How Green Becomes Wood

"We can circle back on him having a partner in a few months," Dark replied, feeling a bit sly.

Taking a long pause to examine the state of things and plan his next move, Dark moved another box to a more workable position and then sat down with the chalk and the sandwich board. "Whatever you need from me," he told Tristan as he considered what he should write, "I will do. That is why I am here. And thank you, I thought deeply about how I needed to look."
 
"It shows. It s quite beautiful. We have fifteen minutes - less - before the shop opens." Tristan spread out several small batches of flowers in all available colors and looked them over with care. The easiest and most obvious first couple of bouquets would be to do the rainbow. It was a beautiful color scheme. Where to go from there? He decided he was thinking too much and let his fingers and eyes start working.

In ten minutes, he had seven bouquets ready to go, each one a different theme of flower colors. There was a rainbow, obviously, but also reds, blues, and complementary colors. He'd also done a striking one in dark red and "black." Daisies did not like going black, so it was not a true black, but it was close. There were also daisies with black centers, and those were quite striking. Once he had the flowers in the vases with some water beads at the bottom, he wrapped them with ribbon and tied them off with an expert flair. He didn't bother with extra here since he wanted to get them out and onto the shop floor. He made a quick sign with the price and took what vases he could carry out front along with a few single daisies. The daisy pots were going to be so full today!
 
Dark finished the sandwich board: he drew very elegant daisies, even taking the time to shade them as best he could, given his unfamiliarity with the medium, and the result was eye catching but not overwhelming. For the text he wrote, As August ends, and the Lion lies down to rest, embrace new beginnings. Welcome, September, in his flowing, strong handwriting.

Then, in more cheerful handwriting, he added, "Daisy sale!" at the bottom of the page.

After he showed it to Tristan for approval, he set it up, and then went to arrange flowers, working quickly but meticulously arrange displays. Most of his followed his standard emotive schemes: the moodiest colours he could pull from daisies, reds and whites, evoking blood, and the most possible gloom. But then, also, after a moment, he did his best to assemble displays in pride colours. Those, he thought, would sell to the right person.
 
Tristan assured Dark that the sign was absolutely perfect, and once he had a section set up for the daisies, he opened the store. Once alerting Dark so that he could be professionally dressed when the clients came in. He nearly forgot to put on his own suit jacket and hurried back to do just that. Then he took some time to fuss with the displays, keeping all of the pride colors separated so that it would not look like some sort of Pride display.

A couple of people trickled in at first, and the daisies were well received, especially the ones prearranged in a vase. Those were more expensive, but people liked the idea of not having to set it up themselves. Tristan split his time between front and back, helping clients and building more bouquets in vases until he ran out of the less expensive vases. He was not going to put a bunch of over ordered daisies in vases worth fifty dollars or more.
 
Dark stepped into the backroom when the shop opened properly to redress himself, unable to stop from chuckling mildly to himself at how strange it was that yesterday, he got a bit spicy in here with his wife, and now here he was a day later, redressing himself. There wasn't a mirror to retie his tie in, and although he knew he could do fine without it, mostly due to muscle memory, but partially as a result of sometimes trying to do things with his eyes shut or blindfolded, out of curiosity of what it was like for Daizi. But, after all of the heavy lifting, he wasn't quite feeling up to having something around his neck just yet, so left the top few buttons undone, although he buttoned it more than he would were he not at work, so only the slightest bit of his collarbone tattoos were visible.

Then he came back out, mentally preparing for the possible throng he had encountered the day before, and did his best to fill in where needed.
 
The pace of patron quickly increased throughout the day, and when it came time for lunch, Tristan had Dark take his break first in the tiny breakroom in the back and out of everyone's sight. The rest of the time, he relied heavily on Dark to fetch and move things at speed. He could manage quite well, but there was only so much he could hold at one time while also using at least one hand to move forward. They moved a lot of daisies out front, repeatedly refilling the pots of single flowers as they were being sold at a discount, as were the loose bouquets. The ones in the vases were not discounted, but they still moved fairly quickly. He took some time in the back to make of a few daisy-only pre-made bouquets, and there was a call for having daisies in with other flowers, too. People still came clearly to gawk at Dark, but, thankfully, the crowd made it so that the gawkers moved on a little more quickly. None of them did more than a few quick flirtations with Dark when they could.
 
At home, not too long before Dark's break, Daizi came downstairs. At the sight of her mama, and Ivy excitedly jingled ovet to her, screeching in absolute delight.

"good morning, habibti," Daizi murmured to her, lifting her up and holding her on her right hip. She felt pretty guilty for sleeping in so late, but she tried to convince herself it was okay, because she had woken up at just before eleven, and was coming downstairs before noon. It was just, in the meantime, she needed to still brush her teeth and hair, wash her face, and get dressed. She came downstairs as soon as she could, but it was a slower start than she was comfortable with, especially knowing how much she was missed. "thank you for watching her."
 
"Sure!" Alec said happily. "It was no trouble. We sang songs and read books and enjoyed our time together. Xander came in a couple of times to check on us. It's been all snuggles and cuddles all the way! How are you feeling?"
 
"Oh, that sounds lovely." Daizi smiled, kissing the top of Ivy's head, "Was that lovely, sweet girl?" She sighed, nuzzling against her absolutely delighted baby, "I feel better than you'd expect. I'm just tired, really. I got home late."
 
"You got home so late it was early," Alec told her with a grin.

Xander wandered in from outside and looked Daizi over. "Hey. Welcome. Are you in the land of the living yet?"
 
"I'm glad you had a good time! And we stayed home and did face masks and watched a movie," Alec told her. "It was very cozy. Well, Ba and I face masks and movied. Xander was a grumpy pants."

Xander ignored Alec. "Want some brunch? I can get whatever you want."
 
"That sounds lovely," Daizi replied, "except for him," she nodded towards Xander, "being grumpy, but then again, Dark normally is. It certainly sounds more peaceful. But we had fun, last night. It was nice just getting to be with my friends again without feeling bad about it." She bounced Ivy on her hip for a few moments, thinking through the memories, "I probably should eat, thank you. But I can make it myself, it's no problem. Although I wish Cooger were here, nobody makes better breakfast after a night out than him."
 
"I got it," Xander said, heading to the kitchen. "She's not going to let you go anytime soon."

"True. Ivy just wants to snuggle, and you totally do, too, so you go snuggle. Xander will get your breakfast," Alec assured her.
 
"I can cook and snuggle," Daizi grinned, squeezing Ivy close, and then relented, "okay. Thank you."

Taking Ivy to the couch, Daizi sat down and pulled her legs up so she could really nestle in with Ivy, who even looked more relaxed now that she was with one of her parents again. As Daizi settled in, she tucked her hair back, wincing slightly as she bumped her ear.
 
"But getting it while intoxicated? From someone while intoxicated?" Alec gave her his most disapproving look even if she couldn't see it. "I hope you let Ba clean it up a bit." He softened. "Otherwise, it looks very nice. Ba careful Ivy doesn't reach up."
 
"The person who pierced it wasn't intoxicated," She replied shyly, "Everything seems like a good idea to me while under the influence. And everything seems like a good idea to Ellis, too. And she mentioned she's always wanted a bellybutton ring, but has been too nervous to do it. So I told her I have been wanting this one. And, we went. It wasn't a good idea, but now there's two new holes through my ear, so, I have to live with it. He did clean it last night, and I did again when I woke up."
 
"I see," Alec mused, not sure what to say to this. How did parents deal with kids doing stuff like this? Not that Daizi was even close to his kid, nor did he feel like he needed to parent her, but it did bring up some interesting thoughts.

Xander stuck his head into the living room. "Food's ready. Toast, eggs, and sausage."
 
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