THUNK!

"Michonne. What are you doing?"

THUNK!

"What does it-"

THUNK!

"look like I'm doing?"

Michonne yanked the axe out of the tree trunk and turned to glare at Rick.

"You're swinging that axe like it was a sword," Rick observed with a raised eyebrow.

Michonne resisted the urge to roll her eyes at him.

"You've never chopped down a tree before, have you?" he asked, cocking his head to the side.

She sighed, "Is it that obvious?"

"Yeaah," his accent drew the word out.

He was barely able to contain a smirk.

You've been doing that more and more these days, teasing me... Michonne thought to herself...Two can play this game!

"Well it's not my fault I've never had to do this before," Michonne brushed her dreadlocks back over her shoulder, adding, "You know I'm a city girl, right?"

That did it. Rick burst out laughing at the absurdity of her assertion. Michonne laughed too, because seeing Rick happy warmed her heart.

"But seriously, how did you do that one so fast?" she asked when their laughter died down.

They'd been working for the same amount of time but Rick's tree, maybe eight inches in diameter, already lay on the ground, all the large branches broken off.

"First you want to cut a wedge shape on one side, like this," Rick explained, using his hands to demonstrate.

Rick stood back and gestured for her to try again.

Michonne looked at him and then back at her target. She took a deep breath, lifted the heavy axe, and swung it halfheartedly. The blade made a nice THUNK when it hit the tree but bounced ineffectively off to the side. She hung her head in defeat.

It worked like a charm.

"May I?" Rick held out his hand and Michonne passed him the axe.

"Start with your hands apart, like this," he hefted the axe to demonstrate the proper technique, "and then as you swing, move your right hand down a little bit so you get more force."

The blade sliced through the air and WHAM! bit into the tree trunk. Rick pulled it free and glanced back at Michonne expectantly.

She frowned in concentration, saying, "Show me one more time."

Rick, full of pride that there was finally something he was better at than Michonne, obliged.

He swung the axe with his full strength, pausing only to instruct, "A couple more like this...then start to come in at an angle to make the wedge, like this..."

Michonne stuck her hands in her pockets and stood back to watch. I was right, brown is a good color for him...she thought as she admired the way his new brown shirt clung to his body in the summer heat. And the way his curls fell into his face when he moved.

Michonne turned when she heard someone approaching. Rick stopped too, alert for walkers, but relaxed when he saw it was only Daryl and Abraham. They were working together to carry an armload of logs.

"You really are hopeless, aren't you?" Daryl muttered.

"Huh?" Rick was confused.

Abraham chuckled. Michonne glared at Daryl.

"What?" Rick asked, still perplexed.

Daryl shook his head in amusement, "Brother, she's Tom Sawyer-ing you. You know that, right?"

"Daryl, shut up!" Michonne smacked him on the shoulder as he and Abe walked by.

Rick did that thing where he looked at the ground, almost bashfully, and then looked up at Michonne again, tilting his head curiously, "Is that what you're doing? Tricking me into doing your work for you?"

Damn! Caught me red handed. Michonne couldn't deny the accusation, so she pulled her very best puppy-eyes please-don't-be-mad-at-me smile.

"I'll just, uh, I'll go ahead and carry this one back to the truck," she said, walking over to pick up the tree Rick had already cut.

Rick shook his head in mock exasperation. He laughed a little bit to himself and lifted the axe again. There was still work to do before the day was over.