The window rattled as a strong gust of wind blew outside. Wide-awake in the very late hours of the evening, Tully lay on her side and stared blankly at the door. Her back faced Negan who was lying on his back next to her. He was looking at the ceiling with a bright, jovial smile on his face. Wordlessly, he rolled on his side and held her possessively in his arms. They were so close that they could feel each other's heat and smell each other's distinct scents. Her back was touching Negan's chest and somehow, they fit perfectly like spoons in a drawer.

"Candy," she heard him murmur against her skin, "get yourself dressed," he ordered her as he released her from his grasp. He was the one who left the bed first and she wordlessly followed his order as he was getting dressed.

"I want you to come with me," he offered her his hand. Awkwardly, Tully reached forward after getting herself dressed and immediately, her much smaller hand was engulfed in his big, warm, calloused hand. He led her out of the room. She didn't say anything and just let him lead the way to wherever it was he wanted to bring her to.

They climbed several stairs. The building was quiet. It was late and most of the residents of the Sanctuary were asleep with the exception of the people taking the nightshift to guard the compound. Soon, Tully realised that Negan had taken her to the building's rooftop. There were two guards in the roof top doing the night shift and Negan motioned for them to leave. With no questions asked, both men left.

"What are we doing here?" she asked as the cold evening temperature welcomed her. Goosebumps instantly covered her arms as the thin fabric of her shirt did nothing to protect her from the chilliness. Negan immediately took notice of the fact that she was shivering from the cold and proceeded to remove his black, leather jacket. He placed it over her shoulder and his act surprised Tully who chose to remain quiet and say nothing about it. His jacket was warm from his own body heat and it bore his scent, the smell of leather and musk. He offered her his hand again and now a little less reluctant, Tully reached forward and allowed him to lead her to the chair that one of the guards had been using. He left her momentarily to fetch the other chair from the other side of the rooftop before he settled down next to her.

"This place is the most peaceful place in the Sanctuary," he told her, "I come here to think sometimes."

She looked ahead of her. He didn't exactly give an answer to her question and she chose not to pursue it anymore. She was exhausted, physically, mentally and recently emotionally as well. She had only been Negan's wife for a couple of days and she was already exhausted. Her only comfort was that in 28 days, she would be free to leave him. Above them, the dark, navy sky was adorned with sparkling stars. Some were just dots but a few were a little bigger and they shone brightly with the crescent moon accompanying them. Tully somehow understood why Negan considered the place as the most peaceful place in the Sanctuary because it was. It almost felt like they were in a completely different place.

"I got you something," Negan disturbed the silence as he reached for something from the back pocket of his trousers. Tully watched him take out a small velvet box. He handed it over to her and rather awkwardly, she took it from his hand. "I owe my hot wife a wedding present so here it is." He grinned at her as he watched her open the box.

She looked at the content of the box before she looked back at him. She was stunned. Material items such as jewellery no longer held the same value it did before in the new world they live in. Wherever Negan found the ring inside the box, Tully couldn't care less. What struck her was the ring itself. The box contained a white pearl ring.

"Thank you," she looked back at his smiling face. Somehow, he didn't look smug or cocky. Instead, he seemed genuinely pleased, not with himself but to hear the sincerity in her voice.

"Do you like it?" Negan asked. He tucked a strand of stray hair behind her ear and noticed the white pearl earrings she currently wore. She had those pearl earrings since the very first time they met.

Tully smiled softly. "How did you know I like pearls?" she wondered then she automatically cupped the earrings she was wearing, realising it must be how he figured it out. "It's my birthstone," she explained. "My Dad bought these earrings for me as a present when I graduated college," she told him, smiling at the memory. "He passed away a month after my graduation, he'd been suffering from cancer and Mom always told me that he was only holding on to see me graduate." For a moment, she didn't see the man next to her as Negan, the conniving man she should be wary of but instead, she saw him as an ear willing to listen to her. She hasn't talked about her father's death to anybody outside the family. None of her friends ever found out about the death from her directly. She didn't exactly know why she was telling him things about herself that even her girls were unaware of.

"Cancer stinks, doesn't it," he mumbled, letting out a humourless chuckle. "My wife passed away from cancer too," he revealed. Tully knew in that very moment that he wasn't talking about any of his wives in the Sanctuary…he was talking about his real wife, the woman he had been married to most likely before the dead started to rise.

"I'm sorry to hear that," she found herself telling him, she was genuinely sincere. She knew what it felt like first hand to lose someone due to terminal illness. Negan simply shrugged, acting as if the very thought of his wife didn't affect him too much. "What was her name?" she found herself asking.

He glanced at her direction and looked at her hard. Tully could feel the intensity of his gaze on her and it made her feel like he was peering into her soul with his gaze. "Lucille." The hairs on the back of Tully's neck rose after hearing him utter the name he would affectionately refer to his baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire. She should've known that the name he had given his bat had some sort of story behind it. "She was a beautiful woman," stated Negan, "not as beautiful as you, Candy, if you want me to be honest but she had a heart of gold. I fucking loved her."

It was almost strange to hear Negan reveal such information about his past. Tully may not know a lot of things about Negan but her gut feeling told her that she was one of the few people, if not the only one, who knew about Lucille. She also sensed that Negan would not let anybody else see him in his vulnerable state as he reminisced his old life and his deceased wife. She looked at him quietly and saw a helpless, sad man.

"You miss her," she stated as she continued to look at him. He said nothing and by the expression on his face, he didn't want to talk about it. "It's okay to miss people, Negan," she told him, she didn't exactly know why she was assuring him about it. Why should she even care about him or his feelings? "I miss my family more and more each day. I'd wake up everyday and wonder why they all died and why I'm still here. It's a normal thing, I suppose, to miss the dead and to miss the old lives we took for granted before the world ended." Clearing her throat, Tully decided to divert the topic of their conversation after sensing that the conversation about his deceased wife was an uncomfortable topic for Negan who hasn't spoken at all for the past few minutes. Tully considered his silence as a bad sign given how talkative Negan typically was. "Thank you, by the way. The ring is very pretty although you don't have to get me anything."

"I fucking didn't," he denied as he turned his gaze away from her. "I only found them lying around." He watched her from the corner of his eyes as she placed the pearl ring back in the box. Somehow, he began to anticipate what she was going to say to him about the ring even before she could open her mouth to speak.

"I can't really wear this," she told him. Negan was expecting her to lecture him about how they were not technically married in a legal sort of way or bring up whatever bullshit thing she learned from her women's studies class in college or some other bullshit like that.

"Why fucking not?" he turned to look at her with his eyebrow raised. He was expecting her to challenge him and he was prepared to respond back to whatever witty words she was about to say. She was his wife after all and he was also her leader which meant he had authority over her.

"Well," she smiled, "it doesn't really fit me, it's too small." His frown momentarily faltered. Of course, she ended up saying something that he wasn't expecting her to say.

For a split second, Negan felt sheepish. He cleared his throat and got up from his seat. Tully looked up at him and her eyes followed him as he trudged to the exit, leaving her behind in the rooftop. She thought he left her behind and she was about to decide that she should leave as well when he came back. He took the ring from her and when he handed it back to her, the ring was on a string.

"Problem solved," he looked at her with a grin. Their gazes clashed and Tully found herself smiling back at him. She allowed him to place the make-shift necklace he got for her around her neck with the pearl ring dangling as a pendant. It was obvious that as long as she wore her supposed wedding ring, she was marked as Negan's.

hey guys, i hope you all liked this chapter. i'm sorry if it's a bit short, don't worry next chapter will be longer

anyways, please leave a REVIEW

and one last thing, a reader asked whether the girls are exempted from the point system, the answer is yes (that's one of the reasons why tully agreed because it was a part of negan's initial offer)...but tully still works/do some chores because she wanted to and you'll see that next chapter (i think)...hope that clear things up & thanks for the feedback :)