How Green Becomes Wood

"You should not skip any class," Dark told Xander, removing his tie, vest, cufflinks, and suit jacket, all of which he handed to Alec for safe keeping while he rolled up his sleeves. He was able to do many things, but soccer in a full suit was a bit of an ask.

"Xander, it's called football. What other body parts would you use?" Hassan asked, blinking. "The goal is to kick the ball into the other team's goal. If the other team has the ball, you want to get it away from them."
 
Alec laid the jacket across his lap and gave it a light pat before making certain all the other items were safe.

"What about all those videos of people smacking the ball with their heads?" Xander challenged. "So, if we don't have a goal, what are we doing here? Just... chasing the ball in circles?"
 
Hassan frowned dimly at Xander, "Do you just like being a---" He whispered to his dad for a moment and after getting the answer said, "contrarian, or are you actually curious? When you know how to control the ball with your feet you can worry about other body parts, you don't even know the game. I just said we don't have a goalie, it's different."
 
"Okay," Hassan replied, backing up and moving easily with the ball, "I don't really know where to shoot it at, but I can show you how to handle it."

Having said this, he proceeded to run up and down the yard passing the ball between his feet as he went, keeping it tightly controlled as he went along, "See, that's how you move with it."
 
Xander watched him patiently, his eyes on the ball. "Looks like a constant state of really fancy tripping crossed with a Micheal Jackson music video." He stepped forward as Hassan returned and reached out with his foot, neatly tapping the ball and bouncing it out of Hassan's control to spin wildly in Dark's direction. Xander had no control of the ball, but he'd stolen it from Hassan's control, too.
 
The shock of the ball being taken away from him when he had just been told to demonstrate--and therefore he hadn't been expecting he needed to protect the ball, caused Hassan to stumble as his stride was broken, and he whipped around to look at Xander in frustration while his sister laughed for the first time all day. When the ball came Dark's way, he easily put out one foot to stop it, preparing to kick it back to Hassan as soon as this had all resolved.

"Do you not know how to play or what?" Hassan asked, "I don't know what you want from me."
 
"You're not as funny as you think you are," Hassan shot back, not as amused as everyone else was about this, and he immediately began to chase after Dark, who was not prepared to already be playing. He handed the ball fairly well as he ran off, but it wasn't something he did regularly so he was mostly relying on youthful memories. And Hassan was, true to his word, pretty skilled at it, so when Dark saw the teen getting too close, he tried to shoot it back to Xander. But Marwan played much more, because somebody had to keep his son occupied, and he intercepted it and began running off in the opposite direction.

Inside, the aunts, Daizi, and Saladin all stood by the open back door, watching or listening to the boys play. Ivy was falling asleep in Khalaty Neha's arms, but she tried to keep her eyes open, watching her Baba and brother play.
 
Xander still had no idea how any of this was actually supposed to work since all Hassan had done was tell him "kick the ball with your feet, we don't have a goal," so what exactly was the goal? And when he asked if chasing the ball in a circle was the goal, Hassan thought he was trying to be deliberately problematic. So, he'd given up playing any sort of game and just waited to see what the others did, learning off of action rather than explanation. When Marwan got closer to him, he cautiously copied how Marwen had approached Dark, moving his feet nearly exactly as Marwen had done. He had Marwen's moves, but he didn't have Marwen's confidence, still, his foot did manage to collide with the ball, which he considered a victory by itself whatever happened after.
 
Hassan would have told Xander more, but then Xander stole the ball from him and told him to get it back from Dark, which meant they were playing before he had a chance to finish his explanation. Xander was right about one thing---Hassan did think he was being intentionally difficult, and feeling genuinely annoyed by it, he wasn't going to make any of the game easy on the other boy. Because if he really wanted to know, he wouldn't have kept challenging him. He didn't like they hadn't established goal zones, but when was he meant to when he was pushed into playing immediately?

When Xander tried to get the ball from Marwan, he sort of spun around to right himself and then hit it away from Xander towards Hassan. He wasn't sure if either Dark or Xander were trying to play defense, but he knew it was his job to 'defend,' even though there wasn't an established goal box. Still, Marwan always kind of enjoyed the games where they were essentially just playing keep away.
 
Xander hung back, not chasing the ball, but whenever it came close, he stepped up and did his best. He was a quick learner, especially when it came to copying body movement, and he was slowly getting better. He didn't know how to string certain moves together, meaning each was its own individual move, like a bunch of boxes stacked together instead of a smooth, flowing line, but it was working for him. He was no undiscovered prodigy, but he was slowly learning how to keep up with Hassan and Marwan.

Alec went inside briefly, and when he came out, he had two drawing pads and a small pack of colored pencils. He handed Noor one of the notebooks and put the pencils between them as he sat on the far end of the swing. It was a silent offer to join him in an activity, parallel play. If she did nothing, he wouldn't mind, but he wanted to include her somehow.
 
Dark held his own as well as the rest of them, and Hassan, relaxing from his initial anger was definitely holding himself back a bit. As much as Dark wanted to point out areas in the garden safe to use as a goal---he wasn't sure there were any, and everyone seemed to be having fun, so who cared about points?

Noor looked over at Alec when he handed the drawing pad over, but did take it and settle back against the swing, picking up a single coloured pencil. Most of the sport happening around her she completely ignored, until one of the boys came a bit too close.

"I did not expect Dark would decide to play." Saladin said, standing at the backdoor with his face grim and his arms crossed.

At his side, Daizi smiled politely and said, "He's very athletic. And he's been working on becoming more playful."
 
This was not really his sport, but Xander could see how this appealed. This seemed like a way cooler game than "American Football." It wasn't bad. Mostly, he was just happy he wasn't falling on his face and embarrassing himself.

Right on cue, he kicked the ball wrong, realized as the ball touched his foot it was wrong, and sacrificed his balance to hit in the other direction. He stumbled, arms windmilling as he tried to catch himself, and ended up teetering on one foot at the edge of one of the flower beds. "Ba, save the flowers!" he blurted.
 
Swearing under his breath, Dark ran over to Xander, and just before he fell managed to get him by the front of his shirt and yank him forwards. With how quickly he needed to act, he didn't have the time to do so gently so he yanked him at his full force. This alone saved the flowers, but he quickly say he had now sent his son hurtling face first towards towards the ground, so now Dark stuck out one arm and caught Xander around the waist, stopping his rapid descent before he could get hurt.

Inside, Saladin's jaw tightened and he stared over at his daughter. "He saved your flowers."

"Of course he did," Daizi replied, "He knows he loves them."
 
Xander wheezed as Dark caught him around the waist. "Nice catch," he whispered, hanging limply for a moment while his lungs remembered what air was. He straightened and pulled his shirt more or less back into shape. At least it hadn't torn. Good shirt. "I didn't break anything, right?" he asked, turning to check the flowers.

"Nice reflexes!" Alec called. "Any damage?"

"A few ruffled petals, that's all," Xander assured him.
 
Dark stood panting lightly, supporting Xander until he got air back into him. Then as soon as he could let go, he did, turning around to squat by the flowerbed and examine it. "No, it is okay. Everything is fine."

"Wow, Xander," Noor said, some level of delight actually making it into her eyes, "I would've thought you'd be more graceful than that."

"He could have hurt Xander," Saladin said, looking back at the scene outside, "But he only cares about your flowers."

Daizi sighed heavily and began to walk away from the door, "Baba, we need to talk."

"Where are you going?"

"Somewhere private. Because I don't want to have this conversation in front of my entire family."
 
"I save the grace for special occassion," Xander shot back with a smirk. "Besides, I'm not the dancer, he is."

"True, but I'm still clumsy," Alec said lightly. "I'm clumsy, and he's clunky, so you get to take your pick!"

Xander eyed Dark. "I thought you were only practicing endurance, not speed," he remarked, his way of complimenting Dark's sprint.
 
"I'd rather choose neither, but I'm glad to know your daddy will come to save you." Noor replied, looking back down at the drawing pad.

Dark exhaled, pushing his hair back with one hand in a way that would make people of a certain persuasion swoon, "Speed has its uses. Are you okay? I did not mean to pull you so hard."

~~

Daizi said nothing until they were in her study and she was sat down on the chaise lounge she had in there, "Baba, you need to stop insulting my husband to me. We have been married for ten years and a couple for longer, everyone knows you do not like him."

Saladin stood until it made him feel like he was being lectured by a school matron at which point he sat down across from her, nearly seething at her willingness to speak to him like this. "Daizi, I--"

"Baba I know. We all know. You don't like him. You're concerned for me. You don't trust him. I know." She said bluntly, "You say it every time you around him, you say it every time I speak about him, and every time we visit I tell you to stop insulting him to me, and every time you continue to do so. I am tired. And I am your daughter, not Sisyphus. I do not need eternal punishment. It makes us uncomfortable when you will not just keep your mouth shut."

"Daizi, I do not care about his discomfort."

"His discomfort?" She repeated, "Baba, when I said 'us,' I mean every person downstairs. It makes me uncomfortable. It makes Dark uncomfortable. It makes my children uncomfortable. It makes my aunt uncomfortable. It makes my cousin uncomfortable, it makes his wife uncomfortable, it makes your aunt uncomfortable, it makes everyone uncomfortable. We are all here to enjoy each other's company. We are all here to celebrate your granddaughter's first birthday."
 
"Of course he would," Alec said calmly, sketching out a quick outline of the comical look of Dark grabbing Xander. "We would not be here if he wouldn't. We'd never have stayed."

"I'm alright. Little winded, that's it," Xander assured him. "Better than landing in the flowers." He looked around. "Where'd the ball get off to, anyway?"
 
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