How Green Becomes Wood

She paused, hesitating slightly, "When I was little, we'd be at our massive family events and I'd hear my cousins be called by the aunts to smile and my name was never called as often. And I'd hear my aunts going through the pictures after they were developed, and they'd be saying, 'Oh look, Eman looks so pretty,' or, 'Tariq looks so handsome, fathers will have you keep a close eye on their daughters when he grows up,' and they'd say very little about me. I'd be in the group pictures and everything, but that was it, really." She shrugged, "And I know I can't look at the camera."
 
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"Sounds more like an aunty problem than a you problem," Xander shrugged. "You're not that bad, and I thought kids were supposed to be automatically cute. Anyway, food's getting cold." Unlike Alec, Xander didn't see Daizi as being beautiful, but neither did he see what the big deal was. Lots of people looked weird. She just looked a specific type of weird, and really wasn't that bad when you got used to it.

Alec was currently trying and failing to use chopsticks to pick up a single grain of rice. Tiny pieces of rice littered around his spot at the table represented his efforts.
 
"I think I was worse as a kid because it was before I had braces... But, yes, you should go eat, I have to change first." She smiled, and stepped to the side to make sure she didn't bump into him again before going upstairs.

Dark was watching Alec struggle and was holding up his chopsticks, "No, Alec, you are not holding them right... Only the top one moves, like this, see?" He couldn't help but laugh good naturedly, "Pinch the top one between your pointer finger and your thumb, keep the bottom one perfectly still."
 
Xander returned to the kitchen and plopped into a chair. Just in time to get hit in the arm by a flying piece of rice. "What the? What the heck is happening?" he demanded in bewilderment.

Alec frowned and tried to do as Dark said. "Why do two wooden sticks feel like they are alive when I hold them?" he grumbled. The sticks wobbled precariously, jerking this way and that as he tried to get them to behave.
 
"I am trying to teach your brother to use chopsticks. It--" He dodged another grain of rice, "is not going well." Still, despite this, Dark weirdly looked like he was in a good mood, despite the mess of his kitchen. Never had he learned to be silly, but he appreciated Alec's genuine effort.

"It just takes time and practice." He said to Alec, reaching out to gently adjust Alec's grip. He set out the orange chicken in front of the twin, "Try on something larger, it might be easier."
 
Alec bit his tongue and carefully tried to pick up the orange nugget in front of it. He got a decent grip, the wooden sticks pressing into the sides of the chicken, and lifted it slowly. It wobbled a little, but he still managed to keep hold as he lifted it up.

"I did it!" he cried triumphantly.

Then his concentration slipped, and the chopsticks twisted, sending the orange chicken somersaulting sideways to land in front of Xander with a splat. Alec sighed, crestfallen.

"Thanks, that's the fanciest delivery I've seen in a long time," Xander said, picking up the piece. He popped it in his mouth and said, "At least you didn't hit my arm that time."

Alec couldn't help laughing. "Maybe I'll invent a new sport by accident!"
 
"It is okay," Dark replied, laughing in his own subdued way, "you will get it next time." It really had been a fun few hours just the three of them. He was, for his part, a quiet and serious man, and it never occurred to him to outright say, 'this has been nice,' to them, but it had been, and he thought quietly to himself how he was glad summer was come, because it meant he would have more time with them, without having to worry about work or grades, "I think I am running out of things to have you try, though. Everything else might be too large."

He looked around, and then up at Xander with smiling eyes, "You should try, too."
 
Xander looked at Dark, and a spark twinkled in his eyes. "Yeah, alright," he agreed. He took a single chopstick, took aim, and stabbed an orange chicken piece. "There we go, right through the heart!" He flipped the chopstick around and delivered the orange chicken piece right to his mouth. "This is pretty good."

"Hey, that's not fair!" Alec protested. "You're supposed to pinch them, not stab them!"

"Says who?" Xander challenged.

Alec pointed to the rice. "Says the things you can't actually stab. I bet you can't do better than me."

Xander made a face but picked up the chopsticks. Having recently seen Dark instruct Alec, he was able to get the grip a lot closer on his first try. He aimed for the chicken again and tried to pick it up. He twisted too much in his pinching action, so instead of getting pinched evenly, the chicken piece ended up spinning in place, slowly getting more mangled with each attempt.
 
Dark watched Xander spin the chicken with mock solemnity, and eventually, for reasons he could not understand, laughed. Not to an absurd, wild, uncontrollable degree, but maybe a bit harder than usual. It was, he believed, the concentration on Xander's face and the slow consistent desecration of the piece of chicken as it helplessly spun, "Just up and down, like you are pinching," He said, and then demonstrated, gently lifting a piece of chicken, "You are going to the side. Imagine it is just an extension of your hand."
 
The laugh startled them both, and the twins glanced at Dark, but only for a moment before quickly regaining themselves. Alec grinned as he watched Xander spin it around.

"It's not so easy, is it?" he teased.

Xander growled but finally managed to get a successful pinch on one edge of the poor, tormented chicken piece. He held it up, and the piece slowly started stretching out almost like it was unraveling. There wasn't much left that resembled tasty orange chicken any longer. Xander quickly shoved it in his mouth before it could completely disintegrate and raised his fist in victory. Alec clapped exuberantly for him, laughing as he did so.
 
Without the slightest hint of mockery in his voice, Dark said, "Well done. It only takes practice. You will get better."

Not too long after, Daizi rejoined them. She had changed into one of Dark's t-shirts, some black shirt with illegible text for a band nobody had ever heard of. Thankfully, most of Dark's t-shirts fit him awkwardly, which was part of why he seldomly wore them, because in order to fit his chest and shoulders, and be long enough for his torso, they were baggy through the waist, which made them perfect for his pregnant wife. She also had on, peeking out just barely below the hem of the shirt, a pair of cotton shorts. Secretly, the drawstring was undone, but nobody would know.

"Are you feeling better, darling?" Dark asked as she hugged him from behind as a greeting, like she often did when he was cooking.

"Mostly, I'm starving. I've been thinking about this all day," She kissed his cheek and sat down, "and next time we should get sushi."

Dark looked at her as he helped to prepare her a plate, since she didn't know where everything was, "But you cannot have sushi."

"No, I know," She nodded, taking the plate and a pair of chopsticks, "but you can."
 
"We're learning chopsticks!" Alec told Daizi proudly. "Xander got a piece, but I haven't managed yet. Oh, watch out for loose rice. Why can't you have sushi?"

"It probably has to do with certain conditions," Xander said. He took a single chopstick and stabbed a piece of chicken, taking a bit of relish in stabbing it harder than strictly necessary. He popped it into his mouth.

Alec, for his part, set about trying valiantly to get a chicken piece properly pinched and picked up.
 
"The mercury content can harm the baby, and there is also a risk of bacteria and parasites. Only one parasite allowed, you understand. I also cannot have deli meats, soft cheeses, patés, and about a thousand other things," She frowned, almost amused at the massive list, "I also am not allowed within a hot tub, wet paint, and I'm supposed to avoid both sitting too long and standing too long."

Dark smoothed her hair, "At least not getting to be around wet paint means you do not have to help paint the nursery."

"Goose, I'm blind, I wouldn't have helped regardless. I'm not even allowed to snuggle our sweet little rats anymore," She sighed heavily, and began eating her food, not struggling at all with the chopsticks. After eating a little bit her mood brightened, "It's good you're learning to use them, though, I'm sure you'll manage to get something soon!"
 
Xander and Alec stared at Daizi as she listed out everything she couldn't and shouldn't do. It never seemed to end!

"How the hell does the human race manage to survive?" Xander demanded, somewhat repulsed. "And how did people figure out all the does and do nots?"

"What if you are on an island country like Japan where they eat sushi all the time?" Alec asked.

"Or like a Germanic country where they are all about meats and cheeses and milk?" Xander asked.
 
"They suffer, I guess." Daizi replied with a sincere note of tragedy in her voice.

"I am sure there are other foods they can eat," Dark slowly suggested, trying to figure out if this was a safe comment to make. Daizi wasn't normally too angry about these things, but since she was moody enough about it to list everything that was forbidden he didn't want to take risks, "Most fish, when cooked, are acceptable within reasonable amounts, and only soft cheeses are forbidden, hard ones are allowed."

"I'm also not supposed to dye my hair. And like, I don't dye my hair anyway, but it still feels insane." She sighed, "Oh well, in less than a month I'll be halfway done. This week I hit seventeen weeks, and the baby reaches the size of a pomegranate, which I think is adorable," a thought suddenly occured to her, and she whipped around to Dark, clutching his arm, "Babe, next Halloween, we should go as Hades and Persephone and dress the baby up like a little dog, and then the twins could dress up like little dogs, and then they could be Ceberus! How cute would that be? Although Enkidu might be offended since he actually is a dog. I wish I was due in October so we could have the little bitty baby on Halloween."
 
Xander and Alec glanced at each other. Xander reached up and casually pretended to scratch his head on the side Alec was sitting on so only Alec could see the tiny circular motion Xander made with his index finger. In Xander's opinion, Daizi had lost it and slipped into a moment of temporary (hopefully) insanity. Alec looked away and focused on his food, not wanting to agree, but it was hard not to with Daizi talking about dressing them all up as dogs. Not to mention, the size gap between the twins and the baby was going to mean that "Cerberus" would have one severely undersized head.

"This rice is really good," Alec said, hoping to change the subject a little. "And the chicken. This stuff is really tasty."

"What is this?" Xander asked, poking a spring roll with the back end of his chopstick, not the pointy bit. "It looks like some sort of hot dog? Is it a really weird corn dog?"
 
"Or," Daizi chirped, "We could dress up the baby like a little pomegranate, and then the twins could dress up like the dogs and Enkidu would be the third head, it'd be so cute!"

"No we cannot do that," Dark said, a bit firmly, "that would make it look like we view them on the same level as our dog. We do not."

She sighed, agreeing with him now that it had been pointed out to her, "We've got over a year to figure it out. I have no idea what we'll do this Halloween, I can't even imagine how big I'll be then. Or how we'll get a costume in advance that will still fit by the Holiday."

Gently, Dark brought her hand to his lips, and in a calming voice promised her, "We will figure it out," then he turned to Xander and said, "That is a spring roll. It is full of vegetables and, I think, chicken. Normally they are made with pork but we do not eat that."
 
"Ugh, veggies," Xander groaned.

"I thought you liked veggies," Alec said, attempting and failing to pick up te heavy roll with his chopsticks.

"They look boiled," Xander replied, whose only real exposure to boiled veggies were the type where the flavor, texture, and life had been boiled out of them until they were nothing more than limp, tasteless mush.

Alec gave up and picked one up with his fingers. "Mmm, no, I think you'll like these," he mumbled around a mouthful. "These are good!"

Xander decided to give one a try and nibbled cautiously through the thin, paperlike breading and into the filling. "Huh. These are pretty good," he admitted.
 
"Everything they have at this place is delicious," Daizi agreed, but she had recently come to the opinion that everything was delicious, "You should try it with the duck sauce. It's so good."

"Duck sauce is the orange one. And it is not made of duck, I think it is mostly plum and apricot." Dark explained.

"Also..." Daizi said, sheepishly, "I'm sorry I didn't call to ask what any of you wanted. I was just hit with this deep longing for it and only told Dark after ordering. Next time I'll call first." She laughed at herself, genuinely embarrassed.

But near the end of the dinner, she sat up a bit straighter, and said, "So, we've been meaning to ask... now that I can feel the baby move, so I know she's alive in there, we wanted to ask if you'd like to go to one of the doctor's appointments. You're both welcome to, although, you don't both have to go," She paused for a moment, and in the pause it was clear she was letting Xander know she knew he wouldn't want to go, and that it was okay, "and you don't have to decide now. But you're welcome to come with--our doctor says our next appointment will likely be when we know if she's actually a she."
 
Neither Xander nor Alec minded that she hadn't called. Food was food, and they were used to having whatever was available. Being able to actually request a craving was still new to them. They happily polished off their fair share food and settled down to comparing fortunes from the cookies.

Xander tensed and looked slightly panicked at the idea of going to a doctor's appointment concerning the baby, but Alec brightened.

"Are you sure you want to find out?" Alec grinned. "Aren't surprises more fun? I want to go either way! I want to see what it's like."

"Do they have chairs outside the exam room?" Xander asked queezily.
 
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