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"I need you to come with me."
"Excuse me?" you replied, not relaxing your stance even when the men with guns started to surround you, the leader was trying to get you to go with along with them.
"Look, it's not safe out here... we have water, food, shelter, everything you could ever need," he talked as if trying to sooth a wild animal, and you wondered if you really had much of a choice, even if the sound of this... paradise seemed so tempting, you felt like even if you did say no you'd still be taken along.
"O-Okay, could you please have them l-lower their weapons though?" you stuttered out as you eyed one of their machine guns, one small slip of the finger could end everything right then and there.
"Oh, hey guys! Come on, does she really look like a threat? Stand down!" the leader called out, bringing a sigh of relief to your lips when they did as he said.
"Thank you!" you smiled for what seemed like the first time in weeks, and you were so caught up in the feeling that you didn't notice the way Troy seemed to freeze for a moment at the sight of it.
"It's no problem, uh... Miss...?" Troy thought back and realized that they didn't even know each other's names.
"(Y/n)," you replied, blushing slightly under his intense gaze, "Mr...?"
"Otto, Troy Otto," he replied with a grin, making you falter slightly at the sight of it, unintentionally mirroring the way Troy had reacted to your smile not moments before.
"It's nice to meet you, Troy," you walked up to him slowly, trying to show that your intentions were pure, until you were right beside him. You looked up at him with a smirk, "Well, lead the way."
"I need you to hold it like this."
"Wait, what?" you turned to Troy in confusion, apparently not able to grip the gun correctly to save your life.
After getting to the Ranch you quickly realized that the only way you were ever getting outside those gates again was if you learned to shoot a gun as good as someone in the military, you needed to get experience killing the undead; you needed to be prepared if something happened to this place, because something always happened.
"You need to- You just- here, let me help you," you saw Troy make his way over to you and your heartbeat quickened, a light blush coming to your cheeks when Troy used his hands to move your body exactly where it needed to be. Eventually he stopped touching you, you looked over to see him staring at you expectantly, gesturing for you to shoot the targets that had been set up in the field in front of you.
You brought your gun up, aimed, and fired.
You let out a whoop when you immediately hit a target, not in the 'head' mind you but you figured it was still good for a first attempt. You looked over at Troy to see him looking you up and down, slow enough for you to realize that he probably wasn't just checking out the way you were positioning yourself as you were shooting. Suddenly his eyes met yours and you saw his cheeks redden slightly, you hoped it was for the same reason yours did.
"How'd I do?" you asked, giving him a hopeful smile.
"Uh- good, that was good," he stuttered out, smiling back at you.
"I need you to kiss me."
"Say what now?" you asked, looking up at where Troy had seemingly materialized beside you. Over the countless hours you spent with Troy teaching you how to fight the two of you had become close, bonding over similar interests you have now that the world ended; you knew that if you had met Troy before, you wouldn't be this close.
"I need you. To kiss me." He repeated himself as he looked at you nervously, looking around quickly before meeting your gaze once more.
"Why?" you asked, growing nervous when you realized he was serious.
"Because Becca is basically stalking me, I told her I already had a girlfriend to get her to move on but she doesn't believe me! So I told her it was you since we spend so much time together but she argued that she's never even seen us hold hands so- so she's standing behind you and I need you to kiss me," Troy took your hand in his and squeezed it, making your heart flutter and drop at the same time; he was only doing this to dissuade another girl.
You reached up and ran your fingers through his hair, running your hand around to the back of his neck as you pulled him down towards you, he seemed to realized what you were doing and brought his free hand up to your face as well, both of you closing your eyes when your lips finally met.
You had thought that Troy would want a simple kiss, nothing too long since it was just for show anyway, but when he tilted his head and let go of your hand to wrap his arm around your waist you gasped, to which he took as an opening to slip his tongue in to meet yours. You moaned softly when you returned the kiss fully, bringing your now free hand to meet your other one at the back of his neck, trying desperately to pull him closer to you.
Eventually you both needed to stop to breathe, breaking apart with a gasp as you tried to catch your breath. You looked up at Troy, only to find that he was already staring at you; you stayed there for what felt like ages, never breaking his gaze as you slowly moved away from him.
"Did she buy it?" you asked.
"Huh, who?" Troy asked, looking somewhat dazed even after a fake kiss.
"Becca? you replied, looking at him in confusion; wasn't that the reason you kissed in the first place?
"Oh, right uh- yeah it looks like she bought it, she's gone," you turned around to see an empty street, I guess my work here is done.
You didn't know how Becca was walking home with a smile on her face, finally glad that Troy had been given that big push to kiss you; she'd tell Troy why she'd pretended to stalk him later, for now her work here was done.
"I need you to just hold on."
You were fading in and out of consciousness, barely registering the words that Troy was saying to you as he held you in the back of the truck, occasionally yelling at the driver to go faster than he was; you had been on a run when you had met another not-so-friendly group, another not-so-friendly group with guns. Luckily you seemed to be the only one who was gravely injured, so you strangely took that as a plus.
"Troy," you mumbled, trying to grasp his hand in yours; he understood what you meant and gripped yours tightly, though you found that you could barely feel it.
"Just hold on for a little longer, we're almost back, you're gonna be fine," he said into your ear, brushing your hair back as he continued to whisper words of encouragement in your ear. You looked up at him to find that he was blurry, you didn't realize you were crying until you felt his hand brush away you tears, seeing that even though he was trying to hide it he had tears tracks down his cheeks as well.
"Don't wanna... die," you confessed, gripping his hand tighter as you looked at him in fear.
"And you won't," he replied, his voice stern and his eyes hard. He leaned down to kiss your forehead, wishing he had kissed you since that one day in town; shortly after that day Troy became so busy with preparing the town to fight Walker that he hardly saw you until the next time you guys had to go on a run, and even though all he wanted to do was pull you close to him and kiss you with everything he had, he didn't want to do it for the first time for real in front of all his men; he regretted his decision.
"Love... you..." you whispered before your eyes slid shut, not waking even when the truck stopped at the gates of the Ranch.
"I need you to wake up."
Troy had been told that they had done all they could do, that even though they stitched her up it didn't necessarily mean she'd ever wake up; there was only so much time before you wouldn't come back even if you did wake up.
You were floating above everything, looking down on the world as you took in the sight below you; you were lying on a table, Troy sitting on a chair to the left of you as he held your hand in his.
"Please, (y/n)... I heard you and I- I love you too," tears were streaming down his cheeks as he said everything he wished he had said to you hours earlier, days earlier, hell weeks earlier.
You gasped at his confession, realizing that he was slowly getting further and further away; you resisted the pull to the light that seemed to surround you, fighting to stay on Earth with the man you loved.
I need to stay, please, you begged to whoever was listening, letting out a sigh of relief when you felt whatever had been pulling you away stop it's actions.
You cracked your eyes open slowly, taking in your surroundings as you felt the pain from the gunshot wound come back to you in full force; you gasped and squeezed your eyes shut, wishing you could get the strength to simply whisper morphine so they could help you with the pain.
"Oh my god, (y/n)?" you looked over at Troy, smiling for a moment before wincing at another flare of pain.
You heard yelling and rushing footsteps, barely acknowledging the doctor as they looked you over, you were in too much pain to focus on anything else; eventually someone caught on to your unusual silence, thankfully administering some morphine so that you could sleep through the most painful part of your healing. You were under in seconds.
"I need you."
Troy looked over to where you were lying on your bed; it had taken some time for you to heal to the point where you could go back to living in your house, but you had done it. You had looked death in the face and told it to kiss your ass. But your relationship with Troy hadn't progressed in the slightest, you knew it was because he wanted you to focus on recovering first, but now that you were finally home you decided enough was enough.
You were going to get everything out in the open if it kills you.
"What?" he asked, furrowing his brow in confusion; you beckoned for him to move closer to you, only satisfied when he finally sat down on the bed next to you, hovering above you as your head fell back against your pillow.
You reached up to wrap your hand around the back of his head, stroking your fingers through his hair as you brought him closer to you.
"I need you," you could feel your cheeks heat up under his undivided attention, but you kept going, "I want you," you looked up at him boldly, never taking your eyes off of his as you breathed, "I love you."
Troy's eyes widened slightly, before closing completely as he quickly leaned down to kiss you, immediately begging for entry while you obliged and gladly deepened the kiss. You tangled both of your hands in his hair and guided him where you wanted him, squirming beneath him as he kept his hands on your hips.
He grip tightened slightly and you gasped in pain, Troy immediately pulling away when he realized what happened, smirking down at you as he murmured, "Maybe we should continue this another time.. when there's no chance I'll hurt you."
"Agreed," you replied, but you quickly tightened your hold on him when he moved to pull away, "But who says we can't just keep things PG?"
"(Y/n), I'm pretty sure we passed PG a long time ago," Troy chuckled as he looked down at you.
"...PG13?" you offered with a smile, immediately dissolving into giggles as Troy laughed in amazement, wondering how you could be such a strong warrior while simultaneously being the most adorable person he's ever seen.
"I love you," he said, not giving you a chance to respond as he captured your lips in his.