daryl snuck into carl's room and saw the younger boy waiting for him
"i thought you'd be asleep by now" daryl said while taking his shoes and socks off before climbing into bed
carl chuckled and shook his head "i was waiting for you" he said softly and wrapped his arms around daryl
they fell asleep in each other's arms and under the warm blankets
——————————
daryl snuck out and walked down the stairs slowly trying not to wake anybody
"good morning daryl" rick said before smirking
"oh shit morning" he said nervously and made his way over to the couch and sat next to rick
"i went to check on you last night to see how you were dealing with this crush stuff but you weren't in?" rick asked in a confused tone
"uh well i kinda spent the night with them but we didn't do any of that freaky shit" he said quickly and looked down
rick just laughed loudly which caused carl to come downstairs and freeze when he saw daryl sat next to his dad
"carl are you okay?" rick asked genuinely concerned for once
"uh.. yeah i um i'm fine dad" he said before slowly sitting next to daryl and placed his finger on daryl's hand
"not now carl. if rick sees us i'm dead" he whispered in the boys ear before quickly pecking his cheek
carl sighed but nodded and removed his finger slowly "so where are we going?" he asked happily
"i dunno i was thinking maybe heading back to the road and seeing where it takes us"
everyone soon got up so they headed back to the road and walked for hours until the moon came out
they made camp in the woods and all sat by a fire
carl sat next to daryl and they stayed pretty close but nobody questioned it since they spent a month together
"i'll take first watch so you guys can go sleep" carl said softly and walked over to a tree
rick sighed a bit and looked like he wanted to say no
"i'll take watch with him" daryl said before patting rick's back
"thank you daryl. i trust carl but i just think two people would be better" he said lowly
daryl just nodded in response and sat next to carl once again
everyone was soon asleep except for carl and daryl
"what are we?" the younger boy asked in a curious tone and made eye contact with him
daryl shrugged a little "what do you want us to be?"
"i want us to be official but rick will probably kill us" carl said lowly n placed his hand on daryl's
daryl nodded in agreement "fuck rick if he can't accept it then he'll just have to suck it up" he said softly before squeezing carl's hand
——————————————————
*time skip cs yeah*
everyone awoke and started to move through the woods again
"where are we going?" carol asked rick softly and smiled
"i'm not sure yet but we'll find somewhere soon" he replied back
everyone just nodded in agreement before noticing they'd been walking for hours and the sun had gone down
"did you hear that?" carl asked in a hushed tone
"yeah i heard it" sasha replied back quietly
"it's probably a walke-" before rick could finish speaking someone dragged him away
"DAD!" carl screamed and tried to run after him but got dragged away just like his father
