How Green Becomes Wood

Daizi's mouth flickered into a smile, but she failed to believe him. No, she believed he believed it, but... She might of said something, but then Sally called, "Excuse me," She said quickly, and pulling her hands back left the room so she could have a little privacy, "Hi, Sally. How are you?"
 
Alec quietly slipped upstairs to rejoin Xander, who sat on the floor in the corner with his earbuds in. He sat next to Xander, and the pair leaned into each other. Nothing was solved, exactly, but steps had been made.

"Daizi, darling!" Sally chirped. "Are you busy right now? And, follow-up question, do you have any plans for dinner?"
 
"Hi," Daizi repeated, "no, I'm not busy--Ivy is sleeping. And I don't have firm plans, actually, we were talking about ordering in..." Daizi paused, "You don't have another gala you need a date to, do you? Because there is no way I can make myself look presentable right now."
 
Sally chuckled. "Oh, no, not at all. Actually, we - that is, Peter, Jack, and I - want to bring over something for you. My ever-so-helpful phone calendar reminded me what day it is, and we'd love to celebrate with you! You don't have to worry about tidying up or dressing up, we'll bring the food and everything else. All you have to do is be comfortable and eat."
 
"Oh," Daizi said, and a smile could be heard in her voice, "That would be nice. Thank you for remembering. Oh... but, the twins are kind of having a hard time. I don't know if they'd be up for it..."
 
"Alright, why don't you ask them, and if they say no, we can do it another time," Sally said warmly. "Just call me back with your answer within, say, fifteen minutes? Or, if you'd like, we can drop off the food and leave you to it instead of staying. Whatever you say goes!"
 
"Okay. I'll ask..." She sighed, "I don't know if they talk to Peter more than they talk to me. I'm really worried about them, and like... I know that I'm blind, but sometimes they think I'm blind. I just don't know. But I'll ask about what they're up for, and let you know."
 
"Alright, dear, you just let me know. I would love to celebrate this day with you, but if it's simply too much, just let me know," Sally told her. "Goodbye for now!"
 
Daizi murmured a goodbye and then went over to the twins door, knocking lightly on it. As always, she didn't open it until they either gave her permission or opened it themselves, "Hey. Sally just called. She, Jack, and Peter want to come over for dinner, bringing food and everything, but I know you two are kind of worn out, so I didn't want to say yes if you aren't really up for guests right now."
 
Alec had opened the door, and he tipped his head curiously. "Aren't you the one who should dictate if we have guests or not?"

Xander frowned from his spot on the floor, one earbud out as he listened. "Why do they want to come over? Is it a special day or something?"

"Is it for Ivy's sort-of birth date?" Alec guessed. "Did they want to celebrate that?"
 
"If it was just my friend, sure, I would tell you Sally is coming over, I'll let you know when it's safe to sneak downstairs for food," Daizi replied, half joking, "but since they want to bring your friend, I figured I should ask about your boundaries instead of telling you to come downstairs and act nice. And, well, yes, that is why they thought to visit. But if you aren't up to it, you aren't up to it, they said they were just fine with dropping food off instead."
 
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Xander scrambled to his feet, tugging the other earbud out as he did so. "Huh? No way. I didn't know it was an important day."

Alec nodded. "I kind of forgot until a little bit ago. We've been, um... preoccupied."

"We've had our heads up our asses you mean," Xander grumbled. He turned to Daizi. "This is yours and Ivy's important day. It's a big one. If you want to celebrate it, you should."

Alec nodded enthusiastically. "We know you've been trying to accommodate us, and we appreciate that, we do, but you can't completely put yourself aside just for us."

"I don't know how good of a party guest I'll be, but this is for the Mini and you, not us," Xander agreed stoutly.
 
Daizi still hesitated, because even though they were emphatic about how they should do it, she still worried about putting them through too much stress, "Okay," she said, "if you're certain. Okay." She slipped back out, and as she left, actually smiled a bit that they did agree to it, and that they were willing to agree to it just to make her happy. So, even though she remained unsure, she slipped over to Dark to ask him if he was okay with it, and when he confirmed he was, she called Sally back.

"Hi, Sally," She said, "I talked to them, they agreed to it."
 
"Excellent!" Sally said happily. "We will be there in about... fourty-five minutes to an hour depending on traffic and how quickly I can get things into the car. Remember, don't dress up or clean on our account. You are a new mother. You're allowed a few stains on your shirt and dishes in your sink. See you soon!"
 
"Okay, I'll let everyone know," Daizi said, a bit relieved, "Just let yourself in when you come by. I don't know if Ivy will be awake in forty five minutes, and if she's sleeping, knocking will make Enkidu bark, which will probably wake her, and she's always grumpy when she's woken up. And don't worry, I definitely won't put a lot of effort in. Even if I did change my shirt, by the time you showed up it would be stained again. I think everything I own smells like I old milk."
 
Daizi made her goodbyes and then, after taking a moment, broke her promise just a tiny bit by putting some dry shampoo in her hair and collecting Ivy to change her into one of the onesies Sally had bought. After all, she was finally big enough to wear the smallest size in the collection, and if she was going to meet her aunt again (Daizi referred to all of her and Dark's friends as Aunt and Uncle), she should be in the clothes her aunt bought her.

On the way, she informed Dark of the promise he had made, while he was already in the process of cleaning up, "I made no such promise," Dark said, rinsing a plate.
 
"She explicitly told me not to try to dress up or neaten up the house," Daizi replied, "so I think we are fine in anything. I guess we could bring in some flowers, we don't have too many to choose from, though, since it's November."

"I am going to change," Dark said, finishing up the dishes. Unlike Daizi, he had seperated out his wardrobe into clothes he didn't care if Ivy spat up on and clothes he did care about, and that differentiation was more or less decided by which clothes were easiest to clean. For the most part, then, he had spent the past six weeks in t-shirts while his sweaters and dress shirts remained untouched (plus, dress shirts required ironing, which he simply did not have the time for). But he had no interest in guests to his home spotting him in sweatpants and an old band shirt that had been somewhat stretched out from Daizi's heavy usage of them during her pregnancy. So, he carefully picked a shirt he could throw in the washing machine and bleach, but that also still made him feel like himself and not a messy little gremlin.

Daizi didn't bother changing, and instead, sat down on the couch with Ivy, just to spend a little bit of time with her.
 
Xander went out to bring in some flowers, and Alec changed into something more festive. There were enough colors in his outfit to make a blind eye bleed, but it made him happy. It wasn't long until the front door opened, and Sally stuck her head in.

"Daizi?" she called softly. "Dark? We have arrived!"
 
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