AN: Here we go, another little chapter with our couple.

So if my figuring is correct from the notes I have, we don't have too much farther to go here. We have a few more "big events" and then we'll be drawing this part of the saga to a close!

I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!

11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111

"If I can dream," Michonne said, snuggling deeper under Daryl until she'd almost successfully buried her body under his again, "then I hope wherever we end up we have a house that has a fireplace in the bedroom…or at least a more open floor plan, you know? Heat everywhere…not just in the middle."

Daryl laughed, his voice low and husky. He was fighting sleep…he never had the same stamina as Michonne and sex could put him out like a light.

"It ain't even that cold, Chonne," Daryl commented. "Gonna get a helluva lot colder."

Michonne knew he was telling the truth. There was enough of a chill in the air to indicate that cold weather was on its way, but it wasn't really cold. Some of the people in the community were still going about regularly without needing so much as a jacket, but Michonne was more cold natured than many of them and she wasn't ashamed to admit it. If she could have the creature comfort of heat, then it was one that she wanted.

"I'm dreaming over here…do you have to ruin it?" Michonne teased back at him. He laughed in response and snuggled her, growling playfully at her.

"Fine…you right…you got all the right in the world to dream. So I tell ya what…you dream up the perfect damn house…house that's every single thing you want it to be, and if I can't find it for you, I'll build it."

Then it was Michonne's turn to laugh with amusement. She shifted enough so that she remained next to him, his body heat chasing away whatever chill might try to overtake her, but she could see his face as clearly as her eyes adjusted to the dark room would allow.

"You're going to build me a house?" She asked.

He hummed in the affirmative.

"You're going to build me a house, huh? Can you do that?" She asked.

Daryl snorted.

"If I can't…then Ty can," Daryl said. "I ain't too damn sure there's a structure that he can't build…"

Michonne laughed to herself.

"If I didn't know any better…I'd think the two of you were in love with one another," she teased. "He's always praising you…you're always praising him. I'm almost jealous."

Daryl laughed again.

"Like you ain't got enough wives in ya harum to keep you occupied," he muttered.

Michonne smiled to herself at the playful banter.

"So I get my fireplace in the bedroom?" She asked.

She didn't really believe that they were going to end up somewhere and she was going to have some kind of dream house…but it was fun to dream. She didn't doubt that Tyreese could remodel parts of a house, and she didn't doubt that he could add rudimentary rooms and such onto an existing structure, but asking the man to build some house to her specifications would be overkill.

But this was about fun anyway…no one was taking it entirely seriously.

"Yep," Daryl responded. "That's what you want, that's what you'll have…put a fireplace on all four walls and we'll bake during the night if that's what's gonna make ya happy."

Michonne laughed and closed her eyes for a moment when she felt his lips brushing her face gently in the dark.

"Well, if I don't get my fireplace, then I wholeheartedly expect you to kill me enough polar bears that everything I own for the winter can be warm enough to keep me from noticing that I'm ass deep in snow," Michonne teased.

"Got that on the list too," Daryl said with a snort. "Right here…right at the top," he remarked.

Michonne thought about the whole situation for a moment.

They talked a good deal about what they might find, what they hoped to find…all of those things. But the truth was that they had no idea what they were going into. They were simply hoping that banding together with determination to make a life that they lived in their dreams was going to be enough to get them all through this…and maybe see them through to the end.

"You know," Michonne said, "in all seriousness we might not find enough houses…we might have to bunk up while we build to spread out. Not big houses, not like these…but we could build nice little cozy houses…let people spread out and have some space, even if it isn't as much space as we have here."

"We might," Daryl agreed, yawning and sitting up a little.

"What are you after?" Michonne asked.

"Water?" Daryl asked.

Michonne fumbled around in the darkness enough to find the lamp that was on the bedside table with the lighter near it so that she could limit the amount of searching required to light the thing in the almost pitch black that their bedroom achieved in the middle of the night. When the flame flickered to life and the wick was lit, Michonne got out of the bed and crossed the room to the dresser where she had a half pitcher of water and a glass that they shared if they ever wanted water in the so called "after hours."

She filled the glass and brought it Daryl, handing it to him and folding her legs to sit beside him, not as bothered by the cold really as she liked to tease him that she was. He knew it too, but he didn't say anything about it. He drank a long swallow from the glass and then smiled at her with the crooked smile that he had.

"What?" Michonne asked.

Daryl shook his head slightly with a laugh.

"Nothin' 'Chonne," he said. "Just thinkin' you're good to me…get up and out of bed in the arctic just because I tell you I'm thirsty."

Michonne swatted at him and he offered her the glass. She drank down what was left of the water and put the glass on the nightstand, not feeling like making the trek back across the room. She crawled under the cover enough for it offer her some warmth and Daryl moved next to her, wrapping his arm around her shoulder and resting his head against hers while they sat side by side in the bed with nothing to contemplate besides the blanket on the bed.

"You're right about the houses," Daryl said after a moment. "I was teasing a little bit about buildin' you a dream house, but Ty and me already talked about the fact that we likely to end up building something here or there. There ain't no real good chance we just gonna come up on somethin' that's ready-made…hell…this place weren't even ready-made…just easy to forget that."

Michonne bobbed her head.

"But it won't matter," she said. "Honestly…if we all make it there in one piece…if everyone gets there healthy and happy…I won't care what we find. We made this work…we made a prison work. We can make anything work."

Daryl hummed at her again and she moved her face to rub against his a little before she brought her lips to his and held them pressed there, gently, for a moment before pulling away.

"I was thinkin', though, if we gotta build…there ain't no reason we can't take one of the houses we build," Daryl said. "There ain't no reason we can't make it as much like you want it as it can be. Maybe get you a fireplace…a room for Zeb and one for Hope so they ain't gotta be stuck up under each other."

"And one for Judith and one for Isaac," Michonne added quickly.

Daryl sighed somewhat and chewed his lip.

"You serious, then? Because once we get settled…we prob'ly ain't movin' again," Daryl said. "You really wanna commit to livin' in the same house with Carol and Ty for the rest of our lives?"

"You don't?" Michonne asked.

Daryl shrugged.

Michonne knew his face well enough at this point in her life that she could almost have an entire conversation with him without any words at all. And she could immediately tell that he was non-committal on the whole thing. He would swing either way, the call was hers.

"Hell, if that's what you want 'Chonne, I don't care," Daryl said. "But we ain't lived on our own yet…went from the prison to this house and Carol showed up the first damn night."

"She showed up because she didn't have anyone…" Michonne pointed out.

"But now she's got Ty…got Jude…gonna have another kid," Daryl said. "I'm just sayin' she don't need you or me no more."

Michonne nodded her head slowly at him. She knew that…but honestly she'd come to like the way that things were and she'd come to expect them to be that way. She liked the comradery of greeting each other over grumpy babies in the middle of the night or of hearing Carol and Tyreese up at hours when she and Daryl were quiet and in bed.

It wasn't that anyone needed anyone else at all. Just like the fact that Sadie still insisted on living with Mark even though she could have moved in with Rick and made the midnight traipsing back and forth with a swinging lantern that they all teased about obsolete, or like the fact that Jimmy and Junior stuck together like Siamese twins…things weren't always based on need as much as they were simply based on what you were used to and what you were comfortable with, and with the desire not to give up any of that comfort.

"If it doesn't bother you," Michonne said, "I'd like for us all to live together. The kids are good for each other…and I like having them around."

Daryl nodded his head at her with the same lazy manner that she'd used to nod at him.

"I don't care…I mean I just want'cha to know that you ain't gotta feel like we all gotta live together," Daryl said. "Don't bother me none, though. I'm kinda used to it now, to tell the truth."

Michonne smiled.

"And that's the point…we're used to it," she said.

She paused a moment.

"You know…once upon a time…back before I found Andrea…I was more than used to being alone. I had even, I guess, convinced myself that alone was the best thing for me. It was what I wanted…it was almost who I was now. But now? I don't like alone anymore…" Michonne admitted.

"Truth?" Daryl asked stretching out his arms and shoulders somewhat dramatically. Michonne almost felt bad because she could see that her introduction to conversation had stripped him of the sleepiness that he'd been holding onto earlier.

She nodded at him.

"I ain't never liked bein' alone," Daryl said. "I coulda left Merle's sorry ass a couple hundred times if I'd wanted too…I was the one brought in most the money we ever had between us…but I never left him. Reckon I know now it's 'cause I didn't like the idea of bein' alone."

Michonne thought about it a moment and then she laughed to herself, shaking her head at the both of them and the late night confessions that they typically shared with one another.

"What?" Daryl asked. "What you laughin' at?"

She shook her head again.

"Me and you," Michonne admitted. "The two biggest loners out of this whole group…the two…untouchables…and here we are, middle of the night, admitting that neither of us likes being alone at all."

Daryl stared at her a moment, chewing his lip slightly, before his face cracked into a smile. He shrugged.

"Guess sometimes people ain't what they seem," he said. "Sometimes it's easier to try and say you like somethin'…especially if you start thinkin' that's all the hell you gonna get. Makes it…go down easier."

Michonne nodded her head.

"And for a long time," she admitted, "that's what I thought I was going to get…just being alone."

Daryl leaned slightly and kissed her before he moved to wrap his arms around her and pull her body tightly into his, forcing her to change positions quickly not to topple over in the bed and take him with her when she went.

"You ain't never gonna be alone again, 'Chonne…that's a promise," he said. "You can take it to the grave."