#i’m on ch 51 started last night so i’m getting through quickly enough | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

duhragonball · 3 years

Text

Hellsing Liveblog Ch. 51-56

This is the “Seras Coming of Age” part of Hellsing, but the chapters are all one-off titles: “Last Mission”, “Get Away”, “Yaksa”, “The Man I Love”, “Ogre Battle”, and “Angelous,”

Last time, Zorin Blitz’s company invaded the Hellsing HQ, and Seras managed to kill them all except for Zorin herself, and then she used her psychic whammy, forcing Seras to relive some traumatic moment. We saw one of the Wild Geese get this same treatment, and he briefly saw his dead daughter before Zorin killed him. As for Seras, she relives the deaths of her parents. Years ago, two guys barged into their home and shot them. The circumstances aren’t entirely clear, but they must have had some forewarning, since Seras’ mom hid her in a closet and told her not to come out no matter what. But when she saw what they did to them, Seras became so enraged that she attackedthe men and stabbed one in the eye with a fork.

The other guy shot Seras, and while she must have survived, she remembers laying on the floor as the guy she stabbed decides to rape her mother. I’m not even sure “rape” is the right word, since she was already dead, but the guy doesn’t care because the body is “still warm.” You’d think he’d be too upset about losing an eye, but maybe he’s high on cocaine or something.

I don’t think you need me to tell you this, gentle reader, but hol-ee shit this dark. We knew Seras’ parents died when she was young, and it wouldn’t be hard to speculate that they died in some violent crime, but Seras watched it happen, and she stabbed a dude in the face, only to get shot herself, and she watched her mother’s body getting molested before she passed out.

And this gives us some insight into what Alucard saw in her that night in Cheddar. There, Seras was surrounded by ghouls, many of them her comrades in the police department, and a vampire who promised to rape her before drinking her blood. Alucard found it remarkable how she persevered in this horror, but now we see that may not even be the worst thing that ever happened to her. It’s not even the first time she got shot!

And from the earlier flashback we saw, Seras was hellbound to become a police officer like her father. After a trauma like this, it’s amazing that she’d want anything to do with the police, since those men killed her father for digging “too deep” into whatever they were involved in. But Seras quietly, defiantly chose to follow in her father’s footsteps, only to suffer a similar fate.

Because, let’s not forget, Seras is dead. She died in Cheddar, because Alucard had to shoot through her to kill the vampire who had taken her hostage. Then she agreed to become a vampire like him, and join the Hellsing Organization. Once more, she has quietly, defiantly, chosen to carry on in this life of public service.

But none of that matters to Zorin Blitz. She just wanted to dredge up all this trauma to keep Seras preoccupied long enough for Zorin to do this...

Oh, also she lopped off Seras’ left arm, but I liked this impalement panel better.

On top of that, Zorin slashes Seras’ eyes, which was pretty gruesome and shocking. When I started watching the Hellsing Ultimate OVA, I couldn’t wait to see what happened next, so I trawled YouTube for clips of Seras, so I had a pretty good idea where the character was headed, and noticed that late-story Seras was missing a left arm. So Zorin cutting it off didn’t surprise me much, but everything else she did to her was a surprise.

Then, just as Zorin seems to be ready to finish Seras off, Pip Bernadotte gets the drop on her and whacks her with the butt of his rifle. Machine gun? Semiautomatic? I don’t know from guns. He hits her with it, is my point. Then he shoots her with a different gun to put the exclamation point on it.

There’s two other guys left in the Wild Geese, and they toss smoke grenades to cover Pip as he tries to carry Seras to safety, but he’s wounded, and then a Millennium soldier wakes up and shoots him in the thighs. Was that guy playing possum? The Geese take him out, and Pip even makes it back to them, but I’m not sure what good that does anybody. Then Zorin gets back up and cuts him down with her scythe. I don’t think she chops him in half or anything, but he’s not getting back up again, that’s for sure.

Seras calls out to him, and he steals another kiss. I guess he forgot about the last time, because he acts like he “finally” managed to do this. Then he asks Seras to drink his blood, which will allow her to win. I guess someone must have explained enough vampire lore to Pip for him to have figured this out. Maybe Seras herself told him how it worked, which makes it doubly-meaningful for him to say this to her now.

And Seras starts wailing with grief, before Zorin finally mocks her for it, calling Pip an insect. I’ve seen a few people poke fun at this scene, because it’s kind of weird for Zorin to just stand by while Pip and Seras have this final moment together, but Zorin’s a sadist. Much of what she’s done in these past several chapters has been about reveling in her enemies’ suffering. She took her sweet time with Seras earlier, which was the only reason Pip managed to help her, and now she’s taking her sweet time again, like she’s enjoying this drama.

So Zorin uses her psychic whammy again, but this time it doesn’t work on Seras. Maybe because Seras is already in the middle of a terrible trauma in the here and now. She couldn’t do anything to avenge her parents back then, and she was powerless against the Cheddar Priest, but this time? This time she knows exactly what to do.

VENIT AEVUS ILLE, O MESSIAH, O MESSIAH

YUDULIYA-VELE YUDULIYA-VELE

EN ESE MOMENTO ZORIN BLITZ SINTIO EL VERDADERO TERROR.

So yeah, this rocks. The anime version does this cool thing where all the blood soaks up into her clothes and stains them red. Maybe the manga was going for the same thing, but it’s harder to tell in black and white. I find it kind of strange how Seras’ eyes grow back, but her left arm does not. I’m pretty sure she could reform her arm, but chooses not to. Instead, she’s got this black ectoplasm-y thing, like the same black stuff that Alucard uses when he’s not holding back as much.

Then Seras starts slaughtering Zorin’s men. Didn’t she already kill them all? Yeah, but there’s more. The anime tries to cover for this by having Zorin explain that some “late arrivals” showed up. Well, they did have to enter the building single file to get past the mines, so it makes sense that Zorin would keep some in reserve in case there were more traps inside.

Seras is my favorite character in this whole thing, and since these pages of her kickin’ ass speak for themselves, I guess I’ll talk about why I like her so much. I’m pretty sure I saw a cosplay photo of her on tumblr, and I found the design intriguing. She’s a vampire, but dressed in something like a military uniform, kind of like the “Bridge Bunnies” in Macross. I looked up Seras to find out what she was from, and I was like “Oh, Hellsing was the show Team Four Star has been abridging, I guess I need to watch that anyway so I can watch the Abridged version and get the jokes.”

Mostly, I just like the idea of a vampire with a very professional mentality, as opposed to the whole Lost Boys/What We Do in the Shadows/Buffy kind of aesthetic. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but we see that sort of thing all the time. I’ve also seen a lot of “reluctant” vampires in my time. Vampires who try to avoid doing any vampire stuff, or going about their business like the vampirism is just this inconvenient obstacle. Hellsing presents this other option, where vampires like Alucard are used for the purpose of anti-vampire countermeasures. He’s been turned into a weapon, but he’s basically just Dracula with a fresh coat of paint. Seras is more firmly rooted in the concept. Alucard was a vampire who became a sort of cop, and Seras is a cop who became a vampire.

And while I liked the idea of Seras being like “Oh, well I didn’t want to be a vampire but I’ll try to make the best of it”, I quickly found out that she wasn’t just a cop with pointy teeth. There’s moments where she can be scary and creepy too. “Sir, yes sir, my Master.” It sums her up very neatly. This is a vampire who can be polite and respectful and professional, but she can also get very deep into the more horrific aspects of this thing. She’s got layers. Zorin Blitz tried to peel them back, and look how that’s working out for her.

Once the rank and file goons are dealt with, Seras goes after Blitz, and just wrecks her shit. Blitz tries to punch Seras in the face and it does nothing. Seras just bites all her fingers off and spits ‘em out. Then she announces that she refuses to drink Zorin’s blood, not a single drop. This is important, because Seras was always reluctant to drink blood. She said she feared that drinking blood would mean the end of something inside of her, but now she’s crossed that Rubicon. One might suspect that she’d suddenly want to drink more blood, but no. She drank Pip’s as a means to an end. Zorin’s blood would serve no higher purpose, and I think there’s an implication that she doesn’t want to dishonor Pip’s sacrifice. Desperate, Zorin tries to use her power on Seras a third time, and then this happens:

Okay, so at first Zorin sees Seras’ memories, like before, but now there’s all this stuff from Pip’s memories, and then Warrant Officer Shrodinger, of all people, shows up. Zorin is confused by this, but he explains that he’s “everywhere and nowhere,” which means he can appear in this psychic vision just as easily as he can teleport between Brazil and England.

Schrodinger is here to pass along a message from the Major. See, Zorin disobeyed his orders, and he would normally punish her for this, but he and the Doctor are busy with a “most interesting toy”, so they’ll just leave it to Seras to take care of punishing Zorin.

Yesterday, I think I figured out what Zorin’s disobedience was. Before I was confused because she didn’t start attacking until Seras opened fire on her blimp, and that only happened because Seras was shooting at the rockets fired by the Major. Everything that Zorin did afterwards could be considered a matter of self-defense, but therein lies the problem. Namely, what was Zorin’s blimp doing in the line of fire to begin with?

Because once Seras shot her down, everything Zorin did next was sort of her only option. She pretty much had to attack the mansion, and brave its defenses, whatever those happened to be. And the Major knew that this was a big unknown. He warned Zorin about Seras Victoria and while he didn’t seem to know exactly what her abilities were, he regarded her as an “arch-enemy” on the same level as Alucard. That’s why he wanted Zorin to hold off and wait for the rocket attack. It was intended to probe the mansion’s defenses, and once it became clear that they had anti-aircraft guns, and that Seras was eagle-eyed enough to shoot down their rockets, then the Major could have ordered Zorin to find a different way.

But instead she was too close and gave Seras a target, which precipitated everything else, up to and including this:

Yeah, Seras just drags Zorin across the walls until her whole head smears apart. Cool!

With Zorin dead, Seras delcares her intention to take the fight to the enemy, and the last three Wild Geese salute her before she leaves. One way or another, they realize that Pip has become a part of Seras now, and they pay their last respects to him through her.

Then Seras flies toward London, using her left arm-thing to make cool bat wings. And this is a good illustration of what Seras is all about. Once, she might have been horrified at the thought of doing something like this, but now she sees it as a way to carry on with her duty. This was what Alucard had been trying to get her to understand, but sometimes you just have to work these things out in your own way. Seras is about utility, and now that she has a use for these vampiric powers, she’s finally prepared to embrace them as her own.

In London, Schrodinger reports back to the Major and informs him of Zorin Blitz’s death. He’s not surprised, and even declares “our ruin has begun”. Schrodinger points out that he’s leading everyone, friend and foe alike, into destruction, and the Major simply observes that this is war. Millennium didn’t come to London to win, they came to London to fight.

Then the Ninth Crusade shows up. Recall that, earlier, Enrico Maxwell organized a military response to deal with the Millennium invasion of London, but he hasn’t come here to save the civilian population. Instead, he’s treating them as enemies, just like the Nazi vampires. Somehow, there’s still living people in the city, and as dawn approaches, they see Maxwell’s helicopters putting off some sort of light show. I don’t know what you call this, but the people on the ground think it’s angels, and then Maxwell orders his men to open fire.

I want to point out that the newly promoted Archbishop Maxwell is riding into this battle in a special truck with a glass box for him to sit in. He’s surrounded by microphones so he can address his troops and the people below. Also the truck is hanging from a helicopter. It’s stupid and pointless and over-the-top, so naturally the Major is highly impressed with Maxwell’s style.

#2021hellsingliveblog #hellsing #seras victoria #pip bernadotte #zorin blitz #the major #warrant officer shrodinger #enrico maxwell

37 notes · View notes

corie-the-writer · 4 years

Text

Ignite - Ch.2

Chapter 2

Chloe and Ruzek had headed to the apartment of Sortelli Matthews. He had never been married, so informing a spouse was out of the question. When they had gotten to the apartment door, Ruzek had picked the lock, clearing the house before searching for any information on next of kin.

"There's literally nothing." Chloe grumbled in annoyance after searching the entire apartment that had very minimal belongings, "It's like he's a ghost." Chloe commented as Adam finished the last search of the final closet.

"I guess we should run a facial recognition." Adam suggested as they headed for the apartment door.

The partners decided to question the neighbors if they had seen or heard anything unusual and wasn't surprised that no one even knew that he had been living next door to them.

"Well that's a bust." Chloe sighed climbing into the car to head back to the district to catch the team up on the findings.

Chloe and Adam had gotten back to Intelligence Unit just as the sun was starting to set. Chloe had filled the team in on Waters cheating on his wife, sharing the text messages exchanged between Waters and a woman named Ashley. Adam had ran facial recognition on the woman and then Sortelli. Ashley had a few misdemeanors, and a few unpaid parking tickets, while there was still not a hit on Sortelli.

Hank had decided to call it a night, making the plan to get Chloe and Adam into NIXX nightclub the next evening, so Chloe had decided to hang back to do research on the nightclub, while Ruzek searched for any information on Sortelli Michaels.

"Dude..." Ruzek groaned, "He is literally not coming up anywhere."

"Maybe call in a couple favors with the FBI?" Chloe suggested and Adam gave a nod reaching for the phone to make the call.

Chloe had quickly learned through social media that NIXX nightclub only allowed so many people in the building at a time. It was in fact mostly rich men and young women who looked to be their girlfriends, but most of the photos of the women dressed up looked extremely high. At least Chloe could be prepared to play the part, and had scanned a couple of photos of older men to use as an in to the nightclub.

"Want to head to Molly's for a beer?" Ruzek questioned after he had gotten through to the FBI, and stretched in his chair.

"Yeah. If I look at one more rich man's face I might jump out the window." Chloe joked causing Adam to chuckle as he stood up.

Chloe stood up grabbing her jacket and gun, and then her wallet and keys. Chloe and Adam headed down the stairs quietly and out to their cars.

Just as Chloe was about three blocks away from Mollys, a call had came over the radio of a familiar address, Mary Walters home, it was on fire and the fire department need police assistance.

Chloe turned her lights and sirens on calling Ruzek to make sure that he had heard the call and agreed to meet her there.

Pulling up to the scene, Chloe jumped out of the car with Adam pulling up a few moments later, and looked to the familiar faces of Firehouse 51.

"Chief..." Chloe greeted Chief Boden, "What's going on?" Chloe questioned.

"The mother set fire to the kitchen, holding her son hostage in the house. She won't let anyone come in." Boden explained and Chloe nodded her head, "There's probably about seven minutes until the house is fully engulfed." Boden stated.

"Give me five." Chloe stated as Adam was running up to her, "Mary has one of the boys in there with her." Chloe explained, "I'm going in." Chloe added and Adam let out a breath.

"Let's go."

Chloe drew her gun as she approached the house, Kelly Severide’s eyes glued to her as she walked past him. Adam was right behind her, hand on her shoulder as she kicked in the front door. Quickly surveying the house to see that the fire was slowly growing in the kitchen, Chloe rushed into.

"Mary, it's Detective Chloe Voight." Chloe called out.

"I didn't...I didn't know what else to do!" Mary called out and Chloe turned the corner to the living room to see Mary holding a knife to Derrek's throat, "He kept making up lies!" Mary exclaimed.

"Mary, put the knife down. We can work this out okay?" Chloe suggested. Chloe looked to Derrek. The young man being in his early twenties and was absolutely terrified in the moment, "Mary where is Ben?" Chloe questioned, wanting to make sure the young boy wasn't somewhere in the house.

"He's...he's with my mom." Mary answered tears pouring down her face.

"Mary listen to me..." Chloe's forehead was starting to sweat from the fire growing, "We need to you to put the knife down and let Derrek go, okay? Whatever he has said, we can figure it out together."

"Three minutes!" Chloe heard Chief Boden's voice from outside.

Time was running out.

Chloe holstered her gun and slowly approached the woman with her hands in the air, "Mary, this is your son. You don't want to hurt him."

"He ruined our marriage!" Mary shouted.

"No, he didn't ruin your marriage. He was trying to protect Ben. He wanted to make sure that Ben was going to have parents." Chloe approached standing in front of Mary and Derrek, "Give me the knife Mary." Chloe suggested once more and watched as the older woman shut her eyes for a split second to cry, giving Chloe enough time to grab ahold of her wrist, forcing her to drop the weapon.

Mary went to hit Chloe, and Chloe quickly elbowed the woman in the face as Derrek ran towards Ruzek and out of the house. Chloe was able to grab ahold of Mary's arm, wrapping it around her back, and quickly grabbed the left arm doing the same.

"Mary Waters, you are under arrest." Chloe growled, getting her cuffs out and locking them around her wrists.

"CHLOE?!"

Chloe heard Kelly Severide's voice and knew that time was up, so she quickly grabbed ahold of Mary's arm and began to drag her outside kicking and screaming.

"Take her..." Chloe pushed the woman to Ruzek as Chloe made it outside and out of the way of the firefighters and noticed Severide stopping near her, "I'm fine..." Chloe assured as she tried to catch her breathe from the adrenaline. Chloe watched as he gave her a nod and then rushed into the house to put out the fire.

Chloe approached the vehicle to see that Ruzek had secured the woman into the back seat, and then saw Derrek getting checked over by Brett and Foster. Chloe approached the young man making sure that he was alright before heading back to her jeep, to follow Ruzek back to the district.

"So much for that beer, huh?" Ruzek joked as they booked Mary Waters, and Chloe chuckled as she said her goodbyes to her partner for the evening.

#nbc chicago fire #Kelly Severide #kelly severide imagine #kelly severide one shot #kelly severide x reader #kelly severide x oc #kelly severide x you #Ignite Chapter Two

49 notes · View notes

mavda · 5 years

Text

Melted

Ch.1 | Ch.2 | Ch.3 | Ch.4 | Ch.5 | Ch.6 | Ch.7 | Ch.8 | Ch.9 | Ch.10 | Ch.11 | Ch. 12 | Ch.13 | Ch.14 | Ch.15 | Ch.16 | Ch.17 | Ch.18 | Ch.19 | Ch.20 | Ch.21 | Ch.22 | Ch.23 | Ch.24 | Ch.25 | Ch.26 | Ch.27 | Ch.28 | Ch.29 | Ch.30 | Ch.31 | Ch.32 | Ch.33 | Ch.34 | Ch.35 | Ch.36 | Ch.37 | Ch.38 | Ch.39 | Ch.40 | Ch.41 | Ch.42 | Ch.43 | Ch.44 | Ch.45 | Ch.46 | Ch.47 | Ch.48 | Ch.49 | Ch.50 | Ch.51 | Ch.52 | Ch.53 |

Ch.54: Let us sway and forget our troubles

Link was aware that something was wrong, his mind wasn't at ease still - the feeling of changing still crept up when he least expected it - but nothing had come close to what had happened with Odolwa so he let his mind worry about more present matters.

Like Zelda's lighting hand.

"It's not your fault." Link whispered.

Zelda turned her head and nodded with strenght, "It is not," and not anyone's for that matter, she knew, "It's just..."

"Frustrating," Link helped, and Zelda let out a sigh of frustration.

Zelda could feel her hand prickling and she quickly shook it off, Link grabbed her hand, "It's fine, you don't have to hide it."

Zelda smiled, "No, I mean, I know. I just don't know how to control it after a certain point, so I rather put it out."

Link entangled his fingers with Zelda's and frowned. Zelda had been praised for dealing with Odolwa as fast as they did, and people had long forgotten their hate towards Link - they usually had only words of praise for him - though Link was sure that it was half meant to get into Her Majesty's good side.

Zelda shrugged, tired, "I shouldn't care this much."

And Link understood why she said that, the mussings of a few old people were nothing, especially after having to deal with her Council the past year. Zelda ought to be used to it, ought to know that their opinions were nothing of consequence. That was what she had been trying to make herself believe. But Link could see the tension in her shoulders and the way her patience grew thin.

She had proved herself to her people, she had proved herself to her Council, she had proved herself to herself and it still was not enough.

Link scooped closer to her, rested his chin on her shoulder, pecked her cheek, "Let's go out."

Zelda still couldn't believe the easiness into which she had fallen into. Link would find her brooding alone on her room and she would do her best to hide it, and still he knew. He always did.

The cold of the night would bite into her skin but it bothered her only a second. Link would make sure to close her window and his hand would find her waist. The first time, his touch had been electricity, his warmth a firework that lit up all of her alarms in her head. Again. Zelda had fought it off with a calmness she wasn't sure she had had before.

This time, when Link brought her close to him, Zelda let her head fall to his neck, one arm grabbing his back and the other the hand that neared her bellybutton. The next moment she only felt the wind humming around her and Link's lips on her forehead.

Zelda could see the city with so much clarity at night it made her remember everything she had ever loved about it, and judging by Link's calm demeanor when walking around she was sure he had taken many strolls himself at night.

People still walked around but they were hurrying home or talking in hushed voices under trees. None ever paid attention to the couple walking around. Zelda walked with a cape around but Link didn't even cover his head.

Zelda had worried at first, trying to walk without bringing attention to themselves and being bad at it. Link had been reassuring, "Walk like you own the place," he had grinned, "One, it's true," Zelda had squeezed his hand in amusement, "two, people will care less about someone who looks like they know what they're doing."

Link brought her to a garden and sat with her. Zelda closed her eyes and let the sounds of the crickets tune her worries out.

"Have you ever thought of practicing more magic?"

Zelda nodded, "But people are scared of it, so I never really bothered much with it."

"That fireball was amazing, though."

Zelda shook her head, "And dangerous, one sudden movement and it could have exploded right in my face."

Link huffed and looked to the sky, "Yeah, maybe not so great." Link perked his ears and turned in place, "What about your Light Magic?"

Zelda twiddled with her fingers, "Granted by the Light Spirits."

"Could you use it again?"

Zelda nodded slowly, "I think so, I remember the feeling."

"Feeling, huh?"

Zelda perked her head and saw Link tending a hand to her. There was faint music around them, carried by the wind from what Zelda thought was Telma's direction.

"Care to dance with me?"

"What was all this talk about magic, though?"

"I was thinking that you could maybe scare the people you don't like with it."

Zelda let a laugh out to the sky and hit Link on the chest, "Real funny, Link."

Link cocked his head, "You could always tell them that they can have a duel with me for whatever reason."

Zelda thought for a second, "As in, for example, Sir Luco saying I'm still to young to know about ruling?" Link nodded. "I'll have you know, Sir Luco," Zelda's voice was high-pitched and her noise was pointing upward in mock disdain, "that your words are meriting of fighting for my honor, your opponent shall be Sir Link," Zelda fluttered her eyes and Link nodded with strenght.

"You could always add a 'prepare to die' at the end to be more dramatic."

Zelda hid her face on Link's neck and crossed her arms behind his head, "You'll have a queue forming by the end of the week."

"And I wouldn't mind it one tiny bit."

Zelda twirled with Link under the moon, surrounded by faint laughter from afar and the smell of food. When her legs wobbled and her head felt light Link pushed her to himself, "Easy, now." Her hands were on his chest and her head pounded slightly but Link was swaying her with care and Zelda closed her eyes.

She felt she was fading out, so she clinged to him.

Robert had started to look around whenever he found a group of people. It was almost a sure way to find Link. He had been helping around as always but now people wanted to look at Her Majesty's favorite, at the Council's approved, at the monster slayer, at the - only in hushes - next king, at the Hero.

Their Hero.

Whether they believed or not was of little importance. Others did and others approved, and that's what mattered.

And though Link always shared with him how difficult it was to deal with so many people he always had a smile in place, he always handled himself perfectly and now, as Robert walked to him, Link was talking amicably with a woman and her little son.

William was next to Link, just a little farther to give him space, but overlooking his every movement, his every words, his-

Link caught sight of Robert and bowed slightly to come to him. The woman looked back and smiled to Robert, the little boy looked awestruck and Link trotted the last steps to him.

"Hey."

Robert patted Link on the shoulder, William walked to them with his hands behind his back, "Gaining more favor among the people, huh?"

Link made a face, "I'm going to help her father harvest some pumpkins, actually, could use an extra hand."

Robert smirked, "Isn't that what William is for?"

William made a point to make his shoes clink together, "You know why I'm here, Rob."

Robert bared his teeth with disgust, like every other time William called him by that nickname, "Actually, and if it isn't a bother, could I have some time alone with Link?"

William nodded, "As long as you don't make a scene."

Link elbowed William, but the man dodged with a sidestep.

Robert stayed silent till William had walked far enough, "So," he started, "everything all right with your babysitter?"

Link snickered, "Yes, everything's great."

"I still can't believe you have someone tailing you."

"It's necessary."

Robert sighed. It was common knowledge that Link was the only man Her Highness was willing to accept, and as soon as the Council had begun to fix the paperwork to hold the wedding it had been decided that someone had to counsel and protect Link from doing anything 'unapproved of'.

Link had been too happy to oblige and if his relaxed demeanor wasn't telling, the way he just lighted up when seeing Zelda was enough for Robert to keep his mouth shut.

"You'll be a great King."

Link snorted, "Thanks."

Robert squinted his eyes, "I'm being serious."

Link nodded, straightened himself, "I know, I appreciate it." Link glanced back at William, he was concentrated on the far off mountains, "So, what was it you wanted to tell me?"

Robert coughed into his fist, "Well, It's... not really complicated, but I worry how it could be perceived, so I wanted to at least make it clear to you, because we both know people love gossip and-"

"Robert."

Robert breathed in, "My mother asked me to come back."

Robert said it in one breath, slow enough to be heard but with the desire for it to be done fast, his heart was calm but his mind was jumbled. How was he supposed to explain to Link that he wanted but also detested even thinking of going back?

"Oh, that's good."

Robert looked up, "What?"

Link tried his best to sound unconcerned, "Robert, it's been almost a year now, you can't... you shouldn't be like that with your family."

Robert opened his mouth, but Link spoke faster.

"And I'm not saying forgive them, I'm not saying make it as if nothing happened. But... be at peace with what you choose. Do it for yourself."

Robert frowned, "I know." He knew, it was just...

Link rested his arm over Robert's back, "Are you worried about what I would think about it?"

Robert's heart screamed and Robert couldn't meet Link's eyes, "I-"

"Because now, frankly, you could get you surname back and it wouldn't change a thing between us, all right?"

Robert didn't dare look up. He nodded.

"I mean, don't you agree? You've followed me through literal mounts of lava, that changes things, doesn't it?"

'Thank you', thought Robert, but he could only nod with his head.

Link squeezed Robert's shoulder, "So go back and see your family, if you want to stay you can."

"And if I want to come back?"

Link made a face, "Buddy, you don't even have to ask."

William had his eyebrow up, "People are coming and you've already made him cry, great job."

Link looked up with an apology on his face, "He's happy crying."

"Sure," William answered, "but you already have a date with some pumpkins that need harvesting, so maybe you should go there now. Let me take care of him."

Link looked at Robert, "You okay?"

Robert snorted, "Yeah, happy crying, you know? Go and be busy."

Link walked away but looked back a few times before disappearing.

"Aren't you worried he'll mess up?"

"He doesn't. He has never messed up, not since the talk about marriage started."

Robert sniffled, "Are you happy?"

"Ecstatic," William gave Robert a once-over and then handed him a handkerchief. "If you really go back to your family..."

Robert readied himself to William's next words. Words born out of worry for Link, for Her Highness, for the Kingdom. Words Robert already knew would arise.

"...do come back to see him, I'm sure he'll miss you."

Robert looked up, and he felt he wanted to cry again. "Ha," he mocked, "even you fell for him?"

William shrugged, "He has a way with people."

#the legend of zelda #twilight princess #fanfic #zelink #melted #ch.54

8 notes · View notes

write-havoc · 6 years

Text

This Is How I Disappear Ch. 51

Summary: A girl named Chuck finds herself in the exact place she doesn't want to be, living with violent men in a desolate nursing home. After her former gym teacher finds her, will he be the savior she was looking for?

Fandom: The Walking Dead AU

Pairing: Negan/Original Female Character

Status: Ongoing

Contains: swearing, violence, sexual assault, blood, smut

Intended for readers 18+ of age only

Masterlist

Chuck wraps her blanket around her and watches from her window as the sun comes up. Her nerves had kept her from sleeping after what happened at dinner last night. Eldritch had scared Chuck more than she ever had been before. But Chuck wasn’t really scared for herself; she was scared for her baby.

More than anything she wants to get out of this so she can keep her baby safe.

Her daily oatmeal comes about a couple hours later. Despite the fact that she doesn’t have much of an appetite, she makes sure to finish it all. She didn’t eat much last night and she won’t get anything else to eat until dinner later. No matter how she feels, she knows she needs to eat enough for the baby.

After her empty bowl is taken away, she curls up in her bed under her scratchy blanket to actually try to get some sleep. Because what else is she going to do? There is literally nothing in her room for her to occupy her time with. The hours spent awake last night must have affected her because it doesn’t take long for her to fall asleep.

Some time later, she gets woken up by a gentle shaking of her shoulder.

“Chuck,” a voice whispers beside her. “Chuck, wake up.”

Chuck opens her eyes and jolts more fully awake when she sees Andy crouched beside her cot.

He instantly covers her mouth and brings his pointer finger up to his lips. “Shh,” he whispers. “I’m not gonna hurt you. I want to get you out of here.” He slowly takes his hand off of her mouth.

“You’re going to help me?” she asks quietly.

“What happened last night...” He shakes his head. “It’s not right. Eldritch is going to hurt you if you stay here.”

Chuck looks into his eyes and sees no reason not to trust him. “How can we get out?”

He stands up and holds his hand out to help her get out of the bed. Chuck pushes the blanket off of her and stands up with his help.

“Where are your clothes?” He starts to look around the room as if he’s searching for them.

“I don’t have any other clothes. This is all Eldritch gave me.”

“Shit.” He finds her slippers and throws them down to her feet. “We don’t have time to get you anything. Most of the guys are in the conference room waiting to get word back on Negan, so we should leave now.”

“Eldritch is meeting with Negan right now?” Chuck asks as she toes the slippers on. Eldritch usually told her when he was going to meet with him.

“No. Eldritch is here. But after yesterday, Negan wants daily pictures of you, so someone got sent out with the picture I took last night,” he explains with regret on his face. “Eldritch is excited to see how Negan reacts to it.”

Chuck nods. “How are we gonna get out of here?”

“We just need to get to the stairwell. All the guys are on the top two floors, so if we can get past that, we can get down to the basement pretty easily.”

“We can get past the dead through the basement?” Chuck asks, knowing that Eldritch and his men aren’t the only threat here. They also need to get around the massive herd of dead surrounding the building, as well.

Andy begins to explain. “There’s a tunnel in the basement that leads away from the building. It’s how we get in and out.” He opens her door slightly and peeks out. “We need to leave now before someone comes to check on you.” He takes Chuck by the hand and leads her through the door quietly, but quickly.

They move through the hallway in the opposite direction of the conference room where the meeting is being held, trying to be as fast and quiet as possible. When they are just about to the stairwell, they hear people just beyond the door. As quickly as they can, they duck into a large room filled with empty cubicles and wait until the coast is clear.

After a few minutes, they get to the stairwell and descend the stairs all the way down to the first floor. Because everyone is on the upper floors, they no longer have to be as quiet and careful, so they rush around to a back stairwell. Not that anyone would be able to hear them anyway. The sound of the dead outside is almost deafening from this close.

When they get to the door, Andy carefully opens it and they descend a staircase to emerge into a subterranean tunnel.

“There’s guys at the end where the garage is,” Andy explains quietly as they move further in the tunnel.

“How are we gonna get past them?”

“We’re not. There’s like a maintenance shaft up that way.” He points to where he’s talking about. “I found it not long after I got here.” He turns back to look at her. “I was keeping my options open, just in case...” He shrugs.

They walk down a short hallway off the main one and get to a door. Andy rushes Chuck through it then closes the door behind them. They are in a small room and the only thing in it is a ladder leading up to a manhole.

Andy turns back to Chuck. “I’m not even sure if anyone knows this is here. No one ever watches it.” He moves to put his foot on the first rung. “Stay here until I check it out, though. Just in case. I’ll make sure it’s safe for you then I’ll call down.” He climbs the ladder and moves the manhole cover as slowly as possible, in case someone is actually watching it. It must be clear enough, because he exits the hole.

Chuck waits for his signal, but it takes a while. She strains her ears to listen for any possible voices to indicate that Eldritch’s men had found Andy, but she doesn’t hear any. She does start to hear some shuffling and then possibly growls of the dead, which scares her a little. If the dead start to pour in, she’d have no choice but to go back into the building. Back to Eldritch. That doesn’t happen, though, because several minutes later, Andy pops his head into the hole and gestures for her to come up.

When she gets to the surface, she sees about ten biters littering the ground around them. Apparently, that’s what delayed Andy.

“Are you okay?” Chuck asks him.

“I’m fine. I sprained my ankle kicking that one’s brains in, though.” He points to one of the dead.

“Do you want me to look at it?”

“Nah. We should get moving.”

The manhole exited into dense woods and they continue to maneuver through the trees for a while, albeit a little slowly because of Andy’s injured ankle.

Chuck wraps her arms around herself, trying to keep warm. Her thin nightgown does nothing to shield her from the chilly November temperatures. Not to mention the fact that that’s literally all she’s wearing since Eldritch had taken away her bra and underwear last night.

“Maybe if we find a road, it’ll be easier on your ankle,” Chuck suggests.

Andy turns his head to look back at her. He immediately starts to take his jacket off upon seeing her shivering. “Here.” He holds the garment out to her.

She accepts it. “Thanks.” She throws the jacket on and instantly melts into its warmth.

“I want to avoid the roads,” he answers her previous thought as he turns back and keeps walking. “I don’t know when Eldritch will realize that you’re gone. But when he does, he’ll send people out to find you. We’ll be safer in the woods.”

“You don’t happen to have one of Negan’s radios to get in touch with him, would you?” Chuck asks hopefully, but knowing that it’s a long shot.

“No,” he answers with a sigh. “Eldritch destroyed them when me and Conner first got here. He said he didn’t trust them.” He wipes at his brow. “Or maybe he didn’t trust us .”

“How long will it take us to get to The Sanctuary.”

“We’re not going there. Alexandria’s closer. It should be about nine miles away. Besides, Eldritch will expect us to head back home. This way’s safer.”

That makes sense, but it still makes Chuck a little sad. All she wants is to go home.

They walk for a little while more, until they encounter some of the dead. Andy starts to take them out with his knife, but more keep coming. One comes after Chuck, but Andy is busy with two more that are closer to him. Chuck searches around her for a weapon and finds a sturdy branch that she swings as hard as she can into the rotting corpse’s head. It falls limp to the ground in two hits. She turns back to Andy and takes out one of the ones he was struggling with just as he plunges his knife into the other’s temple. They both fall to the ground at the same time.

“Thanks,” he says with a huff of his breath.

“You’re welcome,” she replies with a smile.

“Let’s take a little rest,” Andy says, though he’s out of breath.

“Yeah, okay.”

Chuck feels almost bad. Here Andy is, risking his life to get her home with no personal gain. And it’s dangerous. He’s already taken out maybe twenty biters all with just a knife, just to keep Chuck safe.

“Thank you,” Chuck genuinely says to Andy as he leans back on a tree. “For doing all of this.”

Andy nods slowly. “You don’t need to thank me. I’m just doing the right thing.”

“But doing the right thing can be difficult. So I’m thanking you.”

He looks away. “You were right before. I never should’ve followed Conner. I knew deep down that he wasn’t the same. He wasn’t my brother anymore. Not the brother I always knew.” He scrubs his hand down his cheek. “I’m not sure when he started to change. It was before you...” he looks away for a moment, not finishing the sentence. “But he blamed you for everything anyway. I should’ve stood up to him. None of this would have happened if I did.” He let’s out a sigh.

“It’s not your fault. Conner’s your brother. That’s not a bond you can easily break.”

He casts his head down. “I know what’s going to happen to my brother. Negan is going to win all this because he always does. And he’ll kill Conner.” He looks up to Chuck. “I’m okay with that.”

“You don’t know...” she tries to say the words to make Andy feel better, but she knows it’s true, too. Negan will kill Conner for what he did. And he’ll probably want to kill Andy, too. But she won’t let that happen. She’ll convince Negan that Andy shouldn’t be punished.

“Come on.” Andy pushes off the tree. “We should keep moving.”

They continue walking in the woods for a while longer. But when they encounter and fight off a few more dead, Andy slows down much more. Reluctantly, they emerge from the woods to follow a road bordering a residential area. The more even ground should allow them to move much more quickly.

“Let me look at your ankle,” Chuck prods as they walk on the road. Andy has a very visible limp now and Chuck wants to help him.

“I’m fine. It’s just sore. Besides, there’s nothing you can do.” He looks over to her with a serious expression, but it turns lighter. “Unless you have some ice packs and ace bandages up your sleeve.”

She chuckles. “I guess not. Maybe we should find a car-”

“Shh!” He stops dead in his tracks and seems to listen to something for a moment. “Move!” He suddenly yells and grabs Chuck by the arm to pull her off the road and into the woods. Just a moment later, a truck comes flying around the bend and slams on its brakes, screeching to a halt not far from where Chuck and Andy were just standing.

Chuck and Andy run off into the woods, but Chuck slips and falls down a steep embankment, sliding on her legs and butt more than tumbling, but still losing her slippers in the process. When she gets up and dusts herself off, she thinks that she’s alone by the bank of a stream.

She’s startled when Andy comes out of nowhere and grabs her arm to lead her further away. Their progress is halted, however, by the tutting of their pursuer.

“Ah ah ah,” the teasing voice comes from behind them and they turn to see Conner with his gun pointed at them. “Keep your hands away from your gun, Andy.”

Andy pushes Chuck behind him, but she can still peek around him to watch Conner. Andy holds his hand out and away from the gun on his hip, just like Conner said.

“Come on, little brother,” Conner goads. “Just give her to me and we can head back like nothing happened.”

Andy shakes his head. “It’s not right.”

Conner chuckles without humor. “You were always too soft.”

“This isn’t how it should be!” Andy tries to convince his older brother. “We can be better! Negan is right. We should be working with-“

“No!” Conner cuts him off and takes a step towards them. “It’s all or nothing and you know that! You’ve seen it.”

“It doesn’t have to be!”

“Shut up!” Conner takes a breath to calm down. “Shut up and give her to me.”

“I’m not gonna let you take her back to him. You know he’ll never give her back to Negan!”

Chuck tenses at hearing that. The thought of never being with Negan again scares her to death.

“So what!” Conner yells. “You need to stop being so fucking naive! This is how the world works now! And she’s not worth it!”

“No!” Andy shakes his head vehemently. “I’ll stop you from taking her if it’s the last thing I do,” Andy calls out with so much conviction.

Conner stares at Andy for a moment, then shakes his head in disgust. “You stupid son of a bitch.” He chuckles humorlessly. “You got bit coming out here, didn’t you?”

Andy doesn’t say anything, but it’s answer enough.

“You got bit because of that stupid bitch!?” Conner yells in anger.

Chuck moves in closer to Andy and sets her forehead on his back. It makes sense now. Why Andy was slowing down so much. Why he wouldn’t let Chuck look at his ankle. It breaks her heart. She didn’t want Andy to get hurt. And she certainly didn’t wan him to die.

When she pulls away from him, she feels that he has a gun tucked into the back of his pants. She slowly removes it, knowing that Conner can’t see what she’s doing. She’s thinking that maybe she can pass the gun to Andy somehow. To get them both out of this.

“It doesn’t matter, Conner,” Andy responds. “I’m still going to stop you.”

The way Conner sighs makes Chuck know exactly what’s going to happen next. And she’s running out of time.

“You’re already dead, little brother.”

Just as Conner raises his gun to shoot Andy, Chuck steps out and fires the weapon in her hands. The bullet tears through Conner’s neck and he stumbles backwards, dropping the gun he was holding. Chuck recognizes instantly that the bullet must’ve nicked his carotid artery. Conner brings both hands up to his neck to stop the flow of blood from his wound, then falls backward to lay on the ground.

Chuck runs out from behind Andy and throws Conner’s discarded gun further away from him. She then drops to her knees beside him, using her hands to put more pressure on his wound.

“Come here, Andy! I can save him!” She knows there is only a slim chance that he will survive, his blood is spurting out in torrents, staining her hands and clothes. But she has to try. No matter how bad Conner is, Chuck can’t fathom being the one to cut his life short. “Andy-“

Her words are cut short by a shot ringing out very close to her, making her ears ring. Instantly, Conner’s blood stops gushing and Chuck sees the cause. There is now a bullet hole in Conner’s forehead. Her eyes move up to see Andy with a gun still pointed down toward Conner.

“Why’d you do that?!” she cries almost angrily. “I could’ve saved him.”

“No you couldn’t.” Andy stumbles backward and slumps down on a tree.

“Andy!” Chuck rushes over to him.

“Guess I’m one of the lucky ones the virus works fast on.” He chuckles a little, though it’s not funny.

“Why didn’t you tell me? We could’ve done something. Amputated your foot to stop the spread.” Chuck feels her eyes well up.

“I wouldn’t have gotten you out if we did.”

Her tears start to flow. “We could’ve tried.”

“You need to go.” He tries to push her to stand.

“No. We can go together.” She tries to pull him up with her.

He pushes her hands off of him. “I’m slowing you down. And I fucked up my ribs when I fell down that hill. You’ll be faster without me.”

She kneels back down to be ay eye level with him. “I don’t care! I’m not leaving you here to die alone.” In the back of her mind, she knows she’s being irrational. But she just can’t leave him. Not after what he did for her. He gave her a chance.

“Just go, Chuck. The gunshot will probably attract the dead.”

“No! You can’t make me leave without you!” All she wants is for him to get up and keep going. If he does, she can try to forget the fact that he’s going to die.

Andy looks at her for a moment then sighs. “Promise me you’ll take my gun.”

“What?” she asks in confusion.

“Just promise that you’ll take my gun with you.”

He seems almost upset, so she agrees, wanting to say anything to get him to keep going. “Okay. I’ll take the gun.”

He nods and smiles at her. “I’m sorry, Chuck.”

Before Chuck even realizes what’s going on, Andy raises the gun in his hand and puts it to his head, pulling the trigger. He slumps forward and into Chuck’s arms, all life leaving him.

“Andy! No! Andy!” She holds him to her chest and sobs. “Why did you do that?” She rocks him back and forth. “I’m so sorry, Andy.”

She’s not sure how long she holds him, crying herself out. But when she starts to hear some biters approaching, she gently lays Andy down and picks up his gun, just like he asked her to. She takes off Andy’s belt, along with his holster and knife with its sheath and puts it around her waist.

By the time she’s done all that, the dead are getting close. And there are a lot of them. She starts to run from the scene and to the direction of the road, all the while trying to keep it together. She has this strange calmness to her that surprises even her. Like she had made a deal with herself to delay her emotions until it was safe to let them flow.

When she gets to the road, she starts to follow it in the direction she and Andy were originally headed, though she’s more walking beside the road then on it in case more cars approach. Even though the rough terrain is tearing at her bare feet. She curses herself for not taking Andy’s shoes. Then she curses herself for even thinking that.

When the sun starts to set, Chuck knows she has to find a place to stay for the night. It is already starting to get much colder and the temperature will only continue to drop. Plus, she doesn’t exactly know where she is. She knows that Alexandria should be in the direction that she’s been heading, but she was hoping to see some signs for it for more definite directions. But any signs will be impossible to see in the dark.

She’s not exactly in a good place to stay the night, being surrounded by forest. There is no way she can spend the night outdoors with absolutely no provisions. But further up ahead, she sees that there is a car in a ditch. If she’s lucky, it may be unlocked.

She cautiously approaches the car in case there is a biter inside, but finds it empty. Tugging on the driver’s side door, Chuck is relieved to see that it comes right open. But that’s where her luck ends because there is absolutely nothing else in the car. No food. No water. No blankets. Nothing. But at least she can sleep fairly safely in the car with the doors locked.

Chuck crawls into the back seat and tries to curl her legs up under the jacket Andy had given her to keep warm. The car actually does shield her some from the cold air and she’s able to get somewhat comfortable on the seat.

Chuck sleeps off and on most of the night. She is tired, but she finds herself jolting awake as soon as she gets to sleep. At some point late in the night when she’s somewhere in between sleeping and awake, she ends up remembering something that she had completely forgot about.

——— Chuck’s POV ———

— 7 years ago —

The door to Coach Negan’s office is agar, but he’s not in there. I know he should be around, though. School just let out, but the teachers always stay a bit longer. I’m only still here because my mom texted me at the last minute to tell me that she had to work over and won’t be able to pick me up. And because I’m on crutches and can’t get around quickly, I missed the bus.

Now I have to wait around for my mom to get done so she can take me home. I was just going to wait around outside, but it started to rain. Just my luck. I figured Coach Negan wouldn’t mind if I hung around.

I push the door open and hobble into the room, plopping myself in the chair in front of his desk to wait for him. I don’t know what he’s doing that’s taking so long, but I start to get bored so my eyes start to wander around his room. A loose picture on his desk jumps out as interesting, so I slide it over to me to inspect it.

It’s old. Looks like it’s from maybe the sixties or seventies. It’s of a beautiful young woman with straight long, jet black hair parted down the middle. I smile when I realize that this must be Negan’s mom, because she looks very similar to him, dimples and all. But she has lighter eyes instead of his dark ones, making her look more angelic. I flip the picture over to see pretty handwriting spelling out “Madeline 18yo”.

“What the fuck are you doing in here?” Negan calls out from the doorway, startling me.

I let out a yip and quickly put the picture back on his desk. “Sorry, Coach.”

He laughs. “Calm the fuck down,” he says not in a serious way and comes in further to sit behind his desk. “But seriously, what the fuck are you doing here? I told you we weren’t meeting here anymore.”

“I didn’t think that meant that I couldn’t ever be in here.”

He stares at me because I haven’t actually answered his question.

I let out a sigh. “My mom’s gonna be late picking me up and it’s raining outside, so I thought I could wait with you until you leave. But if you want me to just wait outside...” I start to get up, but he stops me.

“Sit the fuck down,” he says quickly. “I’m not gonna make you stand out in the goddamn rain. When’s your mom gonna get here?”

I sit back down in the chair. “She said like seven.”

He stares at me and huffs out a breath from his nose. “Text your mom and see if it’s fuckin’ okay for me to take you home.”

“She’s not gonna mind.”

“Just fuckin’ text her.”

“Fine.” I get my phone out and text her to ask if it’s okay for Negan to give me a ride. Just like I thought she would, she says okay. “She says she doesn’t mind,” I reply a little smugly. Since I was right.

“Show me.”

I let out a huff and turn my phone back to him so he can read the text. As soon as I turn the phone back, I get another text from my mom saying that she wouldn’t mind if Negan “gave her a ride”. It makes me snort out a laugh. I’m so thankful that he didn’t see that.

“What?” he asks at my reaction.

“Nothing,” I’m quick to answer.

He narrows his eyes at me. “Whatever. I gotta do some shit before I leave, so I guess you’re stuck here til I’m fuckin’ done.” He puts his glasses on then turns to his computer to type on it.

The fact that he’s using only his pointer fingers on the keyboard makes me chuckle a little under my breath. Then when he starts to get frustrated with what he’s doing, or not doing, I guess, I start to laugh.

“What the fuck is so funny?”

“You’re not very good with computers, are you?”

“No. I fuckin’ hate computers. I was fine putting the grades in my fuckin’ grade book with a fuckin’ pen, but now I gotta put shit into this goddamn fuckin’ program that never fucking works!”

I laugh again. “Do you want some help?”

He turns the monitor around so we both can see it and slides the keyboard over to me. When I realize that this program is linked to students’ personal records, I start to feel a little guilty.

“I don’t think I’m supposed to see this stuff, Coach.”

“What the fuck are you gonna do with this information?”

I shrug. “I don’t know. Nothing I guess.”

“I trust you not to change anything. So fuckin’ help me.”

I end up explaining the program to him, because apparently no one really did, and put all the grades and stuff into it. It really doesn’t take too long. Especially because I don’t have to stop and swear every other second.

“Well, are you ready to go?” he asks as he stands from the desk.

“Yeah.”

We both gather all of our things and head out to his truck. He helps me get in, then throws my crutches in the back. I start to tell him where I live, but he says he remembers. Then, we head off.

“So, what does your mother do?” he turns his head to ask.

“She’s a nurse. I guess someone had to leave early, so she has to stay over.”

He nods. “I guess that’s an important fuckin’ job.”

“She likes it.”

We get to my house and he helps me out of his truck. After he brings me my crutches, he walks with me to my front door. When I struggle a little to unlock it because I have to juggle the keys and balance on my crutches, Negan takes the keys from my hand and unlocks it himself.

“Are you gonna be okay by yourself?” he asks as I go through the door.

“I’m eighteen. I think I can manage being on my own for a few hours.”

He closes the door and sets the keys down on the table close by. “You got something to eat for dinner.”

I throw my backpack on the couch and hobble to the kitchen. “I think there’s some hot pockets in the freezer.”

“Hot pockets?” he repeats with an incredulous tone. “I’ll get you a pizza delivered.”

Before I can say anything, Negan has his phone dialed and to his ear.

“Yeah. I need a pizza delivered to...?” He looks at me.

“775 Massapontax Church Road,” I answer.”

“775 Massapontax Church Road,” he repeats into the phone. “Uh... medium pepperoni?” He looks to me and I nod. “Yeah. Thanks.” He hangs up. “Twenty minutes,” he says as he puts his phone away.

“Thanks. You didn’t have to do that, though.”

“I know.”

I get into the refrigerator and pull out a jug of fruit punch, setting it on the counter. Before I can get to the cupboard with the cups, Negan gets in there and grabs two glasses, then pours the juice in both. When he turns to put the juice back in the refrigerator, I let out a huff.

“I can do things myself,” I say with some attitude as I plop down on one of the stools at the counter.

He turns back to lift his glass to his mouth. “That’s a funny way of saying ‘thank you’.” He downs the entire glass in one long drink.

I take a sip of my own. “Well, how would you feel if people kept taking things out of your hands and doing everything for you?”

“Fucking grateful! That shit sounds awesome!”

I scrunch up my face at him.

“Wait til you’re older and no one does shit for you. Then you’ll fuckin’ thank me.”

What he says suddenly makes me realize that Negan is the closest thing I have to a friend. So when I move away to college, I’m gonna have no one. I really doubt Negan is going to want to hang around me after I graduate. I know he only cares about me because I’m his student and he’s a good teacher. Once I’m not his student anymore, he’ll move on and forget all about me.

“What?” his voice brings me from my thoughts.

“What what?”

“Your face looks weird.”

“My face always looks weird,” I joke.

“No. You look sad.”

I shrug.

“If you don’t want me to fuckin’ help you out that much, I won’t.”

I shake my head. “It’s not that. I don’t mind you doing things for me, but I just want you to know that I can do them myself.”

“I know you can. I don’t think you’re fuckin’ stupid.”

I nod.

He clears his throat. “So, you get your prom tickets yet,” he changes the subject.

I laugh at him.

He narrows his eyes. “What?”

“Why on earth would I go to the prom?”

“Because you’re a fuckin’ senior and everyone goes to their senior prom.”

“Losers like me don’t go to their senior prom.”

“You’re not a loser.”

I let out a breath. “So I should spend all kinds of money on tickets, hair, shoes, not to mention a dress , just so I can sit around by myself and listen to crappy pop music that I can’t stand?”

He shrugs. “Well, it’s my fuckin’ year to chaperone, so we could make fun of all the slutty dresses that really shouldn’t pass the dress code and all the pathetic boys that have no fuckin’ chance of getting in those dresses.”

“As fun as that sounds, I think I’ll pass. Because when you’re busy doing your chaperone thing, I’ll be all alone.”

“How the fuck would you be alone? That place is gonna be packed.”

“I’m never more alone than when I’m with a bunch of people,” I say with my eyes cast down. I really don’t know why I said that out loud.

When he doesn’t say anything, I look up at him. He’s staring at me.

“What?” I ask.

“What the fuck do you mean ‘what’? You can’t just say shit like that and expect me not to worry about you.”

I look back down. “You don’t have to worry,” I mutter.

“Goddamnit, Chuck,” he says under his breath and scratches at the back of his neck. “What can I do?”

“What can you do ?” I ask, confused at what he’s saying.

“To make things better for you,” he clarifies.

I have to look away because I can’t look at him after he says that. This is all so embarrassing. I never really like to talk about how I feel with people. But what he said is also really touching at the same time.

I don’t get to answer because the doorbell rings. Thankfully. Negan answers the door, pays the delivery guy, and brings the pizza back into the kitchen to set it on the counter. While he is doing that, I get out two plates.

“I don’t need a plate. This is all for you, Chuck.”

“You’re not gonna eat with me?” I open the box and put two slices on my plate.

He stares at the food for a moment like he’s debating. “Maybe one slice.” He grabs one and starts to eat it without even putting it on the plate. “You need me to cut your pizza in little fuckin’ bites so you don’t choke,” he jokes.

“Ha ha. Very funny.” I take a bite and pretend to actually choke just to joke back at him.

“Shit!” Negan throws his crust on the counter and starts to rush over, but I laugh before he gets to me. “Jesus Christ, Chuck! You about gave me a heart attack. Now I really am gonna cut your fuckin’ food up.”

I laugh. “Are you gonna do the whole plane-coming-in-for-a-landing thing?”

“Shit yeah, I am!”

“That’s stupid!” I laugh harder.

“ You brought it up!”

After the laughs die down and more of the pizza gets eaten, Negan looks back at me with a more serious face. “Do you talk to your mom about that stuff? About you feeling alone?”

I sigh, not wanting to talk about this again. “I’m fine, Coach,” I say instead of actually answering.

“I’m gonna talk to your mom.”

“Please don’t do that, Coach.” I let out a huff. “She’ll make a big deal out of it.”

“It is a big fuckin’ deal, Chuck.”

“It isn’t. Doesn’t everybody feel alone some of the time?” I try to reason with him so he drops it.

“Is it ‘some of the time’ for you, or most of it?”

I look away. I don’t want to tell him that the only times I don’t feel alone are when I’m with him. I think he’d probably take it the wrong way, like I have a schoolgirl crush on him like all the other girls. But it’s not like that. He just makes me feel... like I’m not weird or a freak. Like maybe there are people outside of my immediate family that would care about me.

“That’s what I fuckin’ thought.” He takes my lack of answer as confirmation of what he said.

“I’m okay, though. Really. I mean, I’m actually better than I have been at some points. You really don’t have to worry.” I look up at him with wide eyes and hope he accepts what I’m saying.

He lets out a long sigh. “You can’t fuckin’ expect me to just stop wanting what’s best for you.”

I smile. “I think that’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me.”

“Don’t go fuckin’ spreading around that I’m a nice guy.”

I chuckle. “I won’t. I’ll make sure to complain about you in public.”

“That’s my good girl.” He looks at his watch. “Shit. Lucille’s gonna think I’m dead in a fuckin’ ditch somewhere.” He walks to the door, but turns back to me. “You can always fuckin’ talk to me, Chuck.”

“I know.”

He gives me a smile. “See ya tomorrow.” He walks through the door, leaving me feeling weird about what had happened.

——— ———

Chuck jolts fully awake again, only this time, her cheeks are wet with tears. That’s all it takes for the floodgates to open. She sobs openly, letting out all of the emotions she’s kept at bay for the last few days. It sends her into a panic attack. A pretty bad one. And Negan isn’t there to help her through it.

Remembering the tempo of his heartbeat on her chest as he held her, she uses her fingers to tap the rhythm over her own heart. She focuses on it, counting the beats out under her breath. After some time, her own heartbeat slows to match the timing of her taps.

When she’s calmed down, she still finds herself emotional. What happened to Andy is truly heartbreaking. He made a mistake and followed his brother, but he redeemed himself only to get bitten and die. Chuck lets out a heavy breath, not wanting to think about it and get worked up again. She wants to focus on the positive. That she’s much closer to getting home than she was yesterday. That she could see Negan again in just a few hours.

Exhaustion finally wins out, and Chuck falls into a deep and dreamless sleep.

#negan #negan fanfiction #negans thirst squad #negan x oc #negan x original female character #negan x ofc #negan / ofc #negan / oc #negan / original female character #jdm #jeffrey dean morgan #the walking dead fanfiction #the walking dead au #the walking dead #this is how i disappear #tihid #writehavoc writes #writehavoc this is how i disappear

7 notes · View notes