AN: So once again I've got a change of pace in the schedule. Between working I'm also visiting with some dear friends and getting a few days in with my precious little godchildren. That means "me" time is limited and takes place mostly at night after the little ones have been tucked away. That means chapters may be shorter/more sporadic for a stretch here, but I'm dropping out on you yet.
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"I'm so full I feel like I could pop," Michonne said, rubbing lotion on herself. Daryl was lying in bed watching her.
"That's 'cause Carol fills your plate back up the second it looks like you might finish soon. She's determined to make sure you get plenty, and I ain't opposed to it," Daryl said. He flopped on his stomach and bunched his pillow up, his head turned toward her. He liked the smell of this new lotion that she had acquired. It was lavender scented, and something else. She had told him what the smell was, but lavender was all he could remember. The smell made him a little sleepy and he hoped she had plenty of it stored up somewhere. He knew she had rummaged a couple of bottles at least out of storage.
"I can say that for at least the past two days I haven't been hungry at all," Michonne said. "She barely lets me finish one meal before she's pushing some kind of "snack" at me."
"Well, when you finish gettin' all covered up in that stuff, you can crawl under these covers and I'll help you work off some of that dinner," Daryl said.
"Mmmm, you know, I might take you up on that offer," Michonne said.
"What you think of that new boy?" Daryl asked.
"Beau?" Michonne asked. "Can you get my back?" She offered the bottle of lotion to Daryl who struggled up out of his position and crawled over to get behind her and accept the bottle.
"Yeah, Beau," Daryl said.
"I think he's a good boy, Daryl. I don't see any harm in him at all. He's got to be a pretty bright boy too, considering that he made it this far on his own," Michonne said.
"Did you know that Carol told him he could stay, just like that? She didn't even ask nobody else," Daryl said.
"Well is there anyone opposed to him staying? Are you opposed to him staying?" Michonne asked, moaning a little in response to Daryl's massaging of her shoulders. One of the good things about Daryl was that when she asked him to rub lotion on her back, he never just rubbed it on there, he always gave her a massage as a little extra.
"No, I don't reckon anybody was opposed to it," Daryl said.
"Well then, there's no harm in it. I think that sometimes Carol enjoys practicing her authority," Michonne said. Everyone realized by now that Carol did hold a good deal of authority in the community, and it was a position that suited her well, even if it was one that she wasn't used to. She was becoming bolder, and her growing relationship with Tyreese was giving her even more confidence.
Daryl turned his attention from the massage then, and gently pulled on Michonne's shoulder, pulling her down to rest on the bed. She slid down until her head was on the pillow and Daryl hovered over her, smiling his crooked smile.
"Comfortable?" He asked.
She smiled at him. She couldn't help but smile when he made that face.
"Yeah," she said.
He moved down and suckled at her breasts a minute, and she responded, drawing her legs up and shifting toward him a little. He stopped and came back to kiss her, looking her in the eyes for a lingering moment afterwards.
"Anxious?" He asked, smiling. She realized she was already breathing hard. She smiled at him.
"Maybe, a little," she said.
"Maybe I won't keep you waiting as long tonight as I usually do," Daryl said, making his way back down her body.
"Mmmm…I'd appreciate that," she said.
Daryl chucked. "Maybe…" he said.
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The next morning Daryl woke up when he felt the bed shake violently and he heard Michonne stumbling around the room and running out, bounding down the stairs.
He lie there a minute, trying to put it all together in his mind, and finally got up and got dressed. There was no one else stirring in the house, and he assumed it was probably too early for them to be up, or if Carol was up it was likely that Tyreese had already escorted her over to headquarters.
Daryl picked up a bottle of water off the kitchen counter downstairs and started out the back door of the house, taking the back porch steps two at a time. He wandered around a moment before finding Michonne kneeling in the bushes. He walked over and stooped down beside her.
"You OK?" He asked.
Michonne was heaving, but she wasn't actually throwing up. He knew that's what she spent most of her time in the bushes doing. It reminded him, unfortunately, of a few times that he'd gotten so drunk that he'd gotten sick. He could remember how miserable it felt to want to keep throwing up long after he had nothing else to throw up. He wondered if that's how she felt right now.
Daryl wasn't sure what to do, so he just waited on her to stop. When she finally got control of the heaving and sat back on her heels, he offered her the bottle of water. She took it and washed her mouth out, spitting the water out.
"I'm just dandy," she said when she felt it was safe to speak.
"I'm sorry, 'Chonne, I wish I could make it better," Daryl said.
Michonne snickered. "I wish you could too. I'd be glad to let you take this part, and a few others."
Daryl frowned at her. "I would, if I could," he said.
Michonne smiled. "You know what, Daryl, I believe you would," she said.
"Do you wanna get breakfast?" Daryl asked.
He immediately knew that it was too soon to ask that question. He rubbed Michonne's back while she returned to heaving.
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Daryl didn't know how long he sat in the wet grass beside Michonne, but he didn't feel right just leaving her there retching alone, so he'd sat there patiently as the spells came and went. By the time she was ready to get up and actually considering that she might want to eat something, he was fairly certain that breakfast was over. He'd seen people walking away from headquarters and off to do other things, which was a fairly sure sign that they were done and Carol would be cleaning everything up.
Daryl helped Michonne to her feet and they started in the direction of headquarters. As he suspected, they came upon Carol washing dishes with the help of Beau and Beth.
"We're a lil' late," Daryl said as they approached.
"I thought you might be," Carol said. "I kept some oatmeal warm for you, Daryl, and I've got some fruit and granola for Michonne. I'll get it."
She started to get up and Daryl noticed that Beau stood up and offered her a hand. She took it and smiled at him. He said something to her that Daryl couldn't make out and she smiled again, blushing a little.
They were the last two to eat breakfast and Carol left them alone, sending Beth to get the girls and bring them over. Judith had apparently been awake and quiet in the room for a while, but Hope was obviously sleepy when Beth came into the dining room with her. Daryl took her, and she snuggled into his chest, apparently deciding to finish out the rest of her night's sleep there.
"How's your breakfast?" He asked Michonne, shoveling more of the fairly tasteless oatmeal into his mouth.
"Really good," Michonne said.
Daryl chuckled. "It's just some canned fruit and granola," he said, "how good can it be?"
"Carol sprinkled it with cinnamon too. It's really good," she said. He chuckled again.
Carol stepped back into the dining room, carrying Judith.
"How are you two doing? Need anything?" Carol asked.
"I'm fine," Daryl answered her, "and Michonne is just raving on how well you prepare fruit and granola."
Carol smiled at Daryl. He looked really amused, though Michonne didn't seem to notice, or either she didn't care.
"Heightened sense of taste," Carol said.
"What?" Daryl asked.
She laughed a little. "Her tastes are different now that she's pregnant. She can also smell things a lot better, I imagine. It's just something that your body goes through. It can be good at times and bad at times, am I right Michonne?" Carol said.
Michonne nodded.
"The smell thing is mostly bad," Michonne said. "Especially with all the nice odors we can sometimes get around here."
Carol nodded her head. She remembered the heightened smell being a bad thing when she was pregnant with Sophia. She couldn't stand the smell of meat cooking, and onions would send her into fits of heaving within seconds. She couldn't imagine what it would be like to go through that now with the added layers of stench that occupied their daily lives.
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Tyreese was checking the fire in the smokehouse, and stepped out just in time to see Daryl walking past him toward the house.
"Wait up," Tyreese called. Daryl stopped and Tyreese joined him.
"What's up, man?" Daryl asked.
"Just wondering if you were working here today or if you're going out hunting with Beau again today. As far as I can tell everything is going as it should be in the smokehouse, so we should be good to go on filling all three, but we can hold off a bit if you don't feel like going out," Tyreese said.
"I thought I'd work around here a little today," Daryl said. "I think Beau's gonna work on makin' a bow and some arrows for Carl to practice with, so I thought he might need a little time to do that."
"I'm heading down to the demo site in a bit," Tyreese said, "I just want to make sure Carol doesn't need me to do anything for her."
"She probably already got Beau to do it for her," Daryl said. "It don't bother you that he's been down there with her? I mean he's kinda flirtin' with her."
Tyreese laughed. "He is flirting with her, you're right, but it's the harmless kind of flirting."
"What's the harmless kind when he's flirtin' with your woman?" Daryl asked.
"Well, Daryl, Beau doesn't flirt with Carol because he's interested in her, he flirts with her because she likes it and it makes her nice to him. He likes that little bit of attention from her. Carol likes the flirting because all women like to be complimented. It works out well for me, or at least it did last night, so I'm not bothered by it."
"What'cha mean it works out well for you?" Daryl asked.
"Well, when I compliment Carol she's kind of started taking it as just something I should do, and therefore it doesn't affect her as much. Beau has no reason to compliment her, so when he does it, it makes her feel good about herself. The better a woman feels about herself, the more confident she is when she's with you," Tyreese explained.
Daryl thought about it. Tyreese may have a point, but he still wouldn't like for anyone to go complimenting Michonne too much or flirting with her too much. Beau hadn't flirted with her though, so he didn't have any real complaints. He'd let Tyreese handle his own situation.
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"'Chonne," Daryl asked, "do you feel good about yourself?"
Michonne giggled.
"What kind of a question is that?" She asked.
"I asked Tyreese today if it bothered him that Beau was kinda flirtin' with Carol an' he said it didn't 'cause it made her feel good about herself and then she was better to him," Daryl said.
Michonne listened to Daryl's butchered interpretation of what Tyreese had said to him and pieced together what the conversation had probably been like and what Tyreese was really trying to say. Beau was a flirtatious young man, but only in the sense that he frequently complimented women. He'd hadn't made any kind of suggestion toward anyone, but she'd heard him compliment Carol, Beth, and even Rachel. He hadn't complimented her, but then again she wasn't sure if she came across to him as the kind of woman that would appreciate any of his flattery.
Carol was the kind of woman that appreciated his compliments, and it was obvious that they did give her a little boost of self-confidence. She repaid him for the compliments by taking a little extra care with him, which was likely all the payment he wanted for them.
Michonne could easily understand that the confidence boost in Carol would translate into her being a little more forward and a little more sure of herself with Tyreese.
"Women like to be complimented, Daryl. If someone tells a woman that she's pretty, or that she has a nice smile, or nice eyes, or whatever, especially if he's not suggestive about it when she wouldn't want him to be, then she believes it, and it makes her feel better about herself. If Beau tells Carol she's pretty or she has a nice smile, but he doesn't do it in an amorous way," Michonne paused a minute, not sure if Daryl would know what she meant. "I mean if he doesn't do it in a way to say that he wants to have any kind of sexual relationship with her, then she believes it and she's more likely to want to show it off to Tyreese, who she does have a relationship with."
Daryl was quiet for a few minutes.
"And it depends on the day, Daryl, as to how I feel about myself, especially right now," Michonne added.
"'Cause of the hormones?" Daryl asked. He knew that everyone kept telling him to ignore any of the ups and downs in Michonne's moods because she wasn't able to control them and probably didn't understand them herself. He figured hormones were some tricky things to deal with since Michonne was getting really scary with going between acting like he was the greatest thing on Earth and acting like he was the most horrible person she'd ever met, most of the time without him ever being able to figure out what had changed.
Michonne snickered, "Yeah, because of the hormones, I guess."
Michonne had always been irritated by the whole "hormones" thing, even though she knew that was the problem most of the time. Even when she'd been pregnant before, or when she was having her period, it always seemed like people dismissed you when they brought up hormones and she didn't appreciate being dismissed like that. Whether or not she was being irrational, she always felt that her feelings were her feelings and they should be addressed. She was glad that even though Daryl talked about "hormones" he didn't dismiss her feelings. Rather he would always ask her what was wrong and try to talk to her about it. It seemed like the idea of her raging hormones just kept him from becoming too upset when he wasn't able to wrap his mind around whatever was bothering her at the moment.
"Do I compliment you much?" Daryl asked suddenly.
Michonne thought about it a minute. Neither one of them were the type of people that complimented each other often. They didn't make laundry lists of what they liked about each other. She loved his eyes, but she doubted she'd ever told him that. She thought the crooked smile he gave her, and also the evil grin when he was up to something were two of the most adorable things she'd ever seen in her life, but she'd never said that to him. Likewise, he'd only ever complimented her smile as far as she could remember. Maybe it was owing to their personalities, but neither of them was one to profusely compliment the other, though it didn't mean that she didn't think that every little thing about him was wonderful, and she imagined the same could be said for him.
Both of them were much more likely to compliment each other on Walker kills or jobs well done. Those were the kinds of things they were more comfortable giving each other praise on, and that was fine. It worked for them.
Michonne didn't feel any less loved and adored by Daryl because he didn't sit around telling her she was beautiful all day long. He didn't have to wax poetic about her eyes and her skin and her hair for her to know that he loved her. He told her constantly that he loved her, he touched her like he loved her, and he did things to show her that he loved her. He'd started raising rabbits and brought her a deer, among other things, that was the way that Daryl was going to tell her he adored her. That was a language that she could understand.
"You do in your own way, Daryl," she said finally.
"Is that a good way or a bad way?" Daryl asked.
"Neither," she said. "It's just your way." Michonne was quiet for a minute. "And, I guess, maybe it's the perfect way, because I understand it completely."
Daryl was quiet for a few minutes.
Daryl didn't know much about complimenting women. He loved everything about Michonne. He didn't know how to tell her that, though. He'd feel silly if he just started telling her each and every part of her that he loved, because he didn't know which ones it was OK to tell her about, and which ones she might not want to hear about. If she needed complimenting, though, he wanted to do it. He wanted her to feel good about herself.
"Do I compliment you enough to make you feel good, 'Chonne?" Daryl asked.
"Yes, Daryl, you make me feel good," Michonne responded.
Daryl kissed her shoulder in response and wrapped his arm around her.
"How about you, Daryl?" Michonne asked. "Do I do enough to make you feel good?"
Daryl thought about it. He really wasn't used to being complimented a lot, but he felt like Michonne always told him when he'd done things that were good, and that always made him feel good. Michonne told him that she loved him, and that made him feel real good. He wasn't sure if that was a compliment or not, but really everything about her made him feel good, especially her letting him hold her in his arms like he was right now, and like he did most every night when they went to sleep.
"You make me feel real good, 'Chonne," he said.
"Then I'd say we're doing it just right, Daryl," Michonne said.