Eve lies beneath the bed as Negan talks with Rick downstairs. She's not sure what they're talking about, but she'd swear she heard Negan yell at one point. The door slams shut, and she lets out a deep breath as boots slowly make their way up the stairs.
Negan rubs at his temples as he steps through the door of his bedroom. "You can come out now, sweetheart, he's gone."
Eve creeps out from under the bed, parking her ass on the mattress. "Why were you yelling?"
Negan sits beside her, dropping his head. "I have to go out."
"What?" She almost whimpers, her eyes wide.
"Daryl's still out hunting, and Rick can't go out because his fucking leg is playing up.. i guess i've gotta take a little responsibility for that."
"But.. you can't," Eve says, her lip trembling.
Negan places his fingers beneath her chin. "I won't be gone long. It's just a delivery that needs picking up from the Kingdom. I'll be gone half the day at the most."
"Can't they bring it here?"
Negan shakes his head. "No, that isn't the arrangement."
Eve drops to his feet, her arms encircling his legs as she rests her head in his lap. "Please don't go."
"Sweetheart, i have to."
Eve shakes her head, his pants becoming damp from her tears. "You can't. They'll hurt me."
"No one's gonna hurt you, i promise."
Eve looks up at him, her eyes as wild as the day she met him. "You don't know that! You won't be here to stop them!" She gets up and kicks him in the shin.
"Ow! What the fuck?!"
Her face drops, heart pounding against her chest. She runs to her room, almost diving beneath the bed. Negan goes after her, rubbing at his shin.
"Eve, what are you doing? Eve?" Negan crouches on all fours, watching as her shoulders shake with each sob.
"I'm sorry," she cries into her arm, refusing to look at him.
"Eve, it's okay, it didn't hurt that fucking much anyway, i mean, you aren't even wearing any shoes. Probably hurt yourself more than you hurt me. Will you come out from under there?"
Eve shakes her head. "No. I'm not listening to you anymore. You're a liar."
"Since when have i ever lied to you?" His own question makes him feel like a piece of shit, considering the very big truth that he's keeping from her.
"You said you'd keep me safe, and now you're leaving!" Eve yells.
"Eve, if i didn't have to go, then i wouldn't. Trade is important between the communities. They have stuff that we need, and vice fucking versa. I swear to you, i'll be back not long after dark at the latest."
Eve lifts her head, her eyes red. She stretches out her hand, Negan placing his over hers. "Please, Negan. I don't want them to hurt me."
"Eve, they won't, i fucking promise you. But.. if you're scared, then i'll lock all the doors, we'll be the only ones with keys. No one can get in except us."
"What.. what if you don't come back?" Eve stutters, tears streaming down her cheeks.
Negan tilts his head, his heart sinking a little. To have someone care so much after being an outsider for so long, it felt strange, good strange, but strange all the same. "Come here." Eve crawls out from under the bed, wrapping her arms around his shoulders as she rests her head against his chest. Negan strokes her back soothingly, curling his hand through her hair. "It's gonna be okay. There's few people tougher than me. Take more than one of those undead fucks to take me down." She nuzzles his neck, he's sure not in a sexual way, but more for self comfort. And yet it sends shivers through his entire body, his skin breaking out in gooseflesh. Negan struggles to suppress a groan, swallowing thickly.
"Promise me you'll come back," Eve pleads with him, her breath hot against his neck.
"I fucking promise, sweetheart. I'll be back before you fucking know it."
"And no one can get in here?" She asks nervously, pulling away from him slightly as she gazes up at him.
Negan shakes his head. "No one can get in here, i fucking swear." Eve smiles, giggling lightly, and damn if it isn't the sweetest thing he's ever seen.
Negan had left over an hour ago, and Eve had remained under his bed ever since. She'd insisted he leave through the back door, convinced someone would steal his keys, so she'd locked up behind him. Her heart had sunk as she'd sat at the back door, listening to him walk away. She'd struggled with tears for a good half hour, much like a child being separated from it's parent, and putting aside her random moments of lust, they very much had that dynamic at times.
Eve crawls out from beneath the bed, grabbing a wrinkled t-shirt off the floor. She crumples it in her hands, pushing it against her nose as she breathes him in, the scent of spice and leather bringing her much needed comfort. Eve contemplates throwing it on, but she's unsure whether he'll like that or not, so she holds it in her hand, much like a comfort blanket.
She glances at the closet, thinking it might be a more comfortable option to await Negan's return than under the bed.
It's a sad looking closet, consisting of four t-shirts, two white and two grey, a shelf with three pairs of grey pants, a pair of black jeans, and a couple of sneaker boxes on the floor.
Eve kneels down in front of them, wondering if it's okay to look. Negan had said she could go anywhere she wanted, and that she was free to look around. The only place he'd forbidden her to look, was the top drawer of his bedside table, and he'd told her so with a red face.
Eve takes the lid off the box, eyeing it's contents. Most of it appears to be meaningless junk, to her at least. But she guesses each thing must mean something to him, why else would he keep it?
Her eyes catch what looks a journal. She takes it out, lifting it to her nose, the leather reminding her of Negan's jacket.
As she goes to open it, she stops. Is this okay? It could have personal things, things he doesn't want you to know, private things.
Curiosity gets the better of her, and she figures it's probably just an old address book anyway.
'Lost twelve men today. When i find out who those fuckers are, they're gonna pay.'
There's no date, but then why would there be? Eve had no clue what month it was. All she knew is it was warm, so maybe summer. She reads down the page. Little ramblings written here and there.
'How did i get here? Every fucker depending on an asshole like me? The world would be better off dead. Fuck, i miss Lucille.'
'I had to do it again. Fuck, i hate doing that shit, but it has to be done. Gotta keep them in line.'
'Found those fuckers! Holding up in some place called Alexandria or some shit. Those pricks are gonna wish they'd never been fucking born.'
'Well it's done. Took two of them out, and i took that red neck asshole to prove a point. He'll make a good soldier once Dwight's worn him down.'
'I have myself a bullet maker, i do believe shit is looking up.'
'Shit's getting ugly. Can't sleep, but that's nothing new. Why does she keep coming to me? She's haunting my fucking dreams.'
Eve closes the journal, knowing full well she shouldn't be reading it. It's lucky for Negan that she didn't keep on, as the next page would've outed him as leader of the Saviors.
She places the book back in the box, replacing the lid before she shoves it back where she got it from. Her stomach grumbles, Eve realising she hasn't eaten at all.
She creeps downstairs, making her way to the kitchen when she freezes, hearing footsteps in the garden. Eve jumps at a knock at the back door, looking very much like a deer caught in headlights. Negan?
"Hello.. Eve?"
It's a woman's voice, but Eve races to the foot of the stairs just the same, holding onto the banister as if for dear life. Yet she doesn't go any further up the stairs.
"It's Michonne, you probably don't remember me. I.. brought you a pie, figured you might be hungry."
She is hungry, ravenous in fact. Eve is sure she can smell the pie, her mouth salivating.
"Well, i'll just leave it here for you. No one's here, it's just me. You can watch me leave through the front window if you're worried?"
Eve listens as Michonne walks away, then she rushes to the lounge window, peeking out through a gap in the curtain. Michonne glances her way as she crosses the street, Eve dropping down so quick she winces as her ass hits the floor.
Eve rushes over to the back door. She can smell it, and it smells divine, a mixture of potatoes and whatever kind of meat they have here.
You could open the door, doesn't sound like there's anyone there. But then the broken part of her chips in, telling her otherwise. That's what they want you to think, anyway, it's probably poisoned. Eve curses herself for not thinking of that, of course they'd try to poison her, and without Negan there to keep her safe, she wouldn't stand a chance against them.
Suddenly she doesn't have much of an appetite at all, making her way back upstairs.
Negan rides along the road with two other Alexandrians, growing irritated with each passing mile. He'd hated to leave her, and it had weighed heavy on him the entire trip. Scenarios played over and over in his mind, and he worried that he'd get home to find her hurt, or maybe worse.
As they pull up to the gates of the Kingdom, Negan grows impatient as the guards take their time in opening up.
"Come the fuck on! We've got places to be!" He shouts from behind the gate.
"The hell's wrong with you?" Jim asks from beside him.
"I left Eve alone."
"Eve? That the girl they brought in a couple months ago? The wild one?"
"Yeah," Negan answers, waiting for some kind of smart remark.
"Shit, i feel you. My wife, i found her out on the road alone, of course, this was not long after everything started. She'd been.." Jim glances at him uncomfortably. "Well, let's just say she came across some not so friendly types."
"When you say wife, you mean she was your wife before? Did you two lose each other or some shit?" Negan asks.
Jim shakes his head. "Naw, we got married a year ago, Gabriel did the ceremony. But when i found her, she was broken, you know, didn't trust anyone. Took a good while till she realised she could trust me. We found a place with some other people, good people, but would she let me leave her side? Hell no. And to be honest, i didn't want to. She recovered well, doesn't mind me leaving her now, in fact, she probably appreciates the peace an quiet." He laughs. "But, even now, she wakes up in the night, and it breaks my damn heart. If i ever got a hold of those bastards, i'd tear them limb from limb."
"I think about that a lot," Negan says, clenching his jaw.
"It's a good thing you're doing for her, i seen her when she came in." Jim shakes his head. "It's gonna be a long road for you. If she gets better enough that she wants to talk to someone else, just give me a shout, my wife's name is Marie, awesome lady. She won't mind it at all."
"Thanks."
"You're welcome." He nods. "Hey, open the hell up! We wanna get back before dark!" John yells. "We'll get this done real quick," he says to Negan.
Negan walks round the side of his house, eager to get inside. He stares down at the back porch with a frown, a pie resting in front of the door. Negan picks it up, touching it with the back of his hand. It's stone cold.
He knocks on the door. "Eve, you there, sweetheart?" Negan hears her running down the stairs, so fast he panics that she might fall.
"Negan?"
"Yeah, it's me." He smiles, holding the pie in one hand. The door opens, Eve jumping at him the second he steps through. "Woah, sweetheart. Don't wanna drop this bad boy."
Eve takes a step back, glancing at the pie. "A woman came, she left it." She shakes her head. "But i didn't know whether i should take it.. it might be poisoned," Eve whispers as if someone might be listening in.
Negan chuckles. "I doubt that very much. I told you, no one's gonna poison you." He hears her stomach grumbling angrily. "Jesus! Have you had anything to eat?" Eve shakes her head. "Shit, you must be fucking famished. Come on, i'll heat this up, and i'll take the first bite, put your mind at ease, okay?"
"Okay." She smiles. Eve grabs his arm. "Negan i.. i missed you."
"Well i missed you too, sweetheart." Eve stands up on her tiptoes, kissing his cheek. He looks down at her, his mouth hanging open a little as she heads towards the kitchen.
Negan stares up at the ceiling, his hands behind his head as he plays over in his mind what Jim said. It's gonna be a long fucking night.
"Negan."
He jumps a little, sure she was sleeping. "Yeah?"
"Can i come up there a minute and talk to you?"
"You can come up here whenever the fuck you want, sweetheart."
Eve crawls out from under the bed, sitting beside him. "I have to tell you something."
"What is it, sweetie?"
"I.. i was in the closet, and i found a box of stuff." Negan's heart begins to pound as he recalls what's in his box of stuff. "I.. i read your journal.. i'm sorry."
"You.." Negan's throat goes dry. "You read my journal?"
"Not all of it, just a couple of pages. I'm sorry, i felt really rubbish after, you've been so good to me, and i go reading your private things like that."
Negan runs a hand through her hair, feeling more than relieved that she obviously hadn't read anything about the Saviors. "That's okay. Don't feel bad about it. I mean, i'd rather you hadn't, but it's nothing to worry about." Negan smiles.
"Okay." Eve looks down at her hands, playing with them nervously. "Could i stay here a while?"
His breath hitches, Negan's mind somewhere between feeling proud that she felt comfortable enough to ask, and feeling horny as hell, dirty thoughts running amok. "Of course you can." Negan leans towards the end of the bed, handing her a thin sheet.
Eve takes it, laying on top of the comforter as Negan lays beneath. She lies on her back, stretching out her hand towards Negan's. He takes her hand, watching as her eyes grow heavy. When sleep takes him, and it takes him quick, it's a calm sleep, Lucille not visiting him once.