How Green Becomes Wood

After setting the table properly, Dark lifted Ivy again, gave her a kiss, and then went upstairs to his bedroom.

"Spider?" Dark asked softly, pulling back the curtains, "Dinner is ready."

Daizi murmured slightly, rolling over onto her side, "I'm sleeping..."

"Are you?"

"I was," She mumbled, "wish I still was, but I know then I won't be able to sleep tonight. S**t time to take a nap..."

"Are you hungry?" Dark asked, adjusting how he had Ivy, "I can bring it up here if you are not ready to go down."

Her inhale turning into a yawn and a deep stretch, Daizi forced herself to sit up, "No, I'll come down. I'll just fall asleep otherwise."

Deciding so, although it was hard, Daizi came downstairs wearing one of Dark's shirts and her tiny shorts, looking groggy, but with more colour in her face.
 
Xander sat on the edge of Alec's bed and nudged his shoulder. "Hey. Time for dinner."

"No thank you. Not hungry," Alec mumbled.

"I know. But your body is hungry," Xander said, poking his shoulder again.

Alec sighed, half buried under his bedding. "Please leave me alone."

"Sorry, not this time." Xander poked him again. "Come on. You need food and to be able to breathe. After dinner, then you can go back to turning into a butterfly. You can come down with me, or I can tell Ba, and he'll have to deal with you on top of the Mini and Mama."

Alec groaned but slowly peeled himself out from under the blankets.

Xander watched him a bit impressed. "Do you have the entire bed on you? Are you under the mattress, too?"

"Ha. Ha. Very funny," Alec mumbled. He finally appeared and pulled on the first shirt and pair of pants he laid his hands on, not looking at what they were. That meant he ended up wearing lime-green pants and a baby-blue three-quarter-sleeve shirt with pomegranates on it.

"Why pomegranates?" Xander asked quizzically, but he got no answer as Alec headed downstairs with Xander following behind.
 
When the twins came down, Daizi was sitting at the dining table, her hair loosely up in a messy bun just so it was off her shoulders. When she heard two sets of approaching footsteps, she raised her head and smiled lightly. Really, she did look better following her nap.

When the Alec came down, Dark nodded to him and said, "Ivy helped to cook the potatoes."
 
"Oh, that's nice of her," Alec said, thinking Dark just meant he held her while he did all the work. Nothing else occurred to him. He plopped down in his seat and looked at Daizi. "You look better," he remarked tiredly but genuinely.

Xander took his usual seat and started dishing up food. "Don't forget your carrots."
 
"I let her be the one to mash them," Dark explained, feeding Ivy a mouthful of them now that everyone was at the table because it felt rude to stop eating before everyone was there, "I put them in a plastic bag after they were soft enough. I think she had fun."

"Thank you," Daizi murmured, "I took a nap."
 
"Oh, that does sound fun. And efficient," Alec agreed. He picked at his food disinterestedly but forced himself to eat a little at a time. The warm, well-seasoned rice and chicken did feel good as he ate, but it was still difficult to force himself to swallow. His stomach felt clenched and unyielding, but he knew he needed to eat, so he did.

"She did a pretty good job of it, too," Xander remarked.
 
"Yeah, she did," Daizi agreed with a quiet yawn.

"And she likes them." Dark said, as content as anyone could be that day as he fed Ivy another spoonful, "This is a good dinner today, she is able to eat everything without much extra processing because the chicken is so tender."
 
"I thought it'd be a pretty good meal for everyone involved," Xander said with a little nod.

"It's pretty good," Alec agreed, picking pieces of chicken off his plate and eating them.

They subsided into silence, resting quietly as they ate. Both were too tired to carry on much of a conversation.
 
Neither Dark nor Daizi said much either, unless it was to Ivy, who was much too young to be able to handle a completely silent dinner. At the end, Daizi lifted Ivy from her high chair and brought her to the nursery, while Dark cleaned up downstairs.
 
Xander stepped in to help, and so did Alec. Alec scrubbed down the table, highchair, and counters while Xander put away the leftovers. once the kitchen was mostly clean, Alec slipped away back upstairs while Xander remained behind to help make sure everything was in order.
 
Once the kitchen and dining room were clean and Ivy was nursing, Dark went upstairs with a bottle of red wine, a glass, and began the next part of his plan. He began first by filling the bath, making the water hotter than would be comfortable. While it filled, he lit scented candles, being careful to choose scents which wouldn't compete with each other, but he knew Daizi would appreciate it. At the right time, he added bubble bath and bubble oils to the tub, and when it was full, he turned off the water. Then, he switched on their electric towel warmer and lay their fluffiest towels, Daizi's softest robe, and her fuzziest socks on it. Afterwards, he switched on relaxing music, set out Daizi's favourite lotions for after the bath, and pulled the bathroom cart beside the tub, where he had set the wine and the glass. After a moment of looking at the scene he had set up, he went back downstairs and came back up with a nice, small dessert of fresh berries and whipped cream. To this, he added just a bit of chocolate from his "secret" drawer.

Finally, with a satisfied sigh, he left the room one more time and went to the nursery, "Spider," He whispered, seeing Daizi rocking Ivy to sleep after her final meal, "Let me take care of her. It is my turn."

"I think it's my day," Daizi replied, yawning.

"Maybe, but let me have her. There is something I have to show you." Dark replied, running his fingers down her arm before taking her hand, "Come on."

Even exhausted as she was, this was too interesting for her to say no to, so she allowed Dark to help her up and lead her to their bathroom.

"I drew you a bath," Dark told her, and would've locked the door behind them if he didn't have to leave immediately after to lay Ivy to sleep. "The water is just hot enough that it will be the perfect temperature for you after you rinse off in the shower. I have wine, fruit, whipped cream, and chocolate on the tray, and face masks if you want them. You take all of the time you need." He guided her to where the tray and the face masks.

As she listened to him speak, her heart rate picked up, and by the time he showed her to where he had set things out for her, she couldn't keep it together anymore and burst into tears.

"Hey," He murmured, wrapping her up in one arm and kissing the top of her head, "You deserve this, my darling. Take a rest, take the evening. Things will be easier in the daylight." Through her tears, she mumbled her gratitude, and he promised she was more than welcome and held her for as long as she needed, although he did warn her the bath would get cold if she waited too long. When she finally readied herself, he returned to the nursery to rock their daughter to sleep.
 
The twins stayed in their room for the rest of the evening. Xander checked once to make sure Dark had everything under control, and then he disappeared into his music. After a while, Alec came to sit with him. The pair of them ended up cuddled together on Xander's bed sharing a set of ear buds and listening to music. They fell asleep that way, waking up much later in an awkward, tangled position when an energetic rap song came on. They disentangled, turned off the music, and went back to sleep crammed together in one bed.

The next morning was yet another school day. They kept to themselves for most of the first half of the day, quiet and withdrawn. When lunch came around, Xander did something he hadn't done in quite a while: he bummed a cigarette off one of the other delinquents. It took him a while to find someone willing to give him one - they ended selling it to him - and he headed out for the back. Alec followed, keeping a bit of distance between them, but going out to the back of the school where Xander used to hang out to smoke when he felt like it. Xander sat on an old barrel, and Alec crouched on the ground next to it, neither of them saying anything, but both glad the other was there.
 
After Ivy was asleep, Dark came back around and checked on Daizi, who had allowed herself to fully commit to and enjoy the luxurious bath her husband had prepared for her. When she was ready to get out, Dark brought her the towels and robe and led her into the bedroom where he massaged her back while the two of them sat on their bed.

"Goose?" She asked softly.

"Yes, my darling?"

"Can we do this again, when things are more settled?"

"Of course, whenever you like."

"Okay, but... Next time, you should put out two wine glasses."

With a low chuckle, Dark leaned forwards to kiss her on the shoulder, and only replied, "Let me brush your hair, we are up too late."

After her had brushed out and braided her hair, she pulled on one of his softest shirts, and curled up beside him in bed, quickly falling asleep. The core of exhaustion and sadness was still there, there was no setting it down that easily, but as she fell asleep with his arm around her, she was amazed by how much lighter she felt. Dark had done everything in his power to soothe her, and if the bath, wine, and backrub didn't help, the love he showed her certainly did. Her last thoughts that night were about how much she hoped Spencer and Mittz were happy with each other for all their lives, how glad she was Sally and Jack fit together, and how much she hoped her parents had moments of true love together, but also, an extremely biased but entirely certain belief that nobody alive was, had been, or could be, in a more wonderful relationship than hers.

Dark hardly slept at all. He was pleased to have brought so much comfort to his wife, but as he lay in the black of his bedroom, her hand on his chest, running his fingers up and down her arm, he picked up all the worries she had set down. Somebody needed to carry them, it seemed.

Come morning, they made breakfast and the twins' lunch for them, even though the latter was typically handled by the boys themselves. Daizi so restored following their therapy session seemed largely like how she had been, although her skin was softer, and they spent much of the day considering what they should say to the boys when they got home.

At school, Sloan could easily see the twins were worse today than they had been at all over the past two weeks, and she did her best to make things easier for them, although there wasn't much she could do. It wasn't like their teachers didn't already know what was happening, except probably their new history teacher, but she guessed the other teachers probably would've filled her in. She didn't know which teachers Mr. Dark was friends with, but she guessed he probably did have friends, and they'd probably look out for his kids in his absence.

Milo, meanwhile, had absolutely no idea how to help them, or what was bothering them, so he went through phases of anxiously talking about nothing and showing them pictures he had taken and giving them a wide berth of space. It was clear he wanted to help, he just. Didn't know. How to. But he tried, he really tried.
 
Lunch period hadn't quite ended when Xander stubbed out the cigarette. He hadn't actually smoked much. Only a couple of puffs. It tasted much fouler than he remembered, and it had never tasted particularly good to begin with. Mostly it was the action and the small hit of nicotine that made him feel better. Milo was right, he needed to find something else, but he wasn't sure what kind of alternatives there were. He liked that nicotine - as horrible as it was in a thousand other ways - calmed his nerves a little while still allowing him to remain fully in control. He wasn't sure he trusted any other drugs to act like that. Maybe a worry stone would be good enough. He shook away the thoughts for now. He could figure it out later. It wasn't like this was a daily or even weekly need, so there was no rush. He'd figure it out. Later.

Alec stood with Xander. "Going inside now?" he asked quietly.

"Yeah, it's getting chilly out here," Xander grumbled. "We didn't even really have much lunch. We have time for a bit, and the cafeteria's practically on the way."

"I'm not hungry," Alec sighed.

Xander eyed him. "You'll eat dinner?"

"I'll try to eat at least half. Promise."

"Deal. Come on. Let's head for our next class, then."

"Ugh, I wish we didn't have to. I'm so tired of getting 'sad eyes' from the teachers," Alec said, making a face.

Xander snorted. "Me too, but we can't be skipping. We'll be missing at least Friday, and... maybe they'll let us stay home tomorrow."

"I hope so." Not many were around, so Alec took Xander's hand and held it as they walked slowly toward their next class.
 
As they walked back to class, Milo slunk up behind them but then, with a frown, walked around the crowd of students so he could instead approach them from the front. That was better, he thought. He wouldn't startle them if they say him coming.

"Um. Hey." He said, looking briefly at them, but mostly everywhere else. "Are you... excited for... fall break? Next week?"
 
Xander noticed Milo only when he approached them, meaning Milo would have, indeed, startled him. "Oh, yeah. That is next week. I keep forgetting with everything else happening," he muttered.

Alec gave Milo a weak smile. "Do you have plans?"
 
He shook his head, "No, I... Well, I tried to convince my grandparents to let me go visit my mom, but. I think they thought I wouldn't come back." He rubbed the back of his neck, "This is the first school I've been to with a fall break. What, um, about you?"
 
"I'm sorry," Alec told Milo sincerely. "Maybe she'll get time off soon so she can come see you. I'm sorry." He bit his lip and looked away.

Xander stepped in. "We've got some plans. Most of them are about the Mini. She's turning one, which is kind of a big deal, so, I like, the entirely of Mama's family is coming. Lots of prepping and planning to do."

"Oh," Alec said, straightening in realization. "Friday."

Xander nodded. "Right. Friday. We're having a small party. You're invited, but I know you hate parties, so it's cool if you don't come."
 
"I hope so," He said, his hands deep in his pocket. Turning his head away, he said, "It's just hard. You know. Being a waitress." He shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck, "She's turning one? That's a big deal. Happy, uh, birthday to her. How big is her family?"

He blinked, then looked at the two of them when he was invited, "Oh. Um. What... what kind of party?"
 
"I've lost count, to be honest," Xander admitted, "but there's... four aunts coming, I think, plus husbands, maybe, plus cousins, and a grandfather that doesn't really get along with his daughter's choice in husbands. Long story there. Anyway, we're going through the official adoption process, and it's getting finalized Friday. Just a formality." If he downplayed it, Milo hopefully wouldn't feel bad saying no if he didn't want to come. Xander was honestly okay with Milo not coming and hadn't planned initially to invite him, but also hadn't wanted to make him feel left out or snubbed.
 
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