A Glimmer of Hope

Morning Coffee

Athena POV:

We found Andrea and Merle at the Welcome Center in their shared office. It looked like they had just gotten there, Andrea was looking through her paperwork for the day and Merle was cleaning the area around his desk when I just remembered what we had done on it last night. Really, mere hours ago. 

I looked around on the floor around the desk and realized I was in such a sex daze with Daryl that I didn't clean up our mess before leaving to the garden last night. I quickly looked back to Daryl who was standing behind me with his hand on the small of my back, he was biting his lip, stifling laughter. I gave him a questioning look.

"I want him to figure it ou' himself," he leaned over to whisper in my ear. I smiled and nodded in return.

When the door shut behind us, they both looked up from what they were doing to smile at us. 

"What's up, guys?" Andrea questioned cautiously. I smiled at her and held up my hand with the ring Daryl gave me last night in the garden. She squealed in excitement, getting up from her desk and walking around it to grab my hand. "It really is beautiful; you got a good one here Athena," she said, jerking her head toward Daryl with a smile on her face. 

"Stop," Daryl grunted behind me, at this moment, he slowly ran his hand up my back, then lightly and cautiously grabbed the back of neck, turning my head to face his own, then kissed my lightly with a smile on his lips. I ended up turning my entire body toward him, lost in the moment, my back facing Merle and Andrea. 

The hair on the back of my neck was standing up, and my head was foggy since I was still pretty baked from this morning. It had been quite some time since I had enjoy something like that and it hit me pretty hard. He broke the kiss, then kissed my forehead lightly, brushing his facial hair against me.

Daryl pulled away and I was still reeling from the kiss, staring at him in a daze, with a huge goofy smile on my face. He was smiling looking at Merle and Merle had a confused, questioning look on his face and started looking back and forth between Daryl and myself.

"Are ya guys fuckin' high?!" He shouted the question as soon as it dawned on him.

Daryl, Andrea and I started laughing at Merle. 

After a moment we stopped laughing and Daryl spoke, "Yeah, we found a joint on a body, so we smoked it this mornin' when we got up."

"Damn, little brother, didn't even invite me?" he asked with a grin on his face. "Mus' be a special lady here," he said with a wink.

"Tha' she is," he looked over at me, extending his arm to grab my hand that was at my side and squeeze it.

"Never thought I'd see the day," Andrea said with a smile, she had gone to sit back down at her desk, back to her paperwork.

"What's that, Sugar Tits?" Merle said with his lips curling into a wickedly playful smile.

She was not amused by this. "I told you not to call me that," Andrea said, her face slowly turning red. "No, no, no ya said not to call ya that in front of OTHER people," Merle explained himself. "Daryl's family, 'Thena's marryin' his sorry ass, so she's family too," he reasoned. "Thought they'd be an exception," he finished.

She gave him a death glare and mouthed, "No." I had to stop myself from laughing then.

She turned back to me and said, "I never thought I'd see the day that Daryl Dixon was so in love. You two behave like horny teenagers; it's really pretty cute," she rested her elbow on her desk, placing her chin in her hand and tilting her head, sighing. 

I giggled at her then, "Thank you," I said quickly. Merle looked to Daryl as he was standing up, picking up the last of the papers on the ground that Daryl and I had knocked over previously. Each time I pictured us last night on that desk, I yearned to mount Daryl and ride him.