Author's Note: This is actually going to be the final chapter of this story. I wrote one more and really didn't like it, so I've just ended up revising this one a little bit and decided this would be good enough. Hope you enjoy it and have enjoyed the whole damn story. Have already started several other projects and don't worry I'm throwing myself head first into those next!
Daryl took in how quiet Glenn was when she pulled him through the door of the tent and zipper it behind them for privacy. He couldn't help but wonder just how uncomfortable she was around the camp and just how scared she felt about this whole situation. Did she wonder if he would just leave her behind or stick around and protect her?
He would, protect her with everything he had and then some. She would be safe with him. Glenn turned to him with a look he had never seen on her face before; it was easy for him to forget that before yesterday they had never even met each other before. It was hard to process when he had thought of nothing but her since then. Did she think of him all the time as well?
Her eyes swept their way up and down his body and as she bit her lip he had to swallow a large dry lump in his throat. The look in her eyes was one he recognized; it just wasn't one that he was used to seeing at himself. Lust, that's what it was, with perhaps some trust mixed in. Shit, this was really going to happen.
"Daryl you don't have to be nervous; but I'm just grateful for you picking me up back there. I wouldn't have made it another day without you. And now, I want to make sure that you know just how grateful I am." Glenn said with a confident tone, though she managed to look nervous at the same moment. He had to avoid her hand which came forward to touch him; as much as he wanted this to happen those were not the terms he wanted it to be under.
Daryl caught her wrist when a hand came forward a second time and Glenn just froze. He delicately brought it up and placed a gentle kiss to the tender inside of her wrist. Daryl tried not to think to hard about her creamy white skin and how his hand seemed to engulf a large portion of hers. Tried not to see the size difference between them; her tiny shoulders to his large and hard worked muscled ones. Her full lips, slightly swallow from chewing on them and wet. God, she was probably wet.
Giving in was not an option right now, and he could not afford to be naked, unaware and vulnerable in the open like this right now. He needed to keep them safe. Another kiss to her arm and he could feel the shiver that racked its way through her body. God, did he ever want to be able to feel her skin do that against him, maybe being inside her while that happened.
He couldn't think like that right now; he was a stronger man then that, or at least he wanted to believe he was. Glenn brought her other hand forward and raked her short yet still neat nails across his gruff stubble. That was something that he hadn't even anticipated feeling good, and yet it set his nerves on fire.
Set fire to his cool blood and made him want to get up and go in all the right ways. They were kissing before he even knew what was happening again. His hands roaming her back, while hers tucked around his neck. Hers lips tastes like his mother's cherry pie used to; sweet, sour and loving all at once. It was some kind of heaven. Glenn rubbed forward, pressing their chests together as if they could be any closer together at the moment. When was the last time that he had been this close to a woman and not drop dead drunk? Surely never one this gorgeous.
She felt so much smaller than he was when they were pressed up against one another. His mind eventually got back on its tracks and he ended up pushing a way from her. Or tried to push away anyway, Glenn didn't seem to want to let go and have him escape. He almost wished she would strangle him instead; it would have been easier.
Easier than trying to avoid those full lips that wanted to be on his. She stopped and looked at him like she was trying to peer into his soul. "It's not you, I just can't do this." Daryl found himself saying; even though it was slow and regretful. Glenn just looked at him with those big eyes of hers (how did an Asian woman have such fucking big eyes?) and he wanted to break down and just tell her that he wasn't good enough for her. That she deserved better, then him, then a tent between them and the outside world.
She retracted her hands and arms away from him and he let out a large breath that he hadn't even realized he had been holding. She looked a little bit hurt at that moment, but Daryl really wasn't sure what he could do about that. "Please don't just leave because of this." He found himself saying sincerely; maybe it could even be classified as begging. He wasn't proud and felt that if she left him he would just roll over and die. He couldn't stand the thought of being without her at this point, needing her to be in his life. Something to wind him down, keep his head on his shoulder and give him something to look forward to each and every one of these miserable and dangerous days.
Glenn looked like she went on high alert with him after that, though he wasn't sure why. He just wanted her around and safe, if she left he wasn't going to be able to protect her, wasn't going to be able to do anything but worry about her. If she had gone and gotten another tent he would have been forced to do rounds, walking around her tent all night. Forget sleeping he'd be making sure she lived until morning. Fuck, something had to wrong with him to be acting this way.
Glenn looked a bit resigned and perhaps upset, but she still placed a hand on his arm from a respectable distance away. "I won't leave you Daryl, it not your fault. I'll give you all the time you need, so you don't have to worry about anything like that." Glenn's words were kind and truthful, even though they didn't really make a whole lot of sense to him. Still, she pulled them over to where Daryl had slept the night before and pushed him to sit down.
He had never had a woman take his shoes off for him since his mama would because he could untie them yet. It's awkward because they are on the ground and his boots are always a fight to get on and off being a size to damn small. Glenn still managed to do it with all the grace in the world. She chucks them aside with more frustration then Daryl had even realized she had. "When I go on a run, the first thing I'm getting is new boots for you. You will hurt your feet being in those too damn tight ones all day, every day."
His heart pounded in his chest when she mentioned going on a run. He hadn't even thought that she knew about that yet, let alone would want to go. Why couldn't she just stay safe with him? He could provide for them just fine, she didn't need to risk her life for something like getting him a pair of boots better suited for his feet. He would lose her if she left.
Glenn pushed him to lie him down when he took far too long to respond. He was on his own worried thoughts too much and only snapped but when Glenn decided to undo to button on his jeans. His hand flew up and grabbed onto her wrist; he didn't think he hurt her, though she let out an unhappy hiss. "Just taking them off so you can sleep, that's all. Nothing more and nothing less." Glenn had a calm voice that soothed him in a way that nothing ever had before. He had a few seconds of doubt before he was able to convince himself to let go of the hand and let her proceed. What kind of girl does this for another person, who could possibly care this much?
The button undone, the zipper was pushed and his pants slide away from him. His over shirt came next, each button had a careful procession to it that made Daryl feel confused and loved. Then he was laying down in what Glenn had apparently deemed appropriate for bed clothes and Glenn was just looking at him for a moment before peeling off her top layer of shirt. Looking directly into his god damn eyes as she did it too, the hell cat.
Her jeans went next and then they were gone and she was standing pretty much on top of him in what was practically her underwear. Even took off her damn baseball cap and through it to the side like it meant nothing to her at all. Then they were technically in bed together, with her suddenly deciding that she wants to lay plastered to his side. Well this was certainly a strange predicament.
"Don't you even act surprised, after we woke up together this morning. I just figured that I'd feel safer with you beside me and since you didn't exactly get mad about it last morning, why not start safe instead of just end that way?" The girl made sense, but Daryl couldn't help but feel out of place in this situation. He hasn't ever actually had a girl in bed with him, (all sexual in counters he'd ever had had been outside or on the back of his old truck.) and he wasn't actually sure what he should be doing here.
The minutes ticked by as Glenn's breathing evened out by his side as Daryl listened for movement outside of the tent. He laid his hand over Glenn's stomach taking one of her much smaller ones in his own and curled around hers liking the warmth. If she didn't mind, he liked being this close to her.
He was closer to her now after these few days, then he ever had been another human being. Who would have thought that it would turn out this way when he forced a practically defenceless boy into the truck with him? Maybe it had just been incredible good luck or some kind of fate. Whatever the cause, he was happy this had happened and Daryl was prepared to treasure every moment of it. An unlikely truth about the apocalypse; it brought people together.