ELEANOR . NEGAN

106.

Time was harsh on the people who wanted to live – survive. Like there was an opposing force (Hornsby and Leah) eager to prevent all happiness. It didn't help that the day had fallen into darkness and there were echoing walker growls in the far distance.

Her leg bounced up and down in the cramped space as she diligently played with her knife, watching as it delved around her fingers and against the smoothness of her palm. Please be okay. Maggie and Glenn's group has gone back to Hilltop to form a trap, a way to stop Leah and the Commonwealth – it was Eleanor's idea.

"Blaze it."

Elijah widened his eyes, "Set it on fire?"

"Blow it up."

If anything went wrong (to which, when does it not?) then more guilt would be placed in her already guilty thoughts and body. Sometimes, when the darkness of the night caught up to her and cocooned in an uncomfortable hold, she would blame her scars on herself – pain that she didn't inflict.

"Eleanor." It was oddly reassuring that his voice was the only thing that pulled her out of those sick reveries she found herself in, and even in the shadowed hole, she found comfort in his equally softened eyes. "I can hear you thinking from here, doll."

She curiously looked around to try and spot any listeners but even if you tried not to, the place was so cramped that it was inevitable. Elle huffed and padded closer to him. "I'm worried."

He scoffed, jokily almost, as he chucked an arm around her waist. "Would be surprised if you weren't." Then because it was Negan, his lips pressed comfortably to her temple and hummed a small tune against her skin. "I'm here, sunshine."

"I know." She mindlessly reached for his hand, tracing her fingertip up the underside and along the prominent bone. Then she kissed his slightly bruised knuckles (a discolouration from the constant violence they never got out of) and rolled her head against his shoulder. She wanted to say so much more but she couldn't, not with a snoring Hershel before her, not with a huddled sleeping Annie and Frank – she just couldn't.

So, she kept her mouth shut.

"Ellie," He asked. She hummed in recognition. "If I wake up and your pretty ass isn't next to me, then I'm gonna lose my shit. Got it?"

She rolled her eyes. "So dramatic-"

"No, realistic." He corrected.

An illicit laugh spilled behind her cracked lip and a smile made way onto his features. The night was bringing him close to a much needed sleep, so he held onto Eleanor tighter.

Not tight enough.

-

It was too dark to keep going, too cold to move around in just a black tee. It was uncomfortable, eerie, but he- they kept pushing because this fight wasn't over until it was over. They all as a collective group nimbly stood over a bloodied Commonwealth soldier.

"His troopers are here. He's got to be close." Said Gabriel, juggling an AR in his hands like it was normal for a whole priest to do so.

Daryl looked at the man for a split second before paying attention to his surroundings, an act he shared all too well with someone he hasn't seen in nearly seven months. "Yeah," he answered meekly.