Nanami followed Merle through the town as the older man showed him their new 'home'. Nanami could only wonder how he felt so claustrophobic when there were dozens of people around. Seventy three people, at that. Seventy three people living in obliviousness to the horrors outside of the walls.

Nanami couldn't help but remind Merle-

"You know this is all temporary, right?"

Merle exhales the puff of cigarette he'd had in his lips, "Probably."

Nanami nods, leaning on one of the light poles, "How'd you even make it here? What happened on that roof?"

Merle takes another long drag, a dark look in his eyes like he was gearing up to tell one of his war stories.

"Officer Friendly cuffed me there. After the other assholes all left, I was able to get that old geezer's saw. That's how.." he trails off, holding his bladed hand up.

Nanami cringes at the thought of cutting his own hand off.

"Was damn near bleeding out. Couple the guys here found me and the van. They brought me here."

"If you would've just stayed a little longer, you would've been fine. Daryl, Rick, Glenn, and T-Dog all went back for you."

"With no piss bucket, pillow, food, or water with dead ones pounding on the door?" Merle questions.

Nanami wanted to defend the others, but the picture of himself in that position was enough to make his mouth run dry.

"What about you? How the hell you end up without the others and with that crazy bitch that keeps lurkers as pets?"

"Michonne saved me out there," Nanami quickly defends, "If not for her, I would've been gone months ago. She's a good woman."

"Doesn't make it any less weird that she keeps lurkers on chains to carry around with her."

"They helped," Nanami argues, "They help shield us. It was for our safety- not because she's crazy."

Merle huffs out a breath and a shrug, taking another drag of his cigarette, "And how'd you end up together?"

"When you didn't come back.. Shane found that Kiko had stolen some guns for us to leave with. We got into an argument and she ran off. Daryl went back to Atlanta to look for you and I was looking for my sister. A herd attacked us and I got split off from the group. I ended up finding Sakiko out there."

"Sophia went missing with the group, too. Sakiko and I found her when I was trying to get her to come back. We got into another fight and Sophia and I found the group. Daryl and I found Sakiko.. Then, the camp we had got overrun."

"You know if anyone else is still out there?" Merle wonders.

"I got out with Andrea.. She didn't make it. I don't know about anyone else."

Nanami forces away the sinking feeling in his chest and stomach- grief for people he wasn't even sure if they were alive or dead.

"I was hiding in a shop with walkers outside. Michonne helped me. We've been on the road ever since then."

"How long has that been?"

Nanami tries to remember, though it felt blurry, "It was right before winter.."

It's quiet for a few seconds as Merle watches Nanami's internal struggle make it's way to his eyes. The fear, confusion, hope, frustration.. everything was playing like a reel in the teen's eyes.

"We'll find 'em," Merle assures, "Bring 'em here. Where it's safe."

Nanami looks around the town- Woodbury.

Dozens of people walking around, laughing and smiling as if things weren't horrible just outside the walls they couldn't see out of. As if they haven't lost things. As if the world hadn't gone to hell.

The quarry was supposed to be safe.. The farm, too. The group never lost sight that things were hard outside of their camps and yet still got overrun by the walkers.

These people pretended it wasn't even going on.

"This is temporary," Nanami shakes his head at his own repetition.

"Ain't gotta be," Merle denies.

When Nanami doesn't say anything, Merle speaks up again-

"How old are you now, son?"

Nanami sighs, resting his head against the pole. His eyebrows and nose scrunch in thought as he tries to remember.

"Sixteen?" Nanami figures.

Merle lazily grins, picking a cigarette out of his pack and holding it out for Nanami to take.

"I was thirteen when I had my first. You're a late bloomer," Merle teases.

Nanami eyes the stick cautiously before it turns to curiosity.

Locking eyes with Merle, the older gives him another smile that Nanami had never seen from the man before. Easily, he plucks the cigarette from Merle's fingers, placing it in his lips. Merle takes his lighter out, flicking the small flame into motion to light the smoke.

"It'll all work out, kid," Merle says as Nanami gets used to the new taste in his mouth.

Coughing a couple times, Nanami gets the hang of it before resting his head on the pole once again.

"It's all gonna work out, just peaches," Merle repeats, patting Nanami's shoulder.

--

"I told you! I told you to let me go instead of him! This is your fault!" Sakiko screeches.

Glenn keeps his arm around her shoulders, keeping the teen from going after Shane. Rick had taken her knife away after she tried to attack the man the first time, but she still held that fire in her eyes.

"Then, you lock me in a cell? You're a fucking lunatic!" she screams.

"You locked her in a cell?" Rick asks, turning to Shane.

"Kid was going crazy. Just like this," Shane points to her, "Did it so she didn't get any of us into shit or get herself hurt."

"That's bullshit!" Sakiko cries.

More screaming emerges from the other room, Rick looking from the arguing pair, Hershel's unconscious form, then to the other room- looking more and more stressed out.

"Who was that?" Carol asks, peering out of the cell from where she was tending to Hershel's wound.

"Survivors. Prisoners," Rick answers.

"You brought some convicts in here where we sleep? Where Carl sleeps?" Shane asks.

"Go figure you would ask about Carl before anything else. That's why you locked me up-" Sakiko begins to rant.

Glenn's hand falls over her mouth, silencing the teen as her muffled insults continue.

Ryan and T-Dog run by, both with weapons in hand as they hurry to the room the other screaming was coming from.

"We'll deal with this later, I need to-"

"Nah, man," Shane scoffs, shoving Rick aside, "Let me handle this."

Rick watches him go, a choice few words of his own lying on his tongue. Annoyed, he kicks at the concrete wall before ducking back into the room Hershel was at.

Glenn's hand slips from Sakiko's mouth, feeling she was done with her outburst.

That is until she takes off running into the other room.

"Kiko!" Glenn cries, chasing after her.

The two make it to the next room where Shane, Daryl, T-Dog, and Ryan were deep in a screaming match with the five prisoners.

"Hey! Hey!" Glenn tries, "Guys!"

Sakiko growls under her breath, picking up one of the iron bars they were using to clear the prison and climbing up onto one of the lunch tables.

"Hey, assholes!" she screams, knocking the iron bar onto the table- a loud 'bang' making everyone's ears ring.

The yelling leaves in favor of groans and complaints of the noise. Sakiko huffs out a breath, relieved to hear the shouting stop.

"Kiko-" Daryl begins once he sees it was her.

Sakiko ignores him, pointing her iron bar to Shane, "I wasn't done talking to you, douchebag."

𝒶𝓊𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓇 𝓇𝒶𝓂𝒷𝓁𝑒𝓈--

i love sakiko sm i cant contain

nanami and merle bestie agenda ?