- Okay. So, this was going to be one of my one-shots but as I was writing, I realized this story could go further. So it's gonna be a short fic of mine. 3-5 chapters. It's an AU. Rick and Michonne are in high school. No zombies. Read on. -

Chapter One

Rick was lying in the bed of a stranger's house in a state of disbelief. The cotton sheets that would normally have felt soft and inviting felt uncomfortable against his skin. He focused on the bumpy texture of the ceiling because he didn't want to focus on anything else. Especially not the girl lying beside him.

'I can't believe I lost my virginity,' Rick thought.

And he couldn't believe that he had lost it to someone other than Lori Stevens. His high school sweetheart. It was true that they were currently in the middle of one of their frequent breakups, but both knew that they would probably just end up getting back together. It was always like that for them.

'What if I've ruined it?' Rick thought, his heart pounding.

He couldn't imagine being without Lori. And the people around him would never imagine him being without Lori. It just didn't make sense.

'What have I done?' he wondered.

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Michonne was lying in the bed of a stranger's house in a state of muted shock. The cotton sheets that would normally have felt soft and inviting felt itchy against her skin. She focused on the way the light from a nearby lamp reflected itself on the ceiling because she didn't want to focus on anything else. Especially not the boy lying beside her.

'I can't believe I lost my virginity,' Michonne thought.

And she couldn't believe that she had lost it to Rick Grimes. She had always expected her first time to be with someone like...her mind went to Mike Trevors – a handsome African American boy who was friends with her brother. He flirted with her sometimes, but they had never taken it any farther than that. Michonne suspected they would eventually enter into a relationship though.

'Have I ruined it?' she thought, her heart pounding.

She could imagine being with Mike but...being with Rick? She shook her head slightly. How did this even happen? They didn't even run in the same circles at school. He hung out with his cowboy country friends and she was always with her outspoken girlfriends. She wondered what they would say if she were to tell them about this. After the shock wore off, they would probably tease her about losing it to a white boy. They knew about her crush on Mike. And then they would ask if the stereotypes were true about white guys' penises. She shook her head. She wouldn't tell her friends.

'This is all Mrs. McKinnon's fault!' she thought.

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'This is all Mrs. McKinnon's fault!' Rick thought.

Mrs. McKinnon was their Chemistry teacher. She had had the bright idea of not letting students pick their partners and had randomly paired people up from her roll call sheet. That's how he and Michonne had been put together to work on some stupid project. Rick had been immediately intimidated by Michonne's intelligence. He had thought he was doing good with his straight B's and occasional C's! But he had found out that Michonne had never once gotten any grade below an A. She had told him that when he didn't seem to be able to keep up with what she was telling him about a cool idea she had for the project.

"Now look. You're gonna have to keep up if we're gonna work together on this. I've never had any grade below an A minus." Those had been her exact words at the time. He didn't even know how that was possible. But he had immediately admitted his weakness in Chemistry and had given her the stamp of being team leader. "Alright," Michonne had said. "Just don't expect me to do all the work." Rick had only nodded. The girls he hung out with usually weren't so direct. He had needed to adjust and adapt.

And he had adapted fine. It turned out that they were a great team. Michonne had a sharp mind and she had a lot of ideas. But sometimes her many ideas were more of a hindrance than a help. Rick was great in being able to help them focus in on one idea and bring it from the mind to the table. "Okay," Michonne had said when they were halfway done with their project way before schedule. "You can have your team leader card back."

Rick smiled now, thinking about it.

It was because they were so far ahead on their project, though, that they had decided to come out and celebrate at this party some guy from their school was throwing. The smile fell off of Rick's face again.

'We should never have come,' he thought.

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Michonne thought back to how they had ended up at the party.

They had high-fived after looking at their mostly complete, and successful project. Looking at her watch, Michonne had begun to put her backpack on to leave Rick's house – that's where they usually worked on the project. "We have a meeting set for tomorrow so that we can work on this some more," she said. "But seeing how far along we are, I think we can call that off. I think I want a day away from this for a little while."

"Yeah!" Rick had said. "Definitely!" As he led her to the door, a thought had seemed to strike him. "You know Shane – my friend? He has this other friend that's gonna be throwing a party tomorrow. You should go!"

"I don't know," Michonne had said. She didn't know how she would fare at a party full of people she didn't really know. "Are you going?" It would be nice to have someone she knew there.

"Yeah," Rick said with a lopsided grin. He held the door open for her, and they paused in the doorway to finish their discussion. "You wanna meet there? Or we could go together, you know. My dad let me buy myself a new car 'cause I earned enough money from my summer jobs."

"Oh! You bought your own car?" Michonne asked, impressed. The way his chest puffed out proudly didn't go unnoticed by her.

"Yeah," he said. Then he shrugged with a flushed face. "It was nothing."

Michonne smiled at his modest act. She considered his offer for a moment. She wouldn't mind going but their were some implications that going together might have. She couldn't shake the thought that it seemed like a date. She wondered if Rick was just naively overlooking that fact. "I'd love to go with you," Michonne said. "But...don't you think it would be better if you went to this party with your girlfriend?" Rick's expression fell slightly. "I mean, that Lori girl is your girlfriend right? I see you together all the time."

"...We actually broke up a couple of weeks ago," Rick said despondently.

"Oh!" Michonne said. 'Good job bringing up a sore topic, Michonne,' she scolded herself. "Well...fine then," she said. "I don't know the address so...I would love if you could pick me up for the party and we could go...together."

Rick smiled. "Okay," he said. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Okay," Michonne said. She stepped out of the house. "Oh!" she had said, turning back. "Should I dress up or just go casual?"

"Casual is fine," Rick said.

"Okay."

"Okay."

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Rick thought about what had led them to this moment.

They had arrived at the party. Michonne's beautiful and fascinating dreads had been pulled up into a half-up style and she wore tight jeans that flared over fancy, black, open-toed shoes and a white, fleece, turtleneck shirt that had long sleeves and clung to her thin frame. A long necklace hung around her neck and fell between her pert breasts. Rick let his eyes appreciate her for the fourteenth time as they walked into the place.

There were a lot of people there and the house was huge! Some people were gathered around the pool out back.

Rick had planned on introducing Michonne to a few people then going off to do his own thing. But he felt a certain responsibility over her since he was the one that brought her there. He could tell that she was uncomfortable in the middle of so many people she was unfamiliar with, so he ended up staying by her side the whole night.

They had drank some punch, found out it was spiked, then drank some more because it was spiked. Neither of them drank enough to get drunk though. Rick, because he was the driver between the two, and Michonne because she didn't like being drunk in general. She hated feeling out of control.

Rick went from circle to circle, talking to friends he knew and making sure that Michonne was included in the conversation. He knew Lori was around somewhere but he avoided seeking her out. If she wanted to talk, she could come to him.

Instead he had forced Michonne onto the dance floor after she had mocked the music coming out of the loudspeakers. Feeling warm from the small amount of drink he had imbued and the overall atmosphere of the party in general, he had dropped his inhibitions and pulled her close, forcing her to move along with him to the music. They weren't doing anything resembling dancing because honestly...the music was hard to dance to. But they were having fun.

Rick would never know what possessed him to grab her hand and pull her up the stairs of the house to the second floor. He just knew that the first floor was getting too crowded, he was feeling strangely hot, and he wanted to look around the house of someone who obviously had more money than he did.

The first room they opened the door to, they found a couple making out on the bed. They immediately shut the door on the faces of the startled couple and laughed.

"Wait," Michonne had said. She cracked the door open again, putting only her hand through and locked the door from the other side before closing the door again.

This made Rick laugh harder. They giggled their way to the next door, feeling silly, and paused outside of it. "Maybe we should knock," Michonne whispered.

Rick rapped his knuckles against the door. He barely waited a second for an answer and then burst in. They poked their heads in and saw that it was empty.

"Nice bedroom," Michonne said, walking in. She stumbled as she walked past Rick and he caught her by wrapping his arm around her middle.

"Whoa," he said. "You okay? You sure you didn't drink more than you thought?"

"No," Michonne said. "It's these shoes. They're crazy high. See?" Michonne lifted the leg of her jeans and showed him the heel and platform bottoms of the shoes.

"Those are high," Rick said, releasing her middle. "How are you even walking in them?"

"Very carefully." Michonne went to the bed and sat down to take her shoes off for a moment. Rick closed the door and glanced around at all of the photos on the walls. It was all sports paraphernalia. Whoever this room belonged to was a sports fan. When he looked over and saw Michonne still struggling with her shoes, he went forward and bent down on one knee to help her take them off. He didn't take notice of Michonne's look of surprise. He became preoccupied with the maze of straps that made up the shoe.

"What is this?" he asked. "A puzzle?"

Michonne chuckled. "Let me do it." She reached down to continue where she left off, but Rick brushed her hand away. "Fine then, since you're determined to be a prince," she said. She settled in and let Rick struggle with her shoe, her foot resting on his thigh. He wasn't aware that his concentration on his task allowed Michonne to admire his good looks freely.

"You're handsome," she said, speaking her thoughts aloud.

Rick blushed but tried to act cool and nonchalant about the comment. "You're just now realizing this?" he asked.

"Kind of, yeah," Michonne said. "I don't usually pay attention to whether white guys look good or not."

Rick chuckled at her honesty. "Well, maybe you should start."

"Maybe I should..."

Rick managed to get one of Michonne's shoes off and smiled up at her. Michonne smiled back, struck again by his good looks and pretty blue eyes. "So why did you and Lori break up?" she asked. "I find it hard to believe that she'd let a handsome guy like you, who gets down on his knees for a woman, just...get away."

A lopsided grin touched Rick's face again. He was really feeling bolstered by all of the compliments. "It's complicated," he said. "We...Well, we're together because it makes sense. And sometimes it feels like that's the only reason we're together. If that makes sense..."

Michonne nodded. "It makes perfect sense." Her other shoe came off and Rick joined her on the bed, sitting beside her. "So who broke it off?" she asked. "You or her?"

"Well, this time it was her so..." Rick shrugged.

"Aw. So you're heartbroken..." Michonne teased.

Rick looked at Michonne and realized how close they were. His eyes fell to her lips. "I wouldn't say that..." Rick said. Michonne smile and Rick continued. "You know...I never really paid attention to the beauty of..." Rick trailed off.

Michonne chuckled at his awkwardness. "...black girls," she supplied for him.

Rick gave an appreciative nod and continued weakly, "...either."

"We're really missing out on checking out half the world's population," Michonne said lightly.

"I know..." Rick said. His eyes went to her lips again.

"You wanna see how it feels to kiss a black girl?" Michonne found herself asking.

Rick didn't say anything but his eyes told her everything.

"Go for it," she said.

So Rick had gone for it. And he hadn't stopped.

Back in the present, Rick closed his eyes so as to not think about all the details. He sighed deeply, took a deep breath and finally turned to face the girl beside him.

"Are- are you okay?" he asked, unsure of where to start.

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Michonne glanced at him. "I'm fine," she said, clutching the cotton sheets over her breasts. She figured they should probably get up and get dressed but she didn't want to be the one to make the first move. She didn't want to move. Period. Moving would mean going back home to face her parents! Michonne's stomach flipped in dread. She wasn't going to tell her friends; she couldn't tell her parents! Who could she talk to about this? Besides... "What do you think we should do now?" she asked.

"Do?" Rick's voice cracked. "Uhh..."

"Do not say 'nothing'," Michonne said. "This happened. We have to deal with it."

"...How?" Rick asked.

"I was hoping you could tell me..." Michonne and Rick lay silently again. "This is so...messed up..." she finally said. "We don't even know who's bedroom this is! We're in a house full of people! We-" Michonne lowered her voice just in case someone happened to wander through in order to use the upstairs bathroom. "We used someone else's condoms!"

The newly opened box was sitting atop the dresser. In the heat of the moment they had been lucky – or unlucky – enough to open the first drawer and find the unopened box of protection.

"I can't believe this happened," Rick said. "I always imagined my first time would be with Lo-"

"Stop. Let's not talk about who we'd rather be with."

Rick's face flushed with shame when he realized how inconsiderate he must have sounded. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay. I just didn't imagine my first time to be like this either."

"Well...I didn't hurt you did I?"

"...It hurt a little," Michonne admitted. Rick looked over at her with a worried expression. "But I heard that's normal for the first time so..." she shrugged.

"So...so it was okay past that?" Rick asked.

"Well...then it was uncomfortable. Then it was over..."

Rick's face flushed. "That does not sound good at all."

Michonne shrugged again, not really knowing what to say.

"I'm sorry that you didn't enjoy it as much as I did," Rick continued.

Michonne tried to contain a small smile. It was the first time her mind stopped flipping to the future, wondering how she was going to deal with the after of this event. "You liked it?" she asked. "Even though I'm not Lori?"

"Well...yeah," Rick said. "It felt good..."

"Well, that's good I guess...It's not fair that guys get to have all the fun though."

"I'm sure it's fun for women too. Or why would it be such a big deal? I probably just did it wrong."

Michonne looked over at Rick and laughed.

"What?" Rick asked, looking over at her curiously.

"You're probably the only man in the world who would actually say that out loud."

Rick chuckled as well. "Yeah, well...you can't hold it against me 'cause it was my first time. I didn't know what I was doing."

"So you think it would be better the second time?" Michonne asked.

Rick looked at her. "What?"

"We have a whole box of condoms left..."

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Rick chuckled nervously. Was she suggesting that they have sex again? "I don't know if it would be wise..." Rick said. "I mean...we've already done it once-"

"Exactly," Michonne said. "We've already done it once. We might as well. I want to know how good sex feels too."

"Uhh..." Rick felt like there were many better, wiser things to say in that moment but he couldn't think of them. He only said. "...Okay."

Michonne reached into the box and handed him another condom. With his heart pounding anew in his chest, Rick ripped over the pack and reached under the covers to slide it over his member. "Can you do it again so soon after the first time?" Michonne asked.

"Yeah," Rick answered. He had begun to harden again right after she asked if a second time would be better. He finished covering his erected length and moved slid towards Michonne. She turned and met his eyes but she was still clutching the sheets over her bare body. Rick covered her hand with his and gently moved it away.

He slid closer, his eyes never straying from hers, and Michonne felt his hardness touch her thigh. Her breathing grew heavy and she began to feel warm all over. His hand fell over her sheet-covered breast and groped it lightly. It felt good. Blood began to rush to Michonne's throbbing center. She closed her eyes and allowed Rick's lips to consume hers for a moment before he moved over her and positioned himself between her thighs.

He stared down at her for a moment. Once they did this a second time, there would be no saying that they just made a silly mistake in the heat of the moment. This was premeditated sex. "You sure about this?" Rick asked.

Michonne nodded.

His heart beating fast, Rick began to push into her slowly. Unlike the first time, he felt when she tensed up. He paused.

He leaned down to kiss her, pushing his tongue gently into her mouth. When she began to return the kiss passionately, he pushed further into her center of warmth. Michonne moaned into his mouth. "You okay?" Rick asked.

"Yeah," Michonne whispered. "It feels better already."

"Really?" Rick pulled back to see her expression, wearing a goofily hopeful expression of his own. When Michonne smiled in amusement, he fixed his expression to a cooler one. There was just quite a bit of pressure on him to make this time really good for her.

"Yeah, really," Michonne answered. "Keep going."

Rick filled her completely and then paused again, allowing her to adjust. He needed time as well. The tightness and heat of her seemed to feel better the second time around. He shook, trying to contain himself. He had to last more than two minutes this time.

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Michonne grasped Rick's shoulders as he began to pump inside of her. The friction their bodies were creating made her feel an escalating kind of pleasure. She felt like a firecracker whose fuse was burning. A pleasurable sigh escaped her lips.

Rick was watching her intently. It made her feel slightly self-conscious. He was trying to make sure she was enjoying it but she didn't want to make some silly sound or pull some silly expression in front of him in the midst of feeling good.

"Rick," she whispered. "Don't look at me like that."

She was sure Rick didn't know what she meant but he obliged by dropping his head to clumsily kiss at her breasts. No longer under Rick's intense gaze, Michonne felt free to enjoy the new pleasures in her body without feeling self-conscious about it. She closed her eyes and licked her lips, beginning to move her hips to meet his thrusts.

"Oh, Rick," she whispered. Even his sloppy attention to her nipples felt good. When she felt the sloppy kisses stop, she opened her eyes to see Rick staring down at her again.

She was about to tell him to stop looking at her again but she suddenly found herself taken by the way his piercing blue eyes darkened with lust and passion as he looked down at her. She openly moaned as he began to increase his pace.

"Rick," she whispered passionately again.

He grasped her breast as he moved faster and faster. It felt good until he began to squeeze too hard. "Ow ow ow," Michonne said, grasping the hand that covered her breast.

"Sorry," Rick said quickly, releasing her. The rhythm of his thrusting was broken for a moment.

"It's okay," Michonne said, lifting her hips. "Keep going, keep going." She placed his hand back on her breast. "Just don't squeeze so hard."

Rick soon managed to get his rhythm back and Michonne felt herself getting ready to explode.

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They had been going at it for at least five minutes and Rick felt like he couldn't hold back much longer so he felt like it was about time for the big finish. And Michonne seemed to be enjoying it. She was wiggling and moaning much more than she had the first time. He kissed her neck as she moaned his name for the tenth time that night.

"Michonne?" he asked, his voice breaking.

"Yeah?" she responded, not sounding much better than him.

"Are you – are you about to-?"

"I think so. You?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. Okay."

Michonne grasped Rick's hip to help him enter her as fully as possible. Her short moans in his ear brought him to the peak. He thrust into her quicker and quicker until he froze, reveling in the intense pleasure that he had discovered only this type of physical activity could bring. It was even better than the first time. Maybe because this time, he was sharing the feeling with Michonne. The way her womanly walls clenched around him and the expression on her face told him that he had successfully given her a night to remember. And not in a "my first time was so horrible" way.

After a few seconds, Michonne's body lost its tension and she collapsed into her pillow. Rick rolled off of her, spent and out of energy.

They breathed together, just looking at the ceiling. This time there was no air of disbelief or shock afterwards. Just a sort of "that happened" feeling.

Rick took off the used condom and threw it into the trash can near the bed along with the last one. Michonne looked over to see him do it.

"The owner of this room is going to want to burn this place when they find out," she said.

Rick silently agreed. "Remind me to never have a party like this at my house."

"Remind me to never invite people like us to a party of mine," Michonne laughed.

Rick chuckled. "But who would have thought that we would end up having sex?"

Michonne shook her head. "I sure didn't." She sat up and put the condoms back in the drawer. She tried to fix the box so that it didn't look so obviously opened. "Let's put some other trash in the garbage can to cover the used condoms."

Rick sat up as well, following her lead. "Okay."

They got out of bed, got dressed, and Rick ripped some pages out of a nearby magazine to throw in the garbage can, covering any immediate evidence of their indiscretion. "This way, if the owner of this room isn't that attentive...they'll never know."

Michonne laughed. "Oh, I think they'll know eventually. But we'll be long gone." Done with his task, Rick looked over to see that Michonne was making the bed.

"Okay. That's disgusting," Rick said.

"Shh! Hopefully, they'll suspect something and wash the sheets before they lay down to sleep."

Rick shook his head with another lopsided smile on his face. "You scare me sometimes."

Michonne grabbed her shoes and they tiptoed out of the room, closing the door behind themselves. They began to make their way out of the room and whatever had caused Rick to drag Michonne upstairs must have possessed him again because he ended up grabbing her hand.

"Wh- what are you doing?" Michonne asked, coming to a stop.

"...Holding your hand?" Rick said. He avoided her eyes.

"Well." Michonne was silent for a while. Rick became fidgety. "Rick..." Michonne said. "I hope you don't think this means we're in a relationship or anything."

Rick felt his face flush but he didn't let go of her hand. "Why not though?" he asked. "We could try it, don't you think? I don't see what it would hurt..."

Rick waited nervously for Michonne's response. The seconds it took her to answer felt like hours. "My- my dad would kill me..." Michonne said.

"Why?" Rick asked.

"My friends wouldn't really understand."

"So?"

Another long pause passed. "Well, maybe we could-"

"Rick?"

Michonne and Rick turned to see Lori Stevens, a cute long-haired brunette round the corner, staring at them. Rick dropped Michonne's hand quickly. "Lori!" he said.

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Michonne didn't know what was happening. She had actually just been on the brink of agreeing to date Rick Grimes. Rick Grimes! That was unbelievable in and of itself but now she was being subjected to having to watch him get back together with his girlfriend. And they did seem to be getting back together. Michonne was just in a slight state of shock because she could swear that Rick had just had sex with her only a couple of minutes ago and he had been the one to ask her to try being in a relationship together.

"I've just been thinking about you all night and I think I was too quick in calling it quits," Lori was saying. "We belong together."

Rick glanced over at Michonne. She raised her eyebrows at him.

"Um...Can we- can we talk about this later?" he asked Lori.

Lori followed Rick's glances and looked over at Michonne. "Oh," she said. "This is your Chemistry partner right? Hi," she said, extending her hand for a handshake. "I'm Lori. Rick's girlfriend."

"Oh, hey," Michonne said, shaking Lori's hand briefly. "I actually thought you two broke up." She fixed Lori with a not-so-friendly stare.

The polite smile fell off of Lori's face. "No, we didn't really break up. We just took a break. There's a difference. We always get back together." She turned to Rick and took his hand, lacing her fingers through his. "Right baby?"

Michonne stared at Rick, waiting for him to...do something. But he didn't do anything. He just stood there and let her hold his hand. Michonne rolled her eyes. "Okay," she said, choosing not to stand around feeling like the fool here. "You two have fun with that. I'm gonna go home."

"Wait. Michonne-"

"Rick. We've gotta talk about this."

Michonne walked down the hall and turned the corner, ignoring Rick and Lori's voices. She weaved her way through the bodies of teenagers still in full party mode and made her way out the front door. She was halfway down the block when she realized she lived pretty far away. It was going to take her at least an hour to get back to her house walking.

She turned to go back. Decided she couldn't. Stayed still. And grew frustrated. "I'm so stupid!" she yelled. The enormity of what she had just done washed over her. She had just lost her virginity. To some guy who preferred some other girl. Angry tears began to build up in Michonne's eyes and she continued down the sidwalk. She wasn't going to go back. She would walk ten hours before going back to face that embarrassment. "Stupid, stupid, stupid," she berated herself, wondering how she would deal with this going forward.