How Green Becomes Wood

Daizi made a face, "God no. Absolutely not, I don't want anybody there for that, and he wouldn't want anyone to see. But help setting up the scavenger hunt and its puzzles and maybe be someone who gives him one of the clues?"
 
"I want it to be a little more tricky than a little limerick making it obvious where the next place is, you know? We both really enjoy puzzles and I don't want to insult his intelligence." She grinned, "I want him to have to decode things and find keys. Amty Zeinab has already said she wants him to have to call her."
 
"A call to someone, that's a good one," Xander agreed, fully supportive of this idea. Puzzles! Puzzles and clues were fantastic! "When is this going to be? How long do you have to plan?"
 
"Our anniversary is November 1st and we need probably at least the full month of October to plan, or longer because Ivy's birthday is the 13th, so we need to balance both. I was hoping by the end of the month or early September, just so it's out of the way and we have time to decide if we want to rent a place for the ceremony."
 
"Don't grease it? Why not?" Xander asked, checking the pan before carefully pouring in the batter, pouring it in slowly and evenly. "And should I tap it for air bubbles or not since it's basically sugary air bubbles?"
 
Xander gingerly gave it a few taps. Angel food cakes needed to be able to climb up the side? How were they going to get it out? He supposed he'd figure that out later. "So, what are you thinking I could do? Help set up a thing or something? For your proposal plan thing."
 
"I want to send him to places that are important to our relationship," Daizi said, opening the oven door for Xander, "and I thought it would be nice if at a few of them, people we love were there to give the next clue. Or even if a clue doesn't send them to a specific place, but to a specific person, so the clue would bring him to you, and you'd give him the next bit of the puzzle."
 
"Really? Cool," Xander said, but a glow of pleasure filled his heart that Daizi trusted him enough to want him to be a part of such a big event. More than that, that he was someone that special. No matter how much they said it, no matter how many times it was shown to him, it never ceased to amaze and flatter him.
 
"I just..." She rubbed her finger against the countertop, "I want him to feel like how he makes me feel. He deserves to feel special and adored, because I do adore him. I'm nearly obsessed with him, I fear."

She stood thoughtfully for a few moments and then took the bowl to the sink to rinse it out, "Ten years is a long time. I want to get him his own engagement ring. I wear two rings, he should too. I'm thinking of putting our birthstones in it."
 
"I thought we weren't supposed to use the 'O' word," Xander teased very lightly. He nearly said, "guys get engagement rings?" as he'd never heard of such a thing, but he caught himself. Dark and Daizi marched to their own drums or some other instrument. Whether or not guys got engagement rings in general, if she wanted to get him one, and he he wanted to wear it, it would happen no matter what. Instead, he said, "Birthstones sound good to me. I never got the point of things like diamonds. They are strong and stuff, but really boring to look at, and they are hardly ever in cool-feeling shapes like other stones are."
 
"It's a healthy version," Daizi jested right back, "I'm not the Lady of Shallot. ...But, I don't know. There's something about it... I don't think it's a secret that I never learned to love in moderation, I'm not very good at being reserved about it. I love people very quickly, and sometimes before they love me back, often more ardently than I get back, and it wasn't 'love at first sight' with Dark, because I loved him before we met. But all of that is to say, if you can still bring yourself to listen: I know how it feels to love a sibling, and how it feels to love friends, and relatives, and pets and how it feels to love my children. And none of that love is the same kind of love. I don't love you the way I love Cooger, because I've never stayed up to 3 a.m. smoking weed and talking about aliens with you and I've never gone to a meeting with his principal. It's different. I'm sure you understand that, because I doubt you love Dark and I the way you love Alec." She waved her hand, beginning to rinse the beaters, "the way I love Dark isn't like any of it. It's like how I love my friends, but with the responsibility of loving your family, and this entirely new animal unique to it, unique to him. So it feels near to 'the O word' because it's complex and fulfilling... and exciting... and I get to experience him learn more about who he is, and watch him uncover his own new brands of love. I know that's not something you want for yourself, and I know you don't really get it, but that's why. Everything I do with and for him is to cultivate that feeling." She shrugged, blushing slightly, fully aware she had unintentionally gone off on a tangent. Already Daizi could hear a few moments of Xander's silence followed by Yeah... so how long is this cake in the oven for? as the teen tried to cope with being told too much about something he didn't want to know about.

"I'm sorry," she murmured, rubbing her shoulder against her cheek to try to get her hair out of her face without touching her soap-and-batter covered hands to it, "Diamonds are partially marketing, and partially because you're supposed to wear an engagement ring daily, so if it's a soft stone, you'll damage it. I really wish---Dark and I both have red birthstones, and I thought, we could be at the ends, then you and Alec, with Ivy in the middle, and Omar on the inside of the band, but Ivy's stone is an opal, which is too soft for daily wear."
 
"Oh," Xander said, as Daizi guessed, trying to absorb the long speech. It wasn't just being told so much that bothered him. It was the idea that he was supposed to somehow respond on the same level that added an extra layer of pressure to come up with the right words, and he just... didn't have them. At least Daizi moved on to something he did understand. "I guess you could maybe put a glass cover over it or something? I dunno. Or make just hers a diamond so it won't get hurt. But how come Omar's is inside?"
 
"I'm not sure. I'd need to do some research... I can't make hers a diamond... because Omar's actually is. And I need to put his on the inside, because I want him there, I want him included, but... It's really hard. It's hard to talk about, it's important, but it's hard. Just like how there's different kinds of love, there's different kinds of grief, and losing him... holding him... when we were so close to the age of viability... The miscarriages were traumatizing and painful, but he had become a baby, to us. A real one. I had been able to feel him move, and then..." She shook her head, the memory still too painful, "It took us awhile before we could even say his name outloud. It was only four years ago. And if it's on the outside, it's inevitable that we'll be asked I thought you only have three kids? and we'll have to explain or lie. It is already so much to carry, it feels better to keep his memory private. It's what feels comfortable to us."
 
"Okay, then don't use a diamond," Xander said with a shrug. "But you're going to have to figure out something quick so the ring maker has plenty of time, since it's so custom."
 
"I know," She sighed, "It's just... hard to decide on. I may decide against the birthstones, because our sets should look similar, shouldn't they? It's really difficult, he designed the perfect engagement ring for me."
 
"You'll get it," Xander promised her. "I think you're just overthinking this a little bit. I mean, people wear opals all the time, right? And if it breaks, you can always replace it, and I bet he'd remember to take it off before doing something that might really damage it, like house construction or something. Or you could pick one stone to represent all the kids and a different stone to represent you two. You'll figure it out." He looked down awkwardly. "So. When's the cake going to be done?"
 
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