Chapter Text
Mortuus
“If the world was ending
You'd come over, right?
The sky'd be falling and I'd hold you tight
And there wouldn't be a reason why
We would even have to say goodbye
If the world was ending
You'd come over, right?”
If the World Was Ending, JP Saxe
Daryl didn't remember how he fell in love with his brother's best friend, his brother’s fiancée.
It wasn’t a single event.
He hadn’t fallen in love in the middle of sleep.
He had fallen slowly, before they were even a thing, quite pathetically, he had wanted his brother’s best friend to notice him, bestow him with the blessing of his attention, to be the focus of his emerald-like eyes.
He would wake up from dreams of a whole life with Harry when he was 12 and feel an incredible sense of loss for it never had happened.
When his brother came back smiling and laughing one day, confessing to him he and Harry had begun seeing each other he was miserable. But he smiled, congratulating his brother, Merle deserved Harry, he deserved happiness after hell.
Daryl didn’t wish his brother an unhappy life without Harry.
Nonetheless, he was sad he would never have Harry as his. Never confessing his turmoil of feelings.
At night Daryl cried for the first time in a while, but not the last about Harry.
Soon after they became engaged.
He smiled. He congratulated the couple and held Harry’s frame tightly, burying his nose in the smaller man’s neck for a second.
They lived together blissfully for years, Daryl could almost pretend his heart wasn’t breaking, that he didn’t hate hearing Harry giggling every time Merle did something to make him laugh, or how he would sigh in the middle of a kiss, or moan in the middle of sex.
Daryl went out with other people, trying to move on desperately, to find comfort in other bodies, to pretend he wasn’t a dick for being in love with his brother’s fiancée.
Daryl was happy they were happy together. Harry deserved that. Merle deserved that. But what did Daryl deserve? Why did he have to hurt so much?
Then it wasn’t okay and that was so much worse than enduring their blissful relationship.
It had gone to shit because of Merle, he had begun going out with some friends from work, he had gone to a party and he had done coke for the first time. Dumbly. And he liked it, after all, it was an addiction, the feeling he did more and more and then once Harry came home from Med school and discovered Merle’s addiction they began fighting, Harry begged Merle to stop, to seek treatment, and Merle didn’t think he had a problem at all, not at first, the fights escalated and suddenly Harry who was once their sun became a grey sky.
He would find him crying at corners and sit with him offering limited comfort to his best friend, the love of his life.
One day Harry looked into his eyes and apologized, he begged his forgiveness but told him he was leaving.
“He doesn’t love me as much as he loves drugs” he had said, sardonic smile in place.
He had tried to disagree, Merle loved him, he knew it, but he was so mad that Merle had everything he ever desired and was blowing it away, he shook his head protesting as Harry gave him the scripture to the house he had bought for them, he asked Daryl to keep contact and not become a stranger, and then he left.
Merle became a shell for a time and Daryl felt like screaming.
It was his fault Harry left.
He didn’t, he nursed his brother when he didn’t have the energy to get out of bed and he was happy and angry when Merle went to rehab, wishing his brother would have gone when Harry had begged, practically on his knees.
And then, years later the world went to hell and the dead started to walk, and he and his brother were trying to get Harry back, to protect the omega as the world ended.
The rooftop, nowadays.
Merle couldn’t believe his eyes, couldn’t believe his luck, God, he couldn’t believe Harry was actually really alive, and in front of him as if nothing had ever happened, as if he hadn’t destroyed his heart, as if he didn’t destroy his own every time he broke Harry’s.
He barely heard Harry's words but opened his arms anyway, hoping to have him back in the safety of his embrace.
“Missed me?” He heard Harry barely whisper, insecurely of his welcome after the way they had parted.
He breathed his omegas scent in like a man dying of thirst in the middle of a desert.
“Always” he whispers back ignoring the crowd that gathered.
‘This is weird’ was all Andrea could think, and it was, the Dixon brothers were reclusive, they kept to themselves, and if Andrea sometimes wondered if this was a sweet home Alabama type of shit, that was only for Andrea to know.
Merle was rude.
Merle was mean.
Merle was honestly a dick.
She wondered if aliens were real after all. The only possible explanation for this soft-spoken and sweet Merle was that he was replaced by some type of robotic alien clone.
The doc. was cute, she got that.
He had long hair, a perky ass and an overall cute face, and a killer body.
She gets if Merle is horny for him because, to be honest, she is too, this is the hottest omega she ever saw, and if she wished for a moment that she was an alpha and not a beta no one would know.
Merle wasn’t simply horny.
Merle looked as if the doc was the sun and had hung the moon and all the stars in the sky.
Merle looked in love.
It was disturbing.
“Do we know how they know each other?” Andrea whispers to Glenn because he was the one who brought the omega in.
“No,” he said shortly, weird.
Glenn was sunshine, not broody.
Everything was just weird.
He heard someone clearing their throat and simply rolled his eyes, undoing his hug, he smiled down at Harry and said “we were looking for you”.
“Daryl is with you?” Harry asks.
“Not right now” Merle shakes his head “he is hunting for the camp”.
“Oh” Pure relief washed over Harry, he knew Daryl wasn’t dead, he had checked with death, and he wasn’t that thick. But Daryl being together with Merle made everything so much easier.
“I can’t believe you are here” Merle smiled “I-We hoped you were okay but with everything going to shit we had no way to contact you-”
“It’s okay, Mer” Harry smiled “I know you tried, you always do”, he raised a hand as if to caress the older man’s cheek but hesitated in the end.
“I don’t mean to intrude,” T-dog says “but due to the shots earlier we are in a pinch, the geeks are trying to get in”.
The group hurried down the stairs as quickly as they could, Harry held Merle’s hand as he pulled the older man behind him.
The group was technically stuck.
And Harry couldn’t go and say “Hey, the mortuus won’t bother us if I say so”, because, well, crazy talk.
Harry didn’t say anything besides squeezing Merle’s hand in his.
“I might have an idea…” Glenn spoke.
“Well, do tell” Andrea prompts.
“That isn’t a very nice way to speak” Harry chides, he always had a way to make you feel like a child getting scolded “Please, do tell us what you are thinking, love” he complements kindly in a southern-ish drolls.
Gleen blushes, not unlike a tomato, Merle notices, and he controls the urge to roll his eyes once again, the man rapidly developing a crush on his ex was not in his bingo card, but neither was a literal apocalypse in it.
“We killed some of the geeks at the alley” he starts cautious of others thinking his plan was in bad taste “…We could use their entrails and pretend to be one of them to reach a car or something”.
He gives the Korean man a once over, not expecting such a sound plan from the man as quick as it had, he had survivor skills, something that would definitely add to the survivors.
“I will go” Harry offers, he raises a hand to stop the protests “I’m quicker than probably all of you and I’m very much smaller than you guys which in turn makes me less of a target” he half-lied.
Merle was quiet as he thought Harry probably wanted to be alone so he could use his magic, the others didn’t quite protest, except Glenn who argued heatedly and managed to get Harry to agree to let him use a second car as a distraction so the others could escape safely.
“We’ll get two cars. Glenn, you go ahead and get one to distract the… geeks, I’ll get a truck and come back here to get them, they’ll know the way to your camp, you stay alert and safe until I come for you”.
They did it. Andrea thought
They actually achieved the most insane plan she ever heard, they got the guts out of the geeks and camouflaged Glenn and the Doc. And they did it.
It was close. It had begun to rain but fortunately, and rather strangely, the walkers didn’t notice anything, while they waited Andrea, Merle, T-dog and Sheriff Happy had gotten the rest of the stuff they needed back on camp, while Morales and Jaqui kept watch for the Doctor and Glenn.
It had worked. She knew as soon as she had heard the annoying and loud car alarm blazing and echoing in the concrete buildings of the city.
She would live another day - She breathed easier - She would reunite with her sister, and things would be better, not okay, but better.
She climbed the truck harry had gotten, Merle went in the passenger seat, to guide the Doctor back to the quarry.
Hopefully, all would be well.