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His men filter out of the house at Negan's hard look. If anything he should be allowing them to plunder even more, but Negan is itching to get his hands on the rest of the guns, diffuse the situation. And maybe - Negan feels for the boy a little.
The boy's a bit like an old abused dog, one eye missing and hackles always up.
He'd handed the gun to his Dad. And Negan had almost laughed at that. How Rick had passed it to him and cowed back, how much that must have angered the boy.
King Shit.
The kid was probably so used to seeing his Dad be infallible that his pride probably smarted each time Rick exposed himself.
Negan felt kind of bad, cowing a natural badass like that, but it wasn't his fault the man had broken so easily. Of course if he hadn't he would probably be where Daryl was now - a Saviour in the making. There were benefits to being a badass but there were benefits to submitting too.
Rick had asked for a second alone with Carl before they went off to the armoury.
Carl had stormed into another room.
And Negan wouldn't have let him, but something had struck him then - about the man's expression.
"Please." He'd bit out, a little desperate, through his teeth.
"Sure." Negan had acquiesced after a few moments of asserting his dominance through silence.
Now though, it'd been more than 'a second'.
The cadence of their voices had rose, indistinct, in the last few seconds.
Negan moved to expedite the scene and he was about to round the corner when something stopped him. Maybe it was the naked desperation in Rick's tone.
"They threatened you. I know you don't understand that."
Negan might have taken offence at the words, only their delivery was so frantic it was immediately apparent that Rick was imploring Carl.
"They threatened everyone. Glenn and Abraham - " Carl's tone was clipped, argumentative. Still, though, it wasn't outright flippant.
It occurred to Negan then that Carl respected his father - even still with his recent disgrace.
"It's different." Rick's voice was thin and reedy. "I don't expect you to understand."
"Is this about?...Dad..." And the way Carl said it, so gentle and pitying made Negan's curiosity spike.
"Carl." The word was a little choked.
"I know what running a train on someone means Dad."
For a second the words confuse Negan. Belatedly, he remembers his outrageous threat, and then - realizing they are indeed taking it seriously - feels kind of like shit.
"A-anytime Carl they c-could-"
"Dad they won't." Carl sounds absolutely unworried. "That was just meant to scare us. Scare you."
"Carl. It's not like -" And Rick's voice is a bit shaky, fragile, "- like it was with the Claimers. I....I can't protect you."
The widening of the scope to include a second incident rattles Negan and he presses closer, ears twitching as their voices lower.
Protect how? Negan finds himself thinking. How did you protect him Rick?
It unsettles Negan, to think there are people out there calling themselves Claimers and writing their claim across bodies that don't belong to them. Across children. Negan hadn't got wind of them before. If he'd come across them he would have stomped that shit out.
"I-" Now Carl sounds choked, regretful, like he's going to cry, "I won't make anymore problems."
"Okay." Rick says with a shaky exhale, and Negan remembers tears clumping in the man's eyelashes.
Protect how Rick? Negan thinks again.
Negan's not sure why he does it, except that he'd been meaning to do it.
"Well." He says as he barges past the threshold, "ain't that just heartwarming. Papa Rick and his little bear."
Rick stiffens where he's leaning over a cabinet, forearms resting against it, turned away from Carl. Like he's maybe too ashamed to look his son in the eye.
"Glad to hear you won't 'make anymore problems'." Negans says to Carl when neither of them have anything to say.
The boy's jaw stiffens but he pointedly looks away from Negan with a scoff. The mood is tense.
"We should get to the armory." Rick says.
He moves then, to block Negan's line of sight so that Carl is no longer front and center. So Rick is.
Carl's not having any of it. He moves passed Rick to leave the room, tries to move passed Negan but Negan stops him with a hand to the chest.
"Hold up there partner." Negan says, "I heard something about a train?"
Rick's beside himself with worry. His face drains of blood and he stutters forward but stops at Negan's little 'nuh-uh'.
Carl glares up at him, anger increasing, but he isn't scared.
Rick, though, is scared.
"P-please don't- I can-" Rick says, falls quiet at the withering look Negan gives him.
"You can what, Rick?" Negan demands.
Carl's chest is heaving under Negan's hand, breath pulling in and out in angry huffs.
"Dad." Carl hisses.
Rick meets Negan's eyes then, and it's a toss up on what he's about to do. He looks at the hand resting on Carl's chest and nudges forward a little. Rick's hands tremble a little as he sticks one in his back pocket.
"He's young but-" Rick bites his lip, looks away before steeling himself and looking back, "I'm experienced. I can make it good - for you and your...men."
The delivery is flawless, save for the stuttering hesitance on the last word.
Carl's seething.
"That what you did for the Claimers?" Negan asks, face dangerous. Knows he's going to run those fuckers down.
Rick winces back, bravado dropping, suddenly looking shamed and fragile and thin-skinned.
Carl, though, laughs. Presses into the hand on his chest.
"No." It's a hard edged mirthless laugh, right in Negan's face, "he bit their fucking throats out."
It eases something in Negan's chest.
"Carl." Rick admonishes, horrified, like he's trying not to draw attention to himself.
Negan wonders if he ought to have called Rick Mama Bear instead.
"We're late." Negan says, heavily, without room for argument.
Rick follows him out.
Rick asks him to wait a second and he says no.
He says please and Negan's head tilts into acquiescence.
That's twice now.