𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒍𝒇 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒗𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒔 ➪ «𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑦𝑙 𝑑𝑖𝑥𝑜𝑛»

ch. XXXIX pt. II

oOo

Diana had come back without Alice.

Felix was lying curled on his side, willing himself to remain optimistic. He trusted Alice to be smart enough to stay alive, but there were times when your smarts couldn't help you.

A weight dropped onto the sleeping space he would be sharing with Diana, and a hand found his upper arm, the thumb grazing his skin familiarly. He peeked over his shoulder to confirm it was his sister, then turned to her completely.

She looked tired. As he surely did too. Felix knew the expression on her face, the silent question it showed. He shrugged in response – he was okay, sort of. "I told her," he whispered through a scratchy throat, "I knew what she wanted to do, it was plain on her face, that moron. I told her t-" he stopped himself, the guilt of not having done more choking him. And then the realization that he was speaking as if they'd lost her forever hit even harder.

Felix cleared his throat subtly and sat up, back against the window of the RV. Diana took the opportunity to sit beside him, their temples grazing the cool glass as they looked at each other. She intertwined their fingers and put their joined hands on her lap, and then began 'soft tickling' up and down his arm.

It helped to calm him down, which, of course, had been his sister's intention. He wasn't against the method. Better than T-Dog's idea of a pep-talk; the guy had been delirious on pain meds and on top of that exhausted, and kept calling Alice "Roadrunner" and that he was sure "Wile E. Coyote" wouldn't get her. Felix imagined the walkers were this "Coyote" in the metaphor.

He rolled his head to face forward, his eyes landing on Carol's back where she lied on the bed opposite them. He'd heard her cry softly not long ago and had felt pretty sorry for her, but being in the same situation as her kind of excused him from having to do something about it.

When Diana spoke, her voice was so quiet he almost had to read her lips. "Ela vai ficar bem," she started, then repeated it as if reassuring herself, "She'll be fine. Bet she'll stroll in pissed as hell 'cause she forgot she was on her period and didn't have an extra pad on her. Bet."

Felix resented the period joke, never finding it funny how casual his sisters were with BLEEDING every month. His squeamishness had more to do with the blood itself, in its heavy quantity, and less with where it came from. Feminism. He rolled with it.

Nonetheless, he appreciated Diana's attempt, he knew her way with words had an on-off switch she couldn't really reach. He breathed out an amused scoff.

"So she's gonna be seeing red in more ways than one, huh?"

Diana released a soundless breath of laughter. Silence fell comfortably between them, and Felix's eyes naturally began to flutter closed. His anxieties hadn't stilled yet, but he believed in Alice's tenacity as much as he believed in her stubbornness.

He was already half asleep when Diana's fingertips left his skin and she led him down until he was horizontal. Pillow under his head and a kiss on his forehead, and Felix was out like a light.

oOo

Diana hugged her goosebumped arms to herself as she stepped out of the RV in need of fresh air. The sweltering day had given way to a chilly night, she'd used her red hoodie to cover Felix, and she hoped that wherever she was, Alice was safe and warm.

She looked over her shoulder towards Felix's sleeping form and caught Andrea's eyes. She was sat at the table assembling and reassembling her pistol the way that Shane had shown her. Her eyes had dark circles underneath them, but she seemed to refuse to go to sleep.