It's a dog's life

1/14

You yawned as you looked around at the camp, people going about with their morning activities. Carol was collecting clothes to do some laundry, Andrea and Amy were getting ready to go fishing, Dale was scouting the horizon on top of his RV, Shane and Glenn were talking as they looked at a map of what you guessed was Atlanta...

You, though, had just woken up. You should be getting ready and rush to help Carol or do anything that needed to be done, but your growling stomach reminded you to better have breakfast first, you barely had dinner yesterday. You were in need of a run for more supplies, that was probably the reason why Shane and Glenn were studying the map.

You took an almost empty can of peaches and sat down at the outside of your tent, busying yourself with your not so healthy breakfast. Your dog, Cole, began munching on the leftovers of his dinner, some squirrel's innards.

When you heard footsteps approaching, you didn't need to look up to see who was coming, the way in which your dog sat up like a flash, tail waggling like crazy, told you enough. Besides the kids, there was only one person he was so excited about seeing.

Daryl Dixon.

Cole had always been a friendly dog so it was no surprise he got along with almost everyone in the camp, but you still couldn't make sense of his unrestrained love for Daryl. He wasn't the friendliest one to be around, after all, but Cole adored him.

What surprised you even more was how Daryl seemed to reciprocate the feelings. You wouldn't say he adored your dog, but he was always asking you to lend him Cole whenever he went to the woods, sneaking him food and snuggling him when he thought none was looking. Considering how Daryl was with the humans that lived in the camp, it was quite surprising.

With a bark, Cole launched himself at Daryl, his mouth open with his tongue out, almost looking like he was smiling.

"Hey, dog." There it was, you wouldn't catch Daryl smiling at anyone in the camp, yet he was grinning as he scratched Cole behind the ears.

Honestly, it was kind of cute, and more often than not you found yourself smiling at the sight of them. You had been confused at first and it had taken you a little bit to actually develop a friendship with Daryl. Although you weren't sure if Daryl saw you as a friend or just a woman with a dog he liked, and certainly he didn't seem to like you as much as he seemed to like your dog, but you couldn't complain, he was nicer to you than to anyone else in that camp.

"Good morning to you, Daryl." You greeted, it wasn't the first time Daryl said hello to Cole and ignored you.

"Yeah, morning." Daryl didn't even look at you. "I'm going hunting, can I take the dog?"

"Sure...I've told you a thousand times he's not a hunting dog, though."

You hadn't let him take your dog at first, and the first times Cole had actually gone hunting with Daryl, you had gone with them too, until you saw how skillful Daryl was and you trusted he wouldn't let anything happen to the dog. He'd promised you he'd keep Cole safe of walkers and any other threats.

Besides, just in a few days after meeting Daryl it was evident how much Daryl and Cole liked each other, it was obvious Daryl would never hurt your dog and wouldn't let anything bad happen to him, so you trusted him. And Cole loved to be with Daryl.

"Yeah I know, he's shit at hunting," Daryl replied, his words at odds with the way in which he was looking at your dog.

"So why do you take him with you then?" You asked, and Daryl just shrugged, making you smirk. You knew he would never admit he loved your dog and his company.

"He tells me if there are walkers close."

"And how exactly does he do that? By barking and bringing every walker around to you?"