The Honey House

The Lion Tamer

The matchstick fort was just as Negan had remembered, except of course for the frost that glazed the blades of grass and topped the wooden beams to remind everyone that winter would soon be here. He drove right up to the gate and climbed out of the car, leaning one hand on the door frame while the two guards trained their rifles in readiness. He'd never spoken to either of these women but he could see the recognition slowly sinking into their eyes as their lips spread into easy smiles.

"Ladies," he nodded with a panty dropping grin, or at least that's what he liked to think, when he turned up the charm, not that is charm had been working too well in these parts the last time he was here.

Without another word the women scrambled from their post and the gates began to creak open wide enough for him to drive inside the walls. The planters weren't as green as they had been but it was still just as beautiful and it still had the same feeling of magic whistling between the long rows of washing lines.

Negan climbed out of his car for the second time, spotting Zuzu darting between people and planters in pursuit of one very unhappy looking chicken. Her little legs were clad in long wellies over thick socks and her bobble hat was desperately clinging to her head with every bounced step. She stopped when she saw him, her eyes growing wide, her attention suddenly undivided allowing the chicken to make it's great escape.

"Hey kid," Negan held up his hand in a half formed wave before turning to retrieve the cardboard box that was nestled in his passenger seat. When he turned back Zuzu was still there, the look on her face just as curious.

He kneeled, dropping the box to his feet and opening up the flaps to reach inside. One hand wrapped around a child sized pitcher's mitt while the other grabbed a baseball as he began to wonder why the hell he was kneeling before a kid with a box full of presents. He couldn't remember exactly what had been going through his head when he'd picked these up on a supply run but he supposed it didn't matter much now, people were watching, he needed to make his move or look like a fucking idiot.

He stood with his gifts in hand and threw the ball in the air to catch it behind his back. "I figured someone oughta teach you how to throw a curveball like a badass."

Zuzu cocked her head to the side, the bobble hat finally losing purchase on her head as she half took a step forward, changed her mind and scampered away without looking back. No mitt, no ball, no hat, no chicken.

He'd shot, he'd failed and he felt surprisingly deflated standing like a prick with his little girls baseball mitt outstretched and unclaimed.

"I think it's a sweet gesture. I'm sure she'll come around," a sing song voice cooed over him as a waft of sour milk tinged his nose. He turned to see Carly with her baby strapped to her chest and a enthusiastic smile of big teeth.

Sweet. Jesus Fuck, it was like a dirty word and he didn't want to be anywhere near the fucking thing. "Of all the things I am darling, sweet is definitely not fucking one of them."

"You keep telling yourself that Negan but I call it as I see it," she stroked the soft baby hair or her papoosed kid and flounced away like mother earth as he caught sight of two more women giving him lopsided smiles. The whole thing left a bad damn taste in his mouth. He wasn't being nice to the kid for altruistic reasons, fuck that, he was being nice for his own gain. That was his story and he was sticking to that mother fucker like a barnacle to the hull of a sinking ship.

He threw the mitt and ball into the box with a miserable grunt as the door of the house swung open, the movement catching his attention. He looked up to see Grandma Ellie and his smile returned although it wasn't exactly matched by hers. Her lips were pressed in a hard line, her eyes crinkling into a disapproving frown as she dried her wrinkled hands on her bright yellow pinny. "She's gone," she said, her voice empty of any emotion.