I needed some fluff so of course, I wrote a new chapter for the Dixon family. This is my go-to fluff universe and honestly, I see this story being a hundred chapters just because it makes me happy when I write it.

…

Chapter Sixteen. Birthday.

He kissed her slowly as if he was the prince, waking Sleeping Beauty up from her slumber. He kissed her as if they had all of the time in the world and she supposed that maybe they did. He laid over her, his body on top of hers but careful not to crush her beneath him; not that she would care if he did crush her because Beth always said that her favorite place in the world was in bed, beneath Daryl.

The sounds of the city woke them up; sounds they weren't used to hearing every other morning in their farmhouse. Cars honking and bells ringing and people shouting in the street to others as they walked past and the rushing of water in the fountain outside their room in the hotel's open courtyard.

It was an unplanned weekend.

Daryl had to go to New Orleans, meeting with a potential customer who wanted to talk with him about building a gazebo, and it just happened to be the weekend of Beth's thirty-first birthday. Beth hadn't been expecting anything for her birthday. After all, she was just turning thirty-one. It wasn't like it was a milestone birthday like her thirtieth had been the year before. She had just been expecting a nicer dinner that she didn't have to cook for celebration and that would be that. But Daryl had suggested she come to New Orleans with him and they make a weekend out of it and how could she refuse that?

They had gotten a room in a hotel just a block away from Bourbon Street and as it was October, it wasn't the height of tourist season so the French Quarter wasn't nearly as packed as it was during Mardi Gras or spring break.

Beth moaned softly as her fingers slowly tunneled through his hair and Daryl shifted on top of her, kissing her with a bit more pressure.

The day before, Daryl had been working, meeting with the client and discussing plans for the gazebo that was wanted, and Beth had spent her day, walking around the neighborhood, going into the shops, buying little souvenirs for her family, and eating beignets and had almost signed up for a walking haunted New Orleans tour but decided she didn't want to do that one without Daryl. Maybe for her birthday, they could do that together.

Daryl's lips slid down to the side of her throat and she tilted her head to the side, giving him better access to the expanse of sensitive skin. She moaned his name softly and her hands slid from his hair down his back.

In all of their years together, they have never gone away – just the two of them. They had gone to Atlanta but that was to get married and certainly didn't count and after that, they just stayed in their small town and lived their life together. When the kids came, there were day trips back to Atlanta or the couple of weekends to Savannah but Daryl and Beth had never been anywhere on their own. It was somewhat unbelievable that in all of these years together, there had never been an instance of them just getting away and spending some time alone.

Beth reminded herself that she didn't necessarily have to be quiet but it was habit and when her thighs parted further open and Daryl thrust inside of her for the first time that morning, her gasp was soft. Her legs instantly wound around his waist as he began pumping himself in and out of her and she kissed him, her mouth open and panting against him.

Again, Daryl moved slowly, taking his time, making love to her, and Beth whimpered and moaned softly and held onto him as tightly as if she was trying to keep him from every moving away from her. And when he was nearing his own end, Daryl dove his hand between their bodies to touch Beth and bring her right along with him.

In the minutes afterward, they laid there, panting, their sweaty bodies sticking together, and Beth closed her eyes, feeling her heart race in her chest and Daryl's warm exhales of breath on her cheek.

"We need to be more careful," Daryl mumbled as he slowly slipped off of her and all but collapsed beside her.

Beth cracked her eyes open and turned her head, looking at him, the question silent.

He smirked a little. "'m not lookin' to have a fourth. Are you?"

She laughed then softly and shook her head. "Not at the moment," she agreed.

Her answer only made Daryl raise his eyebrows. "At the moment?" He questioned.

She laughed again and rolled closer to him, lying on her stomach and resting her chin on his chest. Her index finger began tracing the tattoo of her name that he had over his heart. "You know what I mean," she said softly, her eyes sliding shut again.

His fingers moved through her hair, fiddling with the strands. "What do you wanna do today? 's your day."

Beth smiled, looking at him, finding his eyes already settled on her. "I want to eat crab cakes, drink margaritas, listen to some jazz music and go to a haunted house."

"That all?" He smirked.

"But first, we need to go to Café du Monde and eat beignets for breakfast," Beth said, pushing herself up into a sitting position.

"The guy yesterday told me that if you come to New Orleans, you need to go there at least once," Daryl said, sitting up, too.

"This will be my third time," she smiled.

He looked at her. "We haven't even been here twenty-four hours yet," he said but she just smiled a little wider and shrugged.

She took a shower and wrapping herself in the hotel's white fluffy robe, she returned to the bed, sitting down and dialing home. Maggie and Glenn had actually volunteered to watch the children for the weekend, Maggie explaining that she and Glenn wanted to get some practice of taking care of children. Daryl grumbled that after watching their kids, they would decide right quick to never have any of their own but Glenn had little sisters growing up and he had just shrugged. The Dixon kids could be a little wild but how bad could it be for just a couple of days?

"Hello?" Maggie answered, sounding breathless.

"Hi, Maggie," Beth smiled.

"Hey! Happy Birthday!" She exclaimed. "How's New Orleans?"

"Wonderful. And Daryl was able to have his meeting yesterday so we're spending the day together. I have it all planned out," Beth answered. "How is everything going there?" She asked, trying to listen for the kids in the background.

"Good, good," Maggie replied. "No deaths yet."

"Well, that's good," Beth laughed a little.

"Abby got up in the middle of the night to come to Glenn and me and she had trouble falling back asleep."

"In the closet or under the bed this time?" Beth asked. Abby was going through a monster phase, convinced there were at least two living in her bedroom no matter how many times Beth and Daryl checked every nook and cranny of the room, showing her that there was nothing there.

"Outside this time. Right outside her window," Maggie said. "We sat up with her in the living room and watched a couple of Disney movies. She fell asleep again eventually and she's outside with Luke and Hunter right now."

"Is it that bullfrog again?"

"Yep. They're pretty determined to catch it."

"They'll probably be out there until lunch," Beth said. "They're obsessed with catching it. I'm afraid Kyle will get to it first and kill it."

"Kyle went into the woods a while ago and hasn't been back since."

"He'll come back. He always does. Probably with a present for you."

"I can't wait to see what it is," Maggie laughed.

Beth lifted her eyes when Daryl stepped from the bathroom, fresh from the shower, and went to his bag on the floor, grabbing a pair of boxers, tugging them on.

"Well, tell them all that Daryl and I said hi," Beth said.

"I will. And I hope you have an awesome birthday," Maggie replied.

"I will," Beth answered with confidence before ending the call. "No disasters yet," she then told him, looking back to him.

Daryl smirked. "Day's just startin'," he said, sitting down on the edge of the bed to tug on some socks.

Beth returned the phone to its cradle and then crawled to him, kneeling behind him and slipping her arms around his shoulders. Her lips brushed against his ear.

"I don't think you should get dressed yet," she murmured to him.

Daryl turned his head to look at her, smirking a little. "What should I be doin' instead?" He asked her.

She smiled faintly. "You should take off your socks."

…

They sat at one of the outdoor tables at the café, drinking cups of coffee and sharing a couple of beignets between them, listening to a man playing a saxophone on the corner. It had drizzled the night before and the sidewalks still glistened with water in the morning sun. The streets weren't too busy yet and Daryl sank a little lower in his chair, sipping his coffee and looking at Beth across the small round table, reading a pamphlet she had taken from the hotel's lobby.

"It's supposed to be the most haunted house in New Orleans. Some of it has been renovated into lofts but a large portion of it has been turned into a museum," Beth said, ripping off a corner of a beignet and bringing it to her mouth as she turned to the back of the pamphlet. "It's terrible, what this woman did to her slaves."

"And you wanna go hear about it on your birthday?" Daryl asked. This was the girl who buried her face in his chest if a scene in a movie was too dark, convinced that something, at any second, was going to jump out and scare her.

"Yep," Beth smiled. "I want to do things today that we wouldn't be able to do otherwise. Today is all about you and me, enjoying our first weekend away alone."

Daryl ripped off a piece of the beignet and popped it into his mouth. He hadn't really thought about it like that but then he wondered why he hadn't. In all the years they had been together, they had never been away like this – just the two of them. They hadn't even taken a honeymoon together after getting married in Atlanta one night years earlier. He wondered how all of this time had gotten away from them without doing something like this sooner.

After finishing their breakfast and drinking the rest of their coffees, they left the café and headed down the street, Beth instantly reaching for his hand, twining their fingers together. It was too early for crab cakes and margaritas so they headed towards the haunted house of Madame LaLaurie. The first tour didn't start for another few minutes so they headed into a nearby shop filled with the typical New Orleans tourist merchandise.

Daryl had never really been on vacation before. His trips to Savannah and Atlanta had always been for seeing to his wood-working jobs – or to get married – and had never been taken just to take it. This trip to New Orleans, it was the first time he had ever been out of Georgia and he looked to Beth looking at a rack of hooded sweatshirts. When people went on vacation, didn't they buy useless shit like shot glasses and postcards? He wasn't entirely sure why but he suddenly had an idea of him and Merle coming back one day during alligator season. Alligators in Louisiana were as plentiful as deer in Georgia and he didn't think Merle had ever taken an actual vacation either.

"Oh, I like these," Beth said, looking at a display of different braided bracelets. Daryl came to stand beside her and take a look and Beth smiled, slipping one onto his wrist before slipping one onto her own.

"Don't really think I'm a bracelet kind of guy," Daryl smirked a little but he didn't make a move to take it off and he paid for both bracelets before they left the store.

There were a few other people on the tour with them as the guide walked them through the house, telling about the woman and all of the horrors that had happened within these walls. Beth was pressed into his side for most of the time, half-expecting to see a ghost at any time, and his arm was draped casually around her shoulders, looking around at the way the house was decorated and wondering why rich people spent their money on such ornate crap like this.

Beth shuddered as soon as they stepped outside into the sunshine again. "It is definitely time for a drink," she said and Daryl smirked, reaching for her hand first this time, and they headed back down the street.

Bourbon Street was lined with bars, most with neon advertisements of margaritas hanging in the windows, and Beth pulled him into a random corner bar where she could hear music from inside. They sat at the bar and Beth ordered a margarita and Daryl ordered himself a glass of bourbon. They ate crab cakes and fried alligator and listened to the band already playing on the stage even though it was just a little past one in the afternoon.

"I think I want to do this next year, too, for my birthday," Beth said. "Just us, going somewhere we've never been before."

Daryl nodded, taking a sip of his drink. "Whatever you want," he said.

"And what about you? What do you want to do for your birthday this year?" She asked. "You're turning the big 4-4."

"Wasn't aware that was a big birthday," he said, grabbing another piece of alligator.

Beth didn't respond to that. "You know, when I first married you, that was one of the things Maggie had such a problem with. Our age difference. She thought you were too old for me."

"Your sister wasn' the only one who thought that," Daryl grumbled a little.

Beth continued as if she hadn't heard him. "I told her though that when I was in my thirties and you were in your forties, it wouldn't matter anymore. And it doesn't. Age differences really don't matter the older you get."

"If you say so," he replied.

"I do say so," Beth said and nudged his knee with hers. "Do you still think I'm too young for you?" She asked.

During their time together, before they got married and even after they did, she knew it was one of the things – the many things – Daryl had had a doubt over. More with himself than with her. Always thinking he wasn't good enough for her. Too old and too poor and how she could do a million times better with any other guy than him.

It had taken a long time but he had worked through all of that. Or at least, she thought he had. Hadn't they been together long enough for no more doubts to remain in that thick skull of his?

Daryl looked at her for a moment and then shook his head. "Nah," he said, taking another bite of alligator. "I think it's pretty damn obvious who the mature one between us is."

"And the smart one," she teased him with a smile.

He smirked and she leaned in and kissed him. He ordered her another margarita and another bourbon for himself.

"Trying to get me drunk?" She smiled before draining the rest of her first.

"Yeah," he nodded without pause. "I've always known that I have to get you drunk if I want you to have sex with me."

Beth snorted and then covered her mouth with her hand, laughing and blushing with embarrassment, and Daryl gave one of those rare actual smiles of his. She didn't have to remind him who made the first move before the first time they slept together. She had been so nervous before she kissed him for the first time but so brave in the seconds after and she knew the instant her lips touched his that they were going to be together. She hadn't had a single doubt in her mind.

The second strawberry margarita was placed in front of her and Beth almost instantly took a gulp, already feeling her head spin a little. She didn't really drink but if there was any time to do it, it was on her 31st birthday with her husband in New Orleans with no children in sight.

"I want to go to Nashville for my next birthday," she said.

Daryl nodded in agreement as he usually always did when Beth wanted something. She leaned into him again and kissed him once more, her lips lingering on his.

"If you could do it all over again, would you still stop and help me with my flat tire?"

Daryl looked at her then for a moment, wondering if she was already drunk. She must have been if she asked that question.

She was still leaning into him, her eyes blinking into his, her hands resting on his thighs. And he couldn't help but lift a hand to the side of her neck, his thumb swiping along the rounded apple of her cheek.

"Yeah."

It was all he said but it was said in a low voice, a voice that left no room for a different interpretation than what that one word actually meant, and his eyes stared into hers.

He didn't even have to think about it before answering. What was there to think about? It had been ten years and he didn't even think about any sort of life he would have for himself if Beth Greene had never entered it. There was no point in thinking about it because this, with her, this was the only life he was supposed to have. He had broken the mold of all of the Dixons who came before him and it was all because of this woman in front of him and her flat tire.

And Beth, knowing better than anyone that Daryl Dixon was a man of few words but he always said just the right words, burst into a smile as if she had expected him to say anything else and she pressed her lips against his.

…

Thank you so much for reading and please review!

One last author's note: I know some of you were really excited but I have decided to delete A New World. I'm sorry about that. It didn't really turn out the way I wanted to and I had doubts about doing that to the Waiting on You story. I'm sorry. I just wasn't happy with it at all. At the moment, I'm going to just be working on The Orchard and The White House and maybe a follow-up to Cornerstone.