🍊tangerine oranges🍊|THE WALKING DEAD|

¤ [12] ¤《 MYRRH 》

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Carl's eyes cut into Michonne. 

There was a hardness to the sphere of Carl's pupils that Michonne had never seen before.

A dimness that seemed to smug their reunion.

Carl had survived, mostly injured from the looks of the deep bruises on his arms and face, but it was clear that surviving alone had taken a toll on him that neither of them knew off.

Michonne went to tug Rick off of Carl, but his grip was unrelenting, so Rick dragged a reluctant Carl over to a chair, his face pressed on top of Carl's head.

Carl's arms were going numb at the hold.

Carl never thought of how he would feel if he had ever found his father again.

Ever since the prison it had been radio silent, no new signs that his dad had survived and sure Carl never mentioned it out loud or even allowed himself to properly think about it but the news that his father was alive didn't hit him as hard as he thought it should have.

Carl guessed he never allowed himself to think of life permanently without his father, so he never mourned him.

Rick, on the other hand, was a mess, having thought that his son was good and dead.

Rick thought being found by Michonne was the one blessing that he would be granted in life after his failure to negotiate peace with the Governor.

When Rick had finally let up enough so that Carl could squirm away from him Michonne got her chance to greet Carl making sure to give him space she pat him on the back expecting Carl to back away from her as if he was some wounded animal.

She was taken aback by Carl's arms wrapped around her.

"I'm glad you're okay," Carl truly was, having thought that Michonne was dead.

Come and go like the wind there one day scavenging his comics, her head decapitated the next.

"Me too,"

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Carl was sitting facing the door. This time, he wouldn't be caught off guard again.

Rick was glued to Carl's side.

"How'd you get out?" Rick asked tentatively, his hands wrapped firmly around Carl's shoulders as if Carl would evaporate if he let him go.

"The bus caught fire, I went to help pull Patrick out, and we ran,"

Like a coward, Carl ran away when he could have stayed right where he was and avoided this mess.

Making decisions that could save one's own ass was easy when the other option was staying and fighting.

It's hard Carl knew that now but he didn't then.

"Good," Rick said, nodding, hanging on to each one of Carl's words.

Carl looked up, shocked.

In reality, Carl knew his dad would stay until he couldn't anymore.

The praise that he was receiving made Carl shake his head.