Love and desperation could drive a man to do a lot of things. Breaking the laws of his court and ripping a hole in time and space to find a world where Glenn – a version of Glenn at least – still lived was one of the more insane things Daryl had ever done. He'd basically given up his place among the Seelie to do it. He was still, at his core, a man who adhered to the tenets of his kind (really!). But in this one thing his heart had chosen to be Unseelie. To throw caution to the wind and sow a greater chaos in the world just for a chance to being with his lover one more time.

He didn't even care if, in whatever world he'd stepped through to, Glenn was a part of the courts. It might even be better if there weren't court involvement of any sort. Then he could claim the man as his plaything should anyone notice his arrival. The only real concern was that the world be one where a version of himself either didn't exist, or could be easily exchanged. He'd tried for the former when casting, but the spell was fickle enough as it was and it couldn't be a sure thing.

It cost him a great deal of energy, his magic sapped to a point he was lucky to be able to maintain the glamour that made him look completely human. 'Daryl' (just Daryl) was his go-to human identity. Though in the years he'd spent sneaking off to see Glenn, it had become nearly as real as his true one. Glenn was the same. They'd met in human guises and had then used them to avoid scrutiny. A Seelie and Unseelie being lovers was not unheard of, of course, but discretion was still expected. One didn't flaunt such cross-court affairs. Even if it was more in the nature of the Unseelie to do so, there were still expectations to uphold.

But all that had gone to hell in the last few months and Daryl no longer really cared about the politics. He's lost Glenn to them. Executed during the hunt. His mask of humanity forced on him to strip him of power while he ran from the hounds for the 'pleasure' of both courts. Officially the true death had been an accident. Unofficially, Daryl knew it was because Glenn had rejected a marriage proposal with a more powerful member of his court. Daryl didn't know who that was or he'd have killed them already, but he knew it was a punishment.

He wished he had the time to find out. However, getting the secret of the spell and gathering the power for it through favors had made that impossible. He had to go through with it as soon as he could or he risked being found out. And more than needing revenge, he needed to be with Glenn. Any version of Glenn would do.

…

Daryl definitely knew how to chose them. Eight months in the new world and he'd finally managed to find it's Glenn. The man was pure human in this one. There were no other traces of fae influence left, as though the magic of the world had died out long, long ago. He could find no roads or circles hidden away. Only legends of what had been.

On the upside, that meant Daryl was the most powerful fae in the world. On the downside, he was forced to live as a mortal. Or near enough to one that it made little to no difference. He'd found a man and a family early on he'd been able to cast a changeling acceptance spell on, so they treated him as one of their own. It wasn't the prettiest or most desirable life, being a Dixon, but it gave him an identity and a mortal name to tie himself to. Rooted him and his glamour so he no longer had to focus on maintaining it. With the magic of the world being all but dead, that was about as far as he could take it without putting a deathly strain on himself.

He'd learned to live with the strange technology the mortals held before it was mostly ripped from him in the wake of a human-made virus that decimated the world. He'd been worried during the first month of the outbreak that the virus had taken this world's Glenn from him. He'd lucked out in having what was left of his human family, a big oaf he called his brother, stumble across the survivor camp at the quarry outside Atlanta. And it was there that he laid his eyes on Glenn once more.

Glenn, a mortal he didn't actually know. Just a mortal who shared that same face and name as his Glenn. One who smiled with that same smile. One whose inability to lie effectively wasn't faked for amusement's sake. It wasn't his Glenn. It was a Glenn he would have to get to know and learn about.

Daryl didn't know how to approach it. He'd thought just having Glenn, any Glenn, would be enough. But it wasn't. Not really. Having him alive in some form was certainly a far stretch better than not having him. But there was a big difference between what was essentially a stranger (and mortal at that) and the fae trickster he'd courted across centuries of human history. If he hadn't been the only fae in the world, he would have have felt a lot worse for using Merle as a buffer between himself and the rest of camp while he got up the nerve to say a single word to the kid. Even then, it took him until he came back from his hunt to Merle being bound to a roof in the middle of walker central to push his hand.

'I don't even like you much'

What total bullshit that had been. Like he had to defend his interest in Glenn's safety. Shield himself from the way his heart thudded in his chest as those large doe eyes took him in and drowned him in their earthen beauty. A thousand sonnets from the finest Seelie poets couldn't begin to encompass what those innocent eyes did to him.

When Glenn screamed his name Daryl's pounding heart stopped. For a moment all he could see was Glenn, his Glenn, being torn apart by the hounds of the court before his immortality was returned. The Vatos dragged him off and Daryl could do nothing to stop it the same as he could do nothing then. The kid they left behind was lucky Rick stopped Daryl. Daryl was lucky Rick stopped Daryl. There wasn't a link between him and Glenn yet, he couldn't track the man because he'd been pussyfooting around the whole talking to him thing for the last month.

They got loaded up and brought in for the exchange and some old woman walked in like they weren't squaring off for a war that only Daryl had any chance of surviving. The Vatos dropped their act pretty quickly once she was on scene, though, and they were led off to the inside of an assisted living center. And there Glenn was: standing next to a old man with asthma, concerned for him and not himself.

Rick glared at the leader of the Vatos, tried to get Daryl's attention to follow them. But Daryl ignored it and headed straight for Glenn, who was getting talked to by T-Dog. He'd just gotten 'those dogs?' out of his mouth and glanced over at a set of chihuahuas when Daryl was in front of him. Glenn backed up half a step, meeting his eyes and gulping.

Daryl could hear Rick's voice. He could hear T's. He could even hear the Vatos shuffling around like they were genuinely concerned for Glenn's well being. They might have been. But they didn't matter to Daryl. His senses were focused on Glenn. His eyes bore into him.

"Daryl?" Glenn whispered, cringing back. "I'm sorry? I mean I-"

"Shut up," Daryl hissed, shoulders shaking. He wanted nothing more than to grab Glenn and pull him into an embrace. He knew he must look furious with the man. But it wasn't Glenn he was mad at, it was himself.

He took a deep breath and lifted a hand to his mouth. He kissed the tips of his own fingers as he let his eyes fall shut, concentrating on the spell he intended to cast right then and there. When he opened his eyes again, the world around him had frozen. Only fae could walk in the space between heartbeats that he'd stepped into.

He was safe, there, to pull his hand away and step forward into Glenn's personal space. To press his lips against the mortal's and seal the magic that would link them for however long they both lived. He would no longer allow himself to question Glenn's safety. He might still need time to figure out how to approach the man, to figure out how to get to know him, but he wasn't going to risk not knowing if he was alive or dead to do it.

Daryl stepped back to where he had been, brought his fingers back to his mouth. He opened his eyes to see Glenn staring at him in confusion. He took another shuddering breath, rubbed his hand across his chin as he shook his head. Then he walked away. Left everyone confused as he snapped his annoyance at Rick who was trying to be a friend.

He needed time to calm down. The Vatos and Merle could wait.