How Green Becomes Wood

Daizi couldn't help but smile listening to Alec rattle off every question that popped into his head, "I'm sorry... Alec, why don't you tell her something about you? So it's more of a conversation than an interrogation?"

"I am grateful he never decided to ask me anything so rapidly," Dark remarked, taking a sip of his drink. He was also grateful Alec had never asked those questions to Daizi... The ones about spirituality she'd take to regularly, but he saw how, even now, when he hit the question about any children, she tensed, from so many years of dreading needing to say no.
 
"He didn't feel like he was in a time crunch with you and a lot more guarded," Xander muttered to Dark. He didn't like how eager Alec seemed to be to get to know this woman. What happened to the carefulness he used to display? The tact? The cautious nature? Maybe being with people they could actually trust was loosening him up a bit too much.

Alec gave Daizi a lopsided smile. "Right. That's a good idea." He straightened. "I'm fifteen, I don't have a favorite color because I like them all, my favorite class is art class and music. I don't have a religion, and I've never had a girlfriend, and I'm not very interested in that kind of thing right now."

"A wise idea. You barely even know who you are at fifteen, let alone the kind of person you want to be with," Ciara agreed. She finished off her salad and then said, "My favorite color used to be green. I haven't thought about favorite colors in a long time."
 
"Neither have I," Daizi agreed, lightly shoving Dark away. Even without sight, she could feel the look he had given her when Ciara said you don't know the kind of person you want to be with at fifteen. She was right, their case was almost unheard of, and anyway, they only ended up together because they had time apart, but it didn't stop Dark from finding some pleasing irony in her words.

"Do you want to tell her a bit about you, Xander?" Dark asked, after being shoved away from his wife.
 
"Nope, I'm good, I think Alec has it covered," Xander said bluntly. "Besides, the table won't clear itself." He stood and cleared off the dishes, carrying them inside.

Alec hopped up. "I'll help! We should wait a bit before dessert, right? Right. We should go inside and sit on the couch or something!" He all but dashed inside with the leftovers to put them away.

Ciara glanced at Dark and Daizi. "Are they always so...?" She didn't have the words, so she just indicated vaguely in the twin's direction.
 
Dark watched them scurry inside, while Daizi settled back in her seat, her hands folded neatly on her swollen middle. Her head was tipped slightly to the side, listening to the conversation, but facing out towards the flowers. Sometimes she forgot most people expect to be looked at while being spoken to, "Sort of... Xander is pretty normal, he's like Dark, they both are like clamshells, you really have to work to get in. Alec..."

"He is definitely more interested about and talkative with you than he ever was with Declan... He used to be very quiet and reserved," Dark concluded. He had looked back towards them both when Daizi spoke, "but he has been attending therapy, which I think, hope, is helping. And he seems to feel more secure here than he used to."
 
Ciara gave a slight nod. "Security is important, and I am glad that they feel that way here." She pursed her lips. "I apologize for the harm Declan caused," she said at last. "It was an attempt to do something right for them that clearly backfired." She turned slightly to look out at the flowers, her lips tight, her expression guarded.


Inside the house, Xander scowled at Alec as they put the dishes in the sink and got the leftovers sorted out. "What the heck was all that? What was with the interrogation? What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking that if you're right and she doesn't stick around, then this might be the only chance we get to learn about our mum's history and the kind of family she came from," Alec said, keeping his voice down as he worked. "If she does hang around, that's great, but if this is the last time we see her, then I want to know. I want to know where our mum came from to make her the way she was."

"Stubborn, fiery, proud, and fiercely independent?" Xander asked. "I think we already got our answers. Add on snooty, and I think we've more or less described Aunt Ciara, and clearly our grandparents are - or were - die-hard Catholic snobs from the old-school way of thinking. I don't think we need to deal with that."

"No, you're probably right, but it's still a chance to glean anything we might have missed," Alec pointed out.

"Well, you're going to have to figure out how to be a heck of a lot more subtle about it, then," Xander said before turning to head back outside.

"Anyone want cake yet? Or should we take a coffee and tea break?" Alec asked brightly as they stepped outside.
 
"You couldn't have known," Daizi said quickly, shifting in her seat. She wasn't sure if she believed it, because she distrusted Declan from the moment they met, but ultimately she believed it was not Ciara's fault, "and I know they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions, but I don't think we should be too hard on ourselves when we try to do something good and it goes awry. I mean... You brought him here, but you did not make him leave. His actions are his own, and I know he'll get what he deserves before the end."

"In a weird way...." Dark said very slowly, "I think it helped them to settle here. We are not exactly... the very picture of a perfect foster family, and the circumstances were unusual, and then..." He nodded towards his wife, "I would have preferred it work out, but now that we are somewhat distanced, some good has come of it."

"Aw, look at you looking on the bright side of things," Daizi smiled, reaching over to squeeze his hand while he rolled his eyes. When the twins came back out, she said, "Oh, I would love some tea. But you two should sit, talk to your guest. I can go make it," she scooted her chair back and moved to heave herself up, "Does anybody else want something? Ciara, we have basically every kind of tea you could want, along with milk, sugar, and honey."
 
Ciara watched Daizi closely as if considering something, but all she said was, "If you happen to have any noncaffeinated tea, that would be lovely with some honey. I am not particular about the flavor."

"I could help make the tea," Alec said, starting to turn.

Xander clamped a hand on his shoulder and turned him around. "She's fine. If she's not fine, he can help," he said. Then, in a much lower tone so only Alec could hear, he said, "This was your idea. Follow through."

Alec gave a little nod to show he'd heard and returned to his seat. "Quite right," he said about Dark helping Daizi. "So, um, Aunt Ciara, what do you do? For work."

"A lot of meetings and a lot of boring paperwork," she replied with a slight arch to her brows that could have been humor. "There is not much to talk about. What about you two? Have you any idea what kind of career path you want?"

"Not yet," Alec admitted sheepishly.

Ciara smoothed her skirt. "There is certainly nothing to be ashamed about with that. Some people know, others don't, and some change their minds a thousand times over. By the time she was fifteen, your mother had decided she wanted to be a veterinarian, a Seaworld dolphin trainer, a trapeze artist, and a lawyer. I have no idea why she wanted to be a lawyer."

Alec smiled, looking a little relieved. He continued to make small talk while Xander sat back and observed. Aunt Ciara was not exactly the warmest and easiest conversationalist, but she did seem to be trying as they talked.
 
"Ciara, I'm pregnant, of course I have uncafeninated tea," Daizi laughed, while Dark got up to open the door for her. He had, of course, already been in the process of standing before Xander made the comment about how he could help her.

When the door closed behind them, she said, "We should take our time in here, give them time to talk without us prying in their business. Do you want coffee?"

"I can make it," He assured her, although was not going to stop her from making tea, because he knew it would frustrate her, "I appreciate that she seems to care enough about them to try... Without exclusively making excuses for herself. Declan could never take real accountability."
 
After what seemed like a really long time to make coffee or tea, Xander came into the house. "I think we've exhausted our reservoir of small talk," he said blandly to Dark and Daizi. "Shall we bring out the cake and focus on eating instead of talking?"

Alec was telling Ciara about the latest band he had discovered and talking animatedly even though he could see from her eyes that she had no clue what he was talking about. Still, she nodded along and asked a couple of vague questions.
 
"I am glad to have missed it," Dark replied, pretending as if he and Daizi hadn't been having a very deep conversation. For once, Xander actually hadn't caught them up to no good, but they were talking seriously together.

"We were just waiting until the tea was a drinkable temperature," Daizi explained, standing and picking up both her and Ciara's mug, "Can you take Dark's coffee? He can get the cake, unless you'd prefer to bring it out. He's just got big hands and from what I understand, it was awkward to carry."

She left them to figure out what was what, and went outside (carefully opening the door with her shoulder), "Here you go, green tea with honey. They're the exact same, so you don't have to worry that I'm giving you the wrong one." She handed Ciara a black mug with a big, tactile luna moth surrounded by gold-painted fillagree and in-laid Cresent moons. Her own mug was shaped like an all black with an inlaid onxy eye on one side, with a moon above it, and a raised pentagram on the other.
 
"You have an interesting selection of mugs," Ciara commented, cradling hers. "I do not think I have ever seen these in stores. Do you order them online?" She took a sip of tea.

Xander picked up the coffee mug. "I'll bring the serving knife if you get the cake." He picked up said knife and opened the door for Dark.
 
"No, actually," Daizi replied, taking a sip of her drink, pausing for a second, and then sighing, apparently of relief. She had remembered to actually add the teabags, more than once recently she had forgotten that step, "These two... I have a friend who is a potter, and years ago I was complaining to her how hard it is to find mugs with designs I can enjoy, so each birthday she started making me a mug with a tactile design. Yours is from last year, mine is the first one she made. She also made our plates and bowls... A few years ago, actually, she had this beautiful volute krater she had made with a depiction of Sappho and Aphrodite inlaid in it depicted at one of the art galleries downtown."

Dark agreed with Xander, and followed after him with the cake, so the teen could open the door. He caught the end of what Daizi was saying and asked, carefully setting the cake down, "Are you talking about Jade?"

"About the mugs she made."
 
"Hmm, she is quite talented," Ciara remarked, studying the mug. "It is not my preferred decor style, but I can admire the skill and beauty of it."

Xander helped Dark uncover the cake. The revealed dessert was a glory of pink, white, and red with tiny swirls on top and a massive strawberry sliced decoratively crowning the affair. The sides were pieces of white chocolate decorated with diagonal stripes that went all the way around.

"Wow, that looks too fantastic to cut!" Alec breathed. "It's beautiful."

"It's a strawberry and cream layer cake," Ciara said. "I'm afraid I went to three different bakeries and none had a pure strawberry cake, but I do not think Tara would mind."

Alec smiled. "I know she'd love it. Strawberries and cream are amazing!"

Xander said nothing as he started serving up pieces of the decorative cake. Inside, there were four layers of strawberry velvet cake with whipped topping and strawberry pieces nestled between.
 
"Dark prefers when mugs all match. I think it's boring, but he gets to decide most of the house, so he came to my side on just this," Daizi said.

"It looks beautiful," Dark said, taking a brief glance at Xander. It wasn't exactly the same as the box mix cake he had planned, hopefully it didn't bother him too much. Ciara did come last minute, and unlike Xander, she wasn't home all day, so taking the time to bake wasn't as feasible for her. Still...

The smell of the cake was lovely, and Daizi carefully set down her mug and took the little plate with the cake slice on it. She had a similar concern to Dark, but it was somewhat overruled by the little child inside of her who, it seemed, was desperate for cake. But she didn't take the first bite, it seemed wrong to. The birthday person always had the first bite, right? It wasn't clear how that would be resolved, and she shifted in her chair, trying to make herself more comfortable.
 
Xander quietly ensured everyone had a piece and sat down. It sure was no box cake mix, that was for certain. It wasn't that he minded, not even the fact that Ciara asked to bring the cake, it just underlined the massive gap that separated his mother's life before and after kids. Her life before that one mistake looked like it had been pretty fine compared to how she ended up. What drove her to live like she had with her two boys instead of dumping them in an orphanage and going back to her family? What kind of family expected that of a young mother? He just couldn't understand it. His mother deserved a better life than she'd gotten, that much he knew.

"Um, usually it's the birthday person who starts, but since she's not here," Alec said uncertainly, "how about a cake-bite toast to her and we all eat together?"

"Sounds cheesy, but alright," Xander agreed, using his fork to cut off a small bite. "You wanna do the honors?"

"You're the oldest, you should say something," Alec prompted.

Xander glared at him but cleared his throat. "Okay, uh... To Tara Cunningham. She deserved better, but may she finally be getting some peace," he said awkwardly, holding up his fork.

Ciara copied him, murmuring quietly.
 
"Fe sahatek," Dark murmured, raising his fork. Cheers.

"Allah yerhamha," Daizi whispered. May God have mercy on her. She raised her fork with the rest, a second after everyone else, her head bent down. The baby was kicking, and all day, Daizi found it difficult not to think of Tara, alone and presumably scared, when both boys were so little. But now especially, as they toasted her life which had gone, while the one beginning fought within her. She set her fork down on her plate before taking a bite, and raising her head, in a gentle tone said, "I think she must have been a very courageous woman."
 
A faint smile flickered across Ciara's face. "Courageous or stubborn or both. I have never really seen much of a difference between those two. But she always saw things through to the end." She kept her eyes on her cake and ate just a nibble.

Alec looked at her curiously. "Do you think it was a bad thing?"

Ciara dabbed her lips with her napkin, seeming to use the motion to buy herself some time. "Not necessarily, I think it was more complicated than that, more complicated than it needed to be, but ultimately, what I think does not matter. What is done is done, the past is the past. We cannot change it, merely learn and move forward."
 
Intuitively, she knew not everyone who became pregnant grew to love the person inside of them, which she didn't fault them for, and intuitively she knew not everyone who kept their baby grew to love their child, which she was much less empathic towards, considering she loved a man whose parents hated and resented him. But still, "It's easy to be stubborn when you're in that place. They'll tell you..." She gestured to Dark and the boys. Then she raised her head and smiled, finally eating some of the cake, that really was very delicious, folding one leg beneath her. It wasn't the most ladylike posture, but it was comfortable, "She raised good sons, who I think are also probably courageous and stubborn."

"Probably?" Dark asked, sipping his coffee.

"I'm being kind," Daizi replied, "and you're stubborn and courageous too... But you're right, Ciara. But you're right, Ciara. You can only move forwards, and try to do better than we did before."
 
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"We are approximately three-quarters Irish. If they were not stubborn and courageous, I would be concerned," Ciara said a touch dryly. She finished her cake primly. "But, you do seem to be correct, with what little I have seen of them."

"And who's fault is that?" Xander muttered as he played with his cake.

Alec frowned at him. "Hush!" he scolded quietly.

Xander grunted but didn't apologize.

"Xander, do you have a question you would like to ask me?" Ciara asked directly. She hadn't caught the entirety of his words, but she had caught the tone.

"Yeah," Xander agreed. He sat up and looked her in the eye for the first time. "Why didn't you ever come find us? Why wait until now?"

Ciara folded her hands in her lap. She didn't answer him right away, but she didn't break eye contact, either. "Partly due to pride and no amount of stubbornness of my own," she admitted without blinking, "and partly due to the thought that there would always be time later. Maybe next birthday. Maybe next Christmas. Until there are no more birthdays or Christmases left. I had not yet left home when your mother... left... and I had this thought that perhaps she would come to me when I did move out." She paused. "No, I think I hoped she would. I hoped she would come crawling to me for help so I could tell her 'I told you so' about Declan. It is not a kind thing nor pretty, but it is the truth. I briefly tried once to find her, about three years after she'd left, but I could not find her, and I did not try very hard. Then my career took off, and I allowed other things to get in the way. Now and then I would think of her and how I should try to find her and her child, but there was always something else to do. Someone else demanding my attention. And why should I be the one to take the first step when she was the one who did not listen to my warning? It was petty, and it was a complete waste of time that I can never get back. That, Xander, is the fact."
 
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