How Green Becomes Wood

"Beef is fine," Dark promised, "I also prefer lamb, that is only why I asked." With his hand on the small of Daizi's back, he walked her to the couch so she could sit and then everyone could move around her.

"Are you coming to Ivy's party next week?" Daizi asked.
 
"I would love to, if you are sure I would not be intruding," Tristan said, choosing a spot carefully out of the way next to a chair. He was quite used to the awkwardness that came from trying to navigate around someone in a chair like his or give them room to navigate, but that didn't mean awkwardness wasn't still awkward.

"Hey, Uncle," Xander greeted him. "How goes it?"

There came another knock on the door, and Alec went to open it. "Hello, Aunt Ciara! Come on in!"

"Hello, Alec," she greeted him. She was wearing a slightly lighter shade of blue today with her suit jacket open over a white blouse. It was the most informal he'd ever seen her. She handed Alec a dish and hesitated a bit before very cautiously taking off her shoes and touching the salt.
 
"Thank you. Where would you like this?" she asked, holding up a ceramic dish with its own cover, also wrapped in a towel. It looked a lot like the one Tristan had brought. "It is Shepherd's Pie. It is a recipe of my grandmother's."

"Is it beef or lamb?" Alec asked curiously, trying not to smile too much.

"Lamb," she told him.
 
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"Did you cook it yourself?" Dark asked, taking the dish and handing it to Alec, "Will you put this in the kitchen with the rest of the food? I cannot deny, Ciara, I am rather excited to try it. I enjoy lamb. Can I get you something to drink?"
 
"No, thank you," Ciara said politely. "I appreciate the offer. Yes, I did. I am out of practice, so I made it twice. I have... many leftovers now."

Alec took the dish in and set it carefully next to Tristan's bought one.
 
Ciara followed his lead but paused when she saw Tristan. She stared at him for just a beat longer than normal before turning to Xander. "Hello, Xander, and congratulations."

"Hey, Aunt Ciara," Xander greeted her. "Good drive?"

"Uneventful, thankfully," she said. "Daizi, hello, your sunglasses are an interesting statement piece."
 
This wasn't awkward at all. Daizi smiled warmly at her, not knowing if what Ciara said was a compliment or not, "Have I not worn these around you yet? These are some of my favourites. But thank you."

Dark stood watching them all and then said, "We were debating with Alec and Xander about what music to put on. They said classical is boring."
 
"I cannot say I can agree with that assessment," Ciara said. She glanced at Tristan. "Tristan, yes?"

Tristan smiled and held out a hand to shake. "Indeed. It is good to see you, Ciara. It has been quite a while."

"Since high school, if I remember correctly," Ciara agreed. "I was in my senior year..."

"And I was still in elementary but tended to hang out with my older brothers," Tristan confirmed. "You look good. Has life treated you well?"

"Yes, yes, quite well, I am doing well for myself. And you?" She seemed to regret the automatic question as soon as she asked it.

"I am not short on things to be grateful for," Tristan assured her with a smile. "I work for a private mortgage company, and," he glanced briefly at Dark before looking back to Ciara, "I own my own flower shop. It is small, but consistent."

"Oh. That is... unexpected," Ciara admitted.

The twins glanced at each other and then their parents. This was painful
 
Dark sat perfectly straight and still, watching them out of the corner of his eyes.

"I wonder where Cooger is," Daizi murmured, turning her face to the door, "He was with us at the courthouse, he should be here by now."
 
"I guess he lost twenty bucks," Xander muttered.

"I did hear about your accomplishments in school thanks to Whitney and Beverly during those two years," Ciara remarked to Tristan, "but I had not heard about... anything after."

"I suppose you did not have much need to keep in touch beyond that," Tristan assured her. "It is fine. And you? Have you been... working?"

"Yes, yes, an office job," Ciara said, bobbing her head. "It keeps me busy."

"Good, good."

Alec was wondering if it was possible to die of awkward overload. Thankfully, he didn't have to wait to find out as the Hollis family rang the doorbell right as Becky's mom dropped her and Tom off.
 
Sloan arrived not long after Becky and Tom, wearing a short floral dress worn over a long-sleeved plain turtleneck with half of her hair up in two little space buns and she brought with her a tupperware of cookies because she was taught never to show up to a party empty-handed and as much as she wanted to scurry off to just talk with her friends, she first felt like it was important to introduce herself to absolutely every adult there because her mother did not raise a rude girl.

While Sloan went up to offer Ciara a handshake, Dark heard Ivy over the baby monitor and slipped upstairs to fetch her. Daizi was better at entertaining guests, anyway, and as he was upstairs, Cooger came and let himself in, his nice khaki pants now stained at the knees, but he didn't seem all that bothered by it.
 
"Xander has told me quite a bit about you," Ciara greeted Sloan. "You are apparently quite the accomplished gymnast."

Xander grinned as he sauntered over to Cooger. "There you are. What'd you do, go back for another round of ice cream?"

Becky and Tom politely said hello to Dark and Daizi while trying not to stare around the house like tourists. Once their greetings were properly made, they went straight to Alec to congratulate him.

Sally and Jack presented Daizi and Dark with an English dish and a drink from Australia, respectively.
 
Sloan blinked in surprise, but a bright grin passed over her face, "I didn't know he talked about me. Yeah, I'm a gymnast, but I don't like to brag. I'm afraid you may know more about me than the reverse."

"I wish," Cooger chuckled, slipping off his shoes and easily joining the party, "There was this poor girl with a flat tire. And I mean that thing was flat, she's lucky her rim wasn't destroyed. Her dad was at work an hour away, she couldn't get her spare out of her trunk, she had locking lugnuts by not the key, luckily I had my tools and was able to get it off, put on her donut, zip tie what had broken, and got her to the tire place. Everybody else was just driving past."

While her parents thanked their friends, Ivy stared wide-eyed at Tristan. To be fair, she stared at most people, and before spotting him, she had already stared at Tom, Jack, and Ciara, but now she had noticed him, and was watching intently.
 
"What would you like to know?" Ciara asked with a small but friendly smile. "I was not in gymnastics when I was young, but I did play softball from I believe I was seven to twelve. After that, the only sport I played was chess."

"Maybe they didn't know how to change a tire," Xander remarked. "Bet none of them would have been as awesome as you at it even if they had stopped, and maybe they should have.

Tristan watched Ivy, amused by her staring. He put one hand on a wheel and lightly rolled forward and back, not moving much, just enough to show her his entire chair could move. He wondered why he was so interesting, but he didn't mind. She was cute. He didn't have a lot of experience with kids, but he did not mind them.
 
"You played softball?" Sloan asked politely. With the few things Alec and Xander had said about their aunt, her having a history with a game which requires sliding in the dirt was a surprise. "My brother plays baseball. He'd seethe if I wasn't the first one to admit they aren't quite the same, but it's the closest I come to understanding it. I don't know much about chess, either, except that the horse moves in an L, and that's why the knight kept falling off in Through the Looking Glass."

"They must not've. You know how to change a tire, don't you? 'Cause I don't want to find out you were stuck waving down a stranger... Although, in defense of this girl, she knew what needed to be done, it was a used car and it wasn't her fault the locking lugnut key wasn't there."

When Tristan began to wheel his chair, Ivy's eyes widened and she giggled, pressing her face against Dark's shoulder before looking at Tristan again. Feeling her wiggle, Dark turned his head to kiss her hair and murmured something gently to her before following her gaze to Tristan. Nodding to the other man, he then murmured something to his daughter again and walked over towards Tristan with her.
 
"Yes, I played softball. I was not terribly good at it, but my mother felt it was important to have a well-rounded foundation in one's youth," Ciara said. She hadn't been good, but she's mostly enjoyed it, even if it was a bit rough for her tastes, but the moment puberty was even a glint on the horizon, her mother had taken her out of sports to really focus on how to be a lady. "You are correct. The horse does, indeed, move sideways, and not many people have read Through the Looking Glass. Did you enjoy it?"

"Yeah, I know how," Xander assured him. "Unless it comes to locked lugnuts. What's that even for? Anti-theft? A good car thief probably knows more about them than the owner does."

Tristan smiled at Ivy. "She is much cuter than your pictures led me to believe," he informed Dark. "That is quite something consider how cute her pictures are."
 
"I enjoyed it less than Wonderland and enough to get annoyed when people act like they're the same place." Sloan replied, feeling a little bit like she was crushing this conversation. "You don't have to worry, by the way, my brother isn't very good at baseball either."

"They're for anti-theft, yeah, and if you're living in the right place, or I guess the wrong place, they're helpful, but most of the time they're more trouble than they're worth, I think. Don't know how hot the illegal tire market is these days." He chortled, "I don't got 'em on my truck."

"Thank you," Dark replied, pride seeping in his face at the corners. Ivy smiled at Tristan and then buried her face against her father again, either still easing out of her shy phase or just being coy. As always, her little fingers were buried deeply into his beard, "I am sure you understand seeing her again why I cannot commit to working out of the home."
 
"Indeed, that is a rather annoying misunderstanding many people have. I suppose the movie industry does not help, as, to my understanding, they often mix the two stories into one 'reimagining,'" Ciara said with a slight nod. "I am not much of a movie watcher, myself, but certain coworkers are passionate. I suppose I see the appeal, but it is not for me."

Xander snickered and would have said more, but Becky bounded up to him and started excitedly congratulating him before handing him a present almost shyly. Xander thanked her politely, wary of any hugging - she was an impulse hugger and often caught herself mid-motion when around him - and asked if he could open it later or if she wanted him to open it now. Later was fine, she assured him.

Tristan chuckled, watching her. "Truly a privilege, sir, and one you must be reveling in. Where is she at in her development? She is... crawling now, I would guess?"
 
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