**Could anyone tell I was super hungry while I was writing that last chapter? No story is complete without a little #foodporn. Remember this story is rated M for mature. As always I own nothing related to the walking dead.**
Iva and Merle
They had made love gently, being mindful of her ribs. He had been a little nervous that he might hurt her, all her bruises still looked dark and bloody and were tender to the touch. Looking at them still made him angry, even though he knew the men who made them were all long past dead. Willing those thoughts away, he had rolled on his back and pulled her on top so she could go at her own pace. Iva wasn't used to taking control but she found herself enjoying it, rocking her hips slowly and hearing the soft noises he made in response. I am making him do that. She had tried to go easy, but passion has a way of taking over and when she came she had been holding her ribs and gasping for breath but enjoying herself anyway. He rocked up into her a few more times and then made the noises she knew meant he had also found his release.
"You alright there kitten?," he asked her. She nodded but didn't anwser since she was still a little short of breath. He pulled the woman close and held her while he felt her body slowly relax and her breathing return to normal. Rubbing her skin softly with his hand he found himself getting aroused again. The last week aside, they had been going at it everyday, sometimes twice and a whole week without had seemed much longer than it was. There was no way a second round was happening here tonight though, not after she had barely been able to breathe after the first one. He decided he better get up and go have a piss instead before he started working with a boner and no where to put it.
Iva lay in bed rubbing her ribs and stomach a little, still feeling a little sad for the baby that she lost but not feeling near as bad as she had the other day. She had a good life here, and more babies could always be made and had. Maybe it would be best if they were settled down in their new home first anyway. Everyone she had met so far from that group she had liked and even that very angry man had come today and turned out not to be so bad after all. She heard Merle's steps on the porch and moved back over to make room for him in the bed. There was something she had been wondering about and she had been waiting for an opportunity to ask him about it.
"Daryl like Beth?," she asked him. He huffed a little. His brother's love life or lack thereof wasn't something he wanted to discuss, especially when he was naked in bed with his woman. He gave a shrug.
"I guess he likes her fine," he said, hoping that would end the conversation.
"Beth like Daryl," she informed him, "like him for husband." This wasn't precisely news. It was obvious that Beth had the hots for his brother, why Daryl wasn't doing anything about it was beyond him. The girl was a little flat chested and too quiet for Merle's taste but she had a pretty enough face. At any rate, beggars can't be choosers and it was the end of the damn world for fucks sake. He wondered where Iva was going with this, if she wanted him to play cupid for his brother that was not going to be happening.
"What english do when woman like man?," she asked. That question was a relief to Merle, she was just trying to understand dating and what it was. From what she explained to him before, he knew people where she grew up did not date. If a man had an interest in a woman, he talked with her father and if they could come to some agreement, a marriage took place. The woman in question may or may not be consulted on the matter and was expected to do as she was bid. Iva had been a very pretty girl and her father had been approached many times before she was even a woman. He had given her to a man that he had done much business with over the years. A man he knew to be kind and gentle and rich by the standards of their community. She had not been asked her opinion on the matter but she had not been upset when she was told. The man was very nice, she liked him, and he had been bringing her small gifts and toys whenever he came to see her father since she was a small girl. The concept of dating was foriegn to her and she had been surprised to find out so many of Daryl's people were unmarried. Merle lay back and tried to think of how to explain things to her.
"If two people like each other a little, they spend time together and see if they like each other more. They don't ask permission from the father until later and maybe not at all," he explained. She thought this over for a minute then suddenly it dawned on her. Thats what the two of them had done. She had no father to ask anymore so she had done as she pleased.
"Iva like," she told the man, turning to rub her hand up his chest, "Iva keep. No permission." He laughed, now she was getting it. He had liked the part about keeping him too. Just because he was the first man she had met, didn't mean he was the only one she would ever want to get to know and he worried sometimes about losing her to someone younger and stronger. Someone with two hands.