How Green Becomes Wood

"She told me once she can be a harpist as a hobby, but she can't do her work as a hobby, and that's what made up her mind," Zeinab said, "More than anything else I want her to be happy, so I have no real complaints about her choices. I had just hoped to see her names up in lights one day. Her father, though, and he'll never say so, he's glad she turned away from that path. You know how some parents can be, when they're afraid to have an artist in the family because the work is permanently unstable."
 
"It is a hard, hard path to follow. That much I know," Alec agreed. "It would be amazing to see her name like that, but her name is super well-known in museum circles now! All sorts of people know of her and admire her work."

"And she has time to have mini concerts for us on the weekends, when she wants," Xander said with a little smirk.
 
Zeinab exhaled softly, standing to clear the table after she noticed how late it was getting. She was much to old to be awake for as late as she had been this week, "It just makes me happy to know she's so well looked after. I can't lie and say we weren't concerned when she was born and we learned the problems she'd face. But she's done really well for herself. I'm not ashamed to admit she's done better than I thought possible when I first met her. But in my day, children like her were still often reared out of the home."
 
Alec bounced to his feet and waved at Zeinab. "No! No, let us clean up! You did all the hard work for making the meal, we can clean up the mess."

Xander got up more casually and started gathering everything. "We got this," he assured Zeinab. "And, yeah, she's epic. Ba supports her every step of the way and helps her in every way he can, but she puts in the work to get there. Then she turns around and does what she can to support him."

"Like a partnership!" Alec said brightly.
 
"I think it isn't like a partnership, it just is one," Zeinab chuckled, allowing herself to be forced back down, "He's one, too, who surpassed all our expectations." Then she paused, and with a heavy heart corrected herself, "Most of our expectations. You wouldn't believe how he used to be. And he spent so, so long not knowing what he wanted to do. I'm proud of the man he turned into, and I've never met a couple more delighted with each other. That's why I helped them get away, all those years ago."
 
"Mama mentioned you were the one to help them," Alec commented, wiping the counters and the table while Xander washed up. "It sounds like such a romantic story!"

"Ew, no, it's an action-packed adventure," Xander corrected him. "All about the misunderstood bad-boy and the sweet yet spicy exotic princess and how they overcome the dangers in their path to reach the treasure."

"Treasure?" Alec asked, confused.

Xander waved his sponge. "Heart's desire. Whatever. Doesn't have to be a literal, physical treasure."

"Sounds like your version has romance in it, too!" Alec said cheerfully.

Xander made a face and turned back to what he was doing.
 
"I think it was very romantic, but they weren't fun days." Zeinab answered, stretching out her legs as she tried to recollect back all those years, "It would have been better if they had figured out they wanted to be together before the day of, but I couldn't be angry when I saw her in that dress, with that look on her face, trying to figure out how they could get away. And it might not have happened if Saladin had picked a better match for her." She paused for a few moments then shook her head, "It would have, I think nothing could actually keep them apart, but it would have been different."
 
"I heard a lot of prearranged marriages work out just fine, but I can't imagine how it could ever work if you already had a love of your life," Alec remarked. "Even if you stayed with the person you were arranged to, you'd always have that idea in your mind of the other person you loved. You might even run the risk of completely idealizing them and ruining what could be a happy marriage just because you didn't get the one you thought you wanted. Then if the person you were in love with really was as amazing and awesome and loving and lovely as what you thought, then how could you be happy with anything less?"

Xander rolled his eyes. "You have been spending way too much time with Becky. You sound ridiculous."

"I just think love has a chance," Alec sniffed.
 
"I've seen many happy arranged marriages. Mine was, and we had many long years together. But as much as I loved my husband, I'm not sure we ever had what those two seem to, which I'm not bothered by, mind you, it seems a bit, well, exhausting, and I was very happy. And Saladin adored Sahar, if you can imagine that," She sighed sadly, knowing there was a bit more to the story than that, "But we all adored Sahar."
 
"I bet he did, but it sounds more like he has rose-colored dreams where she's absolutely perfect and not a single other living soul could ever possibly understand her like he did," Xander remarked dryly.

"Xander!" Alec gasped and glared at him scoldingly.

Xander shrugged, unbothered. "I might be wrong, but whenever he talks about her, it's like a posession he lost, not a human he loved, and he always has this look when someone else talks about her, like, 'how dare you pretend like you knew her.'"
 
Zeinab fell quiet for a while after Xander spoke, thinking through her thoughts on what he had said and what she wanted to say about it. After adjusting the folds of her hijab she raised her chin slightly before saying, "Well. I can't say I think you're completely wrong there. But Saladin is complicated. I knew him as a baby, too. And being the eldest of all of you, I think I'm allowed to speak on it. I saw all of it. I think he feels no small amount of regret regarding her. Sahar was shy, and gentle. She was..." Zeinab inhaled softly, trying to think of how best to explain it, "Like a fawn. I didn't know her when she was young, but she was never to my knowledge confrontational, and Saladin always throws his weight around. He always has. He's the first-born, and took it seriously. I think the idea was they'd balance each other. But I don't believe he ever really took the time to understand her, and her death was unexpected, he knows he could have been different..." She exhaled, waving one hand, "Now he's over protective of her memory because he never had the time to make it right. And I know, Xander, what you'll say to that, but you try convincing him. I think she's the only one who could."
 
Xander raised a brow at Zeinab curiously. "What do you think I'll say to that?" he asked, unable to help himself. Her explanation did enlighten a few things for him regarding Saladin, and he was actually glad she'd told him, but a part of him was sad that he was as right as he was.
 
"That if he wanted to make it right, he could start by being kinder to his daughter," Zeinab answered simply. "Instead of making the same mistakes. You would not believe how I have fussed at him over the years. Or how Sahar's side of the family has."
 
"Yeah, that would be about what I'd say," Xander agreed with a nod. "I guess Daizi could fake her death."

"No! No, she absolutely could not!" Alec protested.

Xander ignored him. "I think there's a movie where a mom or a grandma or someone like that did it because no one was ever making the time for her or something like that. Can't remember. It might help certain people see certain problems."

"Stop that! No she cannot do that! Too many other people would be sad!" Alec scolded him.

"Might help him to stop stomping on people's happiness," Xander said.

"By taking away his happ- Amty! Are you hearing this?"
 
"I say we keep it as an option," Xander mused.

"It had better be a 'last resort' type of option," Alec grumbled.

"It is a planned faked death, and since death is kind of the final thing to happen to anyone," Xander drawled with a smirk.

Alec threw a wet cloth at him, and it smacked him square in the face.
 
"What are we keeping as a last resort?" Daizi asked, coming downstairs again now that Ivy had been put to bed, remembering she had to feed Enkidu since Dark couldn't that evening.

"Faking your death, I think," Amty Zeinab chuckled.

"...I feel I should be involved in this?"
 
"No, Mama, you really don't," Alec groaned.

Xander grinned. "Are you kidding? This is perfect for her! Mama, if you got to choose how you wanted to die, what gothic, dramatic, vampirically-romantic way would you want to die?"

Alec started to protest and then paused. "That does sound like something Mama would enjoy planning. But where did you get the term 'Vampirically-Romantic?'"
 
"Is that really something you want to talk about?" Daizi chuckled lightly, getting Enkidu's bowl, "I think in Gothic literature, the most romantic way to go is through consumption, but I've had that once, and I'd really like to not have it again, because it is not as elegant as stories make it out to be. I just imagine myself in a flowing dress out beneath the apple tree, not knowing if the last thing I felt was a kiss or a bite. Or poison... I know there's a lot questionable about Romeo and Juliet, and we do not need to get into all of it, but there's something extremely romantic about going down together."

Zeinab rolled her eyes, "There is something very wrong with you all. I am going to lie down, habibti, come say goodnight before you go to sleep."

"I will, Amty, I promise."
 
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