The winter storm kept them all, more or less, confined to the house. Daizi still had work, because unlike the rest of them, she didn't get a few weeks break during the winter, so when the roads were cleared, in the mornings, Dark would drive her to the train station so she could commute to the city, and in the evenings drive her home from the station, but besides that and grocery shopping, they really only sparingly left the house. Really, it was fully revealed that while school was in session, Dark was functionally a househusband. Since Daizi still had to work, and he didn't, he willingly took on all of the shopping and the majority of the cooking, because since he had the time, he might as well. They went on little "at-home" dates, and as hard as they tried to be sneaky, there were a few times where Dark's worst nightmare would be realized, and one or both of the twins would catch them acting.... rather like, well, two teens in the halls of a highschool, although thankfully not doing anything more graphic. In a normal winter, they would go out on more "real" dates together, but they weren't entirely sold on the idea of leaving the twins home alone for a few hours while they did, mostly because it seemed sort of... strange to do so.
It was strange enough to have them there in the first place, but there was no way they were casting them out into the storm to freeze and die. So the couple incorporated them into their lives as best they could, even if it meant that when school reconvened, they would be able to share far too many details about the personal life of the most mysterious teacher there.
It turned out that Daizi, once a week (or more, if something in particular upset her), "smudged" the house, which really just entailed burning sage and either herbs and slowly walking through every room in the house, to "cleanse" it. If it worked or not, at least it smelled nice. And it turned out that Dark had a passion for woodcarving, and he had an entire room in the house dedicated to a miniature carnival he had been carving for longer than either twin had been alive, with carnival rides he had painstakingly learned to make move. There was a shed in the backyard which was his workshop, but with the snow, he could not access it, much to his frustration.
Christmas came and went without much ado. Daizi was thrilled with the rose quartz skull-with-raven Dark had bought her the first day the twins came home, and equally thrilled with the necklace he had bought her, before planning to also surprise her with the skull... and they also bought gifts for the twins, because it felt wrong to celebrate a holiday and ignore them. It wasn't much, and they were fully prepared that Alec would probably try to refuse to accept it, and Xander would probably find a reason to be angry about it, but nonetheless, they gave Alec a gift card to a nearby Indie bookstore, and Xander a gift card to a different indie store that had a larger variety of things for sale--and mostly they decided to give him that card because they knew it was a bit edgy and sold both clip on, and regular, earrings, so they figured it was a safe bet. They wanted to get them new clothes, or new shoes, but they agreed it might be taken the wrong way.
Once or twice, their friend, Cooger, who was the very same friend who had a homestead, liked to crash on their couch, and struggled to eat spicy food, came over in his loud, filthy, pickup truck. He was a large man--Only average height, but wide. Evidently he had once been extremely fit, but even though he was still clearly strong, his late 30s had caught up to him. He had a red beard down to his chest and had immediately taken to referring to himself as "Uncle Cooger," despite the protests of both Dark and Daizi. The first time he met the twins, he slapped them on the back, and swore he'd take 'em up to his cabin and let 'em shoot empty beer cans off his deck with his shotgun. He was inexplicably adored by the married couple, if his key to their house was any indication, or the fact he was the best man at their wedding, even though he very much did not fit their carefully cultivated aesthetic.
And New Years passed by, and Daizi privately celebrated Dark's birthday, which was the same day, but didn't make a visible fuss of it, so neither she nor her husband were sure if the twins knew about it--which was their plan, because he did not like publicizing it in the first place, and he also did not want to make them feel obligated.
So there they were, about to begin the new semester at school, still having made no new plans for what to do with the twin racoons. Honestly, Dark and Daizi both sort of... forgot to make arrangements. That's not exactly the right word, but bizarre as it was, to some extent it seemed... normal.
