Chapter Text
It's not that Shane doesn't love Daryl, because he does, he really does, it's just sometimes a little hard to work out why he does the things he does. He's lived with the man since the first day Daryl had been brought into the human way of living and he'd seen him grow from someone practically feral into what could be said to resemble a half decent gentleman. So he can appreciate all the changes that Daryl has taken on and integrated into himself over the time they’ve been together.
Now that they’re actually a couple, or mates as Daryl would say, Shane likes to think he knows the other man pretty damned well. Except there were still some things that were completely baffling to him. Today is one of those days where a calm moment of not doing much of anything has turned into him questioning what the hell Daryl was doing. He’d just been relaxing on the couch reading a book and now here he was.
For whatever reason Daryl had climbed over the back of the couch, arms wrapped about his shoulders, face buried in to Shane’s hair and leaning all of his weight on top of him. There’s a low growl into his hair, Daryl is rubbing over him, scenting him deeply and Shane is far too used to the unmistakeable feel of a tongue behind his ear. Sighing a little he waits for Daryl to decide what he’s doing, but it seems his partner is more than happy where he is, half draped over him, half over the back of the couch and Shane knows if he was in feral form Daryl’s tail would be wagging constantly.
After a few seconds of no movement from Daryl to leave his position Shane continues reading, used to the insanity of his day-to-day life and the strange things that came of living with a werewolf. Turning the page he gets used to the background noise of Daryl’s possessive growl in his ear, not one of danger, but one he’s come to see as almost a purr of contentment. Reaching up he pets Daryl lightly, feeling the way he bares his teeth in a wolf-like grin into his neck and his partner huffs in pleasure.
“New moon tonight?” He asks, still flicking through his book, everything about the scene as normal as could be apart from the full-grown man currently sprawled about his shoulders. Daryl hums in agreement, tongue out and running over Shane’s pulse point, over his ear, into his hair and grooming him lightly. Shane may not enjoy the addition of Daryl slobber hair gel, but he’s learnt not to complain unless he wants Daryl sulking all night.
Daryl’s teeth tug at a lock of hair, he hums, he huffs and he scents over Shane’s head again with his fingers knotting into his partner’s shirt as he clings on. New moons always sent Daryl into a strange mood, there’s not enough of a tug for him to shift, he feels empty and anxious without the moon there and Shane knows he needs to do anything to make himself feel better. Absently he continues petting him, letting Daryl do as he wishes and wondering just when this became classified as normal behaviour in his life. Still he wasn’t complaining, so long as he was happy, Daryl was happy and nothing was getting destroyed he figured he could deal with it. Daryl was worth every crazy moment.