How Green Becomes Wood

Dark grumbled a bit, still stressed by the existence of Daizi's father. No one ever made him feel quite as insecure, and if he ever took the time to really examine why, he would understand it bothered him so much because he really did want her father to recognize that he was fully devoted and loyal to her. And he was worried that Saladin would begin to view him not only as a terrible husband but a terrible father, and even though he knew he wasn't, at least, not the former. The jury was still out on the latter. He looked over at the twins and then whispered something to his wife.

"I was thinking," She said immediately after, "after we eat, maybe we should go home. I've only recently begun getting my energy back, it's probably a bad idea to push it."
 
Alec instantly turned ro Daizi, a frown of concern on his face. "Oh dear. I hope you are feeling alright. Yes, we should definitely not stress your body!"

Xander stretched and stood. "It's not like the flowers are going anywhere, right? We can come back next weekend for more looking and sniffing, if you want."
 
Daizi smiled, waving off Alec's concerns, "I'm perfectly alright. I'm not even tired, I just want to be cautious. And you both have school tomorrow, and the talent show the next day, I'm sure you'd like time to rehearse. We can talk about coming back next weekend, but I don't want to cut into your Spring Break too much."

"I wait all semester for Spring break," Dark sighed, leaning back in his chair, "I will mostly just be grading but at least I will not have to be in that building."
 
Xander gave Dark a sideways look. "It takes you All of Spring Break to grade? Just how much homework do you give?"

"I don't remember that much homework," Alec mused. "But I guess it's what I got times... how many kids are in that class?"

"More than I'd like," Xander grumbled.
 
"You only had me for one class, I teach six," Dark replied, "about half of those classes have exams before break and the other half have essays due, because I do everything in my power to not assign homework over break. My gift to you all is my own personal suffering."

"Well, darling, I'll be sure to distract you often and with great relish, so you do not suffer endlessly." She kissed his cheek, and whispered something only he could make out.

Sitting back in his seat and taking a long look at her, Dark at last said, a smirk only barely pulling at the corner of his mouth, "I was unaware I needed to amuse you as well."

"I get jealous, you all get a break, I still have to go to work." She teased, but forgot all about it when at last their food was brought to the table. She really did feel absolutely famished, and was thrilled when Dark revealed he had ordered her a pastry in addition to her sandwich.
 
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Xander rolled his eyes at the pair and made a face. Those two love birds! So weird and touchy-feely. Didn't they know PDA was gross? Oh well, at least they got food.

Alec blushed and looked away, but wasn't as offended as Xander. Just uncomfortable. He was used to their touchy ways in private, but it was odd in public. At least, to him it was. He tried to ignore it and turned his attention to his sandwich.

"I can't wait for Spring Break!" Xander groaned. "It's going to be warm enough to head outside more! That leather stinks when I work with it in the house."
 
"I know it does," Daizi replied, crinkling her nose, "I don't know why you insist on being inside rather than going out into Dark's shed. I'm sure there is space."

"It is not without space, but we would have to entirely renovate it to be equipped for full leather working. And it will have even less soon, temporarily, I have some larger projects I will start working on soon. I got the call this morning the wood is finally available to be picked up." Dark said, and Daizi frowned slightly. He had yet to tell her what these 'larger projects' were, and even though she liked surprises, and even though most of the time when he was evasive about something he was working on, it meant he was making something for her, but projects, plural, and ones outside of his usual scale where just a bit too suspicious.
 
"I don't use it because that's his space," Xander told her. "I don't want him in my room, why would I mess around in his shed? It'll be fine in the driveway or back porch or something."

"The back porch would be better so that roving bands of youth cannot steal your things," Alec pointed out.

"I didn't think that was a major problem," Xander said dryly.

"It isn't until there's a reason!"

Xander stared at him. "I don't even know what that means."
 
Both adults smiled to varying degrees hearing Xander refer to it as his room. It was, of course, and it might have just been semantics, but to them it sounded like he had really settled in, "Wherever you're comfortable, I guess. Just make sure it's ventilated, I don't know what sorts of illness you'd develop from those fumes."

"Speaking of your room," Dark added, once more bringing up a topic he had occasionally broached before, "if you both ever want to change the colours or add something, I am willing to help with that. We designed it to feel neutral, but since it is yours, you are entirely allowed to personalize it to your liking."
 
Alec's eyes lit up. "Can I put a mural on the wall? I'd love to do some kind of mural or focal wall or whatever those are called. Can it be any color?"

Xander shrugged. "I don't really care, so if Alec wants to, sure. Why not? Might be fun. As long as it doesn't take you forever and a day."

Alec shook his head. "I'll decide and get everything sorted out before I start, and I'll try to keep it as short as I can. May I?"
 
He nodded, "Sure, if you would like to. And I do not have any colour restrictions, a lot of people will say not to use black because it is hard to paint over which damages the resell value but..."

"Nobody who would buy our house would have an issue with black walls," Daizi laughed, "and it's not like we'd ever sell it while we both live, so it's not really our problem anyway."

"I would like to help, or at least help to tape everything properly, just to be sure paint does not get on the ceiling or the hardwood, but besides that do as you will. Once you have a plan, I can take you to get paint."
 
Alec let out a tiny squeal of joy and wiggled in his seat a little. "Thank you! This will be so much fun! I will do my best to make it as clean and neat and precise as possible!"

"What are we painting?" Xander asked curiously.

"I have no idea yet," Alec told him. He frowned briefly. "May I paint the ceiling? Wait, no, you just said I mayn't. Sorry. No ceiling. But there's nearly four full walls to play with!"
 
"Well, there is painting the ceiling," He scratched his beard, "and there is ugly splotches on the ceiling. So I think it really depends on what you want to do, but remember you still have to sleep in the room at night, so I would be cautious about undertaking too much at once." Alec had really gone from wanting a mural or an accent wall to re-doing the entire room, and Dark didn't have a desire to limit him, since he knew what it was like to finally have a place he had control over, but also paint was expensive.

"Hmmm..." Daizi hummed, smiling peacefully as she finished her meal, "we'll be renovating two rooms at once." It seemed almost fitting. The twins were feeling more and more like they were hers, and the baby was hers, so having their rooms be set up near to each other sort of... made sense.

"Not exactly at once, we have not begun to even speak of possible themes yet." Dark corrected.
 
Alec smiled sheepishly, properly subdued, and nodded. "I'll try to come up with a simple plan before getting too excited, and I'll show you my plans."

"With two of us working on the room, it shouldn't take too long," Xander said, tensing only a little.

Alec nodded. "And we'll keep it simple."
 
"I will be glad to see your plans, and you do not have to worry, unless you want to put something crude or hate-filled on the wall, which I doubt, it is not like I am going to reject it. I want you both to feel comfortable in your space," He didn't want them to feel like he was immediately dampening their plans, but he also didn't want them to jump to something too extreme or labor intensive, considering painting a room was a lot of work, "and you can think about--in addition to, not in the place of--painting the inside of the windowsill a different colour. If you do the accent wall or mural on the wall without windows, adding the main colour of the mural on the windowsills on the opposite wall would bring the colour throughout the room, while also saving you time. I would have done it throughout our house, but it did not really fit the aesthetic we were going for, but your bedroom does not have such limitations."

Daizi finished her lunch, and then said, "You'll have to really describe your plan to me, though. I want to know what the finished product looks like, I can't just walk in and be impressed, although I'm sure I would be."
 
"Impressed by the smell of damp paint and no dirty laundry?" Xander smirked. He stretched and picked up his area. "So, ready to head home?"

"I need to look at some library books on indoor art, and maybe browse the interwebs for such spiders," Alec mused. "I have something of an idea, but I'm not certain. I need visual stimuli!" He hastily cleaned up his spot, and the twins carted their trash and anything Dark and Daizi had to the nearest bin while Alec continued musing out loud about his ideas.
 
"I mean I would be impressed if I could see it, since I can't, honestly, you could perfectly replicate the Sistine chapel in that bedroom and I would react the exact same as if spray painted a smiley face on the wall," She laughed, "but, I'm glad you will both have something to keep you occupied over break, now, there are few things as dangerous as a restless teen."

As they left the café, the baby--the actual, birthed one--began to cry for reasons unrelated to them, and it was the first time Daizi learned they were there at all. She hesitated briefly, turning slightly towards the sound, and then gripped Dark's arm a bit too tightly and hurried off. For a long time, that sound only reminded her of what she thought she would never have, and now she didn't know how it made her feel, so she just wanted to be away from it.

Then they all went to the car, prepared to drive home after their day out.
 
Xander slouched down in his seat, eyes closed, glad to be away from the flowers. All of the different scents were starting to make his nose itch. Not badly, but enough to be uncomfortable, and since he was already restless, it was starting to make him cranky. He felt a little better in the car with his eyes closed, on the way to somewhere else. Somewhere familiar. Somewhere that felt like home.

Alec leaned against the car door staring out the window. He felt oddly anxious deep inside. It was almost like an itchy feeling. He, too, was glad to be going somewhere, even if it was just home. It was a new place to be. He wondered briefly if Daizi would be doing something else so he could listen to music without feeling guilty for not giving her attention on her special day.
 
On the ride home, Daizi put on music as she almost always did, but wasn't singing along this time. Even though she wasn't really tired, or thought she wasn't, anyway, once they were in the car it did make her a bit sleepy, which she supposed was normal. It took a lot of energy to grow a person. And with the music down low, she could listen through it to the sounds of everyone else in the car. One of the twins was bouncing their leg, it sounded like, and they weren't speaking. Dark murmured to himself occasionally, mostly small criticisms of other drivers. She chuckled when instead of getting angry after seeing a semi-truck run a red light, he, in Arabic, muttered what translated to 'you are a bad truck.' He was so adorable. She knew that she was married to him, and everything, and literally pregnant with his child, but it was little moments where he said something stupid like that which made her realize she still absolutely had a crush on him. It was sort of embarrassing.

When they finally made it home, she stretched getting out of the car, "I think I might go lie down for an hour, I didn't think I'd be tired, but I am a little bit."
 
"See you at dinner," Xander said, instantly heading inside. He went up to his room to fetch his leather stuff, intending to take it to the back porch and work for a while.

Alec lingered long enough to make certain she didn't need anything and followed Xander up. He intended to fetch his music and look through online photos for a while and maybe think about the plan for their room.
 
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