fic: festival (ficuary)

[csi_sanders1129]

Title: festival
Chapters: 1/1
Author:csi_sanders1129
Genre: AU.
Ratings: K+
Word Count: 1193
Pairings/Characters: Rick Grimes, Daryl Dixon, Judith, Carl
Synopsis: In which Rick takes his kids to a local festival and tattoo artist, Daryl, is working the face-painting booth.
Comments: Written for Ficuary 2021, Prompt: Fetival. AU. No Zombies. Comments and kudos would be awesome. Enjoy!

Rick cautiously steps foot inside the Atlanta Family Fun Festival, trying hard to turn off his cop instincts and just enjoy this time with his kids. Carl doesn't make it easy, promptly wandering off when he spots a few of his friends from school loitering by the snack stands. Judith, however, clings tightly to his hand. She's captivated by everything in sight, eager to explore but a little wary of the chaos.

"Daddy, this way!" She giggles, moving through the crowds of people toward a little petting zoo and pulling him along. There are a couple of baby goats, a few chickens and ducks, a pot-bellied pig, a wallaby, and a pair of absurdly large rabbits. In a separate pen are a couple of ponies and an alpaca all readily looking for snacks from the hordes of children surrounding them. Judith occupies herself for a little while petting all the creatures – she even gets to give one of the ponies a handful of food. Eventually, though, she wanders back to him and they move on.

He hefts her up onto his shoulders so she can get a better view of the festival and she points him toward a very long line that ends with a young lady making really cool balloon animals. When it's her turn, she requests a pink and purple butterfly.

"Having fun?" he asks her. Rick gets an enthusiastic reply as she holds fast to her balloon. "Where to now?"

"What's that?" Judith asks, aiming him toward another booth. He follows the much shorter line to a guy offering face-painting, a board full of pretty standard designs posted beside him and an array of colors laid out on a palette.

"You remember on Halloween Carl painted his face to look like a scary zombie?" he asks. Carl had scared her, inadvertently, when he'd appeared wearing it. He'd had to take the make-up off to prove he wasn't really scary after all. She gives a cautious nod. "Sort of like that, but not scary at all. Do you want to try it?"

Judith considers for a moment, no doubt weighing that memory of her brother against the pretty designs on the board. Finally, another nod, and a wavering, "yes, please." So they join the line.

"Does it hurt?" Judith asks nervously, when it's their turn.

The man doing the face-painting, Daryl, his name-tag reads, is quick to realize how nervous she is.

"No. It doesn't hurt at all. I promise. See? I've got lots of paint on me," he points out. He has a blue dragon painted over one eye, a rainbow unicorn on his neck, a line of flowers on his forearm and a Batman logo on the back of his hand. "I can paint your dad's face, too, if he wants."

"Really?"

They both look to Rick, who knows when he's been beaten. "Yeah," he says, as if that was the plan all along. He claims the seat, Judith hovering at his side. "Of course."

"And what would you like?"

"Dealer's choice," Rick bravely decides. Daryl shrugs and sets to work, and within minutes Rick has a rose painted on the side of his face that looks like something a professional tattoo artist would have created, with sharp outlines and shading while Judith watches on with rapt attention. "See?" Rick assures his daughter, "doesn't hurt a bit." He smiles at Daryl, glad they were able to put her at ease, and stands aside.

Judith, now totally at ease with this idea and eager for her own artwork, picks out a pretty butterfly design that matches the balloon animal still clutched in her hands. Daryl sets to work again, mixing pinks and purples with a black outline and white accents. Aside from an initial, "ha, that tickles!" when he first starts, Judith sits statue still as he works.

"Ta da!" Daryl announces, when the piece is complete. She looks at her reflection in the mirror and is in awe. "Do you like it?"

"It's so pretty!" Judith explains, beaming. "Thank you!"

"Yes," Rick says, offering a hand and the cash for both pieces, as well as a generous tip, "Thanks a lot."

"Anytime," Daryl waves them off and moves on to the next kid in line as they walk away.

Carl joins up with them again when they settle at a table for some food, and he comes bearing a stuffed dog he'd won for Judith at one of the game booths. She hugs it, along with her butterfly balloon, and shows off her face paint.

When the array of fried foods they obtain from the various vendors have been mostly demolished, Carl offers to take Judith on a few of the little kid rides, which is fine with Rick, who watches on, arms loaded with Judith's treasures. He's leaning against the rails of a very low-key rollercoaster when someone approaches him. He recognizes the man immediately, the paint-spattered jeans and t-shirt would be an easy giveaway if he hadn't. Daryl. "Hey, so, sorry about talking you into that masterpiece, there," he says, gesturing to the elaborate rose on the side of Rick's face.

Rick laughs, "No, I like it," he says. Then, a smile, "You're really good. Good with the kids, too."

Daryl shrugs off the praise, "Yeah, I work at a tattoo place, usually. I was just covering for a friend here today – but they do ear piercings at the studio, better than those places in the malls, you know? And sometimes the kids get a little nervous, have to talk 'em down. Hell, sometimes the adults get a little nervous and need that, too."

"Makes sense. I'm Rick, by the way," he says, juggling his quarry to offer a hand, which the other man shakes. "Daryl, yeah?"

"Yeah," the other man confirms.

Carl and Judith are exiting the ride now, and Rick tracks their progress from the rollercoaster over to the nearby ferris wheel. Judith searches him out and waves for him to join them.

"I should get back to the booth," Daryl says, spotting them, too. "Looks like your kids want you."

But Rick feels compelled, for reasons beyond his understanding, to try something. As Daryl turns to go, he blurts out a question, "Would you, uh, would you wanna grab a coffee or something with me, sometime?"

The request seems to surprise Daryl, and for a second Rick wonders if he had it all wrong – he hasn't had to ask someone on a date since he was in high school, back when he first worked up the nerve to ask Lori out. Now that they're divorced, it's an awkward step to navigate.

"If not, that's completely-" he starts to say.

But Daryl cuts him off, a shy smile on his face, "Yeah, I'd… I'd like that."

Rick grins back at him, and they quickly trade numbers before he goes to join his kids at the ferris wheel. Carl gently teases him for the giddy look on his face and Judith reclaims her butterfly and her dog and the three of them board the ferris wheel.

Maybe these places aren't so bad after all, Rick decides.