How Green Becomes Wood

Daizi bit her tongue to prevent from pointing out two whole people had lain on Dark, considering she had slept on top of him while pregnant, but she knew even if Xander didn't have his issues with pregnancy, they would have misinterpreted. And it didn't help she was feeling a bit of an ache for the misinterpretation. When the twins went out, Dark and Daizi chatted idly about how they needed to have the twins watch Ivy so they could swim in deeper water, and Daizi joked about wanting to play mermaid.

When the twins had been out in the water for a little while, something quick and scaly bumped first against Alec's leg.
 
Alec leaped straight up in the air with a squeal and splashed down awkwardly. He missed his footing and went under completely. Xander grabbed him by the shirt and hauled him up. His head came up and he coughed and spluttered frantically.

"What happened? Did you step on something? Are you hurt?" Xander demanded anxiously.

"Something!" Xander stopped to cough. "Something touched my leg!"

"Huh?" Xander asked, looking down in the water.
 
Just barely through the waves the shape of something could be made out, darting around beneath the deep blue water, and as Xander tried to figure out what it was, it bumped against his leg, and disappeared.

From the shore, Dark looked out at the two red heads scurrying and flailing, "Something is happening out there." He was not particularly concerned.
 
Xander let out a yell that, if asked later, he would say was much lower on the register than it actually was. He nearly fell over, but Alec caught him, pulling him upright, and nearly fell over, himself. They both started yelling and flailing, trying not to fall over. They turned and dashed toward land, struggling against the depth of the water.
 
"There's something in the water!" blurted both panicked boys, not yet registering Dark's amusement. Their words tumbled over each other as they tried to tell their father what had happened.

"It was slimy!"

"It rubbed on my leg!"

"It was on my leg, too!"

"It was HUGE!!"

"It was trying to grab us!"

"What was that?"

"I don't know!"

"I thought you said there were no sharks!"

"I thought there weren't!!"
 
"Something slimy in the water bumped against your leg?" Dark asked, fighting back a smirk, "That is truly concerning, my sons. It is good you made it to land. It sounds as though it could have potentially been... a fish."
 
The twins dissolved into a brief moment of blather before Xander caught on. He grabbed Alec's arm to quiet him and glared at Dark suspiciously.

"It weren't no pet shop goldfish," he stated. "And we couldn't see it well. How do you know it wasn't a sea snake?"

"Sea snakes are more deadly than land snakes!" Alec gasped.
 
"They don't?"Alec asked, slowly relaxing. "Oh, that's good."

Xander huffed and let go of his brother's arm. "It still could have been worse," he grumbled, fighting down the embarrassment.
 
"Absolutely!" Alec agreed eagerly and trotted ahead of them. "Mama! I'm coming to help clean up! Want me to shake out the blankets?"

"I'mma touch your hair," Xander grumbled under his breath as he stalked toward the towels.
 
"That would be great," Daizi said, handing the bundle of towels to Alec when he was near enough. She had done most of the clean up while Dark was walking towards the shore to get them, albeit one-handed, because she wasn't sure if it was acceptable to just let Ivy sleep directly on the sand.

"If you do," Dark replied, strolling along behind him, "I recommend you wait for when it is dry."
 
Xander came over to help Alec, and between the pair of them, they quickly had the towels shaken out and folded up and all the assorted stuff picked up. Xander started letting the air out of the swan floaty thing but stopped and stared into its beaked face.

"This feels weird," he finally said, looking at the partially deflated toy uncomfortably. "If we're coming back tomorrow or something, shouldn't we just... leave it?"

"That makes sense to me," Alec agreed.
 
"We do not have to deflate it," Dark said, picking it up, "but we should bring it inside. Our rental may open right out onto the beach, but anything can happen to what we leave outdoors."

"I'm going to go lay Ivy down, I'll help with anything that still needs doing after" Daizi said, sliding the door open and slipping inside. Such a poor, sweet, sleepy baby, Daizi hummed as she lay her down, taking time to caress her hair and face. "Mama loves you, habibti," She murmured, leaning over the rails, "You have sweet dreams for Mama, okay? Mama's little mermaid..."
 
"I call first dibs on the shower," Xander said, heading that way.

"You can go before me, Mama," Alec offered. He went to hang up the towels and then sat on the floor so he wouldn't get the furniture dirty. It looked like furniture that had been designed to get dirty, but he didn't want make it dirty on purpose.
 
"We have two showers," Daizi reminded them, "Your bedroom and ours."

By the time everyone was clean, Ivy was awake enough for them to go to dinner, according to whichever twin got to choose. Daizi had changed back into a dress and suggested they get dessert.

Afterwards, they went back home, tired but full of good food, feeling rather pleased about their first full official day of vacation. Or, mostly pleased. After Ivy was asleep for the night, and Dark was in the process of undressing, Daizi sat on the edge of the bed, rubbing the fabric of her dress between her thumb and forefinger, thinking deeply about something.
 
"Oh, that's right!" Alec said, brightening, and ran to get clean after Xander.

The twins had picked a seafood restaurant and got lobster and crab, which they picked over curiously. It took them a while to figure out how to eat them, and they were surprised to discover they didn't love lobster as much as they thought they would. The crab, on the other hand, they fought over excitedly. That was good!

When they headed back home, they headed for their room, and Xander played with his trick puzzle box while Alec flipped through pictures and tried to pick what he wanted to get before they left.
 
"Dark?" Daizi asked at last, the name she used catching all of her husband's attention, "Are my stretchmarks bad? I mean, I know I have them, I can feel them, but... Are they really visible?"

While unbuttoning his shirt, he answered her, "I can see them, but I would not say they are 'bad.' I thought they did not bother you?"

"They didn't..." She pulled her legs up onto the bed, twisting and pulling on the hem of her skirt, "But I didn't realize people... noticed... them."

Turning around, leaving his shirt on but undone, Dark watched the look on his wife's face for only a second before sitting down beside her, "Spider, is this about what those girls said? Because..."

"They're a really attractive family, except for that lady." Daizi said, not raising her head. Since that moment, she had been trying to laugh off that moment, but it kept coming back into her mind, and she felt about two inches tall.

"Darling, I do not think you should take what girls their age say to heart. I do not believe any of them were over the age of twenty three, they probably base their opinions off of influencers who use filters and thousands of dollars worth of cosmetic treatments."

She sniffed, rubbing her palms up and down the top of her thighs, "I am 'hot,' except for my stretchmarks. And I am 'hot' because they thought non-existent shadows were obscuring my face, but I just look like this." She shut her eyes and directed her face down and away. "I know that I have an ugly face. I know that my face is unattractive to most people. I know it's asymmetrical, and it's crooked, and it's because I was born wrong, and I know I always say it doesn't matter, because I'm worth more than how I look, and we shouldn't be basing ourselves on our appearances anyway, but--I know this is vain and probably antifeminist, but it always helped, when people said the things they said about me, to know that I still had a good body. I had an attractive body. And I hate thinking about myself like that, and I don't like saying it outloud, but it's true."

"You still have an attractive body," Dark told her, rubbing her back gently as he slid close enough to her for their knees to touch. "And you know I think you are beautiful, even if you do not let me say it."

"Do they bother you?"

"Your stretch marks?"

"Yes."

"No." Dark told her immediately, truthfully, definitively, and with such force Daizi began to cry despite all the work she had done all evening to prevent it, and she was swiftly pulled in tightly. "I have stretch marks too, you know that. All down my back and my legs, you have felt mine. They are like ladders, you said."

"It's not the same," She said into his chest, "You did not--"

"I did not earn mine bringing the most perfect, loving, baby girl into this world." He answered for her, stroking her hair with one hand, rubbing her back with his other, and rocking her. "Not only do they not bother me, I think they are beyond alluring, because I worship you. Sorority girls on the beach do not see you. They do not know you. But I do. And you knock me to the floor every time I see any part of you."

She whimpered, letting herself disappear into his embrace, "I just want one part of me that people do not comment negatively on. I want to just exist, and not be reminded by everyone on the street by how insufficient I am."

Dark scoffed, taking her face in his hands, "You are anything but insufficient."

"But--"

"No, darling--" He kissed her forehead, then her nose, and her cheekbone, "Listen to me. You are sublime. And I know you do not feel that way tonight, but you are, and I am going to prove it to you. If not now, and if not tomorrow, than the next day, or the day after that, and I am never going to stop proving it to you. I have seen more of you than anyone else alive. Listen to me, Daizi." He ran his thumb along her cheekbone, and slipped his other hand down to her lower back, "Listen to me."
 
The next morning, the twins rose and dressed. No more were they spending half the day in their pajamas! They ate a fast little breakfast, made certain they were coated in sunscreen, and then headed out for the day. Alec was so excited he barely remembered to give Daizi a hug goodbye. They promised to try to return for lunch but assured them they'd call or text if plans changed.
 
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