As the undead were cleared out Marilyn should have been happy but she wasn't. She knew that meant that Negan would be leading his men into war, placing himself on the front line with the rest of them. It not only made her uneasy, but the worry quite literally made her sick to her stomach.
She walked the grounds casually as Negan insisted that she not work. Most days she did anyway but the morning that the Sanctuary was finally free of the walking dead ones she felt the urge to go outside after being stuck indoors for so long.
Every time she overheard someone speak of the grounds being clear it made her stomach turn in knots.
He had said himself, being with Negan was not easy in times like this. Behind closed doors Marilyn found herself wrapped in a passionate fairytale; though outside the walls of the secure, top floor suite where she often resided with Negan it was anything but.
"Hey!" Nina's voice rang through the air and Marilyn turned to see her friend jogging from around the side of a building. "Mar!"
Marilyn waved and a smile formed on her face when her friend approached her. They exchanged a hug. "What are you doing?" she asked with a laugh.
"I pretty much get the best job to do today," Nina explained. "Well... it's good in some ways but a little sad in others."
"Sad how?"
"Well it's only if you'll accept."
"Accept what?"
"I just spoke with Neegs."
Marilyn let out a tiny chuckle. "Neegs?"
Nina looked around with a laugh and put her hands on her hips. "He asked me to do a job with you today."
"What's so sad about it?"
"Well, again... its only if you'll accept his request."
"Which is...?"
"He said if you were okay with it that I should help you move all of your stuff out of your room up to his."
Marilyn's eyes widened for a second and she processed the information for a moment before a smile slowly spread across her face.
Nina laughed lightly. "I'm going to take that as a yes."
"Hey!" a voice bellowed from behind where Marilyn stood and Nina straightened up, letting her smile slowly fade. "What are you two doing out here!"
A tall bald man with a goatee walked over with a scowl, looking like he was about to scold them but when he saw Marilyn's face he stopped in his tracks. The man's eyebrows lifted and he shook his head.
"We're just-" she began but he put his hands up.
"Forget it." The man continued to shake his head. "As you were... or do whatever you want."
Marilyn raised her eyebrows. "Does Negan want us-"
"No," he said abruptly, beginning to walk away. "I didn't know it was you." He cleared his throat, "I'm sorry."
Nina's jaw nearly hit the floor and she took a deep breath. "Wow."
"Yeah." Marilyn swallowed hard and looked back at her friend.
"You've got some serious clout around here girl." The smile reformed on her face. "And I like it."
Marilyn would have protested but she decided it was no use - that and she wanted to hear more about the conversation that took place between Negan and Nina. "What did he say?"
"Neegs?"
She laughed a little louder and shrugged. "Sure... yeah. What did he say to you?"
"Just what I told you." She put her hands out to the sides. "You're like beyond going steady huh? This is for real."
"Yeah." Marilyn put a hand on her forehead and looked around for a place to sit down, finding a spot on a small, half wall.
"Are you going to move up there with him?"
There was nothing more that she wanted than to be permanently attached to Negan, though the thought was completely overwhelming in a good way. "Yeah..." Marilyn giggled to herself, "Yeah I want to."
"We're not going to be seeing each other as much," Nina suspected, "But I think the whole thing is really cool... kind of crazy, but cool."
"Crazy is right," Marilyn agreed. She couldn't deny it. The entire scenario was completely insane but she was enamored with every bit of it.
"What is his room like?" she whispered with an even wider grin.
She snickered and waved her with her toward the building where he lived. "Come on... you'll find out in a minute."
...
Nina walked side by side with Marilyn tying to keep up as they carted up the first wave of boxes. "I would never know that all this was up here," she said quietly, glancing around the hallways as they went.
"That's Simon's room," Marilyn whispered, pointing to the last door on the floor before rounding the corner to the slightly segregated area where Negan lived.
"I feel like I'm in a movie," Nina commented, "Not like a freakish horror movie like the last few years, but like a really cool James Bond movie or something."
She laughed. "That's why I love you Nina."
"You're totally going to miss hanging out with me," Nina agreed.
Marilyn glanced to the side at her friend and shook her head. "I'll have more free time on my hands," she reminded her, "We'll have plenty of time to hang out."
"I don't know," she teased, "What about your duties walking the red carpet and joining him for a masquerade ball in the courtyard your highness?"
The two of them began to laugh together and Marilyn shook her head, "Yeah that sounds like me... and even more like Negan."
"Yeah he'd be the type to crash the masquerade, crashing through the front door on his motorcycle."
"Is everything in your mind like a movie?" Marilyn asked with a laugh.
Nina snickered, "Hey, I have to do something to keep my mind occupied." She watched as Marilyn reached in her pocket for the key to Negan's room and a moment later the two of them entered toting Marilyn's belongings.
Right away Nina's eyes tried to take in as much as they could. She stared around the well put-together room, thinking it looked like some fancy hotel suite or something along those lines.
"Wow." She walked over toward the big, open windows and then up toward the deer head mounted on the wall. "This is like... surreal."
"It fits him doesn't it?"
"Um... yes." Nina continued to look around, walking from one side of the oversized room to the other. "Gray walls, king sized bed, animal heads mounted on the wall... a bathroom." She peeked in, "With a nice sized tub."
"I know." Marilyn nodded.
"Liquor." Nina raised her eyebrows and picked up a bottle of scotch that Negan never put away. "I bet he measures this shit."
She laughed. "He's so different in here."
Nina placed the bottle down and half-smiled. "How so?"
"He's normal. He walks around with socks that don't match in his underwear." Marilyn couldn't get the full sentence out without laughing, making her friend do the same.
"Is he a boxers or briefs guy?"
"Boxerbriefs... mostly."
"Does he fill them out?" Nina let her eyebrows rise and fall several times in a row before Marilyn chuckled. When she didn't reply she shook her head. "You know, you're not so great at his friend to friend gossip stuff. Kiss and tell Marilyn... for Christ's sake I'm helping you move in with the guy. I should at least know if he's packing enough heat to keep you satisfied."
Marilyn laughed again. "Where do you come up with this?"
"I told you I need to entertain my mind so I don't go insane." Nina smirked and then chuckled. "Well..."
She sighed and gave a simple thumbs up.
"Boring response."
Marilyn laughed, "Sorry to disappoint you." She looked around the room. "Yeah, this is his place."
"What do you guys do together in here? I mean besides the obvious."
She shrugged. "We watch TV and we sit and talk... sometimes we drink," Marilyn chuckled, "I can't stomach that hard liquor really though." She sighed, "He reads, I read. We've played cards."
"What side of the bed do you sleep on?"
"That side." Marilyn pointed to the left from where they stood near the foot of the bed. She smiled to herself and ran a hand through her hair. "I can't believe this is all happening."
"Did you ever talk to him about that time he said the "L" word?" Nina raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms over her chest.
Marilyn cleared her throat and nodded. "Yeah."
"And..."
"I wandered down to where the harem was after you told me that the other women weren't around anymore," she confessed with a sigh. "He found me there. The room was empty. He closed the door, locked it and then launched the key down the length of the hallway." Marilyn swallowed hard as she relived it and felt goosebumps on the back of her neck, "And then we talked for another minute, I asked if he meant what he said..." She sighed contently again.
"And?"
"And he said he loved me."
Nina smiled wide and clapped her hands several times fast in a row. "This is the craziest, most bizarre but wildly awesome and cute love story I think I've ever encountered."
"He said it again the other night."
"I always knew it," Nina confessed. "Always. You didn't want to believe me."
Marilyn smiled and looked down. "Well... I'm glad you were right. Because I've never..." She shook her head, "I don't know. I didn't think my life would ever get better before it got worse. I was wrong." When her smile faded her friend looked at her.
"What's wrong?"
"They're going to attack Alexandria."
"Good."
"No." Marilyn shook her head. "They're leaving tomorrow probably now that the undead are cleared out. He's going to be the one they're gunning for and he's going to put himself right in the middle of it."
Nina smiled, "Marilyn... he's been doing that since the beginning."
"I know. That's what he says, but I'd be devastated if..." She shook her head. "God, I can't even say it."
Nina hugged Marilyn and then pulled back, keeping her hands on her shoulders. "If it makes you feel any better from an outsider's perspective, I'm not any more worried for his life going out there tomorrow than I have been... ever."
"You think?"
She nodded. "Yes. He'll be fine. He always is."
"Yeah..." Marilyn managed a small smile, "Yeah you're right."
"God, he'd be more likely to get stabbed in the back by Dwight... literally." Nina began to chuckle but Marilyn looked at her.
"What do you mean?"
"I'm kidding."
"But you said it... do you think Dwight-"
"Negan's fine." Nina hugged her quick again. "Now let's go get these other boxes so we can make this marriage official." She tugged on a strand of Marilyn's hair and laughed, "Let's go."
"Okay," Marilyn smiled to appease her but couldn't get rid of the uneasy feeling that accompanied the start of the war that Negan was planning for. She also didn't know how serious Nina was about her comment about Dwight. From her own observation Dwight was certainly an angry man and Marilyn knew of their history; however to think he would do something to compromise Negan felt like a stretch.
Marilyn forced herself to look on the major bright side. I'm moving in to Negan's room permanently... my best friend is helping me... the sun is shining, the undead are gone. What's there to stress out about?
She quickly let the thought exit her mind and tried to have a good time moving in to Negan's room permanently with the aid of her best friend.