DEVILS ♛ C. G. 〖 #wattys2018 〗

O N E / T H I R T E E N

Unrelated sidenote: Volume 4 of Pentatonix came out yesterday and it's all classics and I am OBSESSED holy fuck

SOTC: Something To Believe In - Young The Giant
• It gets old when you talk to the sun / In a tongue understood by no one •

They entered the hallway. April hung behind Carl, his back curling inward, feeling her eyes trace his spine.

So much rested on these next minutes. Some of which she dreaded, some she craved. She just hoped Carl would preform accordingly, and the two of them could both get what they wanted.

Carl flinched as Negan swung around the corner, a glowing smile hooked across his face. "Sweetheart, I'm so happy you brought him here!"

April grinned. She was reminded why she enjoyed being in her father's company; his demeanor was always so chaotically invigorating. "Oh, I am too! You're going to like him."

"I can't wait to meet this little shit!" He gestured for Carl to be seated at the black leather couches, and he slowly stepped over, like a lab rat herded through a maze.

April ran to the kitchenette to prepare a pitcher of lemonade, her father's favorite method of seducing guests, as he told her nearly every day. When she returned to the couches, holding the freezingly slick handle of the pitcher, she came to find that her hopes would not come to fruition anytime soon.

"You gotta take that crap off your face!" Negan yelled, arms shaking like a giggly child's. "I wanna see what Grandma got me!"

Carl's gaze met April's, and she gave him a concerned, and slightly creeped out, glance. Like she understood his discomfort. Giving a 'you're on your own' shrug, she sat down the pitcher and the cups, and knelt down to pour glasses for each of them.

Before she could warn him not to, Carl's mouth twisted into a snarl. "No."

She stopped pouring, eyes wide if to say, what the fuck did I just tell you, dumbass?

Instead, Carl continued, fists clenched in his mouth."No, I'm not taking off my bandage. For fu—"

"Do not test me!" Negan broke, and April could feel the rage radiating off his tightly knit brows. "Do you really want to piss me off?"

April turned to Carl, shaking her head surreptitiously. He shot a glare her way.

She bit her lip. Come on, it's not a big deal, she thought toward him, attempting to urge him into it. She didn't want to see the results, but appeasement was more valuable than the preferable option, at this point.

April could see the rage gleaming in his eye, and for a moment, believed he was finally going to break apart. Instead, she watched as Carl lifted his arms from his lap.

There was near silence as he began to unwind the gauze, letting a curtain of hair fall over his wound. April couldn't help but watch in immense fascination.

"Get that hair outta your face. Lemme see." Negan rubbed his hands together.

Carl gave a final, painful glare to each of them, before sweeping the hair out from his eye.

April had seen it before. Last night, when her mind was spread too thin and her eyes crossed from not knowing what to look at.

But today, she only felt glee.

In the way Carl was so inwardly terrified, yet kept it hidden within his thin-lined expression. The way she could stare at the details of his wound and the way a vein bulged out of his forehead when he was pissed at himself.