How Green Becomes Wood

"I'm sure the customers will be crushed when it's a teenager behind the counter again," Cooger replied, "It helped him out, I bet. Dark's fine, I think it was good for his ego, mostly. Too much socializing for him, but everyone likes to know they've still got it."
 
"That's for sure," Lex chuckled. "He's not my type, but damned if I wouldn't buy a flower if I walked into the shop and that giant was standing there. But Alec is okay working there?"
 
When Lex said Dark wasn't her type, Cooger's face lit up. Women had never come between him and his brother... but his brother had come between women and him. It was never intentional on Dark's part, even while he was in his slutty 'I cheat on all my partners' phase, Dark never tried to do anything with Cooger's girlfriends. But he had dated a number of women who eventually proved they were more interested in Dark. But Dark wasn't Lex's type. And Lex was interested in him.

"I asked Dark that," he said, "Nothing like that happens with him. Or to Tristan, the shop owner, if I had to guess. It's just him."
 
Lex winced. "Poor guy. That's gotta suck. One of the few reasons I'm glad I wasn't born as conventionally gorgeous as my sister. That level of attractiveness is just exhausting. And trouble. But, hey, at least your nephew is spared the trauma. By the way, how is the family doing? As a whole. This isn't me prying, just checking in in a neighborly fashion to see if I should pull out one of my gran's hotdish recipes or anything like that. Seemed like there was some trouble a couple if days ago."
 
"It's weird for him, definitely. And it's hard, because he looks like that, but Tarot has unique facial features, which people have historically been unkind about. It doesn't cause problems between the two of them, but I've heard some of the comments people say about them." He looked over towards his friends' home, "They had some troubles. But I don't think any of it is too bad. Well." He squinted, thinking about what Dark had told him in the nursery about the twins in a fist fight on the floor, oblivious to how much better Dark was doing at that moment, "Not comparatively, anyway. They're getting the situation sorted. Anyway, they'll have a great weekend."
 
"Good, good," Lex nodded, satisfied. "I'm not a nosey person by nature, but I care about who I care about, you know? And not everyone is willing to say things like, 'I had a sucky week, the best thing that could happen right now is if someone brought me a case of apples,' or whatever the hell they need or want just to make things easier. So, I try to ask. I don't need details about why it was a sucky week, just how to make it better, unless telling me all about it is what would make it better, but in case you haven't noticed, I'm not exactly good at subtlety."
 
"It's good you care about them. I think, especially given everything that's happened these past two years, nearly two years, it's good to see what a community has sprung up. It makes me feel a bit jealous, because it was just us three for so long, plus Tarot's friend group, but I'm able to breathe easier knowing they have the proverbial village." He nodded for a bit, imagining how much more difficult it'd be if it were just him in their corner, "If it helps at all, it's better to ask Tarot. Dark doesn't like to talk to anyone except for me, Tarot, and his therapist, really. Sometimes he opens up, but if you just start asking him questions, he won't take it well. Tarot, though, she likes to vent."
 
"That's a good thing to keep in mind. We did have a nice chat once, Daizi and I, or Tarrot. She's got a sweet soul, even when she nearly gets run over by a skateboard," Lex chuckled.

~~

The twins had run out of things to do, so now they sat, cross-legged, on the floor on either side of Ivy as they alternated between putting things away and handing them to Ivy to inspect. Between the pair, they had a lot of random things they could show her, so that seemed to be working to keep her occupied.

"Are you going to come back to sleeping in the bedroom?" Alec asked Xander.

Xander grunted and waggled a shiny belt buckle at Ivy.

Alec waited a moment before asking, "If I promise not to bug you or ask you too many questions, will you come back?"

"Yeah, alright," Xander agreed after a minute. He didn't look at his brother, intent on making sure Ivy didn't hurt herself. "Just needed space. Processing."

"Have you processed?" Alec asked.

Xander shrugged.

"It does bother me, you know," Alec said at last. "I don't just move on. I still carry it. I'm just not as... growly about it."

"I don't want to talk about it right now," Xander said, but it wasn't as harsh as before. "Maybe later."

"Okay. Mama did say something about a therapist," Alec reminded him. "Maybe even tomorrow. If they get us in the same day."

"If you don't talk to me about important stuff for the rest of today and tomorrow, I'll go. And I'll consider talking," Xander huffed.

Alec nodded, satisfied with the agreement, and fell silent.
 
"She's one of the strongest people I know, and one of the kindest," Cooger said earnestly, "Did Toby almost run her down?"

~~

As much as Dark and Daizi wanted to go further, they knew it wasn't the time. So, with great effort, Dark pulled himself back, sitting back on his heels, "We should probably... collect our daughter. So our sons can get back to their cleaning."

"Yeah," Daizi agreed, although she didn't want to agree, "And to their homework."

Dark leaned forward, gently kissed her forehead, and then Daizi got out of bed and pulled her shirt back on before going to the twins room and knocking lightly on their door.
 
Lex nodded. "Missed her, and he was really sorry about it, but, yeah, gave her a scare."

Just then, the front door opened, and Toby stumped in. "Mom! Do you still have the-" He stopped when he saw Cooger. "Oh, hey, sir. How's it going?"

~~

"Come on in," Xander called, not wanting to un-pretzel himself to open the door.

"The door's open!" Alec added cheerfully.
 
"Man, I bet it did! Damn. But it's not the worst thing that's happened to her, she's come near to getting hit by cars a few times. Once really close, the crosswalk sign started beeping it was safe to cross, someone decided to take an illegal turn, but Dark and I were there, and he pulled her back so quickly she had his handprint on her bicep for a month and couldn't wear tanktops that summer. I nearly put my fist through their windshield, I swear to god. And they honked at us, if you can believe that!" He scoffed, still angry at this stranger who almost ran the three of them down, "But she's been hit by a bicycle a couple 'a times."

He looked over when Toby came in, "Can't complain, my dude. But you don't gotta call me 'sir.' How've you been?"

~~

Daizi opened the door and stepped in, looking pretty normal for someone who just had someone else's tongue in her mouth, "I don't want to interrupt your homework-cleaning," She said, "I just wanted to come get her, if she's in your way."
 
"Been alright," Toby said, stepping forward to offer him a fist bump of greeting. "Landed a pretty tricky move today, so flying high right now!"

~~

"We're done cleaning, except with what she's playing with, but that's more tidying than cleaning," Alec said cheerfully.

Xander looked at Ivy. "Staying or going, Mini Mouse?"
 
"Right on," Cooger replied, returning the gesture, "Love to hear it, man."

~~

Daizi crouched down and asked Ivy, "Do you want to stay with your brothers, sweetheart?" but if they could trust Ivy for one thing, it was her strong preference for her parents, and she quickly rolled over to crawl towards her mother, but quickly stumbled over the sneak and flopped back onto her belly.
 
"Hey, Mom, do you still have that number for the NA group your sponsor gave you when we moved up here?" Toby asked, finishing his question.

"Yeah, why?" Lex asked, getting up to get it.

"Bubbles said he'd think about it," Toby said.

Lex paused, her eyes narrowing. "You didn't tell me Bubbles had a problem."

Toby looked down, flushing. "I only recently knew for sure, and I knew you wouldn't like it, but he'd never offered or used around us. I just suggested a few things."

Lex went to him and put a hand on his shoulder before lightly bumping his chin. "I trust you, but don't keep things like that from me just because you know I don't like it, okay? And be careful."

Toby nodded, breathing a sigh of relief. "Yes, Mom."

She went into the kitchen and fetched a packet of helps for various addictions and handed them to Toby. "Bring back what you don't need. I don't have extras right now."

"Right on!" Toby kissed her cheek. "Thanks!" He headed for his room, feet clumping all the way.

~~

Xander watched her in amusement before reaching out and using the back of her onsie to help her up and over the soft barrier. "There you go! Go. Crawl. Terrorize everything in your reach."

"But no more paint!" Alec warned.
 
Cooger shifted a bit uncomfortably, not knowing what he was supposed to say after that. It didn't seem quite right to make a joke about kids these days. He sat, keeping any opinion he might have to himself, and it wasn't until Toby was gone that he said, "I wonder, uh, how a kid gets the nickname Bubbles."

~~

Ivy gurgled as she was lifted up and then happily crawled towards her mother, who swiftly hoisted her off the ground and into the air, "Good girl, Ivy!" Then she pulled her in, kissed her, and told her sons, "Thanks for watching her. I hope she didn't bother you too much when you were trying to clean up."
 
Lex snickered and plopped back into her chair, pulling one foot under herself. "I don't know, but I know there's a kid called Tats who doesn't have a single tattoo. He went to get one and fainted at the sight of the needle."

~~

"Nah, she was fine," Xander said, picking up his snake.

"She was very good and easy to entertain," Alec agreed.
 
"Someone once tried to call Dark 'tats.' You've never seen a more disgusted expression."

~~

"Oh, good," Daizi replied, rubbing Ivy on her back, "Thank you again. Did you have so much fun? You did! Oh..." Daizi sighed, allowing Ivy to grab her face, "We're so fortunate. Some babies are absolute nightmares. But not her."
 
Lex laughed at that. "I'm telling you, nicknames are a fickle thing. Some make sense, some got a story behind them like mine, and others are like, 'He ate meatloaf one time.' You just gotta hope you get a cool one."

~~

"She can't help herself with you as her mother," Alec said. "And she feels safe all the time. And she has good role models everywhere!"
 
"Don't I know that," Cooger chuckled, stretching out his legs, "I'm lucky enough I've not managed to get a dumb one. I mean, Tarot calls Dark 'Goose,' and it's cute for them because they're in love, but imagine if anyone else called him that? It starts being real dumb."

~~

"She does feel safe," Daizi said, very proud of that, "and she doesn't know how fortunate she is. To be so loved, and to be so safe." Everytime she said 'so', she tipped Ivy back and made her squeal with laughter, "I'm going to be sad when she's not this size anymore. It's a really fun size. She's so tossable."
 
Lex laughed out loud. "Really? Now that's a name! I can't imagine calling you anything but Cooger, but Jasper's not a bad second name. It's a good stone, I think."

~~

"Yeah, but then she'll be doing all sorts of other things that'll distract you from what you're missing," Xander smirked.

"I think it'll be fun to watch her evolve!" Alec grinned.
 
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