Moving

A/N: Hey! So sorry for the long wait in update. I've been super busy with work and university, I've just had no time or energy to write. I finish up this week so I hope to get more chapters out over the holidays. Thanks for the reviews and patience! Enjoy.

"This wasn't in the description when I applied to work for you." Daryl huffed, carrying a heavy box into AJ and Punk's new house.

It was a quaint house, just off a side street from the main street of the town. It had a spiral staircase and an open plan downstairs. The most important thing for them, it had three bedrooms upstairs. It wasn't their forever home, but it was more than enough for their soon to be family of four.

"All you've done this entire week is bitch and moan." Punk shook his head, carrying a set of drawers into the house behind Daryl.

"Because I'm tired, man. How did Finn get out of helping?" Daryl asked, sitting the box down and massaging his back.

"Because I need someone to keep the coffee shop going." Punk said.

"How are you even carrying that? You don't look as strong as you are." Daryl said, impressed, as Punk sat the drawers down.

"Thanks." Punk scoffed.

"AJ could be helping." Daryl folded his arms as Punk turned to him with an angry raised brow, "I mean… there's light stuff she could carry." He shrugged.

"She's seven months pregnant. With twins." Punk said, "She's not doing anything." He made clear as Daryl just made a face, "You're a young boy. You should be fit and ready for this. And be thankful I'm still paying you."

"Oh, thank you. My back is so grateful." Daryl shook his head.

"We're nearly done." Punk said, "All we've got to move is the sofa. We might need Finn for that, though." He thought to himself.

After Christmas, things had been a little stressful trying to prepare for the babies coming and also moving into a new place. Punk's plan was to keep AJ far away from the stress and take care of it all by himself, which was a little difficult.

"Where do you want this?" Daryl asked, pointing to the box he'd just carried in.

"Kitchen." Punk told him, "And then come help me carry these drawers upstairs."

"Those stairs are a pain in my ass. Who the hell has a spiral staircase in their house? Weird shit." Daryl said, lifting the box back up and carrying it over to the kitchen.

"It is an odd thing." Punk agreed, "AJ has to go up sideways cause of her belly." He smiled a little as Daryl chuckled.

"Not exactly practical." Daryl said, hearing his phone vibrate in his pocket, taking it out and looking at it, smiling to himself as Punk watched him.

"Who's that?" Punk asked curiously.

"None of your business." Daryl said quickly, pushing his phone back into his pocket.

"You've been glued to it for months. Don't think I haven't noticed." Punk said, "Missing someone?"

"What are you insinuating?" Daryl asked.

"I'm not insinuating anything." Punk put his hands up, "You're just… really obvious. We all talk about it."

"Who is we?" Daryl asked with surprise.

"All of us. Me. Finn. The girls. Even Aunt Nico notices." Punk rolled his eyes as Daryl gasped.

"So… what? I can't text Shiv any more without you all acting like children?" Daryl questioned defensively as Punk just smiled.

"And you're shooting off work super early to head out of town. Most nights." Punk pointed out.

"You're stalking me too?" Daryl asked.

"Oh, stop being so defensive." Punk scoffed, "You know I'm yours and Shiv's biggest fan. I don't know why you feel like you gotta hide it."

"There's nothing to hide." Daryl bit back, "Let's move these drawers." He shook his head.

"Are we running out of oat milk?" AJ asked, looking into the large fridge in the back of the Brewberry. She placed her hands at the bottom of her back, cracking her neck from side to side, doing anything she could to relieve the pressure of carrying around two growing babies with her.

"Don't think so." Lyla said, walking into the back of the shop and looking in the fridge, "Oh, maybe we are." She realised.

"I'll call to get an early morning delivery for tomorrow. We'll be lucky to make do with this amount until closing." AJ said.

"I can go over to Phil's and steal some of theirs." Lyla shrugged, "He stole some of our flour last week."

"No, we need a delivery for tomorrow anyway." AJ said, "All of the people who order oat milk definitely go home and have full dairy chocolate." She shook her head.

"That's not for us to judge." Lyla hummed as AJ shut the fridge over, caressing her bump as Lyla watched her, "You can take the odd half day here and there, you know."

"And leave you and Becca?" AJ shook her head.

"We do know what we're doing." Lyla nodded with a smile, "Aunt Nico helps out, too. We're more than capable."

"I know that." AJ said, "I just… I feel so useless. To everyone." She shook her head.

"What do you mean?" Lyla shook her head.

"I can't help with the new house. I picked up a lamp shade yesterday and Phil almost had a stroke." AJ rolled her eyes, "And I feel like I'm just getting in the way here. But I'm not the type of person to just… stay still. I'm not good at doing nothing."

"You're not doing nothing. You're growing little people. That must be exhausting." Lyla reminded her.

"It is." AJ frowned, "I can't even get up the stairs in the house properly. Who the hell wants a spiral staircase? It's so unpractical. I feel so huge."

"AJ." Lyla scoffed, "You're just in your feelings. Phil said you've been emotional these past few days."

"You guys were talking about me?" AJ frowned, getting sadder.

"Looking out for you." Lyla corrected, "He text me to give me the heads up. In case you had a wobble at work."

"I'm just overwhelmed. That's all." AJ shook her head, "And we've not heard anything from Sheriff Peterson since Christmas. It just… makes me feel uneasy."

"Or maybe it's a good thing. Maybe Craig has got spooked and… fled. He's bound to know that the cops are onto him. And Todd can't hurt you. You know that." Lyla nodded.

"I know." AJ said, "Doesn't stop me from worrying."

"I know." Lyla nodded, taking AJ's hand and squeezing it, "You should go home and have a nap. We've got things covered here."

"The boys are here." Becca called into them from the front of the shop, laughing a little as AJ and Lyla headed out curiously, standing behind the counter as they saw Punk and Daryl standing, each with a broken piece of AJ's bedside table.

"So… how much did you like these drawers?" Punk asked nervously as AJ stared at them both.

"The staircase is to blame." Daryl added, standing shamefully with the broken piece of wood, "I offered to glue it."

"It won't glue." Punk scolded him as Daryl shrugged, "I can get a new one." Punk turned back to AJ.

"You guys are gonna end up injuring yourselves." AJ scoffed.

"I did actually cut my head." Daryl pushed his hair back to reveal the scrape on his forehead.

"Let me see." AJ shook her head unhappily, walking out from behind the counter and pulling Daryl over to a chair.

"Do you want a band aid?" Becca teased Daryl with a frown.

"Shut up." Daryl said.

"It's just a cut." AJ examined it carefully as Punk watched, "You'll live to see another day."

"You don't think I should take a day off tomorrow and rest?" Daryl nodded to AJ hopefully as AJ turned to Punk with a smile.

"I think you should both take tomorrow off and rest." AJ said, "You've been at it for over a week now."

"It's just the sofa left." Punk said, "And our bed."

"AJ was just going home to take a nap anyway. So, you guys can finish for the day and give her peace." Lyla nodded suggestively.

"Why didn't you just hire a moving team?" Becca shook her head.

"We're moving around the corner." Punk scoffed, "I'm not paying for someone to do something I can do myself."

"So I can take tomorrow off?" Daryl made sure, looking over to Punk.

"Yeah." Punk nodded, "I suppose you'll have plans?" He asked arrogantly whilst the girls exchanged subtle smiles with each other.

"Yeah. I plan to rest." Daryl stood up.

"I'm sure you do." Punk nodded, watching as Daryl left the shop, still carrying the broken piece of furniture with him.

"You have to stop teasing him." AJ chuckled, walking over to Punk and leaning up to kiss him.

"Why? When it's so fun." Punk said.

"Why do you think they're hiding it from us, anyway?" Becca asked, "It's not like we all didn't see it coming."

"Maybe they're just taking it slow. Figuring things out. Seeing if the long-distance thing works." AJ shrugged.

"It's not exactly long distance. He goes to her college pretty much every night." Punk said.

"How do you know that?" AJ scoffed.

"Linda told me. Betty from the flower shop told her. Sees him driving off in his mom's car heading out of town." Punk said.

"You and those old women." AJ rolled her eyes.

"I can't help that they love me." Punk shrugged, "So you're taking an early day?" He smiled to her.

"Well, we're kinda quiet and… I'm in the way most of the time." AJ huffed.

"You're not in the way." Lyla rolled her eyes, "Little miss and mister are in the way." She shrugged as AJ smiled, "And none of us mind that. We just… would rather you took care of yourself."

"I would love a nap right now, honestly." Punk nodded to AJ, pouting like a child.

"On our blow-up air-mattress?" AJ scoffed, "Hardly screams comfort."

"Our bed is coming in a few days." He told her, "I… have no idea how we'll get it up the stairs but… I'll find a way."

"My hero." AJ smiled.

"Hey. I thought you weren't coming tonight." Shiv shook her head, letting Daryl into her dorm room later that night after he'd travelled the couple of hours to come see her.

"I wasn't. But I got a last-minute day off." He smiled.

"What happened to your head?" She noticed the scrape along his forehead.

"Phil dropped a set of drawers on me." Daryl waved his hand casually.

"What?" Shiv laughed.

"I'm still helping him move into their new house. It's risky stuff when it comes to the stairs." Daryl nodded.

"Clearly." Shiv said, "Well, I… wasn't expecting you. This place is a bit of a mess." She scratched the back of her head.

"Do you want me to go?" Daryl smiled over at her.

"Can you just… wait outside for a second?" She asked him.

"Why?" He chuckled, "So you can tidy up?" He joked as Shiv just smiled, "Siobhan." He scoffed, realising that was her plan.

"What? It's messy. I have… things all over the place." She said as Daryl looked around.

"I see no issues." Daryl said.

"Just…" Shiv placed her hands on his chest, shoving him back towards the door as he laughed, "I'll be quick." She insisted, shoving him out the door and closing it over as Daryl just laughed.

She quickly darted around her room, picking up dirty clothes from her floor, tidying her clean laundry away and making her bed. She tidied up her desk, trashing some empty cans of pop and stacking her books back into a neat pile.

"Ok." Shiv nodded to herself, making her way back over to the door and opening it up.

"Hi." Daryl smiled with folded arms.

"Hi." Shiv smiled, letting him into the room, "I just had a crazy day studying and I never got the chance to-"

Daryl walked towards her, silencing her mid-sentence with a rough kiss, cupping her cheeks as she stumbled back a little.

"Don't take this the wrong way." He pulled back, looking down at her, "But I really don't care." He nodded as she chuckled.

"Clearly." She said, leaning up and pressing her lips back against his as he picked her up and toppled onto the bed with her.

"Morning." Punk smiled, lying on his side watching AJ wake up as she turned to him in a panic.

"Morning?" AJ asked, "How long did we nap for?"

"I'm kidding. It's 5.30pm." He assured her as she rolled her eyes, shoving his arm as he chuckled, "I needed that." He admitted.

"Yeah, me too." AJ said sleepily, "I'm worried you're doing too much. And I fear you're going to break Daryl." She said as he chuckled.

"We're fine. We're almost done." He assured her, "I'm worried you're doing too much." He replied.

"Phil, I'm not doing anything." AJ turned her head to look at him, "These kids have me bored." She huffed as he chuckled.

"You won't be bored when they're both screaming at all hours of the night. We should enjoy our last moments of peace." He said.

"Do you think we'll be any good?" She asked him, "I mean it's… it's happening soon. They're both going to be here in two months. Maybe earlier. My doctor said twins can come a month early sometimes."

"I think we'll be fine as long as we got each other." Punk nodded to her, "And we got your Aunt living two seconds away. And a bunch of great friends. We won't be short of help."

"Yeah, I know." AJ nodded, feeling a little more relaxed every time she thought of the support system they had around them and how lucky they were.

"We still need to think of a girls name." She said.

"I know." Punk nodded, "Penelope?" He thought to himself as AJ scoffed.

"Sounds like a delinquent in the making." AJ said, "Maria?" She asked.

"No." Punk said firmly as she turned to him, "Dated a girl called Maria after high school."

"Of course." AJ rolled her eyes, "Jenny?"

"Sounds like a grandmother." Punk shook his head.

"Brooklyn?" She wondered.

"Brooklyn Brooks? Do we want her to get bullied?" He asked.

"Oh, yeah." AJ nodded.

"No seasons or places or months, anyway." He said as AJ raised a brow.

"My name is literally April." She said, unimpressed.

"We are not calling our daughter some hippy name like… Summer Rain. Not happening." He made clear as she laughed.

"Like I would do that to her." AJ scoffed, "We need something that goes with Thomas. I feel bad for her. She's in there all nameless. She's gonna think we love her less." She frowned, rubbing her stomach.

"They're both little aliens covered in slime right now. They know nothing." Punk said as AJ turned to him, "What? They are." He shrugged.

"My fiancé. The poet." She caressed his cheek sarcastically as he chuckled.

"We'll think of something." He assured her, "It'll be name fit for a princess." He said, kissing AJ's head, placing his hand on her stomach as she leaned her face into his neck, pressing a soft kiss on his chin.