Black Sheep - Rick Grimes x Male

The Key

Waking up to the sleeping face of his partner was Rick's favorite time of day. He loved the morning. He loved being able to be with Moon in peace. When the kids interrupted, when they decided they had enough time alone. That made it all the more peaceful for Rick.

The man sighed out blissfully, staring up at his husband's resting face. Even though he knew it wouldn't last long. Rick still enjoyed the quiet time he was able to spend with his little, but growing family. Judith was on Moon's other side, sleeping in his arm.

There was no moving room on the small bed with the new addition. When Moon tried flipping over, he was immediately aware of the bodies around him and settled back down. The little girl didn't seem to mind the possibility she'd slip off the edge, the hand Moon had on her back kept her safe.

Rick couldn't help but see Lori the more he stared at her. Judith was growing into her features, and every day she was starting to look more and more like her late mother. Rick saw it, Carl saw it and Moon saw it. No one else seemed to pay enough attention to the small details the way they did.

She was their little girl, of course they would notice. Rick only loved her more for it. In a way, she was keeping Lori alive, Carl needed that. He needed the reminder that his mother was once someone who he loved and who loved him deeply. Moon would never say it out loud, he was too ashamed to. But he was just relieved it was Lori who Judith took after.

Not that Moon would mind if Judith looked like her biological father. Moon just never liked Shane. The two never got along. It was something the group got to learn very early on. Even before Moon knew about Rick, Shane always rubbed him the wrong way. The man was far too... how could he put it? Alpha male. It didn't work well with Moon.

At first, the two men only really got into minor disagreements and chose to simply pretend the other wasn't there for the sake of the group. But when Rick showed up, there was no more ignoring the mutual hostility between them.

No one knew what caused the hatred, they just knew Moon 'started it'. In all honesty, Shane was friendly in the beginning and so was Moon, of course. Nothing really happened to make Moon so unfriendly he just felt it. The man simply decided he didn't like Shane.

Rick was of course confused to learn the man he saw as a brother and the man who saved him were far from friends. Having complete trust in Shane's call, Rick tried to find something wrong with Moon. He watched, and he listened to the way Moon spoke. Every smile he received and every glare Shane earned only confused him further.

Moon seemed almost too nice, too good. That made Rick suspicious. So he decided to take his confusion to the one person who knew Moon best. Naturally, Glenn was all too eager to talk about his big brother. He answered all the questions Rick had about Moon. Though, some of them were unnecessarily intrusive.

Like when Rick just nonchalantly asked if Moon was interested in anyone in the group. He honestly surprised himself with that one. It wasn't an unusual type of question for Glenn to get, so he answered it just as casually as Rick asked it. But Rick was not prepared for Glenn to tell Moon of his sudden curiosity.

2010

"You're a nosy little cowboy aren't you?" Moon looked up from his plate of food with a grin, startling the staring man. Rick snapped his head away, straightening himself on the log he sat on. The two were facing one another, on different sides of the fire pit. It was still bright and sunny out, their skin was warm with the hot Georgia heat.

"What?" The Grimes acted oblivious, his face twisting with real confusion as he felt it start to burn. He touched his flush cheek lightly, looking up at Moon when he let out a purposefully loud sigh. The short man set his paper plate to the side, shaking his head with one last sigh before he began speaking.