How Green Becomes Wood

"It is summer break so I have much more free time. I am more than willing to talk with you by your schedule." Dark answered, "We know where each other lives, it should not be difficult."
 
"True. It'll be easy to hunt each other down for unpaid promises," Lex chuckled. "How about tomorrow after lunch? I'll come by and we'll chat about it."

"As long as you don't punch anybody," Xander muttered dryly. He hadn't meant for Lex to overhear, but she did.

Her expression tightened. "Sh**." She glanced at Ivy. "Sorry." Back to the others. "Saw that, did you?"
 
"I didn't." Daizi replied quickly, unable to fight back her crooked grin, and Dark couldn't help bit chuckle very quietly at her joke. It was the speed of it.

"Considering how we met, I do not think we were particularly surprised," Dark told her, although he knew it might be a tiny bit deflating... But considering she threatened him with a bat, he thought he was allowed to bring it up once in awhile.
 
Lex nodded with a little shrug. "Fair enough. Yeah, that was my idiot cousin. My house is an alcohol-free zone, and he thought it'd be funny to 'sneak,'" she made exaggerated quotation marks with her fingers, "a couple of six-packs into my house. Then just laughed when I was mad, his mom says, 'he's just a kid' about her twenty-two-year-old, and..." She huffed and waved a hand. "Not my best moment."

"Is next year going to be like this year?" Alec asked tentatively.

She snorted. "Nah, I'll be flying back to New Jersey for any future shindigs. Or driving. This was a special event."
 
This was good news. "That will make things simpler for your family, I am sure," Dark replied, proving once again he was better at navigating a conversation than he admitted, "That is why most often we fly to Egypt to visit Daizi's family--it is easier for only a few people to travel a small distance, rather than the reverse."

"My family will be visiting in October, though," Daizi mentioned, "I don't think it will be much of an issue, they just want to be here for Ivy's birthday."
 
"Yeah? They're all coming here?" Lex asked, impressed. She grinned. "Then I hope you're even louder and more annoying than my family." She raised her paint can. "I should get to work and let you get home. Sorry for holding you up so long."

Xander smirked at Lex's encouragement. He was looking forward to the big, loud party.

"Bye, Lex! It was nice talking to you!" Alec said cheerfully.
 
"We're still figuring out numbers, but last year only four of my aunts and my father were able to come, and I know that a lot of my other relatives are dying to meet her in person. It's going to be a lot of fun, and very tiring." Daizi told her, "but you may be invited and get to experience it for yourself. A first birthday is a very big deal." She wanted to ask Ivy if she would like that, but then remembered she was completely asleep in her stroller, so she sighed and said, "It was wonderful running into you."

"I will see you tomorrow," Dark added, and then walked with his family back inside of his house.
 
"That was fun!" Alec grinned and finished off his water. "I can't wait to do it again. After a nap!"

Xander chuckled and started helping to put things away. "Right. How about a bit longer than just a nap? Like a couple of days."

"Fine, spoil-sports," Alec said, taking the water bottles to put them away.
 
Dark stared down at Ivy, sleeping in her stroller, and with a sigh tried to figure out if it was better to let her sleep in the stroller or try to take her out of it, and Daizi paused as she took off her shoes trying to figure out the same question. She didn't look... the most comfortable, but she was sleeping hard.

"Maybe if..." Dark began, squatting down in front of the stroller, wondering if he could gradually get her accustomed to being touched that by the time she's out of the stroller she didn't feel a change.

"No, it's too risky." Daizi replied, chewing on her bottom lip.

Dark exhaled, and went to at the very least unbuckle her, but then he worried she'd flop forwards and fall out and crack her face open on their floor, so he sat back on his heels, still squinting at her.

"I think we just have to leave her, Goose," Daizi said.
 
"If she's that tired, maybe she'll just go right back to sleep," Alec suggested. "Or maybe she'll be fine there? If you put her in the nursery where she won't be bothered?"
 
"Carrying the stroller upstairs will wake her for sure," Daizi said, not imagining they could get it upstairs without jostling her too badly.

Dark frowned, stroking Ivy's cheek with his finger, "I am going to risk it. She is going to have a sore neck sleeping at this angle." So, having decided, he took a breath, and carefully unbuckled her, and then with the utmost caution lifted her from the stroller, and as expected, it woke her and she began to cry, but he hushed her and after standing up bounced her. Then, quickly, he said, "I am going to bring her upstairs to the nursey and hopefully rock her back to sleep."

"Godspeed, babe," Daizi responded, uncertain of how successful he'd be with how Ivy was crying.
 
Alec and Xander wandered into the living room and half collapsed on the couch, taking the opportunity to relax until Dark returned. They looked forward to seeing what was next, feeling there wasn't much excitement left after the excitement of that morning. What more could possibly happen after that? It was all comfortable coasting from here!
 
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."
 
The next morning, still feeling quite satisfied that they'd given Dark the best Father's Day they possibly could, the twins got up at their usual time. They'd already gotten bored of sleeping in, especially Xander who had things to do and and a job to fulfill. Alec was looking at his phone as they wandered into the kitchen, and he sat down rather suddenly, looking a little green.

"What's wrong?" Xander asked, frowning.

Alec looked up at him queasily. "I looked up Cyr wheels for sale." He showed Xander his phone.

Xander let out a low whistle. "That's as much as a leather sewing machine. Wowzers."
 
Dark was not tired of sleeping in late, unfortunately sleeping in was not a privilege afforded to parents of infants, so he came downstairs to make coffee while Daizi followed after him with Ivy on her hip.

"I do not know how she has this much energy in the mornings," Dark was saying as he walked in, because Ivy was wide awake, but then stopped when he saw the twins huddling over Alec's phone, "What is as much as a leather sewing machine?"
 
"That was the cheap one," Alec said weekly, not looking up or answering Dark yet. He swiped a couple of times and showed the screen to Xander.

Xander actually gasped in shock and sat down. "No!"

"Yes," Alec said grimly.

"Average?"

"Yep."

"How?"

"Quality craftsmanship?"

"Better be damn good quality. But. Cool."

"Very cool! Just... Money. How money?"

"Could sell your entire clothes collection and not touch it."

"I know," Alec groaned.
 
"What are you trying to buy?" Daizi asked, bouncing Ivy while starting breakfast, since if Dark didn't like waking up early, it felt cruel to make him cook on top of it.

"Something painfully expensive by the sound of it," Dark replied, yawning as he started the electric kettle so Daizi could have tea while he had coffee.
 
"A Cyr wheel," Alec sighed. He turned and showed Dark the wheel he was looking at. The cheapest one had three zeros behind the first number. "I need a job to support my hobby."
 
Dark looked at the phone, it taking just a moment for it to register because of the early morning, and then he exhaled slowly, "It would seem so."

"Didn't your instructor say you didn't say you don't need one of your own until you were more advanced?" Daizi asked, turning slightly, "At least you are not in a rush to save."
 
"Yes," Alec heaved a sigh, "but it'd be so much easier to practice if I had one! At least basic moves, like twirling. The hoop, not myself. I can't even twirl it properly yet."

"Don't worry. We'll figure it out. Maybe I can give you a raise and more modeling work," Xander said, patting his shoulder.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top