Way up high in a tree, you sat cleaning your knives.

The tree swayed gently in the breeze, but you hardly noticed. You spent enough of your time up trees that you found it almost as natural as being on the ground.

The difference is, when you are up a tree, you can actually relax.

Sure, if you let your guard down too much, you could slip and fall to your probable death, but at least that would be quick.

Getting munched by a walker? Yeah not so much.

Up in the trees you found that you felt less lonely.

But that was probably because, even before the world had gone to shit, you'd spent a lot of your time climbing trees, leaving the rest of the world beneath you.

You always felt more at home by yourself, but now that it was the only option...

"Sofia!"

The sound of another living persons voice shocked you so much that you almost fell out of your tree, but you managed to compose yourself and you froze, looking around to try and find the source of the voice.

After a moment, a man in a sheriff uniform moved under your tree, gun out and breathing loud enough that you could hear him.

Hugging close to the trunk, you watched him move past, looking all around him before he once again yelled the name.

"Sofia!"

You flinched and then glared at him. Stupid sonofabitch was gonna get himself killed if he kept yelling like that.

Realising that he was also going to draw walkers your way, you rolled your eyes and waited for him to pass out of hearing range before you quickly sheathed your knives and put everything back in your worn pack, which you shouldered before quickly scurrying down the tree.

You had to jump from the lower branches, but your booted feet hit the ground almost silently, a trick which regularly saved your skin.

Looking around, you wondered which way you should head, turning to run away from the idiot who was going to get himself killed, but then you paused.

Even if he was an idiot, he was alive.

You hated to admit it to yourself, but you were lonely, and you hadn't spoken to anyone in months.

Sighing to yourself, you turned and followed the sound of the sheriff as he looked for this "Sofia" person.

Unlike the man you followed, you were silent as you moved through the trees, aware of everything around you, including the group of three walkers at 2 o'clock, their dead eyes focused on the oblivious sheriff.

Three walkers you could handle, so you pulled a knife out of your leg sheath and continued moving, seeing that the sheriff had now seen the walkers, but wasn't attacking.

Narrowing your eyes, you paused to see how it was going to play out.

Another sound at your 11 o'clock had you turning to look and your breath caught when you saw another pack of five coming for the sheriff.

He was armed with a revolver, so he only had 6 rounds, assuming that he hadn't had to use it yet.

You saw him quickly check and his shoulders slumped.

It wasn't fully loaded then?

With a flick of his wrist, the chamber closed and he pointed it at the nearest walker.

You'd forgotten how loud gunshots were, jumping a little when he pulled the trigger, but you didn't focus on that, and instead, you stood up from where you had been kneeling behind a tree and headed for the sheriff.

He'd only had three shots, so that left five walkers for the pair of you to take down.

Running full speed towards the group, you threw your first knife, not even looking to see as it embedded itself in the walkers skull, and instead, you pulled out another and threw it at another. This time it missed by an inch and stuck in a tree instead.

You tutted and reached for your machete, skidding to a halt behind the sheriff, your back to his.

He had seen you coming and tried to talk to you.

"Who are you?"

Instead of answering him, you lunged at the nearest walker, separating it's head from its body and then twisting away from the reach of another, coming up behind it to finish it too.

The sheriff used a branch to hit one walkers legs out from beneath it, and then bashed in its skull.

The other walker was coming up behind him, but you had his back, so you pulled your knife from the tree and used it to stab up through its jaw and into the brain.

You pulled the knife out and looked around the bodies, panting a little as you took in the scene.

The sheriff came over to you, his hands raised to show you he meant no harm, and you stood up straight and looked him over.

"Hey thanks..."

"Are you stupid, or something?" You cut him off, aiming a glare at him.

He stopped and just looked at you, seeming to size you up for a minute.

You just tutted and went to retrieve your knife and cleaned it quickly before putting it away and starting to head back the way you had came, stopping when you realised the sheriff wasn't following.

"We need to get out of here! Every walker for miles would have heard those shots. We need to find somewhere safe to lay low... Are you coming with me or not?"

He looked torn between going with you or continuing on his path.

You could feel the seconds ticking away, knowing that with every one, walkers would be getting closer. You were just about to leave him when he took a step towards you, and then another one, looking like he regretted the choice already.

Not hanging about for a second longer, you turned and started jogging back through the woods, trying to think of somewhere where you could hide out.

After a moment, the sheriff spoke to you again.

"Hey, have you seen a little girl anywhere? Her name is..."

"Sofia? Yeah I got that... But no. What was she doing out here alone anyway?" You asked, listening as the sheriff explained what had happened.

He had a group on the highway, and they had food and supplies.

"Come back with me," he suggested and you stopped dead in your tracks.

The sheriff looked at you as if you were insane, but you didn't care. That offer felt like a trap.

"People don't just offer other people food and supplies anymore. You don't even know me. This whole thing could be to lure me into a trap..."

You'd seen it happen before.

Most of the survivors had gone a little crazy once the world had ended, and people turned on people.

For some it was because they were scared, desperate even. But for others, it was for sport.

Rick held his arms out, once again showing you that he meant no harm.

"You saved my life, that's good enough for me to trust you. My group is full of great people. Survivors, just like you. You can come with me, or you can go off on your own, the choice is yours. But we're not going to hurt you, as long as you aren't a danger to our group..."

That was fair enough, you thought.

The guy in front of you seemed trust worthy.

He looked like one of the cops that you would have trusted when you were a kid. He looked like a dad.

Deciding, you slowly nodded and watched as the sheriff's face softened.

"Good choice. My name is Rick."

"Y/N," you offered, and you both started walking again, keeping quiet as you followed Rick back to his camp.

When you emerged from the trees, there was a grassy bank that you had to climb up to get to the road.

Standing on top of it was three people.

An old man, a kid and a woman.

When they say you, the little boy's face broke into a smile.

"Dad!" He cheered and broke free of his mother's grip, running down the bank to Rick.

Rick smiled and you stopped, watching the exchange carefully.

The kid looked about 11, but he still had a happy look about him. Like the new world hadn't affected him that much.

You saw the knife strapped to his side though, and knew that it had.

The two others on top of the bank were staring at you, so you didn't move, and instead waited for Rick to say something.

When he noticed you standing there, staring at the other two, he gestured to you.

"This is Y/N. She saved my life."

At that news, the other two adults seemed to relax a little, but before they could say anything, another woman appeared and called.

"Sofia? Have you found her?" She was a skinny woman with short grey hair. She looked like a gust of wind would blow her over and her eyes were red rimmed and puffy.

You guessed she was the mother of the missing girl.

"I'm sorry Carol," Rick started, but Carol was already sobbing, turning and walking away, her hand over her mouth.

You looked back at Rick and he took a deep breath before meeting you gaze.

"I'll introduce you to everyone now."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The group was bigger that you expected, and surprisingly well set up, if you ignored the fact that their camper was broken down and some of the people were injured, not to mention the tension you could feel between certain people.

It was enough to drive you insane within a few hours, so you volunteered to venture further up the highway to find more supplies.

Some of the others asked if you wanted company, but one look at you was enough to see that you were more of a lone wolf than a pack animal, so they backed off and you set off by yourself, feeling their stares on your back.

The other cop, Shane, had tried to hand you a gun for emergency use, but you had refused. Your knives were the only weapon you would need.

About a mile up the road, you slowed down, hearing the sound of something moving. Something big.

Ducking down behind a car on its side, you pulled your knives out and listened, hearing how the sounds had stopped.

Not daring to breathe, you froze.

Only the tiniest sound gave it away that whatever it was was moving again, so you crept around the other side of the car, knowing that it was just on the other side.

Moving silently but swiftly, you circled, hoping to come up behind the walker and stab it before it knew you were there, but when you leapt out from behind the car, there was nothing there...

A noise from behind you had you spinning around, coming face to face with your prey. Only... It wasn't a walker.

The man in front of you was armed with a crossbow pointed straight at your head, but after a second, he lowered it slightly.

"You ain't dead," he commented, and you lowered your knives.

"And you ain't that bright apparently. Of course I'm not dead! Now you gonna get that thing outta my face?"

The guy seemed to do a double take at your attitude, but he lowered the crossbow.

Now that you didn't have a loaded weapon in your face, you looked at the man, sizing him up, just like he was doing to you. After a second, you remembered some of the others talking earlier and realised who he was.

"Are you Daryl?" You asked, putting your knives away, and he nodded once, so you brushed your hair back out of your face and relaxed a little.

"I'm Y/N. Rick found me... Brought me back to stay with the group. But..." You quickly shut your mouth, realising that moaning about the group not even a full day after you joined them was a sure fire way to get yourself kicked out of it.

Daryl smirked at you though.

"You sick of the bitchin' too?"

Meeting his gaze, you hesitated a second before nodding, which made Daryl chuckle as he stepped past you, strapping his crossbow across his back.

"Ain't one for the bullshit then? You and me are gonna get along just fine," he muttered as he walked past you.

and he was right.

Two weeks later, you and Daryl were rarely seen without one another.

Admittedly you didn't actually say that much to each other while the others were around, and most of your conversations took place when it was just the pair of you in the woods, looking for Sofia.

You hadn't found any trace of the girl in a long time, and though the others didn't want to admit it, you didn't think you were going to find her alive.

Daryl refused to lose hope though, so you humoured him. Obviously you were praying along with everybody else that she was okay, but unless she had somehow found another group, you weren't holding out much hope.

It only made things worse that the kid had been shot.

He was recovering now thanks to Hershall, and the group had a more secure place to stay, and access to maps of the land so you could have a more organised search.

It was your third day of searching since arriving on the farm, and just like the other days, Daryl had come and found you in your "nest", at first light.

That was also how Daryl's nickname for you had come about.

He called you "little bird" because you slept up in trees, away from the others and the way you "flew" up trees so quickly.

You'd never admit it to anyone, but you secretly liked the nickname... And maybe that wasn't all you liked.

Looking over at Daryl, you couldn't help the way your stomach twisted.

It had started the first time he had found you in your tree, maybe the second night with the group.

You couldn't sleep. You felt like they were exposed on the highway, and even though you knew someone was on watch, you couldn't help but feel like you were about to get attacked.

So you stayed awake, watching the woods.

And thats where Daryl had found you, climbing up the tree to sit near you. At first you had just sat, but then you had began talking, and you found that you and the hunter had a lot in common.

Every night since then had been the same, and with them, you and he became closer, friends even.

You were the only one in the group who could make him laugh, and you hadn't been the only one to notice.

Maggie wiggled her eyebrows suggestively at you every time you and Daryl were caught sitting together, away from the rest of the group, immersed in your own private world.

You ignored them mostly, but the hint of a blush always appeared on your cheeks.

Just like it did when Daryl turned and caught you staring at him.

"I got something on my face, or what?"

You shook your head and looked forward again, focusing on where you were going and hoping that your face wasn't too red.

You could feel him watching you, but you didn't look at him, choosing instead to change the subject.

"Shane wants to teach me how to shoot. An "advanced class"," you explained, not looking at him, but you saw him stop out of the corner of your eye, giving you a look before he kept walking, seeming like he wanted to say something, but was struggling with getting it out.

Eventually he broke the silence.

"Like the kind of advance class Andrea got?"

You would admit that the thought had crossed your mind that maybe that's what Shane was after. You'd seen how he looked at you, and the way he liked to stand uncomfortably close to you, his hands brushing against you often enough to be intentional.

But you couldn't be with Shane. You wouldn't let him use you like that, especially when he looked at Lorie all the time, that creepy needy look in his eye. And... There was Daryl.

You didn't have time to answer or continue your thoughts as Daryl suddenly yelled to you.

"Little bird!"

Without even thinking, you hit the deck, hearing as the bolt whistled over your head and then the sickening thunk sound as it hit something hard but wet and meaty.

The walker hit the ground beside you, one of Daryl's crossbow bolts through its eye.

A moment later, Daryl was pulling you to your feet giving you a quick once over to make sure you weren't bitten or hurt, and when he saw that you were fine, he retrieved his bolt and reloaded.

You set off walking again, and after a few minutes, Daryl spoke again.

"You ain't answered my question."

Stopping in your tracks, you were suddenly annoyed at Daryl.

"What do you think I should do? Have you got a problem if I skip off into the sunset with Shane?"

The silence stretched on between the pair of you and when you finally looked at Daryl, you saw that he was completely ignoring you, walking faster to make it clear that he did not want to talk.

Rolling you eyes, you walked on behind him.

He was hyper aware of your every movement as you moved behind him, but he kept his face composed, even though internally he was pissed.

He hated Shane anyway, he had for a while, but it had only gotten worse when he had seen how the pig had been looking at you. He ought to break his face for that alone, but he also knew that he had no business in doing so.

You weren't his girl. He had no claim to you, but still...

He didn't want to see you in the arms of another man.

There was something about you that made Daryl's heart beat just that little bit faster. Even if he tried to hide it, to push the emotions down. It was the end of the world, not some pansy chick-flick!

Growling to himself, Daryl sped up even more, until you were practically jogging to keep up.

"Hey!" You objected, reaching for his arm, but when you touched him, he spun around and pulled free of your grip, snarling at you.

You let go of him, but didn't back off, narrowing your eyes at him.

"What's your problem?" You demanded, wondering if this had anything to do with Shane, but you quickly stopped thinking like that... Allowing yourself to hope.

Internally you face palmed. You were starting to sound like a teenager in a cheesy movie.

"We're supposed to be looking for the girl. That's what I'm doing... We ain't got time for this chick flick bullshit. You wanna fuck Shane, go ahead! But do me a favour and shut up... SOFIA!" He yelled, trying to move again, and you let him take a few steps before you realised what he had said and you put it together.

"Daryl Dixon, are you jealous?" You asked, watching his shoulders tense and you knew you were right.

Holy shit... Daryl liked you back?

He turned around so fast that for a second you thought he was going to hit you.

Instead, he just got in your face and glared.

"Jealous? Over you? Don't flatter yourself, sunshine. I don't give a shit what or who you do. You ain't my problem, and I sure as hell ain't yours. You wanna play footsie, you can go find that asshole Shane. I'm gonna go find that little girl!"

You just stood there, staring each other down for a few seconds before Daryl seemed to get sick of it, and pointed back in the general direction of the farm.

"You know what? Just get out of here!"

When you hesitated a little, he stepped closer and gave you a shove.

"I said get lost!"

You stumbled back, your eyes widening, but quickly narrowing when you saw how Daryl was looking at you. You wanted to move back towards him and punch him for being such an ass, but instead of starting a fight, you turned back around, yelling over your shoulder as you stormed away.

"You're an asshole, Dixon."

He muttered something in response, watching you disappear back into the woods.

"Be careful, little bird," he whispered as he watched you go.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When you got back to the farm, you marched over to the RV and slammed your knives down on the table, giving everyone the death glare so that they knew better than to try and talk to you, or to ask you what happened.

"Daryl's fine," you growled as you passed a concerned looking Carol.

Once you were unarmed, you grabbed an apple from the basket and marched away from the group, most of whom were looking at you weirdly, and went to your nest.

It had taken you a few hours to get back to the farm, and even though you had wanted to pull his head off, you worried about him on the way back. You usually had his back, and now you didn't you got even angrier. If he got himself hurt, you were going to kill him.

Shutting your mind down, you didn't think about it, climbing up into your tree and getting comfortable instead, knowing that Daryl would return at some point, and then you would be able to relax properly and stop worrying.

You stayed that way for a few hours more, just beginning to drift off when the shout reached your ears.

"Walker!"

You sat up straight eyes scanning the treeline for any sign of one and at first you saw nothing, but then you saw some of the group running towards something, so you leaned forward to watch.

You were closer than the other guys, so you saw the walkers face come into focus first, and when you did, you immediately started scrambling down the tree, hitting the ground hard but not pausing as you ran for the man walking out of the trees.

The others were getting close, but you knew that they might not see him in time, so you yelled.

"Daryl!"

He heard you and hesitated a little, but then the rest of the ground was on him and you slowed down, holding your breath to see how it was going to play out.

Daryl looked rough, like he had been beaten half to death, and you felt your heart stop when you saw the blood.

Had he been bitten?

You took a shakey step towards them, but you saw that the others had lowered their weapons, so you breathed a sigh of relief.

Too soon.

A shot ran out through the fields and you saw the blood spray from Daryl's head and his body jerk as he fell backwards.

No...

"Nooooo!" Rick yelled, turning back around to yell, waving his arms to tell her to stop shooting. It wasn't a walker.

You knew before even looking who had fired the shot, but at that particular moment in time, you didn't care.

Running over to where the guys were leaning over Daryl, you could feel the sobs choking you out, but you had to see him, so you carried on.

Shoving Shane aside, you fell to your knees by the body on the ground, feeling tears begin to spill over, but when you looked at Daryl, you saw that his eyes were open and he was still breathing.

"Oh my god, Daryl? Can you hear me?" You yelled, grabbing his hand and seeing his eyes turn to you as he groaned a response.

"We need to get him inside," Rick muttered and helped support Daryl with T-dog.

"Oh my god, is he dead?"

You heard the question be shouted across the field, and you turned around to see where it had came from, your eyes hardening as you saw her running towards you.

Andrea.

Daryl had passed out, so without a second thought, you started running towards the girl with the gun in her hand.

When she saw you coming, the others carrying Daryl between them, she slowed down and seemed to smile in relief that he was alive, but almost instantly you wiped the smile of her face with a right hook to the jaw.

"You bitch! You could have killed him!" You screamed as she fell back and stumbled. You tried to jump at her to hit her again, but suddenly Shane caught you around the middle, dragging you away kicking and screaming.

"Hey! Calm down!" He ordered, but you ignored him, right up till the point when he locked you in the RV.

Inside you half debated kicking the windows through, but you knew that Dale loved the RV and you didn't want to upset him, as much as you probably already had when you punched blondie...

Growling, you sat down on he bed and stared at your shaking hands, thinking about all that had gone down, and how rough Daryl looked.

Maybe he was attacked by walkers.

He could have been killed because of you and your stupid temper.

You felt sick, but you knew that Shane wasn't going to let you out any time soon, so you lay back on the bed and closed your eyes, letting he exhaustion take you.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When you woke up, you were surprised to see how much time had passed. You had slept right through till the next morning.

Kinda shocked, you sat up and looked around, finding Dale in the kitchen and the door wide open, so carefully you go to your feet and walked towards it, looking at the old man.

"Can I leave?" You asked, watching him for a response.

He didn't react other than to shrug slightly.

"Well I don't think I could stop you if you wanted out... But I don't think Shane is going to stop you, if that's what you mean?"

Narrowing your eyes, you walked past him and out of the RV, seeing Daryl's tent set up in the usual spot.

Shane looked up when you walked out, but other than giving you a warning look, he didn't react as you looked over at Daryl's tent.

Walking closer, you heard his voice and sighed in relief.

"Next time you shoot me, you'd best prey I'm dead..."

You couldn't help the slight chuckle that escaped you, but when you saw Andrea stepping out of the tent, the smile dropped from your face.

When she saw you, she froze and quickly turned away, avoiding you before something else could start, but giving you a nice view of the bruise on her face.

Smirking, you waited for her to be out of your way before you took a deep breath and walked into the tent, seeing Daryl laid down on the bed, a bandage around his head.

"Little bird," he whispered when he saw you. He tried to sit up and straighten himself up a little, but you moved closer and sat on the edge of his bed, putting your hand on his arm to tell him to be still.

He did so, his blue eyes staring straight at you, even though you looked down at your hands for a moment, unable to meet his eyes after the incident the day before.

"What happened?" You asked, the guilt building within you at the state Daryl had returned in. Maybe it wouldn't have happened if you had stayed with him instead of storming home like a child.

When he didn't answer, you looked up, turning your head to watch him as he stared up at the top of he tent, avoiding your gaze completely.

"Daryl?" You asked, reaching out to touch his face, seeing that something was wrong with him. He didn't look okay, and when your hand touched his cheek, he turned his face into it a little, finally looking back at you.

"M'sorry, little bird..."

The apology hung in the air between you for a few seconds while you stared into each other's eyes, both of you hypnotised by each other, and even though you knew he wasn't happy about your feelings for him, you really wanted to lean over and kiss him.

Instead, you pulled your hand back and sighed, a nervous smile coming to your face when you answered. Daryl didn't do apologies, so you were slightly freaked out.

"It's fine... Besides, from the look of you, I should be the one apologising. You look like shit. What happened?"

He chuckled when you told him how he looked and then sat up straighter, beginning to tell you about what had happened after you had left.

He had somehow fallen down a steep hillside and impaled himself on one of his own crossbow bolts.

He lifted his shirt to show you, and when you saw it, you moved closer, your hands gently touching it and feeling the stitches Hershall had done.

Daryl flinched away a little from your touch, but you ignored him, knowing how men could be complete babies when they got hurt, and so you reached into your bag and pulled out your first aid box.

Digging around in it, you found what you were looking for, and put the rest away, squeezing a little of the cream onto your finger before you gently applied it to Daryl's wound, seeing his stomach muscles tighten at the contact. Realising it was probably stinging like a bitch, you were as swift as you could be, sitting back and putting your supplies away again while you looked at the wound.

"There. It'll burn for a bit, but you ain't gonna get an infection..."

Wiping the rest of the cream off on your jeans you looked back at Daryl, seeing how he watched you.

"So what happened ne..." You were going to ask what happened next, but in that moment, Daryl's resolve snapped and he leaned forward, his hand coming to cup your face as he brought his lips to yours.

His lips were chapped from the sun, but you hardly even noticed.

As soon as his lips had touched yours, you had left the world behind you, nothing else mattered except for you and Daryl.

His kiss was gentle at first, but you grabbed the front of his shirt and dragged him closer to you, your lips holding your own against his and he chuckled before returning the favour, kissing you furiously.

Blood rushed to your cheeks and when he pulled back, you were left breathing heavily, but with a smirk, you saw that he was too.

For another second, you just stared at each other, both of you grinning a little.

"I've wanted to do that fer a while now," he confessed, and grinning, you pushed him back onto the bed, straddling him as you leant down, stopping when your lips brushed his.

"Well then, what took you so long?"