CHAPTER 31 | MASTERPIECE

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   Before the gate could even be opened, Lauren left to go back to the house, knowing that the thought of being too close to Negan would make her want to claw his eyes out. She hadn't even met the guy and she had a burning hatred for him.

She could barely have a moment to herself before her home had been broken into by a savior. Being upstairs, she could hear each step they took. From the top of the stairs, Lauren could see she was a woman with built muscles and a gun strapped to her back. Nothing Lauren couldn't handle.

Striding downstairs with fumes practically coming out of her ears, she made eye contact with the woman who was taking food from their fridge.

"What the hell are you doing in my house?" Lauren seethed, finger lingering on the dagger in her holster.

The woman chuckled nonchalantly. "Taking your shit. Negan's order." Negan. His name made Lauren's stomach twist.

The woman seemed to not care about Lauren's act as she walked around the bottom floor, even grabbing their guns. Lauren couldn't take it anymore.

Quickly grabbing the item closest to Lauren on the kitchen counter, she gripped it tightly and swung it across the woman's face, making her fall to the floor with a thud. Lauren glanced to the item in her hand to see that it was a frying pan. Useful weapon, Lauren thought to herself.

But there was barely any time to think, as the woman wasn't fully unconscious. Taking hold of the woman's arm, Lauren grunted with each step she took, dragging her towards the front door.

Swinging it open, she tossed the woman out, letting her fall slightly onto the porch. Before she could push herself up, Lauren growled under her breath, kicking her off the porch; she watched the woman tumble down the steps in satisfaction.

It seemed that all eyes were on her from hearing the commotion at the house. Glancing upwards, Lauren realized how many saviors, and citizens of Alexandria, were staring at her.

Placing her hands on her hips, she heard whistling. Lauren's head jolted to the left, seeing the man himself walking towards the porch, Rick following behind. For once Lauren's expression changed from enraged to startled. He was very tall, with a gruff looking face and his bat by his side. He was everything she expected him to be.

"Who do we have here?" Negan questioned, studying the young girl as she kept her head held high. The woman who had just been kicked down was now standing up--wobbling lightly--fists clenched and ready to fight. But Negan held up his bat, gesturing for the woman to back down.

"Now how come we've never met? I'm Negan, and you are?" he asked again, twirling his bat around his hand. Lauren squeezed her fists, trying to stop the shaking.

"Lauren," she replied while glaring daggers into his skull. The darkness that she had been feeling those past months had overcome her, and Negan noticed, being taken back slightly.

"Jesus, you are not someone I'd wanna mess with." The man chuckled darkly, before remembering what Lauren had done.

"Now let me just tell you, we came here to take your shit, and you're gonna let us, because I don't think you'd wanna meet Lucille." Lauren only tilted her head. It wasn't like she cared much if the bat with the funny name came in contact with her. She'd been almost beaten to death before.

"Or anybody else, correct?" He continued, pointing Lucille in different directions, including many people she knew. Then it pointed at him. And Negan knew by the way her face fell that that was her weakness.

Negan took a double take, glancing between Lauren and Carl, who was in the distance. "Oh, how could I have missed it! Teenage romance, that's cute." Lauren shut her eyes, biting her lip at those two words.

Negan didn't seem to catch onto the fact that the two teens were farther apart than he thought. "We won't let this happen again, now will we?" He proclaimed, stepping closer to the girl on the porch. She nodded.

Negan took a moment to think. "What did you say your name was again?"

Lauren gulped. "Lauren."

The man blinked a few times, a smirk playing at his lips. "Is your last name Martin, by any chance?"

Lauren's eyes widened, her face softening for the first time in awhile. How the hell did he know that?

"How the hell would you know that?" Lauren voiced her thoughts, earning another chuckle from the man.

Negan scratched his beard in thought. "Well this is awkward. I guess I'm gonna have to tell you," he continued while shrugging his shoulders.

"Your mother really is a piece of work sometimes. Oh yeah, she's not dead, by the way." He laughed.

She was alive.

All the air got knocked out of her lungs, feeling her knees almost go weak at the thought. No, she died in that fire. But what if she didn't? All this grief for nothing? All this pain just to find out you grieved for someone who lives?

But that's the thing. The hardest thing to do is grieve for the living, and her mother wasn't the only one.

But as Negan began explaining it, everything became more clear.

Helena couldn't sleep, so she sat on the porch to the home her and her daughter had found. Before she could relax for any longer, the rustling of leaves was heard to her right. Helena's head spun to the direction of the noise, standing up with her hand lingering on her gun. But before she could grab it she could hear the click of a gun behind her.

Multiple guns.

Helena spun around, seeing many men standing near the edge of the forest, stepping closer and closer to her. She almost thought this was her end before a man came from the middle with a bat between his fingers,

He stopped his ominous whistling. "What's a pretty lady like you doing alone here?"

Helena knew he was wrong since she was not alone. But she could never put her daughter in danger; not again. "What's it to you?"

The man came closer. Helena noticed the barbed wire that adorned the bat, making her hair stand on end. "If you could kindly give us your shit, we'll be on our way."

She hesitated but shook her head anyway. "Let's figure something out here."

The man automatically shook his head. "I don't do negotiations." He then flicked his wrist, seeming like he was signaling his men to check out the house. Which was exactly right.

She couldn't let them get to Lauren first. "Wait! Stop!"

The man chuckled. "You're not alone, are you?" Helena's face fell before nodding. The men kept walking, so she had to do something. "Please, I'll do anything, just leave her, please!"

He seemed to be finally agreeing to this negotiation surprisingly, bringing the men back towards him. "Fine, but you get to come with me."

He took another moment to think. "But we can't have her thinking you disappeared out of thin air, now can we?"

Striding past her, her took something out of his pocket. It was a box of matches. He lit one up, and threw it onto the ivy that grew from the base of the house. It begun to spread like wildfire, lighting up the house is small flames. It would soon become more than that, and Helena knew that.

Her eyes widened, as she struggled against one of the men's grip. But they practically had to drag her away from the home.

"See, I kept telling her that you would wake up before it killed ya, but she wouldn't listen. She's feisty. And the apple doesn't fall far from the tree." Negan ended his explanation, leaving Lauren utterly speechless and paralyzed. After all this time, she was never dead. She still had hope.

Her heart didn't feel as heavy as before.

Lauren had been too deep in her thoughts to notice Negan gesturing for he woman to proceed with taking the items.

Negan stepped closer to her. "You know what, I like you, a lot, but you cannot pull that shit again. Comprende?"

Biting the inside of her cheek, she mustered out a response. "Sure."

"Good."

Negan retreated with Rick, probably going to another house to take their things. As the woman came out, she even snatched the dagger out of her holster. Even if Lauren's heart beat out of her chest in fear that her most prized possession was being taken, maybe for once it was time to let go. To let go of the memories of all the blood that had soaked that knife.

She glanced back up to see that Carl was still in the same place, arms crossed. But he wasn't glaring at her, his eye showed softness.

Lauren retreated back into the house, one thing sticking to her mind. She was going to get her mother back, one way or another.

➸ ➸ ➸

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Three swift knocks sounded at the door to Lauren's left, leaving her confused. Nonetheless, she got off her bed and headed towards the door, opening it widely to see the one boy she wished wasn't standing on the other side.

Somewhere deep down she was glad he was there.

Carl glanced upwards, studying her for a moment. Lauren's eyebrows furrowed at the sight of him. He seemed worried, unsure of himself. She crossed her arms, wondering why he was simply standing there.

But it all fell into place when Carl let out a shuddered breath, reaching towards the bandage that covered his wound. That covered the thing he hated the most. That covered his deepest secret, and his greatest wall. The wall between Carl and Lauren.

He began unravelling it as Lauren's face fell, watching him carefully. He was finally doing it. He was finally letting go of all the tension between them as he let it fall to the ground, glancing upwards from the shadows of his bangs. It revealed a large hole where his eye used to sit, his skin slowly healing around it.

Tears lightly stung her eyes. Not at the sight of it, but because of the fact that he cared. He still cared, and was willing to show her that. Willing to show her his most vulnerable self, as she did many months ago when she told him her past.

The thing about relationships was how you can tell the closest person you're with your darkest, deepest fears and secrets, knowing that if they still stay even after that, they are the one.

Biting his lip, he awaited her reaction, and he got it. Moving cautiously foreword, Lauren enveloped Carl into her arms, letting out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

Carl wrapped his arms around her torso, clinging onto her shirt so tightly in fear that she would slip away again. Breathing in, Lauren shut her eyes in satisfaction, missing his woodsy scent. The smell of home.

Her heart nearly beat out of her chest as the two pulled away, still holding onto each other tightly. The way their lips brushed mere inches from each other reminded her of the first time they kissed. The first time they really kissed. The first time they realized they didn't want to be alone anymore.

They seemed to unknowingly meet in the middle, pushing their lips into each other as if they couldn't stand the amount of air between them. The thought that only 4 months ago she couldn't stand how close she was to him, and now she couldn't stand the amount of empty space between them shocked her; it shocked them both.

Carl's lips felt familiar and warm, even if Lauren felt cool but safe against his. Like always, they contrasted perfectly, melding together like two perfect puzzle pieces.

Like soulmates.

Carl held her head in his hands so gently he thought she would crumble at his touch. Time was irrelevant when they finally pulled away, noses brushing and eyes drifting open.

"I'm sorry," he finally spoke.

"I know."

Lauren moved back against his lips, pushing herself further and further into him; she thought she was going to melt into him at some point.

Carl didn't seem to mind.

Not even Lauren minded the fact that he walked her back into her bedroom--their bedroom--pushing her gently against the bed frame.

Bodies moved in sync, clothes fell to the floor, and kisses danced across each other's skin in mere minutes. It felt like hours. Hands roamed each other's bodies, eager to understand every corner and crevice of their skin. Carl couldn't help but think everything about her was art.

The two moving together under the cold sheets were a masterpiece.

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a/n: AHHHH LITERALLY I WAS SMILING LIKE AN IDIOT WRITING THAT SCENE I WAS SO HAPPY LIKE I DONT FEEL COMFORTABLE WRITING SMUT CAUSE ITs just weird to me to do so?? i felt like it would be awkward so i tried to write it differently than other people do. hopefully u get the gist.

BUT IM SO HAPPY MY OTP IS BACK