Work Text:
“Hey, I’m back!” Carl’s voice sounded throughout the house as the boy made his way inside.
“We’re in here.” Michonne responded, letting Carl know that everyone else was in the dining room, getting ready to eat dinner.
Their group dinner was a little smaller than usual tonight, just Michonne, Rick, Carl, Judith, Glenn, Maggie, Daryl, and Carol. They tried to have everyone together for meals at least once a week, but, unfortunately the others had gotten stuck on supply runs or guard duty tonight. Still, it was nice to be able to have most of them here. It almost felt like they were returning to some semblance of normalcy.
“You’re late, you were supposed to be back half an hour ago.” Rick admonished his son as Carl walked into the dining room, though he still swung an arm around Carl’s shoulders to give the boy a quick hug. No matter how well he played the “exasperated father” role, everyone knew that he’d been worried about Carl. It’d be hard not to be after all the times they’d almost lost each other.
“Sorry.” Carl apologized, pressing a kiss to Judith’s head as he passed her high chair before sitting down at his own seat at the table. “Enid and I lost track of time.”
“Oooh, Enid?” Michonne singsonged, elbowing Carl playfully.
“It’s not like that.” Carl rolled his eyes.
“Mhm, sure it’s not.” Michonne winked at him, seeing Rick shake his head out of the corner of her eye. Carl getting to the age where he wanted to start dating was currently Rick’s least favorite subject.
“Oh, stop teasing him.” Maggie reprimanded jokingly. “It’s cute that he’s got his first crush.”
“Enid’s not my first crush.” Carl blurted out, seemingly without thinking.
“She isn’t?” Rick raised an eyebrow, making Carl grow pale as the boy realized what he’d just said.
“Well, you gotta tell us who else you’ve liked now.” Glenn pointed out. Rick glared at him for that one, though it didn’t do much except make everyone at the table laugh.
“Noooo.” Carl covered his face with his hands, it was getting redder by the second.
That was a mistake on his part, because there was nothing their group liked better than trying to embarrass the boy. Carl was like everyone’s little brother. They’d all protect him with their lives if he was ever in danger, but when he wasn’t…
“Tell us. Tell us.” Glenn began chanting, slamming his fists down onto the table. Within a matter of seconds, everyone else, except Rick, had joined in on the fun as well.
“Fine, fine.” Carl raised his hands in surrender, immediately causing everyone to stop chanting, and start giggling quietly instead. “I may or may not have had a tiny crush on Ron when we first got here.”
That made everyone go quiet. Not that anyone here had a problem with this admission, it was just an odd time for Carl to say it. He was more talkative when he was with their group, sure, but not so much so that he’d make an announcement like that to everyone completely out of the blue.
“You like boys?” Michonne asked a little confusedly, voicing what they were all thinking.
“Uh, yeah, just like everyone else in the world.” Carl laughed, but no one else joined him, their confusion only growing.
“What do you mean “just like everyone else”?” Carol wondered aloud.
“Like how everyone likes both boys and girls.” Carl explained as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “And then you just choose who to date based on the person, not their gender.”
“What? Why’re you all looking at me like that?” Carl asked as he noticed the matching looks of puzzlement on everyone’s faces.
“Because,” Glenn responded hesitantly. “Not… everyone feels like that. Most people only like one gender or the other.”
“Huh?” It was Carl’s turn to look confused. “But, then, why…”
“It’s called being bisexual.” Michonne answered, already knowing what he was going to ask. “When you’re attracted to both genders, you’re bisexual.”
“Oh, guess that’s what I am, then.” Carl shrugged. “Can someone pass the salt?”
Just like that, the awkwardness vanished as everyone began to joke and eat their meal. After all, prejudices were a thing of the past. It’s not like Carl had exactly had time to learn about any either, not while trying to survive the goddamn apocalypse. He had no reason to care about his sexuality, which seemed to be one of the few good things to come out of this hellhole of a world.
Dinner was finished quickly, and Carl excused himself to take Judith upstairs and get her ready for bed while everyone else cleaned up. The adults always offered to help him so that he didn’t have to be the one to do it every week, but Carl consistently refused. Honestly though, it was for the best. Carl was Judith’s favorite and everyone knew it, he was the only one who could get her to fall asleep within a reasonable amount of time.
“Christ.” Rick let out a heavy sigh as soon as Carl was upstairs and out of ear-shot, putting his head in his hands.
“There a problem?” Michonne jabbed him in the ribs lightly.
“It’s just what Carl said earlier.” Rick admitted. “ ‘Bout liking both boys and girls.”
“I’m fine with it. I love him no matter what.” Rick clarified quickly, noticing the glares everyone had begun to give him. “It’s just… I was already worried about him dating and now I gotta be worried about double the amount of people.”
“Double?” Daryl scoffed hoarsely. “In case you haven’t noticed, there ain’t exactly a lot of people his age around… well, around anywhere, really.”
“He’s right.” Michonne agreed. “I’d be more worried about him dating someone older, cause, besides from Enid, that’s the only option he’s got.”
Rick’s head shot up, the veins in his forehead bulging out as he went into “overprotective dad mode”. “I swear to god, if some disgusting, old pervert goes anywhere near him-”
“We’re not the ones you need to be saying that to.” Carol pointed out, cutting Rick off.
“Yeah,” Glenn laughed. “You think he knows what ‘grooming’ is?”
Rick’s face immediately went pale. “I’m gonna go talk to Carl.”
“He knows I was joking, right?” Glenn asked as everyone watched Rick race up the stairs in amusement.
“Nope.” Carol shrugged. “But, that’s Carl’s problem now.”
“Poor kid.” Maggie shook her head in pity.
““Poor kid”?” Michonne scoffed. “Please, he dragged mud all through the house the other day. This is his karma.”
“Dad!” Carl whined, his voice loud enough to reach those of them downstairs. Obviously Rick’s lecture was just as pleasant as they thought it’d be.
“Okay, maybe he doesn’t deserve that much karma.”