How Green Becomes Wood

Dark noticed the way the twins were staring at him, but didn't quite understand why they were. It wasn't like he had overloaded his sushi or anything, he only wanted that particular piece to be a little bit spicier. For variety. They were looking at him like he had disassembled the roll and ate it piece by piece.

"Yes, you can come with me." He said openly, "and Xander, you do not have to come."

"We also talked about renting a pontoon boat one of the days," Daizi mentioned.
 
"What's a pontoon boat?" Alec asked. He poked at his sushi a bit and then started to take it apart. He wanted to know what was inside.

Xander snagged a spring roll. "Sounds like fun. Out on the water bobbing every which way."
 
"It's kind of like a bigger, slower speed boat. It's still little enough you could pull it behind your car if you needed to, but it's roomier and you're able to move around on it more." Daizi explained. "I actually don't know if the pontoon boat is the right style of boat for the ocean, but I know we can rent a roomy, safe boat."

"We should rent an inner tube we can pull behind it," Dark suggested, figuring Xander would enjoy that.

A thought occurred to Daizi, who couldn't help but laugh, "If we go far enough into the ocean, and there aren't any other boaters or swimmers or anything else around, I can drive."
 
"As long as you didn't go too fast, you could drive as long as there's not too many other people. Ba can guide you around them," Alec suggested.

"Or we can go where there's no one and she can open it up and go full throttle," Xander grinned. "But not when I'm in the inner tube behind it because that sounds awesome!"

"That does sound fun!" Alec agreed, stealing some of Xander's pad thai.
 
"There's so much freedom at the beach!" Daizi said, truly excited, "I think we might be able to go parasailing, too. We saw that, didn't we, Goose?"

"I think so," Dark said, trying to recall. "There is a lot to do, and we have all week to figure out what our plans are. But we should not add too much to our schedule, if we run around every day, we will forget to enjoy any of it."

"Plus we need to do things with darling miss Ivy, too." Daizi said cheerfully, snuggling her baby since they didn't have a high chair to put her in here, so they were back to eating with her in their laps.
 
"We can take her into the water, and we have a little baby float to make sure she can stay safe when we do, we can play with her in the sand. Not too distant from here is a splash park, which is basically just a place with fancy sprinklers. And if she is a very lucky and very special baby," Daizi stood Ivy up in her lap, "We will buy her a brand new toy! Would Ivy like that?"

"Ivy is fortunate enough to find most things enjoyable," Dark commented, "so we do not need to be too concerned. She will enjoy going on walks down main street and playing in the sand with us, and those are special moments for her, even if to us they seem less interesting."

"I bet she'd enjoy the boat, too." Daizi said, stroking Ivy's hair, "The waves would be fun for her."
 
"No, we were really aware of her. Weren't we, baby?" Daizi asked, grinning while Ivy grabbed at her face with a happy squeak, "Oh, but we can't get you too excited, habibti, Ivy still has to go night-night. Yes she does, she does!" Then she leaned in close to Ivy's ear, "Xander is sleepy, I think he wants to go sleep."

"It has been a long day," Dark said, clearing the table and throwing away all of their trash, rather pleased to not have dishes to wash, "I am sure we are all tired tonight."
 
"I'm fine, just low on oxygen," Xander complained as he stood up to help.

"I'll be happy to go night-night. I'm not going to deny that, but it will be hard to close my eyes on all this," Alec said, wiping the table.
 
"But, the sooner you go to bed," Daizi pointed out as she stood, "the sooner you get to wake up to a full day of all of this tomorrow. Ivy, my darling, we need to go and wind down for the night, because otherwise we end up with a horribly cranky baby tomorrow."

"We have no set plans for tomorrow, so there is no need to hurry awake. But I think it would be nice to go out for breakfast." Dark suggested, only partially because all they had to eat in the home was snacks from the road.
 
"We never go out for breakfast. Or nearly never," Alec remarked. "We should totally do that!"

Xander shook his head. "Yeah, alright, breakfast out sounds good. That can be our plan. Night, Mini."

"Good night, Ivy," Alec told her with a little kiss.
 
"It will be nice, I think," Dark said, feeling rather proud of the idea, and he locked the screen door while Daizi brought Ivy into their bedroom where she shut off the lights, thought she shut the blinds (she turned the slats the wrong way around), stubbed her toe on the dresser, and then climbed into bed to read and sing to Ivy to get her settled for the night.
 
The twins meant to go to their room, but they ended up sitting on the couch staring out at the ocean. They leaned against each other in companionable silence, half asleep, cozy and content. It had been a good day, and now they were in a beautiful, amazing place. The world lay wide open before them!
 
Dark sat out with them for a little while, watching the moon rise over the water, and then he went into his bedroom to give them some time alone, and to see if Daizi needed help settling their baby, but it seemed she had it handled, so instead he crawled into bed beside her and held her, leaning back against the unfamiliar headboard.

When Daizi fell asleep, Dark carefully took Ivy from her, lay her down, and then stealthy got back into bed so as to not jostle his wife, and he even might have slept in, but Ivy did not, so they were up like they always were, realizing even on the beach, their morning routine was more or less the same, although Daizi attested to breastfeeding to the sound of the ocean waves was much more relaxing.

Already, the sea air and weather conditions curled Dark's hair up far more than it ever was at home, and to his and Daizi's surprise---it curled Ivy's too, although not as drastically.
 
The twins stumbled out of their unfamiliar bed and into their clothes before walking out into the main room. They grabbed their sunscreen on the way and were in the middle of discussing when they should apply it when they spotted Dark. Specifically, his hair.

"Um," Alec said slowly, "that's actually a good look on you."

"It's like a sheep," Xander whispered in awe.

"Did you... do you straighten it at home?" Alec asked.

"A lamb," Xander murmured.

"I don't think I ever noticed you straightening it before," Alec finished.

"A black little new lamb," Xander almost whispered.
 
"What?" Dark asked, but then quickly understood, "No, I just have textured hair. Humidity and salt makes it curl more. Both do... this." He gestured vaguely to his head, not particularly bothered by it. "I have not straightened my hair since high school."

"Look, Ivy's hair curled too!" Daizi said, holding up her daughter, "I think that means she'll end up with hair closer to Dark's than mine, mine is pretty straight."
 
Alec smiled encouragingly. "I think it looks good."

"So soft and fluffy," Xander said, holding his hands close to his chest.

Alec moved over to Ivy and grinned. "She does have curly hair! It's so cute!"

Xander hadn't looked away from Dark's hair. "A black cloud. With sheep DNA."

Alec giggled as he ran his hand over Ivy's head. "You have the softest hair in the world! And now it's curly!"

"I want to touch it," Xander whispered.
 
Dark squinted at Xander and half turned, wondering if anyone else was hearing or seeing this, because of any reaction he expected the twins might have---this was not it. "You... want to touch... my hair? You?"

"To be fair, Goose, you do have great hair." Daizi replied, twirling one of Ivy's new ringlets around her finger, very pleased they discovered this quirk of hers, "I love getting to touch it."
 
"It is truly fabulous hair," Alec agreed, completely serious. "Ivy is going to love having inherited your hair."

Xander blinked and looked as if he'd suddenly come back to awareness of himself and his space. "What? Nah, I don't want to touch your hair," he blustered. "I said I want to... do stuff at the fair."

Alec raised his brows and smirked. "I agree, doing stuff at the fair sounds like a grand time," he agreed.

Xander abruptly shoved his hands in his pockets and stalked toward the fridge. "Touching hair... What's with all the hair talk? It's just hair. Everyone has it, and practically no one is happy with the hair they got!" He opened he fridge and looked for a drink. Cautiously, he peeked over the top of the fridge door for another peek at the hair before pulling out some water. "Aren't we going out for breakfast?"

"Waiting on you!" Alec said cheerfully.
 
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