How Green Becomes Wood

Dark made a quiet quip about showing it off after they pay, and the stylist brought them to the front to ring up their... not insignificant but not unreasonable bill, which Dark paid, although he handed Alec cash to give directly to the stylist as a tip, because he figured Alec would want to do that himself.

Then, at last free from the salon, he drove Alec back home. On the way, he said, "I know you wanted to do it yourself, but are you not glad I let a professional do it?"
 
"Yes, I am." Alec sat quietly looking out the window for a while. "I get to surprise Xander with it." He took a deep breath and said a little more firmly, "Being apart means I get the chance to surprise him with good things. Not just bad things. I've never gotten to surprise him like this before. We've never even done actual birthday presents to each other. Did you know that?"
 
"I don't know," Alec admitted. "We just... didn't. We've given each other things, but they've never been actually classified as gifts, though I think sometimes they were. I think we always thought that since we couldn't hide them from each other, wrap them, and then present them, they weren't real birthday gifts, so why bother? We'd still do Christmas because our mum insisted, but it didn't feel the same as it does now. It's a new thing to be able to go away and come back with a surprise."
 
"I suppose that makes sense," Dark said with a nod, "It is hard to adjust to doing something which never seemed like an option before. But you and Xander have both done such kind things for your friends--have you ever considered putting together a big surprise for Xander?"
 
Alec tipped his head and grinned. "No, but I love that idea! It would be so much fun to be able to do something like that for him. Now just to figure out what kind of surprise he'd love most!"
 
Alec allowed himself to bounce in excitement and tossed his head. "Thank you, Ba! This has been so awesome I can't even say how awesome it was!" He bounced out of the car and ran for the house. He barely paused for shoes and salt before calling out, "I'm home!!"

Xander came downstairs pretending as though he hadn't been waiting near the top of the stairs for them. "Hey, that took forever. How'd it..." He trailed off as he looked at Alec's hair. "Wow. That's pretty sick, dude. Nice!"

Alec grinned and came closer so Xander could look at it. "It's got variation!"
 
"You are welcome," Dark replied, pleased to have made his son so happy, and then followed him slowly inside.

Daizi joined them in the front hall, bringing Ivy with her. "I wish I could see it!" She said, excited because Alec was, "What did you decide on?" Ivy, meanwhile, stared.
 
"Blue tips, just blue, but with a cool gradiant from the red to the blue. It's so smooth it looks almost natural," Alec said proudly.

Xander caught a handful of Alec's hair and pulled him closer so he could see. "Dude, that's cool. You almost make me want to do it," he admitted while Alec patiently stood with his head cocked at a weird angle. "But no white?"

"Well, thankfully, the stylist told me what the red, white, and blue reminded her of, and it was not a flag," Alec said, straightening when Xander let him go.

Xander frowned. "Eh?"

"It could be found in the frozen section on a stick," Alec elaborated.

Xander continued to look confused until he suddenly got it. "That's why it looked familiar! I couldn't put my finger on it. I thought it was just the flag thing."
 
"It's probably for the best that you didn't go white. The maintenence is a lot more intense with colors like that." Daizi said, coming near enough to Alec to touch his hair, even though it felt the same to her. "I bet it looks fantastic."

"It does," Dark told her, trying to subtly usher them out of the front hall.
 
Alec and Xander could tell what Dark was doing but pretended not to notice as they dawdled and dragged their feet as long as possible until letting him shoo them out.

"What do you think of it, Ivy?" Alec asked, giggling.
 
Ivy stared wide-eyed at him, and then shrieked, bouncing in her mother's arms.

"Does that mean you like it, habibti?" Daizi asked, standing near Alec, and again Ivy shrieked, grabbing for her brother's hair, giggling.
 
Alec laughed and tipped his head so Ivy could grab it. "You're lucky I've got a thick scalp, Ivy! But still, please try to be gentle."

"Good call on the professional," Xander remarked to Dark. "Looks good. And no stained bathtubs."
 
Daizi did her best to make sure Ivy didn't pull too hard, while Ivy laughed, absolutely bewildered by Alec coming home with a new hair colour. "I was worried she wouldn't recognize you," Daizi admitted, "but she said, 'Mama, I'm smart!'"

"I am sure you would have done a fine job on your own," Dark said, arms crossed, "but this way there are no regrets."
 
Alec laughed as he let Ivy play. "I think it helped that we already established with her that I'm not my hair."

Xander nodded. "There's already been plenty of those." He turned and wandered toward the kitchen. "I'm hungry. I'm going to find a snack."
 
"Or, she's just a very clever baby," Daizk said, not willing to accept any explanation. Her daughter was a genius, that's the only truth.

"She also is too young to understand natural versus unnatural hair colours," Dark said, feeling just a bit warm inside at his son, who was so thrilled to have this new hairstyle, and his daughter who was astounded by it. He couldn't be more glad to get to just... be home for it, and watch it first hand, rather than hear about it later.
 
"That's it. It can't be anything else. She's brilliant," Alec giggled as he carefully pulled himself free. "Oi! Xander! Don't be snacking! It's almost dinner time!" He scampered after his brother.

"Alright, then I'll make dinner. Wanna help?" Xander called back. "You're so bossy!"

"As if you aren't," Alec teased.
 
"She is brilliant," Daizi reaffirmed, sitting down on the couch and beckoning her husband to her side, and he gladly joined her there. Sunday, the day they took the twins to meet their biological uncle, her adjusted age would be eight months old, which felt like an utter impossibility, but there they were. After a few moments of sitting there and talking quietly to one another, they got up, Daizi told the twins she and Dark were going outside until dinner, and then they went for a walk through their garden.

They needed to talk, and didn't want the twins to overhear, because Dark told Daizi after dinner that night, he wanted to bring up the possibility of him quitting his job to her. If it was something he was going to commit himself to, he needed to discuss it with them soon, before the guilt of not giving Bernice sufficient notice to replace him forced him to stay for another year. Already he was giving her less notice than he was contractually obligated to, so he needed to do it soon, if at all.

Ideally, he would have brought it up to the twins when they weren't dealing with this new, massive intrusion, but he didn't know if Sunday would end up being the extent of their interactions with their newest biological interloper, and he couldn't wait.

Although he had come around to the idea of leaving the school, he still had his reservations about it, and the twins' reaction to it would, ultimately, be a major deciding factor about if he actually went through with it or not, although Daizi urged him to commit to it regardless. She could tell how much more at peace he had been since being at home. It felt like she was walking beside a new man, and she liked him, and wanted him to stay.

Then, the conversation drifted to his upcoming meeting with the Iraqi man who owned the Arab market and how Dark felt about that. It had been a long time since he last spoke to anybody from his own country, much less someone who remembered it like he did. He was nervous about it, and wondered if he felt was anything like how the twins felt about meeting Tristan, because even though this man was not his relative, he was, in his own way, a representation of a significant part of his life which was sundered from him. Daizi was certain it'd be healthy for him, but he had no idea what she thought he'd get out of it, but he agreed to it, so he would do it. And in a way, he was excited. It meant he'd be able to speak Iraqi Arabic with a native speaker again.
 
"Something big is coming," Alec remarked, watching out the window.

Xander glanced over. "Yeah," he agreed.

"I wonder what it is this time? Does it have to do with Tristan?" Alec worried.

Xander shook his head. "I don't think so. I think he's just timing. I think it's something to do with Ba."

After a moment of thought, Alec nodded. "You're right, that does seem like the more likely thing. Ba has been dealing with something big. I guess we finally get to see what it is or was."

"Well, if you're going to stand there spying on them, you wanna tell them dinner is ready?" Xander suggested as he started carrying food to the table.

Alec nodded and hurried to do just that.
 
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