How Green Becomes Wood

"We aren't worried about throwing wild parties," Daizi laughed, resting her arms on the table, "But what if one of you gets hurt? Or sick? It's not like we'd only be a few hours away..."

Dark, being able to see, noticed Xander's little nod, was aware enough that there was some plan being hatched, but he couldn't quite guess at it, so casting his gaze between the twins, he asked, "What do you mean when we are away?"

This comment from her husband made Daizi reattend to the conversation, and she sat up a bit straighter in her seat. Still maintaining a teasing tone she said, "We're not being evicted, are we? Because I'm pretty sure you don't have a legal way to do that."
 
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Xander and Alec glanced at each other, and Alec smiled. He got up and fetched the envelope before returning to his seat.

"We've decided to do something for you since you never can seem to find the time to do it yourself," Xander told them. "And before you protest, all we did was the legwork. You still have the final decision to make and the bill to foot."

"We picked out three possible destinations for you two to go on before the baby arrives," Alec said, opening the envelope. Carefully, he extracted three separate piles of paper held together with paper clips and set them in the center of the table. "Each packet here contains the information needed for you to pick one, including a calendar marking optimal and unavailable dates."

"One is some kind of yoga-like retreat, all good foods and soft musics and stuff like that," Xander said, pointing to the one on the left. "Sounds real boring to me, but might be what you need to relax. It does include some yoga classes, pilates, and a couple others I didn't recognize. It says they can accommodate anyone and everyone, including disabilities."

"This one," Alec said, pointing to the middle one, "is more like a spa retreat. Seaweed wraps, facial treatments, sensory deprivation tanks where you free float in near darkness - you can choose to have music with that, if you want - and salt scrubs. All sorts of things like that."

"This last one," Xander said, pointing to the left one, "is just a cabin in the foothills. The pictures make it look real nice. They don't have anything special, but the cabin is completely comfy looking, and it's near all sorts of scenery and walking trails. It's all about you guys and what you want to bring with you to keep yourselves occupied."

"So!" Alec ended. "All that's left is for you to pick, and you don't get to leave this table until you do." He gave a nod, trying his best to sound firm and not giddy from nervous excitement.
 
Both adults stopped completely in their tracks, listening in awe to the twins. Daizi's left hand creeped slowly across the table until it met Dark's arm, and then it traveled down to his hand, and he only stared dumbfounded at the twins.

"Wow." He said at last. Then he looked down at the three packets, and picked up the nearest one to him, "You have..." He blinked. They had done so much work, just to give them a nice weekend. Dark flipped the first page of the packet over and then set it back down and looked at the teenagers again. Were these the same twins he had brought home in December?

Daizi was struck silent. She wasn't crying, but was by all means deeply shocked by it. Eventually, she rebooted thoroughly enough to say, "I thought you hated sappiness."
 
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"Oh, this isn't sappiness. This is getting a job done," Xander said blandly. "You've been talking about taking some time and going away for like a couple of months and always putting it off. It's driving me up the wall, so this is totally just for myself. No other reason."

Alec nodded. "Absolutely, only selfish reasons. Not because we have any feelings of fondness toward you whatsoever. It's only because we want to see you actually take the trip you've been talking about and hoping for."

Xander cleared his throat. "And if you guys aren't here, that means we don't have to see you sneaking touches or hear how much you love each other." He wagged his eyebrows briefly, but his smile however small was genuine.
 
"That is true..." Dark agreed, and glanced below the table where he and Daizi were, in fact, pressed up against each other. By no means did they identify as codependent, but it was, in truth, rare to see them sitting separate from each other. And as for sharing their love, what else could they do? Lie? Lying by omission was still a lie, wasn't it? And if one of them had ever met a woman like Daizi, they'd understand.

"Sure, yeah," Daizi replied, shrugging her shoulders and not bothering to disguise her grin, "but by doing this, you must accept that even if you won't be there to see it, we'll both be sappier than your worst fears can imagine."

Dark shook his head and looked at his wife, "That is also true."

"No, but, seriously," Daizi said at last, "This is... incredibly thoughtful of you both. I know that I had... More or less decided it wasn't something we'd actually end up doing so... This is very kind, even if it is entirely selfish on your part, right?"
 
"Maybe so, but we won't be there to see it," Xander smirked.

Alec reached out and touched Daizi's arm gently. "We know. That's why we decided to do your research and planning for you. You deserve to take a break from real life and enjoy some time just together before you have no time alone whatsoever with the little one."


Xander shrugged. "You put us first all the time. Maybe it's about time you guys put yourselves first."
 
"Sally said something like that to me yesterday... About putting myself first... I can hold to it for a weekend, I'm sure, but after that..." Daizi shrugged, "It's not really our job to put ourselves first, is it?"

Dark picked up another one of the packets and took a cursory glance through it, mumbling, "It will be nice to have a weekend alone, though..." Then, raising his head, "And we have to decide before leaving the table, you said?"
 
"If you don't put yourselves first, at least to some degree, then you'll run out of anything to give to anyone else. Like a teacup that constantly pours out without getting filled by the teapot," Alec pointed out.

At Dark's question, both twins nodded. They stood and started clearing things away from the table.

"Yep, you two are stuck here until you choose," Xander said firmly. He paused. "Or it's too dark to see, but considering it's July, it'll be practically midnight before it's too dark. So! Pick a place and a weekend."

"No halfway," Alec warned, balancing an armload. "No this one or that one, a solid choice. We'll be right back!"

They started taking the leftovers into the house and the dirty dishes, clearing off the table of all distractions for the pair.
 
"You are going to watch us decide?" Dark asked, "but we have deliberations to make."

"Someone needs to feed and walk Enkidu, if we're going to be here all night," Daizi commented. By the sound of the rustling papers, she guessed Dark was closely reading through the information, and seeing as she couldn't read any of it, she really sat in wait until he could tell her more.

"The yoga one seems like it'll expect you to get up early," Dark remarked, reading the itineraries provided in the packet, "and is probably group-oriented."

"Well that's no good. You hate getting up early and you hate people."
 
"Not wat you decide, no," Alec said, returning for the last of the dirty dishes. "Just check on you occasionally to be sure you're doing alright. Oh, and, the yoga one does ask for an early rise, but bedtime is up to you. Something about sunrises, if I remember right. The spa one has no time requirements other than, you know, scheduling around other people's treatments." He grinned at Dark. "No getting up early!" He scurried inside to help Xander clean up.
 
"Sunrises don't mean much to me," Daizi commented, "so I suppose we can cross the yoga retreat off the list."

Dark nodded in agreement, and set the paperwork for that particular option off to the side, "So... Alone in a forest or getting spa treatments?"

"I do like the idea of being alone with you..." Daizi murmured, draping her arms over his shoulders, "A full weekend where it's nobody except us two? And who knows when we'll next have the chance to spend so much time alone..."

"...In two years is our 10th wedding anniversary," He reminded her, resting his head against hers, "I am sure find some time for something nice just for us..."

"Two years... God, Alec and Xander will be almost 17... And we'll have a toddler..."

"And it will be here before we know it. Do you want the forest then?" Dark asked, picking up that packet.

"It would be nice... But so would the spa... It's not always easy or comfortable, you know..." Before she had the chance to gesture towards herself, Dark had one gentle hand caressing her rounded middle.

"I know," He breathed. His next sentence he said in Arabic, to protect the twins ears, but whatever it was, it made Daizi smile and melt a bit more against him.
 
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Xander and Alec focused on getting the kitchen absolutely spotless. They scrubbed, cleaned, and washed until they were absolutely positive not even Dark would be able to find anything out of place. They mostly left Dark and Daizi on their own, glancing out now and then and feeling a bit like chaperones ensuring a couple of youth were not up to any hanky panky. Actually, they just wanted to make sure they stayed on topic, which they seemed to be doing.
 
The two stayed out there for a good long while, perhaps longer than either twin expected them to, deliberating between the two choices they had narrowed it to--if it could count as narrowing when all they did was eliminate one of the options. Both were inherently intimate, which they liked. The spa would be good on Daizi's body, and good for both of their stress levels, and meant they weren't responsible for their own food, but it also meant they were obligated to see and talk to other people, rather than being able to exclusively dedicate the time to each other.

The forest gave them that seclusion, and allowed for stress relief in that they had the chance to be fully isolated from the outside world, and so could forget about all the minor daily stressors. And unlike the spa, they didn't need to keep track of time, because they'd have no appointments to keep.

"Maybe if we pick a date first it would be easier to decide?" Dark offered, since they both knew perfectly well that the further in the future they planned it, the larger and more uncomfortable Daizi would become, so going on nice hikes may feel like unneeded effort on her part, which would more or less leave them alone in a room for a few days.

"Also we need to look at nearest hospitals," Daizi added, although she wished she didn't need to, "In case something goes wrong."
 
Xander poked his head out the back door. "Have you two picked one yet?" he asked "No wonder you never got around to figuring it out on your own. Do you need help picking? Questions I can answer? Pick a number? Spin a wheel? Dice roll? Pros and cons list? How about brownies to fuel the mind?"
 
"We have a mental pros and cons list. And there are just some... considerations we need to keep in mind," Dark briefly flicked his finger towards Daizi.

"It's tough between the spa and the forest," Daizi admitted, folding her arms on the table, "We wish there was something halfway between the two, but since there isn't, we've been trying to figure out which one we would enjoy more, given how long it'll be until the next time we can go somewhere alone for a weekend."
 
Xander shrugged. "You might be able to schedule a lighter spa session. Like a half day or something. I don't know. Or go to the cabin and take some like self-papering stuff along and do a DIY spa session there. The pictures show a pretty sweet bathroom set up with a bath big enough for both of you and a shower, so that might be good."

Alec came out with two plates with a decent-sized piece of brownie on each. "Here you go! Sugary brain fule for your choice. We'll eat inside."

Alec and Xander disappeared back inside to let Dark and Daizi decide.
 
"That's an idea... A half-day would be nice. I'd like to DIY it just the two of us, but I don't think, given..." She gestured vaguely and didn't finish her sentence, since it felt rather certain that saying because she would be even more pregnant than she was now, she probably wouldn't be able to adequately massage her husband would make Xander go into cardiac arrest.

Luckily, Dark understood what she meant, and took out his phone to check the distance between the two locations to see if it was feasible, "If we can book the right times, that seems doable. We might be able to book something on Friday afternoon and stay Saturday and Sunday night in the forest."
 
"Do you think they've decided yet? They sure are taking a long time," Alec commented as he and Xander ate their desserts.

Xander shrugged. "They seem pretty indecisive about it. Must be the trying to get it perfect thing or something. Anyway, we've done all we can. We could have picked out for them, but you said no."

"It seemed better to just narrow down the choices," Alec said calmly as if they hadn't had this conversation a thousand times before.
 
Although it certainly took them both longer than the twins expected to come to a decision, they did, eventually, do so. If they could book the late-afternoon treatments at the spa and then go to the forest for the full weekend, they would do that, otherwise they would commit to the forest--and they hoped the twins would accept it, seeing as it wasn't like they could book appointments so late in the evening. Privately, Dark decided, if this was what they ended up doing, he would buy Daizi a private, one-person spa treatment somewhere closer, since it seemed like it would be good for her, but hopefully they'd be able to participate in it together.

As for when--They were hoping to be able to book for the first weekend in August, which was only three weekends away (counting the weekend their trip would be on), but failing that, they would book for the weekend following.

Reaching their decision, though, they couldn't help but get to talking about how wonderful it would be, the way lovers do, and with the twins distracted from guard duty by dessert, they did fall into a bit of canoodling, seeing as there was nobody there with the spray bottle. And their task was finished anyway, so, what did it matter?

Or, so they considered, until all at once, Daizi sat up straight and said, laughing, "Oh, we should probably let them know we made a decision, so they aren't still waiting on us!"

"Hey, it is their fault if they are waiting, they said we are not allowed to leave the table," Dark replied, standing nonetheless, and over his shoulder as he walked inside the house, continued: "If I got up to go to them, would they immediately understand, or would they think I was lying? I do not know the answer to that, so it is safer for me to simply wait on them to come to us, right?"
 
The twins had both gotten bored while waiting for Dark and Daizi to decide. They sat where they could see out to the table, but didn't bother to keep a close eye on them. They knew full well the pair had started indulging in some canoodling. Xander did comment about trying to find a spray bottle, but Alec pointed out that they did not know where to find an empty spray bottle, and they'd get their informational packets wet. They'd worked far too hard on those to get them wet.

When Dark walked in, they were sharing Xander's phone and discussing some new songs Alec had discovered. They looked up when Dark entered and eyed him suspiciously.

"So you finally decided?" Xander asked.

"What was the verdict? The forest cabin retreat?" Alec asked.

"Or spa day?" Xander finished.
 
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