Chapter Text
“f*ck.” Wayne spits out, the blush back in full force, just a smear of pink swept along the slope of his cheeks.
“Do you really?” He asks, quiet-like, almost curious.
Daryl watches, transfixed. Watches the way Wayne’s eyes drift to where Daryl’s fingers are still hooked around the waist of his jeans. The way the alpha seems to sway closer, nostrils flaring.
This, Daryl thinks, hope threatening to choke him, is promising.
“Not the sort of thing you lie about, is it?” Daryl says, curling his fingers a little bit inward, not quite sure what direction this’ll take just yet.
“No.” Wayne says slowly, still watching.
There’s a glimpse of something that flickers across the alpha’s eyes, almost too fast to pin down.
Daryl startles, feels a light pressure drag along his ribs, quick and careful before fingers come to rest low on the dip of his back.
Beside him, Wayne lets out a hum, “Don’t suppose it is.”
Daryl tips forward then, has to, the hand not already tethering Wayne to him, snapping upward to tangle in the short crop of blond hair at the base of the alpha’s neck, before dragging him closer.
It’s too hard, too demanding, but the noise it pulls from Wayne’s lips is one that will haunt Daryl for the rest of his days if he lets it.
“Tell me to f*ck off.” Daryl insists, spittin’ out the words, his self-control slippin’ another notch at the sight of Wayne keening so plainly at the way Daryl’s got him by the scruff of his neck. He feels f*ckin’ deranged with it. Like he might combust if he doesn’t do something about this, if he doesn’t answer in some kind. “Tell me to f*ck off right f*ckin’ now, Wayne.”
The twist on Wayne’s face does nothing to distract from how pretty the flutter of his eyelashes looks as he squeezes his eyes shut, hard, skin crinkling at the corners, before he’s blinking them open again and training his gaze at Daryl, glazed over and so f*ckin’ blue. Blond curls pull taut between Daryl’s fingers and his heart tumbles from his chest to his stomach at the sight of Wayne straining towards him, fighting against all odds to get even a hare’s breath closer.
“Wayne.”
“Goddammit, Darry.” Wayne huffs and Daryl finds himself on the receiving end of a look he’s never seen directed toward him before, furious, and desperate in equal measure, and f*ck—
How can that look be for him?
His world narrows suddenly, jarringly, to the man in front of him, and Daryl darts forward without taking even a moment to chew on any of the millions of reasons why they shouldn’t—
They meet in the middle.
Daryl takes Wayne’s lips in a hard, searching kiss, arms wrapping around him. Keens happily when Wayne kisses back, his hands coming up to cradle Daryl’s head from behind, tangling his fingers into his curls and pulling him closer and closer until there is no space left between them.
It’s not nearly enough, but it’s nice, like maybe Daryl has earned this somehow, like maybe he was good enough for the universe to finally f*cking give him this.
They separate, Daryl pressing their foreheads together a brief moment as he bites back a sign. “Verdict then?”
Wayne’s breath hitches, squirming as Daryl’s hands wander, dipping well below what’s respectable, not that Daryl gives two sh*ts at the moment. “Well, it’s reciprocated, isn’t it?” He says.
Whines when Daryl slides a hand in the Wayne’s back pocket and squeezes, his chest heavin’. “Darry.”
It’s easy then, too easy, to slide another kiss up against Wayne’s lips, and another, and another. A little deeper each time, encouraged when Wayne lets out a low groan in response. Grasps a fistful of the alpha’s flannel to keep himself upright, getting into it, kissing him so goddamn hard their teeth clack together, gives it good until Wayne’s mouth opens for him the rest of the way and Daryl can lick inside, heated and a bit too wet.
With nothing stoppin’ him, Daryl shoves Wayne up against the alley wall, keeping him there, belly to belly, hips crushed together, and Wayne lets him. Squirms and fidgets, never still for a moment, one hand carding through Daryl’s curls, the other wandering over his shoulders, his back, his arm, but otherwise staying put. Shifts his hips up and open to let Daryl work a thigh between his legs, all sweet and accommodating like. Something about it makes Daryl’s head feel quieter. Quieter than it’s been all day, blessedly soothed.
Daryl breaks away from Wayne’s mouth to breathe, something he apparently forgot that he needed to do, and the moment he does, Wayne snaps his head back, gasping in air, exposing miles of pink, sun-kissed throat.
“f*ck, Darry,” Wayne gets out, choked and high and shattered. “f*ck. It’s f*cking you, isn’t it?”
“What’s that?” Daryl asks, not waiting for an answer before he’s grinding his hips forward, set on makin’ Wayne let loose another one of those small, bruised-up sounds from before. Rocks up against him once, twice, before getting his mouth back on Wayne’s where it belongs, pertnear purring when he hears the little gasp knock free from the alpha’s mouth.
It's then that Daryl wants to tell him he’s lovely like this, that he’s perfect, but some crucial connection between his brain and his mouth seems to have been severed and the instructions intercepted before they can be relayed.
Instead, Daryl pulls away and blurts out a rather eloquent, “Holy f*ck, Wayne,” before diving back in.
Enjoys the plush feel of Wayne’s lips against his own, the slick slide as they move together, thinks he’ll die here, happily, just as long as he enjoy this feeling a little longer.
It’s why he nearly cries when a hand plants itself on the center of his chest and all but shoves him in the wrong direction.
Daryl separates his mouth from Wayne with an embarrassing wet pop and growls, “What?”
“The scent.” Wayne grunts, eyes heavy-lidded and bright. Daryl marvels at the sight, eyes traveling all over Wayne’s face before settling back over the cut of his jaw. Jesus, his f*cking jaw. His f*cking— all of him.
Daryl sucks in a breath, trying to focus. “What about it?”
Wayne growls, “You’re in rut, you tit.”
Suddenly, a lot of things about the day he’s had make a mite more sense.
“Oh f*ck.” Daryl stutters, making as if to ease back a step.
Only, Wayne makes a sound. Daryl isn’t sure exactly what it means, but it sounds a little offended, a little disbelieving.
“What’re you—?” Wayne gasps, reeling him back in, arm thrown out frantically around the back of him. “Didn’t say to go, now did I?”
Daryl lets himself be led back into Wayne’s orbit, instinctually hiding his face in the crock of the alpha’s neck.
His mind races, trying to put the pieces together.
“How?” Daryl asks, voice breaking.
Wayne’s hand slide to his nape and stills.
“You’ve always been a little slow.” The words are little more than a murmur against the top of his head, but they vibrate through him, leave him trembling with too much, too much, all at once. “Just took longer than most for your body to catch up to the rest of you.”
It sounds… plausible. Or as much so as Daryl is capable of reasoning for the time being.
Shocking as it is, him of all people an alpha, the revelation does very little to dim, even in the slightest, the ratcheting hunger stewing inside of him.
Nosing along the alpha’s throat, Daryl happily drowns himself in Wayne’s scent, pressing in close with hopes it’ll help relieve just even a fraction of the heat in his gut.
“Gotta be honest, Wayne.” Daryl says, and his words are half a moan, half whisper.
Wayne jerks slightly, hips lurching up.
“Should always be honest.” The alpha breathes back. His hands have settled around Darry’s waist, thumbs tucked up over his hipbones, fingers curled around his back.
Throwing caution to the wind, Darry bites at a patch of skin just below Wayne’s ear, just to see what the alpha does, and is rewarded when Wayne’s hands clench around him, gets an arm around Daryl’s midsection and hauls him closer.
“Not sure what I’m doin’ here.” Darry admits, continuing to mouth generously at Wayne’s neck.
Clearly enjoying the attention being paid to him, Wayne huffs. “Got no complaints from me.”
Daryl shivers, more than a bit overwhelmed at the sensation of Wayne’s prick crushed up against his belly, want burning through him, gut-deep and unstoppable.
“Wanna get at ya, Wayne.” He groans.
“Trynna get in my Calvin’s, Darry?”
“Was thinkin’ somethin’ along those lines.”
“Wouldn’t say no to a bit of toe-curlin’.”
Daryl rips his mouth away from Wayne’s neck. “And after?”
“Konk out, likely.”
Reaching out a hand, Daryl brushes it over the alpha’s face, Wayne butting into it, thumb swiping across cheeks and brow and nose. “And after that?”
“Oh, I dunno,” Wayne huffs.
There’s a small pause, a span of a heartbeat in which Wayne tilts his head the slightest bit, a considering look on his face. “Breakfast?”
Darry makes a noise, low and pleased, and presses back into Wayne, needing his warmth, needing to touch him in every way, as much as possible.
“f*ck.” Daryl spits. “Don’t know if I’ll make it back to the house.”
Wayne’s eyes flicker to the parking lot just beyond. “Settle for a squeezer in the truck?”
Daryl’s breath catches on an inhale. “Wouldn’t feel right to do anything more until I can get you ‘tween the sheets proper like.”
Wayne grins and Daryl feels it, muscles shifting under his palm as the smile stretches his face. “A real gentleman, aren’t you?”
Daryl rubs a thumb against Wayne’s cheek, a grin of his own mirroring Wayne’s. “f*ckin’ right, I am.”
“Love you.” Wayne says, simple, to the point, and above all else, honest. “You hear me, Darry?”
Daryl nods, because that too much feeling is back again, and he’s not sure he can do much more than that, nod, and sigh back, “I hear you, Wayne.”
Love you too. He thinks, because of course he does, has since he was small and wide-eyed and too naïve to really understand what was happening. Since before he knew what it meant.
“Come on,” Wayne says, and suddenly he’s moving back and away, and it’s bad, he shouldn’t be doin’ that, shouldn’t ever be walkin’ away, but he’s pulling Daryl with him, and that’s okay, that’s better.
Daryl follows, goes after Wayne, just like he always does.
And away they go.
~
Stars dot the darkened sky stretched over their heads, stark shimmering lights smattering the pitch black above.
It’s beautiful, Daryl thinks, and despite living in Letterkenny his whole life he’s never really stopped to appreciate it.
Arm wedged under the back of his head, Daryl works a dart between his lips and stares up at the nothing. The truck bed rocks beneath him and in his periphery, Daryl catches sight of something, and then, fingers extending towards him. He hands Wayne the cigarette reflexively, even though it’s already been worked down to the filter. And Wayne takes it anyway, not caring, wrestling the last bit of nicotine from it before flicking it over the side of the truck bed a second later. His hand returns then, exploring Daryl’s flank carefully, his arm, before coming to a stop at his wrist. His fingers are cold when they brush against his wrist.
Daryl shifts, rolling to his side for a better look, only to find Wayne watching him.
His heart goes thundering again, crashing into Daryl’s chest, a harsh clambering thud. It’s a distance thing; natural somehow, the way Wayne, just looking at him, makes Daryl’s heart speed up.
“You’re clearly thinking something,” the alpha says, pale eyes shining even through the dark. “Out with it.”
Daryl covers the fingers around his wrist with his own and sighs, “Is it what you wanted?”
Sound travels easily in the quiet, so Daryl hears the punched-in inhale that Wayne lets loose before answering, “Whatchu mean?”
Daryl casts his gaze away, scratching his cheek with his free hand. “Know you said it ain’t worth thinking about, but that doesn’t mean you didn’t. Or that it isn't.”
He knows he’s puss*footin’ around the point, knows keenly just how much Wayne hates when he doesn’t just come out and say what he means, but that nervous feelin’ from earlier is creepin’ in again, and Daryl can’t help it how his confidence just seems to skitter away like some frightened animal at the thought of messin' this up.
“The f*ck you on about, Darry.” Wayne asks, and the way it comes out, it’s like he’s angry.
“I’m not trying to…” Daryl starts before pausing. “It’s just a question, Wayne.”
Beside him, Wayne growls, a low tired sound. “It doesn’t matter to me now, and it sure as f*ck never f*cking mattered to me then either.”
Disbelieving as ever, Daryl shakes his head. “Bullsh*t.”
The fingers around his wrist sink into his pulse, and Daryl’s eyes flicker back to Wayne whose brow has since set into a deep furrow.
But it’s not anger Daryl sees.
It’s confusion.
And something like hurt.
“Okay,” Daryl says, carefully, because the last thing he wants is to upset Wayne, especially now when everything feels so fragile. “Explain it to me then.”
Scoots closer even as Wayne all but drags him the rest of the way until their slotted nicely together.
“Well, it was sort’ve like,” Wayne starts, his breath ghosting along the bare skin of Daryl’s throat. “Just would’ve been happy with whatever you were, you know.” He sighs and Daryl feels it, all of it, the swell of his rib cage, the press of it against his chest. “Only ever wanted you.”
Pressed against him, Daryl swallows hard. “You say sh*t like that Wayne, and it makes me feel like the ground’s gone and slipped right out from under me.”
“You like it though,” Wayne says, and he says it with a quiet sort of confidence that makes him seem both years younger and still almost shy. “You like seeing me go soft for you.”
It surprises Daryl again, how intuitive Wayne is. How much he really sees.
They lay together then, no words passing between them, and it’s nice, really, to let the moment stretch between them, extending further and further away.
“Wayne.” Daryl says, breaking the silence. “You ever think about leaving Letterkenny?” He assumes the non-sequitur won’t give Wayne any problems, and it doesn’t.
“Think I’d sooner take up meth,” Wayne says without hesitating.
“Think it’s nice.” Daryl says, after a moment. “Being so certain about where you belong.”
Waits a second before adding, “I didn’t always know.”
Wayne sniffs at him, nose in his hair as he responds dryly, “f*ckin’ 10 ply, aren’t you?”
“Well, I’m in good company then, aren’t I?” Daryl slides a hand onto Wayne’s waist and Wayne makes the sweetest, deepest sound Daryl has ever heard a person make.
Helpless against it, Daryl growls, rolling on top of him.
Presses the other alpha into the truck bed and mouths along his jaw. Wayne shudders underneath him, moans. Urges Daryl on top of him, raking his nails down his back.
It feels exciting, in a base sort of way, forcing Wayne to take what Daryl gives him. Feels good to press his teeth into the soft parts of him. To bite without letting go.
Almost like a claim.
Unlocking his jaw, Daryl feels a wave of shame roll through him at the display.
“Sorry.” Daryl says, rubbin’ a hand across his mouth and pulling back. “Shouldn’t have done that.”
Beneath him, flushed and panting, Wayne rolls his eyes. “Now, don’t go apologizing for things that aren’t your fault.”
“M’not an animal, Wayne.” Daryl spits back, feeling his ears burn.
“No, you aren’t.” Wayne says, propping himself up, elbows shoved underneath him. “But this is all new to you, and you’ll get the hang of it sooner or later, so there’s no point giving you more grief than you’re already giving yourself.”
“Besides,” Wayne says, fingers reaching towards his neck, exploring the now inflamed skin gingerly. “S'not so bad.”
Mollified, Daryl dips forward and runs his tongue along the mark in apology before settling, falling loose-limbed into the valley between Wayne’s chest and his outstretched arm.
Something approaching a comfortable silence envelops them and Daryl lets impulse guide him, burrowing deeper into the man beside him, devoured by the seemingly ever-present need to get closer.
“I’ve got you,” Wayne manages to get out before a yawn forces its way passed his lips, fingertips dragging over Daryl’s hip, thumbs pressing into the bone.
Not long later, Daryl surrenders to the heavy weight building up behind his eyes, drifting as callused fingers travel up and down the ridges of his spine.
Lets a purr escapes him, blissed out and content, as the scent of the both of them fills his nose.
Home.
