Work Text:
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Jesus asked with a raised eyebrow as he looked at Maggie suspiciously. But he couldn't help how he looked at her or his question even.
She was indeed looking at him funny. Like she knew something that he wasn't telling her. Like she knew his biggest secret and well he highly doubted that Maggie knew his biggest secret.
He doubted anyone knew his biggest secret.
"I'm not looking at you in any way," Maggie denied with a shake of her head as she crossed her arms, letting them rest against the pregnancy bump she now had. "Though I do find it funny that you apparently have the sniffles a few days after Daryl had them."
At her words Jesus blushed slightly, knowing what she was insinuating. She thought he'd gotten this damn cold from the man who came to the Hilltop every two weeks on behalf of Alexandria.
Though Jesus also suspected it was also to keep tabs on Maggie and her pregnancy. To keep Rick and Michonne and the others who had known Maggie the longest in the loop on how she was doing as her pregnancy progressed.
"And just how would I have gotten them from Daryl?" Jesus asked as he looked at Maggie questioningly. "You know he usually avoids me when he comes to Hilltop," he told her, though lately that wasn't the truth at all.
Here lately it seemed Daryl usually did spend time with him when he was at Hilltop. Enough time that he was now comfortable sleeping in Jesus' trailer.
But that didn't mean he'd gotten the sniffles from Daryl.
"He hasn't been avoiding you lately," Maggie said with a look on her face like she knew something that Jesus was hiding which was crazy because he wasn't hiding anything.
There was nothing at all to hide.
"And?" Jesus asked, wondering where Maggie was going with this.
"And I just think that despite you trying to say you didn't get the sniffles from Daryl that you did get them from him," Maggie answered without even sounding like she was joking.
It seemed the woman he considered a friend, a best friend in this fucked up world, thought that he had gotten the sniffles from Daryl. It seemed she thought that maybe they were around each other enough during his latest visit for him to catch Daryl's germs.
Jesus didn't think that was the case, even if Daryl had stayed in his trailer.
"Well you're wrong," Jesus told her right before letting out a sneeze that snuck up on him by surprise and it felt like the sneeze was his body's way of calling him a liar.
His body was in agreement with Maggie that it was Daryl who had gotten him sick.
-----
Daryl let out a small huff as he laid in his bed, the covers pulled around him and Carol seated next to where he was lying, feeding him chicken noodle soup from a bowl. A soup that she insisted he eat although he'd told her all he had was the sniffles.
He wasn't majorly sick even if his body seemed to be protesting those words with the body aches and chills he was feeling.
Symptoms that had kept him from going on the run today with Rick. Jesus who was visiting from Hilltop had gone in his place.
Not that Daryl called him Jesus. To Daryl he'd always just be Paul.
Paul the man who seemed to get under his skin and annoy him. Paul, the man who despite annoying him, Daryl was letting stay with him at his place in Alexandria, though Daryl wasn't sure how long he had left here in Alexandria.
Rick was talking about sending him to The Sanctuary so he could look over what Saviors were still left and that thought made Daryl upset.
He didn't want to go back to a place where he'd been held prisoner. He didn't want to look after people who just mere months ago had been trying to kill him and the people he considered friends and family.
Daryl really wasn't sure what had gotten into Rick lately. Hadn't been sure of it since the moment Rick had chosen to spare Negan instead of killing him.
"You know," Carol said as she held another spoonful of soup up to his lips. "Before Jesus left today he mentioned he'd just gotten over his own bout of the sniffles though he was pretty sure it was the flu in the end."
"And?" Daryl asked before opening his mouth and swallowing the soup, making a face at the way that action made his sore throat hurt even worse.
It was another sign that maybe he had more than just the goddamn sniffles.
"And maybe you have whatever Jesus had," Carol told him like she had everything figured out in her head.
Daryl found himself feeling annoyed at her assumptions. Felt himself rolling his eyes.
"You don't think I'm right?" Carol questioned obviously having caught his eye roll and of course she would. She was his best friend and knew him better than he knew himself.
Not to mention she always watched him like a hawk. Even more so when he was sick and he guessed he lucked out on her visiting Alexandria and not being at The Kingdom this time while he was sick.
He kind of liked Carol playing nurse even when she was making silly assumptions.
"No, I don't," Daryl told her, confirming that he didn't think she was right. "I don't have whatever Paul had. He was only here two days before he started getting better. There was no time for him to give me his germs just by being in the same house as me."
Now it was Carol who rolled her eyes and Daryl just narrowed his eyes at her.
"What?" Daryl questioned, wondering just what Carol had been thinking that made her roll her eyes.
"I'm supposed to believe he was just sharing a house with you?" Carol asked though it came out more like something else.
It wasn't a statement, it felt like an accusation.
It was an accusation that Daryl didn't know how to handle.
"What else do you think he was sharing with me?" he asked and as the words came out of his mouth his heartbeat picked up slightly because he already knew what she was going to say.
He knew but he wanted to hear her say it.
"He's been sharing your bed too," Carol stated with a certainty that rocked Daryl to his core just like it made his heartbeat get even faster.
The fact that Carol thought that Paul was sharing his bed made him feel uneasy because he'd always grown up being told that being gay was wrong.
He'd grown up hearing Merle and his dad use all kinds of slurs against gay people. Slurs that maybe had hit Daryl a bit too deep but he never would have told his dad or Merle that.
It was his own secret to keep.
"And you'd still want to be my friend if Paul and I were sharing a bed?" Daryl questioned not confirming if she was right or not on what she had said.
He was still freaking out and maybe he could blame his being sick on that. He did feel feverish after all so he could just say he had a fever and it was messing with how he felt.
It had nothing to do with feeling anxious.
"Why wouldn't I?" Carol asked like it was crazy that she'd stop being his friend just because he might be gay.
It was something Daryl wished he'd been shown growing up. People that didn't give a shit if someone was gay because being gay wasn't wrong.
Daryl knew that but it still didn't help his anxiety over anyone finding out that he preferred men over women. That it was men he thought about during the times he did get off.
"Because it's wrong," Daryl said and from the look Carol gave him he almost wished he could hide from her. He wished he had kept his mouth shut.
He was half afraid she'd pour the rest of his soup on him instead of feeding it to him, with the way she had looked at him.
"You know that's bullshit," Carol told him and after she spoke she held up another spoonful of soup to his mouth for him to take a bite.
Instead of saying anything back right away, Daryl took a bite of the soup and swallowed, trying not to wince because it still hurt his throat.
He was definitely going to need to get some medicine in his body soon.
"I know," Daryl said with a nod of his head because he did know it was bullshit. There was nothing wrong with being gay. "But Paul isn't sharing my bed," he added on and as he said that he knew from the look that Carol gave him she didn't believe him.
Carol still believed that Paul was sharing his bed.
-----
"You know, me being sick is all your fault," Jesus griped as he ran a paper towel over his runny nose and looked over at Daryl miserably in the bed they were sharing at The Sanctuary.
It was mid December and he'd come to check on how Daryl was adjusting to being here and he'd gotten stuck for a few days thanks to an unexpected snowstorm.
"How is it my fault?" Daryl asked with a slight cough. A cough that was sounding better than it had when Jesus had first arrived.
It was a sign Daryl was getting better while he was now beginning to get sick himself, which meant he'd be here even longer.
He'd be forced to stay even longer which would mean Maggie would ask questions when he got back. Questions he knew he couldn't answer honestly because Daryl wasn't ready to announce their relationship to everyone just yet.
He wasn't ready to come out of the closet and Jesus wasn't going to force him out or out him without his consent, so he'd have to come up with a lie when Maggie did question him.
A lie that he hoped was convincing.
"Because I wouldn't have the damn sniffles if you could have just kept your paws off me that first night I got here," Jesus teased though his teasing didn't go over well. Not when he sneezed right after and luckily he was still holding the paper towel so it was easy to wipe his nose.
"Mhmm, of course it's my fault you're so damn irresistible," Daryl teased right back, obviously somehow able to find Jesus cute even when he was sick.
But then again Jesus found Daryl cute when Daryl was sick so he guessed it was possible Daryl could think the same as him. It did seem to be how they kept trading germs back and forth.
"And it's my fault you just find me so irresistible," Jesus retorted back before burying even farther into the bed, especially when Daryl's arm went around his waist.
"Damn right it is," Daryl smirked as he leaned in to leave a kiss on Jesus' forehead and Jesus swore that maybe he could handle Daryl getting him sick.
He could handle it if it meant him cuddling in bed with him and kissing his forehead.