How Green Becomes Wood

Dark reached one arm behind him to try to hug her while still cooking. It was awkward because of the angle, but it was enough to make her smile, "the kitchen smells weird," Daizi murmured.

"That is because I am cooking dinner at the same time as Xander is frosting cupcakes," Dark explained, which let Daizi know for the first time that it wasn't just the two of them alone in the room.

"Oh, hi Xander," She said, begrudgingly releasing her husband so she could be more engaged with her son, "how was school?"
 
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"Oh, habibi," Daizi laughed, "you sound just like how Dark did when we were in high school."

"Okay--" Dark began, but then stopped himself and turned back to his cooking.

This was very much to Daizi's pleasure, "I told you from the first day that you two are a lot alike. And work was fine, I'm just tired. How's Alec? It's weird he hasn't come around yet. I know I just got home, but I've gotten used to him and Enkidu meeting me at the door, it doesn't feel the same just meeting one of them."
 
Xander shrugged, not looking at Daizi even though she couldn't see him. "I think he was kind of stressed. Maybe he fell asleep or something. Listening to music and lost track of time." The house was definitely not looking like a house. Oh well.
 
"That's understandable," Daizi replied, although she wasn't totally sure if she believed it. Regardless of if it was true or not, it seemed like he need space, and she'd give it willingly.

Dark finished up dinner and set it out to cool, "There has been a lot of stress going around lately."

"Well that's nothing new for us," Daizi said. Despite her evident exhaustion, she didn't seem to be in a bad mood, "but we've all survived it before. I'm sure we'll all turn the corner before we know it."
 
Xander said nothing more and finished decorating. He had just barely enough frosting to cover them all, and the last was a few scraggly pieces. He saved that one for himself, put the black rose at Dark's spot, the red rose at Alec's, and set the other two aside to take to school. The rest he packaged up and mumbled something about either Dark taking them to the teacher's lounge or Daizi taking them to work or both.

Just as dinner was being set on the table, Alec came tromping down. He gave Daizi a winning smile and chirped, "Welcome home!"
 
"Hey, sweetheart," Daizi replied, surprised by his good mood but gladdened by it, "How are you? I heard you seemed stressed earlier. And thank you for the cupcakes, Xander. I'll gladly take some of them to work, but not to share with my coworkers. I'm going to keep them in my office and probably eat ten in an hour. And nobody is allowed to criticise me for that."
 
"As long as you have a cool place to store them," Xander shrugged, not really minding what she did with them but pleased she seemed happy to have them.

Alec didn't hurry over to hug Daizi as he normally did, choosing instead to just sit at his normal place and touch her arm briefly. "I'm alright. I feel better now. Xander, these cupcakes look amazing! As do the... cake lollipops?" He studied the cake balls on a stick curiously.

"Cake pops," Xander supplied. "Good for failed cupcakes."

"Oh, cool."
 
Daizi noticed the lack of a hug, and tried not to look disappointed. It was good practice, she thought, for learning how quickly kids grew up. Alec had been living with her for less than a year, and already... "I have a mini-fridge in my office, they'll be alright."

"There was a period of time where they became extremely popular," Dark explained, nodding towards the cake pops, "I do not know why. But it is a useful thing to know to make, I suppose. And Xander did an excellent job decorating the cupcakes. Yours has a spider on it, darling. Mine has a black rose and Alec has a red one."

"Aw, really? Oh, I want to touch it but I don't want to ruin it!"

"Well you are going to eat it..."

"I know, but it's acceptable to ruin frosting by eating it," Daizi said, "but I am glad you are feeling better, habibi. You deserve to be happy."
 
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Alec flushed a little but hid it behind a smile. "Thank you, Daizi. Anyway, we should eat before it gets cold, and then we can have surprise cupcakes!"

"You can touch the frosting before you eat it,' Xander told Daizi. "It might stain your fingers a little, though, but it is kind of, sort of hard on the outside. At least not fully soft."
 
"I won't be able to see the stains anyway, so that doesn't bother me," Daizi remarked, "and it'd be really damn hypocritical if it bothered Dark."

"It would not bother me. What will bother me is if you let the dinner I worked so hard on get cold," he replied, shoving her plate closer to her.

"Oh please, like I'm not going to eat. I bet you're all excited tomorrow is Friday, I'm sure the adjustment to being back in school is terrible. I never get breaks like that with my job, so I hardly remember." Daizi commented, trying to make conversation. It was a bit tricky, since neither boy was being all that forthcoming about how their day had actually gone, and she wasn't dumb, she could feel how fragile the peace was. So she tried to talk around it, seeking some conversation they could really find amicable.
 
"I'm thinking of dropping out and getting a job," Xander announced, making Alec choke on his bite. "There's jobs like welding and junk that don't need high school diplomas."

"That's new," Alec remarked, making a face.

Xander shrugged. "Just a thought. It'd be a heck of a lot less exhausting than real school. But, eh, I'm not really that serious."
 
Both Dark and Daizi froze at Xander's announcement, "Don't drop out," Daizi said, "your education is important."

"You do not need to go to college, but you need to finish high school," Dark continued, "if you want to be a welder, you would make more money if you got your high school degree and then went to trade school," he sat up straighter, and glowed with the sort of pride that only comes with being an immigrant parent from a less developed country as he said, "You understand how important education is, yes? I got lucky, getting to go to the boarding school I did. Most people from my background? They are lucky to survive, that is why my family was so poor, they did not have an education. You should not waste what you are so lucky to have been guaranteed--A full education, for free, from five years old to eighteen? That is unbelievable where I am from, I knew adults who had never been taught to read!"

As he spoke, Daizi leaned towards the twins and asked, "Do you want to see a magic trick?" Then she grabbed Dark's hand and brought it to her belly.

Immediately, Dark fell silent, his concentration broken by the now-stronger taps against his palm that never ceased to amaze him. Daizi leaned her shoulders forward in a mock bow: her trick was complete.
 
Xander flashed a sudden grin. "That's a pretty fine trick," he told Daizi. "Nice." He didn't even care what, exactly, it was that had made Dark stop talking. It was just cool how quickly she'd stopped him. "Yeah, I'll finish school. No promises on college."

Alec smiled as well and secretly slipped a good portion of his dinner onto Xander's plate before he continued eating. "I might go to college, maybe, I suppose, but I would want to be absolutely certain I know what I'd want to do first."
 
"Thank you. It's a shame we only have a few more months of it working." Daizi replied slyly, which made Dark sit back up and roll his eyes.

"I was making an important point, you know," He said, although he did not withdraw his hand. After a second's pause, he said, "she knows."

"And your point worked, babe," Daizi sparkled, leaning in to give Dark a reconciliatory kiss on the cheek, "he's staying in school. Fi sihtuk!" He eyed her suspiciously but decided he wasn't annoyed. They both knew he would react the exact same way after the baby was born if someone put her into his arms, "You don't have to know exactly what you want to do when you go into college," Daizi eventually said, "plenty of people change their minds half a dozen times. I did, it's not something you can plan for."
 
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Alec cleaned off his plate and stood, plate in hand. "Well, I should probably head to my room. There's... homework and things to do."

"No dessert?" Xander asked. "Fine, I'll eat it." He started reaching for the cupcake.

Alec snatched it away from Xander and took a bite. He paused and gave the cupcake an appraising look. "This is quite good," he told his brother. "A little icing heavy, but good, and the icing thing is more of a personal preference."

Xander smirked and rapidly cleaned off his plate before standing up to help clean up the dishes and the kitchen.
 
"I feel like I've hardly gotten to speak to you today," Daizi said when Alec was hurrying off, "oh, but that's alright. It's always hard to adjust to the new semester." She stood up and brought her plate to the sink, tired but in an independent mood, "I'm very excited to try your cupcakes, Xander. It was a very nice surprise, thank you."

"He has some good coping skills," Dark remarked, a quiet note of pride in his voice. The days of him lashing out at others when he was struggling with his emotions seemed past.

Daizi nodded, similarly impressed by how (it seemed), Xander used whatever feelings he was struggling with to make something rather than being interpersonally destructive, but disheartened to hear whatever was going on was still happening, "I love you, Xander." It wasn't the greatest way to reach out to him, but it was the clearest way she could think of to show him that she supported him without smothering him, since he was less affectionate than his brother. Then she followed it up with, "Let me know if you need anything, okay?"
 
"I mean, I guess I could stay down here a bit longer if you really want," Alec said, still edging away. Then Daizi's attention turned to Xander, and he quietly slipped out, glad his brother was taking the attention away for a little while. If he stayed with Dark and Daizi too long, they would ask questions, questions he did not necessarily want to answer. Mostly because he did not want to face the answers. At least, not yet.

When Daizi told Xander she loved him, Xander blushed bright red. He ducked his head and mumbled something nonsensical. "Yep, that's, yep, good. That's a good thing. Right." He tried to get ahold of himself and cleared his throat. "I guess I need you to do something," he said casually. "Could you try the cupcake and tell me if it's too frosting-heavy?"
 
Daizi had been about to say she would love it if Alec stayed, but he was gone before she had the chance. Xander's spluttering made her smile, but she didn't laugh or comment on it at all. He remained himself, so she expected him to react strongly to her affection, and Daizi would never do something to risk making him feel stupid or embarrassed about his feelings. Instead, all she said was, "I will gladly do that for you."

Then she returned to the table and picked up the cupcake, and first gently felt the spider on top, and when she realized she really could make out its shape, her face lit up. Then she removed the cupcake liner and carefully tore off the bottom of the cupcake and placed it ontop of the frosting (like a sandwich, because she didn't like getting frosting up her nose), "It's really good," she said, after swallowing the first bite, "really good. There might be a bit too much frosting, if you want me to be honest, but you made such a pretty design I can't fault you. It's really nice, you did really well."
 
Xander watched Daizi curiously, both to get her honest reaction and because he'd never seen someone take the bottom off a cupcake before. "I'll try to use less next time. Smaller designs and stuff. I got kid of carried away. But... how come you mushed the top like that? WIth the bottom half?"
 
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