Original prompt: "Maybe Daryl plants Beth a flower garden? (because this idea popped into my head while listening to All Time Low's song "Cinderblock Garden" and Daryl is just too sweet for his own good!)"

It's beginning to get warm out, and Daryl knows that Beth misses certain things about living on a farm. Not the space, at least, he's slowly becoming more and more content with the fact that Beth is happy in their tiny apartment, happy living hip to hip with him, happy in a closeness that doesn't feel at all like containment to her.

But there are some things she misses and one of them, he knows, is the farm's garden. He knows because of the way she glances out the window one day and offhandedly mentions how right now her Mama was probably planting the herbs in the herb garden, or the way she spots some daffodils outside in the front of their building and remarks with a fond smile that the flowers she'd planted at the farm would be coming up now, too.

It's not just knowing that she misses it that sticks in his mind, either. It's the image of it. Beth, hands deep in dirt as she plants seeds or bulbs, Beth watering them every day, Beth excitedly hovering over them until they begin to sprout and lighting up the room with her smile when they grow bigger and bigger, or flower for the first time.

Once that image was in his mind, he just had to make it a reality.

He waited until that Friday, when he had a day off and she had to go into the daycare. After she left, in a whirl of cheek kisses and a hint of strawberry shampoo, Daryl got to work. Rather than buy anything unnecessarily, he decided to make it all for her himself, heading down to the workroom she'd made for him in the basement of the building.

With some spare pieces of wood, he cobbled together a sturdy little shelf with two levels, one jutting out on the bottom almost like two steps on a staircase. It was Mrs. Hensen downstairs who contributed several spare pots she had around, leftover from the variety of plants she grew in her own small apartment. After that all he needed to complete his surprise was the cinderblock he'd taken with permission from outside the auto shop, and then a quick trip to the garden store… that, and an hour or so to set it up before Beth got home.

He was ready when she walked through the door, stepping in front of her so she couldn't see just.

"Daryl, what-"

"Close your eyes, baby girl."

A smile lingered on her lips as she did just that, and he walked around behind her to cover her eyes with his large hands as she softly giggled, "What are you doing?"

"Got a surprise for you," he murmured, chest pressed to her back as he nudged her forward. "C'mon… take a couple steps forward. You trust me to guide you?"

"Daryl Dixon," Beth breathed out almost astonishingly, "I trust you with my life, you silly goose. Of course I trust you to guide me.

If he hadn't been so determined to do this surprise right, he'd have kissed her right then. But instead he guided her a few steps into the living area of the small room, right up to the window set in the wall to the left of the couch.

"Alright," he murmured, lining her up. "There. Open your eyes." He drew his hands back and moved almost immediately to her side, just so he could see the look on her face when she saw it.

The wooden shelves he'd made were set right up against the wall beneath the window; it was tall, which meant it came pretty close to the ground, perfect for the shelf he'd built. He'd set up the little pots from Mrs. Hensen, three on each level; a couple of them were just simple terracotta, but one was a gorgeous glazed green and the other a sky-blue that made him think of Beth's eyes.

And there was more, of course. The window was open, and on the thick ledge outside he'd set the heavy cinder block. Pots would have been at risk of blowing away out there but the cinderblock was sturdy, and he'd filled the two openings with the same potting soil that rested in a bag leaning against the wall next to the window, right beside the packets of seeds, and two little plastic pots he'd gotten from the garden store, already with pansy seedlings growing in them.

"I uh… I made the shelf," he remarked, biting his lip as he looked from her to the window and back again. "Mrs. Hensen gave me the pots. Five of them are empty but she said the blue one has daffodils in it, she planted them in th' fall. Told me you have to plant bulbs in the fall, I didn't know that. But y' can see they're sprouting, so you should have flowers soon, those and the pansies. I figured we- you, I mean- could plant the rest as seeds and watch 'em grow, you know?"

He wasn't sure why he was rambling, usually she was the one who did that, but he was so damn nervous all the sudden he couldn't seem to help it. "Anyway I just, uh… well I know you miss your garden and I wanted you to have somethin', even if this ain't as grand or nothin'. That's all."

"Daryl Dixon." Beth breathed out his name as she turned towards him, and the smile that curved up her lips was yet again the most gorgeous thing he'd ever seen. "It's perfect. I don't need grand, okay? All I need is you and this tiny apartment, and this garden is just right for that, you hear me?"

Despite the fierce return of his desire to kiss her right then, she was the one who beat him to it, rising up on her toes and pressing her lips to his in a loving kiss until both of them were breathless with it.

(And if she got a bit of dirt on them both later because he couldn't seem to help himself at the sight of her curling her fingers into the dirt and laughing so happily, well, she didn't seem to mind much either. After all, the mess they made was just another excuse to take a shower together once they were done…)