A/N: Ambiguous and useless warning: I had very little chill writing this chapter, so… proceed with caution.

Also, I love you all! -Ash

Chapter 10
"A win is a win."

1½ months ago.

"You look happy," Maggie commented, staring at Michonne where she sat, leaned against the altar of the church. The smile on her face was contagious as she kept her eyes on Carl with Judith.

"I guess that's because I am happy," Michonne admitted, her grin not fading when she took another sip of her wine. With the way things had panned out with Joe, with Terminus, and now they had a place to hole up and rest for a bit, it was hard not to believe that the universe might have finally been on her side. "We're here."

"We are," she agreed, although it stung a bit to not be able to include her sister in that 'we.' But she had to be thankful for what she did have, and she was. "And now we're goin' to Washington to be there."

"You don't sound too excited about that," Michonne smirked.

"No, I am. It's a scary excited, though. Leavin' our home for the unknown…"

"We already did that a couple of weeks ago," she reminded her quietly, referring to the downfall of the prison. "This place is just four walls and a roof. Georgia's just another forest…"

Maggie glanced at her, offering a thoughtful smile. "No reason to stay is a good reason to go."

"Pretty much," she chuckled. "Of course, the sixteen of us on that little bus for two weeks straight might be a good reason to stay."

"No arguments here," she yawned, laughing at her as well. She laid herself out across the pew she'd been sitting at, instantly turning it into her makeshift bed for the night, but kept her eyes on her friend. "Oof. I think I had too much wine."

"No such thing," Michonne sighed, tired as well as she moved across the small space between them so that she was sitting in front of Maggie, using the pew as a backrest. She made sure to take a sip of her alcohol to highlight her point.

"You're a mess," she giggled in response, playfully hitting her shoulder. As Rick walked by them to grab another bottle, Maggie whispered to Michonne, "You know, I can keep an eye on the kids if you two wanna sneak off for a bit."

Michonne looked back at her as if she were crazy. "What?"

"I know you probably haven't had many opportunities with Carl bein' around," she added nudging her.

"Oh," she scoffed to herself, finally realizing what she was implying. Her tipsiness had her a bit slow on the uptake. "That's not a thing anymore."

"What?"

"Or right now," she corrected herself. "I don't know."

"What do you mean, 'it's not a thing,'" Maggie frowned. "What happened?"

"We're just taking a break. That's all."

"I leave you two alone for two weeks and this is what happens?" Maggie sighed. "Seriously?"

Michonne couldn't help but laugh at her outrage, but went on to tell her exactly what happened and why. And while Maggie tried to tell her that she thought it was a bad idea, she knew that she now had reasons to be optimistic about the future, and was willing to take that and run with it.

"Everything will be fine," Michonne assured her, just as Rick approached the two of them, taking a seat on the floor next to her.

"What are you two whisperin' about?" he questioned, refilling Michonne's glass with the contents of his own.

"Just talking about Washington," she half lied. She glared back at Maggie to make sure she wouldn't say any different.

He frowned in concern. "Y'all still wanna go, right?"

"Of course."

"We were just sayin' how we might kill each other on the ride there," Maggie submitted with a sleepy grin. "Should be fun."

Rick chuckled as he held up his glass, as if making another toast. "Here's to an adventure."

Michonne glanced over at him, happy that he also seemed happy for the first time in a while. "You're adorable, you know."

"Adorable?" He shook his head, playfully disappointed with the adjective she'd chosen to describe him. "You're really gonna do that to me?"

"Do what?"

"Maggie, you hear this friendzone talk she's usin' on me?"

"I tried to tell her, Rick," Maggie joked with a shrug. "We can only hope she comes to her senses one day."

"You two are terrible," Michonne chuckled, deciding not to engage in their teasing. She rested her head against Maggie, staring out blankly to the front of the church. Her thoughts roamed to what it would be like in Washington, and what it could look like if they actually found another home. A truly safe space where they could breathe. The only thing to distract her from her fantasy was Rick patting her thigh. She looked over to him curiously.

"Can I talk to you outside for a minute?"

"Sure," she frowned, agilely hopping up from the floor to follow him towards the doors. They stepped into the fairly warm, silent night, and Michonne giggled to herself when she saw Rick nearly stumble as he moved down the stairs. "Something tells me you've had a lot to drink."

"I have had a lot to drink," he admitted with a nod, his eyebrows raised. "Feels good to have a reason to celebrate."

"We've had a couple of really good days, considering," she agreed, ignoring her own intoxication as she leaned against the railing of the steps. "Everyone making it out of Terminus alive… Judith."

"I noticed you finally talkin' to her," he noted with a small smile. "You didn't have to do that, so thank you."

"You said you wished I could've," she remembered. It broke her heart that she never had the strength to tell Rick why she couldn't let herself get close to Judith back at the prison. But she was getting a second chance to do it now, and she wasn't going to waste it. "Truth is, I wish I had done a lot differently at the prison. And I'm just thankful it's not too late."

He nodded, hoping that she didn't mean she wished she had done things differently with him. But he hadn't brought her out there to discuss their relationship, because it didn't matter in that moment. Things were looking up, finally, and he knew that was, in part, because of her. His gaze fell to his feet as he made his declaration. "I want you to know, Michonne… I wouldn't have gotten through this without you."

She looked at him, feeling a giant swell of emotion at his confession, but she shook her head dismissively. "You've gotten through a lot without me."

"Not this," he maintained, moving across the steps so that they were standing face to face. He affectionately rested his hands on her shoulders and kept his eyes on hers. "They all look to me with their questions," he said, gesturing towards the inside of the church where all their friends and family were, "but you're the one I look to for answers. And I need you to know, regardless of whatever happened, whatever happens, I appreciate you for that."

She reached up to hold his forearms, smiling back at him happily. "I do know that, Rick," she promised him. "I do."

He sighed in relief, and quickly pulled her into a hug, happy to inhale her awful scent from their afternoon in stale water. "I hope you meant what you said," he whispered.

She hesitantly pulled out of their embrace to look him in the eye. "Said when?"

"About this being a break." He held her gaze much more intensely than he intended, but sometimes he just got lost in her. "'Cause I'm always gonna have a thing for you."

She tried to contain her smile, but it was bursting past her lips as she shook her head at him again. "You promise?"

"I do."

Present day.

It was late when Michonne heard a knock at her door. So late, she wasn't sure that she wasn't dreaming as she glanced at her clock and saw that it was rounding the corner towards 3:00am. But it was followed by sound of Rick's voice softly calling out to her, and she knew she was coherent.

"Michonne?"

Puzzled and worried by what he could possibly want at that hour, she immediately hopped out of bed to answer. She grabbed her robe on the way, just in case he had Morgan or someone else with him. But when she opened the door, she found just him standing there with his head lowered, as if he knew he was in trouble. "You okay?" she frowned, gazing upon him as she turned on her light.

His eyes met hers and he looked tired, but still, much better than the man she left when she retired for the night. The one covered in walker blood, Reg's blood, Pete's blood. It had been a long night, but he looked better now. He was clean, his hair falling in damp ringlets around his face from what was obviously a recent shower. He had removed his bandages, though the small lacerations remained. But more than anything, he appeared to be at ease again. "Is it all right if I come in?"

She stepped back to allow him into her bedroom, knowing that he was probably feeling a lot at the moment. And if that was the case, she was glad he was coming to her to talk instead of keeping it bottled up, or confiding in Carol as he had been. "Where's Morgan?" she wondered, knowing Rick had spent a large portion of the evening talking with him.

"Carol offered him her room and she's with Jessie and her kids for the night," he nodded, taking a seat in her chair near the door. He sighed heavily as he rested his head against the wall. "What a night."

She sat down at the edge of her bed so she could face him. She pulled her knees up to her chest and let the material of her robe cover them. "It has been an interesting two days, to say the least."

He glanced at her knowingly, as that was indeed an understatement. "Deanna's a mess."

"I know Pete was a piece of shit, but Jessie can't be doing too well right now either."

"She's going through a lot right now," he confirmed. When he saw her, she was sad, for sure, but there was a relief that he hadn't really expected for her to realize so quickly. "But she thanked me, which was... I don't know. Odd."

Michonne frowned at that information, but she had long since concluded that she would never really understand Jessie Anderson or her motivations in life. And it probably wasn't her place to. "Well in positive news, Sasha finally came in from her endless post in the bell tower."

He shook his head at the fact that that was just about the only good thing they had going. "And Tara's awake."

"And you have a home for another day," she remarked, even if it was due to absolutely terrible circumstances. But when weren't the circumstances terrible?

"A win is a win," he smirked.

"Have you slept at all?" She wasn't sure why she asked that when the answer was obvious. It was already midnight when she went to bed, so he couldn't have gotten any significant rest since then.

"I just laid down a few minutes ago," he intimated softly. "But when I closed my eyes, I couldn't stop thinkin' of you."

"Me?"

"Us, I guess I should say." He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, but kept his eyes focused on her. "This morning, you said you were trying to keep us from drowning, and I've been thinkin' about that all day."

"Why is that?"

"Because I spent all this time resenting you for it. I'm the one that's been pulling us down, and you've been trying to keep us up, and I'm just… I'm sorry, Michonne."

"You don't have to apologize," she smiled at him tenderly.

"No, I do. Because I wanted to understand, but I didn't try to. I just thought, when you said you wanted to put things on pause, that I owed it to you not to fight you on it. But I did it anyway, and I'm sorry."

"Rick…" She didn't know how to accept an apology she had never been looking for in the first place. She chuckled nervously in reply. "You don't owe me anything."

"I owe you everything."

"You don't," she maintained.

"You're the one that got us here," he admitted, his voice hoarse from the long night. "You made Alexandria viable for us."

"That's funny," she smirked. "It kept feeling like I wanted it too much and you never wanted it enough."

His eyes locked on her as he replied, "Even funnier is that that's how I feel about us."

She didn't know what to say. She had become so used to the Rick that didn't make any sense, she didn't know how to engage with the one she knew. The one she loved. Her guard had been up with him recently, and with a few simple words, he was lowering it already. "I hurt you," she said, finally understanding the weight of that and what it had done to him. "I get that. I wouldn't acknowledge it before, and that wasn't fair to you. I'm sorry for that."

He nodded, accepting her apology without hesitation. But after a few seconds of comfortable silence, he stood from his chair, prepared to leave her alone for the night. It was inexplicably late, and he'd taken up enough of her day with his troubles. "I should let you get some rest..."

"You're leaving?" she looked up at him, disappointed that he had no designs on staying all night like he used to.

He glanced back at her with a smirk on his face, relieved that she didn't actually want him to go. He was planning to tread lightly, figuring it would take baby steps to get them back where they were, but maybe it wouldn't be that difficult after all. "You want me to stay?"

"To sleep," she emphasized, eyeing him seriously. "I just don't want you to be alone tonight. I don't wanna be alone," she appended, grinning at him sweetly. "I've missed you."

He closed his eyes at those three words, letting them sink in. When he opened them, she was throwing off her robe and getting back into bed. And it was then he noticed that she wore only a tank top and a pair of panties, which would undoubtedly make it difficult for him to actually sleep. But he was more than willing to give it a try. He turned out the lights, then met her on the opposite side of her queen-sized bed and settled in, resting comfortably on his back, same as her.

He let out a soft exhale as he rested his clasped hands over his chest. "Carol asked me today if we were getting back together."

She smiled to herself when she realized he was going to make it one of those nights. "Maggie asks me this every day," she joked. "What did you say?"

"I don't think I answered her," he chuckled. "I didn't know the answer."

"Well great, she's probably plotting my death as we speak."

He had no idea what she meant by that, but he couldn't help but laugh anyway. "What?"

"I don't know what happened. Maybe she thinks I had something to do with you exiling her from the prison," she shrugged. "But somewhere along the line, Carol decided that she doesn't like us together. And you can tell me if I'm wrong about this, but it feels like she's steered you away from me."

He considered that for a moment, but was hesitant to say that she might be right. The group was fractured enough as it was. "She saved my daughter," he said, attempting to defend her. "She saved all of us."

"Tyreese saved your daughter," she shot back. "We've all saved each other. You don't owe her the world, Rick."

"I know," he nodded against his pillow. "I just… wonder. I think about it too much, I know," he admitted. "But I think about how if I had listened to her, maybe we wouldn't have lost our first home."

She turned on her side so that she was looking at him, taking in the torment he still lived with. "We're figuring it out," she reminded him. "We're okay."

His eyes darted in her direction, though he couldn't actually see her from his position. "It was so easy with you," he commented, still not understanding it all. "I jumped in head first with you. I never do that. But it was like, for this little slice of time, I forgot that I was grieving my wife." He turned so that he was facing her now, gazing her up and down pensively. "I forgot to be sad."

"Maybe that's because you weren't sad anymore," she offered softly. "That's not a crime."

"Then why did it change here?"

"Because this place reminds you of everything you had before."

He nodded, his stare intense on her. "Jessie needed me," he realized as it clicked into place why he was so fixated on her. Why Alexandria had ruined him. "I saw it the day we met, I saw it at that party. She was trying to be helpful, but I could tell she needed the help. And finally, yesterday, she asked if I would help someone else in her situation, and the truth is that I would. I do," he acknowledged, shaking his head. "But I so desperately wanted to be useful to someone, because you didn't need me, that I told her I wouldn't. And I think that's what it was with her. Whenever I looked at her, I saw the life I had back in King County. There was the wife that needed me to take care of her, and I was the sheriff again, and… I didn't know what it all meant, but it made me… it gave me this ache. I kept wanting to go home."

She matched his gaze, her eyes narrowed on him as she tried to make sense of what he was saying. "You did have to leave it all very abruptly," she understood. "Maybe the world is trying to tell you to slow down. Take a deep breath."

"Maybe so." He exhaled shakily, scratching at his eyebrow with his thumb as he often did.

"The hardest part of letting go is finding something to put in its place. But this is your home, Rick. Our home now."

"I know," he was half smiling at her. "I always know where I am when I'm with you."

That instantly warmed her heart and she fell back into her pillows for just a second. "God, I wish you hadn't disappeared on me. You said you would never stop trying, and then you did exactly that."

"I know," he repeated, his eyes shifting downward uncomfortably.

"Was that you doing the same thing to me that you did with Jessie? Just saying what you thought I needed to hear?"

"No," he whispered. "I couldn't, even if I wanted to."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because you really know me."

She smirked back at him, her expressive eyes taking in the piercing blue of his. She ran her fingers through his curls, moving them from his face – even though she loved when his hair was in his face – and then rested her hand on his exposed cheek. "That poor girl," she spoke softly. "She has no idea she'll never be strong enough to love you."

He rested his hand over hers, loving the sensation of her tender touch. He closed his eyes, not wanting to talk about Jessie any more. "You are."

"I am," she confidently agreed as she pulled her hand away slowly. "If I wanted to be."

"Oh, so you don't wanna be anymore?" When she didn't answer, he pressed her to tell him what he wanted to hear now. "Are you implying that you've given up on us? That we're just gonna stay friends from here on out?"

"That was just a different chapter in our lives, Rick."

"Same book…"

"We can't move forward if we're on two different pages."

He chuckled at her analysis, but figured she wasn't completely serious if she'd invited him to sleep in her bed like she used to. He picked up her hand that had been resting between them, playing with the tips of her fingers. "Fair enough."

"You're incorrigible," Michonne giggled, realizing that he was going to flirt with her, regardless of what she said.

He smiled back at her when he attempted to let go of her hand and she was the one to hold on. "So this morning was... what?" he posited, referring to their almost encounter at the empty house.

"Could you be a little more specific?"

"Well we came pretty close to crossing that line again."

"What line is that?" she simpered, knowing exactly what he was referring to.

"The one where we had sex," he deadpanned. "Come on, Kiddo."

"You're right." She lifted her free hand to his mouth, running her thumb across his bottom lip, then pulled it back before she even realized what she was doing. "But this morning would've been a mistake."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because we wouldn't have resolved anything, and you'd probably still be acting like a dumbass."

Rick chuckled at her choice of words, not taking his gaze off of her. "Is that meant to imply that I'm not a dumbass anymore?"

"It seems like you may have learned your lesson," she had to admit. She didn't miss that his eyes kept roaming to her chest, much in the same way hers did to his mouth. "But still..."

"Right," he nodded sarcastically. Without thinking too much about it, he used his index finger to lift the neckline of her tank top, getting an uncensored peek at her décolletage. He then swiftly lowered it to expose one of her breasts, already fondling her erect nipple and the gauge that pierced it.

She licked her lips at the feeling of his hands on her again. "What are you doing?"

"Waiting for you to tell me to stop."

She glided her thumb across his bottom lip once more, remembering how good he was at kissing her. How good he was with his tongue. And how he ate her pussy like it was the last meal he would ever have on Earth. She smiled at him and turned away to retreat from the bed, headed for her door.

"Where are you going?" he questioned in confusion, sitting up on his own side of the bed.

After locking the door, Michonne turned back to him with that same seductive grin on her face. "Just in case."

He smiled in reply as she walked towards him, pulling off her tank top and throwing it to the floor in the process. She was so goddamn sexy, it almost wasn't fair. He pulled her close to him, burying his face in her torso, softly licking at her silky skin, as she stood between his legs, running her fingers through his hair. His tongue was warm, but still tickled her as it moved across her bellybutton and up her ribcage.

He kept one hand on her waist, but the other held the back of her thigh, slowly roaming upwards towards her backside before sliding inside her panties to finger her from behind. He gently massaged the soft lips of her pussy while his mouth ravished her breasts, sucking, licking, biting at them softly. She involuntarily clenched her walls around his fingers as they entered her, causing her to gasp slightly, her mouth hanging open as she allowed him to explore her. She was getting wetter by the second, and her body rocked against him, moving to the rhythm of his fingers delving further inside her.

She almost couldn't take it. He had rough hands, but his fingers were delicate and the balance he had learned to strike was magnificent. She was already coming when he pulled out and trailed his hand up her ass to hold onto her hips. "I hate you," she whispered playfully, feeling like her insides were tingling.

He grinned up at her sexily, taking in the sight of her beautiful face. "I love you."

Without another word, Michonne pushed him back onto the bed and straddled him, her face unable to contain a smile as she moved in to kiss him, only breaking contact to pull off his shirt. Her hands squeezed at his flesh fervently, desperate for the feel of his skin and the exquisite ridges of his taut stomach. Her tits grazed his chest as she moved her kisses down his neck, licking at his Adam's apple, nipping at the small abrasions along his chin. His bruises a reminder of everything they'd been through since arriving to Alexandria. How their separation, in the end, only made her want him more.

Rick's erection was getting bigger with every passing moment, and she could feel it between her thighs, begging to be released. Still, his fingers continued to massage her clit over her panties. The cotton fabric was wet at the center, allowing him to feel her sensitive bud with ease, while the friction only added to the stimulation. She swallowed hard, feeling another orgasm looming.

"Are you trying to find out how many times you can make me come before we actually fuck?" she joked breathily, staring him in the eye.

He bit at his bottom lip, sneaking his digits inside her once more, answering her question without saying a word. Her hips contorted against him, rolling them around his fingers as she panted silently, her mouth wide open. "Come on," he whispered huskily, encouraging her climax.

And there it was. She moaned as quietly as she could as she exploded inside, and Rick watched in satisfaction as her delight showed all over her face. "Rick…" she cried out softly.

"Should we go for three in a row?" He held her thigh, wanting to pull her towards his face.

"Just… wait," she exhaled, trying not to lose it at just the sight of him licking his lips. She loved that he still concentrated on pleasing her despite his cock practically turning to steel beneath her. It was a miracle he hadn't burst through his pants. When she sat back, she could see its outline beneath his pajamas. A perfect imprint of his length that she began to rub with her fingers, teasingly tonguing his Adonis belt as she made her way lower.

She took her time carefully rolling his pants down his hips until his cock came into view, springing straight into the air the second she set it free. She smiled at the sight of it, all big and hard, the head already glistening as she took him into her hands. She stroked him long and slow, satisfied with herself as she listened to him grunt in response. She squeezed him lightly, coercing his cum from the tip, then leaned down to suck it off, as if catching drops of melted ice cream falling from a cone. She loved the taste of him. She was tempted to just suck him dry right then and there.

Instead, she moved back up so that she was straddling his waist again, the only thing between them being her underwear. "You want me to stay on top?" she suggested, already swirling her hips against his cock.

She felt so good exactly where she was, and the heat between her thighs was making his dick twitch with excitement. But he had gone too long without tasting her, and his mouth was watering for it. "I wanna eat you out," he answered bluntly.

She swallowed visibly and nodded, her insides already quivering. In one rapid motion, he picked her up by her ass and flipped her back onto the bed. She squealed in surprise, clutching the sheets to gather her bearings as he pulled her panties down her thighs.

He squeezed her thighs as he brought her close, staring eagerly at her strawberry bubblegum center. He wanted to lick her clean before making her come again. He used his index and middle fingers to part her slit, then let his tongue go to work, running along her folds in languorous and long waves. He delved into her juicy depths, swallowing up every drop that she left for him, licking it from both his fingers and her cunt at the same time. His beautiful pink lips sucked at her beautiful pink clit, his tongue lightly flicking at the bud to make her contort in ecstasy. She frantically fondled her breasts, pretending they were Rick's hands, while he explored every inch of her delicious pussy. He had no mercy on her as he pushed his tongue soft and slow into her center and rolled it around in figure eights, forcing her to scream out.

"Oh god," she moaned, impulsively closing her legs in on his head. It felt so excruciatingly good, she was pulling away, unable to take the pleasure, even though she wanted more of it. "Rick..."

He pulled up for just a moment licking at his own swollen lips as he ran his fingers along hers, preparing to finish her off. Then he dove in, plunging his tongue into her core, using the tip of it to simulate the letters of his name, and then hers, over and over again. And as her body shook in excitement, he used the entire span of his tongue to catch every drop of her.

"You taste like heaven," he mumbled into her happily.

Michonne released the grip her knees had on his head and smiled back at him blithely when he came up for air. "And your tongue is the devil."

He offered a lust-filled smile in reply as he leaned in to suck at her breasts once more, his teeth clicking against her adornment as she wrapped her legs around his waist, his dick rubbing against her thigh. She tried to reach down and stick it in herself, but he had already taken over, rubbing the head against her opening to feel his way in. He pushed inside of her roughly, and immediately pulled out slowly, knowing it would make her head spin, and she responded thusly, moaning out loud.

"Oh, fuck," she whimpered, not caring if anyone heard. If everyone heard. Using her flexibility to her advantage, she instinctively widened her legs, allowing him whatever angle he needed to go deeper.

Rick got the message loud and clear, his eyes rolling to the back of his head as he drowned himself in Michonne. He reveled in the feel of them being skin to skin for the first time, nothing between him and her sweet, wet center. "You feel so fuckin' good," he whispered, pumping into her slowly now.

"You do too," she panted, blissfully taking in every inch of him. "Harder."

Happy to oblige, he began to thrust into her forcefully while keeping his strokes long and rhythmic. She bit at her bottom lip and dug her fingers into his skin to keep from crying out, but she wanted to scream his name. He could feel her tightening around him, quickening his pace when he locked eyes with her, the passion between them driving him insane. He held her throat as he kissed the side of her face, his cock pounding into her harder, faster, matching the rapid tempo of her breathing.

"Fuck," she was gasping, trying to push her hair off of her face. It was hot and she couldn't breathe in the best way possible. The sounds of the bed squeaking and his cock sliding into her wet pussy only added to the intensity. She loved the way he fucked her, hungrily, aggressively. He squeezed her ass, sucked her tits, kissed her mouth sloppily, all while hammering into her, both their bodies undulating to the cadence he created for them.

Rick felt like he was at the edge of a cliff as he tried to hold back from climaxing before Michonne. But her pussy was fucking sublime. Delectably wet and fit him like a glove. "I'm almost there," he grunted, still trying to restrain himself.

"Go 'head," she breathed. With the way he was moving, she was surprised he was still with her.

"You first."

"I'm about to be on my four—" Her sentence was cut off by another wave of ecstasy, and she couldn't be bothered to finish it, or even speak coherently, as it washed over her. "Shhh...it," she moaned out loudly.

Thankful that he didn't have to wait any longer – he couldn't wait any longer – he buried his face into her chest as he rode her to his own finish line, his warm load filling her and even dripping to her outer lips as he groaned in pure satisfaction. It took a moment, but he hesitantly pulled out and fell onto the bed beside her.

"Fuck," she exhaled, smiling over at him as she closed her legs. As if there were any space left in the room for modesty. "I guess you really did miss me."

He looked over to her and attempted to brush the sweat that beaded at her hairline. "Let's do ourselves both a favor and not fight ever again."

"I dunno," she countered, pulling herself up from his touch. She bent over the edge of the bed to grab her robe and flung it over her body as she climbed off of the mattress altogether. "Making up is kinda fun."

"Where the hell are you going now?" he held out his arm to her as if he could stop her from disappearing.

"Don't move," she smirked, heading out of the door without answering.

"I couldn't if I wanted to," he said out loud, even though she was already gone. The sound of running water sent him into a daze, and he stared up at the ceiling as he tried to come down from his high. But all he could see was Michonne and her gorgeous dark skin glistening underneath him, rocking to his beat. He was about to get hard again just thinking about it.

She returned to her room a few minutes later, loving the sight of a naked Rick Grimes in her bed, amused by whatever he must have been thinking about. "Why do you have that stupid grin on your face," she chuckled.

"Just thinkin' about you," he professed, still fixated on the ceiling.

She threw off her robe and crawled back into her messy bed, happy to have him there for the first time since arriving to Alexandria. Like the good old days. And he did just as she hoped he would, falling in behind her as the big spoon, wrapping her in his arms.

He let out a simultaneously happy, tired, and relieved exhale as he settled in behind Michonne, the scent of her toothpaste slowly wafting over him. He lifted his head to look at her, playfully offended by her antics. "Are you kidding me?"

"What?" she turned back to him innocently.

"Did you just go in there to brush your teeth?"

"Among other things…"

He had to laugh at her apparent obsession with clean teeth. "You need help."

"Listen, you're not gonna judge me in my own bed," she joked. She purposely entangled her leg with his and nestled into him even further. "Now go to sleep."

"Yes, ma'am," he chuckled, instantly closing his eyes as instructed. She was thankful he didn't put up a fight, but figured he was probably just as exhausted as she was, if not more. The night had already turned to morning and to top it off, they had just exerted a lot of energy. But then Rick cut into the silence, as he always did, as if he'd been waiting for a cue. "I'm glad we had this," he declared, softly caressing her stomach. "Even if it is all we ever get."

Michonne couldn't help but smirk to herself, amused by his need to always continue the conversation. But she was glad that some things never changed. "Me too, Rick."

"When you said that we can find a way," he started to whisper near her ear, "you didn't just mean Alexandria, did you?"

She smiled at the question, but made the deliberate decision not to respond. Because even if she never said it, they both knew the answer.

"Go to sleep, Rick."