The soft breeze that traveled through the sky, tried it's best to break through the thick Georgian humidity that plagued the early summer, but its efforts were futile. The sun beamed high above the gravel trail her feet carried her along, and she could barely feel the lost breeze blowing through her recently cut hair. And although her feet stung with blisters from the sandals that rubbed harshly against her ankles, the person waiting for her at the destination she was traveling towards, kept her going.

She would walk that same dusty trail leading towards an old and worn looking house, through anything. A hailstorm, blistering heat, even her own physical pain. Nothing could stop her from making that few mile journey to the little house on the other side of the small town.

The house, with shingles missing along the roof and dead grass yellowing the front lawn, soon came into view. And although the sight wasn't exactly on the prettier side, the person waiting for her made her heart swell with anticipation.

"Thought them damn shoes made your feet hurt."

His voice rang out into the thick afternoon heat before his face appeared, and even as she couldn't see him, she smiled. His voice, a gruff southern twang that somehow rolled over her like warm honey, made her feet pick up their pace. She could picture the look on his face, a slight playful smirk playing at the corners of his lips. His brow raised as he eyed her shoe choice with amusement. Sometimes it felt like she knew him better than she even knew herself.

"I'd only suffer through the pain for you." She called back to him with a soft tease, and as she rounded the trail leading up towards their cramped driveway, her smile grew as Daryl Dixon came into view.

The tank top he wore was soaked around the neck with sweat from the dense temperatures, and she wondered how long he had been waiting outside for her. His short hair was messy as it always was, but there was something about the untamedness of his warm brown hair that made him seem more youthful. 

They were only separated by a year in age, and yet Daryl always seemed to be ages above his years. She knew that his life, the things he had experienced in his barely gotten started life, had shaped him into the person who stood in front of her right now. It was by his father's harsh hand that caused him to grow up in a blink of an eye. A rude awakening to the cruelty that existed in the world, and he got a front row show to the damage. It was by his mother's death, in a house fire, that caused Daryl to see the unfairness life had to offer. The way someone could be torn from this Earth and from him in an instant, no matter how badly he still needed them. It tore away his childhood and left the young boy with a hollow heart for most of his adolescence. 

That's when she met him. 

The only peice of nature that wasn't dead by the burning sun or tarnished by the poor rality of the house Daryl lived in, was the large oak tree that grew a ways from their driveway. It was tall and shaded and beautiful. It was a relief from the heat, a place to escape and to think, a place to simply be. And Daryl had since shared it with her. 

Lending her his calloused hand, as he sat perched on the large branch shaded by the thick green leaves, she accepted it without hesitation. She used to fear heights, and climbing a tall tree that looked down upon the ground feet below her, used to shake her very core. But after that first time that Daryl took her hand and guided her up to the first branch, she realized when she was with Daryl Dixon, she felt no fear. 

"When does Merle get out?" She asked him softly, as she swung her legs back and forth aimlessly, as they dangled from the tree branch she sat with Daryl on.

Daryl grunts lowly, and shakes his head. "Next week I reckon, 'less he does something 'fore he gets released that keeps him in there." 

With Merle Dixon, that was always a possibility. 

She looked over at the redneck that chewed on the tip of his thumbnail, not even realizing he's doing so. His eyes look out at the view in front of him, although nothing special, he gazes with his bold blue eyes straight ahead of him. And catching a glmipse of the shimmering blue, she spots the single thing she had never seen his eyes without. 

She met Daryl Dixon when he was completely lost. He had lost his mother and childhood in one foul swoop. He had an older brother that preferred to throw his life away than try to better it for himself and his little brother. And his father treated him with cruelty and hatred rather than the love and care a father should. Daryl was a lost soul, simply roaming the Earth as though he was some kind of walking dead. Barely surviving, and certainly not living. She met Daryl when he was a million tiny pieces on the ground, and she made it her life's mission to put those pieces together again. 

He still had that lost shimmer in his eyes however, and maybe until he truly figured out a way to escape from home and figure out where he belonged in this world, that glimmer would always be there.

Daryl's head turned to the side in which she sat next to, and his eyes flickered down to his hand that gripped the tree bark. For the warm palm of her hand gently pressed against his own, and curled her fingers in between his own. It was an unconventional hand hold, but it perfectly reflected their relationship. And Daryl felt the very edges of his lips twitch up into a smile at the sight.

*   *   * 

The sky was clear that night, as Daryl Dixon could see the thousand twinkling stars lighting up the near black sky, as he strolled down the empty streets of Alexandria. There was a chill that came with the night, and it was sweet relief from the relentless summer sun that had nearly burned his skin to a crisp out on the road. The day had been long for Daryl as he felt he was the only one here that didn't belong. A community such as Alexandria, had never been a place that he felt comfortable. He was better out on his own, in the wild. But here he was, following the only family he had, into the unknown and into the place he was uncertain of. 

His boots stomped softly against the hard ground, and looked at the houses that he passed by. They were houses he had never seen growing up. These were the structures that more fortunate people could live in, and Daryl felt his skin crawl when he stepped inside of one. All of the lights were off in the houses, as night had fallen hours ago, and yet Daryl couldn't sleep. He felt caged, like an animal, trapped in the suffocating confines of the community. 

But as Daryl rounded the corner, so lost in his clouded thoughts, he walked right into another person. Knocking them to the ground with a swift movement and a low grunt coming from their throat. Daryl cursed at himself, he wasn't a social animal. He craved solitary, and this place was swarming with people and it was clear now, that any interaction he had with someone wouldn't go well.

"Damn," He mumbled under his breath. "Sorry."

Embarrassment and remorse filled his soft words, although his voice was barely louder than a whisper. And he held out his hand to help the person he knocked over up. The being was shadowed by the night, as they were in a corner where the moonlight wasn't beaming. But as soon as he felt the person's hand reach out and take his, he didn't need light to see who it was. He knew just by the touch of her hand.

She stood to her feet, locking eyes with him and he swore that she tore the breath he was breathing from his lungs. Shock filled his system at the sight of the long lost friend that saved his life years ago, and he knew by the widening of her eyes, that she shared in the surprise. 

"Daryl?" 

Her voice was just as soft and warming as it had been all those years ago in Georgia, and Daryl felt as though he was instantly transported back to that time and place. Back to a time he didn't want to remember, and yet, with her... one he didn't ever want to forget. 

"You remember me?"

Her question made his heart slow and the clouds in his head parted, as his eyebrows creased in confusion. They could've been separated for the rest of their life, and he still would never forget a single thing about her. 

"Course," He blows out in a breath. "ain't never been someone I could just forget."

Tears filled her eyes, for they shimmered like the stars as they stepped out into the moonlight, and Daryl felt her arms wrap around him faster than his mind could comprehend when had happened. They were like an iron grip around his neck as she practically jumped against him, and although Daryl felt off balance from the sudden soft attack, he couldn't help but circle his arms around her waist. 

There was something undeniably warm and familiar and safe about holding her. Like when her nimble body was in his arms, the world seemed to calm for that split second. It always had. The walls around them could be crashing down and now, the dead could be wandering on the other side, and it wouldn't matter. Nothing seemed to be capable of reaching them as long as they were together. And even now, as they embraced after years of separation and longing for the other, the feeling stayed the exact same. 

"I always believed you had to be out there," Her breath was hot against his neck, as she breathed out a heavy tearful whisper. And Daryl tightened the hold around her as he felt her body shutter with the tears he could feel beginning to soak into the collar of his shirt. "you've always been a survivor Daryl Dixon."

His name fit perfectly on her tongue, and even when they were young, it was the only time he could hear his name being called, and not feel an overwhelming wave of shame that came with it.  

"I just never thought I'd ever get to see you again." 

He could feel the way her body sagged against his broad and muscled frame, and it brought a feeling bubbling up inside of his tight chest. The sound of her cries in his ear, and the feels of her salty tears running down his burning flesh, it made the strings inside of his heart pull with a strength that threatened to tear it in half. 

She had always been the strong one. She had always been Daryl's source of strength growing up. She consoled him after the death of his mother, after not even knowing the boy she approached on the street corner. The burnt remnants of the house sitting feet behind the sorrow filled boy. She was there the nights he needed someone to tend to the wounds he couldn't reach with his own hand. She was there when his brother never was. She was there to pick Daryl up when he fell, and keep him standing when all he wanted to do was sink to the ground, and give up.

She was there when she didn't have to be. 

Daryl knew her own troubled story. It didn't differ far from his own, and yet her kindness and compassion and general outlook on life was so completely different than his own. She built him up and kept him afloat during his rough times, and he strived to do the same. Even on the days she seemed completely put together. He tried his hardest, to be there for her in the ways she had always been there for him. 

And he couldn't help but feel in this very moment, that he was finally able to hold her when she needed to be held. That he was finally able to comfort her and dry her tears and be there for her, the way she was for him all of those years ago.

"We was always gonna find a way back to each other," Daryl whispered into her ear, as her soft hair blew in the breeze, and tickled the skin of his neck. "one way or 'nother."

Maybe they had both spent so much time trying to be the strong one, trying to be the one to put the other back together, that they didn't realize they were each other's missing piece. Maybe all they needed was each other, to feel safe and whole. 

She tried all her life to put the pieces of Daryl Dixon back together again, and so had he. But perhaps, the only piece that was missing in the puzzle that made them who they were... was each other. And as long as they were together... they would be complete. 

A/N: Wow! Hello everyone, it's been awhile!! I'm so sorry for the lack of updates in this book, I've been struggling with major writers block, but I'm back!💚This one was requested wayyyy too long ago from psycholicious1 I'm so sorry for the wait but I have finally completed your request! I hope you liked it and that it lived up to any expectations! I hope you all liked it, and I'm so happy to back to explore Daryl Dixon some more! So many more stories for him to be written!