How Green Becomes Wood

Daizi waited to change until after Dark had come back downstairs, and when she came back down, looking like herself again, Dark did seem to relax slightly, and his eyes warmed.

"I suppose it's about time for dinner now," She said, "I made soup."

This immediately changed the energy of the room, and both Dark and Cooger stood immediately, because if it was soup time, any conversation could be saved for until after they had their bowls.
 
"Thank you for making soup," Xander told her seriously. "It's as good as everyone says."

Alec nodded happily. "Very good soup. We should let the adults go first before you clean out the pot."

"You'd help," Xander pointed out, fetching his bowl.

"Hmm, this is true," Alec agreed.
 
"You four can eat before me," Daizi told them, taking out the bowls, "and it's fair if Xander gets the first bowl, I made it for him."

She let them decide amongst themselves the soup order, but as she said, she took hers last, and happily sat down with her family at last. Dark sat beside her, with Ivy in his lap. "I guess we didn't do a very good job at being normal," She joked, "Oh well."
 
Xander went first, but Alec waited and let Dark and Cooger go before him, and then they settled at the table. Xander ignored the conversation as he focused entirely on the soup before him. Alec wanted to do that, but he dragged himself away from soup heaven long enough to reply to Daizi.

"I think we did it perfectly. Outwardly, bland and uninteresting, but the moment something ruffles the surface, it all falls apart," he grinned.
 
"Clever," Daizi grinned, "I'm glad it was just pretend though. Everytime I made a comment about Dark beind the head of the household or raising Ivy to be a wonderful wife made me feel like my soul was dying."

"I think if you had fully committed I would have had to divorce you," Dark said, clearly lying but doing his best to sell it.
 
"Uh-huh, totally believe that statement," Xander mumbled around his soup spoon.

"What's that old saying? I think it came from a movie. I saw the scene, but not the whole movie," Alec said thoughtfully as he chewed on his spoon, trying to remember. "Something about how the husband is the head, but the wife is the neck."
 
"If she was no longer the person I married, then why would I stay?" Dark asked, glad that it was all pretend and that he didn't actually have to be faced with what he would do if Daizi's personality had that drastically changed.

"Oh please," Cooger laughed, "You worship the ground she walks on."

"I don't want to be worshiped," Daizi commented, "I also don't want either of us to be the head or the neck. Just people."
 
"People change all the time, and they keep on changing, little by little, without even noticing it," Alec pointed out.

Xander had a bit more soup before asking Cooger, "How's the work next door going?"
 
"I know, but there is a difference between the small and significant ways we grow and change together, and suddenly not liking the hobbies we used to enjoy together and wanting to raise our children in ways that go against everything we've valued previously," Dark replied, and would have felt mildly uncomfortable about discussing the joke as if it had been real, but Daizi taking his hand calmed him, "If Daizi genuinely told me she wants to be a stay-at-home mom to teach Ivy how 'women ought to behave,' that would be a significant problem."

"It's going pretty well! We got the toilet installed today, next we're putting in the tub, then the tile. I'll probably rope you or your dad in for the tub to be sure we have enough people to lift it safely. But it's going to look real nice, soon," Cooger replied, pretty proud of how things had gone.
 
Alec nodded seriously. "Indeed. It would mean she'd taken leave of her senses. Or that she really loved yanking your chain," he grinned.

"Nice. I can help move it," Xander agreed. "Are you going to show me how to tile?"
 
"I do love torturing him," Daizi agreed, grinning, and then rested her head on his shoulder, "But only until it stops being fun for him."

Looking down at her with the specific warmth that was reserved only for her, he said, "I think you are probably the sole cause of every one of the grey hairs I had prior to last December."

"I think I get credit for at least a few of those," Cooger chimed in, and then said to Xander, "If you'd want to learn, then sure. I don't see why not, it's a good skill to learn."
 
Alec smiled at them, shook his head, and turned his attention back to his soup. Delicious soup! It mended body and soul.

"Yeah, why not? Sounds cool," Xander nodded to Cooger. "When we doing it?"
 
"I am going to burn that onesie," Dark said resolutely. "And probably this tablecloth."

"Why did we still even have it?"

"It was a gift from Kelsey, one of our math teachers," He explained for Cooger's sake, "and even though I never liked it, I thought, maybe, for emergencies if all of her other clothes were dirty, it could be useful. Clearly it was a mistake. My own daughter, turned into a pawn against her Baba."

"I need to get with her and check my schedule. Relatively soon, I should think," Cooger answered Xander.
 
Alec looked up from finishing off his soup. "I like this tablecloth. It's a perfect crafting tablecloth because it can't possibly be any worse!"

"Cool. I have a gig with the band on Saturday morning, but otherwise, I'm free on the weekend or after school," Xander told him.
 
"That is why we kept the table cloth," Dark explained, picking at it, "But it, too, was used against me."

"No good deed goes unpunished, darling." Daizi chuckled, stretching up to kiss his cheek.

"It is essentially fancy burlap," He flipped a corner of it up, "When did we get this?"

"It was a wedding present, I think. Which means we've kept it for nearly a decade."

After a long inhale, Dark leaned back in his chair, and said, "I think we need to start cleaning out our closets more often."

"Oh, sure yeah. I'll let you know," Cooger said, "Everything is much quicker when I've got help."
 
"We need to sit down with Peter and figure out what we're doing for the talent show. Or if we're doing it at all," Alec remarked to Xander.

Xander grumbled but nodded. "I guess you're right. Could be fun."
 
"Are you still struggling with that?" Daizi asked, "Aren't you running out of time?"

"For most of the semester they did not know if their drummer was staying or leaving, that sort of thing makes it difficult to plan ahead," Dark pointed out.
 
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The twins both nodded, and Alec said, "Yes to both things, and now that Peter will be staying, he wasn't sure if he wanted to do the talent show."

"He says it sounds like a lot of bother with minimal payout," Xander said, imitating his friend's English phrasings with his Australian accent rather well."
 
Daizi thought about this for awhile and then said, "I think you perform enough that if you choose not to do the talent show, you won't feel like you're missing anything. I try not to commit myself to something that only stresses me, when it's meant to be fun."
 
"I think it sounds like great fun as well as letting the student body know that we're still going after last year," Alec told her. "Xander is indifferent."

Xander shrugged his agreement.

"Peter is vaguely in the negative with the potential for being convinced to my side," he concluded. "We were thinking of meeting here after our gig on Saturday and coming to an agreement on what we are doing."
 
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