Quinn & Negan, Alexandria

I took my hand off of Negan's cheek and quickly wiped away my tears. He wiped his eyes too and sniffed.

"I am so… so terribly sorry…" I said slowly. Suddenly he turned to me and embraced me so strongly like he never wanted to let go of me ever again. I burst into another round of tears. I buried my face in his neck. "I'm so sorry," I said again. We were staying like that for a long time, both of our tears silently pouring.

"I don't want to lose you…" he said quietly. I slipped my hand on the back of his neck, into his hair, stroking the back of his head. He buried his face into my neck. "Promise me you will never go out alone or with anyone else but me," he said.

"We can't avoid something like this… If anyone would have been with me, both of us would have been taken," I said gently.

"Just promise me you won't go anywhere without me," he said again as he lifted his head to look me in the eye very seriously.

"Okay. I won't go outside without you."

He let out a sigh and put his forehead against mine. We both closed our eyes and stayed like that for a while.

"It breaks my heart when I think about the things I said to you…," I said quietly.

"Don't think about it. I try not to. You should try too," he said gently.

"Are you not mad at me?" I asked carefully.

"Why would I be mad at you?" he asked. We were still in the same position, foreheads together, eyes closed.

"The things I said…"

"You didn't say those things," he said quietly.

"I'm still sorry. I would never want to hurt you in any way," I said.

"I know,"

"Except when you mock me," I said slightly smiling.

"When did I mock you?" he asked. I felt on my forehead that he frowned his eyebrows.

"When I told you how I got friend-zoned by Daryl," I said chuckling sadly.

"No, that was a thousand years ago. I wasn't myself and you weren't yourself."

"Yeah, that's true."

"You wanted to hurt me for that?" he asked disbelievingly.

"Well… I could have slapped your face," I said smiling slightly.

"Damn… I'm sorry for mocking you," he said gently, but I heard in his voice that he was smiling too.

"It was a thousand years ago," I repeated his words.

"I'm glad you got friend-zoned," he said still smiling.

"Yeah, I'm glad too," I said chuckling softly.

Negan let out a sigh.

"I could stay like this forever with you," he said.

"Me too."

We didn't say anything for a couple of minutes.

"I'm in love with you," he said suddenly.

I felt like my heart fell out of my chest, but then I knew it was still in its place because it started pounding crazily. It was the first time he told me since we found each other again.

"I'm in love with you too," I said quietly.

That's all he needed to hear, he closed the gap between us and softly kissed my lips. He slipped his hand on the side of my neck, it felt so good. I slipped my hand again in his hair and on the back of his neck. We were kissing softly, carefully, romantically for such a long time, like time and space did not exist anymore. He was so gentle like I was made out of porcelain and he had to be careful not to break me. Touched softly, kissed softly. He didn't want to proceed and I didn't want either. It was a kiss to seal our confessions. When we finally parted I let out a huge sigh of relief.

"I can't believe you're with me," I said.

"You can't believe it? What should I say?" he asked chuckling. "I am the bogeyman here and I got the hottest girl in town. Makes no sense. I am the one who should be surprised," he said still chuckling disbelievingly.

"Hottest girl in town? Who are you talking about?" I asked pretending suspicion.

"Who would I be talking about?" he asked smiling adorably.

"I think Carol is hotter than me. And Maggie, definitely Maggie. And Rosita!" I was thinking out loud, but suddenly he kissed me to shut me up. He backed away quickly and looked me in the eye.

"If I tell you that you're the hottest girl in town, it means you are."

"You're blinded by love or whatever, something," I said embarrassed, it was strange to say it out loud, that he loves me.

"Yeah, whatever something," he said still smiling, then his smile faded a little bit. "Now tell me please when was the last time you ate."

I snapped out of the pink dust suddenly.

"Oh… I.. don't know. I didn't want to eat, because I felt nauseous. But Carol was cooking in the afternoon, maybe I should go and beg for a bite."

"You're not going anywhere, you're resting. I'll go," he stated and stood up, opened the front door to step outside right when Carol was about to step onto our porch, carrying food container boxes in her hands, full of meals.

"What a coincidence," she said smiling. "Are you hungry?"

"Holy shit, that looks nice," said Negan genuinely amazed.

Carol stepped inside and placed the food container on the kitchen table, then she stepped closer to me.

"How are you, honey?" she asked as she took a step towards me.

"Better. I'm in good hands," I said smiling. Negan glanced at me smiling too.

"Glad to hear. Eat, you need your strength back, and good night to both of you," she said and headed to the front door.

"Thank you very much, Carol," I said to her back.

"Thank you," said Negan too.

"You're welcome," she smiled at us, then closed the door behind herself. Negan stepped to the door and locked it for the night, then glanced at me.

"We're not expecting anyone else, are we?"

"No, you can lock it."

I gathered myself to stand up, but I still felt dizzy and struggled to stay on foot.

"Hey, whoa, easy," said Negan as he quickly stepped next to me and caught me.

"I'll be fine in a minute," I said and I tried to get used to standing, then I took a step.

"There we go," said Negan as he helped me to the kitchen table. I sat down and he brought plates. He stuffed himself with the pheasant, I ate just a little, because I still didn't really feel like it.

"That's it?" he asked, glancing at my plate.

"Yeah, for now," I said. He nodded and as soon as he finished he put away the plates.

"And now, I'm going to take you to the shower," he stated.

"No way, am I stinking?" I asked scared, smelling the neck of my shirt. Not only did Negan see me throw up last night, but now I'm stinking too?

"It's okay," he said gently as he helped me stand up. He waited for a couple of minutes to see if I'm dizzy. "Are you good?" he asked.

"Yeah," I said and we slowly proceeded to the stairs. We stopped and suddenly he took me in his arms.

"There's no need, I can walk up myself. Negan put me down," I said.

"We're almost upstairs, I'm not putting you down halfway," he stated and put me down only when we reached the upper floor. I let out a sigh.

"I don't want you to bother with me."

"It's okay. Come on," he said and helped me to the bathroom.

"It's fine now, I can take a shower alone," I said blushing. I couldn't forget that we made love the other night, but I was still so embarrassed to be naked in front of him.

"There's no way I'm leaving, you're dizzy, you're gonna slip and fall," he stated as he lit a candle to see. It was already dark outside. I let out a sigh, turned my back on him, and started taking my clothes off.

"Can you bring me my pajamas, please?" I asked.

"Nice try. No. You're gonna fall," he said. I exhaled sharply and dropped my bra. I felt his eyes on my back, I didn't dare to look at him. I stepped inside the shower, but as soon as I did, I saw Negan throwing his shirt, getting out of his clothes, and stepping next to me.

"We have to save water, right?" he asked gently, but with a mischievous undertone.

"Yeah," I chuckled.

He gently rubbed my back, then I felt a kiss land on my shoulder. Electricity ran through my body.

"Negan… we have to save water," I reminded him.

"Mhhmm," he hummed in agreement and backed away. I never heard him hum like that before, it was so hot. I turned off the water, he stepped outside and I did too. He quickly wrapped a towel around him, (I didn't dare to look) then wrapped one around me too, then took my elbow, to help me walk. I stepped slowly to our bed, dressed in my pajamas quickly, and nestled in. He put on his pajamas too and joined me. This time I turned to face him, despite the fact that I usually fall asleep on my other side. He put a stray hair behind my ear and let out a sigh, watching me the entire time.

"Are you feeling better?" he asked.

"Yeah, I hope I'll be fine by tomorrow," I said.

"Don't rush it," he said.

"The problem is, I was sleeping all day, so I'm not sleepy now,"

"Oh," he said, thinking. "I'll try to entertain you, but I'm tired, so I'll fall asleep soon."

"If you're tired then sleep, don't force yourself to stay awake for me."

"I can stay awake for a little while," he said. We turned on our sides to face each other. My mind was way too awake. I had some random questions popping in my head.

"Why did you want to be a gym teacher?" I asked, "Why not math teacher or something completely different?"

He wasn't expecting this question, so he took a minute to answer. He shrugged his shoulder.

"I like kids, and I can talk to them. Somehow they listen to me. And I liked sports," he said finally.

"Hmm… I didn't like sports. In the normal world, on a Sunday afternoon, you would be probably watching sports on tv, and I would hate it with all my gut."

He chuckled, he was adorable. I continued: "I think you would have been a good actor too," I said thinking out loud.

"Actor? Hell no…" he said chuckling.

"Why? Okay, if not actor, then a stand-up comedian."

"Pfff, no way," he said giggling.

"But you can talk so much and in an entertaining way."

"Maybe. I don't know," he glanced back at me. "Alright, my turn. What was your hobby?" he asked. I wanted to faint every time I saw his smile.

"Now, don't laugh… I liked video games," I said.

"I knew it!" he chuckled.

"What?"

"I knew you were a gamer girl, I have a built-in radar for them," he said smiling.

"Hope you don't use that radar as much nowadays…" I said jealously.

"No," he said and caressed my cheek. "What did you play?"

"I liked games with a good story and nice scenery. I like choices and multiple endings."

"I had a feeling you did," he smiled.

"There was one game, I forgot its title. It was about delivering packages but the scenery was breathtaking. You had to go to impossible places to deliver stuff. It had an amazing story too."

"Yeah, I know that one. It was boring for me," he said still smiling. "Now that I think about it, that character you had to control reminds me of Daryl."

"Now that you mention it, yeah," I said chuckling, thinking. "He did look like Daryl."

We both chuckled.

"I played mostly with shooting games," he said.

"Oh, that's so typical," I said giggling.

Negan chuckled again, then looked me in the eye.

"So, no sports, no shooting," he concluded.

"No, not really," I smiled at him.

"I bet you loved reading as well."

"Not that much. I read occasionally, but I spent most of my time with video games and movies."

"Hmm," Negan hummed as he was thinking.

"I would have tried a shooting game if you asked me to do it, but I would be terribly bad at it," I said smiling.

"I would have helped," he smiled back at me. I was mesmerized again by his eyes and smile.

We stayed silent for a little while, I got embarrassed, so I looked away. I turned my eyes at his hand, I took it. He caressed the back of my hand with his thumb.

"I'm so glad I found you…" he said quietly.

"All we needed was an apocalypse to make it possible," I said chuckling, looking away. Then I smiled at him. After a minute I snapped out of it.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm keeping you awake. Let's just sleep. I'll try too," I said.

"It's okay," he said, but I had already blown out the candle next to the bed. He cuddled me from behind, I felt like I was melting in his arms. In a couple of minutes I heard his breathing change, he fell asleep in an instant. He stayed awake for me. I let out a sigh, then I tried to fall asleep too. Eventually, I managed.

…

Author's notes: I know Death Stranding came out much later than the apocalypse happened on the show, but I thought it would be funny to mention it. 😊

Listen to "Sparks fly" by Taylor Swift.

Thank You for reading! ❤