Falling in love with her happened slowly.
She was a ray of sunshine.
She was dipped in gold.
No. Wait.
Gold was laced and embedded in her DNA, that's how good she was.
He imagined kissing her more than anything else recently.
He found her enticing, her strength and her sensitivity clawing at his heart, demanding to come in and make a home of it.
She didn't numb him, not one bit.
Ever since she had turned up, the numb in his heart had slowly lessened as every look she threw his way expressed something he needed.
Her large smile and bright teeth could light his way through anything.
Often in times he'd contemplate his existence, why he was still fighting, how his children would grow happily in this world but whenever she spoke to him, said his name in hushed tones and with a mountain of sincerity, he would understand that love was the reason.
Some days, he'd watch her with Judith, the gentle way she would run her fingers across her cheek and coo at her, you would almost think she had a child herself before all this.
Whenever she spoke up and argued against his word, something would ignite in him that wanted to take her by the waist and kiss her neck, praise her for being who she was. Praise her for the ruthless fight she kept even when the option of keeping quiet existed.
And the way Carl looked at her.
Damn, the way Carl looked at her.
Like she was the greatest thing this Earth had ever created to guide him through this all.
On certain days, when the sky was right and the temperature was cool enough for everything to feel like a holiday, he'd talk about Michonne, about how they shared chocolates she'd found and read comics in animated voices until she had to go and check the neighbourhood.
She fitted into this new life like the missing piece in a jigsaw.
It was on the tip of his tongue, but he could never bring himself to say it.
He watched her now, her bedroom door open as the moonlight poured in the room and highlighted half of her face.
Many parts of him started to long for more, to move and sleep beside her, to put a hand on her lips when she woke up in a rush thinking something bad may have happened and tell her that it was all, right, he just wanted to feel home again.
She made him feel things, things he didn't think he would be able to feel for a long time.
But then she smiled in her sleep and he felt that pang.
The pang he felt with his first kiss and the first time he had orgasmed after making love, the first pang when he'd seen Carl on the baby monitor and felt Judith grab his face.
He loved her.