How Green Becomes Wood

Dark told Xander he appreciated the offer, but they were alright for the moment. A few times he and Daizi attempted to set Ivy down, but she'd just fuss and crawl back against them. When her feeding time came, Daizi was glad to take her upstairs to nurse. To her surprise, she was feeling a bit sore from having missed one. Then, finally, Ivy went down for a nap and her parents migrated to find food before dropping back down onto the couch, perfectly content.
 
The rest of the day went by peacefully. Xander insisted on making dinner with Alec helping him, both of them putting their foot down that neither of their parents could help. They were fully willing to go back to normal tomorrow.

Tomorrow, Monday, was a normal day, but with Becky grilling Peter, Alec, Xander, and even poor Milo to know every aspect of what she dubbed "The Shadow Domain's Ball." Xander did try to shield Milo as best he could instead of seizing the opportunity to escape. Other than that, it was a normal day.

Tuesday, Alec was feeling a bit bored. School was same-same, and he'd only had a few brief moments with Emma, and after the long, drawn-out excitement of the vow renewal, everything felt a bit lackluster. He wandered around the currently empty living room after school and started randomly rearranging things. Books from one shelf to another. Decorations moved from various flat surfaces to other flat surfaces. Pillows fluffed and tossed around to other furniture. Whatever caught his eye.
 
Last edited:
On Tuesday after school, Dark was out in his shed, and Daizi was playing the harp upstairs. Despite only having had the single therapy session since the fight with her father, between it, the vow renewal, the the small yet present pearl of pride she felt for actually standing up to him, despite how agonizing it was, there was enough life in her again to enjoy playing, although her music still sounded a bit different from before. Ivy was sitting in with her, being allowed to bang on her little toy drum. As a result, she didn't hear what Alec was up to downstairs.
 
After a bit, Xander came upstairs from where he'd been using the basement to work out and practice for Judo. He paused to wipe his sweaty brow and watch as his brother struggled with one end of the couch. "What are you doing?" he asked in mild curiosity.

"I got bored," Alec grunted, straining with the weight. "Why do we sit this way? Moving that way would make things more interesting."

Xander watched for a bit. "You do remember we have a blind person in the house?"

"Mama adapts so well this'll be a breeze for her! It's more like stimulation," Alec wheezed.

Xander watched for a bit longer. "Okay." He came over and helped Alec pull the couch around to his desired location and shifted the chairs. Then he left Alec to figure out the coffee table on his own and went to take a shower.

Alec fussed with the furniture until he had it where he wanted it. Then he started moving the cushions off the chairs and couch, laying them out on the floor one by one. Feeling he was missing something, he left the room in search of blankets.
 
Feeling satisfied with the music she had played, Daizi scooped up Ivy and walked her back to the living room where the rest of her toys were. Since she always liked to encourage Ivy to try walking, she set her down right at the threshold of the living room and walked further in only to immediately stub her toe and bang her knee on furniture which certainly was not there before.

"Neik, ow, khara!"

She managed to stop herself from falling all the way over, but she stood, bent half over, bewildered and certain of a new bruise.
 
"What am I doing in the living room?" Daizi asked dryly, rubbing her knee but otherwise staying perfectly still because she had no idea where things were, "What happened in here? Why is everything moved around?"
 
Last edited:
"I thought you were still upstairs in the music room or else I would have warned you," Alec said, looking for Ivy. "I thought this would be cool! I can put it back, but we always have it forever in the same position, which is usually fine, but why not mix stuff up once in a while and make it something different? Like a maze!"
 
"Like a maze?" Daizi asked, doing her absolute best to will herself out of annoyance because she understood no harm was meant by it, but it was taking a minute. The chances of getting everything back to exactly as it had been seemed small. Which meant the likelihood of having to adjust to minor, inch differences was high, and she was likely to experience a frustrating week. Taking a breath, she reminded herself that wasn't the sort of thing a sighed person was likely to think about and that it wasn't malicious. Calmly, she said, "We don't rearrange things because then I need to memorize a new layout which is difficult for me."

Ivy, however, perfectly understood her brother's vision and was curiously exploring.
 
"Oh, you won't need to memorize it," Alec assured her. "We'll put it right back with no problem at all! It's easy to see exactly where things used to be, so I can line it up right where it was, no problem!" He giggled, watching Ivy. "Ivy loves it!" He moved away and tossed a couple of blankets out, letting some clump on the floor for padding and an obstacle, and using a lighter blanket to make a tent in another area. "Go, Ivy, go!"

Xander wandered in then, freshly washed. "You found the living room," he remarked to his mother.
 
Daizi stayed precisely where she was, holding onto the couch which she had crashed into, "The living room found me."

Gurgling, Ivy pulled herself up on the couch and cruised along it. This new layout, while immensely stressful for her mother, was great fun for a baby who was trying to figure out how to walk.
 
"For the record, I did not approve of this. Didn't really try to stop it, but didn't approve of it," Xander stated. He glanced around. "I don't think there's much of a living room anymore. It's an obstacle chourse."

Alec threw around a couple more things and moved an ottoman so Ivy could crawl over it safely. Then he got down and started crawling after her.
 
Daizi sighed uneasily and tried to joke, "Maybe I should get my cane. I'm glad your siblings sound like they're having fun."

Ivy crawled up a cushion and laughed when it tipped down under her weight. She was able to get to so many places! It was all so fun!
 
"Ouch," Xander winced. "For whatever it's worth, I have no idea where anything is, either. It's all one giant lump of fluff and pillows. The good news is I think you smacked your knee into one of the only two hard things left in this room. Everything else is..." He debated on the word. "Fluffy."
 
"I really want to try and be playful," Daizi admitted while her daughter continued to squeal with laughter, "I'm not sure how to explain what it's like, I don't know what the sighted equivalent is. Maybe like if one day all of your furniture, which had always been solid was suddenly crumbling beneath you, but it's okay because some pieces won't break, you just have to find them. Please don't move the big furniture around again. Especially not without asking first. The cushions, that's fine, but please leave the furniture."
 
"Alec really isn't listening," Xander said as his brother pretended to roar like a monster and flopped into the cushions behind Ivy. "I'll talk to him. I didn't think he'd just let you walk into it like this. Sorry. I won't let him do it again."
 
Ivy giggled when Alec dropped down on the cushions because it bounced her up. Then she crawled back to him, grabbing for his face.

"I'm not mad, just to be clear," Daizi replied, "It was just frightening. And if I had been holding Ivy, she might've been hurt."
 
Alec puffed out his cheeks at Ivy, not having any idea of Daizi talking, focused purely on his fun with Ivy. He made funny sounds at her, babbling and pretending to stick his tongue out.

"Okay," Xander agreed, a little puzzled. Why was he getting explained to/scolded? This wasn't his idea.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top