Eventually, with some effort, Dark got Ivy back to sleep, and after laying her down in her crib, he smoothed her hair, and stood over her, watching her relaxed little face sleep, and lost a good ten, fifteen minutes or so doing so, but then he came back downstairs, and joined his boys in the living room to spend some time directly with them, father to son, and Daizi went to check on her garden to let him have some direct time with them.
That evening, she cooked dinner for everyone, and then brought out Dark's favourite dessert, which she had to go to the Arab market to get to him, and while they enjoyed it, she mentioned that the man who owns it is Iraqi, and fled the country around the time Dark had. She suggested to him that he should chat with him, and although Dark normally immediately shut down the chance to meet someone new... Maybe it was the food, or the self-reflection he had done that day, or that he was just... having a really, really nice day, but he agreed to meet with him.
It may not have been a bombastic party of a Father's Day, but he had done everything he wanted to, with the people he wanted to, and he climbed into bed beside his wife without any regrets or disappointments. As he lie there with her head on his chest, he thought about how just a few weeks ago, he wouldn't have been able to imagine being this happy again, but since being out of school, he didn't feel like he was sacrificing anything, anymore.
"Spider?" He asked quietly, "are you still awake?"
"Yeah..." She murmured, "Why?"
"I was just thinking... maybe you are right, maybe I should quit."
"Really?" Daizi asked, suddenly much more awake than she had been moments before, propping herself up on her elbows.
"I want to talk to the twins first, I still want to make sure they would not be hurt by it, but..." He ran his fingers through her hair as she moved closer to him, "I am really happy being home."