yooo, im straying so far from the show that i don't even remember how it goes lmao,,,, there's no canon in this household, just this mess that i've created and you guys keeping it alive
no regrets
oOo
Maggie had felt uneasy with her dad's dismissive matter. Yes, she understood his plight and shared his loss. But as much as they had lost, so had the group currently camping out on their figurative lawn.
Her father let grief blind him and lead him to the bottom of a bottle with a heart filled with hatred and prejudice while Maggie saw the potential allies in their new neighbors.
She saw the conflict, the tension, and the pain they all shared. Maggie wanted to help ease it.
So, she spoke to her dad one evening after she'd seen Diana leave his drawing-room. He had been out of sorts and distracted, so she hadn't been able to tell if she'd gotten her point across.
After the disaster with the barn, Maggie had been one hundred percent sure that the newcomers would never see another sunrise from the comfort of the Greene farm.
She'd been less than ready to say goodbye to Glenn – even though their time together had been short and their affair a little unsatisfactory – and all the others when the news of a pregnancy reluctantly bridged the gap between them.
Maggie had never thought she'd ever see a baby again, and the sentiment was shared in her household. That was the ammo she had used to convince the stubborn Hershel Greene to spare those people some misery; to do his Christian duty and extend an olive branch.
So now, they'd been officially welcomed into their home and would be filling up all those empty rooms and crashing on their couches. Maggie had to admit that the noise and chatter made it feel like an actual home once more.
Maggie led the Lobo siblings up the stairs to where their new room would be. She'd heard of their story from Glenn and felt great sympathy for the orphans. She admired the three of them for their strength and the different ways it shone through. She knew her sister was strong as well, if not softer than most, but Maggie knew she would need her now more than ever to deal with the pain of Annette and Shawn's death.
"Here," she said while cracking open the door to Beth's former room – which had previously been hers from when she'd been at college –, now that she and her sister agreed to share her double bed. "There's enough bed space for two, and the chaise lounge should be big enough to sleep in."
The blinds were closed so the room remained nice and cool during the day. The three siblings followed her in, taking in Beth's flowery bedspread on the four-poster bed, the various movies and artists posters on all walls as well as the nonfunctioning fairy lights hung over the mirror of her mom's old vanity. Maggie used to joke that Beth had every single teen girl's dream room.
"We can't take this room, Maggie," Diana said with a shake of her head, turning to Maggie with a furrowed brow. "We're like, super grateful and really flattered but we can't stay here while other people sleep on the sofa. No offense intended."
"Speak for yourself, bitch, this my room now." Alice threw herself backwards onto the bed, and Maggie couldn't help a smile. The girl then immediately stood back up. "I take it back, that bed's too soft for my busted back."
"Then I'll take it and you take the weird half sofa," Felix countered.
Alice scoffed at him with a smirk. "It's called a chaise lounge, you uncultured swine."
"Doesn't matter what it's called, 'cause we're not staying here," Diana called back to them, widening her eyes in a warning manner; a very parental move, Maggie thought.
"Stay." Maggie put her hand on Diana's shoulder, seeing the young woman jump at the touch and avoid her eyes. "I insist. There's a place for everyone. This is yours now."
Diana's lips turned upward in a soft smile, and when her light brown eyes finally met Maggie's, there was an emotional depth in them that went beyond simple gratitude that Maggie couldn't decipher. It moved her to see such a simple gesture from her part be the reason for that sincere look.
She understood now why Glenn spoke about her with such fondness the few times he'd mentioned her. Her thoughts were interrupted by strong arms being thrown around her and a face being buried in the crook of her neck. "Thank you," Diana whispered against her skin, "You have no idea what this means to us – to me."
Maggie wanted to laugh it off, to say it was just a room, but the words lodged in her throat when she reciprocated the hug. Her heart felt full, and her eyes were beginning to water, and Maggie had no idea why. She quickly blinked the tears away and cleared her throat when Diana broke off the hug.
"You embarrass me," Alice quietly remarked, aimed at her sister, with a shake of her head. And to that, Maggie chuckled breathlessly, finding their interactions entertaining despite their trying times.
Felix, spread out on the too-small chaise lounge, raised both hands. "I second and third that."
"Ignore them," Diana told Maggie with an uneasy smile on her lips and a blush coloring her brown cheeks. "For real, thank you. And… I'm sorry for all the uh- inconveniences we've caused since we got here. I didn't- I didn't mean for that to happen back in the barn. I know you had family there and… I'm really sorry."
Maggie choked down the tears she had fought off and nodded in acknowledgment, feeling her heart break again. For all the wrongs that had happened, she couldn't find it in herself to blame any of it on Diana or her siblings.
The barn massacre had been awful and confusing, but it had opened her eyes to the reality of their 'sickness'. She would grieve, but at least her family had been put to rest. A death condemned to endless torture in a decaying prison for a body was not a dignified one. Better to be put in the soil to go back to nature whence they came.
"You sure know how to light up a person's day, dumbass sister of mine."
"It's okay," Maggie said, if only to ease the atmosphere, and plastered on a smile. "I'll let you guys get settled in for the evening, tell me if you need anything."
"We're fine," Alice said, at about the same time Diana responded with, "Actually…"
With one hand already on the doorknob, Maggie raised an expectant brow. Which one was it?
"Could I ask for a teeny-tiny Thumbelina-sized favor?"
oOo
Alice shook her head from her perch up on the bathroom counter. "Why didn't you ask me to cut your hair, pendeja?"
"Maybe 'cause I don't trust you with scissors near my head in general? Considered that?"
Alice shrugged in acceptance as Maggie took another wet lock of Diana's curly hair between her fingers and snipped at it with her stepmom's old scissors from when she used to cut hers, Beth and Shawn's hair.
A wave of sadness hit her as she remembered Annette's gray and decomposing corpse on the hay covered floor of the barn, sunken eyes staring into nothing and a hole in the center of her forehead. And then Beth's tear-streaked face and dull blue eyes as she'd sat on their bed, Jimmy sitting beside her, holding her hand in comfort.
"If I trusted you with my hair, I'd walk out of this with like a tuft of curls on the top of my head and shaved sides or sumthin'," Diana continued, ignorant to the falter in her movements and the slight shake of Maggie's head. "And even though it's all superficial BS and it should be at the bottom of my list of concerns right now, I still wanna look kinda good."
"Oh, Maggie doesn't even know!" Alice's voice became shrill, and Maggie winced subtly. "Diana has a history of bad haircuts in her teens, it's hilarious! Not only that, puberty was a major bitch to her, so she looked like a dude till she was like eighteen or somethin'. I am cackling."
"Thanks for the reminder that I spent my teenage years insecure about my looks; always a mood-lifter."
Maggie smiled to herself, letting herself be swept along by their banter. She combed her fingers through Diana's wet curls to get a sense of how much she had yet to chop and saw the young woman shiver on the stool. She had only ever cut straight hair before, so she hoped this didn't turn out a disaster. She was attempting to cut and layer Diana's curls so they would somewhat end at the top of her shoulders instead of their previous insane length. How did she even manage that mane? Maggie couldn't relate.
She stooped to scrutinize her work in the mirror from over Diana's shoulder and whispered, "If it makes you feel any better, I think you're beautiful." She had to smile at the wide eyes and darkening cheeks and the sharp intake of air from Diana. "But never let other people's opinions change your own perception of yourself. It only matters how you see yourself. And I'm an advocate that a person's values and inner self outweigh their outward appearance."
"Yes," Diana chopped out, "yeah, that's- yeah."
Alice was attempting to stifle her laughter but failing miserably, then she cleared her throat. "Excuse this poor soul, she's usually more eloquent than this. She has a condition that causes her brain to malfunction around pretty girls."
"Fuck the shut up," Diana strangled out, her hand slapping her sister's leg lightning fast. She moved so fast, that Maggie almost nicked her scalp with the scissors, causing her heart to skip a beat in alarm.
"You're disgusting, no I won't."
They continued their back and forth in hushed tones, in and out of English, and it ended with Diana gasping and sitting ramrod straight, glaring eyes fixed on her sister as Maggie could perceive through the mirror.
Even though she didn't understand what had gone down, she chuckled in wonderment at their dynamics, remembering their peculiar reunion on their porch.
Beth and Maggie's relationship was a bit more orthodox; Maggie believed they were as close as any regular sisters, and Beth had confided in her about school and boy problems, but it didn't quite reach the Lobo siblings' level of camaraderie.
Diana was a mix of sister, mother figure, and best friend to Alice and Felix, or so she had observed, and it definitely shook things up a bit.
"Y'all sure are entertaining to watch," Maggie commented, interrupting the comfortable silence that only the snips of the scissors occupied. "Never a dull moment, huh?"
"Wasn't always like this, but we don't talk about those dark times anymore." Alice shrugged, a tone of finality in her voice, so Maggie didn't pry. She understood family secrecy as much as the next person; her family wasn't without their dark times as well.
Diana's lips tugged upward hesitantly. "Wanna know Alice's origin story?" It was clear she was redirecting the conversation to a safer topic, and Maggie nodded with a growing smile as her fingers captured another lock of curls. "There was this little white girl where I went to kindergarten called Alice. She had blonde curls and green eyes and was just really cute in general and… I was at that age that I wanted a little sister.
"So… I asked my parents for an Alice; the whole curls and green eyes package, which was almost ridiculously impossible, thinking back on it. But here she is." Diana gestured at Alice, who did jazz hands with an unenthusiastic expression on her face.
Maggie questioned where the green eyes came from, considering both Diana and Felix had varying shades of brown, but she kept it to herself.
"Even got the privilege of naming her… No five-year-old should ever have that much power over a person. But I guess it was less stressful for my parents to have someone else pick the name for them. Definitely the lazier path."
Maggie didn't remember much of her stepmom's pregnancy, but she had heard stories of Annette's and her dad's struggle with naming Beth.
"Definitely wasn't the first time," Alice remarked, "Didn't mom name you Diana 'cause she dreamt someone told her to? Talk about lazy." The huff of laughter at the end sounded ingenuine and forced.
There was a stretch of taut silence afterward, which Maggie attributed as nostalgic and melancholic as the two sisters recalled the parents they had lost. Her hands stilled on Diana's hair to give them a minute of silence.
"Wait… my brain cells are tryna tell me something right now. I legit feel like Jimmy Neutron." Diana's brow furrowed as her cheek hollowed from her biting on the inside of it. "I remember- I remember mom saying that on the night she found out she was pregnant she dreamt about a woman that told her the exact date of my birth and promised mom safe childbirth if she named me after her roman name. That was the exact phrasing mom used."
Maggie felt lost. She didn't know why a simple bizarre dream was causing such disconcertment in the sisters. What did it matter now? She felt like there were some details to Diana's recollection that were flying over her head, especially when paired with Alice's widened eyes and snap of fingers.
"Not Roman, then, Greek!"
"Makes sense, no?" Diana shrugged helplessly.
"You think Minerva knows?"
Minerva? Who was Minerva? Maggie didn't remember any member of their party being called that.
"I have no clue," Diana responded, shrugging again.
Maggie just stood behind her, scissors in hand, either waiting for an explanation or for the topic to be changed so she could feel integrated once more. Anything but this strange being kept in the dark that she couldn't make any sense of. It was like they were talking in code.
"So, Artemis? And- and-"
"Athena," Alice completed, puzzling Maggie even further as to why they were spouting random Greek gods' names. "We can't be sure we're one hundred on this, though. And does it even really matter? It doesn't change jack shit. We're still as ignorant as before."
Maggie saw Diana's dejected pout in the mirror. Before she could ask what all of that had been about – because her curiosity couldn't let this one slide – Diana said something that both confused and intrigued her, "I think it's time we contact Minerva."
and maggie jumps on the batshit train, chu chu, next stop: whip out the ouija board for the next update cuz im dead
