Poker Face

Chapter 10 - Starting Over

"So I'm guessing me throwing you in a cell didn't exactly bring back happy fuckin' memories," Negan muttered guiltily, running his hand over his face as he remembered her beating and bruising her arms against the cell door, screaming that she wanted to go home.

"He kept me in a dog cage," she said solemnly, holding his gaze as if to explain to him exactly what throwing her in a cell had stirred up. When she saw the guilt in his eyes, she was satisfied enough and moved on. "Nothing made sense, you know? I don't know how long I was in there. It was months, and then I got out and...I mean, there were fucking zombies everywhere!" she exclaimed, waving her hands incredulously with an energy Negan hadn't yet seen from her.

"Zombies?" He couldn't help but laugh. "You call them zombies?"

"Well, what the fuck am I supposed to call them? Everyone chose their own word I guess," she shrugged.

"But fucking zombies? Sounds like we're living in a bad horror movie."

"Would you not describe the state of the world as a bad horror movie?"

"No, this would be a great fuckin' horror movie and I'm gonna capitalize on that shit as soon as the movie industry gets back on its feet," he leaned back with a toothy grin. Aven's expression went from blank, to disbelief that he was blatantly cracking jokes, to a slight smile she couldn't hold back as she let out a small laugh.

"Whoa, what the fuck is that?" Negan teased. "I'll be damned, you know how to fuckin' smile?" Aven bit her lip and looked away with an amuse huff, hiding her smile behind her reddish-gold curls. Negan couldn't hold back his chuckle when the girl who told him to fuck himself up the ass days earlier got shy about her smile. Usually he couldn't tell what she was really feeling, and vice versa, but in just five seconds of soft laughter they each caught a glimpse of the human underneath the veil.

"Why ya hiding, doll?" he reached out and gently turned her face back, noting that she allowed his touch much more readily than usual. "I wanna see that pretty smile." Before she could process his flirting, there was a knock on the door and Aven pulled backwards quickly, welcoming the interruption. The feeling of his hand on her face and his low voice rumbling in her ears left her heart beating too quickly even after she'd pulled away, and she didn't like that she liked it.

"Negan?" called a woman's voice. Negan's veil immediately fell again as he snapped his head to the door.

"Not now!" he yelled, himself displeased with the interruption.

"But Negaaan," the woman sang his name seductively.

"Fuck off, Tanya. I said not now!" Aven heard a scoff from the other side of the door, followed by fading footsteps of what sounded like high heels and a faint door slam. Negan turned back to her and she was eying him suspiciously but relented when he went back to the subject at hand.

"So...what am I going to do with you?" he sighed in a way that was almost amorous. His gaze bore into her and Aven felt her heart skip a beat. "I'm going to be straight with you. I meant it when I said you'd be dead if you were anyone else. There are rules here, rules I should have explained better earlier, although you probably should have fuckin' known not attacking people was one of 'em." He grinned as she looked away, still feeling stupid about her initial outburst. "Lucky for you, Dr. Carson thought you'd had enough and said I should let you out."

"Dr. Carson made that decision?" she challenged him. He narrowed his eyes at her, hardening his expression as he wondered if he'd been more transparent than intended. He ignored the question and moved on, and it didn't go unnoticed to Aven that her brief teasing struck some sort of chord. Maybe Negan was just as unsettled by her as she was by him.