How Green Becomes Wood

Dark nodded, listening to his son carefully. He was about to respond when Alec exploded into the kitchen, "I have to say hello to them. I am sure they are both sitting up there wondering why I have not yet. I was saying hello to my sons first," Dark turned and looked towards the stairs. Then he refocused on the twins, "You are welcome to make dessert if you wish, but I'm not sure if its necessary to have multiple desserts on a Wednesday. You are welcome to start cooking dinner, though, if you are itching to provide."
 
Xander glanced around the kitchen. "I guess I'm already here, and pudding is already in the fridge, so, sure, why not? There was something new I wanted to try anyway."

"Go say hi. I'm sure they missed you, especially Ivy," Alec said, giving Dark shooing motions.
 
"Oh but imagine how you would feel if every time I came home I pushed right past you to try to get to them first," Dark said, allowing himself to be a little playful with them, "So neglected, so ignored, so passed over. I attempt to focus on you first, and I am sent away." Still, he did not argue and allowed himself to be shooed upstairs to greet his wife and daughter.
 
"You can make it up to us later," Alec said cheerfully. He turned to Xander. "So, what are we making?"

"Ruz al Bukhari," Xander told him.

"Come again?"

"Bukhari rice."

"Oh, sounds good!"

"You can get the rice going." Once they'd gotten started and had the base of the dish going, Xander asked, "Hey, do you know what 'all-hair-is' means?"

Alec looked up from crunching on a carrot piece. "Joke or mispronouncing something?"

"Probably mispronouncing."

"Alharis?"

"That's it!"

Alec wandered off to check his dictionary. When he came back, he said, "Sentinel, I think."

"Huh. Sentinel." Xander nodded to himself as he chopped up the meat. "Cool."
 
Dark went upstairs and happily greeted Daizi with a kiss, and then lifted Ivy up. "Ahlaan tifla," he cooed, and brought her down to kiss her cheek, "How is Baba's baby? Is Ivy rolling over yet?"

"No, not yet," Daizi said.

"Not yet? Oh, but you are so close, my darling!" Dark sighed, rubbing his baby's back, "It is only mental, I know. You think you cannot, but I promise, my daughter, you are so much stronger than you think. Yes you are, hummingbird! Oh, I love you. Baba loves Ivy." He gave her another kiss, and then Ivy, with her bright grin, slammed her face against his.
 
Meanwhile, the twins were making great headway on dinner. Alec had found a playlist of vintage swing music from the 30's and 40's, and the pair of them chopped and sizzled away to the upbeat sounds of jazzy trumpets and a daring saxophone. No one utilized the saxophone anymore. It was a shame.

FInally, dinner made its way to the table, and Xander called up the stairs, "Dinner's ready! Is anyone else hungry or is it just me?"
 
Hearing that dinner was ready, Dark, Daizi, and Ivy came downstairs: Daizi was breastfeeding, which meant she was pretty much always hungry, but she didn't talk about it much because it felt weirdly more personal than when she was always hungry because of pregnancy. I have to feed my baby, felt a lot more casual than, I have to make milk, and without asking she had a feeling the twins were appreciative of her silence. Anyway, she was too excited when she came downstairs to bother with talking about how Xander certainly wasn't the only one hungry because, "Ivy gave Dark a kiss when he came home!"
 
Alec and Xander both stared at her quizzically, not fully understanding the implications of what Daizi had said. "Okay, that's nice," Xander said, mystified. "I hope dinner suits you. It's my first time making this... stuff."

"I told him she missed him," Alec said brightly.
 
Daizi stopped in her tracks, confused by their lack of a reaction, "It smells great," she said simply and slowly, "I don't think... She gave him a kiss." Again, she waited for a reaction.

"It was her very first one," Dark filled in the gaps, walking past his wife and holding Ivy, "What did you end up making?"
 
"Ooohhh!" Alec said, understanding clicking. "A milestone moment! That is awesome! And Baba got it first!" He gave Xander the tiniest of nudges so Dark wouldn't see.

Xander caught on and told Daizi, "Wow. After all you've done for her, she picks the other guy instead. Heartless. I made Bukhari rice from Saudi Arabia. I thought it sounded good."
 
"She never has to miss me," Daizi said, surprising even herself with how unbothered she was, "It makes sense she's more excited to see her Baba when he's away all day. And he was giving her kisses, she just decided she was at the right distance to try it herself."

"It hurt," Dark confessed, but nuzzled his cheek against Ivy's head as he took his seat, "She is not agile."

Daizi repeated herself, "It smells great. And I'm starving, thank you for cooking for us."
 
"Welcome," Xander said simply and took a last look to ensure everyone had everything they needed before sitting down.

"What is a baby kiss like?" Alec asked, trying to make up for the lack of initial reaction. "Why did it hurt?"
 
"If you would like to, you can try to see if you can get one and find out for yourself," Dark offered, but he couldn't recall if Alec ever kissed Ivy and he wasn't going to assume.

"I think they are very sweet and you can tell how much she loves you," Daizi said happily as she got her food.
 
"Maybe I'll try sometime," Alec agreed. Despite his affectionate nature, he wasn't much of a kisser, but this was important for Ivy on a couple of levels and important to Dark and Daizi. He couldn't promise to go forward with the idea, but he wasn't going to deny the possibility, either.

"How's the food?" Xander finally asked. He felt it was pretty good, but he wanted Dark and Daizi's take. They were both actually from the Middle East, after all, and had a better idea of what something was supposed to taste like. They could go back to talking about Ivy as soon as he was either validated or given constructive criticism.
 
"It's good," Daizi said warmly as she ate, "I like it. It's been a long time since I've had Saudi food."

"I've never been to Saudi Arabia. I have no real frame of reference, but I like it," Dark confessed.

"I've never been either, but my father does business there and he came back wanting more of their foods prepared at our home," Daizi explained, more for the twins' benefit than for Dark's. He, hearing Daizi's statement, could not help but chuckle and he glanced up at her from beneath his heavy eyebrows.

With a smirk and a gleam in his eyes that showed he knew exactly what he was doing, he said, "That is because Egyptian food is the worst in the Middle East."

She kicked him beneath the table, "I'll remember that next time you're sick and are praying for my soup."
 
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"It is good soup," Alec mused.

"Just 'cause they might have the worst overall doesn't mean they can't have a few good dishes here and there, right?" Xander offered. He made a note to save the recipe to his slowly growing roster for a later date. Maybe he should put together his own cook book.
 
"It is perfect soup," Dark readily agreed, still teasing his wife, "but you are a great cook despite of being Egyptian, not because of it. And I'm not going to say there are no good Egyptian foods, because there are many you make which I am fond of. But Egypt is the Britain of the Middle East."

"That's really funny considering one of two countries was taken by the Britain, and it wasn't Egypt," Daizi replied, taking Ivy from her husband.

"Occupied versus seized is semantic. One of the two of us have British relatives and I do not have light hair." Dark responded casually.
 
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Xander and Alec glanced at each other. Alec rasied his eyebrows to silently ask, Any idea what's happening? Xander rolled his eyes to indicate, No idea, and turned his attention to his rice dish. It was still on the upper level of his spice tolerance, but really good. The pair of them let Dark and Daizi get on with their cultural banter, amused if a bit lost, and focused on eating instead.

[can adjust if need be]

Later that evening, Daizi's phone rang. It was Sally calling.
 
Dark and Daizi continued to tease each other, and Daizi emphatically told Ivy about how now she's offended that she kissed Baba before her, because how dare she kiss someone so cruel? And then she kissed Ivy, who responded, again, by crashing her face against Daizi's, allowing the twins to see exactly why Dark said the kisses hurt.

After dinner, while Dark was winding Ivy down for bed and Daizi was enjoying some time to herself, she answered the phone, "Hey, Sally. How are you?"
 
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