AN: Set during episode 5 in the cabin, late night, and post-drinks and gifts. Rated M for stuff and thangs. Unbeta'd, all errors are mine.

Moonlight shone through a sliver of open curtain in the window above their heads, casting a dim glow in the otherwise dark cabin. The candles had long been snuffed out and they were fitted snugly in the bed that was pretty sturdy if not questionably smaller than they both expected.

Certainly creakier, if judging from the evening's earlier activities. One especially loud croak from the bedframe during a particularly hard thrust had sent them both into a fit of laughter, muffling the joyful sounds in each other's necks as their lovemaking was interrupted by the unexpected comedy.

It only heightened the moment, emphasizing the ease in which they'd fallen back into the physical. Bodies fitting together so perfectly, time and distance apart didn't matter. She was still impossibly soft, skin scented by the sandalwood soap and other toiletries they'd managed to snag from the Three Pines gift shop.

His hand still knew where to touch, the parts and places of her that were so responsive to his wandering, at times gentle and other times as rough as they both needed, but never hesitant. He was surer now, realizing that her body and his body coming together was, in fact, real. She was a stunning vision beneath him, above him, beauty spread out for his feasting eyes and their mutual pleasure, but also very, very real.

And he savored her touch; dark, slender fingers drifting through his beard, or wandering into the curls she couldn't stop touching, grounding him in the moment. He recognized that gleam in her eye as she had moved on top, hips canting in the slow grind that always made his heart race. And he drank in the sight, the warm glow of her body wrapped in nothing but candlelight, her hands pressed to the tops of his thighs as she moved, possessive and loving and so hungry for him. Like it had always been between them. Equal parts intensity and sweetness, passion and peace.

They'd passed out, sated and exhausted, only barely remembering to throw on pajamas before retreating back to the bed. Michonne was asleep beside him, his arm sprawled across the pillows and her body tucked in his hold.

Rick brushed a kiss to her cheek, eyes drifting shut at the sound of her little sigh, and he smiled when she scooted back, the round curve of her ass nudging his crotch. He hissed slightly at the small twinge in response to her movements, an expected reaction whenever he seemed to be anywhere near her these days. A welcome pang of want that reminded him that being together again was very much a reality.

In the dark, with his love in his arms, his mind was calm but not quieted. He still felt the pull of the whiskey, which loosened his limbs but scattered his thoughts. He replayed their conversation in the crumbling building, stuck on Michonne's teary admittance. Pushing her away, yet reaching for her all the same, and the strain it had put on her.

No, hurt.

He'd hurt her.

It burned at him, hearing that. Jolted him from the spiral of silence and grief and self-sabotage he thought would be enough to send her away. For her own good, for her safety. Killed himself on the inside, so she could live, pushed her from him, breaking both their hearts.

He had to face that, face the reality of what he'd been holding onto, and what had been taken from him. His hope, his love, his son, so many years stolen, leaving him empty, until she blew him out of the sky and forced him to contend with the situation.

"You're thinking so loud."

Michonne's voice, soft and sleepy pulled him from those thoughts, and he brushed a kiss to her bare shoulder.

"Sorry, sweetheart," he rumbled. "Can't sleep?"

"Mmm, I was doing alright. Better than you."

Rick smiled into her neck. "Was gettin' there, eventually. Just windin' down."

"Thought we did that earlier." She shifted in his hold, facing him with a soft grunt as her fingers carded through his curls.

Rick savored the feeling of her nails lightly raking his scalp. "That was more like you, wearin' me out."

He felt her laughter before he heard it, mouthed at her throat and the vibrating hum of it before kissing her lips, catching the husky sound with a small moan.

"Guess I didn't tire you out enough," she whispered, tossing a leg over his hip and gently rocking against him. "You're still awake, forming sentences."

"Barely," he bit out, letting the arm curled around her shoulders drop, his hand already sliding down to grab a generous handful of her ass. "Just thinkin' about you's enough to make me want more."

Michonne's dark eyes caught the sliver of moonlight peeking in, and Rick savored the sweet glow of them, bright as she smiled softly at his words. "Thinking of me?"

"Always."

"What's got you up?" They both looked between them, feeling the growing length of him pressed against her still-clothed center and Michonne breathed out another soft laugh. "You know what I mean."

"Nothin' in particular," Rick replied, with a small kiss and a half smile. "Mostly, how much I love you."

"Trying to sweet talk me outta my pajamas again, Grimes?"

"Workin' on it," he told her, voice trailing off when she tugged at his beard. They savored the quiet, letting it settle in the limited space between them on the small bed before Rick spoke again. "Everything good now, everything good to come, it's all made better 'cause I'm with you. You're the center of it all. Things don't work without you, 'Chonne."

Liquor thickened his drawl, the lazy rumble of his honest and sweet words had her tightening her hold on him.

"Rick..." Michonne sighed, feeling a soft flutter in the pit of her stomach and she kissed him, soft at first but building to something deeper, something drugging and heady, tongues meeting in the kind of hungry glide that always made her want more of him.

Her hand slipped from his side, pushing down his boxers off his hips, just enough to free what she'd been softly grinding against for the last fifteen minutes, stroking him in time with their kisses, sucking at his tongue and swallowing the sounds he made. Deep and growling, burning his throat and burning into their kisses.

Rick broke apart long enough to maneuver her sleep shorts down, and they worked with the tangle of boxers and blankets until one of her legs was freed and with a small thrust he sank once more into her, slick and hot, and always so ready for him. "Thinkin' 'bout me too, sweetheart?" he asked, his drawl as sluggish as his thrusts.

"Mmm," she answered him with a breathy moan. "Yeah…"

It was a slow rock, heavy breaths and a steady grind of meeting hips, and intense enough to make her hands shake. Michonne steadied herself against him, hitching her leg once more to his hip and kissing him deeply.

She recalled nights like this in Alexandria, when they'd been worn and tired from the day's work, when dinners were over and the kids were in bed and the nighttime routine had wrapped and it was all they could do more than embrace. Half-sleep, half-dressed, fucking close and kissing intensely, talking each other through it, leaving them both shivering and satisfied at the end.

The best way to close out the day.

With a small gasp, Michonne yanked down the neck of her tight tank top, enough to tease a dark nipple, tugging at the sensitive bud and moaning at the clench that followed.

Rick's groan was instant, chasing that deep flutter with his steady stroke. He squeezed her ass, guiding her hips to meet his, letting it all build with their hands and kisses and the sounds between them, shuddering when she whimpered his name and shivered against him.

"That's it, sweetheart. There it is…" He nipped at the curve of her neck, savoring the sound of her small cry as she came, clenching around him, body greedily demanding his release even as she savored her own and he gasped into her smooth skin, fucking harder, sinking deeper into her wet heat because he would deny her nothing, because he was hers, everything was hers and he moaned the promise against her throat.

Yours, yours, yours…

She was soft and gasping in his arms and he tightened his hold, groaning when she gripped his curls and dragged his mouth to meet her own, spilling inside her as he moaned her name.

Blissful silence followed after, punctuated by the whisper of her gentle hand through his hair, eventually cupping the nape of his neck, keeping him right where she wanted as she took her fill of his lips until they parted with twin sighs. He caught her whispered words, the soft 'I love you' that he easily returned, brushing his nose against hers.

"Better, baby?" she asked, hissing gently when he slipped from her center, already missing the feel of him.

"Always is, with you."

Full lips tugged into a grin as she tucked him back into his boxers. "You keep talking like that, I'm waking you up in an hour."

His smile was dazed and easy, his shadowed gaze no less intense in the dark, heavy with obvious want even as he helped her right her pajamas and settle the blankets, wrapping her in his embrace once more, her head on his shoulder and a warming calm in his chest, eyes already beginning to close.

"Gonna hold you to that, sweetheart."