Daryl moved swiftly as he maneuvered down the stairs and down the hallway with one thing on his mind. He hoped that Beth wasn't too upset with him for attempting to spare her of getting too close to him and trying to end things between them. He regretted it so much, every word that he had spewed out to her in Beth's cell earlier.

One day he would need to thank Michonne for knocking some much needed sense into him. She was like some of guardian angel who fucking swooped down out of nowhere and put him on the right path when he had tried to stray away.

He promised himself that he was going to find Beth and force himself to lay some of his cards on the table, to tell her exactly what was on his mind and how it concerned him, every stupid worry. No more of his divert around the real issue bullshit.

Beth's cell came back into view, causing Daryl to bunch his hands into fists at his side out of anticipation before letting them relax again. If Daryl had been one to pray he'd be doing that right then because he was going to need all the luck he could get. He pulled the sheet across and his eyes immediately went to Beth, who was lying down on her bed on her side with her arm tucked under her pillow, staring blankly at the floor.

She noticed him, eyes trailing up from the floor to meet his. He gave her a weak smile in hopes that it might help the situation. Beth took her arm out from under the pillow and placed it flat onto the bed and brought herself up, keeping her elbow and forearm on her sheets.

"What are you doin' here?"

The words did not sound angry or malicious. But they did sound upset, and that in turn made Daryl mentally kick himself for being so careless with Beth's feelings before.

Daryl let out a long sigh, shaking his head. "I'm an idiot," he told her.

It was not the best way to start off but he felt the need to let her know that he was aware the status he put himself in a few hours ago.

"Don't say that."

"No, really, I am. I didn't mean—I didn't want you to think—damn it! I don't know what to say," he stammered in a frustrated voice. For once, he would have loved to be able to construct a proper sentence together that would relay how he felt on the inside. It was too new to him that his brain didn't work that way yet. "I don't know how to deal with all this, Beth."

Beth swung her legs around and got up from her bed, keeping close to it. She leaned the back of her head against the metal of the top bunk and crossed one arm over her stomach so that her hand latched onto her other elbow. "Did you mean what you said earlier? That you thought I deserved better and that we shouldn't be doin' this?"

Daryl sighed for a second time, his hands fidgeting at his side with the worn material of his pants. "Meant it when I said it. You do deserve better, but I don't think there is a way for me to give ya up without goin' crazy."

He felt somewhat addicted to this girl, addicted to her presence around him and how she made him feel on the inside.

"Why do think so little of yourself?" Beth asked, eyebrows furrowing in desperate interest. "How could you even think for a second that you don't deserve me? Don't put me on a pedestal, Daryl. It's one of the worst things you could do."

Why do think so little of yourself?

Memories flood back to him. All of the bad memories that he had dealt with all throughout his life, all the way from early childhood up until he met the group.

The things that haunted him.

He decided to speak the truth. "Done so much bad stuff in my life. Stuff I regret. You don't know the half of it. If you did, you'd be appalled." He stopped for a brief moment and then added, "My life was never easy and I thought that I could spare you of the details of all of it. Thought I could keep you from bein' hurt. Thought I wouldn't be enough for you."

Beth was not going to have any of that. She stared directly at him, and he is not even sure if she blinked when she opened her mouth to speak. "I'm tellin' you right now that none of that matters. The past is in the past and there's nothin' that anyone can do to change it. You gotta let all that stuff go. It ain't worth it. And you are enough for me! All I need is you just the way you are. We can figure this out together. I know we can. "

"Don't ya think that you're too young for me?" he abruptly questioned her, curious as to how she see saw the age difference to be.

Beth's eyes drifted up to the ceiling and then back to him. He could have sworn that he saw a brief flicker of light in her eyes and a partial smile before she stated, "Age ain't something that worries me, Daryl. Especially not in this world. Everything is different. Haven't you ever heard that if two people have a connection then stuff like age doesn't matter?"

"Age don't matter?" he restated. "People say that but they don't really believe it."

"Oh, really? Can you read minds now?"

He shook his head no.

"Then how could you possibly know what other people think? Or what people might think?"

"What I think is that your dad would have a problem with it," he said again, relaying an inner fear of his.

That fear of not being accepted.

Beth took a few steps closer to him. "He won't have a problem with it. He likes you a lot. It's not like we gotta go around tellin' people our business straight away. And for your information, Daryl Dixon, my mother was fifteen years younger than my dad," she told him. "So even if he didn't like this then he doesn't exactly have a lot of room to argue. But I'm tellin' you that he will be happy. I don't know why you don't believe that."

Beth grabbed ahold of his hand and squeezed. "I didn't expect this, me and you. And now there's too much to lose. I don't wanna fight this. I don't think you want to either."

"I don't," he affirmed.

Beth drew in a long inhale of air before she let it back out, grabbing his other hand in the process. "I ain't like we gotta define anythin' right this minute. Stop your worryin'. All I want is to get to know you, Daryl. Is that a crime?"

No, it wasn't a crime. But the thing is that no one had ever taken the time to get to know him before. People thought that they knew him and they didn't. So hearing that come from Beth was an anomaly.

Beth leaned in and whispered, "I like how I feel when I'm around you."

Yeah. He got the same feeling when he was around Beth.

"Don't give up on this," she said in the same whisper. "Please."

"I won't," he finally said.

Beth inched forward, expecting him to close the distance. Daryl put his hands onto her sides and drew her in, lips crashing against each other. Beth moved her hand to his neck, the other grabbing onto the collar of his shirt. This kiss felt the same as the first one, still breath-taking. Daryl doubted that it would ever feel different than that.

The electric shock that traveled through his body that instant made him partially smile as he worked his lips against Beth's more passionately than the first time. She lightly pushed him back into the wall and pressed her body against his. Daryl ran his tongue along her bottom lip until she let him enter her mouth. She tasted sweet along with a hint of mint from whatever toothpaste she used.

He could get used to that.

He got bolder, flipping them around so that Beth was the one who was pressed into the wall. His hand had a mind of its own because it trailed down the length of her back and pushed up the end of her camisole so that his palm and fingers could feel the skin of her lower back as he pressed her into the wall.

He never really put much thought into how Beth's body seemed to fit against his so nicely. Perfectly. Like it had always been meant to be there.

He removed his lips from her mouth and placed them onto her cheek, her jaw, and then her neck, swirling his tongue on her skin as he kissed his way to the bottom of her neck, an inch above her collarbone. He sucked hard, nipping at the skin, not thinking about the bruise he would end up giving her.

"I missed this."

"Hm," was what he replied with to agree, not really able to form words yet, and not wanting to take his mouth off of her delicate skin.

In the hallway, voices came in their direction.

"Will you take a walk with me? It's nice outside today. It'll be more private."

He pulled away to meet her eyes. Beth's hand reached up and brushed against his jaw, which he leaned into. "Yeah."

—

The world seemed brighter. That's what having Beth by his side did for him—changed his perception.

There was a comfortable silence between them as they walked the perimeter side by side. The air had a crisp autumn smell to it. It was the first time that Daryl noticed the change in color on the trees that were on the outside of the prison, turning from the warm summer green to a light shade of yellow.

There was a breeze that blew through, sweeping Beth's hair back because she took it out of her ponytail to keep her ears warm from the brisk wind, though she claimed it was because he had said he liked her hair down. She had thrown on a clean white sweater to go outside which only accentuated her pale complexion and the brightness of her blonde hair against the sun's rays that beamed down from above.

Like he said, everything was brighter.

He got lost in the thought of why Beth would want to be with him, when she was perfect in every aspect. He then pushed it away, knowing that Beth would not want him to think that way. No pedestal, he tried to remind himself. It would be hard to not place her so high up, so out of reach. He believed that was where she belonged; Beth did not seem to think so.

Those ideas would not be entirely eradicated from his brain but he could at least try to keep them hidden away.

Beth finally broke the silence.

"I wanna ask you somethin'."

"Sure," he replied.

After a day like that one, she could ask all the questions she wanted to.

"Before all of this, did you have anyone? Like a wife or a girlfriend? You don't have to answer that if I'm prying too much."

Daryl knew it was only a matter of time until this question was brought up. He thought back to the inquiry. There was not one point in his life where he ever had a girlfriend. One night stands where he left afterwards was the farthest he ever went, never even sleeping at women's place before. He didn't let himself get attached to anyone.

Until now.

"I look like I've ever had either?" Daryl awkwardly questioned back. This was not something he normally talked about. Ever.

"Don't answer a question with a question," she frivolously remarked. "But…not one?"

"No. Why I'm shit at this kind of stuff. I don't know what I'm doin'."

"What stuff?"

He motioned to the two of them. "This. Us."

Beth came to an abrupt halt as they neared the corner of the fence, far from anyone else or the noise from the handful of walkers that were along the fences. She gazed out beyond the fence for a minute before she glanced back over to him with a sparkle in her blue eyes. "I like that," she said with a wide smile that lite up her face. "Us."

"Stop," he whined. Most likely he was not very convincing because of the smirk that forced its way onto his face. He couldn't help it; he was happy.

Beth got onto her toes and lightly kissed him before she pulled back away and planted herself onto the ground again. "Never," she whispered.

A/N: I just uploaded the first chapter of a new story about Beth and Daryl starting in season 2 called Curiosity because I couldn't wait any longer to post it. So you can go check that out if you'd like. And please tell me what you think about it :) I didn't think there was enough season 2 bethyl fics out there and the inspiration hit me.

On a side note, I had some writer's block with this chapter. I kept pushing off writing it because I couldn't get any words down. But here it is. I'm not one hundred percent happy with it but if I do any more re-rewriting my brain will be fried beyond repair. But I promise you will really like the next chapter!