𝐃𝐄𝐒𝐈𝐑𝐄 -Negan x Reader

•37•

You pace back and forth along the nearly faded white line on the road. The screaming has stopped now. You couldn't fathom a more excruciating fifteen minutes than those of hearing Dwight's begs for mercy. It shouldn't hurt. The man kidnapped you out of obsession. He stalked you for months. He nearly cut your throat. But for some reason, every second that you knew he was in pain, it sent your heart plummeting to the pit of your stomach. Sherry has remained quiet, arms crossed, sullen stare latched onto the ground. If your mind wasn't still in self-preservation mode, you'd be wondering how and why they're both here. Jealousy might've even threatened to bite.

The rustling of leaves sends your head snapping up. Your eyes scan the wooded darkness as it draws closer. Negan emerges from the tree line, the pale light shone in from the moon illuminating his most prevalent features. Your feet move faster than your racing thoughts. He tosses Lucile to the ground beside him, the world falling apart around him.  The only thing in this moment of substance is you. You collide with him, arms wrapping around his neck. He pulls you in closer wrapping your waist so tightly it almost hurts. He holds you as if he dared to let go, you would disappear again.

Sobs rack your body as you melt into his embrace, letting his intoxicating, familiar scent fill your nose. This is safe. This is home. He pulls back just enough to see your tear-stained face, cupping it with his leather-gloved hand. His dark eyes scan you incessantly.

"I love you.", he confesses, wiping a fallen tear from your flushed cheek.

The words are dizzying. Your heart almost swells out of your chest. Through tears, you can't help but let the edges of your lips curl upwards.

"I love you too."

He seals his confession by pressing his lips to yours. He kisses you as if he's been stranded in the desert and you're his first cool drink of water. Your legs threaten to give out under the softness of his lips and the scratching of his stubble against your skin. Electricity courses through your veins, and for just a second, you forget about all the pain. It ceases to exist with his body against yours. Time threatens to stop altogether. He pulls away first, love-glazed eyes locking with yours.

"Let's go home."

-

It's a day and a half's journey back to the Sanctuary. You had decided to take the backseat in hopes of getting some sleep. If not for the bumps in the road, every time you got close to drifting off to sleep, Dwight would creep his way into your head, waking you abruptly. You use Negan's jacket as a blanket, tossing and turning every so often. If your own brain wasn't enough to keep you awake, Sherry finally speaks.

"I'm glad we got there when we did.", she says softly, assuming you're sound asleep.

You don't mean to eavesdrop, but you can't help yourself. Listening in on them beats fighting your insomnia.

"Yeah, me too.", he replies.

Sherry waits a minute or two before speaking again. The sound of the tires howling against the road becoming too much of a constant for her.

"That wasn't him back there. I didn't recognize him. Not with that crazy look in his eyes and that knife on her like that. It was like he was possessed or something.", she explains.

You also didn't recognize him. That wasn't the Dwight you knew, not the one you loved like a brother, not the one that would do anything to protect you. No, you refuse to believe that it was him. He could've hit his head, maybe taken some kind of drug that made him that way. That couldn't have been him.

"But it was. That was him. Everybody's got a mask on, all the time. The only person that knows you, all of you, is you. He let that veil slip. When he thought it was over between him and her, he let it take over. He let every intrusive, obsessive thought win.", Negan explains.