AN: OK, here you go. It's a little update for you. And it's a fluffy one…you know me!
For someone who asked, Ed has not disappeared and you didn't miss anything. I guess the best way I can explain pretty much how I try to write anything is think of it as sometimes we have the "zoom" on but it doesn't mean that other things aren't taking place. We're all just like the characters…still waiting to see what's going to happen with Ed's trial and everything wrapped up in that. It's just that in this waiting period our two main characters celebrated their nuptials so we've zoomed in on them for a bit. I promise, though, I haven't forgotten about Ed.
I hope you enjoy the chapter! Let me know what you think!
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"So we married now," Daryl said to Carol about the time she got the door closed and locked. Carol turned around and nodded at him.
"We are…" she said.
Daryl was standing there, in the kitchen, gnawing on his thumb. Somewhere during the course of the day both of them had lost their shoes. Daryl had lost his tie and his jacket and had partially unbuttoned his shirt. Carol wasn't sure the state of her hair, but she had a pretty good idea that she'd lost at least some of the baby's breath that was in there and what wasn't lost was probably tangled into her curls not to be removed until she washed her hair.
"Now what do we do?" Daryl asked.
Carol chuckled at him. The truth was that she understood his sentiment even without him expressing it any further. On the one hand, they were married and it had been a big day…and it was supposed to be something super exciting and super new and that made a strange tension hang in the air. Yet on the other hand, nothing was much different than it had been before…they were still exactly the same as they had been before…the house was exactly the same as it had been except for the fact, perhaps, that the floors had seen more traffic today than usual.
It was strange to be trapped in the mundane with the expectation of the special.
"What do you want to do?" Carol asked. "It's our honeymoon. We can do what we want. There's no one here but Lincoln, and I don't think he'll tell us we're doing it wrong."
Daryl bit at his thumb a moment longer and pulled it away to inspect it before answering.
"Ya gon' be mad if I say the wrong thing?" He asked, raising an eyebrow at her.
Carol laughed.
"I don't have any expectations at this point. There's no right or wrong," Carol said. It was true. She really didn't care what they did or how they did it. It wasn't like she was overwhelmed with the need for the rest of the evening to take shape in any particular way.
Daryl nodded his head slightly.
"Tell ya what I wanta do," Daryl said. "I wanta take a shower an' get outta these clothes. Then I wanta take ya ta bed."
Carol smiled.
"That sounds perfect to me," she said. "I don't think there could be a better set of honeymoon plans than that."
Daryl grinned at her and started to unbutton his shirt as he was already turning and heading toward the bedroom. Carol followed behind him, reaching around and trying to find where the hairclip hiding in her hair had run to during the day.
In the bedroom they both got out of their clothes at a relatively slow pace. Carol was pretty tired and she could tell from Daryl's movements and the way that his eyes looked that he was just about as exhausted as she was. She had no doubt that this would be a good night, but it looked like it was going to be a nice, low key one as well. Perhaps they were already a married couple at heart though, because she wasn't going to mind a quiet night and she got the feeling that Daryl wasn't going to mind it either.
Daryl started up the shower and when Carol came into the bathroom he was already in the tub, pushing the curtain back and offering a hand to her to help her step in. She stepped into the tub, directly under the warm water and couldn't help herself from moaning at the feel of it cascading down her.
"Tired?" Daryl asked.
"Mmmmhmmm…" Carol moaned, admitting her defeat at the hands of a very long day.
"Got an idea," Daryl said. "Might be silly, though."
"What?" Carol asked, moving to let him step under the shower spray.
"I'll wash you an' you can wash me," Daryl said.
Carol smiled and nodded.
"Sounds like a plan," she said. "Who's first?"
"I'll go first," Daryl said. "Don't get riled up about it or nothin' but'cha got black stuff 'round ya eyes that's kinda been smearin' a lil' bit all day an' I'd rather look at'cha when ya don't look like a raccoon."
Carol laughed. She thought that if anyone else had said that to her…or maybe even if Daryl had said it when she was in a different mood, she might be offended by the statement, but as it was issued, she understood that it was simply Daryl's way of saying what she already knew. He preferred her without make up…or at least with so little that he couldn't detect it. A small amount of mascara and some lip gloss was about as far as he seemed to think was necessary or even nice.
"OK," Carol said. "You take over, then…"
Daryl moved her under the water and she tried to help him a little through the process. He did let her wash her own face, at least, removing the make-up, so that he didn't was her eyes out accidentally. And she had to admit that though he paid special attention to sensitive areas when washing her body, it was washing her hair that got the most reaction from her. He massaged her scalp and ran his fingers through the wet tangle of hair in such a way that Carol thought she might actually go to sleep standing up…and though that probably wasn't the point of the exercise…she enjoyed it more than she cared to admit.
When Daryl was finally done washing her, she returned the favor, taking her time with him.
"You need a haircut," she said to him while she was reaching up and shampooing his hair.
"Don't I know it?" He responded back. "Shit's 'bout long as yours."
"I could cut it for you," Carol offered. "Not tonight…but in the morning. We'll take a chair out there under the carport and I'll cut it for you first thing."
"I ain't gon' turn ya down," Daryl responded.
When Carol had finished washing Daryl, she smirked at the fact that he'd very clearly enjoyed his bath. She wrapped her hand around him, stroking him gently and kissing his chest.
"Should we just take care of this right here?" Carol asked. She didn't let up on her stroking, having already decided for herself what the answer to that question would be. Daryl must have assumed she knew the answer too because his only response was a series of groans as he reached around her, supporting himself with one hand on the wall of the shower. When he came, Carol eased around him, not wanting to disturb his afterglow moments, and rinsed herself off under the water where he'd cum on her. "Good?" She asked when he finally turned toward her, panting a little, and shaking some of the water out of his hair.
"Almost too damn good," Daryl said, wrapping his arms around her and hugging her against him, kissing her. He held the kiss a minute and then finally broke apart. "Let's get outta here an' get dried off…an' we'll go ta bed."
"Mmm…kay," Carol agreed, hugging against him for a moment before letting up enough that he could turn off the water and they could both get out to dry themselves off.
Once they were out and dried off as well as it was going to get, neither of them really thought it was necessary to bother with even trying to find pajamas. Realistically they would be out of them faster than they'd be in them.
Daryl led Carol to the bed and pushed her down gently against it, licking at the water that dripped slightly down her neck from where she hadn't fully dried her hair. Carol smiled at him and ran her fingers through his damp hair, holding her head back enough for him to have better access. She slipped onto the bed after a moment and he joined her, taking his time and lazily licking and sucking at her body.
Carol was almost embarrassed at her own buildup of feelings. As Daryl licked and sucked, she thought that she might come just from that and he hadn't even reached her core yet. She let herself go, though, enjoying how much she was enjoying him, her fingers tangled in his hair for the most part.
And when Daryl finally made his way to her core, Carol felt herself falling over the edge without even asking his permission. She cried out as she came undone and closed her eyes tight, feeling the waves of electricity pass through her.
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Daryl had already realized that it wasn't going to be any great feat to get Carol to the point of coming…he hadn't expected, though, that she would come so hard or so let herself go so completely. When she cried out he continued to suckle at her, his fingers teasing her, though the sound of Lincoln barking in the living room, startled by the sound, almost made Daryl lose his concentration and laugh.
"Well I know ya feel better now," Daryl teased, coming up to kiss Carol's jaw and then bringing his lips to hers for a kiss.
She panted into his mouth, moving her body under him and he felt himself grow hard again when she raised up slowly, rubbing herself against him, her nails scratching softly at his back.
Daryl smiled at her. Her eyes were half closed with an obvious combination of exhaustion and lust. She looked trapped at the moment where she couldn't decide if she wanted to sleep more or have sex more, and Daryl could feel the same feeling inside of himself.
It had been a long day and he'd been stressed for most of it, so now that everything that was unwinding and the knots were coming untangled, it just seemed like his entire body was heavy with exhaustion. He moved himself, though, entering her without any more conversation passing between them than their eyes locking together.
He didn't imagine that she would mind the slow pace that he set for both of them. He was too tired for much more than that and what he wanted, more than anything else really, out of this entire thing was to be inside her…to be as close to her as he possibly could.
In the room there was silence except for the occasional moan that passed out the lips of one of their mouths. It was slow and it was easy and there wasn't any pressure for either of them to really impress the other. They'd had far more exciting couplings before…and they'd surely come together in far more creative ways…but Daryl wasn't looking for that and it seemed that Carol wasn't either.
She came first, a good bit before he was ready, and he moved his hand down between them to continue teasing her, finally soliciting another round from her at just the right moment for him to finish with her.
And when the pulled apart, Daryl wasn't really sure what they were supposed to do. He didn't know if honeymoons had special rules or not. He dropped beside her, leaning on his elbow, and tipped her face in his direction so that their tongues could meet and tangle together for a moment.
"Good?" He asked.
Carol hummed her confirmation and Daryl smiled at her, brushing her hair out of her face.
"What we s'posed ta do now?" He asked.
Carol smiled.
"We're not supposed to do anything, Daryl. We can do whatever we want," Carol said.
Daryl kissed her again and brought his hand down, teasing her nipple, though not really with any real goal in mind.
"I'm kinda tired," Daryl admitted.
"Me too!" Carol said, a little more excitedly than he'd expected. Daryl chuckled.
"Ya wore me out today," Daryl said. "I got worried ya weren't comin'."
Carol made a face at him.
"Of course I was coming," Carol said. "What would make you think I wasn't coming?"
Daryl shrugged a little and dropped down flat beside her so that both of them were looking up at the ceiling of the room. Carol etched over next to him and he put his arm out so that she could rest on it.
"I just figured somethin' was bound ta go wrong, ya know?" Daryl said.
"Mmm…" Carol responded. "I almost didn't find a dress that fit…that could have gone wrong."
Daryl chuckled.
"Hell woman, I'da married ya if ya'd have shown up in ya pajamas."
Carol laughed at him.
"Would you? Really?" She teased.
"Yep…even them sweatpants that'cha so damn fond of…the grey ones with the stains on 'em an' one a' them big ole shirts that'cha stole from Andrea…I'da still married ya an' thought'cha was perfect," Daryl said.
"We already had sex, Daryl," Carol teased. "You don't have to try to butter me up to get in my pants."
Daryl lifted his arm a little, spilling her toward him so that he could hug her slightly and she turned facing him more so that she could hug against him.
"Where did you get the rings?" Carol asked.
"Our fairy asshole," Daryl replied.
Carol leaned up a little, looking at him and giggling.
"What?" Where did they come from?" She asked.
"Merle…" Daryl said. He could tell by her facial expression that she believed it about as much as he had when his brother had dropped the rings into his hand. "Told him yesterday we ain't had no rings an' I wished we did an' he showed up with 'em today…said they was his weddin' present but he don't wanna hear nothin' 'bout it."
Carol lie back down and sighed.
"Who would have thought?" She said. "It's a beautiful gesture, Daryl."
"Just don't ever use the words beautiful and Merle in the same damn sentence an' we'll be alright," Daryl said with a chuckle.
Daryl was quiet for a moment, just lying there, absentmindedly looping a piece of Carol's hair around his finger while she rested against him.
"Gotta get mine cut down, though," Daryl said. "Can't be wearin' it no damn where really 'til I find someone that can cut it down or it's gonna fall slap off."
"Jeweler in town could size it for you," Carol said. "I think I'm going to wear mine on a chain, around my neck, until the baby comes."
"Why ya ain't wanna wear it?" Daryl asked.
"I do want to wear it," Carol said. "But my fingers are already a little bit swollen and it's going to get worse. I don't want to size it until I'm not pregnant."
Daryl picked up her hand and inspected it in the dimly lit room. He couldn't really see anything different about, but admittedly he didn't spend too much time closely examining Carol's hands.
He lifted it to his lips and he kissed it.
"If ya wanta wear it on a chain 'til after the baby's born, it's OK with me," Daryl said. "But as soon as ya hands get back ta normal ya gonna wear ya ring, OK? At least until we have another baby."
Carol giggled.
"Thank you…that's very considerate of you," Carol teased.
"I'm a damn considerate kinda man," Daryl said.
Carol leaned up then and brought her lips crashing down on his in a way that almost caught him off guard. He returned the kiss though, playfully nipping at her lips as she pulled away.
"Do you mind if we sleep?" Carol asked. "I know it hasn't been a very exciting honeymoon for you…"
Daryl smiled at her and tangled his fingers in her hair, pulling her back to him for a softer kiss than before.
"Reckon we got plenty a' time in our lives for havin' sex…we can call it whatever we wanta call it," Daryl said. "Let's get some sleep…might have a lil' good mornin' moon in the mornin'."
"That sounds good," Carol purred. She dropped beside him again and hugged up to him, rubbing her face into the pillow the way she always did when she was really tired.
"An' you can make me pancakes like a good wife…" Daryl added with a chuckle.
Carol playfully pinched his nipple and he protested, pretending that it hurt far more than it did. Finally, though, he decided to actually try and go to sleep.
"I love ya," Daryl whispered, hoping that Carol hadn't fallen asleep yet. "Mrs. Dixon."
When Carol didn't respond, Daryl bumped her. She didn't respond again and he bumped her again, knowing she had to feel him. After a second, though, her muffled giggle gave her away he knew she was failing at playing possum.
"I said I love ya…Mrs. Dixon…" Daryl repeated, laughter making his own voice shake a little as he tried to hold it back.
"I love you too, Mr. Dixon," Carol responded.
"That's more damn like it," Daryl said. "Go ta sleep, woman. We got things ta do in the mornin'."
"Yes, sir! Right away, sir!" Carol teased, her voice muffled by the pillow.
Daryl rolled a little and kissed the side of her face, adjusting himself and the pillow so that he could sleep too without neither suffocating her nor abandoning her in the bed.
He couldn't believe they were married. He'd thought, somehow, that things would be at least a little different…at least something would change…but really all that had changed was how he felt. Now, as he lie there drifting off, he felt oddly more secure and more comfortable than he'd ever felt in his life. He had Carol…and he had her forever…and forever felt really good to Daryl.