What the Earth Will Allow

by TWDObsessive

Daryl was used to being alone. A sole merman alone in a giant ocean. He doesn’t remember how he came to be. He just remembers being. He’s been for eternity. And then he meets Rick.

Daryl was used to being alone. A sole merman alone in a giant ocean. He doesn't remember how he came to be. He just remembers being. He's been for eternity. He doesn't remember how he knows what he knows. But he knows he has lived a long life. And he knows he has much more time ahead. Most of it would be alone, but that would be ok. It's all Daryl ever really knew.

He sometimes kept company with schools of dolphins. They were usually pleasant and playful for the most part. Sometimes he would join them for months. But eventually it would become clear that Daryl was different and he would grow bored and wander off to other waters.

Daryl has been around humans over his long years on earth, though usually they don't know he's there. He has, however, had the opportunity to speak to several. Tiny moments he thought of as rewards. Moments of connection and companionship that are rare and special. He rescued them all in one way or another. And he believed that was part of why he existed.

He met Mika many decades ago. She was just a girl and was alone in a lifeboat with four adults who had died of exposure. Daryl spent days finding her food and leaning over the edge of her boat to talk to her and tell her stories. She believed in Daryl. He liked that. He liked the feeling of someone knowing he was real. Because that was not always the case. And when Daryl spotted the rescue boat finally coming towards her, he shed tears, as did she. Daryl knew, from however it was that he knew things, that the world shouldn't know about him. He was only for emergencies. And his time with humans would always just be temporary and occasional.

The second human he met was Captain Abraham Ford. He had fallen off a shrimping boat during a bad storm and Daryl held onto him during the waves and the lightening and winds, whispering into his ear that it would be ok and that Daryl would get him back to the boat when the seas were settled. Abraham was frightened, more of Daryl than of the storm. He'd been worried he was losing his mind. Daryl let him touch his tail. Feel the scales on his hands. Understand that Daryl was real. That he was a savior of the sea. But when the storm was over and Daryl brought Abraham back to his boat, the man scrambled up the side and never looked back.

The third human that Daryl got to talk to was an older man on a small yacht. He was taking a trip around the world alone and Daryl had tracked him for hundreds of miles, curiously watching from a distance. Dale didn't need to be physically saved or cared for. But he seemed so alone, so sad and Daryl wanted so bad to share words with him. So he made himself seen. Caught Dale's attention as he swam and flipped and jumped into the air like a dolphin. Dale talked first, calling to Daryl unafraid. The old man held out bits of fish to feed him as if Daryl didn't know how to feed himself after hundreds of years of survival. But it was sweet of him, so Daryl ate from his hand and asked what brought him out to sea. The man was as lonely as Daryl had been and they spent many days and nights talking about life and death and earth and sea and sand. Dale had become Daryl's very first friend. Their time together was much longer than any other human he'd encountered. They took the same path, Dale in the small yacht and Daryl swimming beside him for months.

One day Dale didn't come out of his sleeping quarters. And after three days, Daryl finally climbed aboard, flopping onto the deck and letting the air and the sun shift his tail into legs that he's never seen but somehow knew were there. He walked wobbly to the sleeping deck and found his friend had died peacefully in his sleep. Daryl wept by his side for hours. And when he was ready to return to the sea, he brought Dale with him, swam to the very bottom and buried him under heavy, ocean rocks.

Daryl had grown lonely after Dale and so he started to swim towards islands that were inhabited. Hopeful to find new company. Always on the lookout for anyone that might need to be saved, but in the back of his mind hoping to find someone that would save him. He'd been alone for centuries and craved any little moments of companionship that he was lucky enough to get. He missed Dale and his stories about his wife and his family. The love stories were his favorite. He would make Dale tell the story about how he met his wife over and over. And when he knew he loved her. And when he first kissed her. And now that Daryl knew these things, he wanted.

He was content like he always was content. But he was no longer happy being the sole merman, the king of his ocean and the savior of lost humans. He wanted. And he yearned to be wanted back. And that's when he met Rick. It was years after Dale. Long, lonely years.

Daryl swam from island to island, then continent to continent. He'd been spending a few weeks with a school of dolphins swimming and jumping and playing along the Eastern coast of the Americas when he saw a long jetty that stuck out from the coast along the southern portion of North America. And at the end was a man. Alone and sitting with his feet in the water.

He was beautiful. Daryl didn't have many humans to compare him to, but his hair was wavy curls that reminded him of ocean waves in the wake of a large ship. And when Daryl swam close and the man looked over to him, the color of his eyes took Daryl's breath away. A swirl of blues the color of every water he's ever swam through. Bright and bold like the Caribbean's, swirled with darker blue like the middle of the untouched Pacific, and everything inbetween.

They held eyes for long moments as the water bounced Daryl gently up and down.

He looked sad, not scared. More like Dale than either Abraham or Mika.

"I didn't know anyone swam out this far," the man said, his voice gentle and deep like soft rumbles of distant thunder.

"I do," Daryl answered. "I like to swim."

Daryl had never had such a normal exchange. The others had found Daryl in impossible depths of the ocean. But here, with the coast in sight, the man just thought Daryl was a regular human going for a leisurely swim. The water around him was too dark for his tail to be visible so he must have appeared like just another person.

When the man didn't answer, but kept his gaze on Daryl, the merman asked, "Do you like to swim?"

The man on the jetty shrugged. "Sometimes."

"My name's Daryl," the merman said, swishing his tail under the water line to stay steady in the bobbing ocean. He looked up to the man waiting for his introduction.

"Rick Grimes." He said quietly.

"Why ya sitting out here all alone, Rick Grimes? If you're not planning to swim?"

"Actually, I was kinda looking for a place to be alone."

"Oh," Daryl said, disappointment thick in his one-syllable response. But Rick didn't look away. Didn't stand or walk away. He just kept looking at Daryl, his head tilted to the side slightly like he was trying to figure something out.

"I can go," Daryl offered. His voice soft and quiet like a light breeze over calm water.

"You don't have to go," Rick said quickly.

So Daryl stayed.

"What brings you all the way out here to swim, Daryl?" Rick Grimes asked after a few quiet moments between them.

Daryl smiled and it felt strange on his lips. He felt content often in his life. But the feeling of happy, strong enough that it spread across his face, was rare. Company and conversation. That made him happy.

"Looking for company, actually. Opposite of you, I guess." Daryl ducked back into the water to let some of it pass through his gills to comfort him. The gills on his neck stayed closed when he was above water, so Rick probably still thought Daryl was just a regular human. He came back up and looked back to Rick.

"Middle of the ocean is kind of a weird place to go looking for company."

Daryl laughed. "This isn't the middle of the ocean. The middle of the ocean is dark and flat and wide. No coast," he pointed to the line of land that the jetty poked out from.

Rick tilted his head again. "You one of those guys that swims from one continent to the other?"

Daryl thought. Did some humans do that? He'd never met one. But the oceans of earth were enormous. If anyone knew that it was Daryl.

"Yes," he nodded. "I swim across oceans."

"You must be good. Strong. Can tell you got strong arms."

Daryl looked at his own arms. Yeah. He guessed they must be strong. Rick didn't have strong arms like this. His body was narrow and slim. But Daryl could imagine it slicing through the water, lean and powerful in its own way.

"Why do you want to be alone, Rick Grimes?"

The man shrugged. "Long story. You'll be pruned if you stay there in the water to hear it all."

Daryl thought maybe Rick was inviting him to sit by his side on the wooden planks. But he was afraid the man would react more like Abraham than Dale. So he stayed low in the water, twitching his tail as minimally as possible so Rick wouldn't notice it.

"I don't prune. My body is use to swimming. Because you know... I'm one of those guys who swims. Like between continents. Like you said."

Rick nodded and tilted his head again.

"I'd like to know. I like long stories." Daryl continued. "...why you're out here...staring out at the ocean but not even wanting to jump in for a swim."

Rick smiled, just a slight curve to his lips. "Relationship problems. Main reason anyone wants to be alone, I guess."

"Are you married? My friend Dale was married."

Rick nodded at first. Then shook his head. "Was married. We'd been trying to have a baby. We both wanted children when we got together. Started trying right after the wedding. But..." Rick's story faded out as his eyes drifted away from Daryl's and back out to the ends of the ocean.

"I never met a baby," Daryl said.

Rick looked back to him. "You've never seen a baby? How is that possible?"

Daryl dipped himself back under water again, nervous. He shouldn't have said something like that. It would give him away and Rick Grimes wouldn't want to talk to him anymore. Might even be terrified. Daryl liked talking to this man. And looking at him. And hearing a voice that wasn't his own. Especially one with such a nice timbre to it.

After he came back up from the water he answered. "Don't have family and I live alone. Far away from population. So, I just never had the opportunity. I'd like to meet a baby one day."

Rick nodded and his eyes drifted again unfocused across the water.

"It was me. I wasn't able to have them. Babies. Spent years going from one doctor to the next. It became a strain on us and she left me."

"I'm so sorry, Rick Grimes. I've lost people. It's awful. And empty and lonely."

Rick smiled. "You know you can just call me Rick, right?"

Daryl blushed. "Oh, ok."

"You ever married?" Rick asked as he kicked at the water.

"No."

"Ever close?"

"No."

"How do you do it? Being so alone all the time? Because I don't know that I can do it."

Daryl shrugged. "I just ...enjoy nature. And the company of strangers when I'm lucky enough to meet one. And I watch sunsets. And storms. And count stars in the night sky."

Rick looked at Daryl, brows furrowed like he was trying to understand.

"Daryl?"

"Yeah, Rick?" The merman loved the sound of his name on Rick's tongue and the taste of Rick's name on his own.

"I didn't come here to be alone. I'm always alone now. In a big house with no one else. And I don't swim. Not well. I came out here because I wanted to kill myself. And I think maybe you're my guardian angel or something."

Now it was Daryl's turn to cock his head in confusion. "I... I've never heard of that."

"You've never heard of a guardian angel?"

"I've never heard of killing yourself. Most of the people I meet... Well, they all want to live. They all have a strong desire not to die."

"I have no one to want to live for."

"What about your parents?"

"Dead."

"No other….people. Around you?"

"I work on a boat. Fishing. Different crew most times so don't really have relationships there. My house is secluded so no neighbors. Most of my friends... They were Lori's. So..."

"But you're not alone now. I'm here."

Rick smiled again. The small one. Just the twitch of the corners of his mouth.

"Yes, that's true, Daryl."

"I'd be sad if you died."

Rick grinned at that. "You just met me."

"I get attached to people quickly."

Rick looked back behind him at the long stretch of abandoned boardwalk. He looked back at Daryl and then back out again at the horizon.

"I'm good company," Daryl said trying to sell himself worthy of living for. "I'm a good listener."

Rick's eyes focused back on Daryl's.

"You want to get a beer, Daryl?"

Dale spoke of beer many times. This was an invitation to talk and drink together. An offer of company and companionship and it sounded beautiful, like fluttering wings of coastal birds flying overhead. Daryl liked the sound of possibilities. Of birds telling him there may be people nearby. Of voices like Mika's and Dale's. And definitely like Rick's. And the sound of an offer to sit together with someone and talk. Daryl looked to the shore and ran his hands up and down his scales. He knew he could do it. He transitioned with Dale just like his instincts told him he would. And he knew his body would tell him when it was time to go back.

"Yes. I'd like to have beer with you."

Rick smiled. More this time. And he stood by the edge of the decking and reached a hand out for Daryl.

"Need a hand up?"

Daryl shook his head and dunked quickly back underwater nervously, coming back up with his hair comfortably dripping water down his forehead and the back of his neck.

"I'll meet you at the shoreline. Gonna finish my swim."

Rick nodded. "Ok. I'll wait for you."

Daryl laughed. "I'm fast, Rick. I'll wait for you." And his heart throbbed with giddiness and excitement as he dived into the water and sliced through it fast as he could to the shore. Halfway to land his excitement turned to dread as he realized that his tail probably flipped above the water line to give him his push. Had Rick turned to race him beforehand? Or did he see it? Would he be afraid? Afraid and rush away like Abraham?

He reached the shore and crawled up under the jetty. His scales glimmered and shimmied into pale human legs like he knew they would and he got to his feet slowly to get used to them again. He could hear Rick's quick walk along the boards, still only halfway to shore by the sound of it. Daryl grinned, proud of himself for his quickness. He took a few steps then realized that even if Rick missed seeing his tail, Daryl stood now on land without clothing. And Daryl knew from instinct that bareness made humans uncomfortable.

He dropped his hands to cover his private area and kept his feet planted in the sand. He'd just have to wing it. He was good at winging it. He never knew what to expect from people and all three of the human's he'd had actual conversations with had reacted to him in different ways.

Rick's footsteps passed over top of Daryl and the merman heard the sound of shoes step off the wood planks and sink into sand.

"Daryl? Did I beat you?"

"No. Been waiting forever. Hair's almost dry."

Rick huffed out a laugh as he rounded the corner and walked down towards Daryl's voice under the boards. He stopped and cocked his head again. It was a way Rick had about him. A thing he did.

"Swam so damn fast you lost your trunks!"

Daryl grinned shyly and nodded, his hands still loose in front of him to cover himself. "Yeah, the waves. Can't find them now. I don't think I can drink beer without pants on."

Rick laughed. "Yeah, it's usually frowned upon. Do you have a change of clothes in your car?"

Daryl shook his head. "No, I swam….I walked here. Straight from where I live."

"I have an extra pair of work pants in the car and a Tshirt. Might fit ya. Might be a little snug but, you're welcome to them."

Daryl nodded. "Thank you, Rick. I'm really glad you didn't kill yourself. I would be pantsless without you."

Rick laughed. Full this time. And Daryl was proud of that.

--

Daryl had never been in a truck before. It was fast. Maybe even faster than he was under the water. He held his hand out the open window and watched the wind grabbing at it. He played in the wind moving his hand against it like dolphins jumping in play.

"So how does it work? You have someone that follows you in a boat, right?" Rick asked as the truck slowed to round a twisty corner.

"What?" Daryl was distracted, playing with wind like a child with a new toy.

"When you swim coast to coast."

"Oh. Um… Yeah. Dale was in a boat." Daryl tried hard to make the most truth he could without letting it slip that he was not a real man like Rick was. That he was lore and fantasy and imagination and sometimes even Daryl himself wondered if he was really real.

"What about sharks?"

"What about them?"

"Don't you have to worry about that? I mean… Does Dale look out for them somehow or something?"

"It's not a problem," Daryl said. There was no other way to explain it. A shark has instincts. They know that Daryl is special. "Where are we going to drink beer? Is it very far away from the water?"

"We're almost there," Rick said as he pointed to a sign ahead of them that advertised the Seaside Tavern.

After they parked, Daryl walked slightly behind Rick, starting out slow and steady and quickly getting a groove of walking with his human legs. He looked to the direction of his ocean and tilted his head to hear the waves.

Inside were many other people. Daryl smiled widely as he scanned the room. People all together at tables. Five together here and six together there. Just like schools of fish.

The voices were all so different. Different pitches and different tones and different volumes. He tried to listen to all the conversations at once and drink them in like ocean water flooding past his gills but it was all too much. Rick stopped at a booth and Daryl, distracted by so much excitement, almost ran into him.

"Slide in and don't let them see your feet. 'Sposed to wear shoes here," Rick whispered as he scooted into the bench across from Daryl.

"Oh, Ok." Daryl's instinct had told him that he should be ashamed of his midsection when his body was in human form, but he didn't know there was a human taboo about feet. He would have to remember this.

A woman came up and asked for their orders. She smiled at Daryl and he smiled back.

"We're going to have beer," Daryl said, excited to talk to TWO people in one day.

"What kind, sugar?" she asked with a voice sweet as dripping honey. Daryl looked to Rick for help. He'd never had beer. He didn't know there was more than one.

"Two Buds," Rick said. The waitress put down two napkins, introduced herself as Maggie and bounced off back to the bar. She had a spring to her step and Daryl realized as he watched her walk that he'd never really seen much walking before. Mika and Abraham were never on land. Dale walked on his small boat but not much. It wasn't very big. And then walking to Rick's truck, Daryl had been too concerned with his own nether regions to pay attention. Maggie's movements weren't as silky smooth as Daryl's movements were in the water.

"She's cute," Rick said, interrupting Daryl's thoughts.

"Oh, yeah. She's...she seems nice."

"I could find out if she has a boyfriend if you want. If you wanted to, like, ask her out."

Daryl looked back to Rick. "Oh. No. I'm not looking for that," he said waving a dismissive hand at Maggie. She didn't make Daryl's heart speed up like Rick did. He didn't think he would have so willingly left his ocean for her although she seemed like a fine human. She came back with two frosty mugs of beer as Daryl wondered why he had been so willing to leave his home for this man.

Daryl picked his beer up right away and covered the hidden gills at his throat with a hand in case drinking the beer made them flare out. His first sip went down the wrong way and he did not expect the fizziness. He coughed for a full minute. Once he composed himself he looked back to Rick. "I didn't know there'd be bubbles."

Rick ran a hand through his wavy hair. He tilted his head again and looked around the bar and then back at Daryl. "You from the states?"

Questions were going to lead to answers and Daryl suddenly wanted his water back so he could dip down and feel it dampen his hair. "I travel. I've been everywhere," he answered taking a slower sip of the beer, now prepared for how it would taste and feel sliding down his throat.

"You don't seem comfortable here." Rick was looking at him suspiciously.

"I don't go out much. I'm… busy a lot. I'm-"

"Swimming?"

"Yeah, I swim a lot."

Rick took another long guzzle from his mug and wiped his lips with the back of his hand. The merman thought about Dale's stories. About what kissing was like. Daryl never thought he'd ever get to kiss someone. But he also never thought he'd be sitting in a booth with two human legs drinking beer. He looked at Rick's lips. They were pink and full and Daryl tugged at his own bottom lip with his fingers. He's seen his reflection before in still waters, but he didn't really know what he looked like clearly. He wondered what Rick might think of his lips. If they were pink enough to be as pretty as Rick's were.

And then they talked. For hours about everything vague and nothing specific. And Daryl, true to his word, was a very good listener. He drank in Rick's words like a shored fish flaring its gills, desperate for water. Rick talked about the places he'd been. Mountains and canyons. In planes and on cruise ships. Daryl talked about the shores of every country he could think of. What the water looked like and how different the sand was from place to place. They talked about fishing and Rick told stories about snorkeling near the shoreline in Hawaii and Daryl couldn't hide his excitement when Rick described all the fish he remembered seeing. By their third beers, Daryl grew quiet. He would need to leave soon. He felt it in his gills.

"Do you believe in fate, Daryl? Or God or anything like that?"

"I believe in the earth. In instincts. In moments."

"I find it strange that you walked… well, swam.. right into me at my lowest point. So far out in the ocean. As far as I could get myself from everyone and everything. And you're just as lonely as I am."

"I'm always where I'm supposed to be," Daryl answered with a slight lack of conviction. Normally he was always where he was supposed to be. He felt like he was supposed to be with Rick… but he did feel dry and far from water and he missed the feel of his tail wiggling against the tides.

"You seemed more comfortable by the water," Rick said.

"Yeah. I do like the water. But I like this beer too. And I like drinking it with you and talking."

"We can keep talking if you want," Rick said as Daryl swallowed the last of his glass.

"I do want to, Rick. But... I usually swim this time of night. Like, it's my ritual. For training. For swimming across oceans."

"I can drive you back," Rick said. Daryl could hear the sound of disappointment in his voice.

"I can just swim for a little. We can still talk on the beach if you want."

Rick nodded. "I don't want to go home right now."

Daryl grinned. He was thrilled. He would bring Rick to his home and they would talk by the water and they could watch the stars together instead of Daryl watching them alone.

"Ok. Come back to the ocean with me."

--

The drive back was difficult because Daryl's body was having conflict. His instincts had been telling him for the last hour that he had to get back to his ocean quickly. But his heart and his soul told him to stay with Rick. He felt his gills gasping every few minutes. And he kept moving his hands to hide them even though Rick seemed to keep his attention focused on the road.

Rick Grimes was quiet in the car. Like he was replaying the whole day in his head. And as they got closer to the water, as Daryl could smell the stronger scent of salt in the air, Rick started looking over. Daryl could see it out of the corner of his eye. Rick's eyes, all a concoction of blues that Daryl has lived in, slid up Daryl's legs and looked at his hands as they pretended to scratch at his neck.

When they parked, Daryl got out quickly and walked onto the jetty. He would dive into the deep end and just keep his waist below the water line. Rick could sit on the boards again and talk to him. He took off Rick's Tshirt and stopped about halfway out from the end of the jetty looking down into the comforting water.

"Daryl, wait," Rick said firmly, walking quickly behind him to catch up.

Daryl stopped, his hands already at the button and zipper of his borrowed pants. He looked at Rick, drowning in his eyes like he wanted to drown back into his ocean, his home. Rick walked closer and Daryl felt his gills flare. His hands weren't quick enough to cover them. Daryl could see the curiosity that was already in Rick's eyes growing into confusion and concern. The fisherman reached out and ran a hand along Daryl's closed gill.

"Be careful. They're sharp." Daryl said softly, trying to hide his disappointment. He almost made it.

"What is this?" Rick asked.

"It helps me breathe."

"How did you… Were you born with these?" Rick ran his hand slowly and carefully along Daryl's throat again. Daryl felt tingles from the contact, stronger than the tingles he got from an impending storm or the sight of a human from a distance.

"Yes. Are you afraid? Abraham was afraid of me."

"I'm not afraid," he answered, looking down at Daryl's jean-covered legs.

"Rick, I need to go swimming now. Please don't leave me. I like talking to you."

Rick shook his head, eyes back on Daryl's eyes like he was in a trance. "I won't leave you." He pointed to the boards at their feet without looking. "I'll sit right here while you swim."

"Ok." Daryl took his borrowed jeans off, handed them to Rick and dived, feeling the wind and the air against his naked body. When he hit the water and his ocean flooded back over him, he nearly wept from the comfort of it. The earth was his mother and the water his womb, his home, his comfort. He felt the scaling of skin on his legs and the sudden swell of two becoming one as his strong tail formed, the fin flipping above and slapping at the water.

His gills worked overtime and his skin drank in the saltwater, his hair tickled at his neck as he swam fast a mile out and back. Rick knew. He knew Daryl was not like him. And he wasn't afraid. Daryl knew Rick would stay like he said he would stay. He felt it in his heart.

Daryl wiggled in and out of the posts of the jetty as he came back inland like they were an obstacle course and he swam in circles around the one that he left Rick sitting above. He was almost afraid to break the water. Because under the water he knew for a fact that Rick would be waiting for him. But above the water… he might find out that the overindulgence of oxygen had played him a fool.

He backed away from the jetty post so that he would know as soon as his eyes crowned the water level. And he rose. And Rick was sitting, his shoes off and his feet in the water.

"You didn't leave." Daryl said, the sound of sheer delight in his voice.

Rick shook his head no. He pulled his feet back up onto the wooden slats and laid down, his belly against the pier and his head resting on his hands. "You.. was that you I saw? The tail just now swimming out past the end of the jetty?"

Daryl nodded. He waited for more questions. Dale had asked a lot that first day. He imagined that Rick would have similar ones.

"Are there others like you?"

"No. I am alone."

"Daryl, I'm so sorry. You are more alone than me and you let me drone on about it all day."

"I like listening, Rick. I don't often get to hear voices. Especially not ones so soft and pretty like yours." Daryl could see the tone of Rick's cheeks redden even with the tricky light from the sunset.

"Can I see your tail again?" He was intrigued. Daryl could hear it in his voice.

He dove back into the water and proudly arched his back so that his tail kicked way out above the water for Rick to admire.

When he came back up, water still feeling so incredibly refreshing after the better part of the day on land, Rick was smiling. Full and wide. "Wow," he said.

They just smiled at each other for a time that Daryl couldn't seem to measure. And finally Rick reached his hand down so that his fingers grazed the top of the ocean. "Can I touch it?" he asked shyly looking Daryl directly in his eyes.

Daryl grinned and nodded. "You can't reach from there. Come into the water with me."

"I really can't swim."

"Shouldn't a fisherman know how to swim?"

Rick shrugged. "I'm not an ambitious fisherman."

"What about the snorkeling you did?"

"Shallow water. I could stand in it."

"You can come in with me, Rick. I'll keep you safe. I won't let you drown."

Rick sat back up and took off his shirt. "It's funny... this morning I wanted to drown and now I… I've never wanted to be alive more than I do right now." He took off his jeans and stood on the wood slats in nothing but navy blue boxer briefs.

Daryl looked up at him like he was the sun in the sky. "Come in. It will be ok."

Rick was clearly hesitating. "I'm afraid you're my imagination and I'll drown," Rick said honestly.

"I'm real. Maggie saw me."

Rick nodded. He sat on the edge and pushed himself out into the water with a graceless splash. Daryl swirled around him and pulled him to the surface as he choked and coughed from a mouthful of seawater. Daryl had his arms around Rick and he looked closely at every inch of the fisherman. This was the closest he's been able to look at someone. He'd held Abraham the other way and there wasn't much time for talking or looking during that storm.

But the night was clear and cloudless and the ocean was quiet all around them. And Daryl could take in all the details of the hidden grey hairs in Rick's beard. The crinkles at his eyes when he smiled. The cute wrinkles above his brow as he tried to understand what was happening. Rick ran a hand down Daryl's side pausing at the place where his flesh transitioned to scale and then slid further down along what would have been the side of his leg. His other hand moved sideways instead of longways and brushed against the scales below his back.

"How do you sleep?" Rick whispered.

"I don't really sleep. I drift."

"How long can you stay out of the water?"

"My body tells me. I waited a little too long today. I wasn't listening to it properly."

"Why not?"

Daryl smiled. "Because I was having fun with you."

"How long until you can be back on land?"

"I can go back on shore now. But I should stay close."

Rick's hands slid up and down Daryl again, at his sides where the transition was.

"Can I touch you like that?" Daryl asked.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry. I guess I'm just as odd to you."

"I'm odd?" Daryl pouted.

"No… wrong word. Wrong… Fascinating."

"Yes, I think you are fascinating," Daryl said in agreement with the word choice. He ran his hands down Rick's sides but the transition from chest to waist was stilted by the boxers. Rick used one hand and pulled them off under water and Daryl started again from the top of Rick's sides slowly down to where skin stayed just skin and his waist flared into hips and ass.

"Let's go back to shore," Daryl offered and Rick nodded.

"I need to learn how to swim so we can play."

As Daryl back-floated to shore with Rick pulled on top of him he smiled. "I've only got to play in the water with dolphins and sometimes they're mean. They think they're better than me because they are many and I'm only one. They get bored with me and chase me away and I'm alone again."

"I don't ever want to chase you away," Rick assured him.

When they got to shallow water, Rick stood and walked out and sat naked on the wet sand. "Do you need help getting out?"

Daryl shook his head and used his strong arms to pull himself, tail and all, out of the water. Daryl observed Rick watching the transition as the warm night air sparkled away the scales and turned one thick powerful tail into two strong human legs. And he stood on them to walk to Rick and sit down on the wet sand beside him, toes just out of reach of the tide.

Rick looked Daryl up and down, eyes modestly passing over his pelvis and then raking slowly up and down his legs. He reached out to touch again and before his fingers made contact with Daryl's upper thigh, he looked up to him. "Can I touch?"

"Yes. I don't often get touched." Dale and Mika had petted Daryl's hair and he loved the feeling of fingers on him. Sometimes after they were gone he would try to remember the feeling as he drifted under the night sky, running his own fingers through his hair. It wasn't the same.

Rick put a gentle hand on Daryl's upper thigh and ran it slowly down the length of his leg to the calf. He looked back to Daryl. "Can you feel it?"

"Yes."

"Do you like it?"

"Yes. I like to be touched. It reminds me that I'm real."

Rick rubbed at Daryl's fleshy thigh a little longer and then he laid down in the sand next to him looking up at the night sky. Just the two of them along the abandoned strip of beach by the jetty that hadn't been used in ages.

Daryl pointed to three bright stars. "That's Orion's Belt. And that's the rest of him," Daryl pointed. "His arms there, his legs."

They looked at the sky together in quiet company, just the soft lapping of the gentle tide on the beach.

"Orion was a great hunter. He was the son of Poseidon, the God of the sea. Has a bow and arrow. See there?" Daryl pointed again and looked over to Rick who was watching above them and nodding.

"Are you Orion?" Rick asked.

Daryl frowned. "I'm Daryl."

Rick chuckled at him softly. "No, I mean. How are you here? Born of the sea? From Poseidon?

"I don't really know," Daryl shrugged. "I've just always been. I don't remember the act of becoming."

"Well, none of us do really," Rick responded.

Daryl sat up and looked over to Rick. He would like to try touching too. He'd briefly touched Mika and Dale and he held on to Abraham. Even just holding Rick in the water- it was holding not touching. It was for necessity not for feeling. He has never touched just to feel.

Rick stayed flat and still and Daryl looked down at him. "May I touch you?"

Rick nodded and Daryl slowly moved a hand to the same spot on Rick's thigh that the fisherman touched on Daryl. His fingers explored every contour of Rick's leg and then he moved it to hover above his chest, looking to Rick's eyes for unspoken permission. He got it with a slight nod and Daryl ran his fingers through chest hair and over hard nipples.

Daryl moved his hand to the fisherman's forehead and ran it through his hair admiring it as it slipped through his fingers and fell back into place. His hair had started drying and the waves were forming again.

"I like your hair, Rick. It's wavy like my ocean."

"I like your eyes," Rick answered.

"You do?" Daryl grinned.

Rick nodded, keeping eye contact.

"What color are mine? I've only seen them in the reflection of still water and I can't see them clearly."

"Blue."

"Like yours?" Daryl asked, happiness dancing against his words at the thought of something similar between them.

"Not exactly. Yours are darker. Like twilight after a stormy day."

"That sounds pretty," Daryl said.

"They are."

Daryl turned towards the ocean and watched the tide rise up, nibble at his toes and drift back.

"I should go home for the night. I've been out of the water a lot today."

He looked back to Rick still laying naked on the sand. He was not self-conscious of his bareness like Daryl knew most humans should be.

"I'm scared you won't come back." Rick finally said, his voice sounding small like a child's. Like Mika.

"I'll come back here for you, Rick. Every day at the end of the Jetty. I promise."

Rick sat up. "Can I kiss you goodbye?"

Daryl's face hurt from the wideness of his smile. "I never thought I'd ever get to have a kiss, Rick. In my whole life."

"I never thought I'd meet a... person like you," Rick answered.

Daryl kept his eyes on Rick's and he watched them grow darker and more full. The fisherman put a comforting hand on Daryl's cheek and leaned in to press his lips against Daryl's. They were so soft and tender and moved fluid like water lapping at the shore.

Daryl's cooler body temperature heated and he felt himself growing warmer. And he felt so close to Rick as the other man's mouth fit snug against his own like they were made to piece together, the way inlets of water fill in open spaces of land to make earth whole. Land and sea together and connected.

Rick's other hand gently touched Daryl's hip and he felt the heat of it burning into him like equator sun.

When Rick pulled away, Daryl's thudding heart slowed. He would want to never be away from Rick. Not even for his swims, but he knows, in that way he knows things, that they couldn't spend every moment together in life and that they could only take what earth and air and water would allow.

"I'd like to kiss you again when I come back tomorrow. I hope you've definitely decided to live," Daryl said in a hopeful voice.

"I have," Rick answered.

--

That night Daryl swam hard and fast. Out deep into the ocean and turning back towards the Americas with focused direction. He didn't feel alone as he swam. He still felt Rick's lips on his and Rick's hand burning hot against his hip. He felt Rick in his heart because he thought the man's name so often in his head that the pattern of it synced with each beat in his chest.

He didn't worry that Rick would not be on the end of the worn pier. He knew he would be, like he knew when hard rains were coming or when stormy seas would calm.

The next Georgia day, Daryl was back by the shoreline wiggling in and out of the posts under the jetty. He waited patiently because Daryl was always patient with time. After several passes zigging and zagging in the shallow water he popped up to listen and heard hesitant footsteps above him.

Daryl tried to smile but realized he'd been smiling already. Had been smiling all night. He swam to the far end of the jetty and swished his tail to stay steady above water.

It was Rick. Like he knew it would be. Sun shining in his wavy hair and a relieved smile on his lips. His lean body tanned and just in swim trunks.

"You're here," Rick said.

"Yes."

Rick took a fearless step without any hesitation and his body sliced into the water like an arrow. Daryl wiggled over to him and lifted him up to keep his head above water, giggling at Rick's poor feet kicking at the water.

"You don't have to kick. I've got you."

Rick wrapped his arms around Daryl and let his legs go still and he kissed him again. This time Daryl was home in the water, the warmth of the ocean surrounding them both like a cocoon and their lips finding their place right where they left off the night before. And Daryl liked this. Holding Rick tight to him while their mouths worked hungry against each other.

When they parted, Rick kicked again below the water. He dipped down just like Daryl does and came back up with water running down his forehead.

"I need to learn to swim so I can be with you more."

And that's what they did for days. Weeks. Daryl holding Rick while he kicked and learned to move his arms to propel himself off the force of the water. And they spent the late evenings, after the earth's rotation stole their sun, lying on the beach, watching the night sky and talking about stars and their stories. And they kissed. Every night. For hours under the watchful eyes of Orion.

And they talked. They talked about Rick's life and Daryl's. About hope and fear and possibility and surprise.

After many weeks having Rick with him every evening and night, kisses became roaming hands and nervous bodies pressed closer and closer on the sandy beach until instincts from both of them chased friction against each other, making them both explode against one another. And Daryl had never known anything like it. Like the sudden explosion of a new star. Like the burst of sunshine behind parting grey clouds.

Daryl knew things in his own way, but with Rick taking up more of his thoughts and his mind and his soul, taking his very breath with nightly kisses, Daryl wasn't paying attention to his natural foresight. There was a storm coming that Daryl should have been more prepared for. The first one since they met but they still kissed and caressed in the rain for just a few short moments until thunder and winds shouted that they should both seek safety in their own places. Daryl knew when he dived back into the ocean that there was trouble and that he had things that would need his attention, but he didn't think about how long it might take. And he wasn't used to having someone, so he didn't think to mention it to Rick.

It was a fierce storm and Daryl swirled around under the water for most of it as the sea lit up around him from flashes of lightning above. He drifted, letting the tide take him wherever the earth wanted him to be and by the time the water was calmer and the deep roar of thunder quieted, Daryl wasn't quite certain how many days had passed. He also felt himself being drawn deep into the Atlantic. Needed. For the reason he existed. And he swam, seemingly aimless, but knowing his inner compass was guiding him until he came upon a small, beat-up rowboat bobbing on gentle waves and Daryl worried he was too late because he saw no one on board.

He circled it a few times and chased off a tiger shark before he finally pulled himself up to peek inside. Two young boys were sleeping there. Haggard looking. Lips chapped and skin sun-blistered. Daryl watched their chests closely and saw both were breathing. He took notice of the lack of oars and looked in all directions to get his bearings, to let his instinct point him towards shore. Once he was behind the boat, his strong arms pushing against the stern, he began the arduous journey of moving it to shore, lamenting right from the start at how slow he would have to move this way. It could take days to reach land. And it did.

The boys were Zack and Patrick. Zack remained unconscious or delirious for the entire trip, but Patrick woke, groggy and aching, but aware. He saw Daryl and spoke with a raspy voice, asking if he had water, even before he questioned who Daryl was and how he was possible. Daryl did not have water. He had never had souls that needed saving that were so far from help and so dehydrated. And he worked his strong tail harder than ever to get them moving.

The boys had some food in an emergency kit but the water situation remained dire. Daryl had offered to go to shore and bring some back. He knew he could be to shore and back in hours if he was swimming alone, but Patrick was frantic at the thought of being left by themselves. And so Daryl stayed and pushed himself harder to get them home.

At one point, they moved through a rain shower and Daryl woke them and yelled for them to open their containers to collect what they could. Zack never spoke directly to Daryl and barely formed coherent words to Patrick. He probably didn't even know Daryl was there. But Patrick sat, weak and scared, watching Daryl move them closer and closer to shore.

"No one will believe me if we survive," he said at the end of their second day.

"You'll survive. And when your people see you, they won't care how."

"Am I not supposed to tell them about you? Probably not. They'll think I'm insane."

Daryl winked at him. "Sunstroke. They won't worry about anything you say."

"Is this what you do all the time? Save people in the water?"

"Yes. This is what I do."

"Are there more?" He finally asked.

That was always a question. Mika asked it. Dale. Rick. Everyone always wanted to know how alone Daryl was in the deep blue ocean.

"No. There is only me," Daryl said, his mind flooding with Rick. With the comforting feeling of not being alone.

The silence from Patrick was pity. Daryl knew this. But he didn't need pity, because he wasn't really alone. It may have been days or weeks, but Rick was waiting for him. He knew it. He had Rick.

"I have a friend," Daryl said. "So I am not all alone always."

"A regular person? Like me?"

"Yes. My friend, Rick. He is like you."

Patrick sipped slowly from his canteen of fresh rain water. "Where is he while you are out here like this?"

"He waits for me," Daryl said confidently. He's at a pier in Georgia for when I get done. And we'll go swimming and watch stars when I return."

"Does he worry about you?"

Daryl furrowed his brows. He didn't know. Daryl wasn't worried. He felt Rick in his heart still. But was Rick still feeling Daryl?

"He knows I'm very stong," Daryl responded, and he put more force into pushing, getting antsy to get back to the pier. To his new sense of home.

Daryl pushed the rowboat to the Florida coast and said his farewells to Patrick when a lifeguard whistle blew loud and shrill against the ocean waves and several men in orange came rushing out on boards.

Patrick thanked Daryl. He was weak and hungry, still suffering from exposure and Zack still mumbled nonsense, but Daryl was proud to have helped people again.

He quickly turned and swam towards the pier he hadn't seen in possibly weeks and to Rick, who surely was coming to check for him daily. Daryl's body and mind were sensitive to everything about the world, and he felt inside himself that Rick was thinking about being together again as much as Daryl was thinking about it.

Without the weight and bulk and awkwardness of a boat to push, Daryl was fast again and he made it to the Georgia coast in just hours. He swam to his jetty and didn't bother with the play of the obstacle course underneath. He immediately came up out of the water, scanning the rickety wooden pier for Rick. Scanning the shoreline and looking for movement in the water. Before Daryl had left, Rick had become a good swimmer and his body cut through the water just like Daryl had imagined it would. But there was nothing to see. Not on the land or on the pier or in the ocean. Daryl floated back and forth past the jetty until the sun went down and he crawled out of the sea and sat alone in the sand for most of the dark night.

And on it went for days. Daryl would not wander far from the shoreline. He still felt Rick. He didn't' know where his friend could be, but he knew every morning the sun rose was a new possibility. Each day brought a chance that it could be the day Rick would remember to come to the shore. Daryl's life alone in the sea did not leave room for disappointment. In Daryl's experience, possibility was worth living for, worth waiting for. So each morning he swam back to shore. He spent the day in mini-sprints up and down the coast checking back nearly every hour.

Daryl fought his despair. He refused to give in to the feeling of loss that was snaking itself around his very core. He tried to remember surprise. The day he met Dale. The day he met Rick. And Daryl had patience. He was made for patience. Humans were not. If Rick would have drown himself in the sea any sooner, he would have missed Daryl by mere moments. Humans did not understand patience like Daryl did. They did not understand hope and he felt bad for them sometimes in the way they perceived despair and loneliness. The earth would provide. Daryl always had water through his gills and air in his lungs. Sky above and sea below. An ocean of food and a world of possibilities. Possibilities that could arrive when you least expect them.

So he continued to show up every day and every evening. He swam no further than a few hours out from his jetty. And one day he had a new surprise. He came back from a quick swim to the Gulf and a small Yacht was in the water at the end of the pier. That old Jetty hadn't been used in probably a decade and Daryl literally had to rub at his eyes to make sure what he was seeing was real.

Maybe this person would know Rick. Daryl kept low in the water and watched for movement. If he could find out where Rick Grimes lived, maybe he could walk there. Daryl knew he lived near the water. It shouldn't be far. Daryl did start to wonder why Rick hadn't come. Maybe he worried that Daryl had too much work after the storm and he decided not to visit. Maybe he was busy with his own business. The ship he worked on or his home could have been damaged in the storm, requiring his attention. But Daryl knew Rick had not given up all hope. He was somewhere breathing and being. He felt Rick still in the world. He knew.

When the sun first started to set, he heard footsteps on the pier and saw familiar bowed legs carrying so many heavy cases of bottled water that his face was hidden. Daryl's heart pounded with a sudden urgency, as if it hadn't been operating at full capacity for weeks and finally had reached its peak. He watched Rick set the water down on a bench that ran the parameter of the bow of what must be his very own new boat.

Rick walked to the edge and looked out to the water, eyes zeroing in on Daryl immediately. His eyes brightened and his lips curved into a huge smile, relief and love pouring off of him.

"You're back. I knew you would be."

"I'm sorry I was gone long, Rick. I had... work."

"I know. Two boys in Florida. I came for you the day after the storm. And the day after that. Then I heard about the missing boys on the news and I knew you were with them. And I knew you'd come back after. I felt it."

Daryl was happy. So happy that his Rick was waiting for him. So happy to see his smile and his eyes and his wavy curls.

"Rick. Did you buy this boat?" Daryl asked.

Rick took a fearless step overboard, fully clothed but clearly too eager to get to Daryl to fuss with buttons and zippers. He swam like he learned, with strong arms and legs to Daryl and embraced him and kissed him as deep as the ocean and as gentle as the graceful movement of seaweed dancing in the water.

After long moments of touches and reconnection, Daryl asked with eagerness and excitement, "Is that boat so you can stay here by me overnight sometimes?"

"No," Rick answered, smiling as he back-floated away from Daryl, his smile and the sparkling light in his eyes drawing Daryl to follow.

"What's it for then?" Daryl asked after diving down and back up, covering himself in the comfort of wet hair and beads of water on his skin as he glided next to Rick.

"It's everything. I knew you'd be back for me. I sold my house. All my furniture. Quit my job. Emptied my bank account. I want to live under the stars and move from coast to coast. I don't need stuff and thangs. I just want to be with you. The Robin to your Batman."

Daryl smiled. "Batman is a pretend superhero. He's not real."

"But we are. We're both real."

Daryl always felt connected to the earth, a part of it. But he never truly felt the sense of belonging as he did at that moment. With Rick smiling and moving through the water, enticing Daryl to follow him.

"It took you nearly two weeks to push that boat back to shore," Rick said as he reached his arms behind him to push against the water, propelling his back-float.

Daryl frowned, "I tried to be faster but it's heavy and awkward to move through the water. I-"

Rick giggled. "I'm not judging you, Daryl. I know it was hard work." He turned in the water and kicked his feet, using his arms again to pull himself closer to the boat and then he kicked his feet in the water to stay afloat. "Look," he pointed to a heavy iron hook and chain. "I can tow! I can help."

And he did. Rick set sail that very night, leaving the ground beneath his feet and trading it for open seas and open hearts. And Daryl was no longer alone. They helped together when there were humans in danger. And when there weren't, they swam. And they fished and they talked and they watched the stars in the sky. And they kissed always and made love often. And they had nothing but the sea below them and the sky above them and each other. And that was more than enough. It was everything.

The end.