How Green Becomes Wood

It took a few rings for Dark to recognize what he was hearing, having finally relaxed for the first time all day, and, in fact, it was Daizi who nudged him to tell him his phone was ringing, so he fished it out of his pocket, saw the name on caller ID, and swore under his breath before answering it and attempting to sound relaxed. Or at the very least, vaguely pleasant. "Hello, Ciara, how are you doing?"
 
"I received news that my nephews and their guardian were apparently in some sort of altercation yesterday afternoon," she said, her voice clipped. "The altercation was severe enough to warrant police, an arrest, and an ambulance. I would like to inquire why it is that I had to hear about this through official channels first thing this morning."
 
Dark dropped his head back and rubbed his face roughly, only after making the action remembering he was punched hard in the jaw less than twenty four hours before, and he had, essentially, just squeezed his horrible bruise, "Ciara. I have not called anyone regarding it. I have been somewhat caught up with taking care of them, because it has been a rather taxing experience for them."
 
There was a long silence on Ciara's end punctuated by the very light sound of slow tapping like she was tapping a fingernail against something hard or maybe typing something very slowly. "Are they badly injured?" she finally asked.
 
"Physically?" Dark asked blandly. Then he answered presuming that was what she meant, "I suppose that would depend on your definition of 'badly.' Alec is more or less fine, his scalp is a little raw. Xander has a concussion, but a mild one, and the doctor is not particularly concerned, although he will not be attending school for the next week. He also has some slight and temporary damage to his ear drum."
 
"I see," she said tightly. More tapping. "From what I understand, the felon in question was not a particularly law-abiding citizen with many cases of violence pending against him." A slight pause. "And yourself. Are you badly injured?"
 
"You likely have more information about him than I do. I am fine. Thank you for asking." Dark replied, telling essentially the truth. He didn't know much about the man who had assaulted them, and Ciara had access to the FBI's database. And, as a man who had once briefly been dead, a broken rib didn't seem to qualify as 'badly.' Subjective questions earned subjective answers.
 
"Good," she said shortly. "I recognize that you are currently otherwise occupied and in need of rest, but when you feel sufficiently recovered, I would appreciate a full debrief of what actually happened. Reports only tell part of the story. In the meantime, rest well, and let me know if there is any way I can be of service."
 
"Thank you. I will do so. And I will let the twins know you called and are worried about them. " Dark replied, opening his eyes for the first time in the conversation since answering the phone, "And please remember, if you ever are struggling to get ahold of me, you are also able to call Daizi and speak with her."
 
"I will speak to you soon." Dark replied, hung up, and tossed his phone lightly onto the coffee table.

"She sounded worried," Daizi said gently, rubbing his shoulder.

"She was," Dark agreed, his expression slowly changing until he was glaring at nothing, "But I do not think it is fair for her to speak to me as if I have been intentionally excluding her, because what I recall is her making quite a noise about how nobody could have expected her to be aware of the twins living on the street for, weeks, or even that there were two of them, despite having more resources than any average person, for fifteen years, not even thinking to look for a birth record, but then we wait... eighteen hours? What time is it? Let us say twenty-four, let us say thirty-six, let us be generous, to call her, and I have to talk her down."

"Okay, well," She shifted up on her knees, resting her hand on the back of his neck. Although he had brought up a somewhat decent point, she also knew from what she overheard that Ciara relaxed easily, and Dark wouldn't be as frustrated as he was just then if he wasn't worn out and in pain, "She is trying to do better than before, and now that she has some level of a relationship with them, she cares more. She's concerned, and probably still learning how to be concerned. And I probably should have called her, I realized that this morning, while I was already talking with Sally."

"But she did not call you,"

"I know, Goose, but you reminded her she could have," She pushing his hair back, "instead of yelling at the man who saved her nephews."

"She called me their 'guardian,'" He grumbled, although he did, admittedly, settle down, begrudgingly, "I do not care if it is the legal term, it feels so detached."
 
Upstairs, the twins basically did not move except to find new positions of comfort until noon. Alec came down for lunch, which he took upstairs to eat with Xander, and while he tried to smile and be at least some level of "normal" for Daizi and Dark, he was more subdued and quiet than he normally was. The entire house was quieter than usual. Except for Ivy. Alec and Xander (though Xander would never openly admit it) were so grateful that Ivy, at least, was as normal as she always was. She felt like a beacon of happiness to them even while they stayed in their room, silent and mostly still.
 
When Ivy woke up and was fed and changed, Dark did tummy time with her, and he had a brief moment of true joy, despite everything that happened, when she managed to roll over from back to tummy for the 'first' time, and his absolute delight at being there to see it made Daizi absolutely certain she would take to her grave that Ivy had done it once before, because he really, really needed that win. Afterwards he sat on the floor, holding her as tightly as he safely could, with his face scrunched up and pressed against her, trying to control all the big emotions that welled up in him over it.

During her next nap time, he did allow himself to fall asleep upstairs in his bed, and Daizi followed him up to drape a weighted blanket over him and make sure the curtains to their bed, and the curtains to their windows, were both drawn tightly shut. Then, on his bedside table, she left a glass of water with enough ice that, when he woke up, would have melted just enough to keep the water cold, pain medicine, and a snack that wouldn't spoil during the wait. Part of her wanted to curl up right next to him, but he wasn't the only one she needed to take care of. So, she left their room, checking the light switch to make sure it was off, because it would not have been the first time she took care to shut every curtain only to leave the light on, and went to check on her sons.

After making certain she had done everything for them she could in that moment, she sat in the living room with Dark's phone, and just answered every call which came through so he wouldn't have to talk to everyone himself. At around 4:40, she went back upstairs, and very gently creaked the twins' door open, not wanting to knock for Xander's sake, "Hey," she murmured, "Sloan is here, she has your bags. I let her wait downstairs, in case you wanted to speak to her, but she said she's also completely willing to just drop off the bags and leave. And she brought pringles and brownies."
 
Xander had been about to say he was fine where he was when Daizi's last words registered. "Pringles?" he repeated quietly.

"Brownies?" Alec asked, brightening.

They both got up and made sure they were appropriately dressed for company before heading downstairs. Alec went first to greet Sloan while Xander came down more slowly, letting his eyes adjust to the ambient light. Inside was not as bright as outside, but he still had the urge to put on a pair of dark glasses. He just hoped his bruised face wouldn't freak Sloan out. It was now a lovely shade of deepest purple.
 
The sight of Xander's face made Sloan's eyes go wide, cutting her short from just saying hello. Fighting back her urge to comment on it she said, "I found your backpacks. Someone actually brought them to the lost and found, so they're in good shape. And Daizi put the brownies in the kitchen, I coerced my mom into baking them while I was at school." She handed Xander a box of pringles snack packs, "I thought you might need these, too," She looked over at Alec, then back at Xander, and back at Alec, not really knowing exactly what to say, but eventually she just broke, shook her head, and said, "You two."
 
Xander's eyes lit up at the sight of the snack pack and took them with both hands, backing up a little so he could examine them thoroughly. He looked a bit like a squirrel that had just been handed his favorite nut. "Thanks. Hey, at least this time I didn't start it," he remarked.

"True. He didn't start any fights at all this time," Alec confirmed with a smile. "Thank you for finding our backpacks for us. He can't do homework right now - he's very sad about that - but I still have to." He reached out and rubbed her upper arm lightly. "We'll be alright. Especially with brownies and pringles."
 
"Hey that's something," Sloan laughed softly, and then wondered if she should have. "The school is buzzing with rumors--about your dad. I don't think I heard anyone mention you by name, not by anyone who doesn't like... really know you, anyway. That might change a bit when you show back up," she looked at Xander's bruise, "but that's what colour correcting concealer is for, right?"
 
Xander paused in his inspection of the pringles to look at Sloan. "That is going to take a lot of concealer," he said seriously.

"I'll help him out," Alec said with a slightly wavering smile. "I'm kind of glad the rumors aren't about us, but... are they being particularly mean about Ba? He... he didn't want to hurt anyone. He really didn't want to, but he had to, and he got hurt trying to stop the guy." He looked at Sloan earnestly, needing at least one person to know the truth. Well, two. Peter had gotten a short version when he'd texted earlier.
 
Sloan shrugged, "I broke my cheekbone falling hard on the bars once. I looked rough. But that's why we have makeup. And..." She shifted, "Some of the rumors are kinda mean. There's a lot with the normal Camel Smuggling operation that nobody will let die, and some comments are... worse... than that. But some people are saying they think someone was probably like, trying to sell drugs or do worse things to kids at the school, and Dark came in and stopped it. The prevailing narrative is that he saved some kid, or at the very least got rid of a creep. Some people think he punched Mr. Reilly in the face because Mr. Reilly wasn't at school to day either."

Her gaze moved towards the stairs, "It's true, then? He actually hit someone? I mean, I know you said he interfered, but... I don't know, I figured..."
 
Alec looked away, not sure what to say or how to feel about what some people said about his father. Rumors were usually cruel, that was inevitable, but it still hurt to hear it. Dark hitting Mr. Reilly was just too ridiculous to fathom. How did they tell her the truth?

Xander took over. He set aside his pringles and stepped forward. "Our mum's ex came to the school," he said flatly, neither expression nor tone inviting any further questioning. "He threatened us. Tried to smack us around. Tried to smack Ba around. Ba warned, and when he didn't listen, Ba smacked back. Hard. It was what was needed, but he's not happy he had to. Still took damage from the dude."
 
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