A/N A lot here is taken from the show. Rick's intro to Negan is too good as is, but I wanted to go through it with Aven's perspective.
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Aven pulled on the leather angel-winged vest over her jacket. Even over the jacket, it was huge on her, draped down to her thighs, but she didn't care. It symbolized something for her and she knew Negan liked it. She followed him out of the RV and stayed back, leaning against the door with her hands in her vest pockets while Negan sauntered over to Rick, Lucille high on his shoulder.
The Alexandrians looked like broken people. Rick, shaking uncontrollably with tears in his eyes, looked like he'd died a thousand deaths since she'd last seen him. And his son looked like he'd been forced to do all his growing up in that time.
"Hi, you're Rick, right? I'm Negan." Negan spoke down softly, gently to Rick, standing directly over him. "And I do not appreciate you killing my men." In the cold night air, Negan's steady breaths were illuminated in the glaring headlights of the Saviors' cars as he maintained his smooth, controlled demeanor. The Alexandrians' breaths, on the other hand, could be seen puffing from their lips in shallow gasps.
"You have no fucking idea how not fucking cool that shit is," Negan continued. He sighed, looking almost disappointed, almost sad. "You are so gonna regret crossing me in a minute." His demeanor morphed gently as he spoke, a grin starting to bloom on his face. "Fuck yeah, you are." Aven smiled to herself as she watched the control in his facial expressions, each one perfectly tailored to the fear he was trying to instill; each one entirely purposeful.
"Rick, I'm gonna explain the new world order," he continued. "It's really very simple. Even if you're fuckin' stupid, which you very well may be, you can understand." Aven rolled her eyes inwardly, remembering Rick's aversion to cooperation and understanding reason. His mouth hung open incredulously, lost for both words and hope as Negan spoke. "You thought you were safe but you're not safe, not even fucking close. You are fucked." With that, Negan laid forth the Alexandrians' new way of life, the debt to the Saviors they'd be paying eternally, half of their supplies no matter what.
"We come knocking on your door, you fucking let us in," Negan boomed. "We own that fucking door. You fucking try to stop us, we will fucking knock that fucker down." He paced back and forth in front of the Alexandrians, being sure to speak to each and every one directly through his speech.
Aven observed them all from her spot, her gaze lingering on the sickly looking woman. She looked familiar and Aven figured she must have been at the prison. That's when she remembered the message Dwight had intercepted: save the baby. Aven's eyes darted around looking for a baby with the group and when she didn't see one, she realized the sick woman, the one being carried through the woods to the Hilltop, must be pregnant. She sucked in a breath, a phantom pain searing in her stomach as she pushed a memory away.
"I don't want to kill you but you killed a whole fuckin' damn shit load of my people. And you gotta fuckin' pay. I am gonna beat the holy fuck fucking fuckity fuck out of one of you." Aven couldn't help but laugh a little at his excessive cursing; that was him savoring the moment. He heard and turned slightly to glance at her, his eyes twinkling when he saw the continued proud look on her face. He turned back to the group, swinging Lucille in a circle with so much force that Aven could hear the whoosh from ten feet away.
"This is Lucille, and she is awesome," he said gruffly. "All this is so we can pick out which one of you gets the honor." He stopped in front of the sick woman. "You look fuckin' shitty," he sneered. "I should just put you out of your misery right now." Aven's face dropped as Negan made another quick move with Lucille, but before she could react a man lurched forward, shouting at Negan. Dwight was immediately on the man, throwing him to the ground and kicking him, the sick woman screaming and crying for him to stop. When Aven got a good look at the man's face, she recognized him from the prison too and put together their relationship.
"Nope," said Negan, shaking his head disappointedly. "Get him back in line." The man was dragged back to his spot and thrown face first on the ground.
"Don't," he begged Negan through his tears, staring straight at his sick, pregnant wife. Negan only laughed vapor into the cold night air before taking a breath to regroup.
"Don't any of ya do that again," Negan ordered. "I will shut that shit down, no exceptions." Aven rolled her eyes, this time outwardly. Negan always had his exceptions, whether or not he'd admit it. Her eyes then went back to the pregnant woman who was holding her stomach and grimacing. Aven was taken off guard by the tears that started to prick her own eyes and looked away, pulling herself back together.
"Please don't," the man repeated.
"What's that?" Negan asked. "Don't kill her? Well then just who the fuck should I kill? Would you like to fuckin' choose?" The man, shaking uncontrollably, only shook his head fervently and stared at the ground. "No? Alright then, maybe I should phone a fuckin' friend. Aven!" He turned on his heel, grinning at her with fire still burning in his eyes that almost made her knees go weak. "You know these people. Which one should I kill?" Aven stayed in her spot, leaning casually with her arms crossed against the RV and scanning the line of Alexandrians, her lips pursed.
"Hmmm," she began softly. Her eyes first shot to the sick woman and Negan raised an eyebrow as if to ask if she was sure. She gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head to let him know not to touch the woman. "Well I'll tell you this, if you don't kill that kid, he'll kill you," Aven nodded to Rick's son, her demeanor shielded so only Negan could tell she didn't mean it. Everyone else, though, thought she was serious. It was part of the image she was cultivating for herself: the badass bitch who wouldn't hesitate to slaughter an entire family for looking at her incorrectly. "Maybe Rick," she said as though quickly changing her mind.
"Rick the fucking prick!" Negan sang for emphasis.
"Yeah, he locked me in a cell just for existing. I'm sure you can imagine how little I appreciated that," she added, playfully cocking an eyebrow at Negan who turned back to Rick with his grin.
"Oof, big fucking mistake," he warned. "That bitch cannot be fucking contained. But lucky for you, prick," he said as though it were his name, "you're the leader and I need to keep you alive if I want your fucking people to fucking cooperate." He turned back to Aven slightly. "Sorry, doll. Any other suggestions?" Aven only shrugged disinterestedly.
"Rick, this is your kid, right?" Negan changed the subject, turning to point Lucille in the boy's face. "Come on, kid, at least cry a little." Negan began to lower himself to get in the boy's face but was interrupted by Rick's scream.
"STOP IT!" he not so much begged but demanded.
"Do not make me kill the little future serial killer," Negan said. Aven laughed to herself having thought the same thing about the kid after seeing him murder another child in cold blood. "I gotta pick somebody. Everybody's at the table waiting for me to order." Negan began to pace down the line again. Pretending to be deep in thought, he let out two long whistles that rattled through the air, Aven closing her eyes momentarily to savor the feeling of the sound washing over her.
"I simply cannot decide....I got an idea," he said thoughtfully, his grin growing again. He stepped up to Rick and pointed Lucille in his face before slipping into a morbid game of eeny, meeny, miny, mo, the Alexandrians holding their breath and trembling before him. Aven's grin grew as well as she kept her focus on his face, riding a high being burned through the flames in his eyes. She focused on his gruff voice and sighed deeply, almost giggling when he began to gleefully draw out the moment longer.
"My...mother...says," he continued down the line before finally deeming the "it" victim, a tough looking man with red hair and a thick mustache to match. He was the only one among the Alexandrians aside from Rick's son whose fearless, stoney expression never wavered. Aven, wrapped up in Negan's presence, almost didn't notice the two women whose mouths stretched open in silent sobs, shaking their heads in disbelief when Negan chose his target. But she caught their reactions and made a mental note.
"Anybody moves, anybody says anything, cut the boy's other eye out and feed it to his father."
Negan lifted Lucille, his cheery expression unchanging, and brought her down with all his force on top of the man's head. Even while watching the bat come down, the man showed no fear. He fell forward onto the ground but immediately pushed himself back up to his knees, his forehead cracked and gushing blood.
"Takin' it like a champ!" Negan cheered. The fearless man struggled to keep himself upright.
"Suck...my...nuts," he hissed. Negan hit him again and again. Aven only took her eyes off of Negan's face for a moment to glance at the mangled corpse of the man. It reminded her of the way she'd met Negan, when he came in swinging Lucille to save her.
"Did you hear that?" Negan bellowed, thoroughly amused. "He said suck my nuts," he chuckled, mocking the dead man's deep, rough voice. Aven couldn't help but laugh with him, earning another wild glance from him, sharing the moment with her. He then turned and went on beating the corpse, his labored grunts stirring excitement in Aven's stomach.
"Oh my goodness!" Negan stumbled backwards laughing euphorically and holding Lucille out in the light. "Look at this! You guys," Negan turned and locked eyes with Aven whose hungry gaze was unmistakable. "Look at my dirty girl!" Aven bit her lip as he looked away just in time to make it seem like he was only talking about Lucille. Negan swung the bat, splattering the dead man's blood across Rick's face. He looked to the crowd and then back at Lucille, taking her in for another moment before springing back into action. "Well, back to it."
Negan spun on his heel, bringing Lucille down without warning on the head of the pregnant woman's husband. The woman let out a shrieking sob and Aven slapped her hand over her mouth to cover the gasp that jumped from her throat. She was horrified for the woman but pulled herself together, hoping no one had seen her reaction. An uneasy feeling crossed her mind; Negan had seemingly just pissed off three tough-looking women by taking their men from them. If it was her, she'd already be planning her revenge.
The dark-haired Asian man stayed up for a painfully long time and Negan took advantage of it to drag out the horror even more, taunting him and letting him struggle while he kept speaking to the group. Then as quickly as he'd started his initial attack, he went back in. Aven was drawn back in with him, watching Negan's dark figure in the uneven light. The Alexandrians' terrorized faces were glued to the dead man's spot on the ground, but Aven was enraptured by the powerful, long-legged, devilishly wild man that she would get to take home alive.
"You bunch of fucking pussies," Negan breathed. "I'm just getting started." He went on beating the corpse relentlessly, most of the Alexandrians now openly sobbing. Finally he turned back to face Rick, chuckling softly to himself.
"I'm gonna kill you," Rick stated simply.
"HA!" Everyone's head shot around to Aven, whose hand was again clapped over her mouth, this time covering an amused smirk. "Sorry, proceed," she said with a wave of her hand. Negan snickered at her mockery as he turned back to Rick.
"Simon, what'd he have? A knife?" Negan asked.
"He had a hatchet," Simon replied from where he'd been standing behind Rick.
"A hatchet?" Negan asked in disbelief, humored by the impracticality. He chuckled to himself and shook his head. "Sure, yeah. Gimme his axe." Simon stepped over and placed the axe in Negan's hands. Negan straightened up and slipped the wooden handle into his belt before grabbing a hold of Rick's collar and dragging him violently across the ground to the RV. He dropped him a few feet in front of the door and held Lucille out to the side, a random Savior immediately stepping forward on cue to hold the bat.
In one quick move, Negan turned to Aven and pulled her against him, wrapping both arms around her in a vicelike grip and crashing his lips to hers. Her hands came up to clasp around his neck for balance as she melted in his arms, immediately lost in his kiss and unable to worry about all the people around watching them. Finally Negan pulled away, grinning down at her wolfishly, his teeth bared. He unwrapped one arm from around her and let out a contented sigh as he ran his hand through his hair. He looked at Rick on the ground as though he'd forgotten he was there.
"I still have to beat some sense into this prick," he said to Aven, grin unwavering. "You wanna watch?"
"Yes, please," she purred excitedly. Negan chuckled, his eyes sparkling as she opened the door to the RV and hopped in. He reached down and yanked Rick up by the collar, throwing him into the RV. He held out his gloved hand and Lucille was placed in it before he went inside, letting the door slam shut behind them.