How Green Becomes Wood

Daizi squeezed Alec tightly while everyone sung, and Dark nodded back at Xander while bouncing Ivy, who was still visibly grumpy. But although both parents acknowledged it and tried to fix it, neither acted like it was a world ending catastrophe that required them to leave right away. Yes, Ivy was grumpy, but she would survive. The twins deserved their birthday party not to be cut short by their sister.

"Have you all looked at the prize room yet?" Dark asked as they ate cake.
 
"A couple of quick glances, but otherwise, not really yet," Alec told him, taking small bites of his cake. "Oh, this is good!"

"I've got plans for my tickets," Tom said with a grin, fondling his neatly folded stack.

Becky waved the tail of her messy wad of tickets. "I'm just going to look and toss my tickets at whatever looks interesting without thinking about it. Otherwise, I'll be there for hours trying to decide the most efficient method of purchase."
 
"It's store bought," Daizi admitted, "I wanted to make sure we had enough for everyone, and we wanted it to be a surprise, and look nice. And I'm the only one who would be able to bake during the day, so..." She grinned, "If I had made it, the letters wouldn't be legible."

Dark was eating his cake while standing up, having to bend awkwardly over the table where his piece was, since he found it easiest to rock his baby while standing, but that meant he also couldn't hold the plate, "I always go to the prizes first to figure out what I want. It gives me a ticket goal."
 
"Maybe not, but it would have been unique!" Alec said happily.

"I want all the tickets!" Becky said gleefully before eating some cake.

Tom snickered and said, "If you can't tell, Becky has a bit of a love for winning."
 
"Maybe next year I'll make your cake then," She said, attempting to bump her shoulder against Alec but missing.

After all the cake was finished, they went back to playing until it was time for them to redeem their prizes, or nearly, but as they headed back towards the prize room, they passed by that game Milo kept trying to win, but this time Daizi was sitting on the ground in front of it with Ivy.
 
Xander slowed when he spotted Daizi. Alec didn't notice her as he was on the far side of Tom, and they were talking about potential prizes they could get. They didn't have as many tickets as they might have had if they hadn't played air hockey or laser tag, but they all still had a few at least. Xander pulled away from the group and crouched near Daizi. "What are you doing on the floor?"
 
Daizi jumped when it Xander 'suddenly' appeared beside her, but did her best to laugh it off, "The lights," she told him, "Dark noticed Ivy was watching them. And so we stood here for a little while, and it stopped her fussing. So I decided I'd sit here with her and let her watch them. And it's good to have a break, this place is very confusing."
 
"It's confusing when you can see. I don't want to think about when you can't," Xander stated. "We're all heading to get prizes with our tickets." He glanced at the flashing lights and pulled out his card. There was still one swipe left. "What if you held up Ivy for a minute and let her smack the button? Just for fun." He swiped the card and did his best to tell Daizi where to hold Ivy.
 
"Oh, sure," Daizi said, carefully standing up. She stood as directed and as did her best to get entice Ivy to hit the button. It took her a little while, because she was watching how the lights moved and sucking on her fist, but after enough coaxing, she stretched out her hand to hit the button.

There was a brief pause and then the lights lit up brighter, in a new pattern, and robotic bells chimed as an absurd number of tickets shot out of the machine.

"Good job, Ivy!" Daizi cheered, kissing her daughter's cheek. "You won!"
 
Xander's eyes widened as he stared at the tickets still scrolling out of the machine. "Good grief!" He glanced at Ivy. "Looks like you get any prize you choose from the prize shop, Mouse. But I am taking a handling fee, and, besides, it was my token you used." He smirked at her, teasing, as he started gathering up the tickets and folding them neatly. He'd take a few as he doubted even the most expensive thing there needed all of these tickets, but he fully intended for Ivy to get her own prizes, too.
 
"You'll have to count how many tickets everyone earned altogether," Daizi laughed, snuggling Ivy close, "You're welcome to a handling fee, habibi, I'm not sure there's much she'll want at the store anyway. Did you win more tickets than your Baba? I bet you did, habibti!" She gave Ivy another kiss and told Xander, "She gets it from him, I'm sure... Can you... help me get to the prize room? Or find Dark or Alec to help me? I told him it's okay that he goes off since I was just sitting there, but..."
 
"I'm pretty sure she did. I'm still trying to gather them up," Xander told her. "Yeah, I can help. Just... one... second... There." he shifted the massive number of tickets to one hand before reaching out and carefully taking Daizi's arm right above the elbow. "Okay, it's this way. There's a cord on the floor here, so pick up your feet a bit. It's taped down, but still a hazard. Now left and straight. It's not too far."
 
"Thank you," Daizi sighed, relaxing into Xander's grasp. It was a bit of a surprise that he willingly took her arm Iike that, given his discomfort with touch, but she was very much relieved to learn he would put those feelings aside for the sake of helping her.

When they made it to the prize room, Dark came up to her, "I was just about to come and retrieve you."

"I'm glad you didn't," Daizi grinned, "Ivy earned more tickets than you."
 
Xander held Daizi's arm firmly in hopes of giving her a bit of security and didn't let go until Dark came over to talk to her. No, he still hated touch, but touching was easier than being touched, and he'd started to slowly learn to be a little more comfortable with it over the last year. It was still hard, but even if it was still nearly impossible for him, he would have figured out a way to help. It was Daizi, after all.

He grinned and held up the tickets, barely able to hold them in one hand even neatly folded into long strips. "Ivy has a talent! We're going to pick out something for her after I deduct my handling fee."
 
"Ya Allah," Dark murmured, seeing the mass of tickets Xander held. "How?"

"She hit the button on that game we were watching," Daizi replied happily.

Milo rubbed his hands over his face, beneath his glasses, and inserted himself into a conversation for the first time all night as he realized he was bested by a literal baby, "Oh my god."
 
Xander glanced at Milo and snickered. "Don't take it too hard, kid. She's got the genetic advantage. Her old man is like an arcade master. Plus, it's a lot of flashing lights, and that's her jam right now."
 
"Life is easier as a baby." Milo grumbled and snapped a quick picture of Dark, Daizi, and Ivy. There was no way for either twin to have been in it at all from that angle.

Then Dark and Daizi took Ivy on a little walk around the prize room, looking for things that were both safe for her to have and which would interest her, "What is your fee, Xander?" Dark asked.
 
Xander frowned a little when he noticed Milo taking a picture, but he didn't have time to respond to that. He turned to Dark and replied, "I think I'll take whatever she doesn't need, I guess. She should have first dibs on whatever she wants, and if there's tickets leftover, I'll use them."
 
It took a little while of looking, because arcade prizes weren't really designed for babies in mind, but tucked away on a random shelf they found a little blue octopus with a big, sewn-on smily face and black-and-white designs beneath its tentacles. Each tentacle had a different sound box which played a little melody, and it was light enough that it was easy for Ivy to hold.

Dark counted the number of tickets for it and brought the rest over to Xander, "I think she likes it. Hm. I have never been so glad to see she takes after me in some way."
 
"She definitely takes after you," Xander told him, taking the tickets. Tom and Becky had both already finished picking out their choices, and Peter and Alec were nearly finished, but Xander hadn't even started. Xander glanced at Milo and commented, "Hey, let's look at that section over there." He gestured toward a corner away from the others. He didn't even looked at what was on offer, just noticed that the others hadn't gathered there.
 
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