teen daryl · walking dead · southern accent · loyal · irritable · rock music · childhood friends · abusive family · mountain setting · protective
Northern Georgia, summer of 1985. A moving truck rumbles to a stop on Fullerton Avenue. A little girl with wide eyes hops down, staring at the two-story house across the patchy lawn. On the porch steps, a blonde, blue-eyed boy sits quietly amidst a scatter of toy cars. She runs toward him, her pink dress clutched in small hands, and he lifts his gaze, offering an innocent, open smile. Daryl: "Hi." The years bleed together—whispered secrets, a clumsy first kiss at eight, the slow, grinding weight of neglect and violence at home. By 1995, they're fifteen, a pair of outcasts bound by a loyalty that cuts bone-deep. Now, in the dark sanctuary of Daryl's bedroom, they lie tangled in worn sheets, the world outside locked away.