How Green Becomes Wood

"Sure," Dark agreed, carefully standing up to not jostle his baby, "we can go now. Between the two of us, Ivy should be able to sleep through it without incident. And we can lay her down if we need to." Saying this, he gently kissed the top of Ivy's head, unintentionally making it very clear he didn't particularly want to set her down.

"Dress me in colours I like!" Daizi requested, heading towards the kitchen, even though she had no idea what colours she liked beside their names or why she liked them. She gestured for Xander to follow her, "You can mix the frosting colours, we can decorate them together."
 
"Uh-huh," Alec said in amusement and followed Dark. "How about a swooshy dress?" he asked Dark. "Maybe a dark top for any accidental spilling."

Xander nodded as he started digging out the stuff he'd need for the cookies. "So... what colors do you like?"
 
"A dark top is a good idea," Dark agreed, opening the door to his bedroom and letting Alec enter before him. He wondered if Alec was being tactful and avoiding the actual problem Daizi had now or if he was genuinely considering the likelihood of Daizi accidentally getting a bit of food or drink on herself over the course of the party, "I believe she has a dark red skirt." It had an elastic band, which Dark knew was a safer choice than a zipper or buttons.

"All sorts," She said as she washed her hands, "I like black because I associate it with Dark, so it feels very warm. And I like green because it makes me think of the smell of forests... Violet I like because it reminds me of music and the texture of velvet. Red reminds me of fire... and blue reminds me of the water, but specifically when you're floating in it, and your ears are just beneath the water, so you aren't really hearing much. It is a peaceful quiet colour. Those are my favourites." She dried her hands and got out the mixing bowl, "We used all of them except for black at our wedding. Dark said it was an obvious choice, since he likes all of those colours too, especially when they're really deep shades, which he explained are the peaceful and somber shades, whereas the bright shades are excited and the pastel shades are whimsical, like Alice in Wonderland."
 
"Oh! Maybe a black shirt on top, maybe a long-sleeved one, with the red skirt and silver jewlery!" Alec said excitedly. He glanced at Dark. "Are you sure you want me to dig through her clothes to find it? I can, if you need me too so Ivy can sleep."

"Black, green, violet, red, and blue," Xander mused. "Well, red and green are Christmas colors, gold, too. I think we can make blue work. I'm not sure about black, but why not? We can do weird stuff and swirl the colors and stuff."
 
"It needs to be a low-cut shirt. Or low-backed and worn backwards... I think she has one that has a cutout in the back that is not too large or low," Dark advised, sitting down on his bed after opening the door to their walk-in closet and pointing out the box the clothes would be, "You do not need to worry, there is nothing inappropriate in there. When we were boxing up what did not fit, we wanted it to be easy to put away, so that one is skirts and tops, the one next to it is dresses. I would have split them into smaller categories but Daizi pointed out, probably correctly, if we were did that, we would essentially be building another closet, and we do not have the space."

"If we are making Christmas cookies, shouldn't we just use Christmas colours? I think the cutters we have are all trees and presents and bells, for some reason. We might have a reindeer, I don't remember what's in the pack." She went to get the set, which she handed to Xander, "The more frosting colours we make, the more we have to clean up."
 
"Why does it have to be low-cut?" Alec asked. He knelt and started searching through the boxes. "How low?" He found a coupel of dark colored shirts and set them off to the side. "Oh, here's the skirt! Found it!" He laid it out on the bed. "That's a nice one."

"Green and red it is," Xander agreed, laying out the set of cutters. "We should all decorate, I guess. That's what families do in those Hallmark movies and stuff."
 
"It makes it easier for her when Ivy is hungry," Dark replied simply, trying to spare Alec a more vivid mental picture, looking through the tops as Alec pulled them from the box. "I do love the skirt. It has pockets, she was thrilled when she realized."

"I've never watched a Hallmark movie... but it does seem fun, all together. I'm sure mine will be just lovely to look at," She laughed, starting a basic sugar cookie recipe, "You can't judge mine against the careful designs you all can do."
 
Thinking only of Daizi's comfort, Alec almost asked if it wouldn't be easier to lift the shirt up rather than pull it down but thought better of it. He really didn't want to know the details. Instead, he said, "It baffles me how few articles of clothing for women have no pockets. Some men's pockets aren't any better, but their's is just terrible."

Xander snorted as he helped Daizi mix up the cookies. "I think there's some kind of rule that at least some Christmas cookies have to look bad, or at least not awesome, so you're in luck there."
 
Had Alec asked, Dark would have simply explained that Daizi preferred shifting the neckline of her shirt aside rather than lifting it, especially since it was December and lifting her shirt also meant exposing her torso. "When I go shopping with her I keep an eye out for clothes with pockets, and there have been times I have sewn pockets into her clothes for her, which she always appreciates," He said, "but I do not understand it either."

"Oh, good," Daizi replied, making a face. "I bet if I could see, mine would look the best out of all of them..." For a brief moment, she faltered, and reached up to tuck her hair back before remembering it was already clipped up. Then she shook off whatever thought had settled over her, "Maybe I'll just blindfold you three to level the playing field."
 
Alec smiled and put the boxes away. "Now she just needs her jewelry. Maybe she can wear her new necklace?"

Xander didn't notice the little stutter as he was focused on trying to mix up the frosting. "That's not a bad idea. Could be fun. We'd have to put down a lot of paper or something to protect the kitchen or you-know-who would have a heart attack." Satisfied with the thickness of his frosting, he started ladling them into different bowls.
 
"She probably will. But we can let her pick her own jewelry, I think. We helped her out enough finding an outfit for her. Outfit choices, rather," he gestured vaguely towards the few sweaters they had pulled. "I hope it makes her feel nice. It is not... always easy to feel like yourself after a change like this."

"It might be better if we do it another day, then," Daizi said as she rolled out the dough to cut them, "when we don't have to have it all cleaned up before guests come over."
 
"It's not easy to feel like yourself without such a massive change, so I can understand that," Alec said. He stood and asked, "So, are we going downstairs to check on cookies now that we have everything in order?"

Xander frowned at Daizi and used the end of the handle of his spoon to poke her. "It's Christmas in a household with one brand-new baby and two teen boys. If the guests can't deal with a little mess, they can go eat in the driveway. Come on. It sounds fun!"
 
"We may as well. It is probably smarter to wait until after we are finished cooking to get dressed." He said as he walked back out of his bedroom and headed to the stairs, just in time to hear Daizi squeak from surprise. The poke was unanticipated.

Laughing, she said, "You're right, you're right! But I was more concerned about a certain someone having a heart attack over the thought of guests seeing a frosting mess in his kitchen. Guests can cope."
 
"They are having fun without us!" Alec said with a fake pout. "Surely that's illegal."

Xander considered this. "Fair enough, but with four hands, I bet we can get it clean. It might be worth the risk."
 
"It is illegal for them to have fun without you, I am sure," Dark corrected mildly, following Alec downstairs to the kitchen, "Since I am not a particularly fun man, I think they get a pass for having fun without me."

"Four hands?" Daizi asked with an impish grin, "Not four sets of hands? Which two of us get to escape cleaning up the mess?"
 
"You're fun!" Alec protested. "Just... in your own way." He stepped into the kitchen and asked, "Hands?"

"The left hand of each person who helps," Xander said without missing a beat. "The right hands have to help clean."

Alec frowned. "Why is my right hand cleaning?"
 
"Xander said we should all decorate the cookies together like a Hallmark movie, and I said you three should all be blind folded to make it fair to me, so my cookies don't look really bad in comparison to what you three can make," Daizi explained as she cut the shapes out and set them on a lined baking tray.

"Okay, Vonnegut," Dark teased, coming up to look over her shoulders at the cookies, "That is just giving yourself an advantage, because you have experience being sightless."

"Yes, darling, but it is so much eaiser to block out your vision than it is to block in mine," Daizi replied with a grin, "I think you're just afraid to lose."
 
"I have no experience decorating cookies, so I don't know that mine will look any better than yours, sighted or not," Alec said cheerfully as he carefully snagged a small piece of dough to eat. "But I'm willing to be blindfolded!"

"Same, even if it does give her an advantage, but I think at least one of us should stay sighted just in case," Xander said.
 
"Ivy will be sighted," Daizi said quickly, "by the time these are ready to frost she will be awake."

"I can keep an eye out," Dark offered, but Daizi rolled her eyes.

"What harm can we get into sitting at a table frosting cookies? We need to put a base layer of frosting down before we can add details anyway, so it would just be us, cookies, and piping bags. If we really want to take it seriously, we'll use our little butter spreaders to do the base layer, and they are duller than a butter knife because they're not designed with any cutting in mind." She pointed out, finding herself nearly irritated by the notion of there somehow being a risk in simply frosting cookies without sight.
 
"So that someone can respond to emergency frosting spills with a handful of napkins or something," Xander pointed out. "Or in case someone starts frosting something that's not a cookie."

"I would totally do that," Alec sighed.
 
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