Title: Daryl Needs a Shower
Word Count: 1118
Universe: Post-Coda "fix it", in the same universe as Living With Nothing.
Rating: Teen
Brief Summary: No one can get Daryl to shower, except Beth, who can get him to do just about anything.
Notes: Another fix-it fic, as mentions above it actually works as a sequel to "Living With Nothing" which was a one-shot I posted after S05.E10.


They've been there two days and one of the first things everyone did was shower. Just stepped into the hot spray of water like they could wash off everything they'd gone through these last few months (or even years) that easily. Like the water wouldn't just carry dirt and grime with it down the drain but hurt and pain and the darkest of memories, too. Like they could erase what had happened out there and what they had become.

Daryl knows different. He knows they can't erase the past, just like he knows the grime on his skin is like a protection, like a shield against the stares of all the people in this damn place. He sticks out like a sore thumb but it was never gonna be any different. He ain't made for places like this. He can't slip back into the past like Rick in his uniform, or Carol in that ugly ass cardigan of hers or even Carl, already making friends with the other kids. He's not like them.

Neither is Beth. But Beth has always been different in her own way. She doesn't try to sink back into her old skin; she finds ways to make her new one work. Just as she had been ever since she came back to him with that round scar on her forehead to match the slashed scars on her cheek and brow. Beth is already making this new place work and he's pretty sure she's got everyone here wrapped around her finger now with her sweet smiles and her big blue eyes.

He knows she's got him wrapped even tighter.

What amazes him most is that this whole damn place seems tailor made for her and yet it's him she gravitates to. It's him she shares a house with, him she waits for during his interview, him for whom she uses those big doe eyes to help convince them to let him keep his bow.

It's him she's smiling at now as she passes Carol on the walkway coming back up to the house they share, just in time to hear the tail-end of his rough teasing words.

"What was that about?" She asks with a nod towards Carol as she steps up onto the porch with him.

"Threatening to hose me off like I'm some kinda dog." He grunts the words, but it's different than the rough tone he used with Carol or anyone else here. It's softer because she makes him feel softer, inside if not out.

"You're not a dog," she murmurs as she comes up beside him and lets her hand rest on his knee. Says it so easily like it's the simplest truth and of course when she says it, it is. "The neighbors have one, though, did you see it?" Her eyes light up and just like that he's mesmerized. "A dog, Daryl!"

He can remember her saying that another time, just as easily as he can remember wanting to give her that damn dog and how that want had almost cause him to lose her forever.

But Beth sees it in his eyes (these days he wonders if there's a thing she misses when it comes to him) and in an instant her fingers are curling around his wrist. "C'mon," she says, tugging at his wrist to pull him after her.

He grumbles but he follows. Of course he follows. There's nothing he wants more in the world than to follow after her, his eyes on the swing of her ponytail and the little smile she casts over her shoulder at him. It had been a smile just like that which had convinced him she was real, after she'd shown up outside of that barn like some daydream. That smile, and the kisses she'd pressed to his hand, right over the mark where he'd burned himself.

It's only when they're up the stairs that Daryl realizes where she'd leading him; right to the bathroom. He stops in the doorway with another grunt and crosses his arms over his chest. "Can't make me shower, you know."

"Oh, I know." She gives him a little smile over her shoulder and really that's all he needs to see to know she's got something planned. He knows that smile. He saw it enough in the weeks they were together, that special little curve of the corner of her lips, all playful and daring. "Can't make you do anything you don't want, right?"

He nods. Damn straight.

Only what she does next makes him freeze, makes his ears go red as every inch of him floods with unexpected heat. Because Beth Greene is reaching down and drawing her shirt up over her head to toss it aside and all he can see is the perfect delicate curve of her soft, smooth back and lord, she's not even wearing a bra, is she?

No, she's definitely not. He can see the hint of the curve of her breast as she unbuttons her jeans and draws them down over her hips, leaving her in nothing but panties.

"It's your choice," she murmurs softly. The words take a moment to register, because all he can see is soft sweet skin and delicate curves and the brush of her blonde hair against the dip of her back and god, he's never seen anything sweeter. Like she was ice cream on a hot summer day and he was burning right up craving her.

And then Beth reaches down and slides her panties over her hips to fall to the floor, revealing the tight perfect curves of her ass as she looks over her shoulder and added, "You can join me in the shower, or not." She smiles. "Your choice."

She knows there's not really a choice there and fuck, so does he. Because there's no part of him that wants to pull away right now from the sight of her turning on the shower and climbing in, holding the curtain open both in invitation and to allow him to see the first drops of water rolling down her bare skin.

There's no real choice, but he acts like there is as he closes the door behind her and removes his vest with a shrug of his shoulders. "Alright," he says, slow and easy like his heart isn't drumming out a rhythm trying to beat it's way from his chest. "Guess a shower wouldn't be too bad."

(And it ain't. In fact it's the best damn shower he's ever had, though to be honest, he's not thinking too much about the grime of his skin anymore when he's got the slick expanse of hers to run his hands all over.)


**A/N: There's a manip that goes with it, but unfortunately FFnet is horrible about allowing links. You can see it on my tumblr, burningupasun, at /post/112907780399.