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“You ok?”
Rick startled out of a daze he'd had no idea he was in and looked back at his husband as he sat across from him at his desk, frowning.
“Rick?” Daryl asked again when no answer came.
“Mm, sorry, got lost in thought I guess…” the other man answered, his voice still sounding as though he was not quite there.
The look on Daryl's face was one of resolution, one that said he was not prepared to take no for an answer. “I think you should take a break. It's eleven, you been workin’ all day all week, you deserve it.”
“No, honey, I still got--"
“For fuck’s sake, Rick, will ya ever learn to rest? Dunno...like, give yourself a break?” Daryl's fingers tapped on the edge of the desk in both annoyance and anxiety.
It was highly unusual for them to have Daryl try and take charge but he couldn't stand it anymore. Couldn't stand to just watch as his husband grew more and more edgy as the days passed and the dark circles forming under his eyes only darkened.
“Daryl, Wednesday's meeting is important, I cannot just--"
“Yes, yes you can.” Daryl clipped raising from his chair. “Now, Rick. Close that computer. Get up. Get out of this room. Right now.”
For a long moment, both men just stared at each other, Daryl staying put by the door and Rick looking back at him wide-eyed.
“You're serious?”
“Dead serious.”
Rick huffed but eventually did as Daryl wanted. He closed his computer slowly, still casting surprised glances at his unmoving husband. He got up from his chair and walked up to him.
“Don't look at me like that. If you're not happy with this I'm open to stress relief sex.” Daryl muttered before walking out of the room.
Rick stood right where he was for another few seconds, eyes going from his desk to the glass door of his study and the blurry silhouette of his husband as he stormed down the hallway. Pinching the bridge of his nose, Rick took a deep breath and walked out as well.
“Dare, come on, I'm sorry, okay? Okay?”
“Go to bed, Rick, ain't mad, just want you to rest.” Daryl's voice filtered from behind the door of the bathroom adjoined to their bedroom and Rick sighed.
Slowly, he peeled off his clothes and slipped under the covers. The fact was he really could use some sleep. How comfortable was that bed? He thought. Every last one of his muscles seemed to thank the high heavens that he was finally lying down. Rolling around a bit, Rick finally found a good position resting on his side, head wedged between their two respective pillows, the sound of Daryl brushing his teeth bringing him closer and closer to sleep.
It was only moments later when Daryl got out of the bathroom fresh-breathed, bare-bodied and smiling bright. “So much for stressed-out sex.” he whispered fondly.
Rick laid deep in slumber, face smashed in the pillows and looking more serene than he had in weeks and Daryl could finally breathe better as well.
Working from home had its perks but it also meant that whatever meeting or event planned with the outside world bore a much more important weight than it would for a regular office worker. They both had to live through it from time to time and Rick, no matter how hard he tried to sell it, was no more immune to pressure than Daryl was.
The executive rolled on to his side as well, facing Rick. He fell asleep pacifier in his mouth and tired unkempt curls tangled in his fingers.
Undefined hissing noises. Slight random movements around him. Rustles and coughs and whines. Daryl awoke in a startle, the blurry sight of his husband, in the middle of a nightmare, unsurprising.
“Rick...wake up. C’mon, love, open yer eyes.” Daryl straightened up, looking down at his husband in worry as the man slowly regained consciousness.
Lids fluttering and mouth twisting, Rick opened his eyes and instantly clung to Daryl, both hands going to wrap tightly around the man's biceps.
“S’okay, you're okay. Wasn't nothin’, just a nightmare, baby,” Daryl nuzzled Rick's cheek, leaving a trail of kisses down to behind the man's ear. “Can you take a deep breath for me?” and only when Rick nodded shakily and took an equally quivering breath in did Daryl allow himself to relax a bit.
He stroked the sides of Rick's face gently, wiping away the sweat that had gathered in the man's brow, brushing a thumb over his nose and lips. “You're okay.” he repeated in a whisper.
Rick nodded again, face buried in Daryl's chest, breathing shallowly against the damp skin of his husband.
He'd always had nightmares. Back when he was a child they took on the not so original forms every kid is scared of, monsters, dark shadows, ghosts.
When he was a teenager, the nightmares turned more ‘social’, taking on scenes of arriving buck-naked to school, of failing a test so miserably that the teacher would humiliate him in front of the whole body of students.
But as he grew into adulthood, when other people almost never had nightmares anymore, Rick found that his would come back anytime he'd be stressed-out or distressed in any way. They were his own way that his subconscious mind dealt with issues and the anxiety that might arise when he was confronted with problems he couldn't solve easily.
Daryl had known about them early on in their relationship, with how the nervousness he'd felt opening up to a new person after his last relationship had ended up bringing out his troubled sleep on their very first night together.
It didn't matter that Rick was usually the one leading the way for the both of them, didn't matter that pretty much everyone could see that he was the ‘dominant’ one, whatever that meant. There were still moments such as this night, when Rick needed Daryl more than anything in the world.
Waking up from a nightmare was one thing, being aware of one's surroundings, being able to grasp reality as it came back and remembering exactly where he was, were another entirely. For that, to know he was safe, that the twisted pictures of his dreams were just that, dark figments of his overactive brain, there was only Daryl. The warm body of his husband, his large shoulders and tender chest, his lips and words , a safety blanket, a fire in the hearth of his reeling mind.
Rick was still clutching at Daryl's sides with all the strength he had left and the archer let him. He could sense the exact moment the distress of his husband eased down a little and took that as his cue to move them around a bit.
Caressing Rick’s sweaty curls with the utmost tenderness, Daryl pecked his temple, squeezed him gently before getting up. “I'll be right back.”
And true to his word, Daryl came back a second later, a warm towel in one hand and a bottle of icy water in the other.
“Sit up fer me?” Daryl's voice arrived to Rick's ears in a murmur, soft and slow and he sighed as he did what was asked of him.
His body was reluctant at best, muscles twitching and cramping with every move he made but Daryl's hands were back on him in seconds and he relished in the feeling of them. Home, sweet, gentle, untarnished home.
Their gazes met for a second but just then Rick shivered, goosebumps appearing everywhere and Daryl was quick to put the warm towel over his shoulders, making sure it was tightly wrapped around his husband. “S'good, love, yer doin’ good.”
Next he opened the bottle of water and brought it to Rick’s lips, prompting his dazed husband to open and swallow a few sips with a gentle squeeze of his free hand to his neck.
“Thank you.” Rick said, voice so hoarse it brought a new frown to Daryl's brow.
“Don't gotta thank me and you know it, stupid.” he answered, gruff as always in emotional situations. He put the bottle on his nightstand before settling against the headboard, legs crossed. He gently pulled at the other man's shoulders and Rick laid down across the pillows, head resting on his husband's knee and the rest of his body curling up into a ball.
“Feelin’ a bit better?”
Rick took a moment before he nodded, slow and still unsure. Daryl's fingers were back to brushing his hair and massaging his skull in tender, deliberate lines and it soothed him to no end.
“Dunno why it keeps happening.” he murmured.
“Yes you do. Yer overworkin’ yourself, same as you always do.” Daryl answered him, voice firm but so loving Rick's heart didn't know if it should keep calming down from its frightened frenzy or start again in enamored excitement.
After a while Rick shifted a little from his position on Daryl’s lap, turning the other way around so he could search the other man’s eyes through his bangs. “You always this beautiful?”
Daryl chuckled, cocking his head to the side to get a better view of his husband. “Guess you are feeling better, huh?”
“Uh huh, maybe.” Rick straightened up now facing his husband fully, he leaned in for a kiss and stopped an inch away from his lips.
“Gonna make me catch ya?” Daryl raised an eyebrow playfully.
“Think you're up for it?”
Daryl kissed him, or rather, crushed their lips together, bringing Rick backwards till he was laying on his back with Daryl above him. “Think you need to sleep.”
And Rick was about to protest but as if on cue, an earth-shattering yawn distended his lips and he could only laugh. “I guess I could use more than those…” he turned towards the clock on the nightstand, “three and a half hours of sleep, yeah…”
“C'mon.” Daryl kissed him again, chaste, so chaste before pulling Rick back into a sitting position and hugging him tight to his chest.
“Dunno what I'd do without you, angel.” Rick kissed the side of his husband's neck, more grateful every day that this man was willingly his.
“You'd walk around naked for lack of clean clothes.” Daryl deadpanned and they parted laughing in unison. “C’mon, lie back down. I’ll wake ya.”
“Promise?” Rick’s question filtered through the pillow he smashed his face into.
“Mmm.” Daryl mumbled, only settling back against his husband once he’d made sure Rick was comfortably tucked in the covers. And if he fell asleep with a small smile stretching his lips knowing what the other man would need come morning, what he always needed the day after a nightmare, well, who could blame him.