been torn to shreds, but you didn't know what else to do.

Two days later, maybe three, you heard the sound of a motorcycle over the constant drone of the walkers' moans and groans. You had no clue who this person might be, or if you could trust them, but you knew you couldn't last much longer in this RV. Racing to the driver's seat, you pressed your hand down on the horn, hoping to gain the stranger's attention. It worked.

The rider pulled to a stop, quickly spotting you. "What the Hell do you think you're doin'?" the man shouted at you. He pulled out a crossbow and took aim. For half a second, you were afraid he'd shoot you. He didn't. Instead he saved you.

He told you to get on the back of his bike and you followed instructions without hesitation. At that point, you didn't know where he was taking you. You didn't even know his name. All you knew was that this man had saved your life; and the wings on the back of his vest, dirty and rough as they might have been, put one image in your mind. Guardian angel.

"Daryl, would it be alright if I shared a cell with you tonight?" you asked on the first night. After Daryl had brought you back to the prison and Rick had asked his three questions, the group had allowed you to stay. They assigned you a cell of your own, of course, but after being alone for several days, the only thing you heard when you closed your eyes was moans of the dead and the scratching of rotting fingers on windows. Daryl sat on his bunk, looking at you, but not giving you an answer. "Never mind, it was a stupid idea anyway," you said, letting the bed sheet fall back across the entrance to the cell, "I don't know why I asked."

"Come here," Daryl said, stopping you in your tracks. You peaked back around the sheet to see Daryl standing from the bed. "I'll take the top bunk, and you can have the bottom one," he offered.

"I was," you began, wondering if you were about to ask too much, "I was wondering if, maybe, I could sleep next to you." The look on his face made you hastily explain, "I don't mean anything by it, I promise. It's just that, being alone for that long, surrounded by nothing but the dead, I just want to sleep next to something living."

"Fine," Daryl said, not very enthused, "Come on then." He slumped down onto the bed and laid out across it, his back turned to you.

"Thank you," you whispered as you crawled into bed, your back pressed to his. He grunted in response. "This is just for tonight, I promise," you added.