The bedroom was somehow still clean despite it being in the middle of the end of the world. In the back of her mind, she heard a loud narrator's voice speak with the gusto of old movie trailers. 'In a world, overrun with flesh eating zombies, one maid must clean up the floor and dust the lamps of the evil dictator's personal bedroom...'
She felt bad for the maid. Hope she doesn't have to clean while he's here.
The water running from the shower fluttered a bit and she felt a sharp pain in her chest. Nervous.
If she showed an ounce of that nervousness on her face, this was all over. Chen knew that if this deal didn't appeal to the leader of the Saviors, she would end the night either locked up in some hole or with a smashed skull. Or some other twisted way Negan deemed fit. And then her people would be truly screwed.
So she couldn't fuck up. She could only pray that Jadis had told her the truth when she had spoke to her about Negan.
"He's tough. Talks a lot but gets shit done. Definitely a pervert."
Chen ran her fingers through her black hair to push it out of the way as she sat across from the other strong female leader. As much as her stalemate with the opposing group irked her to no end, she couldn't deny that Jadis' opinions in general were pretty spot on. She also knew that Jadis was somewhat of a feminazi - that she somewhat cared about Chen's majority female group. And also that it would take a very strong man to make Jadis even consider 'bending the knee'.
"And how do I know he won't just take all my girls and have his way with them?"
Jadis shook her head, her bleached hair unmoving. "Rape is against their code."
"Fuck that, a code is just a code. And a horny dick is still a horny dick."
"Not after it gets cut off. Or burned."
It wasn't the best sell but considering Jadis' group was slowly attempting to push her people back from their base near the dump and Chen had lost more men than she dared admit to a hoard recently, she didn't feel she had a whole lot of choice in the matter. So here she stood, in a light green ankle length coat, in the middle of Negan's bedroom after knocking out about five guards outside unconscious. From the Rick situation unfolding, it seemed like a bad idea to kill anyone.
The shower stopped and Chen took a deep breath. She wanted to press the fabric of the coat firmly against her body until it hurt. Until it left red marks of a zipper down her stomach but instead, she moved her arms from around her stomach into her pockets.
The shower head was dripping now and she could hear the rustle of a towel being brushed against his body. He was humming too - a tune she couldn't quite catch with the door being closed. Somehow that made things worse.
Two minutes passed by and the door finally opened. And they were face to face. She had to say, his composure for someone who just found a random threat in their bedroom was remarkable. His dark eyes had a brief pause of pure deadness before they were animated again. One of his arms reached back to what looked like the sink of the bathroom and she heard a clink of metal. Chen didn't move at all as he seamlessly pulled out a pistol and aimed it at her. His other hand was now grasping at the towel around his waist. She tried her best to not look down.
"I remember you. You're the little Asian woman warrior from a while back that saved my ass."
It would have been a compliment if it weren't for the clear mocking tone of voice at the words 'woman warrior'.
"That's one way to call me."
"Considering you are the one who just fucking showed up at my place in the middle of the goddamn night, I would say I can call you whatever I damn please!" His voice had quickly turned into a shout. "And now I don't get to fuck my wife since I'm going to have to take time out of my wife screwing schedule to kill you," he took a step closer and Chen quickly took her hands out of her pockets. She raised them near her hand and waved them slightly. As she did, her unzipped coat fell open slightly and she felt the cold of the room against her bare body.
Negan's eyes wandered down and seemed to notice the lack of clothing underneath.
"Did you come here to seduce me, little lady?" Another step forward.
"No...that was just to show you I'm unarmed and that if I was, you would be dead already."
He laughed at that, and leaned back a little. Chen did her best to keep a straight face.
"Hot damn. Is it just me or did the apocalypse give all the ladies bigger balls than all the guys?"
"Think that's how it was before anyways, to be honest."
To her surprise, Negan's armed hand fell to his side and he grinned at her after her rebuttal. "Maybe so."
And then he dropped his towel. Chen kept her eyes on his face, knowing all too well what he wanted her to do. He sauntered over to a dresser next to the bathroom door, his back now facing her even though he still held onto the gun. He began looking through it, tossing a white t-shirt over his shoulder.
"Well if you're not here to kill me, you're here for something else. Have a seat, warrior lady."
Still worried he could decided to shoot her at any moment, Chen walked backwards toward the closest bed corner to the door to leave. Her eyes stayed focused on the gun still tense in Negan's hand and tried to block out the rest of his naked form.
He's a spoiled brat.
"I am. I want to make a proposal. I-"
He laughed again and now set the gun on top of the dresser as he started pulling up a pair of boxers over his waist. "I"m sorry," he said, grabbing the white t-shirt and still refusing to look at her in the face. "The woman with 200 something people, mostly women, wants to make a deal with me?"
He bent over and reached the dresser now. Chen frowned, not sure what he was doing or how to respond to the insult. But from underneath, Negan pulled out a baseball bat - the baseball bat. And Chen's mouth went dry.
"Sorry, I just need Lucille to hear you out as well. I never leave her out of negotiations. It's rude not to involve your lady in these kind of things, you know?" He had turned to face her now and was approaching with the bat swung over his shoulder. In a tee and boxers, he somehow still managed to look just as intimidating and crazy. It didn't help that he towered over her even more as she sat down.
"I completely understand," she answered, forcing a calm smile. "But as I was saying, I have a proposal. I heard you had an ongoing conflict going on. Something about a Rick."
Negan's eyes still remained jovial at the name but she doubted that's how he felt currently.
"Jadis said you were the guy to go see. I do have '200 something' people as you say and we need help. Mainly a place to say since we have more than enough food, supplies and weapons for us all to die happy."
"And you came to big old daddy Negan to ask for shelter?" His smile began wider than Chen had even thought possible. She wasn't surprised though. It seemed he liked the power of being needed.
"Yes," she looked at him up and down somewhat absent-mindedly. In truth, she hated having full on eye contact with the freak but didn't want to risk him thinking at that. "You have shelter that we need. What we have is supplies, food - "
"Already got all that-"
"And women. Women that can fight and women that have had children. Fertile women."
At this, Negan's brows wrinkled and Chen's heart did a small dance. Yes. Yes, this might actually work.
"So you got women with knifes and women with stretched out pussies is all I'm hearing," he replied but it wasn't said in anger. He sounded curious.
"How many women do you have within the Saviors?"
"Enough."
"I don't think so. You give us shelter, we give you your future generation," She stood up as she spoke now, feeling as if she had finally got a chance to arrive at her point. He still towered over her, now just a foot in between them. "And we can fight for you. Or we can take over busy work here in the Sanctuary and your men can do more fighting if you're that paranoid, which I imagine you are."
He tilted his head, still looking at her and not speaking. His fingers moved a bit to adjust the grip on his bat.
"You've built an amazing thing," she continued, looking back at his face and making sure her hands didn't ball into fists out of fear as they hang on her sides. "Safety in numbers, weapons, resources from other people but what about growth? And not just "taking over people growth" but real growth within your walls. Growth within your own people."
"My own people and your people." His face had gone complete neutral, the smile replaced with a line of lips. His voice was calm. Chen wasn't sure if it was a good sign.
"No, your people. If I lead my girls into your care, they will trust you. They trust me."
"And let me guess, for these handful of bun ovens, you want to be in command of something here. Maybe my second in command? Third? How far are you reaching tonight?"
"Not far. I'll take whatever I can get. I'll be a gardener for all I care. Or a wife. "
The grin was back as he whistled at the statement. "Wow, you must really be in a pickle to be making that offer. What changed your mind since the last time I saw you? You seemed against my invitation then."
"Jadis is up my ass and I lost some men," she shrugged, trying to seem nonchalant in her honesty. "And unlike you people, we actually want families and lives to an extent. And I need some sperm to do that."
The bat moved from over his shoulder and in a second was hovering next to her head. It blocked her side vision, leaving her with the view of Negan over her and the too far away door to leave. He leaned forward, his face inched closer and closer to her face.
"You sure that's the only reason you came crawling to me tonight?" His voice sounded terribly suggestive and low. "You sure you're not just offering up your people to seal a deal and somehow ruin what we've got going here? Because this is all just sounding a little too fucking good to be true."
"I'm not here to take your throne, I don't care about power. I-"
"You just want your people safe and sound. Yeah. That's what a lot of people say. It's what they do that's more interesting." The bat seemed to inch a bit closer to her face but she kept her eyes on Negan's face as he continued. "Why are you so willing to just give your people to me? You do realize I could just kill you and take them all and force them to work somewhere else if I really wanted to?"
"And then have a bunch of angry, rebellious workers? No, that's not your style, Negan. Even I know that. And I imagine breaking 200 people is more manpower than you can spare at the moment."
"Smart Asian girl," he teased, leaning back away from her face. She let out a breath more freely.
"But if we do this, I can't have any of this leader bullshit from you." He waved his free hand in a circular motion around her face. "You won't be a wife - that's too much of a waste. But I'm sure we can find something for you, lady. Something with guns and knives. We can even get you a man…" he paused, "or a lady. So long as you do what you just promised...it doesn't sound that bad. But you have to answer one question for me and you better have the right answer otherwise this bat is going right through your pretty skull."
Chen just blinked back, ignoring how suddenly her hands were numb.
"Why are you making this proposal? Why?" And then Negan moved the bat out away from her head, his arm posed to swing.
"I'm going to open my jacket," she said instead and again Negan's face was full of confusion. "And that will answer your question. I'm telling you before I do it so you don't bash my skull in when my hands move."
Negan nodded in reply, eyes now glued to her body instead of her face.
Here it goes - do or die.
She opened her jacket in the same fashion a flasher would, hands holding the two sides open. She had thought about dropping the coat fully for a more dramatic effect but figured if she was going to die, she wanted to die not butt ass naked and freezing in Negan's bedroom.
His eyes narrowed and his mouth had went back to the old thin line.
Chen's body was dirty, with some stretch marks and a few scars from fights and hunting. What was more noticeable was the large growth on her right breast, weighing it down to sag a good inch after her left breast. The growth was a grey brown color, like a lifeless bruise.
"It runs in the family," she said, continuing to look at his face instead of down at her own body. "My mother got it, had it removed and then got it in her liver, and some other organs I can't remember anymore. And she even did chemo for a bit but she still died. So unless I can find a surgeon that knows how to properly chop off my tit and magically cure cancer, I will not live long enough to try and sabotage your fucking Sanctuary so you can rest and fuck your wives with ease, Negan."
At the cursing, he looked back up at her face, his own expression still somewhat unreadable. But not angry.
"Besides, when you're dying, you find you only have time for certain things like enjoying life and making sure the people you leave behind don't die too."
AN: I kinda want this to be a long fic but I have no idea if people would be interested xD there's so many Negan and OCs and I hate being typical. We'll see.