Author's Note: I apologize preemptively.
Oh, and I still own nothing from the Walking Dead. I just enjoy making the characters do interesting things.
Daryl walked back into his room, leaving the door open for Rick to follow.
As he was waiting for the drunken man to make his way up the stairs and stumble into his room, Daryl took a deep breath and walked to his dresser. He pulled out the top drawer and dug through his cut off flannel shirts to find the emergency reserve flask he had stashed at the bottom.
As Rick's footsteps grew closer, Daryl chugged the entire thing down. He was determined to have this over and done with. When Rick finally stumbled into the room, it was clear he felt the same way.
He immediately headed straight for Daryl, who tossed the empty flask back into the drawer and turned just as Rick reached him. Daryl didn't even have time to exhale before Rick had crushed his lips into his own, and stuck his whiskey-soaked tongue halfway down his soon-to-be lover's throat.
The kiss was angry, furious, even. Daryl had seen scorned lovers time and time again. They always had this…urgency about them, this need to be wanted, satisfied and pleasured all for the sake of feeling like they're still capable of those feelings.
But when Rick began backing him up against his dresser, Daryl's temper flared. If he was doing this, he sure as fucking hell wasn't going to be the bottom.
And so, Daryl broke the kiss, and shoved Rick angrily towards the bed before he ripped off his flannel shirt and tossed it aside. Rick, dizzied by the sudden movement, kept still from his spot sitting on the bed, if only to stop his head from spinning.
Daryl came to stand before him, gripping Rick's hair and roughly forcing his head back, allowing Daryl perfect access to his neck. Daryl bit down on Rick's neck- hard. In some way, deep down, Daryl resented Rick. He didn't do men. He just didn't.
And here was this sorry fuck, who couldn't keep a handle on his wife, so now he had to deal with him?
"Shoulda just gone on up to Shane, the three of them could've had a reunion party." Daryl thought.
Rick grabbed Daryl by his head and flipped him back onto the bed, landing easily on top of him. For a hammered guy, Rick was proving to be quite coordinated. Rick took advantage of Daryl's surprise and pinned his hands down on either side of his head. For the moment, Daryl allowed it.
Rick once again crushed his lips against Daryl's, but made it a point to bite down on Daryl's lower lip hard enough to draw blood; payback for the nasty lovebite the other man left on his neck.
His kiss was sloppy, slurred and getting more so by the second. Daryl was getting impatient; he needed this to be over already. Daryl broke Rick's hold on his hands, which wasn't difficult considering how intoxicated he was, and quickly went to work unbuttoning his shirt as Rick worked his way down Daryl's neck, biting, kissing, and sucking at his tanned skin.
Daryl's fingers fumbled over the buttons; he tried to pass it off to the fact that he'd never had to unbutton another person's shirt before, with women he usually just pulled it over their heads…but the truth was that Daryl couldn't focus a damn bit on what his fingers were doing while his neck was being practically assaulted by all parts of Rick's mouth.
Finally, Daryl had had enough. He ripped Rick's shirt the rest of the way down and from there reached down to undo his own jeans. As soon as he got his fly open, he flipped Rick back on the bottom, but he didn't stop there. Daryl forcibly flipped Rick onto his stomach, and hoisted his ass up in the air.
Daryl ground his hips against Rick's ass, letting him know just what he was in for.
But just before Daryl pulled Rick's jeans down, a man's scream echoed through the building. Usually, screams were ignored in this house, for obvious reasons.
But this scream was followed by another one, "FIRE!" It was clearly Dale's voice, and it grew closer as two sets of footsteps sprinted down the hall past Daryl's room.
Daryl let go of Rick's jeans and backed off of him. Rick turned to look at Daryl and the two of them just stared, breathless and dazed.
Daryl turned and walked to his door. Swinging it open wide, he spotted Dale in the foyer with nothing but a pair of tighty whiteys on. He was looking at the obviously burned arm of a man, who was also barely clothed.
Merle came running up the stairs, heading towards Dale's room with a fire extinguisher. "Merle, what's going on?" he asked as he passed.
"Are you deaf or just stupid?" he asked as he ran past him.
Daryl looked back in the room to see Rick was putting his torn flannel shirt back on and getting ready to leave. Daryl ground his teeth together before he took off down the stairs. "What the fuck did you do!?" Daryl said as he shoved Dale away from the man who was staring at his burn with a grimace.
Shane came down the stairs in a pair of cargo pants, helping a thin looking man down the stairs. The man was clearly having trouble walking straight, and it wasn't difficult to figure out why. Tyreese and Glenn were not far behind them with their own customers; Tyreese escorted a woman who had clearly rushed to throw her dress back on and Glenn was walking quickly away from his customer, who still wore the eye patch.
Glenn tried to keep his distance from the 'governor'.
Dale stuttered as his housemates began to gather around him, none of them looking particularly happy. "I-I-I just lit some candles for the customer and-"
"No candles," Glenn said, "you know that."
"My customer wanted candles," Dale disputed, "he's got some kind of fire fetish, I don't know."
Shane pointed his finger in Dale's face, "I'll skin you alive for this, Dale." Dale's bushy eyebrows furrowed, he looked mortified.
Rick finally came down the stairs, and kept his eyes locked on Daryl as he joined the other customers on the far side of the room. Tyreese caught a glimpse of the eye patch and knew it was the governor immediately. He leaned over to Glenn. "So, how about them politics?" he said.
They all tried desperately to keep their laughs in, lest their customers catch wise to their gossiping ways.
They all bit their lips trying to keep from laughing, all except Daryl, who was staring across the room at the man with the icy blue eyes which were staring back at him.
For a moment, everything around Daryl disappeared, and he was back in his dream, just staring across the ballroom at the same man before him now.
Daryl was pulled from this thought by the sound of Merle's raspy voice coming from the top of the stairs. He tossed the empty fire extinguisher aside, "Well, ladies and gentlemen," he said, taking one heavy step down the first stair, "the fire is out." He said, looking over at Dale with a dark gleam in his eye.
As soon as he turned back to the customers, that look was gone.
"If you would like to return to your…business," Merle struggled to find the word, "then you are welcome to. Otherwise, I will offer each of you another visit at your convenience, free of charge." The words came out easily, but Daryl could tell the Merle was fighting those words to the end.
Several of the customers returned upstairs to collect their possessions and be on their way. The night was ruined, all thanks to Dale and his candles.
Daryl watched as Rick, instead of heading back upstairs, took his leave out the front entrance. Shane caught sight of him leaving, and eyed his housemates in wide eyed suspicion. He obviously hadn't taken note of whose customer Rick was.
That mystery was quickly solved though when each patron was led back up the stairs by their lovers and Daryl walked over to the bar instead.
Shane bit his tongue when he saw this, but led his customer back up to his room and said nothing of it.
One by one, the patrons of the night descended the stairs and said goodbye to their escorts at the door and were off into the night.
And, one by one, the housemates gathered by the bar, each one pulling out their choice of spirits and drinking them down. It took them a few minutes to realize something was missing.
"Where's Glenn?" Tyreese finally asked.
A loud and pained grunt sounded from upstairs and the four of them broke into a fit of laughter that lasted several minutes. Daryl even laughed, which was unusual for him.
"Poor kid," Dale said as their laughter died down.
"Man, Merle shoulda thrown you in with him for that dumb shit," Shane grumbled.
The two of them began to bicker but Daryl could scarcely hear them. He was lost in thoughts.
Thoughts of Rick Grimes, thoughts of his lips on Daryl's neck and his teeth biting at his skin. Something about it was so... he couldn't even think of a word for it.
All Daryl knew was that a part of him wished that he would take Merle up on his offer.
And soon.