Changing To Adapt ➵ TWD

➵ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ꜰɪꜰᴛʏ

"What d'we have 'ere?" The guy Lucas thinks has to be Merle, circles around the desk towards him. He doesn't really see a similarity between brothers, but their accents and bluntness are something they share.

Lucas stares at the opposite wall, hands tied to the chair and feet tossed up on the table, counting every dusted brick to pass the time.

Show no fear. No vulnerability.

"I'm starting to think today is full of coincidences." Merle tilts his head and smiles, teeth on show like a hungry predator.

Crossing his ankles, Lucas breathes slowly in a fuax show of calm.

Nicolá being the reason he was caught still has him in the limbo of confusion and betrayal. He feels numb, and he uses it to his advantage.

A grating against the table has his eyes darting down, finding Merle's one-armed blade dragging across the wood toward him.

"I didn't think anythin' of the third bag. Not until my men dragged you in 'ere." Merle tapped his sword for a hand against the edge of the table, right in front of his chest, "And then it all made sense."

Lucas's jaw tightens.

Merle swings his arms back up, the blade coming close to nicking his chin. "Ya wouldn't happen to know the Asian kid and his girl, would ya?" He leans in close, his breath wrinkling Lucas's nose.

But still, his lips remain tightly pursed.

Merle takes a seat on the table, and kicks one foot up onto the edge of Lucas's chair. "You're in luck, kid, knowing that Nicolá girl means I can't go killin' you." His head tilts, slowly, down at him. "But that don't mean I can't get my hands a li'l bloody, now does it?"

Lucas's calm is fraying at the edges. His heart beats loudly in his ears, and the numb is fading after Nicolá's mention.

Merle leans forward, a hand hanging off the knee in Lucas's space. It draws the boy's eyes to the specks of blood across bruised knuckles.

He's been through the other rooms already. He's hurt them already.

Lucas lifts a foot and launches it into Merle's gut, throwing him off the table with an echoing thud. He gets what's coming to him the minute Merle catches his breath, and uses the table to leverage himself back up, fist flying.

Blood dripping down his chin and onto his pants, Lucas responds to Merle's impromptu interrogation with silence.

He only slips up once, and he remembers it vividly.

"That kid that gave you up. She told us what ya did." Merle laughs, cruelly, "How you shot 'er brother."

Lucas jerks forward in his seat, "He was already dead." The words come tumbling out past his lips.

Merle pulls back, just out of reach, and tilts his head condescendingly, "On the contrary to 'er. Maybe it's time yer people knew, huh? I wonder if li'l old Glenn would still look at you the same. And that pretty girl in the other room."

"If you touch her, I sw-"

"What the hell kinda person do you take me for?" Merle scowls. "I can't say much for the Gov'nor-"

"You're the same kinda bitch that beats on his brother's friends."

"My brother don't have friends."

"Fuck off."

Merle's faux smile drops, "Yer a feisty one. It's no wonder they took you in, like a damn stray dog." He stands up to leave and scowls, "Hell, you might even end up like me after they find out. Tossed to the walkers."