Hold my heart, its beating for you anyway

unfortunately, i have seen this with my own eyes.

thinkin’ about daryl in the morning.

pale gold ribbons of sunlight flood the room like warm honey, turning floating dust motes into drifting stars. everything feels blurred around the edges, suspended in that hazy space right between a dream and waking up. daryl is buried under blankets on the mattress, but when his arm sweeps across the sheets and finds your side cold, his eyes blink open, slow and weighted, tracing the quiet until he hears the faint rustle of fabric.

through heavy eyelids, he finds you standing beside the dresser, holding a portable cd player in one hand while the wire from your headphones disappears beneath the collar of his vest. your own clothes are hanging on the clothesline outside, leaving you to steal the first thing you could find. his vest hangs loose on your frame, the worn, cracked leather nearly swallowing you whole against your bare skin and thin cotton underwear. completely oblivious, you fold laundry to a silent melody only you can hear, carrying the cd player with you every time you move across the sun-warmed floorboards, swaying lazily as the leather brushes your thighs. daryl doesn’t move, too content to break the spell, watching through tired squinted eyes.

then, you turn toward the window.

the sunlight catches the back of the vest dead-on, exploding into a bright halo around you. the faded angel wings stitched into the fabric look almost luminous, stretching wide across your bare shoulders. he watches, too tired to move, until the floorboard beneath your foot creaks.

you glance over your shoulder and freeze, suspended in the sunbeam with the cd player loose in your hand. there he is, stretched out beneath the blankets with his dark hair sticking up, squinting with an expression somewhere between amused and completely smitten. heat creeps into your cheeks as you pull one side of the headphones away from your ear.

“what?”

his gaze drops briefly to the vest, to the wings on your shoulders, and then back to you. his morning voice is a low, velvety rasp when it finally cuts through the quiet.

“c’mere, angel.”

you blink. “angel?”

the ghost of a smirk touches his lips, lazy and soft, completely melting the usual tension in his face as he looks at you like you’re the only thing left real in the world.

“got my wings on, don’t ya?”

Everything was good: the sun crashing down onto your skin, no one else around, just you, the sun, and the soft sounds of the pool water moving around. Then, suddenly, the sun was blocked and it was no longer just you.

"Hell are ya doin'?"

You don't even have to open your eyes and move to know that it's Daryl, your boyfriend, blocking the sun from you. "It's a nice day out, just enjoying the sun."

"I was lookin' for you inside." Daryl, as usual, doesn't offer any sort of context as to why.

"I'm here now," you offer, seeing if he would decide to give you any context. When he doesn't, just looks you up and down and looks around the pool, you speak up again, "Wanna go in the pool with me?"

Daryl scoffs and shakes his head, "I ain't playin' in the damn pool. You jus' wanna see me shirtless."

"Who says I can't want both? But if you really won't go in the pool with me, move so I can feel the sun again."

"Oh, so the sun matters more?"

"I could be having both, but someone is being stingy."