Poker Face

Chapter 26 - The Morning After

"But I'll just give you a fair fuckin' warning," he began. "I am absolutely going to try to fuck you when we get back to the Sanctuary, so figure that shit out ahead of time." Aven blushed, more at his blunt mention of her indecisiveness than the ravenous tone in his voice, though that certainly contributed. She bit her lip and nodded as he stepped around her and headed towards the door. She followed him out and watched him walk back to Rick before quickly scanning the crowd to find the pregnant woman.

Negan began his new speech and Aven casually made her way to stand closer to the woman. When Negan revealed his intention to have Rick cut the kid's hand off, the group of Alexandrians was immediately stirred back up into as much terror as they'd felt the night before. Aven swept down next to the pregnant woman and spoke softly so only she could hear.

"Don't watch. He's not actually going to do it," she said. The woman looked up at her with a mixture of horror and disgust, before turning her gaze back to the ground. She squeezed her eyes shut and began to sob again. The Alexandrians around her glared furiously at Aven, thinking she'd intentionally said something to further upset the woman. "What the fuck are you looking at?" she spat at them. "Pay attention to what's about to fucking happen."

As Rick raised his hatchet in the air, keening and crying, his young son's arm shook involuntarily. But Negan crouched down next to Rick and stopped him.

"You answer to me," he ordered softly. Rick, shaking and panting, his eyes bloodshot and endlessly tearing, gawked up at Negan with his mouth hung open. "You provide for me. You belong to me. Right?" Rick nodded aggressively and Negan almost crushed the man's chin in his hand. "SPEAK WHEN YOU'RE SPOKEN TO," he barked. "YOU BELONG TO ME. RIGHT?"

"Right," Rick barely choked out.

"Right," Negan hissed, pointing a gloved finger in Rick's face. "That is the look I wanted to see." Aven swelled with pride to hear her plan had worked perfectly. "Today was a productive damn day!" Negan rose to his feet exuberantly, loosely swinging Lucille. "I hope for all your sake that you get it now." Negan grinned around at the Alexandrians. "Dwight, load him up," Negan said, pointing Lucille at the man he and Aven had met in the woods. The man struggled to get his footing as Dwight dragged him along the ground and forced him into the back of a van. He crouched in the trunk like a caged animal trying to anticipate his way out. But there wasn't one.

"If you still wanna try something, I will cut pieces off of..." Negan trailed off, biting his tongue as he tried to think if he'd gotten the prisoner's name. He crouched down next to Rick, his eyes searching the crowd for Simon. "Hell's his name?"

"Daryl," Simon replied.

"I will cut pieces off of Daryl and put 'em on your doorstep," he said to Rick. "Or better yet, I'll bring him to you and have you do it for me." He took a deep breath and patted Rick hard on the back before standing up with a grin and barking at the crowd. "Welcome to a brand new beginning, you sorry shits! We'll be back for our first offering in a week. Until then, ta-ta." He tossed Rick's axe over his shoulder and strode back to the RV, taking Aven cordially by the arm as he passed. "Arat, you drive," Negan ordered. "That was a long fucking night and I need a fucking nap." He led Aven to the small bedroom and closed the door.

"I'm not fucking you right now," she said immediately. He chuckled softly and pulled her into a gentle embrace.

"Not right now," he replied. "Let's get some shut-eye."

"Sorry," she giggled as they pulled apart long enough to crawl onto the bed. "I kind of just assume you're always about to fuck something." Negan let out a hearty laugh at her word choice, pulling her back into him so her head was nuzzled again his chest.

"Can't be ready to fuck something if I'm not rested. And for that matter, I need you rested if you're really that fucking out of practice," he teased.

"Out of practice?" she scoffed. "Sorry I didn't have a bunch of wives to practice on."

"Why, would you want that? You know I can make that happen," he said with a mischievous wink.

"You're fucking horrible," Aven laughed.

"You fucking love me," Negan casually accused. Aven felt her body about to tense nervously and mentally forced it back down, a small frown breaking on her face so he couldn't see. She sighed contently and nuzzled her cheek against him affectionately to diffuse any awkwardness that might build from her not replying. She wasn't about to go there for even a second.

~
There's fire on fire when lovers conspire
To either a duet or duel
When it's fire on fire, the flames just get higher
The harder you work to put them out
~
The seeds that you sew
You want to watch them grow
Wild, you grow wild in my heart

Flower Child - U2
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A/N All the dialogue outside the RV taken from the show.