How Green Becomes Wood

Dark sighed, rubbing his face, "There are important reasons why now is not the right time. I do not want to shut down your dreams out of cruelty. But we have to think about what is best for all of us, and that includes Ivy, and Enkidu--who will soon count as a senior dog--and whatever potential pet you would want to adopt. How many cats do you think would be happy to be put into a house with a mouthy infant who has yet to figure out to be gentle?" He looked at Cooger to silently tell him now was not the time to chime in, but was pleased to see Cooger clearly had no such intentions.
 
"Ba, we get it, you don't have to repeat yourself this many times," Xander told him with an almost gentle firmness. "Now's not good. We get it."

"And we know you aren't doing it just because. There are Reasons, and we understand that," Alec put in.
 
"Right." He replied with a nod, "Good."

Daizi squeezed his hand and then stood to help clear the table, "I don't have a great dessert planned, but I think we have ice cream in the freezer, and I'm pretty sure we have some biscuits in the pantry."
 
Cooger stood to help clear the table, gently telling Daizi to sit back down and let him help, since she cooked for him. He knew, of course, there were cats perfectly suited for this household, he had seen a good number of them come and go over the months, but it wasn't something he was going to bring up, given how firm Dark was about it not happening anytime soon. And he supposed he couldn't fault that, generally he was reticent to adopt out a cat with a baby in the house until they were older than Ivy is now.
 
The twins cleaned up quickly and efficiently, trying to shake off the disappointment the conversation had ended on. Xander had known going in that getting a dog was not likely going to happen, and he wasn't even sure if he actually wanted one, but it would have been nice to consider it. Strangely, Dark's insistence that there were Reasons somehow made the no hurt worse, and he had no idea why. Owning a dog wasn't a dream of his. Why did it matter?

Alec was far more crushed. Cooger kept promising that there'd be a cat for them and that Dark and Daizi would not be against a cat, but it didn't feel like it was a possibility. He knew he was likely making a bigger deal of this than it actually was, and likely he just needed to be patient, but he couldn't help it. He felt... short-changed. Because of Ivy. It was a stupid thought and he was trying to drive it from his mind.
 
Dark did, admittedly, feel a bit bad for being so insistent that this was not the right time to adopt a new pet, but he felt like the insistence was necessary. If he didn't give a firm no, then they'd keep hoping, and it was something he was adamant was not right for them just now. Surely, they deserved to have a full calendar year without bringing a new life into their home. They deserved a fraction of consistency. He didn't relish crushing their dreams, but there were some things he needed to put his foot down over. This was one.

Even if he didn't relish it.

Daizi just sighed, knowing Dark was right in some ways, but also not feeling like it was that serious. A cat wasn't, anyway. She didn't want another dog, either. But cats didn't take up all that much space. Still, she believed everybody in the household should be in agreement before a pet was adopted. And she believed, given how difficult the family relationship had been recently, and how still in recovery they were, and given how many major events were on their horizon... It just didn't seem quite right.

In the kitchen, Cooger glanced at the two boys, scratched the back of his head, and murmured, "He'll come around, just can't come on too strong."
 
"You take a week to get all the decorations up?" Xander asked, still in shock over the sheer amount of stuff that was hung, draped, hooked, lighted, and arranged over the entirety of the not-small house.
 
"If I want to do it properly, yes," Dark replied simply, "but it is not a week non-stop. It may be more quickly this year, in the past I have done it in-between working at the high school. Now I am just working around her."
 
"That is true," Dark agreed, "but I do not know if her extra hands would be useful. She is getting quite wiggly."

"She's been doing better on our backs recently," Daizi said, taking Ivy out of the high chair and setting her in her lap, "She gets to look but her hands aren't in the way. You're interested in absolutely everything, aren't you baby?"
 
"Everything is brand new and unknown, so it makes sense that she's interested," Alec grinned. "It'd be even more wild than us going somewhere like... Egypt or something, but no one at all speaks our language."
 
Daizi sighed, "I can't wait to go back to Egypt... I miss the way the sun feels on my skin, there." She bounced her daughter on her knee for a few moments quietly, "I think it'll be a while before I get to go back. A lot of my family are visiting not too long from now, but it's impossible for all of them to."
 
"I know," She sighed, smoothing Ivy's hair, "It just feels like a very long way away. And I know, saying that, I'll complain about how quickly she's growing up. It's just..." She was about to say how hard it was to not be able to visit her home country, but stopped herself, feeling weird about expressing her longing for Egypt, knowing it had been decades since her husband could see his homeland, and yearned for it.

"Egypt is pretty cool," Cooger said, "Visiting it was neat. Too hot for me, though."
 
"I didn't know you'd gone," Alec said with interest.

"Egypt's cool, and it'd be fun to go, but I also want to visit Greenland. They haven't even had a direct airline to their country for more than a few years," Xander remarked.
 
"Your folks got married in Egypt, of course I've gone," Cooger replied matter-of-factly, "I wasn't gonna miss my brother's wedding. Not after everything it took to get them there. I was his best man, even though that's not really a thing in Egypt."

"You've mentioned Greenland before," Daizi mused, subconsciously rocking Ivy, who was holding onto her mother like they were two koalas, "I hope you do go, some day."
 
Xander shrugged. "I'm not sure I'd say I'm passionate or anything, just... I find the culture and the people and especially the environment really cool."

"Literally and figuratively!" Alec said as he and Xander set out the dessert.
 
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