How Green Becomes Wood

"She was a good girl." Dark nodded, and then lifted Ivy into his lap, "but now my darling Ivy-Qadira snuggles with me and pulls at my beard."

Now Daizi laughed for real, "Are you comparing our daughter to your favourite rat?"

"Xander calls her mouse. I think it is allowed."
 
"So do rats," Dark pointed out, kissing Ivy's head, "but it is true, she is much cuter than any rodent." Ivy snuggled up against her father, he had barely been able to hold her all day, and she missed him. From the angle she was sitting at, especially with her hair still curled like his, she really looked a lot like him.

"I do not imagine there are many things she is not cuter than," Daizi agreed, "I can't believe she's already almost a year old."
 
"It does," Daizi exclaimed, finishing up her food but, frankly, not daring to brave the unfamiliar room to try to get rid of it and instead choosing to lay down on her back, "It felt like reaching July took much longer last year than it did this year. I guess that's a good thing, though. It means we're actually... I don't know. Happy. I can't even say I was unhappy last year, but things were really difficult, at times."
 
"There's a lot less holding us back this year," Alec agreed.

Xander got up and started cleaning up first. Alec finished off his food and helped him clean up. In no time at all, they had everything tidied away, and the beds were ready to be used for sleep once more. Neither twin was quite ready for sleep yet, though, and roamed the room idly.
 
Trying to get Ivy to go to sleep in an unfamiliar place after a day in the car was difficult, and Daizi really had to sit up in a dark room rather late into the night, trying to get her down. Dark offered to wait up instead, but when his wife pointed out he needed to drive in the morning, he agreed to let her do it and did his best to go to sleep, too. Since the pack and play was at the foot of the bed, when Ivy finally did fall asleep, Daizi didn't need to wander around the room to lay her down, which helped everyone. Then she did her best to find a comfortable space, and settled in for the night.
 
Xander and Alec slept like the dead, barely even stirring once they were down. They both registered Ivy's fussing on some level, but still slept shockingly well. In the morning, they were up and ready to go at the usual time, and for once, Alec didn't lose a thing.
 
In the morning, Dark couldn't quite tell if he was energized from the desire to return home or exhausted, but Daizi knew she was the latter. It hadn't been an easy night and the bed was miniscule, but she wasn't driving so she had a chance of catching a bit more sleep on the drive home, although that had a high likelihood of leaving her more stiff.

"Oh no," She thought to herself, "I guess I'm owed a back massage from my husband."

Like the day before, as they prepared to leave, they tried to get Ivy worm out, but thankfully today's portion of the drive was shorter than the day before's, which made it a bit easier to cope with.
 
Alec eagerly helped wear out Ivy before loading himself into the car after Xander. Xander and Alec started calling out license plates to Daizi for no reason other than boredom and recording how many states they spotted. They speculated on why some of the farther states were visiting here and what their business was.
 
Daizi asked what the different license plates looked like, eventually requesting the tell her what the plate looks like so she could try to guess the state.

After a few hours of driving and a stop or two, they drove into their neighborhood and, soon, pulled into their driveway. Dark sighed, finding himself relieved to be back in his space. Being glad to be home he anticipated, but feeling relieved was a surprise. Finally, he was back in a space made to accommodate his size.

"Ivy," Daizi cooed, turning around, "We're home, baby! We're back at Ivy's house!"

"We should go greet Enkidu and get him settled before we bring everything in," Dark advised, shutting off the car.
 
"Home!" the twins moaned in delight. "Home!"

They piled out excitedly and ran to the front door - or stumbled stiffly - but waited for Dark and Daizi to go in first. Enkidu was going to be so happy, might as well let Dark go first to take the brunt of his excitement.
 
Dark did go inside first, and touched the salt quickly before being just about barreled over by his dog, who came thundering up and jumped onto him, despite not typically being a jumper.

"Marhaban, Enkidu," Dark cooed, going to the side and sitting down to pet his dog all over while urging he calm down out of concern he would jump up and hurt Ivy, who was squeaking with delight at the sight of her puppy dog again.

To the dog's credit, he did not jump onto Daizi, instead choosing to try to run between her legs until her skirt blocked his way. Enkidu truly had no idea who to go to, and kept bounding between all of them, whimpering from excitement and occasionally barking at them to express his displeasure they had left.
 
Alec and Xander hastily touched the salt before attacking Enkidu with pets and hugs, letting him run as needed before giving him as but petting as they could. Eventually, they started bringing stuff inside and taking them to the different rooms. Once they had everything in their room, they had to sort out whose stuff was whose. Once that had gotten sorted, they flopped onto the couch on the living room and just enjoyed being home.
 
Daizi set Ivy down in the playmat while Dark brought in their belongings. She had suggested they trade off, but he deemed it less efficient and unnecessary. So she sat on the floor with her daughter, who quickly set about crawling after Enkidu, much to the poor dog's surprise and concern. Nobody had warned him that the tiny human would start moving. Nudging Ivy with his nose, he made her giggle before Daizi intervened out of concern something would go wrong between the two of them.

Once everything was inside, Dark went upstairs to take a shower underneath a shower head that he didn't need to crouch uncomfortably to use and then rejoined the rest of the family.
 
"I am so glad we went, but I am even happier to be home," Alec stated to the room in general.

Xander glanced toward Enkidu and Ivy. "Same, but I think Enkidu thinks we brought home a different baby.
 
"In a way we did," Dark said, sliding slowly off the couch so he could be on the same level as his daughter and his dog. "I do not know what he will do when she starts walking. Taeal hown, Enkidu," He waved his hand towards him and Enkidu hurried over before dropping down into his lap, "It is okay, 'Kidu. Hm? You are too big a boy to be frightened by a little baby."

"Ivy," Daizi caught Ivy, scooping her up, "Sweet Ivy-Qadira, you need to be sweet with Enkidu!" She scooted across the floor, close to her husband and dog, and holding Ivy securely, both adults helped to try to teach their daughter how to treat Enkidu properly.
 
"I am glad we had it up before she started crawling," Dark said, scratching his dog behind the ear, "It means we do not need to scramble to get it up."

Daizi sat back, standing Ivy up in her lap, "We need to sew bells onto your clothes, habibti. Mama has to know where you are!"
 
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