How Green Becomes Wood

"Everything is a contest," Sloan replied, and sat back to listen to him sing, clapping politely for him when he finished. It was fun, although she was definitely glad it was just friends around. It was better than being at the barbecue, anyway. But almost anything was. And at least here, if she made a fool of herself, nobody would call her out on it or make her feel bad over it.

~~

"I appreciate hearing that." Dark said, appearing unaffected. But inside, that comment bothered him. It was a kind thing to know: his students enjoyed having him as a teacher, he was liked. His methods worked. It should have warmed him. His gaze didn't change at all, but he felt more aware of his daughter, snuggling happily in her mother's arms. "I do not know what his resting state is, but to my eyes, he warmed up quickly at least to my class."
 
"Let's do a trio!" Alec called to Xander and Sloan. "Come on! There has to be a song we can sing together."

"There's only one mic," Xander called back without moving.

"Then we'll sing into it," Alec stated. "Come on!"

Xander glanced at Sloan and raised a slight brow.

~~

"Good," she said with a sharp nod. "Sorry, didn't mean to turn this into a parent-teacher thing, but, seriously, any trouble, just let me know." She paused for a moment, looking around the group. "So, how did you two end up here?"
 
"Maybe we should have gone to the cemetery." Sloan said blandly, but then smiled and stood up again, joining Alec by the karaoke machine, "I'm not sure how many songs exist for three vocalists, but I'm sure we'll find something. If all else fails, there's always Age of Aquarius." It was a joke, but she did think it might be what they were stuck with, "Or Midnight Train to Georgia."

~~

Dark held up one hand, "No, it is quite alright. Understand, I have lived here for long enough that many families in this neighborhood have children I have taught, many of them have since gone to college. I am often stopped at inopportune moments by a neighbor asking me how their child is doing in school. As to your question, do you mean this neighborhood, this town, or this country?"

"Some of those questions are easier to answer than others," Daizi said.
 
"I don't think I know those, but I might when they start playing," Alec said, flipping through the list. "I'm looking."

Xander groaned but joined them up on the stage.

Alec gasped. "Yes! Let's sing 'Bye Bye Bye!'"

"And bye bye bye to you too," Xander said, turning to get off the stage.

~~

Lex looked almost puzzled by Dark's question to her question but said, "Neighborhood. Town, too, I suppose, if you want to go that far out."
 
"I think you probably just crushed your brother's soul," Sloan laughed, "It almost makes it worth it for that. But if we're already forcing him into this, we may as well try to pick something he'll like. I mean, I get to go home after this, but you live with him."

~~

"Neighborhood is easy. There was an open plot of land about the size we were hoping for within our price range, and we did not have to cut down any trees to build on it. We had been living in an apartment up in the city to be close to Daizi's work in the museum, and I had just gotten hired at the high school here, and since my work day starts earlier, we had already been discussing moving closer. We chose the neighborhood more for the land than anything else."

"We had one year where Dark had the long commute, and he hated it, but when we married a year after he began working at the school, my father was finally accepting of the fact we lived together, so he helped cover the cost of building the house." Daizi added, "Until then we had just been looking for some much smaller home that suited us well enough, which was much more difficult to find. What about you? Why this neighborhood?"
 
"Alright, alright!" Alec laughed. "How about... Summer Nights from Grease? One of us could be Danny, and Sloan can be Sandy, and the one of us that's not Danny can sing all the background vocals."

Xander eyed him speculatively. "I guess that could work. I'll do the background vocals." He got back up on the stage.

"You have the better voice for Danny," Alec pointed out.

"You know the song better," Xander rebutted, "but you forgot to ask Sloan if she wants to."

"Oops." He turned to Sloan bashfully. "How does Summer Nights sound to you?"

~~

"Kind of similar to you, I guess," Lex nodded. "I didn't really know what I was looking for. I had finally gotten my business and finances to the point where I had a reasonable range I could move to, and my last neighborhood wasn't bad, but it was full of... memories, I guess. And family. Love 'em, but needed a break, you know? So, I started shopping around for a house I could put some work into and the possibility of making a workspace in or around the house rather than renting a space. I didn't know a thing about nicer neighborhoods, but when the agent showed me pictures and I saw your house in the background, I figured it couldn't be that bad. If nothing else, I could flip the house and figure something else out."
 
"I'm okay with doing Summer Nights," Sloan agreed, stepping to the side to make more room for Xander, "Although, Xander, do you realize if you're singing the backing vocals, you'll also have to sing the girls' backing vocals, right?"

~~

"My family lives across an ocean," Daizi said after Lex mentioned needing space from her family, but otherwise did not interrupt her other than to shift her weight, since Ivy had fallen completely asleep and so felt heavier than she did while awake. After Lex had finished speaking, she said, "I'm glad our house didn't turn you away. We made a lot of enemies here, I think, because of it, but it was the only place we could imagine settling down in permanently. And the fact you like it makes me guess you probably won't... Well, it's just relaxing to know."

"I had told you when I first met her she liked our home," Dark mentioned, looking down at his wife.

"I know, but it's nice to hear it from her directly."
 
"I can live with that," Xander shrugged. "I'll go squeaky."

"Okay, so we're in agreement!" Alec grinned. "Ready, Sloan? Here we go!"

The cheerful song started playing, and Alec started crooning the first line, this time making an effort to sing as well as he could.

~~

"It sucks they put up such a fight against you," Lex said. "Heard some of the grumbling from the others I was introduced to. Gave me half a mind to paint my house, I dunno, mustard yellow or something. But, I'm a rebel like that." She smirked and shook her head. "Can't seem to shake that vibe."
 
"Alright," Sloan said, taking a nervous in breath. On her lines, she did her absolute best on the lyrics, and thankfully, with Xander's falsetto, she didn't have to worry too hard about if she was making a fool of herself. Instead, her biggest concern was not laughing too hard. And somewhere around the time she made a face as the infamous did she put up a fight line, she forgot entirely about what her mother was up to or what trouble she might be in.

~~

Dark's face did not change. Daizi, however, knew him, and so said, "I think if you do that, you're also punishing us. But a more pleasant colour would be lovely, I'm sure. Well, I'm not, I guess, mustard yellow wouldn't really affect me any more than... Any other colour people tend to think is an eyesore."
 
Alec got completely into character, swooning about and dancing like Travolta, wiggling his eyebrows outrageously at some of the lines. Xander dropped his voice down to a gravel for the male background vocals, stepping over to stand by Alec for those lines. Then he raised it to a squeaky falsetto for the girl lines as he stepped over behind Sloan. He even tried to do a few "girlie" moves when singing those lines. All in all, it was hilarious fun, and the little old man stuck his head out to watch them briefly before ducking back behind the counter.

~~

Lex laughed at that. "Trust me, I'd hate it too and have to paint it to something else, but at least it'd give the neighbors something new to talk about."
 
Sloan couldn't manage to act out the part at all, she was way too busy trying to keep it together at the sight of her friends. When the song ended she practically threw herself back down into the booth to laugh about it, "We're so dumb," She said, "we're so dumb."

~~

"They will find something regardless." Dark said, leaning over to look at Ivy, "She is completely out."

"I know," Daizi said, rubbing Ivy's back and continuing to sway, "See, Lex, we also do not have many small talk questions. But in our defense, we rarely get to spend time with other adults these days."
 
Alec flopped against Sloan, giggling madly. "Yes, but I wouldn't have us any other way! That was fantastic!"

Xander stood grinning by the end of the booth, trying to maintain what shred he had left of his dignity. "Right. So, fellow dorks, want any snacks? I'm going to go grab something so he doesn't get mad at us for using his machine without buying anything."

~~

"Fair," Lex grinned. "The last time I was at a back yard barbeque, there were more Harleys and leather. Politic discussions ended in actual fist fights - they got banned when a rack of perfectly good ribs hit the dirt - and you had a safe bet that everyone there had an opinion on guns, trucks, bikes, or babes. I have no clue what safe topics are for this crowd. Gardening tips?"
 
"Yeah, we should probably get something." Sloan agreed, pushing her hair out of her face, "otherwise we're just a bunch of teenage dirtbags, and I try really hard not to be a dirtbag."

~~

"That sounds better than here," Daizi laughed in a low voice, "I miss, I shouldn't miss, but I do kind of miss our wild years where we would go to really shitty cheap bars, Dark and Cooger would end up in some bar fight, not ones they ever really started, mind you, and I'd take them home and patch them up. It's lucky he's so tall, otherwise I'm sure by now his face would look, well, like mine I guess."

"You must not reveal all of my secrets, my dear," Dark murmured, "I just do not speak unless spoken to at events like these. Although Daizi is a marvelous gardener, so gardening tips are not unwelcome."
 
Alec turned in his seat and poked her shoulder. "You, Sloan Applebaum, are the farthest thing from a dirtbag that I have possibly ever met. Just below our foster parents." He gave her another poke - being firm but gentle, and grinned. "Sorry, with those two as competition..."

"Oi! Quick chit-chatting and help me figure out which of these plastic bags with indecipherable symbols might taste good," Xander called from the counter. "None of them have any English words."

~~

"I killed a cactus last year," Lex said flatly. "I try to stay away from gardening, but I like to look. If there was like a garden fairy that could make the yard look good, I'd pay her everything I had to keep it up." She eyed Daizi speculatively. "Teach me how to keep at least some simple stuff alive, and I won't try to convince you to come with me to a shitty bar and get way too drunk for our age?" She didn't even blink at Daizi's joke at her own looks or wonder how a blind person could garden.
 
"Yeah but we're talking about teenage dirtbags," Sloan teased, poking him back, "I don't know enough about Mr. Dark and Daizi to be able to say where they ranked on the list when they were our age."

She got up and went over to the snack bar, "Google Translate lets you scan text, you may be able to read a little bit of it then."

~~

"I'm not sure I qualify as a fairy, but I wouldn't mind getting you started with something easy and sustainable." Daizi told her easily. Gardening was a passion and she liked a project--and she was curious about what that horrible woman had done before moving away. "But I'm not drinking, currently. I'm still nursing. You can take Dark to get trashed though," She teased, knowing that was yet another nightmare scenario for her husband.
 
"Fair enough," Alec smiled, following her.

Xander scowled at the bags on offer. He pulled out his phone and stared at it for a minute. "I have no idea how to do that. Do you want to give it a try while I try to peer at the ones in the clear plastic?"

~~

Lex glanced at Dark and smirked. "You've been volunteered, Mr. Darkness Itself. Looks like we've struck a bargain." She turned back to Daizi, chuckling. "I don't know that I'll actually torture your man that way, but if you ever do want to come over and poke about the beds, you're welcome to. More than welcome to. The front looks alright, I guess, but I'm not sure what's happening in the back. The gate's always open, metaphorically and literally since the latch is broken. No pressure, no expectation, just a statement."
 
"You're technologically illiterate." Sloan teased, taking out her phone and scanning one of the items. She paused for a few moments, "Oh. It's a Corn Snack. Obviously."

~~

"Just Dark," He corrected, not knowing about the earlier joke.

"I'll have to stop by and check out the state of things. A really nice garden takes years and a lot of money, so depending on what it's like back there, I may not be able to do much unless you've got a budget." Daizi admitted, shifting her weight again. Ivy was getting big, even though she was still very small. But she was sleeping like a dead weight, but a warm dead weight in a soft little dress.
 
"Yep, except for the part where I know how to hook up a tv," Xander said, frowning at the array before him. "Guess I'll try Corn Snack."

"How about we grab a couple of snacks and then head back?" Alec suggested, gingerly picking up a pink and a blue bag. Whatever they were, at least they weren't too expensive.

"What are you getting, Sloan? It's on me," Xander said, gathering up four random bags and a curious glass bottle.

~~

"Alright, that's fair," Lex agreed with a shrug. "I have no idea what kind of budget I can commit, so maybe we can just start by checking things out." She checked her watch. "Is it too early to make a polite exit? I sanded the stairs earlier today and now my back is telling me it's time for a hot bath with Epsom salts."
 
"Try a corn snack," Sloan told him, mostly just amused by the name. She scanned the labels of a few more snacks before settling on one she thought she'd probably enjoy. "Um. This, I guess." She picked up a little pink box that was split between what looked like dried plums and a sort of globby hard candy, "Thank you."

~~

"We have a sleeping baby," Dark told Lex, grim as ever, "I was absolutely planning to use her as an excuse to leave the party as soon as the conversation was over."

Daizi turned to her husband, looking annoyed in a way someone could only look when they are absolutely besotted by the person. But try as she might, she was unable to resist cracking a smile, and bumping lightly against him, she said, "You're still getting settled, I don't think even they would hold it against you if you leave now."
 
"Welcome." Xander talked to the old man behind the counter, paid him, and headed out with snacks in hand. He made sure everyone had their share and considered opening his back of corn snacks, whatever they were, but decided not to try to eat and walk at the same time.

"That was a lot of fun," Alec said contentedly. "Thanks for coming with us, Sloan."

~~

"In that, you are lucky. For the next four or so years, you get to blame everything on the kid," Lex smirked. "I guess I'll see you around, neighbor." She walked toward the trampoline where Toby now sat on the edge with Sloan's brother and his friends. "Hey, kiddo? I'm heading out. Are you coming with or hanging here?"

Toby considered this offer before standing. "Coming with. Nice to meet you guys. See you around!"
 
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