Who: Negan, Judith, and briefly Erik What: Telling tales of tom-foolery When: Thursday afternoon Where: Outside the hotel Warnings: Language. That's probably about it. Status: Closed/In-Progress
Negan was still trying to get his thoughts in order. His conversation with Gretel left them both feeling better than they had been before, but different. Significantly different. Before, they hadn't put words to what they had, or even really recognized it. Now, they still hadn't really stuck a word on it, but it was there. They both acknowledged it. That was more than Negan had done for anyone in years.
He kept trying to convince himself it wasn't bad, it was just new. But this kind of new felt dangerous, even when it felt good, too.
Vlad was a good distraction. Even though she hadn't said it, Negan knew Judith left Vlad for him on purpose. He wasn't stupid. But just like with Gretel, he and Judith had a good way of not talking about things. Unlike Gretel, though, he was usually more willing to talk about things with Judith, at least a little bit. Judith saw through him better than anyone else, and he could only hide so much from her.
The people on the streets of London were less than prepared to see a huge black dog running around, but Negan had stopped paying attention a while after he started playing fetch. In his defense, he tried to find a relatively empty spot in front of the hotel, and Vlad was entirely single-minded and focused on the plain red rubber ball that Negan threw for him. He looked intimidating running around, but he wouldn't actually go after anyone unless Negan told them to. More than once, he was tempted to just because someone looked at him the wrong way, but he managed to refrain.
Besides, Vlad was having fun. He didn't need to be working right now.