How Green Becomes Wood

Daizi extended her hand, "My friends call me Tarot."

"I think she would," Dark answered Rich, looking stealthily at his parents and wondering if they would have to explain this to them later.
 
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Tarot, ma'am! I've never met a witch before," Rich breathed, shaking her hand. "It is such an honor, ma'am!"

His mother finally noticed something was amiss and quickly stood up, pulling on a beach cover as she did so. It was a simple pink thing that covered everything to her knees, and she hurried toward Dark and Daizi, catching her husband's attention as she went. He looked up but didn't leave his job of trying to blow up a blue... thing. "Rich, Rich, honey, you shouldn't be bothering other beachgoers," she called nervously, glancing between Dark and Daizi.
 
This time Daizi did not correct her title, wanting to keep the magic alive for the boy, and when his mother came hustling over, Daizi sat back again, turning Ivy in her lap for maximum, 'we are safe and respectable adults' points, because she knew how some parents could be. "He stopped by to ask us a question," She said simply, guessing she was... probably... the more socially acceptable one of the pair of them, considering they were in their bathing suits and Dark was a giant tattooed from clavicle down, "I promise he was not bothering us."
 
"I am glad to hear that," the mom said with a tight smile, reaching out toward Rich. "I am still sorry he bothered you when you are clearly relaxing."

Alec and Xander had started walking back, but they paused, listening to the mom. Rich reluctantly skirted around Dark and Daizi and went to his mother.

"Rich, darling, you are going to overheat in that jacket," his mother said, guiding him away from Dark and Daizi. "I told you to take it off."

"But, Mom, I really don't want to, please," Rich protested.

"And I really don't want you getting heat stroke, so take it off." More quietly, she said, "And I don't want to see you talking to those kinds of people, understand?"

Alec stepped forward, smiling brightly. "High! Are you here to meet our folks?"

The mother froze, shocked, but Rich gave the tiniest nod. "They are your...?" the mother questioned.

"Adopted parents after fostering," Alec provided happily while Xander looked at him while he was insane.

"Oh, you're adopted?" she asked, looking surprised.

Alec nodded "It's fantastic! THey started fostering us only a couple of years ago, and we've never, ever had such safe home, you know? It's just fantastic! And our Mama is part of the staff at the museum, and so she lets us come and check out all the cool exhibits! Our dad has been helping us expand on our hobbies when he's not teaching highschool."

"The museum, hmm? And a teacher? Such noble professions," the mother said in admiration.

"Yep!" Alec looked straight at her, his tone suddenly serious. "So maybe you should think twice before passing judgement on those kinds of people, hmm?"

She looked at him, her cheeks pink. Then she took Rich's arm and marched back to her spot. Rich looked back and gave the family a little grin.
 
When the boy was pulled away, Dark and Daizi did still over hear his mom refer to them as, 'those kinds of people', and Daizi just lightly chuckled under her breath, lay down in the sun with Ivy, and she said to Dark, in Arabic under her breath, "There is nothing worse than those kinds of people... Goths!" which Dark nearly failed to stifle a laugh. It was refreshing to be judged based on their aesthetic and interests for a change. But they were pleased to see how Alec stood up for them, and when Rich grinned at them, Dark winked back before talking to his baby as if nothing had happened.

When the twins returned to them, Daizi said, "That boy thought Dark was the real Illustrated Man. He loved it."

"It was rather flattering," Dark agreed, "He thought I was going to kill Daizi and Ivy."
 
Alec and Xander came over, and Alec flopped down on his beach towel, which was bright blue with dozens of multi-colored starfish all over it. Xander sat down on his straight black blanket and crossed his legs.

"That must have been a fun conversation," Alec grinned.

"Why would he think you'd kill them?" Xander frowned.

Alec heaved a dramatic sigh. "I keep telling you to read the book!"

"I don't like it. It's all 'war is bad, people suck, blah, depression,'" Xander scowled.

Alec glanced at Dark. "You'd think he would be the one to get it."
 
"Well there's the one story where the family can't decide who gets to go into space so instead they decide to make a fake rocketship and pretend, so they get to all experience it together," Daizi pointed out, indicating it was not all war is bad, people are bad, life is terrible, although she felt that interpretation of the story was reductive, it just wasn't the time for that conversation.

"In the book, the Illustrated Man murders his wife and murders a carnie," Dark explained, lying back on his elbows, "so we know he is, if nothing else, willing and able to kill. It ends with the narrator seeing one of his tattoos shift to a depiction of the man strangling himself. I told him that Ray Bradbury had it wrong, and I married the witch who tattooed me."

"I liked that," Daizi said, "I can't believe Ivy didn't win his mom over. She must not have seen her smile."
 
"She was too busy looking at the cosmetics to see the real deal," Alec said then leaned over to kiss Ivy and nuzzle her playfully.

Xander turned and shaded his eyes to look toward the mom and Rich's area. "Looks like we got another case of the BABs, but they've moved over."

Alec looked as well, and his eyes lingered on the daughter. She was in a much smaller two-piece than her mother's, and she seemed to know exactly what she was doing with the way she posed, putting out her hip just so, her shoulders back to show off her chest. She did look good, but the haughty expression didn't really do much for her looks. Alec's eyes lingered on her body for several minutes. Then he suddenly looked away, blushing.

"I think I'm ready to go jump back in the ocean!" he said cheerfully, hopping up to his feet.
 
Ivy giggled and grabbed out at her brother, before flopping over and once more attempting to eat sand and finding it rather frustrating that her parents stopped her from doing so again, although the moment the light-up maraca was back in her hand, she squealed with delight and waved it around, accidentally whacking her father with it.

"BABs?" Daizi asked, unfamiliar with that term. "What do you mean?"

Dark caught sight of Alec staring, and was just about to politely pull him back to earth when the teen leapt up, visibly embarrassed. Running his teeth over his tongue, he figured that probably needed to be addressed, but right now was not the venue for it, so instead he said, "You seem to have been enjoying it. We were going to take Ivy into it soon."
 
Xander leaned closer and whispered to Daizi, "Beige A** B**ch. The women who refuse to even allow their kids to have colorful toys because it ruins the look."

"Nice! I'll meet you there!" Alec chirped and dashed into the waves as fast as possible.

"Weirdo," Xander said almost affectionately.
 
"Ah, I see," Daizi said, putting her hand over her mouth to disguise a laugh, "I do believe they are unfortunately rather common." She bit her lower lip, but then found it rather impossible to keep from saying, "Thankfully, we do not associate with those kinds of people." But then she made a face, because even as a joke, saying it felt bad.

Watching Alec scamper off, Dark lifted Ivy, trying to figure out how much thought he should give to the fact one of his sons had reached a new developmental milestone. "I think I am going to take Ivy into the water," Dark said, taking the baby float, and failed to restrain his desire to lightly tease his other son, "Xander, this is probably your last chance to touch my hair, because I expect it will get wet if I go swimming."
 
Xander snickered and told Daizi, "I think you're allowed to make one joke like that every six months, so there's your joke for the next few months." When Dark mentioned getting his hair wet, Xander said, "I think I'd rather dunk my own head in the sand."

Alec flopped into the water wallowing about in a depth of about knee-height. He wasn't going any deeper than maybe thigh-deep without Xander. Surely sharks couldn't fit in this shallow of water?
 
If his hands weren't full, he would have held them both up. "I just wanted to alert you, so you had all of the fact in case you wanted to make a decision. Once my hair is wet, you need to wait until tomorrow."

Then, with a small chuckle, he waited for Daizi to get up, and walked to the ocean's edge so they could put Ivy into her little float and then take her out into the waves. Spotting Alec, Dark moved them closer to him, because that was about as deep as they were comfortable bringing Ivy, who very quickly enjoyed the feeling of bouncing on the waves.
 
Xander waited until he felt he had regained his dignity, then he followed Dark and Daizi into the ocean. Alec greeted him with a splash, which he returned, but the pair of them kept things tame since Ivy was right there. They took turns splashing around and entertaining her as well as each other.

A threesome of girls walking on the beach passed them, talking as they went. They kept their voices low, but sound carried easily over water. Xander and Alec weren't paying attention, so they didn't hear most of what was said.

"O-M-G! Look at that hot guy!"

"Where? White shirt?"

"No, the giant with the tattoos! He's like... Thor but Eastern!"

"Oh, wow, I was watching the baby, but, yeah, he's a total dilf!"

"I can't believe you said that!"

After a bit of tittering, one said, "The other two guys aren't exactly hard on the eyes, either. The one with blue hair, he's kind of, you know, average, little dorky, but white shirt!"

"Wet white shirts make every guy with even semi-muscles look hot."

"Yeah, but he's built, too! Wonder if that's his dad. They don't look the same, but genetics are weird."

"Maybe that's his hot uncle."

"Oh, yeah! I mean, other than the lady, that's a pretty hot family."

"I think it's just the shadows, 'cause other than the stretch marks, she's hot, too."

"I'm jealous. I wanna live in that family."

"Tell you what. We'll start with the sons. I'll take the cute one, you take the hot one, and maybe their hot dad will go through a midlife crisis with one of us."

"Ew! Are you drooling? You guys are so weird!"

They walked on, still laughing.
 
"Like Thor but Eastern." Dark repeated, with a low chuckle, "I should be worried young women react to me like that."

"You have that effect on all women," Daizi replied, but lowered herself further into the water and did her best to angle her back towards the shore, "I wonder what they would do if they knew we overheard their plan to sneak into our family to win you over."

"They called me a dilf."

Dropping her voice so the twins wouldn't overhear, Daizi said, "You are. That's how we got our daughter."

"I am not sure I was a father yet, then." Dark replied, slipping nearer to her,.

"Hm..." Daizi sighed deeply, running her finger along the sun screen of Ivy's pool float, "I don't really think that matters. I can change the first letter of the acronym to anything, it'd still be true."

"Is that so?" He asked in a low voice, but then more parts of their conversation popped back into his head, "Wait, they said I might go through a midlife crisis and be with them. I am not old enough to have a midlife crisis, that is for people who are middle aged, I am only--"

"...Goose..."

"I am not even forty yet, people do not have midlife crises until they are at least fifty." Dark huffed.

She squeezed his shoulder, "At least they think you're hot."

"They think you are hot too," He pointed out, "We are a very attractive family."

She let him put his arm around her waist and pull her in to kiss her cheek, but then she moved away, moving in front of Ivy's float to talk to her, "I like the one didn't notice you originally because she was too busy admiring how cute Ivy is," She stroked Ivy underneath her chin, grinning when another wave made her baby laugh hard, "I bet she is the cutest baby on the beach!"

Dark nodded, coming around to her side and squatting down in the water, eye level with Ivy, "I have seen everyone else on the beach, and I can certify, there is not a cuter baby within a ten-mile radius. If I had to guess, there is not a cuter baby in the region, but I have not done that legwork. Do you like swimming in the water, Miss Ivy-Qadira? Is it really fun? It is!?"
 
Xander noticed Dark and Daizi flirting and rolled his eyes but didn't say anything. Instead, he started digging holes in the sand under the water and trying to find seashells.

Alec started to copy him, but he finally spotted the girls as they were walking away. He stared as he walked and tripped on a sand ridge. He ended up doing a highly ungraceful belly flop into the water. The girls glanced back and giggled. Alec shook himself off and stood up just in time to see one of the girls (the one who'd labeled him cute, though he didn't know that) give him a wink. He blushed bright red and stumbled in the other direction.

"Dude, what's the matter with you?" Xander frowned. He'd noticed the girls, but they were just people walking by. Nothing more.
 
Dark watched Alec stumble, and thought, yes, they certainly needed to have a talk. It was honestly a bit embarrassing. Expected for someone his age, but... Something that probably needed to be worked through. The middle of the ocean, however, did not seem like the place.

Instead, he sat back with Daizi and carefully pushed Ivy back and forth between them, a little game Ivy found delightful, and it shocked her how every time she kicked her legs, the float she was in moved more. Gradually, they recognized it was not going to be easy taking Ivy out of the water, and they realized they should have seen it coming. She loved bath time, she loved the kiddie pool, of course she also loved the ocean.
 
The twins eventually realized they needed more sunscreen, and they were getting tired, too, so after a bit of playing fence for Ivy and a few more dives into the waves, they headed in for shore and flopped out to dry on their towels. They had discovered a new love: Ocean waves!
 
It was amazing how easy it was to enjoy a fairly simple game when Ivy took so much excitement in it. Both of Ivy's parents would go woaaah when the wave lifted Ivy up, and a few times, Dark would lift the float entirely out of the water when the wave crested, pretending like it was that big of a wave, to her absolute delight.

Eventually, it was clear Ivy was getting tired, but every time her parents dared try to remove her from the water, she fussed until they let her stay in a little bit more, and they solved this problem by Dark cautiously lifting Ivy up out of her floatie and reclining into a backfloat, holding her against his chest like a boat. Daizi held onto the swan so they didn't lose it, and Dark floated around with her until she was solidly asleep, and then he moved back to shore, rocking her to try to mimic the motions of the wave so she stayed asleep.

"I never thought we'd get out of there," Daizi laughed lightly, but the moment she was back by their towels, she put her coverup back on and tied it shut, "She loved that."
 
"That was certainly an interesting event to watch," Alec said in amusement. "We were beginning to think Ba had turned into a boat."

Xander snickered. "He'd make a pretty decent boat. It's possible two whole people could fit there."

Alec rolled his eyes. "Yes, I'm sure. Want to do one more run before leaving?"

"Yeah, that sounds good," Xander agreed.

The twins assured Dark and Daizi they'd be right back before dashing off into the water once more. Xander even convinced Alec to go deeper than he had before so the water was up to his chest.
 
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