Your hand ran over the glass, creating a path through the steam that fogged up the mirror. The moisture felt warm on your skin as you pulled your hand away, leaving a streak that you could spot your reflection in.
Your hair lay wet in loose tangles over your bare shoulders, water running in dropplets down your skin and the ends of your locks soaked the towel around your body. The bathroom was humid; muggy as the steam from the shower had nowhere to escape. But your hair felt cool as it draped across you. The scent of fresh soap and rosemary drifted upward from your washed strands, and it was a welcome scent. Clean. It was your second favorite feeling in the world now.
You could hear faint shuffling on the other side of the bathroom door, and despite how soft the footsteps were and how distant they seemed, you knew they were close. Your hand reaches out and touches the smooth door handle, the metal warm from the steam. Your mind tells you not to open it. For you know who stands on the other side and you know what happens next when you turn the knob.
But your heart... That muscle inside of your chest beats so hard that it takes over your conscience. And just like every time before, your heart is what brings you to pull the door open softly.
Steams rolls out onto the hardwood floors, and the pale light of the bathroom illuminates the room that waits on the other side. And within the deep shadows, a figure emerges.
It may be dark and his shadow may be just that, but you have no questions about who it is. You knew he was there way before you spotted him in the dark, and even before you opened the door. You knew Daryl Dixon was there... lurking in the dark like a panther.
Slowly, as his feet bring him closer to the faint light that shines from behind you, his blue eyes come into view. Like stars, they sparkle. The light reflecting against his orbs and like the wild panther he reminds you of, he's trapped you.
He waited to pounce, and here he was luring you into his trap. His brilliant blue eyes were the net you had just walked into. But you had been here before, you had seen this trap before. You knew it all too well.
He was silent, not a word falling from his lips as he walked closer to you till his body was touched by the faint bathroom light. And as his eyes locked with yours, your body stilled.
You couldn't breathe, you couldn't think... He had taken all breath and thoughts away. He was good at that, leaving you speechless when he was near.
His hair hangs low, framing the sides of his tan face. And his muscles flex under the navy fabric of his shirt that almost looks a size too small for his build. But the desire that had grown inside of you since the very beginning continues to loom.
It was a vine; climbing higher and higher with each passing day.
Long ago, you would've needed to say something. You would've needed the words to be said and spoken into the night air. But with time, you grew to read them just as clearly as if they were spoken out loud. You could read them in his eyes and across his still face. And you knew your face mirrored the same words, giving the words to him if he needed them.
His shoulder leaned against the wooden door frame causually, and all you could do was stand there completely still as his eyes pour into you. Although the white towel hugs and covers your body tightly, you feel as though his blue eyes strip it off. Unhooking it from around your body and letting it fall to floor at your feet. Bare to his eyes.
You wonder what he's thinking as your heart beats like a drum inside of your tight chest. But as he suddenly pushes himself off of the door frame and takes a small step towards you, his thoughts are clear. Because the things he's thinking... You're thinking them too.
The breath you didn't know you had dissipates the second his feet stop right in front of you. And you can't keep your hands from reaching out, pressing against his chest gently as his warm breath fans your cheek softly. But it's enough to send a shiver through your body.
Your mind screams but your heart beats louder. And timidly, your eyes flicker up and look to Daryl through your lashes as he towers over you.
And it's over then. His trap has sucked you completely in and you're caught. But as his hands grip your waist and lift you up to sit on the bathroom counter, you realize there are worse ways to be captive.
His blue eyes meet yours one last time before your eyelids flutter shut as his lips land on the bare flesh of your collarbone. His fingertips trace the path on your body that he's made before. You feel like a map to him that he's read time and time again. Memorizing every turn and every direction he takes.
His taste touches your senses as his lips finally find yours, and wrapping your arms around his neck you pull him closer to you. Realizing that you can never get close enough to Daryl Dixon for your liking.
Here you both were. Embraced and entangled in a humid bathroom at 2am in the morning.
This was how it worked. You rid yourself of all the dirt and the sweat and the memories of the day, stepping out clean. But he would find you soon after, almost drawn to the purity that settled over you. He would enter the bathroom and in seconds his hands replaced the memories and you were dirty once more.
He had a way of hurting you yet being the only one who could heal the wounds he left behind.
He broke you down just to build you back up again.
He was your addiction but he was also the only rehabilitation that worked.
He was your weakness... But he was also your biggest strength.
You never knew for sure when it all started, or why.
Maybe it was love... Maybe it was just lust. Or maybe, it didn't really matter.
Something always lead him to you in the early morning hours. And something inside you always allowed him in. Maybe it didn't matter what that something was... Just that the two of you were able to find it. In each other.
A/N: This one shot is a little different than ones I've written in the past. What did you think?
