How Green Becomes Wood

"Just buy nice wigs so you can change your hair as much as you want," Daizi suggested, "That's what I wish I had done. I'm not really sure why I bothered changing my hair so much. I couldn't see it.".

"You looked amazing, though," Dark told her, earnestly, feeling some level of longing for the days of Daizi having her hair dyed in a myriad of colours and patterns. Then, however, he frowned deeply at Alec, "You do not become goth purely because you dye your hair black."
 
"I know that," Alec said in exasperation. "I was just being..." He waved a hand. "Never mind. I'll think about the wig thing."

"So I guess I'm not going to be giving you a ride to buy hair dye?" Xander asked mildly.

Alec shook his head. "I guess not. Not if white is going to be so hard. Especially not if I'll just look like a flag. And especially especially since someone's afraid I'll stain the bathtub, which I didn't know was possible."
 
"You stepped into his subculture," Daizi said, somewhat amused and somewhat explaining, "and he only wary about staining the bathtub because he has stained a tub before."

"In my defense, my primary concern was frying your hair, and had I not warned you, and you did, it would have been a lot worse. If you want to dye your hair, just let me book an appointment with a professional to mitigate all risks." Dark told him, "I am sure your actual idea will be less... flag-like."
 
Alec looked at Dark with narrowed eyes. Then he brightened with a smile. "Alright! Since you don't think I'll look alike a flag, I wanna do it! Before we meet Triscuit." He caught himself and scowled at Xander. "Tristan!"

"You made the slip-up, not me. It's not my falt," Xander smirked.
 
Dark looked with mild confusion back at Alec's scowl, "Would you prefer to risk your hairs health? If you are dead-set on it, that is your choice, and you are free to buy a box, I am only trying to save you from tragedy."

"I'll make an appointment with you where I go. I still get my hair cut there, or, used to, I haven't bothered recently, but... about eight years ago, I think, I used to dye it more often, so you can trust them." Daizi said, standing up, "It might be a long appointment, though, I'm not sure how long your hair will take to lift."
 
Alec lifted the ends of his hair as much as they would go. "They're already a tragedy, so I'm happy with anything that'll make it either worse or better at this point outside of shaving it off," he said morosely.

"It doesn't look that bad, it just looks like mine," Xander protested.
 
"You can like something on someone else, but not like it on you," Daizi pointed out to Xander.

"If you miss the length, you can always look into extensions. I do not think we could afford to get you permanent ones, and I doubt you have that money, but you may be able to afford nice clip-ins." Dark suggested. As much as he wanted to be able to grant Alec nice, beautiful glue-in or tape-in extensions to give him his hair back, and although he didn't know much about hair extensions, he knew that type often cost at least $500 just for the hair, and they had money... but not that much just to decide to spend on a random Thursday. Having his hair professionally dyed was expensive enough.
 
"No thanks, I'm good without extensions. I'd just love to put in some color," Alec told him. "That's a cool thought, though! I think I'll go draw out what I'm thinking and show it to you." He hurried off to fetch his sketch pad.

"Right," Xander said, watching him go. He shook his head and used his phone to pull up his email. He'd finished and mailed off all his current orders, and there were no current pending requests for custom pieces. He scrolled through a lot of junk mail, found a coupon for pizza that he saved, and read a review someone left on his business. He frowned. "Why the hell do you buy a custom leather vest if you despise the smell of leather?" he asked no one in particular, bewildered by the negative review. Maybe it was a troll.
 
"I will be glad to see it." Dark said, picking up Ivy. Her hair was getting long, at least for a baby. One day they'd have to discuss getting hers cut, although thankfully it wasn't to that point yet, nor close to it. But it would be soon enough, with how quickly she grew. But that wasn't the time, and he took out his phone to tell Tristan what Xander had decided.

Daizi, meanwhile, said, "Maybe they think it will smell less because it's custom," before getting up so she could make Alec a hair appointment.
 
Tristan replied to Dark, thanking him for letting him know and providing him with his availability for the next three weeks. He was mostly free in the evening and two weekends, but he did say that if none of those times worked, he was willing to take time from work to make himself available. He was hoping he was coming across as helpful and not desperate, but he wanted to make it as easy as possible for the twins and their foster parents. He knew he'd have one chance, and even if that was the only chance he ever got, he didn't want to mess it up.

Xander headed out to his shop to make more standard pieces that were available on his online store so that if anyone wanted to order them, he'd just have to box them up and ship them off. Alec drew out what he was thinking to show Dark, pleased to have something he could share with his father, even if it was just dying the tips of his hair. He then had to discuss whether it should be white and then blue, or blue and then white to imitate flame.

Later, Xander went to the ranch for his session. Judson was waiting patiently, and this time, Xander did not hesitate as long before agreeing to do more free riding. He still hated it, and his palms left damp patches on the thighs of his jeans, but he lasted nearly fifteen minutes before asking to get off. Judson knew his rider was a nervous mess and moved slow and deliberately the whole time. When Xander got down, the horse even "comforted" him by nibbling his hair a bit, which Pam assured Xander was a horse's way of connecting with another horse. It still left his hair standing up weirdly. He didn't mind. He and Pam talked a bit while they cleaned some of the stables, and he did open up a little bit about his control issues. Pam let him lead the session, listening patiently and only occasionally asking a question or guiding him a bit. Toward the end, he stopped to check in the giant, still unnamed horse. The horse hadn't changed much, but at least he was eating a little. Then it was time to head home for a shower and some dinner. Tomorrow was another day, but it was less scary now.
 
Dark promised to let Tristan know as soon as he could when they could meet, impressing onto him their schedule wasn't much of an issue to navigate around because it was summer break, and then talked with Alec about his plans for his hair, hoping to get the teen settled on something realistic but pleasant.

All told, not much changed in either Dark nor Daizi's daily routine, and when Xander came home, they asked him how his horse day was and got confirmation from the twins about where and when they would meet Tristan.
 
Xander wanted to get it over with sooner rather than later, and Alec's hair appointment - which Xander flatly refused to go to - was the next day, so they agreed that either Saturday or Sunday were the best days for them. It was still a strange idea, but they were willing to do it!

That evening, Xander stared at his phone flipping through his contacts. He felt like talking to someone about this whole uncle thing, but he wasn't sure who. Milo? Milo had nothing but family issues right now. Was it far to talk to him about their family issues? Sloan? Sloan was always there and rock steady, but he felt she'd almost be too rational for this discussion. It was a weird thing to think, but he wanted a bit of irrational grumbling involved in the discussion. In the end, he didn't text either of them.

The next day, Xander stayed home while Alec eagerly headed off to get his hair treated.
 
Daizi chose to stay home. The fumes of the salon seemed like a bad environment for Ivy, and although, yes, she was working to spend more time away from her... It seemed pretty helpful to have someone at the salon with Alec who could see, just to make sure Alec wasn't getting something he didn't want, because neither she nor Dark were entirely certain if Alec would be brave enough to correct the stylist, should they go rogue.

So, Dark drove Alec to the salon, and after checking him in, took a seat while they waited, "Are you excited?"
 
"Yes!" Alec grinned, trying not to bounce. He wished Xander had come, but he easily recognized why his brother didn't want to. "I've never done this before, and I can't wait to see how it works out!"
 
"It will be wonderful." Dark assured him with a reserved nod.

Not long after, a youngish woman with a purple and white jellyfish cut and a black apron came up to greet them, "Hi there!" She chirped, "You must be Alec! Come on back!"

Then she led him to the chair and sat him down, "You have gorgeous hair... What are we doing today?"
 
"Thanks," Alec said as he climbed into the chair, nervous but excited. He took a breath to calm himself. "I wanted to get a bit of a dye job." He reached up to touch the end of his hair. "I want to do white and blue on the ends."
 
"Oh my god," The stylist said, "Are you joking? You want to dye your hair? But you've got such a nice natural colour! I mean," She waved her hand, "Don't get me wrong, I always do what my clients ask, but--do you know how many people come in here in, like, September, who had been blonde all summer, begging me to take them to your colour?"
 
"Um... no?" Alec said, suddenly uncertain. "Is it really that big of a deal? I mean, would it be bad to do?" He knew a lot of people commented on his hair, but he'd never thought it was actually special.
 
"I mean, okay," She sat lightly on the edge of the counter, "Technically? No, it's not like you're going to go bald, and the hair at your roots is still going to grow in the same colour, it's not like you dye your hair once and your hair suddenly becomes like... dishwater, you know? But that said, the sun puts in a lot of absolutely gorgeous natural highlights into people's hair, that dying it can't quite replicate, and that's...." She bounced her shoulders as she thought, "a little harder to get back, like you need to completely regrow all of the hair that used to be dyed, and even then it takes a minute. And you have great natural hair, and like, one thing about me, obviously, is that I love unnatural colours, so I will do anything to your hair that you want, okay? Like, I'm not a 'God makes no mistakes' girlie. Because I have the ugliest, saddest hair naturally, okay? I'm not going to refuse to do anything, earlier today I dyed half a client's hair highlighter yellow and the other half neon pink, I'm committed. But I just want you to know what's up." She flipped her own hair over her shoulder, "Also, naturally red hair doesn't hold dye as well, but like, I can work with that, you just may deal with fading sooner than someone with a different hair type."
 
Alec grinned, growing more relaxed. "Okay!" he agreed. "Thank you for telling me everything like that. It's good to make informed decisions! Actually, I just want to do the ends, not the whole hair, so hopefully that won't be as hard? I hope? He held a clump of his hair to demonstrate. "I was thinking a thick stripe of white here, and then the tips a light blue, or dark if light won't work. Not a flag, I just like the colors together."
 
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