How Green Becomes Wood

"It's a different kind of smart," Daizi replied, stroking Ivy's cheek, "a few weeks ago, she was not able to lift her head at all, and now during tummy time she can lift it and look around. And when she was born she hadn't even figured out breathing perfectly. If I put her with other babies her age, you'd see that, for her age, she is very, very, clever. Right, Hummingbird?"

"She is learning everything from scratch," Dark agreed, watching the way Ivy watched her mother, and waving to her whenever she looked back at him.
 
"That's not smart, that's building muscle," Xander argued.

"Check!" Alec said in surprise as he moved his piece.

Xander glanced down and moved his piece before continuing. "She's going to be a total jock. I'm betting a soccer player, or maybe basketball. Every girl's basketball team who sees her is going to want to recruit her if she's anywhere near as tall as you two. That puts you in check, Alec."

Alec scowled at the board as he tried to figure out his mistake.
 
"That's true," Daizi agreed, nodding, "but her little coos are her learning to talk, she's figuring out language. All without a single textbook, that's very clever. She's very very clever." Daizi bent over and kissed Ivy, who squirmed and squeaked.

"And she is able to recognize us, and now she is learning to self soothe, every day she is learning," Dark added, glancing up to check on the game board, "I presume it is cheating if I offer any advice to Alec."
 
"Recognizing you is totally smart," Xander agreed to admit. He wouldn't admit to the coos, though. Making up weird noises was just plain fun. "Yes, offering advice is totally cheating."

"That's okay because I figured it out!" Alec said triumphantly. He moved a piece and clacked it down firmly.

Xander glanced at the piece and then at Alec. Slowly and deliberately, he reached for a chess piece. Alec's expression of triumphant twisted into one of confusion. Then horror as he realized what he'd done. He whimpered softly as his brother moved the piece and set it down.

"Checkmate," Xander proclaimed.
 
"She is a brilliant young lady," Dark said confidently, "You have to remember, she is twelve weeks old, but she has the mind of a 6-week old, because her the first half of her life was spent catching up to where most babies are when they are born. It will probably take her all of her first year to catch up to the babies who were born on-schedule in October."

"I should have had you call out your moves so I knew how the game went," Daizi commented, getting up to sit along with the board so she could play, resetting the pieces. On a normal board, she wouldn't have been able to, but when Dark carved it, he had carefully and intentionally designed it with tactile elements so she could tell what she was doing. The black pieces had raised bumps along the base which the white ones lacked, and the lines demarcating the squares was slightly engraved. The queen's square had the Arabic word for queen engraved in it, and from there she was able to figure out where all the pieces went, "Come on, babe. You want to play black again?"

"Always," He nodded, moving towards the board, supporting Ivy in one arm. He glanced at Alec, considering asking him if he wanted to hold her, but also not totally certain if he wanted to set her down yet, "Do not worry, you are still learning."
 
Alec sighed and flopped down on the closest chair. "Ah, once again, I face the disappointment of loss," he moaned.

"I'm not that much better than you," Xander countered. "I just pay more attention." He sat down on the arm of the couch to watch the game. One hand tapped his knee lightly.
 
The game between Dark and Daizi was much more serious, and longer. They both called out moves, and put each other in check a few times without successfully putting the other one into checkmate.

Once or twice, there were a prolonged moment where neither of them moved, where they were just thinking. By the end, Ivy had fallen asleep, and was sleeping deeply enough that when Daizi suddenly cheered and exclaimed, "Checkmate!" she hardly stirred.

"How do you always beat me?" Dark asked, bouncing Ivy to settle her back down.

"Because I know you always protect your Queen."
 
"Because she can read your mind," Xander said, not looking up from his phone as he scrolled through social media.

Alec sat on the floor doodling with a pencil. "And you keep him completely hypnotized with your beauty."
 
Daizi made a face at Alec's comment as she replaced all the pieces, "I think it's enough that I've been playing against him for years."

"I would not be surprised if it is because she can read my mind," Dark said told Xander, "although you both might have learned something had you watched the game."

"Teenagers never have a good attention span. So is it me against Xander or me against Alec?" Daizi asked, turning towards them.
 
"It's you against Xander, and I go against the Professor," Alec said, using the name out of habit. He still found "Baba" to be a strange term, but he was trying to get over it. Even so, there were times when he slipped and used a more familiar nickname.

"You and him should go first, then," Xander said, still scrolling. He completely ignored Daizi's comment about short attention spans.

Alec nodded and scrambled up from the floor. "That sounds good to me!"
 
"Okay, come here Alec," Dark said, gesturing for his son to join him, "fear not, I will not go hard on you. You are much newer to the game than I am. You may go first."

Daizi backed up and sat on the couch near Xander, "Is this what you want to do your your birthday, habibi? Hours of quiet, serious gaming?"
 
Alec grinned as he sat down. "Thank you! I look forward to learning more." He frowned at the board for a moment before making his move.

Xander closed his phone and looked up at Daizi. "Nah, this isn't really my style," he told her. "I'd rather do something more like... I dunno, an arcade run or a concert or something like that. Something with energy. I don't love the crowds, but something like a really good concert makes them worth it. Maybe going to watch the Judo competitions. Quieter, but still intense."
 
Since there wasn't really a terrible first move in chess, Dark said nothing, except for the move he made. There wasn't really much to say about early moves, or if there was, it was above his skill level.

"I figured this probably isn't it for you," She replied, and would have nudged him had he liked contact, "An arcade could be fun. You think about it, okay? And look online for concerts you'd like to attend, they don't have to perform on your actual birthday. And just you think about what you want to do, okay? If you want to go to a concert and he wants to go to a museum, we'll just do both."
 
Alec muttered for a bit before carefully choosing his next move.

Xander glanced at her and then at Ivy. How old would Ivy be then? Three months? No, she was twelve weeks now which was close to three months... Weeks and months were getting scrambled in his brain. He did know that she's still be very little, and Dark and Daizi would be very protective of her. Would she be old enough to go anywhere? Would one of them have to stay home with her? What kind of thing could she even handle at that age? A worm of resentment wiggled inside. This was only his second birthday with these people, and he'd actually allowed himself to look forward to it, but she was getting in the way!

Xander frowned and shook his head, firmly sticking a boot on that worm. It didn't matter. It wasn't her fault, and at least he still had these people to have a birthday with. Maybe when she got older she'd make it even more special. For now, he'd just have to figure out a way around her. That was all. He'd never had a birthday all to himself and he never would thanks to being a twin with someone of very differing tastes, so he should be used to this. It was just weird. New. Different.

"Thanks, I'll think about it and let you know," he told Daizi.
 
"Good, definitely think about it," She said, smiling at him, "It's your sixteenth birthday, we want to make it special for you. But we were told sixteen year old boys don't normally have those big parties, and some sixteen year olds get a car, but you want to buy your own, so we don't want to take that away from you, either. We just want it to be perfect, like what we talked about. Do you remember? This year, or, I guess last year, now, Ivy's birthday was the big one, this year its you two, and next year it's Dark's, because he turns 40. And I turn forty the year after that. And anyway, last year you had only been with us a few months, and we didn't really know you yet, but we know you now. And we want it to be everything you'd ever want it to be." She hummed, moving a bit closer to him while still maintaining his preferred distance, "And because I love you so much, I won't make you sick by telling you how much I love you."

Dark grumbled slightly as he moved his piece, "You have to watch the whole board, Alec, not just what is immediately in front of you."
 
"Except I don't know how to read your mind, so how can I plan a bunch of steps ahead when I don't know if you're going to bungle it?" Alec asked Dark.

"Huh. I guess it is our sixteenth," Xander said with some surprise. "I guess I hadn't really thought about it. I mean, I knew, but with everything else, it just sort of slipped away." He glanced at her with her declaration of love and made a face. "Thank you. You refraining tells me just how much you do love me." He couldn't help a little smile. "I'll talk it over with Alec. Maybe we can come up with something we'd both like."
 
"I don't know how to read your mind either," Dark pointed out, "but if you are so focused on one piece," he pointed to what Alec had just moved, "You will not notice how you left a vulnerability open," he pointed to another piece on the board and then took one of Alec's knights, "had you been looking in both places, you would have been able to prevent that."

"It's a start, anyway." She said warmly and then fell quiet. A tiny wrinkle appeared between her eyebrows, and she turned her head to the side like she did when she was really listening to something, or thinking hard, but it was unclear what she had caught her. But soon enough it faded, "Definitely talk with him. And don't... worry, okay? We'll make it work. Whatever it is. All four of us have been through so much, I think we all deserve to be confident enough to believe we will always find a way. Unless your dream is to visit Antarctica, that may be a bit outside the scope of what we can achieve. But I'd be glad to buy you some fake penguins."
 
Alec heaved a sigh and pulled a face. "Fair enough. I walked into that one." He cautiously moved another piece, taking his time about it.

Xander snorted. "Fake penguins could be cool. How about a pool party? I'm sure it'll be warm enough then, right?"
 
"Good." Dark nodded slowly, studying the board before moving his piece. After a moment he repeated, "Yes, good." Then, he looked up at Alec with a neutral expression but eyes that nearly hinted at playfulness, "I am not plotting against you. At least, not deeply. It was just a solid move you made."

"Isn't your birthday in February?" Daizi asked with a laugh, knowing perfectly well it was. "Maybe if we found a heated pool. Or an indoor one, but I'm not sure you meant it seriously."
 
"I hope you're plotting at least a little, otherwise this would be a boring game," Alec grinned. He hesitated a moment before taking the piece Dark had just moved.

Xander snorted. "Nah, not really, although there is a thing called a polar bear plunge. It sounds like the worst. I kind of want to try it."
 
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