Puppy Love (The Walking Dead Richonne)

Chapter 3 - Puppy Kisses

Winter sunlight filtered through the bars on the prison windows. Michonne stirred in her sleep then opened her eyes slowly. Low voices drifted through the cell block. It sounded like Rick and Carl.

Michonne considered getting up and joining them but she'd been on the late shift keeping watch last night and ultimately decided to sleep a little longer.

It was nice to have a bed to sleep in, with a real pillow and a soft blanket. It had taken a long time to trust it, but living at the prison felt nice, safe even. She'd even started taking off her shoes when she slept. She dozed off again.

All of a sudden something landed on her chest and she felt something wet on her face.

Michonne opened her eyes in alarm only to be greeted by a cold nose and slobbery puppy kisses all over her face.

"Wha- Agh! No! Boris, no!" she tried to push the excited puppy away but he squirmed around and continued to press his attack.

Carl was sitting on the edge of her bed, laughing loudly.

"Ugh, gross!" Michonne sat up, ineffectively trying to wipe the slobber off her cheeks and somehow corral the excited puppy.

Finally she managed to grab Boris. She hugged the wiggling puppy to her chest, craning her neck to keep out of his reach.

"Good morning," came Rick's deep voice.

He was standing in the entrance to her cell, holding Judith in his arms, an amused smirk on his face.

"Were you in on this?" Michonne asked him suspiciously and he only smiled wider.

She stroked Boris on the head, which seemed to calm him down a little bit.

"Rick Grimes, I thought you took a vow to uphold law and order," she teased her friend.

Rick laughed and came closer, "Hey now, this was all his idea," he motioned to Carl, who looked pretty darn pleased with himself.

"I got the same treatment yesterday," Rick added.

"I want to train him to do useful stuff, like wake people up when there's an emergency," Carl was saying.

"Well, puppy kisses is hardly the worst way to wake up in the morning," Michonne said.

Michonne cupped the puppy's face in her hands and, saying, "Good morning, Boris," kissed the top of his head, which made Carl giggle.

"You keep that up, you're next!" Michonne informed him, and then proceeded to give Carl the same treatment.

"Good morning, Carl," she said, planting a kiss on his forehead.

"Ick," Carl made a face but it was a playful annoyance.

"Hey, what about them?" Carl asked, glancing up at Rick and Judith, and then looking back at Michonne expectantly and, she thought, just a little too innocently.

Michonne looked at the father and daughter. Even after all the terrible things that had happened to him, after all the things that he had to do, when Michonne saw Rick holding Judith she could tell that he still had a softness in him, that there was still room for love in his heart.

Seeing Rick looking happy and comfortable made Michonne forget, for a moment, that old guarded hesitation that she usually held up between herself and the rest of the world. She swung her feet to the ground and stood up.

"Good morning, sweet girl," Michonne leaned over, one hand on Rick's shoulder, and lightly kissed the top of Judith's head.

Judith cooed something in her baby language. Rick looked down at her affectionately.

"Good morning, Rick," Michonne said as she leaned in to kiss Rick on the cheek, but he turned his head at the sound of her voice and her lips landed squarely on his lips.

She stepped back quickly. Rick's eyes were wide with surprise, like he couldn't quite process what had just happened.

Mortified, Michonne opened her mouth to apologize, to say it was an accident, but the words caught in her throat. I can't believe I just did that!

Anxious, she looked over at Carl, who was busy trying to get Boris to stop burrowing in Michonne's blanket. He hadn't seen a thing.

She looked back at Rick hesitantly. She couldn't tell what he was thinking but he didn't look angry. If anything he looked a little bit nervous, which was unusual for Rick Grimes, and a little embarrassed on top of that.

Michonne ended up giving him an awkward smile and an apologetic shrug, hoping Rick would understand.

Rick's blue eyes looked down at Judith then back up at Michonne again, almost shyly. He had that calm gaze that he got when he was about to say something direct, something honest.

"Hey Dad," Carl unknowingly interrupted, "Can we let Judith meet Boris?"

"I was thinking we could train Boris to be a guard dog," he continued, "We could teach him to protect Judith. You know, in case something ever happened and we weren't there or something."

Rick considered this. Carl had clearly been thinking on this idea for a while.

"Alright," Rick agreed.

"Boris! Come here!" Carl implored. The puppy was busy wrestling with the blanket.

Michonne decided it might help to pull the blanket off the bed entirely.

"Come here, little guy," she said and scooped Boris up.

"Calm down, Boris," Carl told him in a soothing voice, "so you can meet Judy."

Michonne sat beside Carl and transferred the puppy to him. Carl stroked Boris' back, helping him settle down.

"Dad, you can sit here," Carl motioned to the bed and Michonne scooted over so that there was space between them.

Rick sat down and held Judith on his lap. Carl let go of Boris cautiously, ready to grab him again if he got too wild.

The puppy sniffed the baby girl curiously.

"Oooh?" Judith asked, reaching out to pat the strange new animal's face.

"Yeee!" she squealed in delight, which prompted Boris to lick her cheek. Judith giggled and waved her arms around in excitement.

"I think you've got a new friend, Judy," Rick said.

"They're pretty cute," Carl said thoughtfully.

Rick agreed, "Yeah, they are."

The little puppy rested his head on Judith's lap and, surprisingly, tolerated her patting his nose and tugging on his ears.

Watching them, Michonne thought about how far they'd come, her and Rick, since that first day she'd found him standing inside the prison fences.

At the beginning they hadn't trusted each other one bit, but Rick had saved her from the walkers that day and Michonne had decided to help him out and ultimately to stay. Now, here they were, sitting so close together, it felt like they were a cozy little family.

Michonne felt a pang of sadness at that thought because it reminded her of the past. Maybe that's okay though. I can't forget what happened, but maybe it's okay to be like this now. Maybe this is where I belong.

She realized that Rick was watching her and when she met his eyes there was something there, she couldn't have explained what it was if she'd tried, that made her think he felt the same way.

Rick smiled.

Michonne smiled back. I could get used to this.

........................................

A/N: So, what did you think? An accidental Richonne kiss! What's going to happen now? Are they going to pretend that little kiss never happened or is one of them going to bring it up?