Whenever Alexis felt the last bits of humanity vanish from inside her, she chose to put the old, worn out saddle on the back of her horse and simply ride out all on her own.

People called her stupid for choosing loneliness on her rides. They all thought that it was only a matter of time until someone would shoot, or even worse, caught her. But at least they still wanted her to come back.

Though, what they all feared never happened so far. Alexis knew the forest that surrounded her community inside out and her horse did as well. Still, sometimes she even asked herself why she had to put distance between her and her home from time to time, she was a leader after all. She chose all of this.

But then, when she felt the steady rhythm of the chestnut gelding's hooves, her own breath and the slight breeze in her hair, she knew why. For a moment, it didn't feel like the apocalypse anymore. She was just a girl on her horse, enjoying a nice ride in the untouched nature.

Then again, it was all an act. The sweet, innocent Alexis that loved horses for her whole life died on the day walkers started to eat people. Sometimes she was still holding to the last pieces of her former self, but at least she knew that it wasn't her true self anymore.

The bat that was leaned against her leather clad shoulder reminded her of it. When she saw the walker stumbling into the clearing she was just passing, the melancholy was pushed the edge of her mind. Her left hand held the reins, while her right clutched the long, smooth bat tightly and then the muscles in her legs tensed, giving her horse the sign to quicken his pace into canter. Bravely, he ran towards the creature, completely trusting his rider.

When the bat crushed into the already rotten head of the walker, Alexis felt this warm feeling running through her body and a savage smile spread on her face. She liked crushing heads with her bat. Of course she knew that it was sick, but she couldn't help it. This feeling of power, it was amazing.

Her head came back into focus when she noticed that the walker was completely on its own, which was a sign that it could have been a survivor. That could mean that it had something useful on it. She stopped and jumped down from her horse to quickly check for anything.

At first, she found a small knife on it, which was already more than the average walker carried with it. But when she roamed more closely, she found a paper in an inside pocket of its jacket. Quickly she unfolded it and scanned the numbers scribbled on it. Those were coordinates. Jackpot. Maybe its where the group of the now dead man hid its supplies. Following such leads was always a risk, but often they were worth it.

Alexis climbed into the saddle again. She had to go back home, this wasn't something she could do on her own.

Negan leaned his head back against the headrest of the truck and thrummed his fingers in the rhythm to the tunes of some Bon Jovi songs. One of his lackeys was driving the massive car and it annoyed the hell out of the Savior's leader that this one wasn't very talkative. It bored him shitless and this urge to bash Lucille into something struck him. Why didn't he take Simon with him? At least he wasn't too afraid to joke around with him. Well, someone had to be in charge while Negan himself was gone.

He would probably see a lot more fear in people's eyes when he was done with today's mission. Simon found him a community that they never had seen before. It made him wonder why. Usually some Saviors would find people from other places on scavenging trips, but the walls of this one they found just by coincidence.

And hell, Negan hated coincidences. They led to sneak attacks.

But he could see why they've stayed hidden for so long. The road leading there was narrow, leading straight through the woods and nature already had started to take the dirt road back. It didn't look like cars were passing here often.

An impressed expression rushed over Negan's face when the seemingly endless woods suddenly parted into open field. But not fully open. They were greeted by a high fence. Tarps were attached to it to cover what laid behind it from curious glances...If anyone even dared to cross the whole woods to this place. The group hadn't passed any herds on the way here, but surely there were some stray walkers around.

Negan hopped out of the truck and swung Lucille up to his shoulder, inspecting the massive gate that parted him from the big surprise of the day: what would they find behind it?

Two men with hand guns in their fists stood in front of them and Negan strolled towards them. They didn't make any attempts to aim their weapons at him, to his shock they didn't even eye Lucille strangely like everyone else did.

"We come in peace, dear Martians...at least if you welcome us with a beer."

His voice was booming as usual and he chuckled while he patted the shoulder of the guy to his right. He just gave him an annoyed look and shrugged his hand off. Oh, if he knew who he had in front of him...he wouldn't be that relaxed.

"I want to speak to the person in charge here."

Negan's smile faded a bit when he saw the humorless reaction of the guards.

"Our leader isn't here at the moment."

The guy's voice was monotonous, not giving away if he was lying or not. Maybe they were told to not let anyone in. Negan swaggered closer, entering the man's comfort zone and he could finally see that he was getting uncomfortable. Exactly what he wanted.

"Well, then we'll wait. Why aren't you being fucking nice hosts, let us in, and offer us tea?"

A long silence erupted and tension slowly seemed to built up. This could get quite violent in no time, they just had to mess with Negan's short patience a bit more.

"No."

The short man beside Negan said and suddenly, every gun around them was raised. While the Saviors aimed the guns at the guard's heads, the two hand guns were directed at the raven haired leader. They were heavily outnumbered by Negan's men, but still they were brave.

"Rude."

Negan hissed and was ready to give the sign to shoot the men. But suddenly, a sharp whistle sounded from behind them and the attention was drawn to the figure approaching them.

She literally came ridden on a high horse. Pitch black, messy hair hung around her pale doll face, but what was most striking were the huge, baby blue eyes. They were cold, void of any emotion and if the rest of her wouldn't have been that delicate, Negan would've been creeped out.

But what left all of their mouths hanging open was her overall appearance. Beside the aura of authority that radiated off her, she resembled someone that the Saviors knew all to well. For a moment Negan thought he was having a very wet dream, when he saw the black leather jacket that hugged her curves just in the right places and the bat leaned against her shoulder. It was just missing some barb wire.

Unfortunately, this wasn't the comfort of his bed and he had to keep his facade on to hide his own surprise. Quickly, he got himself together again and flashed his pearly white teeth while grinning widely.

Alexis stopped her horse and jumped to the ground. She had seen the trucks from afar and had the time to mentally prepare herself. But when she saw the guns raising, she knew that she had to intervene.

She had a faint clue of who was standing in front of her men, behaving like he was king. The girl had heard stories of him from people dropping by and while scavenging, she and some others had seen what was called the Sanctuary.

"Look, it's me with a pussy!"

He laughed, but no one shared his amusement. Not even his men. They all were still gaping at her, sometimes adverted their gazes between Alexis and their leader. She herself was a bit stunned by the similarity in their choice of clothing and weapon. Her bat was usually referred to as uncommon, so it was actually quite the coincidence that he carried it, too. For the blink of a second she inspected the barb wire wrapped around the head of the bat. That was quite the clever idea, it would leave more damage and looked way more intimidating. But it also would be quite gross to pick up walker remains from the tips.

When no reaction came from anyone, the tall man rolled his eyes and came closer to Alexis. His eyes darted towards her huge horse and she could see that there was the slightest of insecurity in his eyes when it came to get closer to the animal. Alexis bit her lower lip, hiding her smile.

"Darling, can you tell me who the fuck is in charge here?"

She grew fairly annoyed by his vulgar tongue, but she wouldn't let herself be provoked by that.

"Who's asking?"

Her voice was soft, her light British accent emphasizing its velvety tone. Alexis was good at reading people. Just by looking at him for less than a minute she figured that he was offended by her asking something back before answering. He probably wasn't used to it.

"I'm Negan. My pleasure."

"Alexis. I'm the leader of this community."

She held out her hand to him. The smile on his handsome features appeared again, but instead of shaking her hand, he lifted it up and kissed her knuckles, his lips lingering a while too long to be appropriate. How Alexis would've loved to break his jaw for this.

They were playing the same game. Provoking each other with disrespect until one of them would snap. But they both weren't used to loose a game.

"I don't have a freakin' idea if I should consider if it's possible that I had a daughter really long ago, or if I should find this hot."

For the first time in this encounter, Alexis couldn't help but chuckle.

"You're not that old, daddy."

The people behind Negan made a chocking sound, close between amusement and shock. They had no clue if Negan would bash her head in for this, or find this funny. Their answer came quick when Negan leaned his head back and laughed heartily. This quiet girl had some fire in her, he could see it clearly.

"You just made me like you. Why don't you let us in and carry this conversation on like civilized people?"

Alexis crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"Oh, are we civilized? I'm sorry if I'm judging your motives by all the guerrillas you brought with you. Doesn't look that peaceful to me."

She motioned for the two dozen of men standing behind him. The young woman knew that if she made one wrong move here, the Saviors would kill her immediately and take over her community by force. But she knew exactly how to handle men like Negan.

"They're just here for my protection. Can't be sure what kind of stunts you hide between that nice fence of yours."

Of course she didn't make any attempt to let him in. Not yet. She had nothing to hide, but she needed to make him know that she wouldn't listen to his every command.

"Tell me what you want, Negan."

Her voice turned more cold, she was done with the fake politeness. Negan started to swing his bat by his side, the barb wire nearly scratching Alexis jacket, which made her guards obviously nervous, but she herself stood her ground.

"It's easy. We want you to find stuff for us and we'll leave you alone, happy and peachy. How does that sound?"

Alexis couldn't help but laugh right in his face. She didn't laugh often, but this was just too hilarious. Of course she knew that he was highly dangerous and judging from the look of his home, his community was huge. But seriously, what kind of braggadocios douche was he?

The tension rose up highly again and Negan came even closer to her, towering over her small frame, lips pressed into a thin line. She definitely pissed him off big time, but Alexis wasn't even the slightest bit afraid. Her piercing blue eyes stared up to his darker ones, not adverting her gaze for one second. Their leather jackets touched and for a moment, they just stayed like that, waiting for the other to submit. But they both were way too stubborn for that.

"I will consider your offer. I'll let you know how I'll decide. Let's say tomorrow, your place?"

She winked at him before turning around and grabbing the reins of her horse before walking through the gates that her guards slightly opened, leaving Negan standing.

But the biggest rarity was that Negan didn't attempt to kill her. He stared after the girl, admitting to himself that she left him stunned. After a moment of reconsidering his options he motioned for his men to get in the trucks and drive back home.

Hi guys! Thanks for reading this :) Bear with me, this is my first attempt on a TWD-fanfic. It's not even my main fandom, but I'm simply in love with Negan. Let me know if I'm catching his character correctly, because I seriously find it really hard :D