As the weather got colder, Daryl and Beth heated up. For the most part, they sneaked around, going undetected for weeks in a row—that is, by everyone but Michonne. She knew the truth from the beginning but neither Daryl nor Beth were worried about that. Michonne wasn't one to gossip.
"I kinda like being rebellious," Beth exclaimed to him days ago as she dragged him into the empty and dark library by his vest after dinner to get some privacy, kissing him until both of their lips were red and raw.
Beth had gone on to tell him stories about how Maggie had gone through a long rebellious stage when she was a young teenager. Beth told him about how she would sneak out of the house to go to parties or to see a boy who she had claimed was just a friend by climbing out her window to stay out late, only to sneak back in the house when everyone was asleep and it was in the early morning hours.
Beth told him about how sometimes Maggie would shoplift little things like bottles of nail polish and other girl stuff from convenience stores. Maggie tried even smoking—a number of things—in an attempt to be defiant, which did not work out very well because Maggie loathed the way her lungs gave out when she tried to smoke. It kind of surprised him when Beth said that; he never saw Maggie as the type to try all that stuff out. But then again, she had been pissed that her father had married another woman after her mother died, so he guessed he couldn't blame her.
Beth never did any of that stuff. Never had a rebellious phase or had the chance to go through a rebellious streak in her teenage years, and Daryl never saw that in her nature either.
But apparently sneaking around with him into the darker corners of the prison was what Beth deemed as being rebellious.
"You're such a badass," Daryl had replied into her neck while he had kissed her in that library after she had made that statement.
He found it endearing how she had squealed at what he said.
A few nights later Daryl was beat. The day had gone by fast, walkers building up around the fences and almost everyone had been outside to help maintain the level of walkers that kept on approaching. Beth had been right by him the whole time, dirty and out of breath from repeated walker kills. He saw the light muscle tone that formed in her arms from being at the fences more.
He was not going to lie, it was hot. Seeing her like that, with the filthy grime all over her and Beth not having a care about it made his body go up in flames so he had to turn away and finish his portion of walkers before he got too excited.
It was late now and he had just got done the last perimeter check by himself. He slowly dragged himself in towards a door that would bring him inside. That was before Beth appeared out of nowhere. She grabbed his hand and pulled him into a dark shadow of the outside of the prison, a place where no one would think to look for them or stumble upon them by accident without Daryl and Beth first being alerted by the noise of other due to the way the walls echoed.
Perfect way to end a long day.
Beth grabbed onto the top part of his shirt and pulled him against her, and he gladly pinned her between him and the prison wall behind her, dropping his crossbow to the ground in the process. He let out sharp breath, the air cool enough that he could see it as he exhaled.
He enjoyed being this close to her. The moonlight played across her face from the side and he saw every feature. Every faint freckle across her cheeks, every tint of a lighter shade of blue in her eyes, every line in her face when she smiled at him, allowing her pearly white teeth to flash.
Fuck, she's gorgeous.
He lunged forward, mouth attacking hers as he thoroughly outlined every part of her mouth as if he was trying to memorize it. Her hands gripped his collar tighter as he slid his hands down her sides and to her thighs, where he then slid them underneath and picked her up, pinning her into the wall again. Beth's thin legs immediately wrapped around his waist.
For being so skinny she sure had strong thighs; a tease to him.
His mind went to other places—like Beth naked and underneath him as those thighs clenched onto him. They had not gone that far yet. They hadn't even taken off any articles of clothes but that was good, for once. They agreed on taking things slow.
But the thing is that right then all Daryl could see, touch, feel, and breathe was Beth. Taking things slow did not seem to be working out the easiest, for either of them that is. Because Beth dove her hand into his long hair and pulled tight against the strands as he dug into her hips with his fingers and drew unique patterns on her neck with his mouth and tongue.
He mildly shoved against her again, in desperate need of some friction. It was not rough at all but it was enough for Beth let out a small sigh into his ear that bordered on the sound of a moan.
And fuck he was a goner.
He was lost in her world.
It was only when they heard the sound of two people walking towards the area that they were hidden away in that Daryl tore himself away from her and dropped Beth firmly back onto the ground as he reached to grab his crossbow. She grabbed his hand and weaved them through the outside prison walls that broke off at various points and led to newer, darker places that they would make a mental note of to come back to one night in the future.
Beth giggled as she turned back to make sure that they were alone again and whoever had been out and about around the prison had not come in the direction she had guided them in.
Okay, so maybe he did like this whole sneaking around thing. It was interesting. Kept him on his toes.
"That was close," she breathed out. "We might need to get more creative next time."
Next time.
He was fortunate that there was going to be a next time.
Beth pushed him into another wall and kissed him on the lips for a few seconds before she turned around on the heels of her boots and ran off to get inside before someone came looking for her. "I'll come find you tomorrow," she called back to him, still keeping her voice quiet.
Daryl leaned his head back on the cold wall and watched her leave, her long legs moving fast to get inside and out of the air that was now much colder than when they were pressed into each other.
He breathed in that same chilly late fall air, around mid-November as Beth believed, and held it in his lungs for a few seconds before he let it back out.
How did he get to be so lucky?
—
Daryl was in Beth's cell because hers was near the end of the row, with no one on either side of her so it offered up more privacy when they didn't feel like going somewhere else; when they needed to attack each other's mouths right then and there and could not wait a second longer to go someplace different, especially out into the windy and rainy weather Georgia had been experiencing in the last few days.
There was a constant rainstorm going on outside, which didn't bother anyone because it seemed to keep the walkers at bay. No one knew why walkers stopped showing up at their doorstep when the air was filled with thunder and lightning and downpours of rain, but they did. Maybe it was the noise of the loud thunder that confused their one track brains into thinking food was elsewhere. Or maybe the sound of the rain overshadowed any noise that the group made at the prison, making the prison seem invisible to the rotten bastards.
Like he gave a fuck why. It didn't really matter. All that mattered was that none of them had to be outside in the pouring rain as they tried to fight off massive amounts of walkers that threatened the fences.
No, instead Daryl got to be in Beth's cell with the sheet pulled across the cell entry, in her bed and on top of her, kissing her lips until they were red and swollen, much like his own at that point.
He knew he would never get tired of that.
A loud crack of thunder came from overhead, startling Beth. "Never really liked the thunder," she explained her sudden jolt.
A few seconds later more lightening came, making the room brighter for a fraction of a second. Daryl saw Beth's face even better when the lightening flashed through the windows as rain pounded against them. There were a few candles on the far table that had been lite, not to be romantic or anything like that, only to be able to see since the sky was so dark and it was not like they had electricity at the prison.
But then again, there kind of was a romantic vibe to it. Daryl didn't mind that.
"Never really liked the lightening part either," she admitted, biting her lip. "I used to crawl into bed with Maggie when was younger because it scared me."
He smirked down at her, pushing a few strands of unruly hairs out of her face. "You're in bed with me."
"I am," she smoothly cooed. "And I'm not scared. You make me feel safe."
He loved that he could provide that for her; the feeling of safety and security in his arms. He dipped his head back down to more delicately brush his nose on her jawline before he pressed his lips onto them.
All was great until he did something stupid.
The usual thing that happened to him—ruining something good.
Beth brought her hands onto the back of his shirt and let the descend until they were at the end, hands pushing underneath the frayed edges of his long sleeved flannel shirt, and dipped her hands underneath. The soft pads of her fingers rested at the base of his spine, threatening to go further up his torn up back.
Daryl reached behind and grabbed her wrists and pinned them down at her sides before he even realized that he had done it. Damn. He was so used to keeping them hidden. He would always swat women's hands away when they tried to get underneath his shirt or his vest. He had never meant to do the same to Beth, it was simply a habit. One that was ingrained into him.
"Sorry," he apologized, letting go of the grasp he had on her wrists, which three fingers had ironically been touching the scar across her left one.
He felt embarrassed about his strong adverse reaction.
"Daryl," she whispered. "Look at me."
He did.
Beth's hands cupped his face as she ran her thumbs across his check tenderly. "You don't have to hide them, Daryl. Not from me. They don't define you. They don't define who you are. And you don't need to keep them from me."
And wow is that not the best thing he has ever been told in his life.
That Beth Greene always knew exactly what to say to him.
He stared into her eyes momentarily, too shocked to say anything back. She must have felt one of the scars on his lower back and made the connection.
With a sigh, he got off of her and swung his legs around the side of the bed so his feet were planted on the floor and he sat up, keeping his back facing Beth. He mustered up the courage to let his fingers undue the buttons of his shirt. He shrugged off his shirt and let it fall back onto the bed. He felt bare, naked, raw to the core. No one but him had ever seen his scars, not even his own brother.
Sharing this with Beth was big for him.
Huge.
Massive.
Words could hardly express the enormity of what he did in that moment.
And it might just be one of the bravest things he had ever done in his entire existence up until this point in time.
His shoulders cave in at first, slightly nervous about this and slightly uncomfortable that his biggest secret was now revealed and on display for Beth to see with her innocent eyes. Now she would see the darkness of his past, of his childhood. She would understand why he was bad with the whole human connection and human contact thing.
He hated the disfigurements that were left over on his back, his constant reminder of a terrible childhood that left him afraid to be close to people. Because when the people who were supposed to love you and care for you instead disregard for your well-being and write you off as nothing, physically and mentally and emotionally abuse you, that does not put you in the best position to become a good person. You can't be normal after that shit.
And Daryl was anything but normal.
That uncomfortable feeling that put pressure on his chest went away by Beth's calming touch. Her hand trickled over his back with the faintest movements. He felt her finger trace the outline of one of the many scars that riddled his back from the beatings of a leather belt that tore up his skin.
He closed his eyes as her warm lips suddenly brushed over his skin, over another one of his hideous scars. Her kisses trailed down the length of the scar, forcing him to swallow hard, shocked by how good it felt.
"They are a part of you," she murmured onto his skin. "Don't be ashamed of them."
Daryl tilted his head back in pleasure as Beth's lips worked up to his shoulder as her fingers explored the new territory of his exposed back. He could feel the breaths that was being expelled out of her mouth as her lips danced on his skin.
More lightning struck and thunder clapped through the sky, but neither of them paid any attention to the storm that was raging outside.
Beth stopped and brought herself up so she could rest her weight onto her knees. Beth brought her arms up so that they were brought over his shoulders and she wrapped her arms around him, forearms crossing over the top of his chest as she pressed her body into his back. She rested the side her head against his own, rubbing her cheek on his. He turned to kiss her, a reassuring kiss that told him that Beth was not afraid of the scars that he had or the past that plagued him. She would take him how he was and care for him no matter what.
He didn't have to hide.
A/N: I can't believe this story hit 200 followers! It's mind-blowing to me. I am so grateful for everyone who follows, favorites, reviews, and reads!