How Green Becomes Wood

"Hello, child unit... number... one?" Daizi replied, laughing halfway through her sentence, "I don't know what number you are. You're the first if it's in age order, last if it's alphabetical."

"Welcome home," Dark said as he set the table, "Dinner is just about ready, but you have time to shower first."
 
"I'm totally number one," Xander said.

"Number one in ego," Alec smirked.

Xander ignored him. "I'm going to hit the shower and then be back."

"What'd the shower ever do to you?" Alec called after him but got only a huff in response.
 
"Ivy could be number one," Dark commented, but then shook his head, "If we are doing units, it would be Son Unit 1, Son Unit 2, Daughter Unit. It makes more sense."

"That's sort of gender essentialist," Daizi teased, turning back towards the meal, "I think I'll just switch the numbering based on an arbitrary mental scorecard."
 
"Oh, I don't know," Daizi chuckled, "who is screaming most, I guess. And it's obvious who is typically screaming most. I don't actually like ranking you against each other based on your actions."
 
"Or maybe we are!" Alec grinned. His smile faded a little. "Might be easier if we were." His smile brightened again, and he said, "Then we'd come with user manuals, and imagine how much easier life would be!"

Xander walked in then and frowned at Alec. "Did you lose a user manual again?"
 
"Well I hope your manual comes with braille and your buttons are tactile," Daizi teased, putting on oven mits and taking the baking dish out, "Dinner is ready. I don't know why, Dark started reminiscing about biryani earlier, I shifted our plans around to make it today. We also have the salad and yogurt to go with it, because we do things right in this ethnic household."
 
Alec laughed as Xander joined them. "I wouldn't want it any other way!"

"It is pretty good stuff," Xander agreed. "Can't get casual home cooking like this at restaurants. It's all fancy stuff. Maybe we should open a restaurant or something. Like a diner for Middle Eastern dishes."
 
"Help bring the rest of it to the table, will you?" She asked, while Dark set out pot holders to set the baking dish on, "I don't have the time to run a restaurant. Although it's necessary, we need to go into the city for a good Middle Eastern restaurant. It's not a good one unless they yell the order to the back."
 
"I think that's how you judge a good Chinese resteraunt, too," Alec remarked as he and Xander helped bring everything to the table. "Thank you for making us dinner. It looks and smells delicious!"
 
Since everything in the dish were foods Ivy could eat, they took a bit of it and put it in the food processor for her, although they did pick out some of the potatoes and cut them up into smaller pieces, since they were soft enough to be a finger food for her.

"Thank you for making this for me, Spider," Dark murmured with a small, grateful look, and Daizi squeezed his hand, saying of course without saying it. Then Dark looked at Ivy, taking up a spoonful and feeding it to her, "There you go, my darling, that is good food for you. Proper food."
 
Alec ate a little less than usual but still properly cleaned his plate. Then, since Daizi had cooked, they both insisted they clean up the kitchen and put everything away among many thanks for the delicious dinner. They soon had everything in its proper place and scrubbed clean. Then it was time to finish homework for the evening since neither had gotten it completely finished before their lessons. Alec had a lot to do since he had spent his time playing with his mother, not that he regretted a second of it, but he was still working away diligently after Xander had wandered off to hang out with Daizi and idly talk about their days. Xander had no deep thoughts or revelations, just discussed random things.
 
Even though nothing major happened in her conversation with Xander, Daizi was absolutely delighted he came to talk with her, and she gladly paid him her full and undivided attention. It was Dark's night to put Ivy to bed, anyway, and by the time Xander had come to her, Ivy had already had her last feeding, so there was absolutely nowhere else for her to be.

As they got ready for bed together, Dark spoke to her some about what he had discussed with Alec and how much those things still bothered him, and although Daizi couldn't understand, she listened to him, and said what she could. He didn't need any answers or solutions, sometimes he just needed to talk about it, and she was glad to listen. It wasn't easy to hear about it, but she preferred it to him having to keep it all inside.
Come morning, he was much more settled and ready to send the boys off to school. This time, he let Daizi sleep in, rather than the reverse.
 
That night, Alec had a terrible nightmare. When he woke up, he couldn't remember all of it, but it had had something to do with Milo, Xander, Ivy, and his Cyr wheel teacher. His teacher kept telling him he needed to work on his balance, but while he was attempting to stand on his wheel in an unrealistic fashion while holding his math and English textbooks, Ivy was scolding him for painting the floor blue, and Xander wouldn't help no matter how much Alec pleaded. Milo was there in the background no matter where he turned, but Milo wasn't doing anything. Just there. Then Milo's mom showed up and took both Milo away.

Alec woke up with a harsh jolt. His shoulder throbbed, and his mind was reeling. Stupid dreams. He got ready for school, his shoulder hindering his movements some, and he accidentally tore the shirt he wanted to wear. It wasn't his favorite, but he was fond of it. His hair had decided it did not want to lay down in the back, meaning it took him longer to get ready, meaning Xander was complaining and calling for him to hurry up. When he finally made it downstairs, he realized he'd forgotten his English textbook. One trip up and down again, and he realized he'd forgotten his Science homework. Normally he had it all ready to go in the morning to avoid just this sort of disaster, but he'd neglected to prepare the night before. Needless to say, he was a flustered mess by the time he was ready to go.
 
Milo was at school, the same as always. He wasn't thrilled about it, obviously, but as far as he was concerned, he was coping. Depressed, anxious, and overwhelmed, but coping. He was, genuinely, trying to do the best he could, although he wasn't optimistic about his situation or his prospects. He wasn't proud of himself, but maybe things would be normal bad, and not bad bad.

He even tried to seek the twins themselves out that morning, "Hey," he mumbled, "the birds are four."
 
Alec tried to smile at Milo, but he was too preoccupied with his own aches and pains and tiredness to truly recognize Milo's effort. A part of him did, but it was a small part hidden under the fact that his shoulder hurt even with pain medication. "That's good news!"

Xander, who did recognize Milo's effort, gave him a firm nod. "That is really good news. Plenty of time to hang out with them and enjoy their company. Maybe your grands will even let you take them with you when you leave. Maybe. Either way, a lot of years ahead."
 
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