A/N: Negan chapter, folks, and most is not really Negan Warning Zone until Negan finds Honey after the raid. Eugene's scene should be clear.
Summary at the end, as the Negan and Honey scenes do contain potential triggery content. Sex scenes aren't graphic (ugh no!), but do occur.
May 31, 2017
- Negan -
Four days after Negan retrieved his latest lieutenant from a prison cell, she leads her first raid outside the wall. It's obvious right away that Honey is familiar with the area in a way his people aren't. He waits, Gavin to one side and Simon to the other, as Honey's handpicked team of foot soldiers swarm into the old warehouse store like ants on carrion.
"She's military," Gavin observes, watching intently.
Negan turns to look at him, since the Saviors following Honey are out of sight. "You sure of that? She doesn't seem fucking old enough."
The other man nods. "I think she's older than she appears, but either way, she's not pretending like some do. My brother was a Marine. It's hard to miss."
Negan thinks about the young woman going through martial art forms in the courtyard and holding mock fights to select her foot soldiers from those the others don't mind losing. Honey doesn't let the rib injury slow her down, obviously used to working through pain or injury. Her fighting style is dirty as hell, nothing like the silly forms they teach in dojos. It makes Gavin's idea take root, because a female Marine would have to bust her fucking non-existent balls to succeed.
"Relies on the blade more than a gun," Simon observes. There's a yearning quality to his voice that would make Negan consider taking Lucille to the bastard except it's not a sexual attraction his chief lieutenant is exhibiting. It falls a lot closer to that darkness in Negan's own soul reaching toward something similar and preening at no longer being alone.
Simon's delight in carnage makes him a damned terrifying warning to Negan's own people. Any community back home that balked at fulfilling their duties met with Simon's punishment as often as Negan's. His admiration for the up close knife work is just what the little bastard thrives on, getting the warmth of one's kill right on the skin. Negan doesn't think Honey is that far gone, not yet.
It takes close to an hour for the thirty soldiers to emerge from the cavernous building. Some throw open the bay doors once used for delivery. Honey drops to the ground, striding forward to meet them with a grim smile.
"Gonna need more trucks than we brought. Place is still untouched for the most part."
Negan eyes her gore splattered clothes, reminding himself again just how fucking alluring seeing her work with a knife was. "How about you tell me why your people never raided this fucking place?"
"Scheduled it for this summer," she replies impassively, cleaning her knife carefully with a ratty bandana. "This is on the outer band of our range, and we grow most of what we need. Raid like this? Canned goods are quirky from years of temperature changes."
"So what exactly would you be after?"
"Salt, sugar, spices. Some miss coffee enough to brave stuff this old. Paper goods. Medication. Automotive section is usually good, too." She eyes what's being loaded by her soldiers in the trucks backed up by Simon's men. "Clothing and bedding. Easier to repurpose ready made than to start from scratch. Cotton is a waste of good crop land with this surplus around."
Something in how things are being loaded pisses her off, and Honey is gone before Negan replies. He rubs at the growth of beard he's sporting and considers the information she just shared. The fact that the soldiers she's only just taken command of jump to her orders like his own is a little flattering. Negan did tell her that his word was law.
"Enough bounty in crops to leave places like this sit?" Simon grumbles, sounding pissed. "She's got to be fucking lying."
"Climate is better here. Longer growing season. They grow enough to spare for biofuel, because that wasn't rancid oil those trucks were running." Gavin shifts his weight, glancing at Negan. "How long are you going to wait?"
"She'll give me a goddamned deadline for seeking out her people tonight." Negan doesn't need to add the 'or else'. These two men know it's there.
Later, when he finally tracks her down in her quarters, she's lounging on the balcony and freshly bathed. Given a choice, he notices she's got a bottle of vodka on her table, which means the glass in her hands isn't water. Alert as alway, she looks up, staring at him as she takes a drink.
He hooks a finger, summoning her. Watching as she straightens from her slouch against the railing with a languid grace that reminds him of a fucking cat, Negan still feels that flicker of intense interest beneath his skin he's had for days.
"Guess you didn't appreciate the fucking show," he drawls. It was a test, he supposes, summoning her earlier as Amber was in his rooms. But taunting her by having her arrive while he was in bed with the other woman didn't seem to sway her. Damned minx just helped herself to a glass of his whiskey and watched cynically as if critiquing his technique in bed and finding him lacking.
"Never saw the appeal of watching a grown man fuck a blow up doll." She drops her glass onto the table with a thunk and fiddles with the bottle. Through the thin fabric of the man's undershirt she's wearing, he can see the indistinct shape of multiple piercings.
When his gaze reaches her face again, she's watching him with that same hazy boredom she watched as he screwed his wife. Amber appeals occasionally because she doesn't feel like a damned prostitute, even if he knows there's little truth in her claims to enjoy his company. This afternoon took imagining a very different scenario to enjoy anything at all. "You think you could do better?"
"With that scrap of a woman? I could. You fantasizing about two women fucking like every other man on the planet?"
Negan can't deny the thought crossed his mind when he asked. There's not a fucking doubt in his mind that any of his trio of wives would put on a show if he demanded it. Hell, if it weren't for the plaintive looks Amber still gives that boyfriend of hers, he almost would think his youngest wife is a lesbian anyway.
"And if I was? What's your price for me to earn that fucking show?" Laughing at his pun, he snatches away her vodka bottle and deliberately drinks from it, ignoring the glasses.
Instead of an immediate fuck off answer, Honey purses her lips before smiling slyly. "Maybe I want to keep her."
Did he guess the wrong damned woman as lesbian? It would explain her lack of real interest in his offer. Negan scoffs, setting the vodka down. "What would you want with a goddamn wife?"
Honey laughs softly. "Same thing you would, darlin', except I don't put my toys away until I'm bored enough to play with them."
Despite her referring to Amber as a blow up doll, Negan is intrigued enough to consider it. While none of his lieutenants are married, Simon keeps a mistress in his quarters and Regina goes through a cycle of men from the drudges that never last more than a month. The men don't seem to mind a few weeks off hard labor.
In the end, Negan shrugs, reaching out to tug the end of her long braid. He's tired of Amber and her shitty playacting at being a wife, and this way? There's no reneging on the deal he made the boring ass woman. "If she's willing, you're welcome to her. Free of charge, no porn show required. Doing me a fucking favor."
Honey's smile is delighted, as if he really is handing her a gift. Catching his hand, she strokes fingertips along his palm and wrist. For something fucking chaste, it jolts right through him. Despite his earlier release, it feels like it's been months since anything like this.
"How is that earning going, Gorgeous? You made up your damned mind about me yet?" She agreed to show him her home tomorrow while Amber was dressing earlier, pale gaze following the other woman as she ignored his nude form. A superstitious part of him thinks if he doesn't get to fuck her tonight, it may never happen.
It's funny. Negan expected her to toy with him further, especially after the undercurrent of boredom in his bedroom earlier. Instead, Honey grips his lapels and gives him a kiss filthy enough to make him realize just how goddamned mundane bedding Amber was.
By the time she has him naked on the bed, her own body displaying the ink all over her skin, he knows he's addicted. Holy shit, he's fucking keeping her. Somehow, some way, she can never fucking leave him. Negan hasn't felt this goddamn alive since Lucille died.
- Honey -
Honey actually didn't expect Negan to stick around once he got what he wanted from her. Having him sprawl next to her requires more self control to stay relaxed than actually having sex with him did. Sex is different from the intimacy implied by lying next to each other in bed.
When his calloused fingers drag across the faintest of stretch marks on her lower belly, she makes sure opening her eyes is a lazy, indolent action. Arching a brow, she stares back at him. Him being interested in her tattoos or piercings, she understands. Not that smallest of natural alteration of her skin.
"There a rugrat gonna come screaming for its missing mama tomorrow?"
Honey can't help laughing. "Not damn likely." Even if she was a mother, she can't imagine anyone letting her child run into the unknown tomorrow's meeting will entail.
When he rolls the skin between his fingers, almost pinching, she grabs his wrist. Her tweaking the nerve makes Negan laugh and let go. "Touchy subject? What happen? Asshole ole man take your kid? That why you're so damned anti-wife?"
At least he doesn't go for a dead child, as much as that's a high risk in this world.
"Nothing so sordid. My brother wanted a kid." As much as she would like to hide the connection to MJ, the fewer secrets she seems to have, the less he will dig into what needs to go unsaid, like Danny and Logan's deaths meaning she's incapable of forgiving him for allowing such ravages under his rule.
That makes him raise up laughing. Amusement makes him look younger than he is, but she still thinks he's more acquainted with fifty than forty. "All those jokes about Southerners and incest are actually fucking true?"
"Don't be a dumbass. His husband is their son's biological father."
"You screwed your brother-in-law? Kinky as hell."
Honey decides not to bother correct the method of MJ's conception. It doesn't really matter if he thinks she slept with Paul, and the actual mechanics of the conception were almost as weird, for a man like this. Instead, she shrugs, stretching lazily.
It distracts him, exactly as she expected, bringing his attention to metal and ink instead of the barely visible evidence of her nephew's months under her care. She hopes her family sent MJ south, far away from any fallout if her plan fails.
Progress was made today. She took her share of the raid in vitamins even the timid gal in charge of supplies didn't care to even log into her records. The mothers in the workroom understood their purpose, gazes on their poor children's malnourished forms as they accepted the bottles. It's a tiny beginning, turning the hearts and minds of the people against Negan, but the flame is lit.
She learned that much in her four days of nominal freedom. Lieutenants have the freedom to do just about anything they want with supplies they claim, and there's really no limit as long as she brings in bounties like today's. From things she's gleaned while training with Laura and Gavin, paying the drudges or even foot soldiers for favors or services is encouraged in their mimicry of the feudal system.
While Honey hadn't actually intended to fuck Negan tonight, the unexpected win on prying Amber free from her wifely duties needed a distraction so he doesn't think too hard on actually wanting a payment for the concession. The barely hidden misery on the girl's face this afternoon made Honey reconsider her plan not to slit Negan's throat right away. Instead, she hid her outrage under a mask of boredom while plotting different ways to make the man suffer before he dies.
Negan flicks the honeybee looped in her belly button. "Don't remember those in that cell when we met."
Considering the intent study he made of her bare torso, she imagines he would have noticed. The fact that none of her jewelry was taken should have told her his people were offering her up as a special sort of sacrifice. Luckily for them, the idea behind her kidnapping actually fits with her plans, and the puzzle medallion around her neck is a hidden blade just like the one in her belt. "Pocketed all my piercings while I was waiting in the dark."
"Smart." Negan traces them all, lingering on the dozen or so in her left ear. Honey hides a smile at the fact that every one of them is something Eugene crafted for her. They tell a story even more clearly than her tattoos.
"Gonna introduce me to this brother you love so fucking much you spawned a kid for him?"
Honey meets those intrigued hazel eyes and shrugs away the fission of panic at the idea of Jazz being within a hundred miles of this bastard. "If he's home. You do understand they would probably be out looking for me."
Hell, making sure they don't encounter a military force she can't explain is going to be hard enough. She is a little surprised Negan would take a direct risk by going himself. His usual method is to send lieutenants to bear the brunt of first contact.
"That going to be a problem?" There's the dangerous part of him, going on alert. He's not stupid, and his men killed twelve of hers. It's already part of their deal that any violent first impressions needed are already dealt.
"Not as long as they know I'm deciding things of my own free will." Honey prays Ezekiel himself is home, because the best scenario is the king's flamboyant personality cueing off her signals. Jerry and Dianne are great leaders, but neither are actors.
Negan lays his hand flat over one of her hips, leaning in to nuzzle at her throat. If the situation were anything other than what it was, it would almost be sweet. "And it is your freely made choice, isn't it, Hannah?"
She loathes the name that few use other than Eugene spilling from his lips and wishes she never revealed it. Distracting him is easy, though, directing him to a kiss full of invitation meant to bury curiosity under arousal. There's a yearning note to his voice in that question that she'll explore later, when his eyes and hands aren't on her.
It is her free choice to stay with a monster and share his bed. The fact that it is one Negan is destined to regret is the part that makes it almost easy.
- Eugene -
Even being told to search around DC doesn't help, other than heighten the risk as they cross into areas that are still infested in horrific numbers. Years of regular forays into DC lessened some of the walker population, but realistically, clearing the capital city is impossible. Only the eventual decay of the dead beyond the virus's ability to renew will wipe the slate clean here.
Crossing back over the bridge and securing the passage so nothing unthinking can follow, he eyes his exhausted team. "I'm going to ask if we can pass the night hours at the Kingdom. Less travel, thus more time for everyone to obtain sufficient rest."
The gratitude on their tired faces makes him feel guilty. So many people are devoted to uncovering where Honey was taken against her will. It may yet prove a futile search. At first, after Logan woke, Eugene expected to get a radio summons that his other half won her way free and found her way home.
As each hour goes by, his hopes lessen, because he's read too much on the odds of survival in situations like this. It was a stupid stage, years ago before he ever thought he would have anyone important enough to miss. Those damned numbers won't stop running through his head, and the one person who could ever ease the chaos inside his mind is missing.
It doesn't surprise him that Jazz and Paul both agree to direct their teams to the Kingdom. Going home is a heartbreaking reminder of Honey's larger than life spot in their family being empty. With Abby at Alexandria under Carol's care and protection, Eugene doesn't even have to return home for her, either. MJ is with his grandmother, too, despite Alexandria not being as secure as Hilltop.
They could head to Alexandria, but the community already houses a significant number of the Georgia searchers. Facing Jazz and Paul is acceptable, because they don't look to him for miracles. Being among the rest of the family makes his skin crawl with the need to fix everything somehow for more than his own sake.
Nonr of his team require conversation as they pass through security into Ezekiel's Kingdom. Here, there are fewer expectations that Honey is just out of sight, and no one follows him when he hides away into a guest room without bothering to attend the supper provided for the weary search teams.
Snagging the bottle of meds from his backpack, Eugene seeks the oblivion only medication can bring him now.
A/N: After Honey's first foray as a Lieutenant goes well, Negan pushes her buttons by summoning her to him while he's in bed with Amber. It backfires in one way, as she tricks him into giving her Amber as a wife. To distract him from the trick, she finally sleeps with him.
Trivia for those who skipped to summary: Honey was Paul and Jazz's surrogate for MJ.