AN: To enjoy this story, pretend that they got interrupted a second time by the dog and it ran off again, but there were no walkers. Shhhhh, just pretend. ;)
This work was inspired hugely by my friend swiftsnowmane and her beautiful work All That Remains. This, my friend, is dedicated to your labour of love for this fandom and how wonderful your story was and still is. I hope you get half as much enjoyment from this as I do from your beautiful works. Xoxoxo
He heard her singing. Again.
"Thought my singin' annoyed you." She'd said that first night.
Hell, no girl, he had been thinking when did, that shy little look on her face, though he didn't actually say it. He didn't say anything he ever planned to say when he was around her. Like his personal favorite. "You're heavier than you look." God he'd really taken the cake with that one.
For whatever reason, he was either rendered completely mute around her now (which he'd always been quiet but with Beth, it was getting ridiculous) or worse, he was given to saying the most ridiculous things. Stupid shit like "Ain't no jukebox". He'd wanted to slap his own face at the time for that one. Instead he'd settled for chewing on his thumb, worrying that bit of flesh between his teeth as he tried to figure her out.
She'd looked at him for a long minute and for a second he'd been afraid she was going to laugh, because of course, there was no juke box. It was a damn funeral home. But she'd just smiled that little smile of hers like he'd finally said something right for a change and with a tiny flip of her head, making her ponytail swish, she turned on the bench and began to play again, her fingers sliding over the keys like it was nothing.
Though there had been a time when he had thought he was annoyed with her singing it was more that he couldn't figure why she did it. Why she still sang like the birds up in the trees, oblivious to their plight below, was beyond him sometimes.
She sang like there wasn't death and stink and decay and gore behind every new door they opened. She sang like there was a future and all manner of hopeful things. She sang like she was singing for an audience of one and that was okay with her. And honestly, it was okay with him too.
He'd meant what he said when he'd told her that they could stay there for a while. He'd never thought about sticking around someplace, not even really before the turn did he stay in one place for long, but he would do it for her.
She seemed to like it there well enough. In reality he didn't know how long she could realistically delay her infernal search for their lost family members and if he was being truthful with himself, she was starting to wear on him too. He was beginning to think maybe she was right; maybe they weren't the only ones who'd survived.
He thought of her singing now and it was a sweet melody to his ears and somewhere inside him there was a boy who remembered his ma singing. She was another caged bird who sang, though her life was a virtual prison. He didn't know what his ma had to sing about either. Those were early memories though and that sweetness in his ma had that made her sing; well, his Pa beat it out of her and after a while, she just stopped.
But Beth was not his mother and she was still singing. Songs about love. Songs about hope and life and everyday living. Though to anyone still paying attention, there wasn't much to be hopeful about. There wasn't much to live for. But in here, with her, it seemed like there was.
He didn't know what had her up singing like this in the middle of the night; it was well past midnight and both of them were used to getting by on very little sleep, but she couldn't have slept long enough to feel rested and he wondered what was bothering her. She might have an innocent face, but there was a lot going on in that pretty head of hers.
He cleared his throat from the doorway, so as not to frighten her. She kept her knife on her just like he'd shown her, so warning her of his presence was to protect himself as well. Besides that, though he knew she didn't mind it, he still felt like the worst kind of creeper watching her from the doorway.
They had that conversation the other night where he'd told her she was what changed his mind about there being good people. The damn mutt had interrupted but after he'd run off again, Daryl had gone back in the kitchen, fully intending to continue the conversation and they had.
She didn't say it but he knew she understood what he really meant when he'd told her that it was her. That she was the best kind of people there was and well, there was really no denying it. He loved her. He didn't say that either though.
Instead he'd awkwardly reached out, his hands shaking like they hadn't ever before and brushed her hair back from her eyes, while hers had stayed trained on his and he tried to figure out what was supposed to happen next. He knew. He just didn't know how to get there. She saved him, as usual, by meeting him halfway and with her wide blue eyes finally fluttering closed as she got closer to him, she kissed him.
He didn't close his though. Not right away. He kept them open. Just to make sure. Just to make absolutely certain that she really was going to kiss him. The worst thing he could think of in that moment is him closing his eyes and her somehow vanishing before his eyes like none of this had ever happened in the first place because stuff like this didn't happen to him. He didn't find an idyllic home in the countryside with a beautiful blonde to sing to him every night and give him sweet kisses that tasted of grape jelly and wishes on stars and moonshine confessions. He tasted every moment he'd had with her in that first touch of her lips to his and then, then he finally let his eyes slide closed too, savoring it.
She turned around now, facing him with an apologetic look. "I hope I didn't wake you." She brought her hands up to rub over her bare arms and the urge to go to her, was almost overpowering. But things were still new. Things were still uncertain and he didn't know if he should. Didn't know if it was allowed. Didn't even know what he would do once he got there. He'd left his vest upstairs in the room he'd taken across the hall from her.
As if she sensed his hesitation, she patted the bench beside him. Fighting the urge to stuff his hands far down in his pockets to keep from chewing on his thumb, he crossed the room and sat down beside her, feeling absolutely enormous, his skin suddenly seeming too tight for his own body.
"Whatcha doin' up?" He asked, wondering how in the world he was able to form words with every nerve ending in his body zinging with her closeness. Her face was so close, he could-. He could simply lean over and kiss her. He could, but he didn't know if he had the nerve. So he did the usual and waited for some kind of sign from her.
"The signs are all there, you just gotta know how to read 'em."
Man, how he wished he could take his own advice on that one.
xxx-xxxx
Beth barely breathed, her hand still resting on the bench beside her, as she watched Daryl cross the room to join her. She hadn't been able to sleep. She'd tried, goodness knows. But their kisses, their words, and all their shared glances kept playing like a montage in her mind and she could not get her mind to quiet. It seemed to actually like the racing thoughts of moments between her and Daryl Dixon and what it all meant. What it meant when his callused fingers had caught in her hair as he'd pushed it back from her face so tenderly. What it meant when he looked straight into her eyes, his gaze flitting down to her lips as his tongue darted out to lick his lips and hers had felt dry as bones as she'd pressed hers to his warm moist ones. She had sighed. She had not been able to help it.
He was waiting for her answer now and she didn't know what to say to all the thoughts rambling around in her brain keeping her from getting any measurable sleep. It wasn't like she could tell him. This was all so tentative and she knew exactly what it took for him to tell her what he had. Even if he hadn't uttered a word, she had heard every single unspoken thing between them and her heart had soared as she'd placed her lips on his.
Every kiss since then had been just as sweet, just as tentative but there was something else thrumming underneath all that, something that pulled deep at her core. She knew what it was, she was just waiting for Daryl to catch up to where she was.
"I counted sheep. But they kept getting eaten by walkers." She grinned over at him and she was pleased to hear a chuckle erupt from his throat, low and endearing.
There was still a faint smile on his face as he answered her and his eyes sparked at her and reminded her so much of their drunken moonshine night. "Poor sheep. That's baaaaad luck." He quipped.
Beth groaned even as she laughed at his attempt at a joke. It was a terrible attempt but she appreciated it nonetheless.
"Got stuff on your mind?" His glance was almost furtive and his hair hung in his eyes and she had an overwhelming urge to reach up and sweep it back from his forehead so she could properly see the smolder in his eyes as he looked at her. And yes, there was plenty of heat there. Maybe the moonshine hadn't made her blind after all because she could see just fine.
She shrugged and then realized she had just done what she'd chided him for in the kitchen the other night. She decided to try what he had and just looked at him and she felt that familiar flip inside her tummy that told her she was in uncharted waters and well, it was scary and the waves were uncertain, but it was thrilling and she couldn't wait to see what the stormy seas in his eyes held because there were vast oceans in there. Vaguely she wondered if she would drown, but she wasn't sure she would care.
Because in here, she felt safe with him.
Besides "ain't nothin' out there worth seein'". Maybe he was right about that.
She decided to tell him. If he could bare his feelings, then she could too. "Thinking about you." She said, feeling like the words hung in the air between them but it was too late to snatch them back now and with the flash of recognition she caught in his eyes, she didn't want to take them back anyways.
He tilted his head to the side and his chin came up slightly as he regarded her so long she almost squirmed under his gaze. Almost. But it was warming the way he was looking at her. "What about?"
"About us." She said a little more quietly, a little more pointedly, and then let her eyes lock onto his, steel and flint, spark and fire, all of it flashed in his eyes, and then tenderness; so much tenderness, she nearly lost her breath. As if he felt it too. As if he understood exactly what she was saying and maybe he'd lain awake thinking about all the same things.
"Yeah?" It was an echo of her "Oh" and it felt like they just finished that conversation finally. She felt his fingers slide across the piano bench and take her hand in his. They'd held hands before. This was not new. But the stroke of his thumb across the top of her hand combined with the weight of his stare sending that shiver up her spine? That was completely new.
Goosebumps erupted all over her skin and her breath stuttered in her chest as she nodded up at him, almost willing him to make the first move this time and just kiss her. "Yeah." Her voice was breathless, almost a whisper and she didn't at all recognize the wanton timbre, but something in Daryl did.
For his lips suddenly crushed to hers and for a moment, as his one hand rested on top of hers and her head snapped back in abandon, and she breathed him in as his lips drank down her sigh, his tongue entering her waiting mouth. It felt as if she was suspended and falling into the air at the same time.
Until finally, he seemed to sense that she was floundering for an anchor, and his hands came up to thread through her hair and they were a mess of arms grasping for one another at the same time, her fingers trembling as they found purchase on his shirt and she clutched into him, holding on. Those stormy seas had come to claim her for their own and she was pulled under, weighted, sleepy, her eyes feeling so heavy and like liquid had replaced all her sinew and bone until she was just a heavy syrup in the sweet surrender of his arms.
She didn't realize the moaning was coming from her own lips until he began answering with his own. A grunt erupted from deep in his throat as he broke their kiss and his lips coursed down her jaw, trailing kisses as he went and it reminded her very much of an overeager puppy, his tongue lapping at her flesh and those goosebumps hadn't gone anywhere. If anything, they had spread over the surface of her skin and the sweater she was wearing had slipped off one shoulder and she wondered vaguely if they should go upstairs but really, she didn't want to move not one single millimeter more than he was willing to.
He was kissing her fervently and she was kissing him right back. She had never kissed Jimmy like this. Not even Zach. She wasn't a virgin. She hadn't been a virgin since that first fumbling time behind the barn with Jimmy and all the dozen or so times after that, but still it didn't feel like this. Like she was going to burn up from this heat inside her. She felt a pull deep in her belly that quickly ignited into short burst flames that surged between her thighs into the place she had only ever gotten pleasure from her own fingers. Jimmy had been too young, too inexperienced to "get her there". Zach had been, well, things hadn't had enough time to develop that far.
It was odd in one way how her mind had already jumped ahead and that she knew within her core that this was it for her and Daryl. There was no turning back from this blind need.
Then in another way it felt as if this was what was supposed to happen. This had been building since the night they burned down their past and walked out of the flames, two brand new people that now walked the same path. This just seemed the next logical step in their journey together. This path they'd walked had brought them to the point where they now needed to become one and every nerve in her body knew it, sung with it, the fire in her blood coursing her veins seemed to ignite him as well.
His kisses traveled down her neck and somewhere in her mind she heard the low bang of piano keys pressed in all the wrong places but the music had never seemed more melodic than the sounds that were coming from her. From him. His grunts and groans, her breathy sighs were all a symphony that they were composing together.
His hands were at the hem of her shirt. She'd shrugged her sweater off impatiently somewhere in the frenzy of kisses and wandering hands. Her hand was on his thigh, close, so close and she wanted him. Oh my god, she really did.
She paused a moment to grasp her shirt by the hem and ruck it up and over her head, her hair flying wildly as she did so, static from the dry air bristling as she touched her fingers back to Daryl's leg making them both jump a little.
Something in taking off her shirt broke the frenetic pace and everything slowed down to a crawl as he pulled back and looked at her. "Beth." His voice was barely above a whisper as he took in her small chests, tiny nipples pointed and her eyes met his shyly, her desire for him barely contained and she knew she looked a mess but the way he was regarding her so now, so reverently with the light shining back in his eyes, she had never felt more beautiful.
Daryl looked at her as if she were the sun and stars.
Daryl looked at her like every woman ought to be looked at, she thought.
She brought her hand up from his thigh and reached out to touch his cheek and he closed his eyes at her touch and she thought how much she loved this man.
But instead of saying those three words, she said three different ones that meant the same. At least they did to her. "I want you." Because she did want him in every sense of the word. She wanted him on top of her. She wanted him inside her, filling her and consuming her. She wanted him all around her like the safe haven he was. She wanted it all and she wanted it forever. She thought he did too.
He looked almost as if he might cry as she said those three words to him and she wondered if anyone had ever uttered such. She wondered at his life that he'd spoken of briefly and if he'd ever been wanted by someone because it didn't sound like he had. Well, Beth Greene did. She did and she was going to make sure that he always knew that.
He nodded at her as if he'd just made a decision and pressed his lips to hers and in seemingly one movement, he picked her stained yellow shirt up from where it had been discarded on the floor and then swept her up in his arms and carried her away from the piano and out of the room. Just like he had carried her into the kitchen to their white trash brunch a couple days ago. Just like he'd done a half dozen times since. But this time, the destination was a bed. This time, the destination was them on this same path. Together.
This time was different.
Before it was all new and hesitant and careful and almost meticulous just like everything had been. Every word and glance so far had been a careful elegant dance. This time, as he carried her up the steps, her chest bare, she knew that things were about to unravel in the best way. She was being carried in the arms of the man she loved and he was going to make love to her.
Oh yes, she loved this man and she couldn't wait to come undone with him.
xxxx-xxxx
She was everything beautiful and good, and if possible, she seemed lighter than she had before. He had gotten more comfortable carrying her like this since that first time. It had made her smile so much, and giggle a few times too, that he just kept doing it. She didn't seem to mind it either. But this time, as he carried her against him, it was decidedly different. He knew what this was leading to as he laid her back gently on her bed. It was clear to him now, even as it was clear to him downstairs, that she wanted this just as badly as he did.
He should be terrified, but it felt oddly familiar. It felt normal. It felt right. Because it was Beth. Because it was them.
Once she laid down and he had crawled up beside her, things slowed down again and he just paused for a moment to look at her and really take in how very beautiful she was, her pale skin almost glowing in the moonlight, her small breasts jutted up perfectly, nipples hard. And he didn't think it was entirely from the cold either.
He didn't move a muscle and neither did she at first. Then she reached out and began unbuttoning his shirt, her fingers moving fast to be so tiny, as she deftly worked them all free and slid the shirt from his shoulders. He involuntarily sucked in his stomach as her warm, soft fingertips grazed his lower belly, exploring. Touching. Feeling.
Her eyes met his as if asking permission and he had to wonder why. When it already felt like she'd reached inside his skin and pulled out his heart to lay it on his chest where it still lay beating for all to see. Where it lay open for her to examine and ponder and oh how she did. At least that is how he felt. So if he leaned into her touch and she began stroking her fingers lower to his waist, it was okay. Because this was Beth and he wanted her to touch him. He craved her touch like no other.
He brought his fingers tentatively up to her breast and rolled one pebbled nipple between his thumb and forefinger and marveled as she arched into his hand even as she continued to fumble with his fly, finally managing to flick the button open and then she was lowering his zipper as he lowered his head to first one breast and then the other, swirling his tongue around her nipple, leaving her enough room to explore him below.
Her fingers worked the zipper lower as she moaned above him, his tongue continuing to trace patterns around one nipple and then the other.
The thing about Beth was that was she was surprisingly quick. It had always surprised him how fast she could get away from him when they were tracking together and just as quickly she'd be right back in front of him, like the huntress he'd trained her to be.
This was really no different, he decided. She went straight for her intended target, reached inside his pants and pulled out his thick length before he could even think about what she was doing and he gasped and moaned at the contact. It had been too long since anyone had touched him this way. It had been too long since he'd been touched at all. And he'd never been handled with such care as this.
"Holy fuck." He rasped, unable to stop himself and he felt himself flush at his words even as his entire body lit afire with her ministrations. But his words didn't offend her. If anything, they spurred her on.
Her hand pumped over him, her palms sliding over his dick in a steady rhythm and he surged his hips into her once and saw stars, the pleasure was so great. This was not going to last near long enough and he knew it. He grabbed her wrist and she yelped in surprise.
"Sorry. It's gonna be over quick if you keep that up though." He whispered and though it was dark he could see her just fine.
"Well then, we can just do it again." She said smartly, her eyes flashing with dark promise as she fucking grinned at him. Real sexy like and well that was it for him. He lost all good sense.
He growled as he flipped them over and his hands moved down to span her hip and he knew he was never going to be able to get her or himself all the way undressed before he buried himself in her. Everything sparked to life between them again, the air around them heavy with anticipation. His hand moved lower almost on its own, by instinct, by something in him almost primal and he cupped her with his palm, right over where she was warm and waiting for his touch, and he could feel the moisture through her jeans.
She whimpered beneath his movements, rubbing her the best way he could through the layers of fabric. Her whimper ended on a moan as his fingers pressed in, there, right over her clit, just over the seam of her jeans, rubbing just so, her head thrown back in pleasure. He rubbed her faster, his hand already fucking soaked even through the fabric and it was mere seconds before she began bucking up into his hand.
"Please Daryl-. I need-." Her broken whispers were frenzied and hoarse with desire as she wiggled out from under him and he watched her slide her jeans off leaving her in just her panties and then she helped him tug his jeans down to his knees leaving him bare-assed on the bunched up quilts and sheets in a tangle beneath them as she climbed on top of him.
She straddled his hips, leaning down to capture his lips with hers, her tiny tongue working its way between his lips, licking and tasting his mouth as he reached up to grip her hips on either side. She kissed him slowly, leisurely at first until she began writhing her hips against him and pulled back to look at him.
"Is this okay?" She whispered as she straddled him and slid herself against him, her hips grinding her core against him, her thin panties the only barrier between them and it was like she was asking for him to enter her when it was the only thing he wanted right now. He nodded sharply at her as she looked at him and seemed to understand that he was done for. His hips surged up into hers in answer and she reached between them and deftly moved her panties aside and impaled herself on his hard length.
She moaned and her mouth dropped open as he filled her up and her walls were already clenching around him as she began rocking over him.
He groaned because-. God. It was too much. It wasn't nearly enough. It was everything he could have ever dreamed it would be, Beth riding him like she was. In all the ways he'd imagined sheathing himself inside her the first time, this, oddly, had not been one of them. He was glad because this was better somehow and he enjoyed watching her find her own pleasure and set the pace for them. He propped himself on his elbows and looked his fill at where they were joined, her pink barely there panties bunched on one side of her hip and somehow that was hotter to him than anything else, that her desire for him to enter her was so great she couldn't be bothered to remove them.
He hoped later they could take their time. He hoped later he could take his time with her. Explore her. Learn her.
She braced her palms on his chest as she bounced her small form over him and he reached between them, finding her clit again, pressing his thumb over it, and he felt the shift in her rhythm so she could gain better purchase against the pressure he was providing there.
"Oh god, like that." Her breathy cries were the only thing heard besides his own panting breaths and the slap of damp skin coming together again and again.
Her movements started getting erratic then and he moved one hand to the small of her back, pressing her ass towards his hips like he was guiding her home and that's what she felt like to him. Like he was coming home. Every thrust of her body over his was driving him deeper into her core and he knew once he found his way inside, he would never want to leave. It was dangerous. It was scary. It was exquisitely beautiful and he rocked his hips up into her and cried out. "Beth."
There wasn't time in the end to pull out and though it should have scared the hell out of him, it didn't. Somewhere along the line this little slip of a girl had worked her way under his skin and made him believe that things would be okay even if it seemed like they weren't.
So he spilled his seed inside her and she rocked against him a few more times, her own release spinning into his and finally she came to rest against him. He rolled them to the side and closed his eyes and pressed his lips to her hair. "Love you." He knew if he didn't say it then, he never would so he took the momentum and ran with it.
She looked up at him, wide blue eyes gone bluer and wider than ever. "I love you too, Daryl Dixon." She whispered before laying her head back down on his chest, curling into him like she was knitting herself to his side.
They didn't say anything after that. Not for a long time.
They'd talk about it later. After they'd removed all their clothes and explored one another a half a dozen times over before they ever thought about leaving the bed.
They'd talk about how they'd gotten out together and made the journey to find their way here and how for now, they'd just stay and make it work.
He may not always have the faith he had right now, faith he thought sometimes he just borrowed from her, but for now, he could believe that she was right. Their family was out there somewhere but for now, they could just make the most of their time. Together.
~~~And they lived happily ever after ~~~
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