How Green Becomes Wood

"I do not think Ivy would sit still for it," Daizi agreed, and that wasn't even getting into the fact she didn't know how safe it was to put painted nails into your mouth, "I probably wouldn't enjoy it either, because I know there is the portion where they massage and lotion your hands and feet, but most of it is just sitting while they paint, and since I wouldn't even be able to see the finished product, I don't think spending an hour or so smelling nail polish with a stranger touching my hands seems like a good time for me."

Dark looked down at his nails again, "I would go. I used to paint my nails regularly, but the school did not like it, and I was already always pushing the limits. That is no longer a hinderance."

"You and Alec should go," Daizi told them, "Xander, Ivy, and I can do something together.
 
"That sounds like fun!" Alec agreed eagerly. "What color would you get, Ba? I think I'll pick when we get there. Too many pretty colors!"

"I'm game for that," Xander agreed quickly. He hadn't realized they did a full massaging portion on your hands. That sounded nightmarish!
 
"Black, I think." Dark answered simply, "Maybe red, but probably just a simple black."

"Think about what you might like to do," Daizi told him as they entered the restaurant and were seated, "We can do it on Thursday, I think. I want to be all together tomorrow."
 
"Why not this evening?" Alec suggested. "Then we can be all spiffy for tomorrow!"

"Of course, we're all going to be together tomorrow," Xander assured Daizi. "No question. Except where you want to eat and what, I guess."
 
"We could do it today, but I don't know if Xander knows what he wants to do." Daizi pointed out, picking up Ivy out of her stroller. "But if he does, there is no reason why we cannot do tonight."
 
"Hmm...." Daizi thought about it for a little while, rubbing Ivy's back as she thought about it. "I know what I want to do tomorrow, but I don't know what we can do today that fits into the few hours where they'll be getting their nails painted. Because I'm trying to think of things that are active, because I know that you like being active, but not things that I think Dark and Alec will be sad to miss out on."
 
"There's... a wildfowl museum, a surf and rescue museum, and there's a mermaid art place and a art gallery," Xander said uncertainly. "I don't know how you feel about mermaids."

"Mermaids are creepy," Alec stated, who only knew mermaids from the The Little Mermaid and that one Harry Potter movie.
 
"I like mermaids, and you know I like museums. But I don't want to bore you. What if we we rented a boat of some sort? You'd probably need to steer unless we got one where we both control, but it could be fun."
 
"Sure, we can do a boat," Xander agreed, a tiny bit relieved. "I mean, the birds might have pretty cool, I dunno. I don't know birds."

"You two should totally do something like that!" Alec agreed.

Xander considered. "What about a parasailing thing for two?"
 
"I would love to go parasailing with you, that sounds delightful!" Daizi said excitedly, "Goose, I think you'll have to bring Ivy to the nail salon, it's the safer of the two options. Xander, you should see if you can book it now, and your father can book the nail salon, and that way we know we both have them ready. Then we can meet up for dinner after!"

"That sounds like an excellent plan," Dark said, smoothly taking out his phone to book the appointment, "Alec, do you want hands and feet or only hands?"
 
"I think I only want hands," Alec mused. "I've never done feet. Do you do feet? I've never noticed."

"Looks like they have one slot open for two," Xander said as he booked the parasailing appointment. "Looks like it'll be a lot of fun."
 
Dark shook his head, "No. And I did not want to get a pedicure anyway, so I am glad you did not want to have one either." Then, he booked the appointment and sat back, satisfied. "This is good. I am glad we will have time to do things as pairs. On Thursday, we should switch."

"That would be nice," Daizi said as the food arrived. "We have the dolphin tour booked for Thursday morning, and Dark and I have our date Thursday evening, but we can switch up that afternoon!"
 
"I like that idea!" Alec agreed. "Mama, you and I can go to museums! Or art! Or both! Probably only one."

Xander snickered. "Already dumping me, eh?"

"Absolutely," Alec said with a smirk. "I know we've been together a long time, but I think it's time to move on."
 
"You'll have your own bonding time when Dark and I on a date," Daizi laughed, "So you'll have time to reconnect. But I would love to go to the museum with you! I don't know which one, I need to see which one is most accessible to me, though."
 
"That's a good point," Alec agreed. "I doubt you'd be able to touch much at the wildfowl one, but there had better be a lot to listen to! I'll look into it tonight, too, but you should probably check yourself in case I miserably miss something."

"I doubt it'd be that bad, but food's coming, so I'm not miserable at all," Xander said cheerfully.
 
During lunch, Dark did give Ivy a bit of fish, after carefully double checking Ivy could have everything on it, and she seemed a bit confused by it, and after they finished eating, Daizi gave Ivy a big snuggle and handed her to Dark so their two groups could splinter off.

"Alright, Xander," Daizi said, unfolding her cane once it was just the two of them and it felt like she needed it more, "Are you ready to go up into the sky?"

Meanwhile, when Dark entered the nail salon with Alec, he was acutely aware of the confused look of the, at that moment, exclusively female clientele, but he didn't acknowledge them openly. Instead, once they were checked in properly, he went to the big shelf of colours so Alec could choose.
 
"You bet!" Xander agreed, feeling this was possibly the most exciting thing he'd ever done with Daizi. It didn't help that a lot of their relationship had been hindered by pregnancy and baby things, but now Daizi was free and clear to do whatever she wanted. He was looking forward to seeing how she reacted to paragliding almost as much as he was looking forward to the paragliding itself.

~~

Alec gazed in awe at the massive selection of colors. "Wow. I didn't know there were so many shades of white! And black. They are all so beautiful!" He pointed to the line of dark colors. "There's a lot of options for almost-but-not-quite black, too."
 
"You know," Daizi said, trying to remember the path back to their rental, figuring if they were going to go paragliding, it was probably better to be in more water-appropriate shoes, "My family never would've let me do something like this when I was young. It wasn't intentional, but they tended to treat me like I was made of glass, and it was incredibly frustrating."

~~

"All of these colours, and you are looking at black and white?" Dark asked, amused, and picked up a bright pink and orange shifting multichrome, "I thought you would go for something more like this. Maybe not a pink, but something colourful."
 
Xander lightly indicated the correct direction for the rental. "I bet that felt like a cage. A while back, Alec was telling me about these things called the ugly laws? Back in like 1870 something or whatever? Where basically 'unsightly' people weren't allowed in some cities. It sounds insane! But some places, like Dubai and others in that area, if you got a disability, you have to be babysat when you go out. Sounds really weird and limiting."

~~~

"No, I was talking about for you!" Alec giggled. "Like this one, 'Optic.'" He leaned over to look at the color Dark held. "Oh, that's pretty! I like that. Or how about... I can't read that full name. Am... I... Every... Everything? Everyone? Every something. I like that color. Or maybe Firefly."
 
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