𝗗𝗜𝗦𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗕𝗜𝗔- rick grimes

TWENTY NINE

TWENTY NINE

ARIA BLAKE CAME TO TERMS WITH the fact her mind was one of the most dangerous things she had unfortunately came across, at least one she could count for with what she had witnessed over the span of the almost two years of the apocalyptic outbreak. The human mind worked in mysterious ways, not even those cruel, vicious, walking dead corpses could terrify the woman as horribly as her own thoughts could anymore.

It was a dangerously odd way of thinking now, one that seemed so far from humane as she leaned against the metal inside of the train cart she had been stuck inside of with others that occupied the spaces of her, now larger, group of people. Her mind racked the possibilities, the strategies, it would take to get out of the, what seemed to be getting smaller enclosure, over and over again.

Countless times now had she sat in silence, her eyes clouded over as she chewed at her bottom lip feverishly, going over what could and couldn't potentially work as a way to be set free from a personal hell that others from outside the thin walls looked as their own personal playground of sorts. Waiting to pick them off one by one, to commit to whatever bone chilling senile thing they do to the ones that never make it out alive.

Terminus and the people it inhabited was what seemed to be, in that moment, hell on Earth.

Too self indulged to notice, Aria barely cared about the moving bodies around her or even the fact a certain pair of blue eyes watched her intently, silently observing as he took her in for the first time in awhile. For a moment, Rick caught himself staring— no, admiring. His eyebrows slightly furrowed with concern as she hadn't spoke or looked in anyone's direction for a hot minute. He could only wonder what went buzzing inside her tainted mind, a beautifully tainted one at that.

His focus ran off course as he began to analyze the barely seen features on her face, only lit by the slit through the door as a tiny sliver of light peeked through, shining directly across her side profile that happened to be on display perfectly just for him to see. The color in her eyes were dull, almost too much for his liking. The grey shade that reminded him of the bright sky, made up for the lack of color in the rings of her iris'.

Cheeks high, shaped sharp precisely like her jaw, almost as if the gods themselves took extra time and pristine attention focusing solely on just her creation. Light dirt and sweat caked her face allowing her to look even more naturally realistic. Realistically beautiful. Her hair was falling from the ponytail it stayed up in, not caring to remove the thin elastic to re-put it up. Somehow she got lucky enough the rubber band hadn't broke, even though the stray hairs stuck to her face and neck almost making it seem like it had.

Through the obviously noticeable roughness to the woman, guaranteed from the past few weeks taking a toll on her, Rick thought she was the most beautiful woman he ever had seen. Of course his late wife was pretty herself, but to him, Aria was something rare. Out of the ordinary, uniquely and perfectly uncharted to him. It was something new, she was new. The way just by adoring her, he could tell there were parts of her he had never explored and he wanted— no, needed to understand, to know, every untouched part of her soul.

Rick Grimes was completely and utterly exhausted of pretending.

Pretending to not want to kiss her slightly chapped lips, inevitably from the constant picking at the skin, but nevertheless soft one's every time she was near, not letting her see the way just by a simple bat of an eye she had his breath hitched in his throat. Pretending he was just okay with not knowing how she felt, if she felt a single ounce of something more for him the way he did for her. Pretending the longing wasn't causing him to ache in pain as he tried to wait for as long as he could, to let her heal from her demised past. He was ready to stop standing there and pretending that he wasn't watching, admiring her from afar like she wasn't his favorite book or movie he'd ever read or seen before.