How Green Becomes Wood

"I suppose it was not a perfect question. I wondered if you would like to try rocking her to sleep." Dark told him, "It is okay if you do not want to."

"I don't love big parties with all the neighbors, but I like having family around. I wish my aunties lived closer, sometimes even the irritating ones." Daizi explained, pouring drinks while Xander went to the backdoor.
 
"Oh! I hadn't realized that was a," Alec stopped himself before saying "genuine" thinking it might hurt Dar's feelings, "actual question. I suppose I could, but I wouldn't want to take that time from you since you love it so much. I can have other times."

"I guess you'll just have to make more friends like Cooger, 'cause that's super easy," Xander drawled.
 
"If I was worried about it taking time from me, I would not have suggested it, and then reminded you of my suggestion." Dark said, looking down at him with mild curiousity, "Please, do not feel pressured, but do not worry for my feelings."

"In my perfect world, Cooger would live on this street, and my friends, the Hollises, your aunt, now, my family, and we would have a whole central community." Daizi sighed at the perfect little thought that could never be a reality.
 
Alec looked up at Dark and smiled. He reached up and touched Dark's elbow gently. "Thank you. I'll think about it and let you know." He trotted ahead and opened the door for Dark, Ivy, and Cooger.

Xander glanced at Daizi. He had sometimes wondered what it would be like to have a bigger family, but if this was what it meant, perhaps it was better to have smaller? He wasn't sure. He wasn't sure the entire family and friends living in a centeral community sounded fully healthy, but that wasn't really something he knew enough about to judge. Maybe it was better and he just didn't know any better. It did sound like a great support system. On the other hand, it sounded like a breeding ground for close-minded ways and cultish behavior. Either way, now wasn't the time to ponder that as the others had arrived for dinner.
 
"Just let me know," Dark said, and went inside the house. Giving Daizi a little kiss on the cheek, he thanked her for dinner, then thanked Xander.

"It was no problem," Daizi said, taking her seat beside him, "I like getting to be a little domestic sometimes. Just sometimes. And it's nice cooking with Xander."
 
"Cooger said he wants to move in so that you can cook for him every day," Alec said, trying very hard to play it serious. "He hates cooking that much and loves yours that much."

Xander snorted, knowing full well that Cooger had never said anything like that. He sat next to his twin and waited for the adults to start before digging into his share.
 
"I was saying earlier, I'd like a better sense of community," Daizi said, beginning to eat, "I think that's my least favourite thing about this neighborhood, I feel like we're all so isolated from each other, and it'd be so nice if we had the support network closeby that humans crave."

"You say 'humans' like you aren't one," Cooger chuckled, "but Alec's being dishonest: I don't want to move in, I just like not having to cook."

"I keep telling you to mealprep. I do not understand how you reached our age, yet can hardly care for yourself," Dark said, mildly exasperated.
 
"Meal prep is boring and takes up a ton of space. And then what if you decide you're not in the mood for what you made?" Xander complained.

"You could see if Lex is any good as a friend, Mama," Alec suggested. "Then at least you'd have a friend close by."
 
"Is it worse than eating frozen meals most of the week?" Dark asked blandly, "He has the nutritional diet of a middle schooler."

"Hey, that's not fair. I cook an actual dinner once a week, most of the time I get take out," Cooger replied, rather proud of himself, "And Lex is cool, you'd probably like her, Tarot."

"I probably would, but it's not like I can just go knock on her door."
 
"Why not?" Alec asked with a smile. "That's how you make friends, right? By going up and talking to them? Maybe take them a treat!"

"I dunno that Lex is any better off than Cooger here as far as home-cooked meals, so she might like that," Xander said, smirking at Cooger.
 
"Well, if we have leftovers, maybe I'll take them by, then." Daizi said, although the idea still felt a little bit strange to her. But, she couldn't deny that somebody had to make the first move, and they did have a mutual friend, so it wasn't really that odd.

"Personally, I would be completely comfortable isolated away from all others," Dark sighed, wanting more or less the opposite of his wife's dream of a close-knit community, "I am jealous of eccentric hermits and Dracula."

"I thought Dracula was lonely. He lived with the women vampires, but they teased him for not having loved, and he said he had." Daizi pointed out, resting against him and putting one hand on his bicep.

"I would be lonely, if I was a vampire and you were not. I would turn you, if I were a vampire first, but if I became a vampire too late? But if we are discussing our dream lives, you would be an eccentric hermit with me."
 
Alec glanced between them and shook his head. "Sometimes I wonder how you two make it work. She is a social butterfly, and he is a vampiric hermit. It does not get much more opposite than that."

"Don't forget Cooger," Xander pointed out.

"Of course! I cannot forget the best friend who is somehow reminiscent of the hippy stereotype while also being the world's best handyman and cat guardian," Alec nodded. "Perhaps he is the strange lynchpin that makes all of this work."
 
Daizi shrugged lightly, rubbing Dark's arm, "It's not so weird. I like socialization, but I'm still not someone you could drop in a crowd and expect me to have a great time. I value deep connections, and Dark does too. I just like forming deep connections with a larger number of people, and he likes keeping his number smaller." She turned her head to smile at Dark, her face absolutely glowing, "But that doesn't mean all of the people I like to keep in my community matter to me equally. And you may not believe it, but you should see how he navigates the fancy events I'm forced to bring him to."

"And it helps we are secure enough that I am not jealous when she needs to be with her friends," Dark added, looking at her with bright eyes. She couldn't see the way he looked at her, but she knew. It was in his tone, or in the pauses he took.

Cooger looked at Alec, leaning forward with his arms crossed, "See what you've done? You've reminded them that they're happy."
 
Alec nodded morosely. "I know. Oh, what have I done? They are so sappy they'll be stuck together forever!"

"And ruined other people's appetite," Xander said, making a face. In truth, he'd gotten used to and didn't mind Dark and Daizi's sappy moments, but it felt like his duty to remind them of other people in the room.

"Oh well. That just means more food for us," Alec said cheerfully.
 
Daizi couldn't help but giggle slightly at their whining, "I'm not going to pretend like I don't love my husband. Especially not when it was questioned how we work so well together."

"We are just talking," Dark added, "if just seeing two people talk is enough to ruin your appetite, then I do not know what to tell you."

Watching this unfold, Cooger shook his head sadly, "Twenty years of this. I deserve a medal."
 
"Just talking while making goo-goo eyes at each other," Xander grumbled. "You're both the stuff romance novel addicts dream of."

"I'll make you a medal," Alec told him quietly with a little nod.
 
"I can't even see, how am I making eyes at anyone?" Daizi asked with a little coy grin, although she force herself to sit up properly.

Dark raised one hand, "All I am doing is looking at her while I speak to her, anything else in my expression is unintentional."

Rolling his eyes, Cooger looked at Alec, "Twenty-four years, really, you should've seen what it was like being friends with him while they were broken up."
 
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Both Alec and Xander shuddered at Cooger's statement. Alec said, "That must have been truly unbearable. I salute you in your dedication to friendship."

Xander nodded and cleaned off his plate. "That must have been real rough. How did you survive? The sheer determination that you had to or else?"
 
"Okay--He is exaggerating." Dark said, crossing his arms, "I was fine."

"You went from girl to girl to guy to girl to guy, sometimes without bothering to end one before going to the next one, all while sending your Dear John letters to Egypt." Cooger replied, leaning back in his seat, and he looked at the twins, "But, luckily, because he was never emotionally attached to any of the others, when they inevitably broke up, he wasn't all that bothered by it."

"Communicating overseas is expensive," Daizi said with a shrug.

"Yeah, that's why we talked over email. And why he instead used a paycheck to buy a braille printer." Cooger pointed out blandly.
 
Neither of the twins felt particularly comfortable hearing about Dark's "infidelity" or "playboy era" again. They tried not to let it show, knowing that if Cooger brought it up, then it must not be too sensitive of a topic, but it was still something they struggled to fully understand or embrace as a part of Dark's character. Not to mention, it was something they'd seen from a different perspective with a different adult figure, and that hadn't had nearly as happy of an ending.

"What do you mean Dear John letters?" Alec asked. "He was writing to someone named John in Egypt? That doesn't make sense, but if it's an idiom, I don't recognize it."

"I like the braille printer," Xander muttered quietly. "It's cool."
 
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