BLACKBIRD; FLY

Negan knew what flu season meant, and even though his kid had been vaccinated, nothing is really a promise. So besides of letting his son experience the whirlwind of sickness going around in the school, he kept him home, and skipped out on work. Thankfully he had some vacation days built up. Those were now filled with Spongebob reruns and spoiling his kid to no ends. The male knew Jack was under the weather most of the week, so keeping him home and getting plenty of liquids in the child’s body, made everything 20 times better for the both of them.

As it was announced, he knew that Elena would find out about the little one he had kept a secret for so long. His sister, Amber, ended up helping with taking Jack back to school, and making sure everything was organized again. The male finally arrived back to campus, noticing Elena Gilbert walking toward him. As much as he wanted to confess everything, he let her do the talking – afraid of what she would think. Of course, his kid was only seven years old, and Lucille was younger than him when she had him.

                          “what a welcome party,” he chuckled, holding out his hand, bending back with a smile. “I can explain – really.” Was he ready for that?

              she chuckled lightly and brought the go-to mug of coffee to her lips, sipping it for a moment as he spoke. it was good to see him again and, god, she’d be a damn liar if she said she hadn’t missed him. still, what he said next made for confusion to knit her brows together, head tipping to the side just enough for it to be noticeable. explain? her lips pursed briefly and she shook her head no, ‘ you don’t have to explain anything to me---- ‘ there was a certain disbelief in her voice. he didn’t owe her any explaining, and it was a surprising for her to know that he thought he did. ‘ i mean, i would have liked to know through you and not gabrielle from administration, but i get it. ‘

               a shrug fell from her shoulders as she adjusted the bag with her notebooks and laptop, the charms bracelet tingling softly, metallic and small, as she did so. ‘ can i know the name? ‘ she’d recovered the relaxed edge, the confusion and disbelief now gone. but she did have questions, none of which meant to be prying, she just wanted to ask him those things that she would’ve had negan told her. except now she’d had time for mulling over them and nitpicking them. a soft smile tugged at her lips as she spoke. up to that moment, elena hadn’t been able of imagining negan as a father, with an actual kid, and yet when she looked at him (really looked at him) in that moment, it became easier to do so.

It was a never-ending feeling – what was going on between him and Elena. He smiled looking over and noticing she had texted back. He smiles, once he begins to text her back. Thank you for clarifying. Got worried there for a second. The male continued what he was doing, preparing for his class as the late students walked through slyly, or coyly. Not able to pull a fast one on Negan.

Once in a while, he looked over and noticed Elena hiding the book between her legs, noticing the Pride and Prejudice was the sight of her absolute attention. It made him feel like it was a high, actually giving him some sort of hope that he was doing this all right. Even though he was good at gifting his kid with so much, and making it known of what kind of father he had become. Here he was practically hoping he was doing good in Elena’s eyes. He swallowed hard, as the class dismissed, and Elena was still there. He turned his back cleaning up the board behind him, and then getting his paperwork together. Soon he turned back around, seeing she was still here. Still here. He breathed and looked over. “Got any plans for tonight, Elena?” he asked in a friendly tone, wondering if she was going to bring up what she wanted to tell him, or bring up the gits.

             for a moment, elena had been worried about tom, about negan’s reaction to tom, most of all, because sometimes she came to believe negan failed to see the DEPTH with which she felt for him, how deep her affection for him ran. she could handle him and she would, but not on her birthday. sure, she wasn’t the biggest believer -or fan- of making a big deal out of birthdays (though she was the first to bring the hellium balloons to someone’s doorstep for a good, old fashioned surprise) but she wasn’t going to set herself up for a dramatic disaster either. very carefully, she placed the pride and perjudice book into her bag, slung it over her shoulder, picked up the flowers and the box with the charms bracelet and walked to the front of the classroom. a shrug fell from her shoulders, ‘ well, i’m set up for pretending to be surprised at caroline’s surprise party by default and i know that’s supposed to take up a whole night and a morning of hangovers, ‘ birthdays are hard, ‘ but i’m a little more interested in bailing out early and reading. ‘

             at this, she made a small pause, stealing a sideway glance in the door’s direction for making sure there wasn’t anyone around, and allowing for her pleasant smile to become a small, though bright, nearly shy grin. ‘ they’re beautiful ------- everything. i mean, wow. ‘ her gaze became somewhat more playful, private too, and she canted her head to the side slightly, ‘ want to do the honors with the bracelet? ‘

       there was a pattern that elena couldn’t quite finish figuring out where it came from. whereas negan had been a thousand times to her apartment, each time she even suggested in the slightest that they could go to his place, he diverted the conversation elsewhere, or gave some half-assed argument as to why that was not a good idea. she never asked further, halfway scared of what the answer could be, but also not wanting to push his boundaries (he didn’t push hers, see). but when he’d cut class and they’d informed the full classroom that it was flu season in general, but especially for the little ones and that was why he wasn’t there (and there was no way negan could be considered a “little one”), something in elena’s brain just CLICKED.

       she’d gone about with her days, cutting class for making it to the deadline with a few others and struggling with scale-model houses that got more and more complicated each time. a few days later, she came across negan as they walked through campus, both in opposing directions. the young woman recognized him from about half a block away and she couldn’t help but half smile. when they finally met halfway through, it was easy for her to fall into step with him, keeping a fair distance (they were in public, afterall, even if the campus was practically deserted at that time).

                   ‘ welcome back. ‘

He gave her a look and smiled. “Elena, I know good and well you can do this. Besides, do you even need this class? You are a great student, always have been,” he replied. The male ran his thumb against his chin and smiled. “Friday.” It was only Tuesday, so he actually was giving her quite a long while to do it.

           ‘ it’s a pride thing, this class just can’t beat me. ‘ she knew it was silly, but did it even matter? no. plus there was a reason why she’d even decided to take up some literature classes: architecture could get a little too much and she needed a bit of the safe zone, her zone. she nodded and took a half step back, ‘ great! thank you, really, thank you. ‘