How Green Becomes Wood

"Okay, well, then I don't mind if you spend time with Tom before, either, as long as you make it to your interview on time." Daizi replied with a shrug, "And you'll still get to share it with us, you'll just get to tell us all about it when you get home."
 
Alec finished what he was doing and made sure to dry his hands well before coming over to hug Daizi. "I'm so excited! I hope this works out well, but I won't be devastated if it does not. It just means I have to put off buying a Cyr wheel a little longer."

Xander wasn't paying much attention, his mind having drifted as he stared at nothing. He wasn't thinking about anything in particular, his mind wandering freely wherever it wanted to go, and it chose to walk through dark, wordless, shapeless valleys.
 
"If he doesn't hire you, nothing is stopping you from applying at other places." Daizi pointed out, hugging her son, "You can make a list of places you may like to work and apply to them."

Dark watched Xander carefully, empathizing deeply with the look in his face, but not quite knowing how to cut through to him. Ivy, meanwhile, looked at him and screech, feeling very much like he should be looking at her.
 
"Oh, I know! It'll just take longer than if I get hired right away," Alec assured her. "Still, I've been studying flowers and trying to learn what I can for working at a florist shop. Flowers are really cool! I mean, I knew that before, but now I've learned they are extra cool!" He bounced to the side, hiding a slight wince as his shoulder protested grumpily. "I'm going to text Tom that it's cool that we hang out."
 
Daizi frowned slightly, unable to avoid feeling a bit saddened by that, "Almost two years of living with me, and my garden, and it took until the possibility of you working at a florist to decide to learn just how interesting flowers are?"
 
Alec returned to her and took her shoulder in a gentle, comforting squeeze. "Mama. You have work and Ivy to take care of now," he said gently. "There's so much to learn and the questions never end. I would rather spend time playing music or watching you play with Ivy than drag you into my homework. Besides, the only reason I know how to research and where to even start with such a huge topic is because of what you've already taught me."
 
"I have work and Ivy, and I spend time playing with her, or playing music, but when I'm gardening, and you've decided to take on it as homework, you could've joined me to talk with me about it. Maybe not all of the time, but some of the time." She said, briefly putting her hand over his, "I'm not always too busy, especially not when it's about one of my favourite hobbies."
 
"I know," Alec said guiltily. "I just didn't want to add more to your plate."

"Oh, come off it and leave him alone," Xander growled at Daizi as he stood up with his plate. "What's with the sudden guilt trip just because he didn't ask you a few questions about some plants? Besides. You deal with growing plants, not chopped and dead ones." He stalked over to the sink to clean up.
 
"You could've asked if I had the time, rather than assuming I didn't," Daizi mentioned, ruffling through Alec's hair, before turning slowly towards Xander, wondering what she had done over the past few days to make him so annoyed with her, "I am not guilt tripping him, and if that's how it seems I'm sorry, but it would be like if Dark decided to go horseback riding alone, English style, but never invite you to go along. You can't have a cut flower until you grow it first."
 
"It's okay. Never mind," Alec hurried to say as Xander rolled his eyes. "If I do get the job, I'm sure we'll have a lot to talk about flower-wise then! But first, I have to get the job. I wonder if I get to keep any damaged or wrong flowers? That could be fun!" He smiled and stepped away to text Tom and let him know he could come over.

Xander finished cleaning up his breakfast dishes and headed for the back door, intending to go out to his shop.
 
When both boys had left the room, Daizi sat back down and dropped her forehead against the island counter and sighed heavily.

"You are doing wonderfully," Dark told her, walking over and sitting down next to her.

"I think Xander's mad at me, and I don't know why."

"I think he is going through something, it is not about you." In response, Daizi vaguely grunted in agreement, so Dark sighed, rubbed her back, and told her, "You are Alec's mother. We both have to accept the things we like are less cool purely because we are their parents, and teens need to develop independence."

"I just..." She stretched slightly, resting her chin against her forearms but not sitting upright, "I taught him how to play piano, but now we rarely play together anymore, because he has his band. And that's okay, he's flourishing. I'm proud of him. And now he's learning this new thing, which I know so much about, but he wants to do it without me, and he's going to learn it with Tristan instead, if he gets hired, and I'm sure he will get hired, and I hope he is hired. But, at the same time: I want to spend time with him, because I don't want him to look back on this time and think, 'after the baby, Mama stopped spending time with me,' but I can't do Cyr Wheel, and I can't draw, and he's not interested in learning magic or fortune telling, but our shared interests he either doesn't want to do with me or thinks I'm too busy to do with him."
 
Alec came down a short time later with the intention of going out front to wait for Tom, but he turned and went to Daizi first to hug her. "I'm sorry I didn't ask you more questions about flowers," he told her. "I just wanted a crash course to hopefully help me not sound like a complete idiot for my interview. I didn't mean to make you feel like I was ignoring you."
 
Daizi hugged him back, "It's okay, habibi. I just miss spending time with you," She ran her fingers through his hair, "I don't want you to feel ignored, and I love flowers and gardening so much... I guess it made me a bit sad you wanted to learn with and from someone else, even if that someone is a textbook."
 
"I promise to ask you all the questions and to bother you every opportunity I get," Alec told her with a little smile. "All the questions! And I mean it when I say you have given me an excellent foundation to work from."
 
"I hope you do," She told him, kissing his forehead before letting him go, "Now, you should get ready to see your friend, right? I'm sure he's coming any minute. Do you have specific plans?"
 
Alec nodded. "He said he got accepted into a play and wants my help learning his lines. I didn't recognize the name of the play, but I'll tell you about it when I get back!" He kissed her cheek and headed for the front door.
 
Xander tried to get some work done, but he couldn't concentrate! He gave up after nearly ruining a second piece that he was working on. Leather cost too much to mess around with, even if half of what he used was recycled from couches and saddles. He wasn't about to be wasteful just because he couldn't keep his head in the game. He headed inside, passing through and up to his room. Nothing there could hold his attention for long, either. It was like something was chasing him. A shadow of a thought. A half-remembered something. Like a melody that you could remember just a few bars of but nothing else about it. He stirred abour restlessly in his room for a bit before heading back downstairs. Maybe he'd go for a walk. A walk might be good. Something to get him moving.
 
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