How Green Becomes Wood

As the total rang up, it was actually better than Dark expected. Still more than he intended to spend that day, certainly, but not so much that Daizi wouldn't understand. Most if it was wood, anyway. The cars were actually buy one, get one half-off, which was a nice surprise. And Alec was paying for the majority of the leather working kit, so that wasn't a problem either. Ultimately, buying your way into the hearts of your foster kids is not the most sustainable plan, but he was buying something he and Alec would work on together, so it laid groundwork. And the wood would serve a good purpose, when it was finally ready to be picked up. But that wouldn't be for another month or so, meaning he only had to put in a down payment now, and thankfully, the cancellation policy was forgiving.

"Come on," Dark said, carrying most of the bags, "let us go home."

~~

When Xander hopped off the swing, it rocked suddenly, and Daizi had to reach out to steady herself, mostly just from surprise. Then she stood up with a grace she hoped she wouldn't lose in the later months of the year, "I'll take the blame," she replied, following him into the house, "because I think it was worth it."

She went into the kitchen and turned on their electric kettle, after filling it with water, and then went to the cupboard for a mug, "Do you want any?"
 
Alec smiled as he took his bag, feeling a little proud about his purchase despite the lingering guilt. He had paid for something! Granted, he didn't feel like he did much to earn his allowance despite the chores he and Xander took care of every day, but logically he knew that was partly due to the fact that he'd never been with someone as fair as Dark and Daizi.

"Would you like to take the rest of what is owed on the woodworking kit out of my next allowance?" he offered once he and Dark were in the car. "To make things even."

~~

"Nah, thanks. I'm going to my room. I still have some homework to do," Xander said, heading to the living room to retrieve his abandoned books. "I'll e back if the other two ever get home."
 
"Alright," Daizi hummed, feeling more relaxed around him than she had in a month. Hopefully soon she would find common ground with the other twin, and then finally things could settle back down again. There was almost nothing she wanted more, at least at that particular moment,

~~

"No, I do not think it is necessary," Dark replied as he began to drive home, "I earn more than you, barely, so you should keep what you have. I enjoyed going to the store with you, I hope you did too." It was a fairly easy drive home, and Dark felt the trip had been a success. He hadn't had the time to bring up Alec's weird behavior around Daizi, but he didn't want to force the conversation or the spoil the moment, so let it pass. Maybe another day, if it didn't resolve itself on its own.

When they finally made it back home, he removed his shoes, touched the salt, and set the bags down on the small hall table. Coming further into the house, he found Daizi asleep on the couch, cuddling the dog, with an almost empty cup of tea on the coffee table. He quietly went over to her to pull one of the throw blankets over her, but she was a light sleeper, so she stirred almost immediately. With her eyes still closed and without sitting up, Daizi reached up and grabbed his arm, and recognizing her husband murmured, "Welcome home... hope it was a good trip..."
 
Alec carefully set his bag down as far into the livingroom as he could reach before quickly touching the salt and taking off his shoes. He still didn't believe what Daizi did about the potential properties of the salt, but now it was habit, and it was also an almost calming sensation. It signified that he was home. That, by itself, was a calming thought, perhaps even more calming than ridding themselves of spirits.

He tiptoed in and edged around to where he could feel the side of the teacup. It was nearly cold, and probably didn't taste very good. He picked it up and took it to the kitchen, cleaning up and taking care of things before returning to the living room. He didn't want to interrupt Daizi and Dark's moment, so he tried to collect the coat he'd left, the car, and the leatherworking kit without making much noise.
 
When Alec came back after cleaning up the cup, Dark had sat down beside his wife, who had already wormed herself mostly into his lap and cocooned herself in the throw blanket. They had been very quietly chatting, while Daizi woke up the rest of the way, and hearing Alec's footsteps asked, yawning softly, "Did you have a nice time, Alec? Dark was telling me about some model cars?"
 
Alec paused in the middle of picking up his grey coat and smiled, nodding. "I did. I haven't ever been in that kind of store before. I knew they existed, but I never imagined they could be so amazing! He and I both picked out cars like famous movie cars. Well, I picked out mine mostly because I like the shape of it. He said we could both work on the cars together. I just wanted to see what working with models is like. It's not exactly what he does, but I thought it was similar?"
 
"That's wonder, I'm really happy for you. And I'm sure the two of you will have a great time building them together, I hope they won't be too fragile for me to see them." She smiled. It truly seemed like everything was evening out, Alec and Dark had a nice day out, she had a productive talk with Xander, she was wrapped up in a blanket with her dog and her husband, things were good, actually good.

"I am sure they will be sturdy, and you are always delicate," Dark told her. He could tell by looking at her how light she felt, he had missed seeing her that way, "Do you want to show her some of the other things we brought home?"
 
Alec blinked and looked between Dark and Daizi. "You mean, I get to show her?" He couldn't help grinning as he carefully extricated the fairy. "Well, we also got a very cool leatherworking kit for Xander, but that's in a very boring box and hard to show you," he admitted. "But then the Professor had a brilliant idea, and we found this thing, as well. May I have your hand?" He held out the fairy, waiting for her to put out her hand before carefully placing it in her palm and making sure she had it before letting go.
 
"Show me what?" Daizi asked, and when the fairy was put in her hands she gently turned it over, feeling all sides of it, and said, "This is really beautiful."

Dark smiled, shifting a bit to accommodate her as she sat up fully, "We thought you would like it. And, you know, Alec has his new models we are going to build together, and we bought Xander the leatherworking kit, so... We could not stand not bringing you something, too."

"You didn't have to bring me anything," She smiled, stretching upwards to kiss Dark's cheek, "Thank you. And thank you, Alec, it's so sweet of you... Now we just have to think what to name her."
 
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Alec considered for a moment. "I feel something very nature oriented. Perhaps Meadow... flower... Dandelion Meadow? Or is that too silly?" He looked at her worriedly, suddenly highly invested in this little Faerie's name.
 
"Dandelion Meadow..." Daizi hummed, "Hey babe, do you remember that time you convinced me to call in fake sick to work and brought me to that place near the little pond? And you had set up an entire picnic there, for absolutely no reason at all?"

"I do," Dark replied, "I had walked through there with Cooger a few days before and saw all of the dandelions in the grass there, and I knew they are your favourite flowers. That was reason enough" She swiveled to smile up at him, and it could nearly be seen on their faces how their hearts fluttered in that moment, thinking through the memory.

Daizi ran her fingers over the wings and the fairy's hair, "I think Dandelion Meadow is a perfect name."
 
Alec blushed and edged away, grabbing his coat and the leatherworking kit as he went. "I am really glad you like it. I should go show Xander what we got for him. Goodnight! Sleep well! See you tomorrow morning. Tomorrow is Friday, so last school day!" He hurried away to keep himself from babbling in shy embarrassment. This wasn't the worst thing he'd ever seen, but it still felt very much like he was intruding. So he gladly retreated, eager to see his brother again.
 
"Tell Xander I said goodnight," Dark said, gently taking the fairy from Daizi and setting it safely down on the coffee table, so nothing would happen to it.

"Sleep well," Daizi murmured, "and thank you again."

After Alec had gone upstairs, Dark moved Daizi off of him so he could lay down beside her, and moving her hair from her face, quietly told her, "If you fall asleep on the couch, I am not carrying you upstairs."

She giggled, reaching up to him, "I won't... But if I did, I know you would."

"Really?" He asked. Dark moved the blanket, allowing it to hang limply over the side of the couch and touch the floor. It wasn't a dramatic flourish, he didn't rip it away, he just shifted it, and let it fall.

"Mhm..."

"How?"

"Because you always do," Daizi replied, propping herself up on her elbows. She was right, with him being as strong as he was, he never just left her if she fell asleep for the night somewhere other than bed, "and now you have the added incentive of being able to say you carried your wife and baby to bed."

Dark moved his hand from her waist to her belly and asked, "How is she doing?"

She put her hand over his, tracing circles on the back of his hand with one finger, "Hanging in there, I think. Xander says he wants her to be a boy."

"Oh, did you talk to him?" Dark asked, causing Daizi to sigh and flop back down on the couch. She stretched deeply, but waited until Dark had laid back down, resting his head against her chest. It was something she always loved, getting to feel like 'the big one,' so he often would lie against her or with his head in her lap. Dark had already begun to wonder where he would rest his head when her lap was overtaken, and eventually it'd be unsafe for her to lie on her back for too long.

After they were settled, Daizi explained to him everything she and Xander had talked about while they were at the store. She cried in some points, mostly because when she was reliving it with him, it was a chance for her to release everything she had pent up in the moment, but it was obvious she was thrilled about the outcome, with only mild fears the teen had lied and old told her what he thought she wanted to hear, which was all so much better than she could have expected.
 
Xander and Alec sat side by side on the floor, backs to the bed, looking over the treasures Alec had brought back. As Alec had suspected, Xander was in absolute awe of the leatherworking kit and instantly opened it enough to check out the tools and looked at the leather. Then he set it aside and listened to Alec's story about the model cars. He didn't tell his brother about the conversation he'd had with Daizi. Maybe he would later, or maybe not. It was a private conversation, and it'd just upset Alec. Maybe he'd skip it and let it stay private.

Alec was just happy to be back with Xander and tell him everything. All felt right with the world! Even more right than before, really. They'd had a good day, and nothing bad had happened at all! It was a good feeling.

The weekend came and went. Peter stopped by on Saturday to practice, and they discovered he was a very good drummer. Xander was the one struggling the guitar and trying to learn his part of the song. He agreed to keep trying, however, and they arranged to meet every day after school to practice until time for the audition. Things seemed to be looking up for their as of yet unnamed band!

And so, the week ticked by uneventfully. There was homework to be done, band to practice, Sloan to talk to at lunch, and chores. Xander tired to relax around Daizi, but sometimes he slipped up now and then. Alec, on the other hand, continued his odd habit of trying to avoid Daizi one day, and doing his best to wait on her hand and foot the next. He was like the world's most extreme pendulum.
 
Eventually, Dark and Daizi decided to go upstairs to bed and eventually went to sleep. The following morning they came downstairs, maybe a bit later than usual, but not by much. On the weekend, when Peter came to visit, both Dark and Daizi did their best to stay out of the way, although Dark did allow Peter the requisite time to see his tattoos and ask any questions he had about them. The dog didn't love the drumming coming from upstairs, so Daizi took him on a walk while Dark worked in his shed. The walk was good for her, because it was the exact sort of light exercise recommended to women in 'her condition' (which she put care into disguising from Peter, not that it was particularly hard with her sense of style and being still in the first trimester), and Dark was just trying to avoid learning what song the twins and their friend were going to perform, since Alec had intended it to be a surprise.

The week went on calmly: the medicine really was doing wonders for Daizi. She still had to run to the bathroom occasionally throughout the day, but not like she was, so she had really begun to seem like herself again. Xander being mostly casual with her again helped a lot, too, although Alec stressed her out. She just never knew what to expect from him. When he avoided her completely, she felt terrible about herself, and when he wouldn't leave her alone, she felt like he thought she was the baby, not that she was just growing one. Dark could see how she felt about it, but even if he couldn't, she told him often, although she kept trying to convince him, as well as herself, that it was okay. She had her lime, denim skirts she couldn't button, and, excitingly, she only had one more week of the first trimester. Only twice before had she ever made it to the second trimester, beautiful week thirteen, and she was feeling really good. Nervous, but good.

The weekend had come around again, and Dark had invited Alec inside of his shed to work on the models. He had to raise the second chair up a lot so the teen could comfortably reach the top of the work table, but it was roomy. He had large shelves full of different sizes of wood, his various paints, and all of his other tools. Even in a workspace, he kept everything tidy, there weren't even wood shavings on the ground. The shed had nice windows to let in the light, and the temperature inside were comfortable. All over the walls were sketches of little carnival rides and people, some purely conceptual, and some with hard measurements, showing different stages in the development process. Curiously, two of the sketches didn't seem to be for a carnival, and the numbers denoting size seemed to imply they were not miniature, either, although the measurements were in metric. One looked like a swan, of some type, on top of a pedestal, but the other was unmistakably a crib, although it was round, not rectangular.

"Would you open the window?" Dark asked, "the fumes from the glue can be rather strong." They had already opened the box, and Dark was reading over the instructions before they began, so he had a feel for what they were going to do.
 
"Okay!" Alec had to literally hop to get off the stool, but he didn't mind. He went to the window and pulled it open about halfway before returning to the bench and half climbing, half hopping back up onto it. He wore short sleeves today, probably the first time he'd ever worn short sleeves around Dark, and while whenever Dark wore short sleeves - or more usually rolled them up - they amplified the muscles in his arms, Alec's sleeves flared out rather unflatteringly around his skinny biceps, making them look even skinnier than they really were. With his incredibly pale skin, if he wore shorts, he'd probably look like a dressed-up Halloween skeleton. He hadn't wanted to get any paint or glue on his sleeves, and, besides, it was just him and Dark in a small shed. No one else would see his lack of muscles or the tiny ring of crescent marks around his upper left bicep. Actually, they were so pale on pale skin, probably no one could see them unless they were looking for the scars.

Alec pulled out a sleeve of car parts and looked them over carefully. "I know they have to, but I fail to see how these go together," he told Dark, mistified.
 
"Here, read through the instructions, it might help to visualize it," Dark said, after rereading the instructions for step one and carefully finding the parts required for it. As expected, his sleeves were rolled up to the elbow, revealing more of his tattoos, with only small gaps where his tanned skin poked through, and even those places seemed intentional, because it was the negative space between pieces. But he didn't really acknowledge Alec's arms, he knew he didn't work out, and only about five months ago he was homeless, so he didn't expect the teen to be secretly ripped.

He turned some of the pieces over in his hand, rubbing bits with his thumb, "Actually, first, we should sand these sharp pieces down from where we cut it from the frame, I think, because otherwise we will only have to do it later." Dark reached into one of his drawers and pulled out a sandpaper he deemed to be about the right grit, and handed it, and one of the pieces, to Alec.
 
Alec read the directions carefully and nodded. Yes, that made more sense. He moved with great care and precision as he laid out the different sections in his part of the bench, checking three times that he had everything where it needed to be before he started sanding the little nubby bits and the sharp edges on the pieces they'd removed. It was surprisingly satisfying work, though as he'd never sanded before, he was a bit clumsy and slipped more than once.

He paused at one point to suck on his finger where he'd lightly caught it with the sandpaper, and looked up at the sketches on the wall. The crib made him curious. How did one rock a round crib? And who was the swan for? It was a beautiful swan. He didn't ask, instead choosing to stay quiet and return to work.
 
Dark quickly glanced over at Alec when he noticed he had stopped for a moment, and was about to ask if he had hurt himself, but then followed his gaze to the sketches, and sighed, turning back to the work. The preparation was a bit mundane, but he knew by then it wasn't a sprint. He could spend hours just prepping a block of wood when he got to carving, and this was nearly the same.

Since Alec was looking at the sketches which were related to the baby and not flinching, Dark took the moment to say, very casually, without looking up, "So, Tarot mentioned Xander wants the baby to be a boy. Do you have a preference?" He knew Alec was more squirmy about the whole thing than his brother, but, Alec managed to look at the crib schematic without immediately excusing himself or pretending it didn't exist, so, hopefully he was slowly becoming more comfortable with the idea.
 
Alec picked up his piece of sandpaper again and started working vigorously, though still carefully. "No, no preference," he said. "I'm sure it will be fine, either way."

He could feel his heartbeat in his ears. Xander had said he wanted a boy. Did that mean Xander was looking forward to this? Was he going to forget Alec, too? No, no, that couldn't be it. Xander would never forget his brother. More likely, he was actually trying to be polite, and he was better at talking about this than Alec was, and Alec knew it.

"Would you drive one of these cars if you could?" he asked, trying to change the subject. He held up the door piece he held and examined it for imperfections. "I think I would give it a try."
 
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