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It wasn’t the fact that she pushed past her tearful sister like she was nothing or the fact that he ploughed through at least five people, a snarl on his lips like a caged animal. It was what happened when they were in front of each other.
Both hovering over the other, chests heaving, eyes burning before they collided, her arms wound around his neck, his arms around her waist, pulling, tugging, bringing the other closer and closer until they were pressed against each other so hard it hurt. Hurt in a good way, because they were still trying to get closer, hands searching each other’s bodies. What they were searching for? They’d never know. A hand in his hair, a hand underneath her top, over his biceps, down her hips.
Until she pulled her head back from where it was breathing in the scent of his neck. His eyes smouldered and she clutched his vest as they collided even further. A desperate battle of clashing teeth and grabby hands, an older sister asking questions in a bewildered shriek, confused family and friends, and strangers gathered to see the most passionate reunion that they may ever witness.
But they were still locked at the lips, fighting for dominance when they collapsed, the burning adrenaline that had driven them dying as quickly as it had began as the scarred blonde who was something akin to an angel pulled back, half on top of the man she loved, a sob ripping out of her throat. His dirty hands shot out, cocooning her in the very vision of love and safety. Yin and Yang, the opposite of each other, an older, leather wearing, crossbow welding, closed-off biker, the perfect image of bad and darkness. Her, bright and warm like a hot sun, beaming out, touching all those around her, sweet as a Georgia peach and the prettiest thing left in the goddamn apocalypse, the poster girl of good and light.
The tall, dark, mysterious hunter, so far from an angel, yet who had very real wings on his rippling back, was crying too, hands in her frizzy, messy hair, his shoulders quaking in earth-shattering cries, his head pressed to her collarbone, her hands stroking his greasy hair like a mother consoling a child.
And it was there that there family truly saw. Truly saw the ability of Beth Greene. How could a girl, barely twenty, someone they had passed off as just the singer and babysitter, how could she send the toughest, most hardened man they’d ever come across to his knees, a bubbling mess of tears?
It was like a superpower, the way she affected people, the way she healed and managed to chip down the highest walls of men and women alike. She was a miracle and so was he, always was, they guessed, just not in the same way. She didn’t weigh him in his ability to provide, to hunt, she weighed him in his actions, his ability to still be a good man after everything that had happened to him.
They saw another thing too. They saw Daryl Dixon, plain as day in front of them, letting his emotions show to all, like an open book. Something that had never happened before, was right there in front of them and they found themselves annoyed at not having seen it before.
In the time before they found the ASZ he had been broken and Rick suspected he was just mourning as they all were, feeling guilt over not saving her in time. But it wasn’t the case. The man had been broken, had lost the love of his life, probably the only woman he’d love in that way.
And they all felt blind, as the young girl peppered the much older man’s face with kisses, his nose, his forehead, his cheeks, his chin, his lips, putting the almost comical image of a mother dropping their child off for the first day of school in their minds. But instead of seeing Daryl’s guarded face, screwed up with tears as he relaxed into her, they were met with a grin, teeth and all, shining out of his face, drowning out the wet tears on his cheeks, making him look every bit as handsome as they had quietly suspected he could be. Beaming straight back at him, was the woman who, if the world hadn’t gone to shit, may not have even known he existed.
But then again, Rick thought, their paths would have passed somehow, even God couldn’t deny a love like that.