How Green Becomes Wood

"Three days so far," She replied, "You are the one who said you may never want to deal with him again. And even three days is a long time when it is three days you refuse to speak to somebody who used to matter most to you."

~~

Ivy was underneath Xander's bed, chewing on a scrap of leather. And she was bright red. A tube of red paint, broken, was besides her, and from the way it had been smeared beneath the bed, and wiped onto the front of her onesie, it wasn't too difficult to figure out the order of events.
 
Xander snorted quietly but made no further argument. There was no winning this one, if there was such a thing as winning in this situation. He wasn't budging, and neither was his mother. He'd said repeatedly he didn't want to talk about this, so maybe it was time to not talk.

~~

"Oh no," Alec murmured, staring at Ivy. "Ba is going to implode. At least the paint isn't toxic, but you are so going to be stained!" He sighed and reached under for her. "Ivy! Ivy, come here! What do you have?" he implored in a bright happy tone.
 
Daizi sighed softly, feeling so much dread for how things were going. It had been three days, and already Alec was yelling at his brother and chasing him out of the house, fighting for acknowledgment. How would things escalate in another three days? The constant tension, the not knowing if or when she and Dark should speak up, not being able to speak to both of her children at the same time, and she was terrified of the damage occurring between her sons' relationship. They went from being best friends to not being able to stay in the same room together, and she was afraid for them.

"I'm worried for you." She repeated like an omen, and left him be.

~~

Ivy giggled, squeezing the piece of leather and rolled under her back. She fit more easily under the bed than her teenage brother did, and when she rolled, she rolled right through a glob of paint.
 
Xander glared at the workbench and smacked a thick piece of leather. It did not matter right now. Or rather, it mattered too much. If he touched that sore spot, he would explode!

~~

"Oh joy," Alec groaned. He flattened himself and tried to wiggle under more. Was this space always this tight? "Come on, Ivy, this way!" He coaxed, reaching out for her.
 
Daizi stepped outside and took a deep breath, inhaling the sweet scent of all of her flowers after being in the leather shed, rubbed her face, and went back inside. Dark was right, she probably shouldn't have engaged, but they were just talking about rubber bands and then Alec was yelling and storming out after Xander and how were they supposed to live like that? Nobody got soup for this, nobody earned soup for this, nobody was sick they were stubborn. But they needed dinner, so she was going to make something.

~~

"Did you find her?" Dark asked, having heard Alec speaking and coming around the corner to check.

Ivy giggled and continued to chew on the leather.
 
Alec crawled forward and caught Ivy, half lifting and half dragging her back out. "Come here, you! You are in for such a bath!" he gently scolded, trying not to let her touch him. He lifted her up, holding her out at arm's length. "Where'd yuo even get that? And what are you chewing on?"
 
When Ivy was pulled out from beneath the bed covered in red, Dark nearly had a heart attack on the spot before recognizing it was paint. He exhaled heavily, but then his relief was replaced with the realization his infant was absolutely covered in paint.

"Fantastic." He said dryly, while Ivy happily chewed on the random scrap--thankfully it didn't look like anything important--and then, rubbing his face said, "I am sorry, I will buy you new paint." He stared blankly at his bright red daughter, and couldn't help but laugh painfully, "Are you able to hold her out for a moment longer, I want to take a picture so I may embarrass her with it when she is older."
 
"Yes, I can hold her," Alec said with a wry grin. He shook his head at Ivy. "Are you so very red? Is that your new color? Hmm? I wonder if Xander will want that scrap back."
 
Dark took the picture quickly and then stripped down to his undershirt for the second time that day, because he didn't want to get paint over his shirt, but he knew perfectly well there was no chance he could successfully bathe Ivy without getting paint on him. Even with his muted expressions, the pain in his eyes was visible as he took Ivy and felt the paint squelch against him.

"Okay, Hummingbird," He said, doing his best to hold her at a distance, "Let us go hose you down. I will get the leather from her, I do not know if it has been treated with something harmful. Would you run downstairs and get a garbage bag or something so I can change her without getting paint over everything?"
 
"Can do," Alec agreed. He headed downstairs and washed his hands thoroughly first before getting a couple of bags. Then he was back upstairs to offer them to his father. "Should I put your shirt in your room or the laundry?"
 
"Thank you," Dark replied, taking the bags and doing his best to spread them over the chaffing table while holding Ivy, and once it was successfully covered, he set her down, leaving himself left with a suspiciously Ivy-shaped red mark on his chest. "You can leave it in my bedroom, I'll sort it later. Thank you. I should have run her bath first, but it will be much easier to handle her if I could get some of this off with wet wipes." He was mostly talking to himself, which helped him to settle himself after first losing his baby and then seeing her covered in red. "You are in so much trouble, Ivy-Qadira Hala. You are."
 
Alec chuckled and patted Dark's arm lightly. "It could have been worse!" he said cheerfully. He went into the bathroom first and got the water running before going to his room to fetch Dark's abandoned clothes. He took them to his parents' room and then checked the water to make certain it was a good temperature. Once the water seemed deep enough, he shut it off and left to give Dark and Ivy privacy. Time to clean his own room.
 
Dark brought Ivy to the bath, and finding it running, set her in it and began to carefully and gently scrub her clean, and with how much she splashed, himself, the whole time lecturing her about what a naughty baby she was by scaring him.

"If you were older and understood what punishments were," He chided her, "You would be put in time out, Miss Ivy-Qadira. You would be, yes."

With a heavy sigh when she was finally washed clean and all the paint was off of her, her wrapped her up in her frog towel and brought her back to the nursery to rediaper her and dress her in a clean onesie. Finally, still in his wet undershirt, went back to Alec, "How bad is it under there? I am sorry."
 
Alec had gotten a bucket of water and as many rags as he could find. He'd managed to get most of the pain scraped up and disposed of before Dark arrived, after moving the bed out of the way as best he could, and now he was scrubbing the floor square by square. He sat back on his heels and used his forearm to brush his hair out of his eyes. "I'm not sure if I can get it completely out of the floor, but it is coming off! Bit by bit! It looks like a murder scene."
 
"It reminded me of--" Dark began, but ended his sentence abruptly, "Do you see what you did, Ivy? It was very, very naughty of you. At least the paint is still wet and we did not discover it after it had already dried down."
 
"I am okay. It only startled me, when we did not know where she was. But we have found her." Dark replied, although he was paying some extra attention to how he was breathing. He went into his pocket, handing the scrap of leather to Alec, "I got this back from her. I do not know where it belongs."
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top