Magic Box | Tuesday

[scarlet_chaos]

Wanda was going to dress Jeff up for Christmas today, but she didn't feel much like getting pelted with marzipan while on a ladder. So she'd be decorating indoors today, thank you.

She was going a little nuts with the tinsel, but there weren't any cats around to eat it so whatever.

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[defenderofdesmoines]

But speaking of getting pelted by fruit, who was the bravest new mom on the whole island, everyone? Right here! Because of the fruit thing, obviously, and not anything else.

"Hey," Annie called over her shoulder, coming in the door backwards because she was wheeling a fairly large stroller in with her. "Are you interruptible?"

It just looked like tinsel and stuff to her but Annie was not, as she had oft lamented over the past year or so, a witch.

[scarlet_chaos]

"Oh my god, are there babies?" Wanda asked, breaking out into a grin. "I'm totally interruptible for babies!"

She threw the tinsel over her shoulder and everything, that's how not-busy she was.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"There might be a baby or two in here," Annie replied, unable to keep the teasing act up for long as she maneuvered the stroller carefully to flip up the shade so Wanda could see the two pairs of unfocused brown eyes within, in two little baby faces that did not look entirely like dried fruit or old men anymore.

And since Annie had figured they'd be making some friends today, the babies were dressed in aggressively heteronormative blue and pink, respectively. "Meet Ben and Maggie," she added, gesturing to each of them respectively.

[scarlet_chaos]

Wanda approached the stroller with a slight bit of awe on her face. She loved kids which, duh, everybody knew that. But more than that, she was amazed she had gotten to this place with Annie despite everything that happened last year.

"Oh, Annie," Wanda said. "They are perfect."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Thank you," Annie told her, actually able to sincerely accept the compliment without any deflection. It helped, of course, that Wanda was correct, and her children were indeed perfect. "They're just over a month old now, figured it was time to take 'em out and get them used to fruit falling from the sky."

And to meet friends who maybe couldn't come to the house, necessarily. Annie might be willing to forgive, but Diego was a lot better at holding a grudge than she was.

[scarlet_chaos]

"I'm sure that stroller comes with anti-marzipan technology." Also known as a hood. "How have you been? Do you need anything?"

She figured there was a lot of people coo'ing over babies and less checking in with how Mom was.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I'm fine," Annie assured her, though Annie's definition of fine had taken a bit of a beating recently. "Ish. Mostly. Like, I know you know this, but birth the way where a stork doesn't show up is not exactly a picnic, it turns out? But that's why we're out walking today even though all I want is a nap."

Because it was good for her. And the twins! Whatever, marzipan fruit!

"Do you want to hold them?" she offered, maybe a little shy about it in spite of herself.

[scarlet_chaos]

"Uh, of course I do," she said. "If it's okay with you, I mean."

She had a feeling Annie wouldn't have offered unless she meant it but still. There was always going to be some hesitation there.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Maybe we don't tell Daddy right away," Annie suggested lightly, directing her comment to Maggie since she was leaning over to lift her out of the stroller. She also kind of figured that wasn't exactly a secret to Wanda. "This is Maggie, if the pink isn't a tipoff."

Though, as she offered the baby out, she did consider that that might be a funny way to entertain herself before the babies had preferences or personalities or whatever.

[scarlet_chaos]

"I had a feeling," Wanda said with a laugh. She moved closer to make the hand-off easier. "Hi, honey."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"It's kind of nice to hand a baby off to someone who knows how to hold her," Annie noted, transferring Maggie gently to Wanda's arms. "The number of times I've had to invoke the football thing is crazy."

Well, considering there was like, one baby born here every three or four years, maybe it wasn't that crazy.

Maggie, for her part, gave Wanda a slow blink -- becoming something of a signature move, there, amongst these twins! -- and shook a tiny, balled-up fist at her.

[scarlet_chaos]

"Oh, she's feisty like her mother," Wanda joked. "It's been a couple years since I've held a baby, but it's like riding a bike. A wriggly bike."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"So far, neither of them is feisty in any unpredictable ways." And watch her actually find a wooden surface to knock against, like a dork. "Let me know if she's too wriggly. Ben's even more chill."

Really, they kind of took turns, which was incredibly unfair if you asked their parents.

[scarlet_chaos]

"Oh I think I've got it handled," she said, rocking gently back and forth. "I didn't get to really enjoy this part when my boys were born."

Like most sitcoms, those kids were born looking 4 months old.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Which, like, given Annie's recent experience with purplish newborn faces: probably a good choice, networks!

"Yeah," Annie acknowledged, her voice going a little softer. That was kind of the thing. They were almost exactly a year out from the events that had introduced her to exactly how Wanda had lost her children, and how final that was, now. And while Annie wasn't at all worried about the safety of her own twins in Wanda's presence -- because she understood, more than she ever had, that it hadn't been about getting some kids but Wanda's specific boys -- she was a little concerned about, like...how Wanda would do with it, holding another baby, and whether things would be harder after they left.

"They kind of don't do much at this age," she acknowledged quietly, "but it's kind of great seeing what they do do." Like the fist, and the blinking.

[scarlet_chaos]

There would definitely be some melancholy feelings she'd have to deal with later, but right now all she was feeling was happiness for her friend and that cool little mom link they now shared.

But later, yeah, there might be some sad TV watching.

"You get to watch them become little people," she said, smiling down at Maggie. "Little people you made. That's pretty cool."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I'm excited to see who they end up looking like," Annie admitted. "Like, I keep saying they look like Diego because I think I can see it?"

Mostly because they both had dark hair and eyes, and it was hard to really point out a baby's defining features beyond those things, this early.

"Your boys looked like they kinda took after you," she added gently. And like, that was mostly a little smoke-blowing, since like...they clearly did not take after the picture of Vision Annie had seen, and she also hadn't seen the boys for all that long.

[scarlet_chaos]

"I think that was the only option they had," Wanda replied with a wry smile. "But I could see some of Vision in them with the way they acted."

Billy especially.

"I think Maggie kind of looks like you," she said. "However she really looks like her brother. The color coding was a good idea."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I have a whole supply of little headbands," Annie shared with a slightly wry tilt to her own smile. "And bows I can stick to her. Just until they start looking a little more distinct from one another. Maybe another thing you kinda lucked out on, with how the boys aged. They were pretty easy to tell apart, it seemed like."

[scarlet_chaos]

"When they were babies they looked a lot alike. But that only lasted, like, a day." Such a weird life she had. "After that, yeah, there was no way they couldn't Parent Trap us."

"Do you think you're going to do a color code thing? My parents did that with me and Pietro. You'll be shocked to learn I was dressed in red."

[defenderofdesmoines]

If you asked Annie in about twelve hours, when she would be up in the middle of the night with a fussy baby and his now-fussy sister, she would likely offer that the idea of condensing this whole baby phase in a single day sounded great.

"What color was Pietro?" Annie wondered immediately, glancing down at Ben thoughtfully. "Diego and I have kind of always stuck to black and white or gold, respectively, but that's a fun idea."

And one that could easily be shifted if, say, toddler-aged Ben decided he hated the color he'd been assigned. Their tiny autonomy was so important.

[scarlet_chaos]

"He was blue and silver," Wanda replied before focusing on trying to de-fuss Maggie. "I think she might want her mom back."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Complementary," Annie commented, already pulling Ben out of the stroller for a switcheroo and offering him towards Wanda. "Maggie, sweetie, you're being dramatic."

Unless she wasn't, in which case they'd need to scoot sooner than later lest some sort of bodily fluid become involved in this.

"I'm not planning on having any more of these -- but tell you what, having twins makes it feel like just one baby would be no big deal."

[scarlet_chaos]

Wanda laughed, happily accepting some Ben cuddles. "All I know are twins. But it'll be nice once you get past the whole newborn thing. You've basically got a built-in best friend."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Dance partner, too," Annie contributed, giving Maggie a couple little bounces to try to soothe her. "The Hargreeves are huge dancers, I don't think these guys have any choice of escape. But I do like hearing from an actual, bonafide twin that the default is best friend rather than, like, nuisance."

[scarlet_chaos]

"I mean, there's going to be fights," Wanda said. She couldn't sugarcoat that. "But I think the dancing will definitely help."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"So is the psychic twin thing real?" Annie wondered, lifting her brows at Wanda. "I mean, I know with you it's a whole different thing, but did you feel like you and Pietro could do it?"

Just like, to be aware as a twin mom.

[scarlet_chaos]

Wanda thought about that for a moment as she gently rocked Ben back and forth. "I think it's real. In a way. It's like...having the other half of yourself walking around outside your body."

She frowned. "There wasn't, like, psychic conversations. But I felt when he died."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Oh, Wanda." Annie cuddled Maggie a little closer -- not great, considering she was getting really wriggly -- at that, having not expected something that like, deep. "I'm so sorry, I'm being so insensitive."

Which, like. In a lot of ways, was something Annie had never expected to say to Wanda ever again. Even when she thought they were pretty healed over, she found something new that surprised her.

[scarlet_chaos]

"Oh, no, you're not," Wanda assured her. "Trust me. I like to talk about Pietro. What we had was special; I'd hate to forget about it."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I don't think you ever could," Annie told her, shaking her head. "But okay, good. If it's not, like, insensitive and crappy of me, I'll keep you in my pocket as like...my twin resource on the island?"

It wasn't just sad because of Pietro, of course.

[scarlet_chaos]

"I'm here to help," Wanda said with a nod. "Always, whatever you need."

Just...probably on the downlow until Diego stops being (rightly) mad.