A silence fell over the two royals as they stood there face-to-face for the first time, taking each other in.
It was a strange thing, meeting someone you had heard so much about like this. Someone whose strategies and tactics King Negan had discussed for so long. Yet here and now, Queen Blake seemed far less like a queen and more like a goddess, her beauty like nothing like the king had ever seen before. Even amongst the best whores in his land.
He gave a smirk, his gaze travelling down the tight bodice of her dress covered in the reddest of rubies and the greenest of emeralds, all sparkling in the early afternoon sunlight that poured in through the high windows of the large hall they stood in.
But her voice, as clear as a bell, caught him a little off-guard as she spoke again.
"You have my condolences," she said in tones of deepest sympathy, her bright eyes flitting to the floor between them momentarily, before she stared up at him once more. "The passing of your wife...she seemed like a much-loved queen in your kingdom."
King Negan's throat went suddenly very dry and he too couldn't help but drop his gaze for a moment, the loss of the woman that had guided him for so many years coming back to him like a battering ram against a stone wall.
He wavered for a moment before lifting his chin and speaking.
"And I too need to send my sympathies for the loss of YOUR husband….three years ago wasn't it? He was a great war-hero by all accounts."
Tales had been told of the fearsome David, married to Queen Blake when she was just twenty one years old, only a princess then. Yet years later, long after she had become queen, he had died in a storm at sea, captaining his ship. A true tragedy.
But to King Negan's surprise, the queen shook her head, her face fixing into a hard grimace.
"David was far from a good man or a hero, King Negan," she said with a hard sniff. "I was young and naive when I married him and I should have had him executed the first time he raised his hand to me. In all honesty, his death came as nothing but a blessing."
The king gave a frown at her words.
He and everyone else had always presumed that the loss of Queen Blake's husband had devastated her, but now it seemed the opposite. And it shocked Negan now to learn that the well-respected, deceased man had had the gall to raise his fists to his own Queen and wife. For that was something that King Negan did not stand for.
He stared at the queen now, tilting his bearded face to the side, remarking how truly strong she seemed, especially now he knew the truth about what he had been through. To him she was the like the most precious of rare stones. Beautiful on the outside, but harder inside than one would first presume.
"There is much I want to discuss with you today, King," she said in a gentle voice. "But I would prefer to do it away from the council."
The king gave a bemused smirk.
"Away from the council? Is that so?" he asked narrowing his eyes at her. "And how do I trust you're not going to produce a dagger from your bodice, Queen? Cut our truce short…"
But the queen merely gave a smiling sigh, looking like she wanted to laugh at Negan's words.
She truly did look a beauty when her face lit up like that.
"You can't," she purred out, taking a small step into him now, her eyes fixing themselves to his. "But you can trust that I'm true to my word, and all I want is peace and harmony between our two lands. And I hope that coming here today, that is what you want too."
She paused for a moment biting down on her pink lips, causing a warmth to spread through Negan's loins.
Good god she was beautiful.
"After today we may never meet again, King Negan," she continued in a poignant voice. "But I want to assure you, that today, I want our two kingdoms to come together in a way we haven't for centuries."
And Negan paused for a second staring at her, hearing something different in her voice now…..something he had never in a thousand years thought he would hear from someone like her….
And with that, with a wolf-like grin sliding onto his face, he turned and held out his arm towards her.
"Then lead the way, my Queen," he murmured, leaning into her a little as she smiled up at him, vixen-like, her hand sliding around the crook of his elbow. As she led them from the room...alone...just as the council entered the hall through the other door, wondering where on earth their prospective King and Queen had gotten to….