How Green Becomes Wood

"To be fair about the Donner Party, they ended up in that situation because they made foolish decisions. It's not like now, where we can just fly a helicopter up to get you. It's very different today than it was then." Despite saying so, both she and Dark fought against every last one of their instincts to mention the Uruguay Rugby Team crash into the Andes Mountains, it might ruin mountains, snow, and planes for him all in one sentence. They also battled against their instincts to make a cannibalism joke about when dinner arrived.

"I wonder if--" Dark began, nearly failing, but instead walked to the front door, opening it up and bending down so he could actually see the delivery person through the doorframe. After thanking and tipping them, he set the food down on the coffee table so everybody could find what belonged to them.
 
"Food!" Alec and Xander both cheered excitedly, descending on the table, all thoughts of people getting stuck in mountains forgotten. They divided their food and happily ate, talking about whether or not they wanted to start a crabbing business so they could eat crab whenever they wanted. Xander pointed out lobsters made more money, and Alec said that then they could catch both and sell mostly lobster and keep mostly crab. Then they mused over the fact that the best crabbing was much farther north where it was much colder. That put a damper on their sudden dreams, but that didn't stop them from discussing boat names and asking Dark and Daizi their opinions.
 
Dark admitted that he, for inexplicable reasons, had been recommended a lot of content by a lobster fisherman, so he shared strange lobster facts he didn't realize he had memorized, including lobster jargon like 'egger.' Daizi allowed this to go unaddressed, mostly because she was grateful this lobster knowledge did not lead to him calling her an egger. Ultimately, they both promised they would support the twins regardless of what they did, expressed sadness at how far away they would need to live to become crab and lobster people, and forced the twins to promise to give them both shellfish every time they visited. As payment, for moving so far away.
 
The twins both solemnly promised to visit often and bring them the best of their catches. Alec even pinkie promised.

After dinner had been finished and cleaned up, the twins sat on the back patio playing in the sand lightly, taking care not to get it all over themselves like before. They took turns drawing pictures and guessing what they were.
 
After dinner, since it was time for Ivy to wind down for the night, Dark sat with her on the couch and read her a book, trying to make it as vivid for her as possible. As wiggly as Ivy was most of the time, she was surprisingly focused during story time, and liked to reach out to touch the pages. Daizi, meanwhile, took the quiet time to use a hair mask and relax in bed, wanting a bit of time to herself for the evening.

By the time Ivy was asleep, Daizi had just finished washing the mask out, and was stepping out of their bathroom, Dark was walking into their bedroom for tonight, and he shut the door behind them.

In the morning, Dark did his absolute best to try to let her sleep in, but it was made difficult by how small the rental was. At home, he would have been able to sneak out of the room to bring Ivy downstairs, which was not an option here, so she ended up waking up not much later than usual, although the effort was appreciated. Unable to get her flowers, since they'd be frustrating to transport back home and sad to leave, he had, in the bit of time he had before she got up, carefully collected shells to turn into a centerpiece. She couldn't see them, and they didn't have a scent, but... It was something, and he'd point them out to her.
 
The twins got up earlier than usual, and the first thing they did was go for a run on the beach, chasing each other and the waves up and down and back and forth until both were thoroughly winded. That done, they headed inside for a super fast rinse off shower before helping Dark set up everything for Daizi's birthday breakfast.

"We got her a gift," Alec whispered to Dark. "When should we give it to her?"
 
"Whenever you want, I suppose," Dark said, carefully arranging and rearranging his collected shells and letting Ivy play with one he had carefully washed and sanitized, "but I would recommend either before we leave for the day or after we come home. Otherwise you will be carrying it until you give it to her, and there is a chance of it being lost."

For breakfast, he had brought in pain au chocolats, croissants, and various simple pasteries, knowing Daizi wanted to do a bigger lunch, and also making due with their tiny cooking space. There was little point in buying groceries when they were there for so short a time.
 
"Before," Xander told Alec, resisting the urge to snatch a pastry. "You can put it next to her place."

Alec nodded and scampered off to fetch the gift from their room. It was a small, simple rectangular box tied with a ribbon. He put it carefully next to her place where she could find it but not knock it off.
 
"Will you cut up some strawberries?" Dark asked Xander, mostly to keep his hands occupied, "I also have a gift for her, and so does Ivy. She will be irate with us, but..." He shrugged, willing to pay that price, "I did not bring her gift here, though, I am giving it to her when we get home. I did not want to risk it breaking."
 
"Oh, that sounds interesting! Do we get to know what it is?" Alec asked curiously.

Xander focused on the strawberries, making them the best cut strawberries to have ever been sliced. He even did a couple in interesting shapes just to give Daizi something a little fun.
 
Turning towards his bedroom door to try to gauge how near to awake Daizi was, he trusted she wouldn't overhear if he whispered, "It is a windchime with the chakra crystals strung between the tubes. The top is an eye, with a clear quartz as its pupil, I suppose."
 
"Oh!" Alec whispered, eyes wide. "Wow! That is a fabulous gift! She's going to love it after she's done being annoyed."

"Which will probably take about three seconds," Xander said, popping a strawberry in his mouth.

"Ours is much smaller, physically and metaphorically," Alec admitted, looking at the box that was about the size of his palm, maybe smaller.
 
"I would not say metaphorically," Dark replied with furrowed brows, "I suspect you put the same amount of thought into it as I did. And Ivy's is little. It is only this small obsidian moth, but the center of the moth is a skull. She will love what you got her, because you got it for her. That is enough."
 
"Oh, sure, I know that," Alec assured him with a shrug. "We just deliberately tried to make it as casual as possible to respect Daizi's wishes despite the fact that we couldn't resist getting her something. I like the sound of that moth, though!"
 
"She will appreciate that," Dark told her, turning sharply when Daizi stepped out of the bedroom in a red maxi dress with a sheer section around her midriff and she was wearing the necklace the twins had given her a year ago.

"I never know how to enter a room on my birthday," She said, walking up to them, still barefoot, "It always feels like it's supposed to be a grand entrance, but I don't need that sort of attention."
 
"You look gorgeous!" Alec told her with a smile. He pulled a chair out for her. "Would you like to take a seat, Madam Birthday Lady?"

"I'd say that was a pretty good entrance," Xander told her.
 
"Oh, please don't call me that," Daizi laughed, holding up both hands as she sat down, "and honestly the entrance felt very self-obsessed. I'm just glad we don't have stairs, here. Coming downstairs is so much pressure."

"Happy birthday, Spider." Dark said with shining eyes. It was a new dress, he didn't know when she had gotten it, "Ivy-Qadira, it's Mama's birthday! Can you tell Mama happy birthday?"

Since her coo was taken as good enough, Daizi held out her arms so she could hold Ivy in her lap, which was perfectly aligned with Ivy's desires, too, "I'm just really excited to get to drive the boat."
 
"Aren't all grand entrances self-obsessed? But they still look awesome, and you pull them off quite well," Alec told her.

"I'm looking forward to you driving the boat, too," Xander smirked, making sure everything was set up before plopping down into his chair.

"Is that the dress you are going to wear? Is it new?" Alec asked curiously.
 
"It is, and it is," Daizi said, picking lightly at the sheer fabric around her upper abdomen, "D'Arcy bought it for me. She said it's the perfect shade of red for me, and it's really comfortable, which she was glad about, because she was a little worried the lace would be itchy."

"It looks perfect on you," Dark said, pouring her a glass of orange juice, thinking about how he should really thank his wife's friend.
 
Alec leaned over to Daizi and whispered, "He keeps staring at you. I'm glad he's not high now or you'd never make it outside."

Xander glared at the pair. "What are you two whispering about?"

"Nothing," Alec said innocently.
 
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