"Can you hand me the flat-nosed pliers?"

Rick watched over her shoulder from the third rung of the ladder he was standing on in the second floor bedroom of a vacant home down the block from theirs. Her hand hovered over the two pliers in the toolbox, clearly torn between which one was the right one, but she seemed intent on figuring it out herself instead of asking which was just so her, so he watched quietly, giving her room to work it out on her own. Her hand began to move toward the pair with the green rubber handle, but froze when she heard the voice behind her.

"The other flat-nosed pliers," he corrected gently as he stifled a grin.

"Damn it," she cursed under her breath. She picked up the other pair, then turned around offering up the tool and an excuse. "You know this is not my thing."

"I know," he said with a nod. "But I appreciate the help...and the company."

He paused for a moment, face neutral and watching hers; he was still not used to saying such things out loud just yet in these first few days after everything had changed on their couch, and not sure how used to hearing them she was. She tilted her chin to the ground, and a shy smile spread across her lips, though, putting him at ease. He felt a grin tug at the corner of his lips, and smiled to himself at her reaction, the soft yin to her hardened warrior yang that he felt privileged to know.

He cleared his throat, causing her to look back up at him as he returned his attention to the broken ceiling fan in the empty house he hoped would soon be inhabited by new recruits.

"I never imagined I'd be doin' stuff like this again."

"I never imagined I'd ever be doing anything like this," she said as she stifled a yawn while watching him bend and connect the jumbled mass of wires hanging from the ceiling.

"I don't get it when you say things like that," he remarked without looking down as he worked. "I've never known you to be afraid to get your hands dirty."

"I'm not...never was," she added softly as her mind flashed back to her life before. "Life in the suburbs just wasn't for me," she explained diplomatically, trying not to offend, while emphatically shaking her head no. She was just fine with her small condo, twenty-four hour building maintenance people to call on, and no lawn to tend to.

"And here you are with a big two story house, an old man you have to keep after, and two kids," he teased as he glanced down just long enough to catch her biting down on her lower lip to tamp down a smile.

"All that's missing is the white picket fence..." she mused.

"You do have a big, rusted metal one," he pointed out with a jutted chin toward the outside as he connected the last wires to the fan and began to mount the base back to the ceiling.

"I guess I do...look at me now."

She shrugged her shoulders and smiled an innocent, yet teasing smile, as she watched him descend from the ladder. He looked at her, and huffed out a small laugh, then shook his head as he walked just past her, purposely allowing his arm to brush against her side. He tossed the pair of pliers into the toolbox, creating a brief but loud clanking of metal, then looked up at her, his face close to her ear.

"Look at you now," he repeated in his low drawl before continuing on to the window that overlooked the side street.

"It's not so bad," she clarified after a hard swallow.

It's pretty damn amazing actually she thought to herself as she took in his lean silhouette framed in the window. She wasn't sure if it was just her, but the past few days, every exchange between them felt charged and laced with innuendo, like they were always on the verge of-

"I gotta clean these rain gutters out," he remarked glumly as he looked through the window and down at the overhang of the roof.

Nothing. The verge of nothing she thought as he uttered the least sexy phrase she could think of. Maybe it was just her, but that was just fine. She had always gravitated toward him, but now each interaction was filled with the promise of flirtation and touching and-

"Huh."

She snapped out of her musings to find him still looking out the window as he brought his hands to his hips and placed his weight on his right foot.

"What's going on with those two?"

"What?" She walked over to where he was standing, lightly placing the tips of her fingers on his upper back to balance herself as she came up on her tiptoes to get a look over his shoulder. "Spencer and Rosita?"

"Yeah. They look close."

She tilted her head as she watched them on the secluded side street between the vacant house and the armory. They were face to face, in a discussion that seemed to be heated given Rosita's hand on her hip and cocked head. Spencer kept reaching out to place his hand on her forearm, but she'd reliably pull away each time he did. Michonne came back down on her feet and stepped away, starting to feel uncomfortable with catching a private moment.

"They are," she informed him. "For the past few days , at least."

Rick turned quickly on his heel, his eyes wide and jaw stiff likely from trying to hold his reaction back.

"But what about Abe?"

"He left her," Michonne explained simply. It was the sad and surprising truth about a couple they had fought beside for the past several months.

"What? For someone else?"

"I don't think so," she said, but she didn't know. She only hoped that wasn't the case because she couldn't imagine how hard that would be.

"How did you hear about this?" Rick questioned, apparently still reeling from the news.

"Well, for starters, Abe moved into another place...then Glenn and Maggie mentioned it when we met up to work on safety plans the other day because they were worried about her," she paused then continued as she remembered another clue, "...and then I passed her coming out of the Monroe house early yesterday morning while I was heading out for my shift." Now that she thought about it, how could he not know? "Where have you been?"

Rick rocked back on his heel, looking as if he'd been betrayed by by his best friend, which he was in a way since she'd been withholding this gossip from him. "Maybe I've been preoccupied with my own love life for a change," he scoffed.

"Oh my God." Michonne brought her hand to her mouth to try to muffle the involuntary fit of giggles that seemed to want to escape her mouth. He looked so serious, and it was damn cute. "Your love life? Who do you think you are?"

"What?" He asked obliviously, immune to her teasing. "It's good." He began to close the distance between them, and reached out to place his hands on her hips as he neared her. "Anyway, I count on you to share that kind of stuff with me. You know that's not my thing," he teased right back.

He gave as good as he got, and she found herself in the same situation as she was just a few minutes ago. A conversation about two friends turning into something else as his head tilted down into the crook of her neck, and his lips began to sweep across the curve of her smooth skin, leaving it tingling from his breath cooling the light moisture left by his lips and tongue.

Her head fell back and to the side as she gave into his touch. Her eyes slid open ever so slightly giving her an unfamiliar view across the street, and reminding her that they were in a bedroom that wasn't their own. Just as she was about to give in and close her eyes again, the quick flash of two figures distracted her, causing her to open them again.

"Rick, stop," she breathed out as she put her hand to his chest and tried to slow his advances, but he just hummed some form of protest into her neck and carried on.

"Look," she whispered as she continued to apply pressure to his chest. "Look," she repeated again, finally prompting him to lift his head and look at her. "See that?"

He turned his head, following her gaze out the window and squinted, trying to figure out what could possibly be worth his urgent attention when he was completely preoccupied. There was nothing of note except for two community members talking...and then suddenly kissing on the front porch of the house across the street.

"Carol and Tobin?" He asked, his accent thick as his incredulity.

"Yep," she confirmed, hoping to have gained a little favor back by letting him in on this new pairing.

"But I thought..." he trailed off as he pointed in the direction of the house they shared with his other best friend and brother.

"So did I," Michonne agreed, raising her hands as if to say that she was just the messenger. "If she was was going to settle down with anyone, I figured it would be him, too."

"Yeah..." Rick mused, giving the odd pairing a final moment of consideration before tightening his grip on her hips, and pulling her closer to him again. "But enough about them..."

"Rick," she purred as she tried to wriggle out of his grip, the interruption in action now causing her to think twice about it.

"Michonne," he pled in his husky, desirous tone just before his lips hit the skin of her neck again.

"We're almost done," she pressed, her eyes glancing over at the ladder and nearly finished project just over his shoulder. "We'll be home soon enough and then we can..."

She had a brief moment of respite after his lips hit the edge of her jaw, a pause in his journey to her lips that made her think she'd appealed to his sensible side. His face then appeared before hers, a devilish grin on his lips.

"Yeah, we can do that, too," he assured her before diving back in and capturing her lips with his.

She indulged in just a few pleasurable moments before breaking the kiss, her breath heavy as she rested her forehead against his.

"I feel like we should be doing something else," she said as her hands that had come to rest on his waist took on a mind of their own as she began unconsciously running them under his untucked grey white t-shirt. She was barely aware of what she was doing until she felt the cool, damp beads of sweat dotting the skin of his lower back. The next thing she felt was his finger under her chin, gently tilting her head up until her eyes met his. He smiled softly, a more serious expression on his face, as he brought his thumb up to cup her chin, lightly tracing it against the soft skin just near the corner of her lips.

"We do plenty," he said. "I think we've earned some down time and I can't think of any other way I'd rather spend it."

She began to fold with his words. He was right; there had to be time for this, for them.

"Besides, everyone else is..." he added.

And with that, the corner of his mouth turned upward, and his tone turned dangerous again as his hands fell down to her waist where he hooked a finger over the waistband of her jeans, just over the button. The sensation of his fingers dipping below the belt caused her breath to hitch as her skin tingled under his touch and the familiar warm feeling in her center began to build.

"We have to be quick, though. Five minutes."

"Five minutes," he repeated with a nod, agreeing to her terms.

With the clock starting to run, they backed across the room as one frenzied unit with lips locked and hands making quick work of unbuckling the other's belt and then pants.

As soon as they were undone, Rick's loose jeans dropped and pooled around his boot clad feet just before the backs of his knees hit the edge of the bed and he dropped into a seated position. Eye level with her waist, he helped her start to push down her tight pants, then steadied her hips with his hands so that she could shimmy them off.

Once free of them, he hooked his arm around her waist and pulled her into his lap; she was facing him with her knees coming to rest on the bed and straddling his lap, aching with need as she brushed against his growing arousal. As she draped her arms around his neck, a quick glance downward reminded her that he hadn't finished undressing from the waist down yet.

"You gonna take those off?" she purred into his ear just before kissing the bare peek of skin just above his beard-line.

"I'm not wasting my precious time on that," he quipped as his hands roamed from her hips up under her white tank and over to her sides.

She giggled briefly at his response; this love life of theirs was something else. For all that the world had become and all of the seriousness their day to day survival required, never had she experienced this kind of joy and pleasure before. Sneaking away for a quick romp was the ultimate luxury these days, especially with this irresistibly handsome man that she loved with all her heart.

Their lips met again, deepening in intensity, as she reached between her legs to find him, already hard and ready for her. And she was, as well, because it never took too much or too long in this honeymoon state they had been living in for the past few days.

She guided him to her slicked entrance and sank onto him, each emitting an involuntary sound at that feeling; his a low groan and hers closer to a breathy sigh. Time seemed to stop for a moment, each overcome with the sensation of that first connection, so intense and sublime with the release of tension they'd built up in the moments before.

Within no time, though, they returned to their hurried pace; kisses deepening and embraces tightening as she ground on his lap while he thrust upward in time with her, so in sync in their movements. As the pleasure mounted, she broke away from their kiss, resting her cheek against his so that she could just breathe and focus on the one sensation deep within that was overwhelming her.

With each movement of theirs, the bed would shift and squeak causing the loose head board to knock against the wall. Between the bed, their heavy breathing, moans, and the occasional involuntary expletive that slipped out when there was no other way to express how good it felt, she knew they were being careless and loud, but in the vacant house, there was no need to hold back. She also knew that they were probably approaching the five minutes she'd allotted for this break, but she didn't care. She just gave into it.

At some point during their lovemaking, she became half aware that a second softer banging noise began to follow the headboard each time they moved. She smiled to herself wondering what they were doing to make that noise; whatever it was, it felt amazing. She dropped her forehead into the crook of his neck, all of her other sensations blurring together and falling away in favor of the burgeoning climax.

Heat. Sweat. Breath. Squeak. Bang. Babe.

"Did you say something?" She asked, barely lifting her head to whisper into his ear.

"No," he breathed out quickly, not allowing it to break their rhythm.

Darlin', you don't got a thing to worry about. Give me ten minutes and I'll give you-

The door swung open, and Michonne and Rick froze in place as their heads turned toward the sudden interruption.

"What the hell?" Rick snarled.

He brought his hands around to cover Michonne's bare ass, thankful that she was covering him and that they both still had their tops on as he stared back, questioning and annoyed, at the imposing red-head standing in the doorway.

"What the bitch?" Abe began to chuckle as he looked over his shoulder to summon his companion. "Look who's makin' pancakes."

"What?" the voice called out. She stepped around him to peek into the room, finding a half naked Michonne on a half naked Rick's lap, his pants pooled around his ankles. "Oh my god." She covered her eyes, and turned away, seeming almost as embarrassed as the couple on the bed.

"Oh my god," Michonne echoed immediately as she dropped her face back into Rick's shoulder upon seeing Sasha's face. There was a reason she had wanted to wait until they were home...

"You two don't stop, do ya?" He asked, still amused by happening upon them uggin bumplies for the second time in less than a week.

"Out!" Rick growled, his arms still encircling Michonne, trying his best to shield her.

He was not at all amused by the interruption and feeling a little guilty for setting them up for such a thing. He watched Abe mouth a silent sorry as he backed out then closed the door. After taking an extra moment to ensure they were in the clear, he gently patted her bottom then brought his hand up to her back to hug her, leaving it there while gently rubbing her upper back.

When she resurfaced, she didn't look upset at all much to his relief, just a little embarrassed as was he.

"Pancakes?" He asked, brow still knitted with the remains of an irritated scowl and now a hint confusion.

"Who knows," she sighed as she rolled her eyes and shook her head at Abe's always unconventional use of language.

"So Sasha and Abraham?" he asked, moving onto the next point of curiosity.

"It's news to me."

"Everybody's doin' it," he said with a laugh, finally finding a little humor in their situation now that it was over. "Who's left? Eugene and Olivia?"

"Don't," she said with a grimace. She honestly didn't want to think about anyone else's love life, except for theirs, of course.

He frowned at her reaction, then bought his hand to her face, using his thumb to gently ease away the wrinkle on her forehead before brushing a lock that had fallen out of place back behind her ear. The sun shining through the upstairs window cast a soft glow on her face, making her look even more beautiful than usual. He was a lucky man; life was good for the first time in a long time.

"I'm sorry. For all of this," he said as he stroked her cheek. "You wanna pack it up and head home?"

As her fingers mindlessly played with the curls at the nape of his neck, she looked down and began to smile when she saw the image their friends had just walked in on. What a mess, she thought to herself, what a beautiful mess.

"Why stop now?" she asked as she leaned in for a kiss and slowly began to rock against him again much to his delight.