I hope this story is still interesting and enjoyable. Thanks to everyone who is reading and special thanks to those of you reviewing.
A furious banging sound and the screaming of his name had Daryl snapping awake in his bed the next morning. He shot up, his eyes popping open so suddenly they didn't have to adjust to the morning light. To say he was startled by the unexpected, and highly un-welcome, wake-up call would be a vast understatement. His heart was hammering so fast inside his chest he thought the thing would pound its way right on out of his chest cavity.
"Damn it, Daryl! Wake the fuck up!" Rick Grimes screamed once more from behind the door and he forcefully kicked, causing the entire door to vibrate.
"I'm fucking awake." Daryl barked back. He was very annoyed with the angry, abrupt manner he'd been woken up in. And he was still so asleep he couldn't even begin to process why Rick would be waking him up in such a way to begin with. Nor did he care at the moment.
As soon as Rick heard Daryl's voice, it was enough of an invitation for him to decide it was okay to burst into the room. Because the door quickly bolted open, hitting the wall and creating another loud bang, as Rick darted into his room. Eyes dark, jaw clenched, fists balled, he stared at Daryl as he let out a low growl. "How in the fuck did this happen?"
Daryl tensed. His eyes grew wide as saucers. Rick's sudden presence in his room jarred him into a semi-coherent state that left him feeling like the only reason his best friend and roommate would storm into his bedroom this early in the morning would be because he'd somehow found out about he and Carol. He swallowed hard and hung his head, unable to look Rick in the eyes. "I don't know." He muttered. "It just….it kinda just happened." That's the only thing he could think to say, because thinking back, it hadn't been some elaborate plan of his. He hadn't even planned to make a move until she started showing clear interest in him shortly after moving her moving in.
"It kinda happened?" Rick bellowed. "How did it just kinda happen? It was a choice. It didn't just happen." Rick looked at Daryl and shook his head disapprovingly. "Don't make excuses for your brother."
Daryl's head jerked up at that. He arched his brows in confusion at his friend. "What?"
"Don't play dumb with me." Rick snorted. "I came home from Michonne's this morning to get dressed for class and I find your brother in my bed, butt ass naked, with some random woman. What the fuck, Daryl? When you texted me last night and told me he was gonna be staying with us for a week I said it was no big deal. But that's when I thought he was gonna be sleeping on the couch, not fucking random girls in my bed."
Daryl cocked his head at that. He'd had no idea Merle had ended up in Rick's room last night. Hell, he'd had no idea Merle even made it home last night, to be truthful. After Daryl refused to go downtown with him, he'd asked Carol. Merle had said it would give the two of them a chance to get to know one another better.
She'd also refused his offer, giving him the excuse that she had to work tomorrow and couldn't be getting plastered. Though, Daryl hoped anyway, she wouldn't have gone even if she hadn't of had to work. Not that he didn't trust her or thought she'd ever consider doing anything with his brother. But he didn't trust Merle with her. Not at all. Especially not an alcohol inhibited Merle. He wasn't a rapist or nothing, he wouldn't make her do anything she didn't wanna do, but he wouldn't put it past Merle to grab her tits or ass in an effort to make a move if he'd had enough to drink. And Daryl didn't have enough resolve in the world not to let that bother him or let Merle know he didn't appreciate that shit in the least.
So, with a lot of bitching and whining, Merle had ended up going alone. Saying he needed to get laid and that he wasn't coming home until that happened. Because in his words, he needed a piece or his testicles just might explode. After all, he'd gone a whole two days without busting a nut. He said it was just plain unhealthy.
And Daryl hadn't thought much else about Merle not returning before he'd gone to bed. Hell, he damn sure hadn't expected his brother to bring some girl back to their place and fuck her. Let alone in Rick's room of all places.
And as unhappy as Rick was about this whole situation, Daryl felt so fucking relieved it actually wasn't Rick finding out about his secret affair with his sister. Dealing with that fallout would have made it really hard to concentrate on finals today.
He looked up at his friend apologetically and shrugged. "I ain't know he was gonna do that. If it helps, I'll make him buy you some new sheets."
"That's it?" Rick huffed. "That's all you're gonna do?"
"What do you want me to do? Buy you a new damn bed? Burn your room down?"
"He's still butt ass naked in my bed! And so is that girl. I want you to get them fuck out of my room."
"Why ain't you wake them up?"
"Gee, I don't know? I didn't think to try that." He rolled his eyes. "They're passed the fuck out. And I'm not touching either one of them while they're naked like that. Your brother, your responsibility."
Daryl rolled his eyes back at Rick and tossed his blankets off of himself. He was only wearing boxers and when he stood to stretch he caught Carol out of the corner of his eye, standing in their hallway and quirking an eyebrow at him. He nodded at her, the corner of his lips turning into a smile when he noticed her eyes dipping down his torso. He returned a lingering gaze on her, starting with how her breasts, that were nicely being displayed to the low cut tank top she had on.
Rick noticed Daryl's attention turn in his direction and the corner of his lips turning up .He looked at his friend curiously, then let his eyes grow wide when he noticed how "friendly" Daryl was starting to look standing there in only his boxers. He felt himself grow extremely uncomfortable. "Dude." Rick hissed, bringing a hand over his eyes and shielding his view as he snapped around. "You really need to get laid. Like, really." Rick started to dart out the door, with a hand still covering his eyes, but quickly pulled his hand away when he felt himself smack clean into something. He opened his eyes to see he'd ran into his sister. Who was only wearing a white tank top and a pair of form fitting running shorts that appeared to be made out of the same material leggings were.
Rick looked at his sister. Then glanced back to Daryl, who was shielding his crotch with his hands and his cheeks were sporting a bright shade of red. Rick just groaned as he looked down at the floor with an angry scowl. "I fucking hate today already. What else could possibly go wrong? Merle's naked in my bed and there's probably herpagonasyphaltis on my sheets. And I just had to watch you start to get a hard on from looking at my sister. By the way, she's practically fully clothed. Seriously dude, you need to get laid. It's gotta be okay to do that by now."
()()()
Daryl managed to wake his brother and that strange woman up and get them out of Rick's bed. The woman was none too pleased to find out that she hadn't actually been taken back to Merle's house, and that she hadn't been in Merle's room, and that the bike parked in the yard hadn't been Merle's. Nor was she happy to find out that Merle's name wasn't actually Mark.
She'd slapped Merle so hard that he hit the back of Rick's head board, then he'd made things worse by saying he wished he'd known she liked it that rough last night. The woman proceeded to slap him again before she wrapped herself in Rick's sheet then gathered her clothes up and stormed out of the house.
After she'd left, Daryl had gathered Rick' sheets up upon Rick's request, then tossed them in the trash. He was going to tell Merle had had to buy new ones, but he knew the likelihood of that happening was about as good as Rick giving him a big ole hug when he found out about him and Carol. So, he just resigned himself to the fact that he'd stop by the super store and buy a pair of sheets for his roommate on the way home.
After he came back inside, he showered and got dressed for work, and by the time he was done with that he found Rick and Merle already at the kitchen table fixing plates from where Carol had made breakfast. Like she normally did, she'd had one ready for him and sat it down in front his usual seat with a smile. And like he usually did, he returned a smile of his own and muttered a thanks.
"You know?" Merle began, with a mouth full of pancakes as he looked towards Carol. "You can damn sure cook, darling."
Carol smiled, genuinely, at his compliment. "Thank you, Merle."
"Mmmm. Mmmmm. Mmmmmm." He savored another bite. "I tell you what. If you can fuck half as good as you cook, well, I'd even consider wifing your sweet little ass up."
Rick dropped the bite of pancake he'd been about to shove in his mouth. "Merle." He snapped. "That's my sister. Watch your damn mouth."
At the same time, Daryl clenched his fists and kicked his brother hard underneath the table. "What the fuck, Merle?" He growled. "You don't talk to her like that. What'd I tell you last night?"
Carol looked at Merle, a smile playing at her own lips. It was about the most offensive, repulsive, yet strangely, almost flattering thing she'd ever heard. Though, she wasn't going to let him know that. "Well, aren't you romantic? Should I just drop my pants now and let you have your way with me or should I wait until you wife my sweet little ass up?"
Merle grinned widely at that and his eyes brightened. "You saying you can fuck damn near as good as you cook?"
She took a bite of her own pancakes and shook her head at him. "That's a question you'll never personally know the answer to."
()()()
After they finished breakfast Carol and Rick had gone to their rooms to finish getting what they needed for class and work respectively. Daryl was left alone in the kitchen with his brother. He and Rick alternated clearing the table since she did most of the cooking and he heard Merle snicker at him as he moved the dishes to the sink. He scowled down at the blue, flower patterned china plate in his hand before dropping the dish on top of all of the others.
"You growing a vagina now that you live with a woman?" Merle quipped.
"Shut up, asshole." He muttered as he spun around. He leaned against the counter and crossed his legs as he looked over at his brother who was eyeing him
Merle had kicked his feet up in Daryl's vacant chair as he crossed his arms behind his head. "Why ain't you trying to hit that?" He nodded behind him. "You really that loyal to Rick? Or she just turn your pitiful ass down when you did try?"
"Mind your own business Merle." Daryl huffed. "Don't worry about where my dick goes. And start worrying about where you choose to use yours while you're here. You can't be fucking girls in Rick's room."
"Yeah, yeah." Merle muttered. "Say, you think I fucked up my chances of getting with Carol by bringing that girl back here?"
Daryl just laughed at him. "You ain't had a damn chance with her to start with."
"Better one than you did."
"Pfft. Okay."
"You wanna bet?"
"What?"
"You heard me." Merle replied, swinging his legs off of the chair and planting them firmly on the floor. "You wanna bet which one of us can get with her first? I got a hundred bucks on myself."
"I'm not making that bet with you. And you need too fucking stop acting like this about her. I'm serious." He warned.
Merle looked at his younger brother with disgust. "Who the fuck are you? Damn, you really are growing a pussy ain't you? We bet on who could get a three-way faster when I visited you over Christmas. As I recall, you ain't have a damn problem with that bet. And you rubbed the damn twenties in my face after you fucking won."
"Fifties. They were fifties. Three of them to be exact." Daryl corrected with a small laugh. "But that's different."
"How."
"Because it fucking is. Okay? Carol ain't some damn girl from the bar. So stop acting like….acting like your damn self for five minutes and treat her with some fucking respect while you're here."
Merle titled his head and studied his little brother.
"We're about to head out." Rick announced, stepping into the kitchen and interrupting the stare down between the brothers. "I'm probably gonna go straight to the lake house after work, unless you want all of us to go in my car."
"Nah, its alrgiht. Me and Carol can go on my bike. Go on ahead. Glenn and Shawn should be there before the rest of us get off work."
Rick nodded and threw up his hand as he headed for the front door. "I'll see you this evening then."
"See you." Daryl replied.
Carol walked in the kitchen from her way out of her bedroom and walked over to Daryl. She placed a hand on his shoulder and gave him an encouraging smile. "Good luck on your finals today. I know you're gonna do awesome, though."
He covered the hand she had resting on his shoulder with one of his own and gave it a tight squeeze. "Thanks. I'll see you at work later on." He watched as she pulled her hand away and headed for the door. He kept his eyes on her until the front door closed, then looked back over at Merle who was once again studying him. "You gonna go with us to the lake this weekend or you gonna hang around here so you can keep picking up girls all weekend?"
"Oh yeah. I'm definitely fucking going to the lake. I think there's gonna be a lot of stuff there I wanna see there."
(I know. I know. You're probably all waiting on the lake weekend to start and wishing I'd get to it already. I promise, we dive straight into that next chapter.)
