PART 2: South
Michonne spotted the tattered bright blue sign at the highway overpass as the horses trampled over some walker.
Welcome to Atlantic City: America's Favorite Playground
She glanced at Rick, looking as quizzical as ever.
Damn it, even confused, the rosy glow of the sunset made his features even more absurdly handsome.
"I know this area a bit off the trail, but that's the point. Makes them lose track of us, we'll be hard to follow."
Ricks furrowed brow continued.
Truth be told, the detour to cool down the chase was on the back burner for Michonne. She knew all the paths that would lead the CRM astray and she had not seen them around for at least two hours now.
But as the horse galloped over to the historic wooden planked boardwalk, she had to address something at the forefront of her mind, something that needed to be discussed tonight before going back on the road home.
Does Rick remember who we are to each other?
He barely said ten words since the escape and there was no time for physical contact other than for the purposes of combat. Michonne's hesitation came from the moments she caught him looking at her, the few times that his gaze did not dart around looking at anything else for a few seconds at a time, with his head cocked severely to the side. It was the way he used to eye her when they first met, as if apprehension and skepticism mixed with the thick humidity in the air.
Judith would almost guarantee to trigger his memory, even through her growth spurt. But if he can't remember who I am to him, how would he connect with our son?
As she tied the horses down with just enough light in the day left, Michonne dropped her giant blanket onto the sand and asked Rick to find pebbles and shells to weigh down the corners. She noticed his hunched back and the stupid coat he was still wearing in mid July. The sun was going down but she still felt the heat.
Feeling helpless at the sight of her traumatized other half, she spun around to stare at the once glittering, now dilapidated casinos before her. Although deteriorated to the point of being almost unrecognizable, she could feel the faint pangs of what was once a glorious era for South New Jersey and a time of innocence.
Then Michonne turned back around. Rick was following her orders, gathering handfuls of seashells and pebbles to weigh down the blanket. She took in the vast ocean, the sun's last shining moment revealing the final tints in the daylight of dark blues and greens of the Atlantic Ocean before the moonlight would uncover the deep, dark sea shrouded in its own mystery.
By cleansing your mind your soul will shine through you. – Yogi Bahjan
It was a quote stenciled on the walls of the yoga studio she would frequent in the before times, a quote that came to her mind time and time again. And to see her love not reactive to anything, it was time to let her soul shine.
Her amour was clanging against each piece as it hit the soft sand. Her boots slipped off and she stood up. Shimmying off the tight pants. Taking off her top and bra.
Clean.
She ran towards Rick, her rich brown skin tone taking advantage of the twilight. Her breasts jiggled and her thighs shook within sight to get his attention.
She witnessed him getting an eyeful for a bit longer than a few seconds, his eyes shaping her up and down before he returned to his skittish gaze. But she did catch that the corners of his fine mouth twitched upward for a split second.
Taking note, favorable reaction. He might be OK.
"Let's go skinny dipping." Michonne managed a smile through all the anxiety.
"You're nude."
"There are things I have to tell—no, wait, that I want to tell you—ugh, just follow me." She walked backwards a few paces, letting the soft ocean breeze do its magic by having her locs frame around her.
"You look like a mermaid." Rick said, head down, adjusting the crotch of his pants with his free hand not full of shore debris.
Michonne played up a big smile, just in case he would see it. "I'll take that as a compliment." She called out before she turned to the water, the waves gently lapping into the low tide, relishing in the unusual warm temperature for the Atlantic Ocean.
Shoulder deep, she stared into the emerging darkness beyond the sea, save for a glittering shock of moonlight. She couldn't bear to look at the shoreline, she couldn't stand to see Rick like this for one moment longer—
"This is dangerous."
Michonne created small ripples as she faced Rick. His eyes were still jumpy, but the ocean and dark blue sky complemented his lazer blue eyes, the top of his implausibly sturdy chest a delicious cream color that Michonne wanted to kiss all over.
Michonne gathered her locs to swoop over one of her bare shoulders. "It's low tide."
"The ocean? At night? Low tide doesn't matter." He raised an eyebrow. "You've been acting different since…I know its been a long time."
"Me? You're behaving the way you did right before you pressed into my leg wound in the prison. It was fine when we were making them think we were going where Vanessa Williams lived, but now we are in Suzette Charles territory, about as alone as can be, and you're like this?! Not for the rest of the road trip with me, I'm not having it."
"Suzette who? We need to be on our way home, Michonne," Rick said, staring at the ocean floor. "When we do our supply runs, you're the one who always wants to return as soon as possible."
The fact that he remembered everything shook Michonne to her core.
"When we do our supply runs, we communicate about being a united front. We talk about our feelings and concerns to each other. And we fuck, besides the point. Then we go home. But I'm not going to allow you to step one foot in Virginia without us, together, doing the first two things at least."
Michonne found Rick staring at her. "I'm sorry that I caused you to abandon Judith to find me."
"Rick, I found you because of Judith. She made me. She's getting big for her britches. I found you because of Alexandria. Because of Carl even, rest in peace. And selfishly, because of me, a little bit. We all need you. The new world is gonna need Rick Grimes."
"No. No." Rick dropped his head, his dark curls enticingly touchable by the second. "Look at you. The world needs you. You survived so much without me. I saw that scar above your pubic line. Trust me, it was the last thing I noticed, with all of--" he motioned a hand up and down to signify Michonne's figure "--that beautiful body. But I saw it."
Michonne smiled and grabbed one of Ricks hands and guided him to the mark around her bikini line. "—Rick, you have a son."
For a moment, the sea water held still. Just Michonne and Rick and quiet. Rick opened his splendid mouth as if to ask a question, but quickly shut it.
"He's. Yours." She cleared her throat, doing what she could to put his mind at ease. "No question about that."
Rick's fingers started dancing along her skin.
Michonne drank in the accepting expression on his lovely face in the calming moonlight.
"It had to have been when we--"
Michonne nodded. "It probably was, we were very lucky."
Rick stopped his examination and found her hands with his.
Michonne could feel a slight twinge emerge behind her eyes. She started to smile so she could alleviate it.
He smiled. "What name did you choose?"
"Rick Jr. RJ, for short."
"Oh? Really?" Rick's baby blues shifted for a second when his smile dropped. Michonne detected that his tone was reminiscent of one time in Alexandria before their first kiss where he pretended to like some turnips she had cooked for him. "I'm honored you did that as a tribute. But I heard that taking family members full names are bad for kid's future credit reports."
Michonne felt her hands shake in Ricks gentle grasp, the sting behind her eyes built up to the point that she couldn't handle it anymore.
This is after all he's meant to me, and to the world! Would we even pass each other at a gas station, let alone meet, let alone have a family, let alone name our kid in his name, in the old world? Would I even have another son like my precious boy? After Carl? Andre? Andre…
The quick spasm of tears streaming down her face escaped her usual composed demeanor.
"He's your son! With your name! He's yours! I thought you were dead!"
She could only see a blur but she felt Rick against her, his naked, lean but muscled body holding her close, the side of his beard brushing against her face for a moment. His slight but strong frame against her body, feeling delicate all of the sudden, was almost too visceral to take for Michonne. Her hands weakly pressed into his firm shoulders to push him away and stayed there until she felt him gently kiss the tears down her face as his hands traveled down the small of her back. Still crying, she rubbed the nape of his neck.
She gasped for air in between her sobs, but only words came out in her exhales. "I wanted to keep saying your name. Keep you in my existence."
"I am so sorry. I tried to escape every chance I could. I really did. I couldn't stop thinking about you and the family the whole time." Rick paused. "I never forgot you." She heard his slow Southern drawl break. "I love you."
Michonne took a deep breath to help subside her heaving and she was praying that the buildup of mucus in her nose would stay in place while she was so close the love of her life. "Credit reports in this world aren't feasible yet." She felt herself chuckle as she let go of him to clear her eyes. Rick shook his head as she sniffled. "I don't know if Alexandria will catch up to that by the time RJ's a man."
Rick moved one of his hands to tip her chin up, his face about to reveal another smile. "What a stupid memory to have—I can't believe that was even a thing."
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As they rested back on the beach, shaking the sea water off of their naked bodies, hearing the now rising ocean smash onto the beach. Rick asked Michonne for cocoa butter, and she reached for her pack. She raised an eyebrow as he untwisted the jar lid and scooped a generous amount with his fingers.
"Hey, watch the merchandise. That's the only one I have on me right now. You started using it, finally? I gotta say, it doesn't feel like it."
Rick gave a tight lipped smile and reached for one of Michonne's hands. He smoothed the cocoa butter on her arm with his rough hands, causing her to suck her breath in at the surprise.
"Bad boy. You know what you're doing." She inhaled the light sweet scent, basking in the sensation of being pampered.
"I do." Ricks steel blue eyes gave her a look one second past friendly, where it seemed like if Michonne wore clothes they'd fall off of her anyway from his hungry gaze. "Can you remind me about what the kids are up to, again?"
"Yes. They are close with Daryl and Rosita, I know they are being taken care of by them at least. Rosita is—" Michonne paused to reluctantly let a sigh escape as Rick caressed her shoulders. "—Rosita is as lively as ever. Full of energy, you know her, never takes a sick day. Now she has her love pentagon of suitors. And you know Daryl, at worst, he's probably teaching the kids valuable hunting lessons. Its Daryl. What's he going to do, leave the country?"
Rick began to work on Michonne's long scar. "So, when you left, Alexandria was fine?"
Michonne stopped the gentle bite of her lower lip, she knew she was starting to get wet from the attention just above her bikini line, dangerously close to her pubic hair. "As far as I know, yes. We overcame the last threat that was known to me."
Rick nodded and moved to her shins and calves, his hands going up. "I hope so. If there are huge changes, I'd hate to be the person that feels your wrath."
Michonne scoffed. "Do you know the movie Home Alone? I feel like the mom, accidentally causing havoc because I'm not there."
Rick shook his head. "That family had eleven kids all going to Paris. Even if they were team owners of the Braves I wouldn't believe this. It'd be like finding out that Daryl went to France."
Michonne chuckled. "Don't sleep on Daryl, last rumor I heard is that he has a crush on someone new and is learning sign language."
Rick widened his eyes, she could tell a new question popped into his queue. "Really? And you?"
Michonne squeezed his palms. "What about me?"
His sight line flickered, his gaze burning hot. "You found a guy?"
She was transported to the last time Rick asked her that same question. It was on their couch in Alexandria, moments before they lingered on holding hands, before they impulsively made out like teenagers. His tone was same that time too. Back then, Michonne thought Rick's implication was that they might have another mouth to feed. But everything clicked: he was just wary of the idea of her finding a viable romantic interest that was not him.
Why did this make her even more wet in between her legs?
"Not a guy."
Ricks gaze sparked again, his voice turning serious.
"Flip over."
Michonne nodded. "Yes, sir." She bit her lower lip.
Rick pressed into the small of her back, his pressure light yet firm. The touch was as if six years of heartbreak at last had relief.
Michonne heard Rick suck his teeth before his course but steady hands were on her rear. Rick grabbed at her curvaceous flesh between his fingers. "Sit on me. I want to hold onto your ass until your juices are all over my face."
Michonne sighed. "I can't. There's nothing here I can hold my balance onto when I grind into your mouth."
Rick sucked in his teeth. "Fuck, I'm so hard just thinking it about it though."
"I'm not as spry as I used to be. I need leverage now. I had a baby."
"You had a baby six years ago! Everything looks great to—oh you know what?" He did not finish his thought.
Michonne felt one of Ricks hands part between her thighs from behind. She trembled as he travelled to her clit, his rough fingertips brushing gently for a moment as the palm of his hand cradled her underneath. He didn't stop until she breathily called him a dirty bastard.
"What did you just call me?"
Michonne felt the icy yet hot stare he gave her backside. She turned her head to try to look at him. "A dirty bastard, sir."
His eyes flashed urgent blue again. "Flip back."
Michonne felt Ricks member twitch against her inner thigh as his hands cupped her full breasts.
"If I'm the dirty one, how come your nipples are happy to see me?"
Michonne moved a slender but strong hand to give one tug to Ricks girth. Just one.
It was enough. Rick released her breasts and held Michonne's wrists above her head.
"Did I make you mad, sir?" With her bust dangling, Michonne thrust her naked chest out and exaggerated a petulant expression.
Her eyes widened as she witnessed Rick breaking character, releasing his grasp, his hands to himself. "No. How would you make me mad?"
Michonne kept the sulky lower lip and fluttered her eyelashes. "I don't know, it just looks like I made you mad."
"You were a beautiful angel with baby formula, showing up at the prison with walkers' blood all over you, how could I ever be upset at you?"
Michonne could barely develop a thought before Rick began nibbling on her pout. She closed her eyes and began to hungrily suck on his perfectly formed cupids bow. Their mouths opened as they leisurely panted against each other.
His hands immediately squeezed her ass as her tongue found his. She forgot how therapeutic it was to play with his wild curls, alternating between combing and grabbing at them.
Ricks palms moved up to Michonne's hips, his fiery mouth traveling to her delicate neck.
"The formula…you liked me…the whole time," she windedly said before his soft beard and warm lips brushed against her.
Ricks mouth came up for air as he peeled his lightly glistening body away from Michonne, face down, his muscular ass gleaming in the moonlight. His eyes glanced away as a huge smile emerged.
"I was pretty bad at flirting, wasn't I?"
Her eyelids lowered as gentle tears revealed themselves, rolling away from her face. "I wasn't any better," she said with a scoff.
Rick moved to touch Michonne's waist with one hand and brushed a couple of locs away from her face. "Its good to be here now."
Michonne nodded and reached for Rick to reset, as his lips found hers again. He roamed down to her collarbone and lifted himself up, palming one of her breasts while lapping up the other with his roving tongue. The other hand squeezed her inner thigh and found its way up to the juncture between her thighs.
Michonne hitched her breath at the sensation of Ricks contact as he blindly examined the state of her clitoris with his deft and careful fingers. Michonne back arched in response to the delicious pleasure. Her eyes took in Ricks mouth in a concentrated expression, his ravenous eyes darting up and down. His other hand moved under, to be the barrier between one of her ass cheeks and the blanket. She felt his other hard-working palm go flat rubbing against her hot button and anticipated the blinding heat that was to come.
"Take care of me, please." She managed to say in between soft whimpers.
Michonne saw his hardened face break into a smile, his sparkling eyes wet.
"That's all I ever wanted," He said softly as one of his thick fingers delicately slipped into her pussy. Her eyes rolled back as another pleasure wave crashed into her tight depths. While one of her hands kept unsuccessfully roaming for his cock, the other that was playing with his hair moved to cover her face as wet, erotic, squelching sounds revealed themselves.
"You really did miss me." Ricks hand that was grabbing her ass moved up to gently knock her hand away. With one of his arms now free, he propped himself up to encircle his mouth on the rich brown peaks of her breasts. At her next moan, he slid another finger in. Her womanhood clenched against him at the thrill of his touch. The final wave of pleasure was so close.
One of Michonne's free hands went back, pulling on Ricks hair. The other fumbled the way into finding his cock, stroking.
Rick released her breast, his lips and cheeks visibly flushed beneath the wild beard. With eyes half closed, his look concentrating on Michonne's face, he said it.
"Don't."
It was enough.
Michonne's internal grip squeezed around his fingers, one of her hands still clutching Ricks curls as the other held his aching fullness as she glimmered in spasms underneath the stars.
She could feel Ricks eyes burning with desire across her body followed by cool tempered kisses along her collarbone and chest, calling her beautiful between each touch. She found her breath.
"Your turn." She said in a whimper. She could feel Rick's cock somehow become harder in her grasp just for the mere suggestion.
"Are you sure?" He said in between heated gasps.
Michonne nodded.
"Get on top."
Michonne shook her head. "But my balance—"
"Not getting out of this one. You're my wife. Grab my shoulders."
Michonne shook her head and smiled.
In daily life, even in the before times, she saw no reason for traditional marriage. As they grew into coupledom, she and Rick never accepted customary spousal roles.
Matrimony in the apocalypse seemed silly, and to Michonne, using it as dirty talk was gratuitous, inappropriate, and incredibly arousing. And Rick knew what to say to turn her on.
As Rick lay on top of the soft blanket, Michonne, resting her forearms on his muscled frame, glided her hand down to his shaft again. Rick made an aggrieved groan.
"No games. This is our wedding night."
"I was thinking, remember that dinner, where—"
"I swear, if you bring up Eugene while my cock is in your hand, I will make this last three hours, intentionally."
Michonne smiled. She straddled her soft warm thighs against Ricks solid, roughened body and felt that gratifying ache as her desperately needy wetness met the hot tip of his brazenly eager shaft. The sensation of being his again made her eyes sting once more as she settled inch by inch on his thickness, Rick grunting in relief along the way.
Michonne let out a deep sigh as she took the last of him into tight depths. There had been a lover or two before in her past lifetime, but with Rick, everything fit. His cock was just long enough, just wide enough, to be her perfect size. Those stupid ill-fitting jeans he always wore had to have been on purpose to hide the treasure in his pants.
She began to grind her clit over his dark pubic curls as Ricks hands moved to her ass, steadily thrusting his hips in languid strokes.
The sting in Michonne's eyes was too much. A tear rolled down her cheek.
Rick dropped himself down. "Should we stop? Are you OK?"
"I'm OK." Michonne swiped at her face. "I want you to marry me."
Rick smiled, his eyes growing as big as saucers. "For real?"
"Whatever it takes hubby. Your dick is so good, I can't lose it again."
She wanted Rick to laugh, share a happy moment between the two of them, but his smile dropped. Instead, she saw his blue eyes water.
"I don't want to lose you again either."
Then his hips drove up, making sure all of him went deep in contact with her warm dark haven. The delicious shock caused Michonne to steady her hands on his shoulders. The dangle of breasts titillated him to taste with his sex starved tongue while the two of them worked together. Rick went too fast to his own fault, causing Michonne to vigorously rub her hooded pearl against him to slow him down in response. The jolt of hot friction happened too fast. Michonne was on her way.
"Slow…slow." Michonne urged breathlessly, their erotic teamwork causing her to arch her back, her hands and fingers released from gently digging into his shoulders, lightly skimming his torso down. She looked at Rick, whose twisted, strained expression even looked beautiful on that conventionally handsome face, with his pink lips opening and closing.
"Say what you want to say hubby."
Ricks mouth parted. "You said…balance. Leverage. Liar. Should've…should've sat on my face."
"Fuck you…oh…" Michonne whimpered.
The combination of the ocean crashing harder to shore, with the stimulation of her clit, added with feeling every ridge of Ricks thick cock buried inside her depths was enough to tighten Michonne's womanhood around him as she was sent into uncontrollable, trembling contractions while her body quivered from the ultimate rapture.
As she steadied herself forward and her breaths were at a normal speed, she found Ricks hands covering his face.
"Michonne, be careful, I'm a bomb. I-I'm gonna come in about three strokes."
Michonne pressed her hands onto his chest. "I got you. I love you hubby." She pushed herself swiftly off of his cock and switched to her mouth. She recalled the time after her first ever blowjob with Rick. He wouldn't stop complimenting about her beautiful her lips were. She was instinctive to put them to work again. Within seconds his hot white seed spilled over her tongue as Rick grunted, cursed, declared his love, and grabbed at the blanket under him.
Michonne definitely knew it wasn't true, but, just like the first time, she knew she was so in love with Rick that somehow she tricked her tastebuds into thinking he tasted like vanilla ice cream.
Rick caught his breath. "Marry me."
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The whisp of a light pink glow of an impending sunrise woke up Michonne. She stunned herself by somehow allowing herself to be naked overnight, in a public element no less. She and Rick hadn't slept in the nude since they discovered together how incredible making love could be after the world ends, and she felt that familiar sexual stickiness cling to her skin.
After reaching for her pack to pin up as much of her locs as she could with a large hair claw clip showing its age, she looked at Ricks chest rising and falling before her, perfectly at rest after last nights activities. She leaned over to softly kiss his bearded cheek before bouncing off to the sea one last time.
As Michonne waded into water and spun around, she watched for few moments as the reflection of the burgeoning sunlight was caught in purple and pink glimmers through whatever windows were left for the casinos in front of her.
Could this be our souls shining?
As Michonne came back to shore she noticed Rick was standing. Before she hit sand she released her clip, securing the hair tool by letting it squeeze around one of her fingers, and letting her locs bounce free against her bare body before sauntering up towards him.
He was smiling.
"I saw that move you did," he said with a laugh. "You really do look like , what did I call you last night? A sea princess?"
"Mermaid."
Rick nodded and chuckled. "Yes, that makes more sense. Those actually exist."
Michonne grinned, her eyelashes fluttering. "So you believe in them?"
Rick tipped Michonne's chin up to meet her eyes.
"I believe in you."