Gasp & Ignite

This is a S3 AU. You might find both Beth and Daryl to be a little OOC.

Contains: shameless smut, breath play, and serious dirty talk.

Thank you, Jen, for editing this for me!

Enjoy!

Daryl was so fucking tired.

It didn't matter that the Governor hadn't knocked down the fences and that the only major damage had been to the guard tower. The noise that drew in the walkers was going to be their downfall if they didn't slow down.

Everyone was looking at him a bit differently, too. That might have been because he and Beth had finally came out of hiding when it came to their relationship. Or it could have been that, when the Governor had shown back up, with each gun he handed out, he gave each member of their group a target to aim for on the other side.

He'd gotten everyone situated, took his position by Carl, and said, "For the love of God, don't hit our people." Then he counted to three, and they opened fire. Carl nailed the Governor between the eyes, and Daryl took out the guy with the tank. Everyone else managed to nab their targets, too. Some weren't killed, but they were injured.

The other members of the Governor's group scattered, and Hershel and Michonne ran for the gate. There wasn't time to pull the wounded to safety, and honestly, he didn't care. The walkers came out of the woods and descended on the freshly killed and the wounded still writhing around on the ground.

Rick met his eyes as he passed through the second set of gates and nodded, looking defeated.

"What?" Daryl had asked as he stopped in front of him.

Rick just seemed stunned. "We coulda let 'em stay."

"That woulda never worked, and ya know it." Daryl pinned him with a hard stare. "We knew we'd have to fight to keep this place. We'll prolly have to do it again eventually."

"We don't have to change so much we cain't remember who we were," Rick argued quietly.

Daryl caught a glimpse of blonde hair and watched as Beth threw her arms around her father.

"I'll do whatever I have to do to keep our people safe."

"Ya gave my son tha okay to kill a man."

Daryl nodded, looked down at his boots for a moment, and then back up at Rick. "It ain't tha first time Carl's taken a life, and it won't be tha last."

Rick seemed stunned that Daryl had brought up Carl's questionable decision from months earlier, but instead of speaking, he just walked into the cellblock.

Everyone else cleared out of the courtyard shortly after, but Beth stood at the fence, watching the walkers devour the people in the yard.

"He'd have killed him," she whispered. "He'd have killed my daddy, Daryl."

Daryl hooked his pinky around hers, and she turned to face him, tears trickling down her cheeks. It broke his damn heart to see her cry, but he was glad she was letting shit out now. She'd created a wall around herself that rivaled his own, but since it all started between them, they seemed to have created a small opening for each other.

"I wasn't gonna let that happen, girl," he said softly, wiping her tears away.

Beth wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him tightly. The kiss that followed was slow and sweet, and sorta made him feel like less of a savage than he really was. Then their bubble burst with a throat clearing; Hershel was standing just a few feet away.

Daryl took a few steps back, like the space between them now would make Hershel forget what he'd just seen.

"Well, at least I know why ya wanted to take a more proactive approach in gettin' us back instead of negotiatin'."

The rest of the group had thought it was weird and given them shit, especially Maggie, but he shrugged that off. In the end, it didn't matter what they thought about it. Beth was in his cell at night, and she always looked happy to see his ass, so he was going to ride that wave as long as she wanted him around.

A man, even one as rough as Daryl, knew you didn't turn away a good woman. Didn't matter at all she was a bit younger than him. She brightened things up, and for a man who spent most of his life in the dark, it was a much-welcomed change.

Still, a week after it all went down, things were still off. Walkers were stumbling around, pushing on the fences, weakening their defenses. He stayed out at the fence most days, picking off walkers with several other people, but every morning, there would be more filling the gaps they'd made the day before.

It was exhausting, frustrating, and he just wanted to punch something.

Instead, he walked up the stairs to his cell and decided to take out all that tension elsewhere. They wouldn't be loud. That'd be trashy, and his woman deserved a hell of a lot more than someone hearing them fucking. Just the thought of her biting her bottom lip or turning her face into her pillow to muffle her sounds made him harden, and he felt a little of that stress start to melt away.

Daryl pushed aside the dark sheet that Beth had strung up across the bars when she'd moved into his cell and stepped into the dim room. Beth was lying on her stomach, writing in her journal, but she stopped and looked up at him as he set down his crossbow.

She must have noticed the look in his eyes because she smirked and blushed.

"Get on your knees," he said in a gruff voice barely above a whisper. She immediately slid off the bed and onto the floor as he crossed the room to stand in front of her. "Go on, girl," he commanded, brushing her ponytail over her shoulder.

"Yes, sir, Mr. Dixon," she said with a smile, and he felt the tips of his ears turn red.

Christ, she made him feel like a teenage boy looking to get his dick wet for the first time instead of the experienced, thirty-five-year-old man he was.

This was different from his past, though, and they both knew it. He might say shit when he got going, but he didn't mean anything by it. They were just words in the heat of the moment, and she loved all his words. She'd told him.

He watched her unbuckle his belt and pull his jeans down to the middle of his thighs. Then she reached out and lightly trailed her hand up the inside of his thigh to his hard cock. She stroked him twice before he twisted his fingers in her hair and pushed her head down.

"Open."

Beth traced the head of his dick against her lips and said, "Say please."

"Suck my dick," he growled and nudged the head between her lips.

She moaned a little as he pushed her down harder but didn't fight him or try and get him to ask permission again, so he loosened his hold on her hair and let her take over. She could get things moving the way she liked.

She bobbed over his shaft, flattening her tongue against the underside of it and licking hard the way he liked.

Daryl closed his eyes and let the tingly feeling work its way up from his balls. His breath came out in gasps as she worked him over, and he started to thrust in time with her sucking.

With narrowed eyes, he looked down and saw she had one hand in her shorts, getting hers while she gave him his.

"Ya ready for me?" he asked breathlessly, suddenly not wanting to come down her throat regardless of how appealing it sounded.

She hummed against him, and he could see the flush spread across her cheeks. She was close.

"Sonofabitch," he muttered and thrust hard, holding her head still once he bottomed out in her throat.

Beth coughed around him but kept moving her hand beneath her shorts.

He watched with wide eyes for just a moment before he groaned quietly. "Get on your hands and knees."

As soon as he let her go, she pulled back and did exactly as he said. Daryl squeezed her ass hard before pulling down her shorts and pushing two fingers into her pussy.

Daryl moaned quietly at the feel of her wetness coating him. He kissed her back and whispered, "You're my whore, ain't ya? Drippin' just from havin' my dick in your mouth."

Beth gasped as he curled his fingers toward her belly button on a down stroke.

"Hot damn, girl," he muttered, pulling his hand out and lining them up. "It's gonna be rough," he said quietly.

"Good," she whispered and dropped her head as he sank into her. "Oh God, Daryl."

He curved his body over hers and slammed his hips home with each thrust. He wasn't lying; it was going to be fast and hard. He couldn't help it. Daryl leaned back, wrapped her ponytail around his wrist, gripped it in his hand, and pulled her head back.

The sound of skin slapping against skin seemed to fill the cell, and Daryl slowed down, hating that someone might walk by and hear.

"Don't stop," she whined. "Please, keep goin''."

"Too loud." He let go of her hair and palmed her ass with both hands, squeezing and spreading her cheeks apart.

He really wanted to gather up her wetness and probably some of his spit, stretch her hole, and fuck her that way. He swiped his thumb over her crack, and she leaned into him. A shiver went up his spine at the thought of getting in there, feeling her squeeze around him. He'd be so fucking easy with her, so slow.

Daryl stopped moving and tried to calm his breathing down. He was about to blow just thinking about it.

"I'm so close, babe," she whispered.

"I know," he mumbled. "I can feel it."

Her muscles clenched around him as he drew back and then filled her up again. They were both still mostly dressed, and he almost laughed that she could make him lose his shit, and he hadn't even seen her tits yet. And he probably wouldn't, either.

"How do ya want to finish?" he asked, but he already knew the answer. She liked to be manhandled. Beth trusted his ass more than any other person in the world, and he honored that trust.

"I—" She gasped as he hit a deep spot. "I want your hand..." She couldn't finish, and he sat back on his heels, bringing her to sit on his lap.

She started bouncing faster, and he placed one hand on her hip and the other in between her titties before dragging it up to her throat.

"You're a kinky bitch, ya know that?" he whispered in her ear. "You're so fuckin' wet right now, I can feel it on my balls." His voiced turned into a growl as he buried his nose in her hair and wrapped his hand around her throat.

"What would everyone think if they knew that ya practically swallowed my dick then got me to choke ya like this?"

His hand squeezed lightly, and she whispered, "I only care what ya think."

"What do I think, girl?"

"Ya love me," she said and stilled against his thighs. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her tightly to him.

"I do," he whispered into her ear, thrusting up at the same time.

Beth groaned a little, and he added more pressure to her throat, sliding his thumb over her carotid artery.

He was so careful when he did this—they didn't do it often as it was, but he made sure that everything was focused on her in those moments. He'd get his—and probably really fucking quickly, too. Beth tended to come so damn hard when they did this that it just yanked him right over the edge.

Beth sighed but it was tight; he knew he was getting to her limit. He bounced her on his lap with his free arm, and she wrapped a hand around his wrist at her neck.

"Touch yaself," he said quietly against her cheek.

She reacted as soon as she touched her clit, and Daryl felt her walls tighten around him, pulling him deeper and holding him there.

"C'mon, girl," he said. "Get me wetter. I know ya can." She clenched, and he added just a hair more of pressure against her neck, stealing her next gasp. "Listen to tha noise your pussy's makin'. So damn sloppy, woman."

The words, combined with the hard thrust and flicking her own clit, pushed her over, and he let go of her throat all at once, putting both hands on her hips and bending her over the edge of the bottom bunk.

The low mewling sounds were muffled by the mattress, but he could tell how much she loved it. He was coated with her, and it only took him a few seconds of deep pounding before he stilled, pulsing inside her.

Daryl kissed her shoulder and helped her onto the cot before crawling up behind her and pulling the covers over both of them.

The silence was peaceful, and all the tension he had been carrying was gone. He moved his hand up to her throat and brushed over the skin there. "Ya all right?"

"Yeah, I'm good."

He nodded against her shoulder and closed his eyes.

"Do ya think things will ever settle down again?" she asked, twining her fingers with his on her stomach.

"Don't know. Just gotta try and make tha best of it, I guess."

She rolled to face him and smiled. "Ya sound downright optimistic, Daryl."

He snorted and shook his head.

"Ya do," she insisted. "Maybe ya think there's still some good left in tha world after all."

Daryl kissed her softly and sighed. "I know there's still good out there 'cause I know you."

They held each other's gaze for a long moment before she smiled that heart-stopping smile of hers and said, "Are ya sayin' that I'm like tha light at tha end of tha tunnel for ya?"

"Maybe," he said and leaned his forehead against her neck.

"Do I give ya butterflies?"

He shrugged, completely uncomfortable but still happy. "Maybe some moths."

"Moths are attracted to light, ya know?"

He kissed her again and brushed her cheek with his hand.

"I wanna be with ya for tha rest of my life."

"I want that, too," she said softly and cuddled closer to him.

"If that's tomorrow or next week or years from now, I ain't ever gonna feel this way again. You're it for me."

Beth tangled her legs around his and got as close as she could, her body pressing against his, almost becoming one with him.

"Let's just make sure we don't have to worry about missin' each other like that for a while, okay?"

"Yeah," he said. His voice was quiet and he played with her hair as she drifted off to sleep.

The woman in his arms was his. Not just a responsibility or an obligation, but the person he'd found a safe place in, the person he could say shit to who wouldn't look at him differently for it.

He'd found his other half, and she balanced him. The light to his dark. The softness to his rough edges.

One day, one of them would go first. It was just how things worked, but he knew that he would have rather gotten too close to the flame and gotten burned than to have turned away.

She was worth it. What they had together had saved him and brought her into her own. And he knew that their story had a long way to go.