How Green Becomes Wood

"She does seem to be a pretty cool lady," Cooger agreed, and then turned to look at his own brother, "I'd say they did."

Dark squinted at Alec and then bent down to his level by moving his legs to either side like he was either William Dafoe or preparing to slowly drop into the splits (despite being neither), "Do you not trust me?"
 
"I trust you absolutely, although I am amazed at your pants right now and not sure if I should trust them," Alec said, biting his lip and trying not to laugh. What on earth was he doing? Playing giraffe?
 
Dark looked quickly at Ivy, "I think he thinks I cannot be trusted to hold you!" He looked back at Alec, "I should feel disrespected." Then he looked back at Ivy and kissed her cheek. When she cooed at him, he repeated it, which made Ivy laugh, so he repeated the noise and twirled off.
 
Alec stared after Dark with hilarity mixed with terror. "Do I chase after him, or do I ignore him and wait for him to come back?" he asked himself. "Ivy should be safe, right? Probably."

Xander already had his phone up and was recording. "Oh, this is going to be great when he's sober," he smirked in satisfaction. "Perfect blackmail opportunity." He had no idea when he'd actually use it or for what, but it was good to have it ahead of schedule!
 
Dark stopped at the pure sight of his wife, his eyes going wide, and he slightly nodded his head before shuffling up to her, "Marhaban," He nearly purred, and Daizi turned to him unable to keep from grinning and took Ivy from him while he was distracted.

"You're having fun, Goose," She told him.

"I always am," He said, drumming his fingers against his side, clearly resisting some urge.

"We should sit," Daizi said, taking her husband's arm, "You wanted to blow bubbles for Ivy, right?"
 
"I'll get the bubbles!" Alec chirped. He scampered off and fetched the bottle where he'd left it and came back to give it to Dark. Quietly, he asked Daizi, "Do you want me to take Ivy once he gets bored of bubbles?"
 
"I think he's okay," Daizi replied in an equally hushed tone, "but we'll keep an eye on him just in case. He's still himself."

Then she sat down in the grass, letting Ivy sit between them, and blew some of the bubbles for her, and Dark. Ivy looked curiously at them, but Dark genuinely giggled at them, and excitedly said, "Ivy, look! Isn't that special, my darling girl! Look!" and this made Ivy all the more interested in them. When Daizi blew more, Dark popped one, and soon Ivy was laughing and trying to catch them, too.

Cooger sat back, setting out the cooked hotdogs as they came, and he told Xander, "It takes a lot to get him this cooked, literally, but it's always fun when he is, so long as he doesn't go past this point."
 
Alec couldn't help himself and ended up joining Daizi, Dark, and Ivy. SOmetimes he tried to fan the bubbles in their direction, and sometimes he tried to catch them. He did manage to catch one on his palm, and he carefully presented it to Dark.

"You know, it kind of takes the fun out of learning dark secrets like this when I know if I asked him, he'd tell me," Xander remarked, selecting a hot dog. "I still feel like they missed out on the part of the manual that said you're supposed to hide what you did from your kids and come down harder if they repeat your mistakes. Real confusing, but kind of nice."
 
Dark was quite amused with the bubble on Alec's palm, but made a bigger deal about showing it off to Ivy. Although he was certainly taking more enjoyment out of bubbles than he otherwise would, he wasn't high enough to find them as mind blowing as a baby would. Ivy, however, tried to grab the bubble on Alec's palm, thinking she could, and when it popped, she whimpered, confused about what had happened.

Cooger picked up a hot dog and loaded it with a frankly foul number of condiments, but he looked at Xander for a few moments, his eyebrows furrowed just a bit. "Do you really think he would answer any question you asked him?"
 
"Don't worry, Ivy," Alec assured her. He reached up and popped a bubble himself. "See? They pop when I touch them, too. Someday, you'll learn how to catch bubbles."

Xander ate another hot dog plain before taking a third and starting to dress it. "Well, probably not every question, but a lot more than I'd ever have thought he would. Half the time when we're talking about something, if I mention something he has told me, he'll just be like, 'Well, you never asked.' Or something."
 
Ivy kept grabbing at the bubbles to pop them, and enjoyed the game an impressive length of time before growing bored, and before she did, Dark got up and sauntered away, likely seeking more mischief.

With a nod, Cooger thought about how much he thought Dark wanted to talk about in his past, but how difficult it was to bring those things up without making others uncomfortable. There had been many nights where they stayed up late, sometimes when they were a little bit drunk or a little bit high, but often when they had just been talking for awhile, where Dark shared so much. "I think it's tough, 'cause y'all are kids, and he doesn't want to traumatize you. He's seen some serious shit." Then, he shrugged, and said with a mouth full of hotdog, "If you'd prefer they yell at you for repeating their mistakes, I can tell them, but you'd probably start making those mistakes so you get yelled at." When he saw Dark meandering, Cooger put together a hot dog the way he knew his friend liked them, and held it up, "Come get something to eat, man."

Dark did not need to be asked twice, and gladly dropped down on the ground with them.
 
Xander snickered at the thought of Cooger telling Dark and Daizi to yell at them more but didn't protest. He watched as Dark sauntered over and made a bit more space for him. "How are things where you are?" he asked his father, amused. "About how high are you now?"
 
"No, it's 'hi, how are you,'" Dark replied with a little smirk, revealing two things: he was aware of himself enough to remember the very commonly repeated joke about being high, and he was high enough to be silly. "I think... I feel... like one of those waving men that stand outside of car dealerships."
 
"Wacky, waving, inflatable arm flailing tube man," Xander said mildly, pleased Dark hadn't lost all sense of who he was and where he was. "Sounds like fun. That, or really dizzying. Anything you want to do while feeling this good?"
 
Dark's eyes darted quickly to his wife, and then he laughed deep and low. "Me? No, never. No, nay, never." He clapped four times. Then stopped, staring into the distance. Then he ate the hot dog.

"It's good we did this here, you would not be allowed on a boat," Cooger laughed, squeezing Dark's shoulder before putting his arm around him because Dark shifted to lean against him, "I'm not even sure we should let you by the kiddie pool, you might drown."

"I love to be on boats," Dark said, "I like the water. We are going to the ocean, we can go on boats there."
 
"I didn't know you like boats. We should definitely get you on a boat," Xander said. "Later. Not right now. Maybe you can have one of the mini's toy boats to play with right now. Maybe. If Cooger says you may."
 
"When you go on a boat, you go," He wiggled his hand, "Like---when you stick your hand out the car window, and you make your hand like a dolphin, except your body is your hand and the air is the water but also you are on a boat."

Cooger looked behind Dark at Xander, "He is definitely going to drown in the kiddie pool."

"What?" Dark pulled away, looking wide-eyed at Cooger, "I am--I am not," he threw his arms wide, "I am not going to drown! How would I drown? How could I ever begin to drown? I could not kill me, water cannot kill me!"
 
"One hundred percent," Xander agreed with Cooger, ducking a flung arm. "Right, water cannot kill you, but let's not taunt the water. We don't want to teach the mini bad habits, do we? How about instead you do more dolphin hands while laying on your back and looking at the clouds? You can pretend like you're a sky dolphin."
 
"There are not sky dolphins and I am not naive enough to believe they could ever possibly exist, that is absurd." Dark said, but nonetheless flopped onto his back to look at the sky. After a few moments of staring upwards, he said, "I wish Tarot could see the sky. She would love it."

"Yeah, she would," Cooger agreed, lying down beside him.
 
Xander craned his neck to look backward. "She'd like the night best," he agreed.

Next door, Lex tossed a piece of metal onto her scrap pile in the back yard with a loud clang. She sorted things out, rustling the metal a bit, and then pulled the tarp back over the pile.
 
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