Chapter Three
Michonne hadn't planned on hooking up with Daryl. It wasn't like there had been this grand courtship or song and dance where they let the sexual tension build to an undeniable frenzy. It's still amazing to think of those who found time and energy for that, post-apocalypse. Instead, one day they just had one of those moments when they realized it might be nice to enjoy a bit of base pleasure while they had the opportunity and inclination. It also happened to go down after a rainstorm forced them to shed some layers and sit naked in the car for a while until their clothes went from a dripping mess to an unpleasantly damp but tolerable nuisance.
So maybe the circumstances had been cliché. But the point is that there had been nothing terribly romantic about that first coming together.
From the safety of their car, they'd only had a dingy sheet to offer any kind of covering and Michonne had let Daryl have it seeing as how he was the most distressed at being unclothed. Personally, she'd been through situations way more stressful than worrying about whether Daryl Dixon saw her naked. But she also didn't want to embarrass him. She'd seen some of the scars he preferred to keep hidden and she got the sense that he wasn't that adept at dealing with women in any kind of sexual way. He'd even get so flustered around Carol when she'd flirt with him in jest and he was closer to her than anyone else at the prison. So Michonne sat in her wet clothes after she crawled into the backseat and let him get squared away before shedding her layers. With each piece of clothing she'd take off and lay out next to his, he'd nervously kept his eyes from landing anywhere suspicious. She definitely had to suppress her humor at that.
It also occurred to her that he was acting so squirrely because of a genuine, underlying interest in seeing her naked, an impulse that he was trying to fight.
And then he had surprised her. The temperature wasn't warm but it wasn't terribly cold either. The nights got chilly and the days had turned pleasantly mild after several months of a moderately freezing winter. Judging by the spread of weather, it was probably late spring. So sitting in the backseat of the car without any clothes on wasn't too much of a hardship, yet after a few minutes of silence, Daryl wordlessly passed back his mostly dry leather vest for Michonne to cover herself with. It wasn't much use for his modesty after all. Michonne wrapped herself as best she could in the cool, weathered material of his most iconic accessory, save that crossbow that rested at his feet. She tried not to lose herself in how the smell of him invaded her senses. And the sweetness of the offer was an incredible aphrodisiac.
Maybe it made him feel better to offer the covering rather than imagine her sitting naked behind him. He later told her that the image of her in his clothes actually made things worse for him.
Michonne made the first move, of course, after briefly catching his eye in the rearview mirror. He'd tried to play it off like he was checking for walkers but she knew better. She asked if he was interested, told him it was okay if he wasn't and that she didn't have any particular expectations about the encounter. To his surprise, he'd accepted—or rather, he shrugged and didn't protest when she climbed over the seat to straddle him. After that move they just kind of went with it.
Thinking back on it, the whole thing was like jumping into the pool when you're not sure how cold the water is. There's that uncertainty and point of no return when your feet leave the safety of the edge. That first contact holds a momentary shock. Then all your nerves are alight and you're surrounded by stimuli as the sensations move along your body, toes to knees to hips to neck and beyond. You're in over your head; you're falling, then you're drowning and you can't breath for the newness of the world into which you've plunged yourself. The water has to make way for you but you're strangers in those first few moments as you take up space that before had been minding it's own.
And then you move an arm and swing a leg around and suddenly you're floating. Suddenly the water is working around you and against you and you still can't breathe but it's okay because you're swimming and that's much, much better. You realize that the water just looked dangerous but it was never too cold; it was just right and you don't regret taking that leap.
Michonne learned a few practical things that day.
You have to be creative when you're having sex in a car with your clothes taking up the entire back seat and weapons that need to be available but out of the way. The method used to navigate that had been the funniest part of the encounter, Daryl trying to throw his crossbow into the passenger seat while she inadvertently enticed him further when she reached for her katana to rest it near his weapon.
You also have to be creative when you're trying to get yourself and your partner off in a world where babies are about the most stressful thing you can imagine saddling yourself with, Lil Asskicker aside. That's when you thank your lucky stars that the other most frequent users of your vehicle are a couple as good as married who have a history of going at it like rabbits. Sometimes they leave behind helpful items.
Michonne reflected that whether you're together a few hours or a few years, you tend to remember that first intimate encounter with a person, even if it was bad. Especially if it was bad, actually. For her, Daryl would be no different. He wasn't into foreplay as such. When he paid special attention to letting his tongue work aggressively at her breasts, it felt like it was an act he was compelled by desire to do. The way he'd clutch at her neck to return her lips to his could have seemed off-putting if it weren't for the gentle, almost reverent way he'd lean into that kiss. She allowed him to touch her at his pace and comfort, knowing that she'd enjoy just sharing something so intense with a man who didn't open himself up much to anyone. The car moved along with their undulations and when he came, it was the only time he closed his eyes on the encounter. He left them closed for long, beautiful moments afterwards.
Turns out, he never did manage to get his vest off of her while they went at it, although she did convince him to share his sheet. During their later encounters, he sometimes liked to replicate that.
Michonne insisted to herself that he hadn't rocked her world or anything. All in all, it had been a quick and dirty time for a variety of reasons. But she'd freely admit that quick and dirty felt incredibly good when it was with a man like Daryl Dixon. She'd had better sex in her time but not much, and that was a gift given how slim the pickings were these days. If his response was anything to go by, he'd been pretty pleased too.
And it awoke something that made them both want to come back to it again and again.
TBC ...
