[A/N: Thanks to the reviewers on the last chapter! Makes my day to hear what you're liking or looking forward to in this story. Super short chapter this time sorry - it really should have gone up as part of the last chapter. Just editing the next one though, so it shouldn't be too long.]

Daryl pushed open the door to the master bedroom. Asha had gone upstairs to collect blankets for their makeshift beds downstairs, but that had been ages ago, and she hadn't answered when he'd called up the stairs.

The room was faintly illuminated by the single candle she had taken with her. Asha had pitched stomach down crosswise across the queen sized bed, face buried in the pillow her arms were tucked under.

'I know I can't sleep in it,' she mumbled without lifting her head. 'But I just had to lay down on it for a minute. I am so, so tired, and so damn sore from sleeping in the dirt and it's just too damn comfy.'

She reached out an arm and patted the mattress beside her.

Daryl hesitated for a moment before crossing the room and collapsing on his back on the bed.

'See?'

He grunted.

It was comfortable. Damn sight more comfortable than the ground outside, or even the thin prison mattresses they'd been used to before that.

For several long minutes he watched the flickering candlelight bounce of the walls, painfully aware of Asha's steady breath a bare foot or so away from him. She sounded as though she was asleep. He suddenly realised that this was the first time he'd ever laid beside her in something that could properly be called a bed.

Her eyes were closed behind the fan of hair across her face and shoulders. His hand shifted of its own accord. He couldn't help it. There was something about it hanging loose that way.

Her eyes snapped open as his fingers brushed across her temple, sweeping her hair behind her ear. He jerked his hand back, grimacing internally at how light a sleeper she was. She blinked at him a couple of times and then her hand snaked out and caught his, pulling it towards her as she rolled onto her side to look at him. Her lips brushed across his knuckles, before she wrapped both hands around his. Her skin was cool and his pulse quickened at the contact.

'I miss you,' she whispered softly.

Daryl's throat thickened, but he stayed silent. After all they'd been through what did that really mean?

Her face flickered with a play of emotions, but then she spoke again.

'I don't regret anything that happened between us. I don't know where that leaves us, but I won't regret it. Whatever it was, it was good, and that day we had by the river reminded me that there are still things worth living for, even in all this.'

Daryl's chest tightened with a sudden emotion that he couldn't place. 'What do you want from me Asha.' The words slipped from him.

Her green eyes widened and she took a deep breath. 'I want… I want the only thing I've ever wanted from you. For you to see me - really see me - and not turn away.'

There was a vulnerability shining in her eyes, before she blinked a couple times and looked away. 'From anyone else I could handle it, but you… '

Daryl frowned instinctively. He knew too well the feeling of expecting people to think you were worthless, it just never occurred to him that she could feel that way – even knowing how she felt about some of the things she'd done since the world had gone to shit. Without thinking about what he was doing he gripped her hands, pulling her towards him across the bed.

She curled into his chest, hands sliding up his chest and along his neck.

'And I want this,' she said murmured softly, lips tickling him where they were pressed into his neck. 'I want you. I want what we had together back.' She suddenly pulled back and looked at him intently, eyes shimmering. 'But not if it's going to put our friendship at risk. It's your call.'

He wasn't even sure what they'd had the first time around – they'd barely had a first time round. Did he want that back?

'We ain't friends Asha,' he muttered, feeling her stiffen. 'We're family, whatever else we might be too. Ain't nothin' changing that.'

Her body trembled slightly and there was a muffled hiccup type sound as she buried her face back in his chest.

Damn it why did she have to fit so well against him? He might be a damn idiot but he wasn't made of steel either. How could he not want what she was offering?

He slid a hand around the back of her neck and titled her head back to face him. Her eyes were red rimmed and she jerked a hand to wipe her cheeks.

'Ya want this?' he asked.

She nodded, bottom lip trapped between her teeth. Her eyes were fixed on his lips. He wanted to hear her say it again. 'Sure about it?'

She smiled up at him. 'I'm a big girl remember.' Her voice was husky and he wondered if she was remembering that night in the guard tower too. Her fingers curled around the front of his shirt. 'Yes Daryl, I want this.'

Her breath was warm on his cheek, lips bare inches from his.

He didn't know what he was doing anymore, but right then he was tired of fighting it. He wanted her, and she was right there, wanting him. He groaned, claiming her lips with his. They moulded to his, parting under his tongue as she melted against him.

'Daryl,' she whimpered softly, the sound of his name sending a jolt though his body that had him straining against the inside of his jeans.

He kept a hand tangled in her hair as he dragged his lips along her throat. A shiver ran the length of her body, and he smiled at the effect he was having on her.

'Don't stop,' she whispered.

Blood pulsing, he felt more alive than he had…since the last time they'd been together like this, and when he pulled back and looked into Asha's lust dark eyes he could see the same fire running though her. God he'd fuck her brains out every day if that was what it took to keep her with him.

He buried his face in her hair. 'Don't disappear again,' he murmured.

One hand tightened in his shirt as the other slid around the back of his neck. 'Never,' she whispered fiercely. 'Maybe you will be the last man standing, but I plan on standing with you as long as I can.'