Work Text:
Jesus found a lot of things interesting about Daryl Dixon.
The fact that this was a man who, before the Apocalypse, had never set foot outside of Georgia and now basically lived in two different Virginia communities was interesting. There was also the fact that Daryl did everything he possibly could by himself, no matter how impossible the feat seemed to be. Daryl Dixon also never whined or complained, or voice any opinion that wasn’t relevant. In truth, he didn’t talk much at all.
But what Jesus found most interesting about him is that he had never before experienced a Virginia winter.
Sure, it was a petty sort of interest. Jesus couldn’t say he knew much about Daryl Dixon, but the fact that cold weather made him irritable and cut his already short-fuze by half made him smile. It was one thing Daryl couldn’t control or handle, and the first thing he seemed to resign himself to.
Daryl was a lot of things, though. Stubborn was one of them. He wore jeans and heavy boots, as always, but underneath his vest he wore one long-sleeved flannel and expected it to do the job of keeping him warm as snow drifted down from above. When Jesus tried to explain that that wouldn’t work, Daryl pointedly ignored him for the rest of the day.
And though Jesus wasn’t sure what their relationship could be described as --
(Were they friends? Boyfriends? Partners? Friends-with-benefits? Sometimes they held each other much longer than any platonic friends should, and sometimes they kissed each other, too, but neither of them discussed it with each other, and only a handful of people even knew about their… whatever they were.)
-- he did still enjoy the nights where Daryl abandoned his ego and trudged up to Jesus’s bedroom in the Barrington House, where the brick and mortar building felt warmer than the homes in Alexandria.
He liked when Daryl kicked off his boots and socks and curled up underneath Jesus’s blankets, allowing the smaller man to wrap his arms around his torso and force some warmth back into his body.
(He even liked when Daryl smashed his freezing toes against his own warm leg, because at least that mean he was warming up.)