How Green Becomes Wood

"I wonder if you could rent one," Daizi mused, "Or rent time in the studio where you can have more private practice, until you can afford one of your own. How big are the wheels, anyway? Do we have space we can store one?"

"Most of them break down to a smaller size," Alec assured her. "I can store it under my bed. They come in different sizes, so I'd need one I could comfortably stand in with my arms out, but not strained. Renting's not a bad idea. I'll look into that!"

Xander patted Alec's shoulder. "You'll figure something out. I'm sure of it."

"I'm certain we'd find a place, I just didn't know what we'd need," Daizi said as she cooked, "I'm sure there are options. It is too early in the morning to stress, we'll figure it out."

"It's never too early to stress," Alec grinned, but he did put away his phone. "Any plans for today?"

"Should I have plans?" Daizi asked with a chuckle, "Now that Dark is home, I get to work more during the day, but that's all."

"I am going to see Lex to discuss getting a baby gate so that when she," he nodded to Ivy, "starts crawling, she stays safe."

"I have work, too, and maybe we can update some modeling pictures," Xander said with a nod toward Alec.

Alec smiled. "Thank you for taking pity on me. My plans are to do a bit of practice and be Xander's model!"

"If you cannot afford enough through modeling," Dark said, taking a sip of coffee before taking Ivy so Daizi had an easier time cooking, "I would be more than willing to drive you to a part-time job, if we work the hours out properly."

"Really?" Alec asked, brightening. "Thanks! I'll see what I can find."

"Cooger might let you join us on some jobs," Xander suggested.

Daizi's phone received a text. It was Lance, first apologizing for the early text and then asking if there was a time either that day or the next that he could come by for a visit.

"He certainly would," Dark agreed with a nod, but then he turned his head at Daizi's notification. "What does Lance want?

"I don't know yet," She replied, hitting play because she assumed if it was really serious, he would've called rather than texted. After hearing the message, she rubbed her temples, "That's never good news for us."

"It might just be a regular visit. It is about time for a check-in," Alec suggested hopefully. "Funny that he texted you rather than calling Dark."

"It's early. He probably figured we'd ignore it until we felt like answering," Xander said.

"He switched primary contact to Daizi after our incident at the school," Dark explained, "I pointed out how he is able to talk to her as well as myself, and he agreed to not exclusively communicate with me."

"I just don't understand why he would text now rather than later in the day," Daizi commented, handing her phone to Dark, "Would you give him our availability? It just feels like a weird way to handle it."

Dark did as she asked, and then said, "It may have to do with the adoption proceedings."

"You don't think there's a problem there, is there?" Alec asked worriedly.

"Doubt it," Xander assured him. "Like you said, it's probably just the usual check-in."

"In which case, he probably texted now rather than later to give you the chance to get first dibs on his schedule," Alec grinned. "So, when is it happening?"

"No, of course not," Daizi assured him, although if she was being honest with herself, she knew that, as far as she was concerned, anytime something was out of the ordinary, she expected catastrophe.

Dark, however, did believe what he said, "If it is about the adoption, I suspect it is just a formality. Maybe some box he needs to check. He never texts if it is serious." He had not turned into an optimist, but he trusted what he knew how things worked.

"True. He always calls if it's important," Alec said, relaxing a little.

Lance texted back a confirmation for one of Dark's proposed times.

"So, when is going to happen?" Xander asked. "Today or tomorrow or when?"

"Tomorrow," Dark answered, looking at Daizi's phone, "at one in the afternoon. I should clean up."

"He saw the house when Ivy had just come home, I think it is fine," Daizi told him as a formality, but she knew it was absolutely no use.

"We'll make it messier for you so you have something to clean up," Xander told Dark, standing up. "Guess I should head out to my shop unless Cooger calls with a job I can go on."

"There are some apps where you can sell used clothes online. Maybe I have some pieces that are worth something," Alec mused. "I'm going to clean my closet!"

"Or you could simply permit me to have a clean home," Dark sniffed, mildly indignant, but after breakfast and being there for part of Ivy's playtime, he set about his task of deep cleaning before needing to shower and go go visit with Lex, bringing their baby gate designs.

Ultimately, he did agree to help her with her gate, although he still felt uncertain about it
He agreed to it because her ideas grabbed him enough to warrant the risk of what it meant for his control over his work, but he tried to put that out of his mind. That said, although he was grateful that Lex offered to do their gates for free, he still requested to pay her for at least part of the cost, because he didn't want to burden her. They weren't active on social media, they couldn't even offer her much in the way of exposure.

The next day, Dark and Daizi both waited a bit anxious for Lance to arrive. Despite both agreeing they probably didn't need to be anxious, anytime CPS came over, they couldn't help but worry at least a little bit.

When they heard a car pull up that could only be Lance, Daizi said, "I can't wait for the adoption to go through so we don't have to deal with this anymore," before getting up to open the door.

Lex finally agreed to let Dark pay for part of the baby gate and promised to get back to him on the price once she'd sourced the materials. Then, triumphant and excited, she went straight to her forge to get to work.

The next day, the twins dressed nicely, though Xander had to be talked into it, and they waited eagerly. "There's his motorcycle!" Alec reported from the window.

Lance knocked and waited for Diazi to open the door. "Hey, how's it going?" he said with a friendly smile as he stepped in. "Hey, kids! I see you're still the picture of health, the both of you. Any deep, dark secrets I should know about?"

"Nope, not a thing, unless you ask to investigate our closet. It's a catastrophe," Alec giggled.

"No need for that," Lance assured him with a chuckle. He paused and dug a Father's Day card out of his pocket. "Sorry it's late," he apologized to Dark, handing it over. "I missed the mail pick-up and figured I might as well hand it over in person."

Dark thanked Lance for the card, taking a brief few moments to read it, and assured him he was unbothered by it arriving late. Then Daizi asked if she could get him anything to drink before they went into the living room.

"Ivy is napping," She explained, "so I hope you do not need to check on her. She's typically a very happy baby, but not if she's woken up prematurely." She was like her father in that way, Daizi thought, but didn't express, because that was information their CPS agent didn't need.

"Nah, let her sleep," Lance said, waving a hand. "I'm just here for the boys." He looked around and gave a little nod. "Your place is possibly the cleanest of anyone else's on my rounds." He dug out a notebook. "Right. Let's get the formalities out of the way." He started reading through the usual questions for the twins.

The twins answered promptly and succinctly, used to how things worked by now. It didn't take them long to run through the usual questions and for Lance to perform his usual checks. It didn't take long until they were done.

"Thanks, kids," Lance said, putting away his notebook. "If you don't mind, I have something I need to discuss with your soon-to-be-legal parents real quick." He gave them a wink, pleased about their choice to be adopted.

"Um, sure?" Alec said with a shrug. "We'll just... go upstairs, I guess." THey headed up, glancing over their shoulders as they went.