How Green Becomes Wood

"I do like him. I hope I do not seem this messy." He turned him around so the face of the monster faced Alec. Dark always fully expected Daizi to receive gifts from the twins, and truly felt she deserved them. But he never anticipated them giving him something, and it clearly put him into an uncommon mood, "I am not sure he is strong enough to lift what I can--I am pretty sure I can bench you and your brother--so he may not be useful for a spotter, but, he could be good on my desk. Everybody needs moral support, I think."
 
Alec brightened, practically vibrating in happiness that his offering had been accepted. "No, you aren't that messy, but it feels very... you on the inside. Friendly and happy! And very good at moral support. I think he has your smile." He smiled broadly as if to demonstrate.

"Hey, if you two are ever ready, I got the show lined up!" Xander yelled from the living room.

"Is the popcorn ready?" Alec asked.
 
"Hey, I am neither friendly nor happy," Dark grumbled, not that he was really offended. He got the popcorn out of the microwave and handed the hot bag to Alec, while he quickly made the sodas. Since he had larger hands, it was easier for him to carry the three glasses down to the living room. The monster held in the crook of his arm, not wanting to just leave it on the counter as if it was nothing. It was a gift, that meant something to him.

He sat the drinks down on the coffee table and then took a seat on the couch, "So what did you choose?"
 
Alec poured the popcorn into a bowl and took it to the living room, half hopping onto the couch. "Snackies?" He offered the bowl to Xander.

Xander popped a piece into his mouth and pointed to the screen. "Animated film about good monsters, bad monsters, and teenagers trying to save the world," he said. "It's a series, not a movie, but it looks cool."

"It's by del Toro! He's phenomenal!" Alec cheered.
 
"A series is a smart idea," Dark nodded, "if we like it, it gives us something we can keep doing together." It wasn't what he had expected to say, or what his intention was when he first asked for a movie recommendation, but suddenly he found himself sitting on the couch with his twins, and it was nice. They had nothing to do, a week before they had to see Declan again, everything was okay. So he settled in and waited for Xander to hit play.
 
Alec snuggled up to Xander, and they munched on popcorn, occasionally remembering to share with Dark. Xander found a new love in the Italian sodas, and Alec quickly became completely enchanted by two odd friends trying to make their way through life and high school only to find themselves suddenly plunged into a world of monsters and excitement. One of them found himself suddenly chosen as the troll protector, more or less, the one responsible for dealing with naughty trolls. It was a happy show with just the right amount of drama and danger without being too scary for Alec but with incredibly creative designs and interesting characters.
 
At some point, even though he wasn't cold, Dark pulled a blanket over his lap, purely for the coziness of it all, and Enkidu quickly joined them, since all of the people in his house were congregating in one room anyway. Every so often, Dark would take a piece of popcorn and toss it to him, and Enkidu always successfully caught it. He found the show rather engaging, and so the time passed rapidly.

The amount of time the three of them, or four if the dog was counted, had sat together hadn't even dawned on Dark until Enkidu sat upright and cocked his head to the side before dashing out of the room towards the front door as Daizi entered, calling out a greeting in a sing-song voice.
 
"Daizi'a home!" Alec yelled unnecessarily as he pushed the bowl of popcorn at Xander and took off running to the front door. "Daizi! Welcome home! How was your day? I forgot to ask you that earlier, sorry. Guess what? The professor suggested we watch an actual movie together! We ended up watching a series instead of a movie, but it's fantastic! And he suggested it! Completely out of the blue!"

Xander glanced at Dark as Alec continued to ramble. "Are you sure you really love having kids?" he asked dryly. Then he got up, putting what was left of the popcorn on the table, and ambled toward the front door to see what food Daizi might have brought home and if he could help.
 
Dark stared at Alec as he ran to meet Daizi as eagerly as their dog did and at the popcorn spilled over his couch and mumbled something about how he should have expected this, but then stood to greet his wife.

Meanwhile, Daizi stood against her front door with the bag of food draped over one arm and trying to take off her shoes with her other hand, waiting for gaps in Alec's string of sentences to respond to any of his questions. It was a bit awkward, because she couldn't bend too low because of Enkidu rubbing against her legs, but thankfully she was able to pass the food off so she could bend down to take off her shoes. Then she straightened up with a quiet oof, rubbing her back slightly, and at last was able to say, "I'm glad to hear you had an exciting day, habibi. Nothing particularly special happened. Some stranger on the train patted my belly which was... weird, but besides that it was all normal. What series were you watching?" She asked, moving out of the kitchen so she wasn't so cramped. She had already spent an hour on the train, she had been around enough people, "And I'm not surprised he suggested watching something with you, he likes to spend time with you. He's just awkward and doesn't know how to say it."

"Wow, Spider, I am right here," Dark replied flatly.

"I know babe," She grinned, kissing him quickly, and then groaned softly, itching the sides of her belly, "I missed you. What about you, Xander? How was your day?"
 
Xander took the bags and from Daizi and carried them into the kitchen where he started trying to sort them out. Dark liked hanging out with them? Didn't seem like it. It didn't seem like he did not like it, nor did it seem like he did not-not like it. The movie was a weird exception that Xander was totally willing to accept, but he still didn't think Dark actually cared about it. If anything, he mostly ambivalent about it. He didn't show the kind of excitement he expressed when talking about the baby and him, and if he could be excited about spending all his time with the baby, why couldn't he be excited about them? He wasn't awkward about the baby, so what was the difference? Pretty obvious and insurmountable. Daizi was just really nice probably more than a little hormonal, but at least she was trying. He never thought for a second Dark was doing it out of spite. Dark just didn't know what he hadn't experienced yet, and when put to the test... it was bio kids all the way. Not that Xander blamed him. Not really. But it still hurt deep inside.

He almost didn't hear Daizi's question. "What? Oh, it was good," he said hastily. "Played a bunch of games, ate pizza, and heard part of a life story. I got Enkidu a toy, but I forgot to give it to him." He went to fetch the toy and do just that while Alec told her all about Trollhunters.
 
"Good, I'm glad it was good for you too. I hope the pizza was good, I have had some awful pizza in my life. Wallah, some of it was worse than what you'd find in a cafeteria staffed by folk unable to smell or taste! And expensive, too." She huffed, not sitting down yet, "It is so sweet that you thought of him though! He really is part of the family, aren't you baby?" She asked the dog, scratching him behind the ears, "I'll warn you though, he will probably destroy it by the end of the day."

"Very likely." Dark agreed, patting his dog before going to wash his hands, "I did enjoy the show. And it was nice getting to watch it with them. Xander picked it out, he has good taste."

"It sounds good, maybe I should watch a little with you." She mused. She had brought home Chinese, and she was opening the little boxes while half itching-half rubbing her belly with the other.

Dark rubbed the back of his neck and went to help her, and confessed, "If it is all the same to you, I think it is nice for it to be something for the three of us. Here, you should sit."

"Okay, that's fine. And, I think I need to go change." She replied.
 
"Enkidu! Here, boy!" Xander called and squeaked the bone-shaped toy to get the dog's attention.

Alec frowned as he studied Daizi. "You don't seem like you feel well," he remarked. "Do you need someone to help?" He looked to Dark, fully meaning him.
 
"No, I feel fine. Just itchy." She paused, and hearing Xander was at a distance said, "It's just because my skin is stretching. It's like a growth spurt but sideways. I didn't want to say anything in front of your brother." Her plan was, entirely, to change into one of Dark's t-shirts, since she couldn't fit any of her own anymore, and use strongest moisturizer, but saying so explicitly in front of the twins seemed uncomfortable for all of them.

Dark squinted at her, and very cautiously asked, in Arabic, knowing lotion would help, if she would like him to assist her, and she paused, considering it, and ultimately said, in English, "No, darling, you eat. I'll only be a few minutes, I don't want it to go cold."

Meanwhile, Enkidu, hearing the squeak of a toy and his name maniacally ran towards Xander, deciding all at once that this boy was his favourite.
 
"Oh, okay," Alec said, completely satisfied. He continued with helping with the containers, not really paying too much attention to Dark's question. He did catch that she wanted them to start without her, but he already knew he would wait until she returned to get started. He would wait.

"Ha, good boy, Enkidu," Xander praised him. "I was pretty surprised to see these as prizes, but I got you one. Here, drive us all mad with the squeaks, okay?" He offered the toy to the fluffy dog, giving it a couple of gentle, playful shakes and tugs before letting go and patting Enkidu's shoulder. "Good boy! Time for me to get dinner."
 
Enkidu very happily squeaked the toy, and as soon as Xander released it and walked away, he plopped down on the ground, and the sounds of him playing with his brand new toy could be heard from all nearby rooms.

On her way to the stairs, Daizi accidentally bumped into Xander. Normally she'd be able to avoid him from the sound of his footsteps, but Enkidu's squeaking disguised them, "Oh, goodness, I'm so sorry!" She exclaimed, and instinctively reached out and put her hands on his shoulders to make sure he was steady, even though it was a very soft, slow-moving collision. Since she was so tactile, but never intentionally touched Xander, it was a rare moment where she could really "see" him, and so she lingered for a moment, her touch gentle. Then all at once she pulled her hands back, "I'm sorry, I know you don't like being touched. Um. You have nice shoulders. You're stronger than your brother. I'm sorry, that's weird, I just... I never get to know."
 
Xander stiffened when Daizi touched him, but he didn't pull away. He stood waiting for her to let go, giving her time. To his surprise, the touch wasn't awful. It was still uncomfortable, but not as bad as it had once been. Maybe it helped that it was Daizi. Strangely, despite their, ah, prickly beginnings, Xander trusted Daizi perhaps more than he did Dark. Not to mention, he could rationalize it with her blindness. Still not great, but it didn't feel like molten lava being pored into his skin.

"It's alright," he said awkwardly, trying to decide if he should touch her arm or something to reassure her, but he couldn't bring himself to. "Is it the, uh, the squeaking? Sorry. I didn't think it would throw you off like that. And, um, thanks?"
 
"Oh yeah, but it's okay, I'll get used to it. Just bad timing, right? I also take up more space than I used to, and I can't see where I end," She laughed lightly, lingering, running her thumb in circles across her fingernails and then under her finger pads, "and... you're welcome? I was just surprised, I didn't know. I knew you were identical, I thought you'd feel the same, but you don't, and you're... kind of incorporeal to me. I mean, Dark has explained what you look like, but he's... Dark, so it's very poetic and philosophical, he's a lot less analytical than you would think."
 
Xander rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, we used to be absolutely identical. I think we had book of all our picture days once, but it disappeared. It was easy to trick everyone into thinking one of us was the other. But then I guess life choices made us grow a little different. I move a lot. Alec likes to be still. Kind of."
 
"It's sweet that you had that. I couldn't see it, but it would be nice to have. Dark doesn't have any pictures from when he was little either. My dad has pictures of me, I think, but I can't imagine they're very nice to look at. I don't photograph well." She stayed on the thought privately for a moment, and then said, "I should probably stop saying things like that. It's true, but probably not very nice to hear. But if you really like to move, I'm sure Dark wouldn't mind teaching you how to use the gym equipment... Oh! I almost forgot, Mrs. Hollis found a gym willing to take you!"
 
"A gym willing to take me?" Xander asked, momentarily confused. "Oh! The martial arts thing. Right. Yeah, that'd be great. Looking forward to trying that out." He turned to go back to the kitchen and then paused. "If you can't see the pictures," he said slowly, "why do you think you don't photograph well? Isn't it the job of a really good photographer to make even the lousiest subject look great? Not to mention, I've seen some fantastic-looking people take some real horrid pictures. Like, seriously, real beauties that look the worst."
 
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