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The man is so fucking cherry.
His forlorn expression, staring straight ahead with something like harried desperation. His thunderstruck stance, unmoving.
I just slid my dick down your throat and you thanked me for it.
The visualization is enough to make Negan's dick twitch, to make him want to think up some analogy for Rick's ass.
Really though, it'll just have to do.
He'd whispered it lowly in Rick's ear and revelled in the effect, the helpless anger and bitten down fear in those blue eyes.
He almost laughs and turns back when he hears Michonne spit lowly at Rick, "What'd he say to you?"
And Rick answers so transparently defensive, "Nothing."
Her voice gets lower then, Negan can't hear, but Rick doesn't answer. Just shoots Negan a glare from where he's glanced back to take in the scene. Rick storms away like some bird after a love spat.
The woman sets her jaw and moves in the opposite direction.
He crowds Rick against the the shelves of food next time.
"You got a fucking smart mouth Rick." he says, anger in his tone, "you better watch I don't put it to use."
It harkens back to that hard hitting humiliation, Negan means it to.
Rick stares sullenly at him before lowering his gaze like a bad dog.
They're alone, and Negan takes a moment to steady himself. Still fucking angry.
"Who do you belong to Rick?"
"You." Rick mutters lowly, reluctantly.
"Say it." Negan barks, "and check that fucking attitude soldier."
Rick draws in a heavy breath, tries to lean further back from Negan but there isn't anywhere for him to go.
"I belong to you."
"Half is what I say it is." Negan reiterates. "Your fucking doctor? Mine. Your medicine? Mine. In fact, there's not a single thing in these walls that doesn't fucking belong to me."
Rick nods.
"Your fucking pretty pink mouth? Mine."
Rick exhales shakily. When Negan's men began filtering in the room he side steps out of Negan's grasp like he's afraid he'll be seen as the weak bitch he is.
Negan's lip curls into a snarl at that, but he lets the man get away with it.
He has Rick parade through the streets with him. He brings the camcorder.
Remembers when he told Rick he was hoping for some freaky-deaky and how he'd pointed it at the other man afterwards. How Rick had looked - reluctant and vulnerable, trying to ignore the camera's gaze like some grade A actress in a filthy porno. Negan wishes he'd pressed record.
He makes Rick hold Lucille, as always. Uses every chance he can to equate the bat with his dick.
Whenever Negan points the camera at him Rick gets squirrelly - starts to veer off the main road.
And Negan had watched that fucking video. Rick - all bright eyed and bushy tailed.
"Now now Rick, what's the point of fucking parading you like a prize through the town square if we're not in the fucking town square?" Negan asks when Rick veers sharply into the empty space between two houses.
Rick fidgets, his hand slips and slides down Lucille. Negan isn't quick enough to catch the movement in his viewfinder.
"Do that again Rick. I want proof of how lovingly you caressed my girl just now."
The man grits his teeth, but does it. Negan motions for him to get back on the road but Rick resists. Hangs back with a look on his face that says he knows he's taking a chance. Something a little vulnerable in it.
"Not out there." When Rick says it, it's quiet. Very nearly inaudible.
"What?" Negan says menacingly, just short of deceptively soft. "Speak the fuck up sweetheart. That soft little voice of yours isn't doing us any favors."
Rick frowns at that. Clears his throat and talks louder.
"I-if you're going to film me, do it here."
"You wanna be on my reel, Rick? You know I jack off to it right?" Negan's delighted at the opportunity to skeeve Rick out. Ricks sets his jaw, remains silent.
He films Rick from every angle. Whistles as he lingers on Rick's ass. He stops at Rick's eyes, looks away from the shuttered gaze.
The next time he's in Alexandria he slings an arm around Rick's shoulder. Rick lets him, until there's people present and then he shrugs it off.
It doesn't sit well with Negan. So he tucks his hand into Rick's back pocket instead, Rick's look of utter humiliation is worth it.
But - Rick shrugs him off again when Tara appears from around a corner, pauses and eyes the junction where they meet.
She scuttles off and Negan is pissed. It's less scorn at being rejected and more simmering rage at Rick's non-compliance and its implications. It means he's not afraid anymore.
"What the fuck was that Rick." He asks, grin dangerous.
Rick doesn't say anything. His hand comes up to swipe nervously at his mouth. Negan scoffs in annoyance.
"Now, Ricky. You're hurting my feelings. I know you didn't mean to because when my feelings get hurt? Somebody dies."
Rick trembles a little at that and Negan feels a vicious surge of satisfaction.
"Say you're fucking sorry." Negan jeers happily.
Rick tries, Negan thinks. The man opens his mouth but nothing comes out. Then it snaps shut.
"Fine," He whispers dangerous and low in Rick's ear, gets in his space "play the part of the uptight guy at the dick-sucking contest and keep your mouth fucking shut."
Negan means to make good on his threat to kill someone - if he has to, he already has a specific asshole in mind - but he knows Rick will cave anyway before someone dies. Whether it's a powerplay or not. He's only a few strides away when Rick runs up in front of him to make him stop.
Tucks himself against Negan's side. Manhandles Negan's arm around him.
It's not sorry and Negan is weak, because he lets it slide.
Negan loves Judith. She's a perfect fucking angel. Her sweet hands grasp him. She warms to him immediately.
He holds her, doesn't even pretend he isn't thrilled to be there, in the midst of Rick's family.
Knows Rick will have a shit fit when he sees them. He isn't wrong. He admits to himself it's probably the guts that get to him.
Rick's nearly hyperventilating when Negan pulls him aside roughly. It takes a harsh hand to stabilize the man.
"Rick," Negan begins lowly in his ear, "Your little serial killer there tried to kill me. He's safe. But I'm telling you, that shit ain't free. So buck the fuck up, and remember, next time Daddy Negan has to do you a favor you better find some fucking way to make it up."
Rick stares at him. Looks angry and so frustrated he might cry. Negan pats his cheek.
Something about seeing that expression on Rick's face - flushed, reluctant, coy and shamed - gives Negan butterflies. The man's so easy.
"I burned your bed Rick, I'm asking if you got a new one."
"No." He bites out, tight, but it does nothing to hide his heated cheeks and the shame he swallows down, adam's apple bobbing.
"You sleep on the couch then?" Negan asks.
Rick shifts uncomfortably. And Negan can see him gather his wits, his strength of will.
"I sleep on the floor, in my room. What else did you want to know?" He meets Negan's eyes then, with narrowed gaze.
Negan's expression flatlines at the challenge. Can hear Rick's breath leave him in a whoosh at the sudden danger presented.
"Well, fuck Rick. I was just having a friendly little conversation." He gets closer, close enough that Rick shifts back.
As soon as Rick does he must know he's lost, because his eyebrows pinch like he's about to cry and he looks humiliated, mouth twisting down. Negan could watch his face all day. He doesn't let on though, that Rick's display pleases him.
He stalks forward slow step by slow step and Rick lets himself be walked back until his back is flush with the wall.
"Sleep on the floor, huh? Bet you have a nice little nest of blankets and pillows just like the momma hen you are. Shit, I'd like to see that. You gonna invite me up to your room one of these times Rick? Gonna show me your decor?"
Negan's asks simply to understate the fact that he doesn't need to ask. Rick and his kids and his little white picketed house belong to Negan.
Rick's silent for a long while, eyes drowning in helplessness before he tilts his head down, to the side and away so just the barest glimpse of his throat shows. Pale, lickable. Negan tries not to notice.
Then.
Then Rick tries to rebel. It's a misstep on his part. A giant fucking one.
Negan tortures the fuck out of Rick - psychologically speaking.
All it takes is one false swing. And Negan laughs loudly into the air afterward, at the look on Rick's face.
He looks relieved, grateful. Just like that his mask of strength and stoicism crumbles and cracks.
"Aw Rick." Negan intones, "should I try again?"
Rick shakes his head 'no' over and over, lists to the side a little as if he's overcome an impenetrable obstacle.
He tries to straighten up though, looks to Carl and tries. Negan grabs his collar and shakes him. Grins widely.
"You want to keep acting tough, like I still need to break you? Then guess what Rick? I fucking will."
He drags him off into the nearest house. Throws him down easily into the living room like a rag doll.
"I'm not gonna - not gonna -" Rick gasps. Tries to gets his hands under him.
"not gonna what, Rick?" Negan asks humorlessly. Bends over Rick's prone form, grins wolfishly sudden. Something in Rick's eyes go wild with fright at that and it's an animal reaction that makes the man scramble towards the stairs on his hands and knees.
"Aw Rick." Negan says, falsely exasperated. He grabs Rick's ankle and drags him back from where he's made it up the first step. Leans down to whisper in Rick's ear. "You think those stairs can save you? I could have you bent over those stairs right now, driving my fist right up into your asshole."
Rick's eyes go wide and frenzied, he tries to shimmy away. And Negan's not even got to the best part.
"N-" Rick starts and Negan thinks he means to say no, but the vowels are longer and stuttering. Something resembling Negan's name.
"You'd be my fucking Rick puppet. Maybe you'd do what I want then. I could punch your balloon knot until it looks like a Turkey's ass on Thanksgiving. You think I don't like Turkey's ass on Thanksgiving, Rick? I fucking love it."
There's an actual whine in Rick's throat at that and Negan laughs heartily.
"Instead," Negan continues, "I have so graciously decided to grace you with another chance. Call off your men."
Rick shakes his head again and Negan nestles in close. Grabs Rick's hair and tilts his head back.
"Come on, Bright boy. What's it gonna be?"
"I-I-" Rick stumbles over his words, can't get them out.
By the time Negan gets Rick in order to go outside the fight is already won. He makes Rick and the rest of the Alexandrians kneel before him. Makes Rick crawl over and lick his shoes.
Rick looks out to all the other's exactly once, just before he licks Negan's shoes, and whatever he sees makes him unable to look out again. He's crouched at Negan's feet, prone. Negan knocks him over with a gentle boot.
"Here I thought we had something special Rick." Negan can tell from some of the reactions that some Alexandrians are reading something that isn't there in his statement. He finds he's too angry to be amused. Angry with himself, for saying something edging on truthful.
Rick is burning with humiliation, tears are stinging in his eyes.
It's not exactly what Negan wants but he'll take it.
He takes most everything from Alexandria. It's a punishment.
"Our medical supplies." Rick has his head tilted down submissively. It's been two weeks since the beat down. The muscles in Rick's neck stand out, he's obviously making an effort. "I was wondering if you could return some of them."
"Oh?" Negan taunts.
Rick grits his teeth so hard Negan's afraid for them.
He smacks Rick so suddenly then that the man drops his semi-aggressive expression in an instant. Tears actually spring to his eyes, and Rick blinks them away. Keeps his eyes trained on the ground.
"Oh Ricky." Negan says it jovially, it causes Rick's blood to drain from his face. "I'm sensing some recalcitrance."
Rick snaps his head up at that. Emotions flutter lightning quick across his face. Fear, Resignation, Terror. Negan leans in.
They're so close at that point Negan can feel Rick's breath tingling against his lips.
"You want me to fucking break you again?"
The sentence sits between them, hanging dangerously in the air. Rick's eyes round, go a little soft with something like pain.
"No." Rick says lowly in his throat, small.
"Okay." Negan says, drops it and pulls away.
"T-the meds -" Rick continues when Negan's already half turned from him.
"You'll just have to earn those back." Negan tosses over his shoulder.
Rick's about to say something else but then the creepy priest appears and his mouth snaps shut. He steps away from Negan even though they're not that close anymore.
"We're just discussing things." Rick explains to the priest. As if he's a child who needs tabs kept on him.
Straight from the gate something's fishy. Rick nervously rubs his palms against his thighs, as if he's steeling himself. One minute he looks chalky and sick and the next a hot flush is on his face and down his neck.
"Something wrong with you Rick?" Negan asks. Gestures to his men to get a move on with the collection.
"Could I talk with you?" The anxiousness in his voice instantly puts Negan on edge.
Negan smiles and it isn't nice.
"I'm not sure you've earned that privilege."
Rick shifts, looks desperate.
"In private." Rick adds.
Negan's smile gets even bigger, a little more vicious. Rick cringes, waits. Negan nods shortly and then they're leaving the gate together. Rick walks fast, in front. Has to turn to see if Negan's following.
He leads them to his house. Negan's a little surprised Rick chose to take him here. Nonetheless he follows him in.
"Uh, my bedroom-" Rick says in a non-sequitur before roughly shaking his head as if to clear his thoughts. His curls bounce.
"You gonna show me your bedroom Rick."
Rick looks up at him then. Doesn't respond to the snarled joke. Instead he squeaks - makes some kind of sound anyway - and walks heavily up the stairs. Damn near drags his feet.
Negan bounds up after him happily.
Negan only just gets the door shut when Rick turns slowly. Drops his head and drops to his knees.
Just from the context of other situations Negan feels himself go hard in his jeans. Rick's pretty face doesn't help.
"Rick." Negan bites out slowly, a laugh bubbling up from deep in his chest. "I appreciate the show of deference. But it doesn't really mean shit if no one is watching, does it?"
Rick meets his eyes at that, and Negan thinks for a second time that the man looks desperate. Unease curls in Negan's gut. There's a shock of some emotion in Rick's eyes that Negan can't get a proper read on.
Rick's hands come up to clutch at Negan's thighs then and Negan can't help but sway forward a little.
"If you're down there anyway, may as well put that fucking mouth to work." Negan jokes. Is trying to relieve the tension with a joke.
The look on Rick's face drains the fun right out of the situation.
"Rick-" Negan tries.
"No audience." Rick begins, as if to bargain but stops and looks down. When he looks back up at Negan - who stands transfixed, a tear is crawling its way down his face. "Please. I-I know I belong to you anyway- but I can make it really good, I-I think, if you just..."
"In exchange for what, Rick?" Negan asks dryly. His voice is cardboard thin, brittle and he wonders if Rick can hear the quality change. Can hear the breath compress itself from inside of his lungs.
"Carl's sick." The words hit Negan like a ton of bricks.
He slides to the floor and Rick has to pull back to make room for him.
"I don't know if he's gonna - " Rick hiccups on a sob, " - make it."
Rick turns away, wipes roughly at his tears, before he turns back. Seeing Negan only causes him to erupt in a new bout. Negan gathers Rick in his arms then. And Rick cries against his neck, tears dripping wetly for a second, before it changes into something else. Rick begins to mouth at his throat, draws himself up to straddle Negan's lap.
"Rick, stop." He orders, voice gravelly and low.
"Anything." Rick exhales softly into his ear, "Just m-my boy. You don't even have to keep what we do a secret, you can tell anybody. As long as - please please."
Rick's hands are on his shoulders, and he's looking at Negan and waiting for a response. He spreads his legs, from where they sit on either side of Negan's hips, a little wider. Presses closer.
"You like my mouth right? I-I could - "
"Don't finish that fucking sentence." Negan warns. Extricates himself. Stands up and curses himself when after a belated moment Rick reaches up for his zipper. Negan smacks his hand away.
"Where is Carl?" Negan asks.
Rick doesn't answer. Looks stunned at the rejection. He takes the failure hard, face crumpling in something like grief and horror.
"Rick." He growls and Rick seems to snap out of it then.
"At the church." He chokes out. "N-Negan-"
Negan wants to stay, but he can't. He leaves Rick strung out on the floor.
They've quarantined all of their sick. They hadn't even wanted to let Negan in to see Carl but he'd insisted. The boy is feverish, delirious. The Doctor tells him that even with antibiotics, it's going to be a few days until he's out of the woods.
Carl is the worst off of them all - of the one's that are left. He's patient zero. No one had thought it was serious until another boy had taken a turn for the worst and died in his sleep a day ago. Another young woman had died that morning.
It weighs on Negan and he shakes it off. Because not everyone survives. In fact, no one does.
He knows Carl will survive, because the kid's a hell of a fighter.
The more disturbing matter at hand is Carl's father.
It's not just the idea of trading sexual favours for goods and services. After all, isn't that what all his wives are doing? Instead, it's Rick's terrified blue eyes, and his shaky exhale and the stark fear in every line of his body. And those are just the times Negan was going easy on him.
And hadn't he more or less told him he was going to straight up rape him? That he could have him bent over the stairs? Only Rick should have known it was a figure of speech. After all he'd told him I slid my dick down your throat and wasn't that past tense? Wasn't the crude vulgarity just another way for him to express his dominance over the man?
Because that had been what he was fucking going for.
He feels sick about it. Sick about telling Rick he had a fucking pretty pink mouth - although he does. Sick about telling Rick he was going to jerk off to him - although he does. And maybe that's the fucking problem, that Negan thinks he's bullshitting but there's still that glimmer of truth and Rick sees it.
You can tell anybody.
Another troubling thought that makes Negan's heart ache in his chest when he remembers Rick pulling away from him. Trying to downplay their interactions, trying to hide them from the Alexandrians. His I-if you're going to film me, do it here like his only choice wasn't whether Negan used him or not but whether other people knew or not. Rick hadn't wanted anyone to know. And Rick had always been so careful to make sure that they were alone whenever Negan got aggressively giddy with him.
But You can tell anybody.
Rick had been willing to disgrace himself. Willing to let everyone know.
No audience.
And how long until his resolve would have crumbled? Not long, Negan guesses.
He thinks about the moment he told Rick he was going to be his puppet. Rick's wild scramble up the stairs. How mindlessly terrified he'd been. Because he had no doubt been convinced of Negan's intentions.
It occurs to Negan that he hasn't laid down any laws - specifically one law - with Alexandria. And that's because he's known - ever since he met the man - that it wasn't necessary. Wasn't something Rick would allow to happen under his leadership.
But he'd been willing to allow it to happen to himself.
Thoughts chase each other round and round in his head. Until Negan thinks he can't see straight.
I can make it really good, I-I think
And of course Rick was just as cherry as Negan had assumed.
You like my mouth, right?
Rick's gotten himself together by the time Negan gets back to the house.
He looks calmer, his tears are dried up but there's a soft type of embarrassment laid out on his face paired with wariness.
"Negan," He begins and of course it sounds like he doesn't really want Negan there, because why would he?
"Rick," Negan acknowledges. "We should talk."
Rick moves aside to let him into the house.
"Coffee?" Rick asks, goes into the kitchen to put on a kettle.
Negan follows. Rick pulls a cup out of the cupboard. He stills by the sink, back facing Negan.
"Thanks for not - " he begins, but hesitates.
"Fucking ass raping you?" It's a shitty thing to say, Negan already knows that.
The cup skitters out of Rick's hand at that and clacks against the sink.
"T-thanks for the medicine too."
"Right." Negan bites out, unhappily.
Rick tenses at his tone, turns around. Looks like he wants to say something and hesitates before spitting it out.
"I know we'll have to 'make it up' since you - since you didn't want - and we will."
Rick looks stubbornly determined to make good on that promise. Negan sinks into a chair.
Rick thinks Negan didn't want him. Thinks Alexandria has incurred a debt.
Negan had made Rick feel like he couldn't come to him, it's the only reason people have died.
"Rick I want to make something clear. Your people are my people. And I don't mean that I fucking own them - although I do. This one's on me. Your little revolt - yeah, I'll admit I was - the point is if you have a problem you come to me."
"Just problems?" Rick presses himself into the counter, face serious.
"What else Rick?"
"What about ideas?"
"...Okay. You have ideas, you come to me." It's a little too us-against-the-world but he figures he owes him.
He wonders at Rick's composure. He's solid and calm as if he hadn't been trembling in Negan's arms less than two hours ago. Negan feels more shaken up than Rick looks.
They're silent for a while, until Negan can't help but say it.
"You thought I was going to rape you."
Rick's face heats and he looks a little confused. Deliberately avoids meeting Negan's gaze.
"I offered." Is what he says. He says it like he's brought it upon himself. Negan doesn't like it.
"Before even. On the stairs." Negan presses.
Rick says nothing, resolutely keeps his eyes on the floor.
"Why did you think I would want to?" Negan voices, although he already knows the answer.
Silence ticks by.
"I was....mistaken." Rick finally answers, "It's just the way you look at me sometimes. The things you say."
A look comes over Rick's face then, something hotly ashamed as if he's admitted to being conceited. Has set himself up to be knocked down a peg.
"You weren't mistaken." Negan rushes to reassure him and curses himself when Rick freezes up, "Rape is punishable by death for the Saviours. I should have said from the start. Better yet, I shouldn't have acted like some creepy rapist fuck. I'll admit I did it to put you off your game. To get you scared. I don't know when I... when I began to take such joy in subjugating you sexually-"
"We don't have to talk about it." Rick interrupts. His face is burning.
"You're...special Rick."
Rick shifts uncomfortably at that.
"I'm...gonna go see Carl." Rick says, more question than statement. It's a transparent attempt to get away from the situation.
Negan nods.
"Before you go I just want to say that I won't - from now on I won't threaten you like that. But Rick - you can't fucking go against me. Not like you've been doing."
Rick swallows heavily, his voice is a little strained when he answers.
"I understand. Thank you."
"Right." Negan sighs, gets up to leave. "Keep those ideas fresh Rick, I'll be wanting to hear them next time I see you. And say hello to Carl for me."
"Negan." Rick says, lingeringly, "you said I wasn't mistaken."
"I did say that." Negan almost wishes he hadn't.
"W-what does that mean?"
"Don't worry your prett - fuck, just don't worry about it Rick. Doesn't mean anything." He does leave then.
It's almost ironic, how the tables turn, and Negan is the one walking away with Rick's eyes trailing after him.