How Green Becomes Wood

"For me? Why?" Daizi asked, confused, and then all at once realized, and stepping back from him, brought her hands up to her chest, "Babe..."

"Happy Mother's Day," Dark said softly, trying to figure out his wife's reaction, "I am making ta'ameya and we have fresh berries, and emmer, and clotted cream with honey, and I already have the kettle going... I wanted to do... something, all things considered. I mean, you are a foster mother, and..." He shrugged, and a slow grin spread across her face as she hugged him again, and kissed his shoulder blade.

"Thank you, Goose, it's really sweet... I didn't expect all of this." She pressed her face into his back because the one thing she hadn't gotten back at the start of her second trimester was stable emotions, and she didn't want her urge to cry to catch everyone's attention.

"Well, you deserve it," He earnestly told her, which made her squeak and press tighter into his back. He didn't want to shoo her off, but he did have to say, "Tarot, darling, you know I adore you, but you know I am working with hot oil, please... I do not wish to burn myself or you."
 
"Daiz, I have a gift for you," Alec said, touching her arm. "I don't know when is the right time to give it to you, so I'm just going to ask, when should I give it to you?"

"My gift was mislaid, so instead, I'm going to skip guitar practice today and give you the gift of silence!" Xander quipped. "Try the berries, they're real good."
 
She turned to Alec with wide eyes, "You got me a present? On Mother's Day?" Her surprise at Dark making her favourite breakfast was enough of a lovely shock, but the fact one of her kids thought to get her something was almost too much, and she couldn't speak for a few seconds because she was really trying to not just immediately begin to sob, "Me?"

She was still clinging to her husband, who had to shimmy around her arms to face her, "How about you go and sit down, okay?"

"No, it's just, you're all being so nice... I mean, Xander, you've really been improving so much, I'm not really all that bothered by your playing and anyway I can always just wear headphones, but the thought of it. Thank you," She allowed herself to be disentangled from Dark and led to a seat, she had barely woken up and was now trying very hard to reorient what she thought the day would be.
 
Xander blushed bright red and ducked his head, embarrassed by the display of emotions. He still hadn't gotten used to it, especially when he was, at least in some small part, the cause of it.

Alec stood beside her and put a hand on her arm so she'd know where he was and asked worriedly, "That is okay, isn't it? I mean, you might not be our actual mother, but you have been incredibly motherly and so kind to us since we arrived. Not to mention, you are a mother to the Tiny Thing! We're just getting a head start until it can give you something other than morning sickness for a gift. And-and-and if you don't like the gift, tonight we're doing dinner. Whatever you want! Whether it's eating in or out." He looked at her, hope mixed with worry. He hadn't fully realized that she'd be anything other than grateful or even expect it, despite what Dark had said. Sometimes a thing was just so expected that the reality didn't sink in until it was hitting you between the eyes.
 
"No, it's okay, it's okay," She assured him, "I just didn't expect it, that's all. I didn't expect it. It's so kind, and I know for a fact whatever the gift is I will love it," She reached out and smoothed his hair, "you are all so wonderful, and I am so happy to have you all in my life."

"Like I said, you deserve it." Dark said and brought her a cup of tea. After setting it down, he kissed the top of her head and was about to return to breakfast, but he couldn't resist pausing and running his hand over Daizi's middle, "How is the baby doing today?"

"I think she's probably very glad everyone else thought to do something and is hoping she can add her name to someone else's gift," She laughed, and then inhaled with a shaky breath, "Oh, I feel silly, I can't stand how emotional I've been."
 
Xander stood up and pointed toward the back of the room. "I'm going to go, uh..." He pointed in the other direction toward the doorway. "Over there to get the thing. The thing I forgot. I'll be right back. After I get the thing." He scooted out quickly to let them get their emotions out of the way. He just needed a bit of space from the sap, that was all.

Alec smiled at Daizi. "She can put her name on mine. I don't mind!" He turned to Dark and asked, "Can I help? With breakfast?"
 
What a change that was from two weeks ago. He was talking about her, which was a change enough, but he was willing to let the little peach-sized thing have symbolic credit for his gift. Sure, it didn't actually mean anything, because it was pretty obvious the baby had nothing to do with whatever present Alec had procured for her, but it felt like it meant something, "I'm sure she is very grateful for that," She took a sip of her tea, "in a month, when she can hear me, I'll be sure to tell her how nice you are to her."

Dark had returned to frying the ta'ameya and he told Alec, "We have clotted cream in the fridge, it would be lovely if you took it out and spooned half of it into a bowl, and then into that bowl, after cleaning the spoon, add slightly less honey, and then mix them together. Then in the pantry we have emmer, so if you could heat it up and cut it into triangles, that would be excellent, thank you." It sounded like a lot of instructions, but it wasn't really hard work. Anyway, he didn't trust either twin with hot oil, yet. They were fifteen, and they was probably old enough, but it didn't really seem like the right day to teach them.

"I am jealous of you three, you know," Daizi sighed, although she was still smiling, "you all get to see her in pictures, I have to wait until she's here."

"But you will get to feel her first, and yours will be the first voice she ever hears."
 
Alec leaned closer on his way back from the refrigerator and whispered, "In truth, the pictures don't look like much. At least not yet. But Dark likes them."

He continued on his way and set himself up at a counter. Clotted cream, check. Honey, check. Emmer, check? At least it looked bread-like. He started with the clotted cream and carefully scooped out half. Then he added slightly more honey and mixed them daintily together, giving it a striped look. He wasn't sure exactly how well he was supposed to mix them, and he was afraid of over mixing the clotted cream, so he mixed it just a little bit more so it didn't look too stripey. Then he took the rest of the clotted cream back to the fridge before trying to cut imperfect bread into perfect triangles.

Xander sauntered back into the kitchen and glanced around. "When's food? I'm hungry."
 
She chuckled when he whispered to her, "I'm told they kind of just look like blobs, but it's still my blob. That's why Dark likes them, it's his blob too." They were really the only way he got to know his babies. All of the previous pregnancies had ended before the fetus was strong enough for him to feel them kick, but he had seen them, and the currently living one, in the sonograms, so he treasured them. For the past pregnancies which had lasted long enough to get images, which wasn't many, he still kept them, neatly labeled and paperclipped together, and sometimes he would sit on the edge of his bed and look through them again.

"It's nearly ready," Dark said. He had noticed Alec add more honey, but it really didn't matter, if the taste was off, they'd just add more of the cream. They were just going to put it on the bread, anyway, so it didn't really matter. When he had finished frying, he brought the plate with the ta'ameya to the table. Individual plates were already sat at the individual places, and after setting it down, he took a moment to say, "...They are green on the inside, do not freak out, it is only the fava beans."
 
Xander gave his a suspicious poke. "It looks like Dr. Suess food," he muttered. He was willing to try it, but he was of the opinion that the only food that should be allowed to be green was lettuce.

"I think it looks fun," Alec responded.

"So, what are the plans for today?" Xander asked, giving his one last poke.
 
"Americans dye their food green on Saint Patrick's day. At least this is a naturally occurring colour," Dark replied. Truly, some days, the most difficult part of having these boys was the vastly different food cultures. When he and Daizi first began cooking for each other, nothing seemed quite as insurmountable as Iraqi versus Egyptian meals, but now that seemed irrelevant.

"I have no idea what the plan is," Daizi said, happily enjoying the food as prepared, "I didn't know today was going to be special."

"What do you want to do?" Dark asked, reaching over to hold her hand.

"I don't know... It's a day meant to celebrate family, right? So... I suppose we should spend it together? I don't know doing what..." She tried to think of something, but her mind had gone entirely blank, and then she turned more to the twins, "We're only celebrating this year because I have both of you with me, so... what would like to do?"
 
"Idiots dye their food, and the Irish folk try not to die laughing," Xander grumbled under his breath. He closed his eyes and started eating. His blind eating was not nearly as graceful as Daizi's, but at least food was making it into his mouth.

"Actually, it's a day to celebrate the hard work and efforts of mother's everywhere and to encourage friendship and good health," Alec told her. "At least, that's the modern interpretation thanks to Lana Jarvis."

"Anna Jarvis," Xander corrected as he tried to stab another forkful.

"Right, Anna Jarvis in 1907. That's when she held a memorial service dedicated to her mother, and inside of seven years, the president made it an official holiday! The carnation is supposed to be the flower symbolizing it. Red and pink for living mothers and white for ones that have, um, passed," Alec told her. "It was celebrated in different forms by different cultures long, long, long before Anna Jarvis, but she's the one who made it what we know today: a day of honor. But then other people started getting miffed and talking about offenses and exclusions and making others feel bad, so they started expanding it to include all women everywhere, but I think that kind of defeats the purpose. Though, I do understand the idea of feeling excluded."

"Hey, Mini Prof, are you going to lecture, or are you going to eat?" Xander demanded, waving his fork.

Alec made a face at him. "At least I'm not trying to eat with my eyes closed so I don't have to see green food."

"I don't like green!" Xander protested. "It makes me think of that bread I ate back in third grade."

Alec shuddered, paling a little at the memory. "That... that was not a good day."
 
"The holiday has a different history in my country," Daizi mused, "but my land dates back to the Ancient World, and in Ancient Egypt they had Isis, the goddess of healing and mourning and magic, a more powerful sorceress than all of the other deities, and she was married to Osiris, who at the time was King of Egypt, and was later known as the god of Death and Rebirth, but he was murdered and his body thrown wide, and she searched the land to recover all of his pieces, which she more or less all found, she might have been missing one, and resurrected him and bore him a son, Horus, who she fiercely protected and raised to avenge his father..." She sighed, it was one of her favourite stories, and it wasn't difficult to see why she had an appreciation for the goddess, "but, anyway, since she was seen as this paragon for Egyptian women and mothers to strive towards, so celebrating her festival was sort of like Mother's Day. And then, you know, in the 1940s Nasser made it an official holiday more like what you have, I just like to think about the first one."

Dark watched her lovingly as she explained her story, and then asked, "Why have we never set out white carnations for your mother?"

"Because colours mean nothing to me... But, you know, it's sort of weird to be celebrating today... I never had a mother growing up, so the day was always weird for that reason, and then..." She shrugged her shoulders lightly and ran her hands down her baby bump, "I had been told for so long that I'd never be a mother, or any kind of maternal figure, so for pretty much all of my life it's been a day I've tried to pretend doesn't exist... and now everybody is being so nice, I don't know how to handle it. And I really understand everyone who just wishes it was a day to celebrate women of all sorts."
 
"Well," Alec said slowly, "what you think matters more than what we think, but I think, for what it's worth, that te babies you lost, I think they counted. That you are a mother. But if you don't count that, I understand."

"And if you're willing to count it, I guess you could say we're close enough," Xander added, raising his cup to salute her. "You're mother enough for us, or near abouts."

Alec smiled and raised his cup to her. "To you, Daizi! For being a fantastic maternal personage."
 
She paused for a very long time, trying to figure out if she wanted to voice the thought in her head, especially so early during the day, while they ate the meal her husband had so carefully and tenderly prepared for her, but ultimately couldn't refrain from saying, "They are all my children... our children... but it's hard to celebrate, to want to do anything, when all you have are ghosts with a negative age." She leaned towards Dark in the same moment he was reaching out to her. She had unwittingly quoted the song from that album she had told Xander to skip over, although perhaps if she had realized, she could have reminded herself the following line was, turn the page, it's okay. Dark understood perfectly well how she was feeling, because he had gone through many father's days struggling with the same burden.

Although he was perfectly content to allow her to sit in her emotion for as long as she needed, he did, after seeing the twins, tell her, "They are raising their glasses to you, Spider."

Even though all of those events of her past hurt, and always would, hearing what the twins said, and about what they did, she still smiled, and after taking a breath, raised her head, "Thank you. I am very, very happy to get to be your approximate maternal figure, and you are wonderful... filial personages," she took shy bites of the emmer bread, with the cream-and-honey mixture spread over it, "It's far too early to be sad about anything. Good god, it's not even noon," She forced herself to laugh, and then patting her belly said, "You, behave."

"I think she will be hearing that a lot."

"She's already got it out for me, I'm telling you," She said, and then laughed for real.
 
"You know, certain Asian cultures start counting age while within the womb," Alec remarked thoughtfully.

Xander glared at him. "That is weird that you know that and how? Can't you just eat your ember bread and enjoy the over-honeyed clotted cream like the rest of us?"

"It's emmer bread," Alec sniffed.

Xander replied by sticking a piece of bread into Alec's mouth, making him squeak in shock and indignity. "Daizi, why don't you go to a spa or something? Get a massage? Nails? Feet? That's what girls like to do to be pampered, right? Or if you want to do the whole family thing, we can take a walk. Or we can leave you and the professor here for some nice quiet alone time."
 
"Speaking of that actually," Dark said, referring to Xander's suggestion they have some alone time, "I was going to offer, for my gift to you today, that we go away for the weekend, just the two of us, as one last trip before the baby comes." He hoped it wouldn't be weird for the twins to hear his plan, but to be fair, if she agreed to it, they'd have to learn about the trip sometime.

The look on Daizi's face hearing it certainly seemed to suggest she approved of the idea, "What, really?" They still, somewhat regularly, went on dates, although those had pretty much stopped when her morning sickness had been so bad, but since bringing the twins home that December day, they hadn't had even a full day to themselves.

"I thought it would be nice, I did not plan anything specific, because I did not know when you would feel most up to it, or where exactly you would like to go, but... Well, we did not have one last day as just the two of us before bringing Alec and Xander home, so I thought we should do something before there is five of us living here." He still had his arm around her, and he couldn't help but smile in his own way as she sat beaming up at him.

"I think you're the sweetest man alive," She told him, and although Dark had been trying to gross Xander out less often with his devotion to his spouse, he was too full of love for her to resist kissing her. What else could he have done, when she was giving him that face? And she smiled even bigger afterwards and thanked him--for promising to whisk her away, of course. And then, after drinking a bit of her tea, turned back to the twins, and at last said, "Getting my nails done hasn't ever really been for me, it's kind of just paying a stranger to fondle my hands and feet in a room that smells strange, but I might take a nice bath later... but until then a nice walk with everyone sounds lovely."

"We can go to the botanical garden," Dark suggested, "the flowers should all be blooming by now."
 
Xander shuddered at their display, making a face at it. "You two," he grumbled.

"A full weekend?" Alec asked, looking faintly worried. "That sounds like a nice trip. We can stay here, right?"

"It's not like we're kids, Alec, we'll be fine for the weekend," Xander told him.

Alec nodded. "Oh, I know that. I'm not worried about the staying. I'm worried about the potential leaving. I'd rather stay here."
 
"I think we will just allow you to stay here," Dark said, "we trust you, and no offense but I doubt we need to worry about either of you throwing a wild party while we are away, and you both lived on your own, on the street, so I am not afraid that you will harm yourself. Although we will need to leave you instructions on how to care for Enkidu, the rats, and Neith."

Daizi nodded, agreeing with Dark saying it is fine for them to stay home alone, and then chewed on her bottom lip, "It might be too soon to bring this up, considering it is many months away, but at some point we need to talk about where you would like to be when I give birth." She had paused for a few seconds before finishing her sentence, because she was trying to think if there was a suitable euphemism, but she could only really think of the big event or the prison break and neither exactly seemed better than simply being direct. She didn't plan on having that conversation yet, but considering Alec's concerns about leaving their house, she decided it was better to know what they wanted early, not only so the right preparations could be made but so Alec had time to adjust to the idea of being away from home for a little bit, if they decided they didn't want to be in their house while she was in labour. And she recalled how during their hike, she had suggested on going on vacation the next year, but he quickly said he wasn't comfortable with that idea, so the anxieties seemed to run deep, which really suggested they needed to get the plans in place early.
 
"Still never met Neith," Xander remarked under his breath.

Alec shifted in his seat, his gaze flickering away from Daizi, a troubled look crossing his face at the mention of the birth. He took a deep breath and remained seated, but it took him a bit to turn back to Daizi. "Are you sure you want to have it here?" he asked softly despite having heard and understood all of the reasons why she wanted to. "Is it safe?"

"So unsanitary," Xander said, shuddering unhappily. He pushed away his breakfast, no longer hungry. "No way do I want to be here. We can be anywhere else. I know a great place at the park we can hang out at. How about we just go there?"
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top