How Green Becomes Wood

Dark looked up at her, not particularly phased by this woman threating him, but he did try to disentangle himself from the child, "Are you their grownup?" He asked calmly, holding up his hands to try to show this was not his decision, "I was worried about him sitting alone outside, without shoes or a jacket. He seemed very upset, I wanted to make sure he was okay. That is all."
 
She frowned and looked down at the child. "Jake, what are you doing out here with no shoes on?" She had a faint New Jersey accent.

"Wanted to," the child sulked. "Then you got lost."

"Jake, you got yourself lost by not obeying and leaving the house," she said with a slight huff. She looked him over briefly, not getting any closer to Dark. "What are you doing talking to a stranger?"

"He wast gunna find you!" he stated.

She glanced at Dark and raised a brow. "Uh-huh. Did he say you should go with him?"

"Nu-uh, asked me. I wanna 'cycle now!"

She ignored the child and looked at Dark for a moment. "Go inside."

"Don't wanna!" he pouted.

"Choice one, you walk yourself inside. Choice two, I carry you inside," she said calmly.

"DON'T WANNA!" he screamed with all his might and ran toward the house, shrieking with every step.

The woman flipped the bat over and rested on it like it was a cane. "So, you're, what, a neighbor who heard him crying?" she asked more calmly. "Sorry about that. Where I'm from, you'd've had him snatched and in a car faster'n I could snap my fingers."
 
Dark stood, and stood, and stood until he was looking down at her from a distance that may have been surprising having, until then, only seen him sitting. "I live next door. Your concern is why I wanted to make sure nothing had happened. But this is a safe neighborhood." On one hand, her reaction was completely valid. On the other hand, there was some small part of him that said, she saw a brown man with tattoos on his hands and immediately assumed you must be a predator. Thankfully, this didn't show on his face, because nothing did. He was very tall, very muscular, handsome, but he looked into her, not at her, and his face gave away nothing.

And he knew, he was certain, absolutely certain, that he could have been a short, white, blonde man--he could've been Peter--and she would have reacted the same way. And maybe he would have believed he was absolutely certain if the last neighbor he had in that house hadn't reported him for terrorism to try to get him deported and his baby taken away. "Relatively safe."
 
She gave a little shrug, surprisingly at ease now despite the fact that she was probably going to get a kink in her neck from craning it back to look at him. Dark's expression gave nothing away, but neither did hers. Her sharp eyes studied his every move, indicating that she was not quite as relaxed as her casual stance and half-closed eyes might lead one to believe. "Kind of why I chose to move here. Seriously, I was shocked to get this place for such a steal."

"Mer? Mer, why is Jake crying- oh!" A second woman came out of the house but paused when she saw Dark. Shock and a tiny flash of fear crossed her face before she got herself under control, and her real feelings disappeared under a Martha Stewart Smile. "Oh, hello! You must be one of the neighbors! It's a delight to meet you." She strode forward confidently enough but stopped behind the first woman. At a glance, it was easy to tell they were related, but where the one holding the baseball bat was at ease with genuine confidence, the other with her capri pants and white blouse with its matching sweater clearly faked her confidence with her bright smile and perfectly done hair. "Hello! I'm Joanna. And you are?"
 
He wasn't sure if she was challenging him or sizing him up or something, but he didn't play those games and was unbothered. It was true, Dark did not like speaking to strangers, and when he stepped inside he would probably lock the door behind him, but they didn't intimidate him, and despite standing in his usual proper, firm manner, was only bothered by the voice in his head, not by them.

Looking at the other woman, he held out his hand--not because he wanted to, but because he knew he should, "G.M. Dark. I live next door." He did not gesture towards his haunted house, the last one on the left. He doubted he needed to. And he did not smile.
 
"It's so nice to meet you!" There was only the tiniest of hesitations before she accepted his hand in her slim, well-manicured one. "It's nice to see who my sister will be living next to." Her carefully cultured voice did not have any New Jersey accent to it.

"Yeah, if we can get over the fact that I already screwed it up by accusing him of possibly snatching your kid," said the sister cheerfully.

Joanna's jaw dropped and her eyes went wide. "Meredith!"

"I figured as soon as I saw him I probably had my facts wrong," said the bat-wielding woman calmly. "I'd be more concerned if it was a white guy. People like him have to walk the straight and narrow because of the crap people make up without them doing stupid stuff like snatch kids off of their front lawns."

Now Joanna turned pink. "Mer!" she hissed in embarrassment. "Don't be racist!"

"It's true. If a cop saw him with Jake, you know he'd be tased faster than he could blink. Now why don't you calm down your kid down after he flirted with hypotherma," she continued.

"I've asked you before not to-" Joanna stopped and gave Dark a stiff smile. "I apologize deeply for my sister. I don't think she doesn't know how to not be rude, but I should probably get back inside." She started edging backward. "I'll leave you two to talk about the neighborhood."
 
Well. At least he knew he didn't have to worry about them judging him because of his race. But he still did slowly look up at the sky and then over at their houses with his eyes as they discussed 'people like him' and what a cop would do. It wasn't wrong, but it still felt... odd. Like he was being dissected. He added nothing to their conversation.

"You have not introduced yourself." He said plainly as her sister hurried back inside to check on her son. Yes, it had been used in the conversation, but he preferred to be properly introduced. "I do not know what you expect to learn about the neighborhood from me."
 
"You can call me Lex," she said. She did not offer her hand to him her hand. "Lex Sims. That was just my sister's way of excusing herself and foisting the challenge of conversation onto me. Sorry again about earlier with the kid. I'm used to trying to get the first blow in before they can hurt me." She gave him a crooked smile. "My sister's been trying to train me out of it. Cool house, by the way. It's kind of what made me pick this one."
 
"I can understand that." Dark replied, not extending his hand since she had not extended hers. He did not look over his shoulder at his house, keeping his gaze once more on Lex. "Thank you. We are rather proud of it." Offering up information was never something he enjoyed, and that had not changed. However... If this woman was willing to charge out with a bat because of a misunderstanding... a possibly catastrophic meeting between her and his wife seemed possible. After taking one of his typical long pauses to think he said, "I do not believe anyone in this neighborhood will try to hurt you, and I would not want a misunderstanding to cause strife, although I understand old habits die hard."
 
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"Yeah, that's what I was hoping for when I moved here," Lex said quietly, glancing around. She turned to see up and down the quiet road and took a long, deep breath, letting it out slowly. "The end to a fresh start," she said quietly, her face softening just a little with something like hope. Then she caught herself and shook it off. "Of course, I gotta introduce myself in the worst way possible, and I bet I'm setting up a great first impression of how I'm going to be as a neighbor." A particularly loud, quarrelsome scream emanated from one of the open windows, and she visibly fought back a grimace. "I can't promise to be a quiet neighbor, but I can tell you all the short stacks in there are not mine. They're my sister's, and she and her fancy husband are a part of that parenting idle where you never tell your kid no or curb it in any fashion whatsoever. It's working out great!"

Just then, a teen wearing a loose blue jacket came rolling down the street on a skateboard and hopped the curb. "Mom!" he called as the board rumbled closer. "Mom, this street is great!" He flipped the board up to grab it as he trotted onto the grass, his movements smooth despite his gangly appearance. "It's so smooth, and the curves are fantastic! Great visibility." He paused and looked up at Dark. "Whoa! Mister, you are tall! A custom board for you must cost a fortune! Can you even get through the tubes?"

"This would be my one and only, and, as you can see, he sees things through a different lens than me," Lex chuckled, her face softening as she pulled her taller son closer to her.
 
The scream caught Dark's attention, but he did not flinch, instead looking calmly towards the house. They might wake his daughter from her naps. But they would not be there daily: he presumed by the way Lex spoke she did not live with her sister and brother-in-law. He looked back as the teenage rolled up, saying nothing immediately. His expression still did not change but he did extend a hand to the boy, "Hello. My name is Mr. G.M. Dark, and I believe I am your neighbor. Who might you be?"

Dark had absolutely no idea what was meant by 'the tubes.'

But he was somewhat pleased to see another boy about his sons' age. If they became friends or not did not particularly matter to him, but the possibility was always good. And it would drive Blair, Sloan's mother, insane. Which was also good.
 
The teen grasped Dark's hand firmly in his and gave it an energetic shake. "Tobias Hunter Sims, sir! But everyone calls me Toby. Looking forward to living next to you! This neighborhood is sick!"

"Uh-huh, and you know what would be even sicker? Getting our bedrooms put together before midnight," Lex smirked. "Go on in and help your cousins. You can pick whichever bedroom you like, maybe even the master. If I like it, I get it, but other than that, the choice is yours. And ask your aunt what she wants on her pizza."

"Sweet!" Toby gave Dark a wave before trotting to the house. "Nice to meet you, sir!"

"I should get going," Lex said. "Hope our next meeting is a better one."
 
"It is good to meet you, Toby." Dark replied with a polite nod. "Yes, imagine you are busy just now. But we will meet again. It is inevitable." Rolling back his shoulders, he turned and retreated to his home, where Daizi, curious about what was taking her husband so long, had just stepped out onto the porch, trying to listen for him.

He walked up beside her in a few long strides and in one motion put his arm around her waist to guide her back inside, quietly alerting her he had met the neighbords.
 
"Hey, what's going on down there?"Alec called down from the top of the stairs. "Did something happen?"

"Dude, it's algebra! Get back here and help me finish these last two problems, and then you can go back to spying!" Xander protested, dragging his brother back.

"Oh, come on! Why should I suffer just because you've been stuck on these problems for a week?" Alec protested, resisting but failing as Xander pulled him back into their room. "Life is for living! Not homework!"
 
"I met the neighbors," Dark said, bending to take off his shoes, "the children, from what I understand, are not a permanent fixture. Which is good news for us, as they are loud. I believe it is one woman, Lex, and her son, Toby. If there is a live-in partner I was not told of them or alerted to their presence. Do not act stupid when you are in sight of their property, she threatened me with a bat until she realized I had no foul machinations for her nephew. I do not want anybody hit with a bat."

When Dark stood, he took off his shoes and took a brief moment to squeeze Daizi in close to him, to decompress, and then released her, "But she likes our home and spoke at length about how she would have been more bothered to see me speaking to her nephew were I white, because men of my ilk have to be more cautious. So I do not suspect she will report us to the FBI."
 
"Really? A bat?" Xander asked, poking his head down the stairs. "That's kind of badass."

"And dangerous," Alec said. "Hey, weren't you the one who said you needed help?" He couldn't help himself, though, and came down to stand at the bottom of the stairs. "What does that mean? 'Men of your ilk?'"

"Anyone of color who does not match the Scandinavian, Germanic, or Britanic style of build and color," Xander replied blandly.

Alec gave him an annoyed look and turned to Dark. "Does that mean she was really rude?"
 
"The words she used made me feel somewhat uncomfortable, but the intention, I think, was to try to put me at ease, and I did not think she was being rude, only overzealous." Dark told them, "I think she is probably a nice woman. But it is difficult to not put your foot in your mouth when she introduces yourself by threatening to assault you."

"We need to tell them I'm blind. I don't want to be hit with a bat on accident," Daizi commented, half joking, but she had often had neighbors get mad at her for being 'rude' for not waving back, and although she doubted this new neighbor was unhinged and would start swinging for something as simple as that--because if she was, Dark would certainly have been hit instead of being able to have a simple conversation--but it still seemed like something that was good to clarify. "Should we warn them we have a baby? I didn't really announce to any of our neighbors we had a baby, but if they have loud children over, it might be good for them to know."
 
"We do have a thing called insulation in the house, and it's none of their business," Xander said stoutly.

"We can barely hear them now," Alec agreed with a nod. "I don't think they need to know if you don't want to tell them. Besides, they hadn't even fully moved in yet. We should give them a bit to settle, I think." He paused before cautiously asking, "You said there was one lady with her son planning to live there? How old is her son?"
 
"I was not planning on rushing over now, don't worry. I can't be asked to change. I'm not planning to go over there any time today, maybe tomorrow or sometime next week." Daizi replied, surprising herself by feeling somewhat annoyed, and being completely unable to place why. "It's less about not wanting to tell them and more about not knowing what the polite thing to do is."

"I told them nothing about us." Dark said. "I did not even mention I am married. Her son was a teenager, but I do not know how old. A high schooler, certainly, he looked older than middle school. He was excitable."
 
"Oh," the twins said as one. Alec looked curious, but Xander seemed less than interested. They turned and went back upstairs to finish what they were working on until dinner time.

Meanwhile, thumps, bumps, and shouts continued next door as the new owner of the house tried to get everything moved in and situated. The children were far from quiet, but the yelling did seem to decrease. There was a silence that coincided with a pizza delivery truck arriving, and then about half an hour later, it picked up again for another two hours. Finally, a large, black car of some nice make and model pulled away from the house with the rented moving truck following. The car returned to drop off one person and then pulled away again. Finally, there was silence. Lights flicked on and off throughout the house as the new owners continued to move around, but at least all was quiet. Well-lighted, but quiet. It was well after midnight before the last light went out for the night.
 
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