Hair
Slowly, and feeling more peaceful than he had ever been in his life, Daryl felt his eyes open. The room was dark, but through the thick curtains over the sliding glass doors, a golden morning light glowed through. He felt comfortable. He couldn't believe it – he, Daryl Dixon, felt comfortable.
He looked to his left and smiled happily.
There she was, curled on her side, facing him, and fast asleep. Beth Greene would have been hard to see had it not been for the strip of light pushing through the curtains and down the center of her face. Her hair glowed where the sunlight touched it. She made it hard for him to breathe, especially in unintentional moments like this.
Her hair was spilled all over the place, tangled through her own hands curled up under her head. He could see the soft up and down movement of the sheets as she breathed slowly in and out. Beth Greene. His girl. No – his wife – as of three days ago. He still couldn't believe his own luck. In fact, he had quite literally pinched himself every morning since the ceremony just to be sure it wasn't all some big dream.
Daryl sat up slowly, careful to not wake his sleeping bride, and looked around. The hotel room was cozy and luxurious – Glenn and Maggie had booked them a romantic suite as a wedding gift, and Daryl reminded himself to thank them when he and Beth returned from their honeymoon. The Greene family had been gracious from the start, never making him feel uncomfortable or judged. He was accepted almost immediately as he was introduced. Everything about Beth and her world had changed his life, and her family was no different. In fact, Glenn was quickly becoming one of his best friends.
Daryl stretched and walked across the room to the large closet, where he grappled with his leather jacket in the dark, trying to find a cigarette and a lighter to go with it. As he struggled to find what he was looking for, he felt his hand close around a cold tube-like bottle. He pulled it out quickly and stared intently before letting out a gruff chuckle. It was hair gel.
Rick had jokingly bought it for him as a bachelor party gag gift. Daryl had always gotten shit from Rick about how his hair stuck out at different angles and looked like it hadn't been cut since he was twelve. When he'd first received the hair gel, he'd laughed and forgotten about it, but now he remembered packing it for the honeymoon, just in case. He wanted to look his best for Beth. He always wanted to be at his best for her.
Daryl stared at the tube again and considered his options. He could try it out now, while she slept, just to see what it would look like. And if he looked foolish, at least she wouldn't be awake to see it. If it looked great then it could be a fun surprise for her.
He felt a wry grin settle upon his face. Here he was, a Dixon man, worrying about what his hair looked like to impress a girl. A girl he had already married for Christ's sake. It was practically unheard of. So of course, he had to do it.
Daryl walked quietly over to the large bathroom and flicked on the light, making sure to close the door quickly and softly. He looked at himself in the mirror and almost let out a barking laugh again. He really did look like a madman with his hair jutting out in all directions. Although it wasn't all on him, he thought to himself. It wasn't his fault that Beth had so passionately grabbed his hair last night while kissing him like she had. On the other hand, maybe it was his fault…Daryl quickly shook his head and cleared his minds of all dirty thoughts. He was on a mission. He had to stay focused and figure out how the hell a grown man was supposed to style his own hair.
For about 10 minutes he pushed and pulled and brushed and combed and swore under his breath. The hair gel smelled strange, it was sticky and disgusting, and his hair didn't seem to want to lie flat. It was as wild as he was. Try as he might, it didn't seem to want to work with him much, so Daryl gave up. He had at least managed to comb it all back – although he didn't think it looked particularly good. He let out a huff of frustration and left the bathroom, back on his original mission – to find his pack of smokes.
He almost tripped over Beth's guitar on the way back to the closet. It made a loud twanging noise, which he tried to stifle quickly. He looked over at her again, worried that he had woken her. Beth stirred and seemed to let out a content sigh before turning over and falling right back into a deep sleep. Daryl smiled to himself. He could probably scream bloody murder and it wouldn't do a thing. She slept through everything – a fact that had surprised him one night when Merle had stumbled drunkenly into Daryl's apartment on an evening that Beth was staying over. He had been shouting at the top of his lungs for about an hour, and even then Beth slept. It had been one of her first night's at his place, and she had woken the next day to find that she'd missed meeting his brother by about an hour, and had been sorely disappointed. It was one of the funnier mornings Daryl had ever experienced.
After finding his smokes and stepping quietly through the sliding glass doors, Daryl found himself blinking in the sunlight. Their room was on the top floor of the hotel, and their private balcony was incredible – it had a spectacular view of the waterfalls. Beth had wanted to go to Niagara Falls on their honeymoon, and Daryl was happy to oblige. He would have followed her anywhere, but it just so happened that he had never left Georgia before, so the idea of leaving the country excited him. Glenn and Maggie had really outdone themselves on the hotel room gift – everything about their honeymoon had been perfect so far, but the room had been the icing on the cake. Daryl pulled up a comfortable chair and lit up a cigarette, and tried to take it all in.
He was on his second cigarette when he heard the sliding doors open. Daryl could hear her small feet padding lightly across the ground towards him, so he put out his cigarette and turned to face her.
She was glorious – he couldn't believe his eyes. Beth Greene, beautiful, intelligent, intimidating, powerful; she was everything, and she was walking towards him, squinting in the bright light. She looked amused, and for a split second Daryl wondered why, when he suddenly realized he's forgotten to take the stupid gel out of his hair. He could feel a blush creeping up his neck, and he cursed himself internally.
"Oh my, Mr. Dixon, you look almost unrecognizable," she said to him with a grin, plopping herself down comfortably on his lap. Her hands were on his face as she moved his head from side to side to get a better look. She was nothing but smiles.
"It's silly," he said in a gruff voice, trying not to let his embarrassment show on his face too much.
"It's not," she said quickly, her eyes finding his. "But it's not you, either. We can fix it!" A mischievous grin slid onto her face. Suddenly her mouth was on his, and he was trying to keep his pulse steady as she threw her legs over him in a straddle and trapped him in the chair. Her hands were in his hair almost as quickly as his own arms wrapped around the length of her torso to pull her closer – as close as possible. She smelled like lemons and roses and every other wonderful thing all at once. He had never loved anything like he loved her. He never would. He deepened the kiss, completely ready to rip her oversized shirt off and have her right there.
Suddenly, Beth pulled back and looked him over.
"See? Told you we could fix it."
She grabbed him by the hand and hoisted him out of the chair and back into the bathroom so he could face himself in the mirror.
His hair was a mess again, Daryl didn't think he could look any more like a wild animal than he already did. And it was all Beth's doing.
"There's my husband," Beth said next to him, grabbing him by the arm and looking up at him. "You don't need to change anything for me, Daryl. Not one little thing. I love your hair, I love your heart, I love your mind, and I love the silly look on your face when I tell you how much I love you and start acting real cheesy... Yep, that look!" She laughed heartily and stood on her toes to kiss him on the nose. Then she grabbed the tube of gel and dumped in the trash.
"I think I'm gonna take a bath," she said, eyeing the gargantuan tub they had yet to use, "it looks so neglected."
Daryl nodded and turned to leave the room as she moved to play with the hot and cold knobs.
"Hey, mister, where do you think you're goin'?"
He turned back around, suddenly understanding.
"I could drown in a tub that size all by myself," she said to him, the mischievous grin back again.
"Good thing I know how to swim then" he replied huskily, taking two quick strides over to her and lifting her off the ground and placing her on the bathroom counter. In no time at all they were wrapped around each other again.
"I love you so much, Mr. Dixon," he heard her say quietly.
He pressed his forehead to hers.
"I love you more, Mrs. Dixon."
"Impossible," she replied, beaming at him.
She had no idea.
So this was just a quick Bethyl one-shot story I wanted to write, and I'm not planning on writing more of this particular story. I got the idea from a prompt I read on tumblr and thought it could be a cute thing to write for these two. Plus I needed something to do after watching that last TWD episode to cheer myself up! I hope you all enjoy this! Please comment and review! Also I've decided I really enjoy writing these one-shot stories, so feel free to message me with any requests or prompts you might have for Beth and Daryl and I'd be happy to publish a little story for you (I'm really horrendously bad at writing smut though so if you ask for that it most likely won't happen, sorry!) Cheers!
