How Green Becomes Wood

Lex arrived with the first few guests, her brunette hair carefully curled into soft waves and gathered at the top with a silver clip shaped like an Asian dragon. Her silver, below the knee sheath dress looked like either the scales of a reptile or armor with a mesh neckline and ruffled patches on both straps that could either be flowers or small spikes, depending on how imaginative you wanted to be. Makeup was not something she was good at, so she'd stuck to something simple and natural, and her silver accessories matched her dress and shoes. She looked for Cooger but was understanding if he couldn't spare her any time. He had a job to do, after all.

Ciara was next to arrive in a two-piece dress suit in a dark blue lace. Style-wise, it was almost identical to many of her work outfits, but made of a much nice fabric and with a little bit of a scalloped flare on the hemline, and very sensible black dress shoes with a low heel and only a tiny embellishment on the toe. As always, she had her hair pulled up and back in a low bun, this time held in place with a hair pin with a blue rose at the end.
 
As it happened, Cooger was going around and greeting the guests as they came in. At the moment, he was talking with D'Arcy who was in a blue-green Greek-inspired dress and Ellis, who was in a pink dress with black lacing over it, still with big, studded heels. When he saw Lex, he excused herself and walked up to her, "You look beautiful."


Spencer and Mittz entered with Gwen. Spencer was in a traditional black tuxedo with heels and Mittz, who despite her love of pastels, had opted for a black Audrey Hepburn inspired swing dress... with many layers of colourful petticoats beneath it and still wearing pastel, joyful earrings. Gwen wore a green dress decorated with embroidered flowers and butterflies.
 
Lex smiled and allowed herself to give Cooger a quick look over. "I liked the Viking look, but I gotta admit, you clean up very nicely," she smiled. "How are you feeling?"

Tristan came in next, navigating the front door sill with only a small amount of difficulty, then wheeling himself in cautiously. People tended not to see short people like those in wheelchairs, and it was always awkward when someone accidentally backed into him or similar. He had on a double-breasted suit in a deep, burnt-orange color with a white shirt and a navy blue tie with tiny orange flowers with green leaves sprinkled about in a loose pattern. He had his navy blue fedora on his knee as he tried to ascertain whether or not it would be appropriate to wear it indoors.

Sally, Peter, and Jack came in last. Peter and Jack had on matching silver suits that complemented Sally's deep blue, one-shouldered formal gown with a silver clasp on the single strap and a silver chain draped loosely at her waist and allowed to dangle in a glittering line down one side. Matching silver, dangling earrings and black heeled sandals with silver embelishments added to the look, as did her low, side-part bun. On one side of her hair, she'd affixed four simple silver hair clips that were outlines of some of the most common shapes she'd seen on Daizi's clothing, including a small spider shape. Jack and Peter had dark blue pocket squares that matched Sally's dress and had gone black for their embellishments.
 
"Thank you," Cooger replied, running one hand down the front of his vest, "I'm nervous. It'll be great, I'm certain of it, but I'm nervous." He glanced around the room, "But I don't think I have much time left to be nervous. It looks like it's about time to get started."
 
Lex smiled and touched Cooger's elbow briefly. "You look good, and your voice is in fine form. This is going to be the nicest event I've ever been to. I'd best go find my seat."

Alec and Xander with Ivy had already made their way to the front where they were supposed to sit and wait.

Ciara was hesitating by the door. She had said she wasn't going to this part of the ceremony, yet here she was. Should she go in? It felt so wrong! It went against everything she'd been taught, but... this was very important to people who were her family now.
 
Cooger took a breath and then put his hand over Lex's, then took a breath and walked up to the altar. Looking over the crowd of people, he nodded at them, nearly raising eyebrow when he noticed certain faces in the crowd, and then took a breath and said, "We are just about to begin. I would like to remind you all to make sure your phones are on silent, not to exit once the ceremony has begun, and that we have a photographer on the premises so there ain't no need to be taking pictures through the whole thing. Just enjoy getting to be here."

These initial announcements out of the way, he stepped to the side. Outside their door, Dark took Daizi's arm and quietly asked her, "Are you ready?"

"Of course, I'm with you."

Then they went in together. Dark had his hair perfectly combed with just a bit of eyeliner. His suit was all black except for the dark red embroidery along the lapels of his suit jacket and on his vest. He wore a black and red lace jabbot collar pinned with a stone matching their wedding rings. Daizi wore a drop-waist ballgown with dramatic sleeves and a deep neckline. Its bodice and sleeves were embroidered with lace flowers and glittered with stars. The various layers of fabric were in purples and navy blues. Her hair was braided into an intricate, romantic updo and decorated with red flowers the same colour as her lipstick Dark's embroidery. In her hands she held a bouquet which looked identical to the one she had at her wedding--or as close to it as was possible.

After the quick walk to the altar, they parted, still facing each other, and Daizi turned to give Zeinab the bouquet to hold. Amty Zeinab, unable to restrain herself, pulled Daizi into a hug and then draped a long, sheer, midnight blue fabric over her niece's head, not covering her face and whispered something to her. Daizi smiled softly and kissed her aunt on the cheek before turning away at the sound of a one-year old baby shrieking in excitement, "Mama! Baba!" and trying to wriggle out of her brother's lap to go to them.

Laughing, Daizi said, "Hi habibti!" while Dark said, "Stay with your brothers, tifla."
 
At the last moment, Ciara could not bring herself to stay for the ceremony no matter what logical arguments she gave herself. It was one of the few times she would admit to herself that her heart was overriding her head, and, at the core, she was the one being superstitious. She chose to stay out in the reception area, seated in a corner out of the way, patiently waiting. If she didn't say anything about it, hopefully no one else would, either.

Inside, Sally was carefully dabbing away tears as she watched her dear friends walk up the aisle. It might as well be a full wedding as far as she was concerned. It was all so beautiful! Ivy's squealing did make her laugh.

Alec grinned and gently restrained Ivy, giving her as much movement as he could while not letting her get down. "We're playing a game, Ivy," he whispered. "We have to wait our turn."
 
The ceremony began with Mittz, Ellis, D'Arcy, and Gwen calling in the corners and establishing the protective ring around the attendees and the ceremony. Mittz lit the incentive stick and spoke to the guardian of the East, representing the Air. Ellis lit a candle and spoke to the guardian of the South, representing fire. D'Arcy poured water from a ewer into a basin for the guardian of the West. Finally, Gwen set out a bowl of salt for the North, representative of the earth.

When this was done, they retook their seats, and Cooger stepped forward once more. "Friends and Companions," he began, looking over the crowd of people in their seats, over at the flickering candle and swirling smoke from the incense. "I'll be honest with y'all. I don't really know what I'm doing. I've never been considered a particularly formal guy, and I don't think I'm all that eloquent. Last time I gave any sort of speech it was a eulogy for my Nana Lucy, and I ended it by taking a shot of whiskey while dressed in blue jeans and my good boots. So this really ain't," He cleared his throat, "Really isn't the sort of thing I'm accustomed to. But when these two," He squeezed both Dark and Daizi on the shoulders, smiling between the two of them, "asked me to officiate this, well, there was no chance in hell I was gonna say no. So all of us here are gathered today to celebrate the tenth wedding anniversary of Ghalib Marzuq Dark and Daizi Samira Saladin Wahid, my very best friends."

Pausing for a moment, Cooger took a breath, squeezed his friends' shoulders one last time and then let go, "I am one of the only people in this room who have ever known these two apart, and I am the only one here who knows what Dark was like before he fell in love. I can honestly say I have never known two people who complement each other more than these two. They just fit. Like it's easy. And I say like 'cause I'm also one of the only people who saw what a battle it was to get these two to the altar the first time. How hard a road it was, how painful, how dramatic... Next time any of you watch a romantic comedy, say a prayer for the best friends of the main characters, because I'll tell y'all, from experience, it's not always as fun as it looks. Now, if it were me, I'd have thrown in the towel a hundred times before they finally tied the knot, but they aren't me. And although he's gonna have a lot to say in a minute, I'll tell you something Dark has told me a number of times before: Love is not something that weak people do. And I know he's right about that. Because so often, we treat marriage like it's the end goal. That once you get married, your journey is over, and everything is smooth sailing. But their road has never quite evened out, but here they are, ten years on, more in love than ever. And when I look around this room, I see the faces of old friends and family, but new ones too. And I can't say how many of y'all would be here with us right now, if Ghalib and Daizi did not work so damn hard to create and support their family."

Again, he paused, looking around at the room, then up at the ceiling for a moment to take a breath before continuing, "It takes a hell of a lot of strength. And a hell of a lot of work. And a decade on, we are together again or the first time to reaffirm that bond they share, which ties not only them, but all of us in great or small ways. So. Dark, Tarot, please join hands. I believe love is not something shared between two people. I believe it is a web, binding communities together, and what a beautiful thing that is. What a thing to commemorate, and celebrate, while we commemorate and celebrate those who we love so dearly in return. In honour of this, Ghalib and Daizi have included a Handfasting Ceremony as part of their renewal. This is a ritual representing the bond they not only share with each other but how their love bonds their family together." He turned and nodded to the twins and gestured for them to to come up, "Their sons, Xander and Alec, have been asked to perform the binding in honour of how the familial web is spun."
 
Alec was nearly in tears listening to Cooger talk. His words, rough and "casual" as they were, they were beautiful. Xander didn't cry, not even close, but he was listening and listening closely. He took what Cooger said and tucked them away to be reconsidered later.

When Cooger indicated for them to come up, both of them almost missed their cue. They stood quickly, and Alec held Ivy in front of him carefully so she couldn't grab anything she wasn't supposed to. With great care, they did as practiced and wrapped the cords as they'd been taught so Dark and Daizi could slip the cords off without untying them.
 
Cooger stepped back, giving the twins space to work. Dark looked stalwartly at his wife, over at his sons and daughter, and down at their hands, quietly astounded by how emotional it made him feel. Just the simple act of being bound to her this way. They had clasped their hands right-to-left so each of their arms crossed over the other, forming an infinity symbol. He may not have believed in a higher power, but he believed in this, and he believed in her. When Ivy came close to him, she of course reached out, but since he couldn't let go of his wife's hands, he leaned in his face towards her, kissed her cheek, and told her she was doing a great job.

Daizi stood with her eyes shut and her head bowed, whispering a prayer nobody else could hear.

When the handfasting was complete and all the ribbons were tied, Dark and Daizi both thanked the twins. Daizi had tears in her eyes.

Then Cooger stepped forward once more, "While handfasted, Daizi and Ghalib will read the vows they have prepared."

Traditionally, the groom read his vows first, but they had decided since Daizi proposed, she would begin. Smiling up at her husband, Daizi paused, enjoying these moments stood with him. Then she took a breath and admitted, "I didn't know how to begin to draft these vows: I didn't know how to put down in words the depth of what I feel for you. Ghalib, my husband... Everything I tried felt cheap or cliche or insufficient. How could anyone begin to write about the man who held me in his arms and loved me in moments where it seemed the world itself was too heavy for me to survive? But you, Ghalib, Goose, you carried it. You make me feel safe. When I am tired and overwhelmed and drained of seemingly everything good in me, you draw me a bath, you light candles, you carry me to bed. And you trust me to let me hold you, too."

"For ten years, I have had the honour of being your wife, but I loved you since before we met. I loved you since before you or I were you or I. For all of time we have been chasing each other. In every lifetime, in every universe, we have sought each other. You and I may be whole and complete people on our own, but my soul needs yours like light needs shadow. Ghalib, you are the Solstice. You are intense and unyielding and you freeze and thaw and you are so, so hot." She couldn't help but laugh softly at her own joke, squeezing his hands and leaning in slightly towards him. Watching her, Dark's eyes glimmered in his subtle way while she continued, "And I'm your Equinox."

Again, she paused, and blinking up towards the ceiling for a moment, trying not to cry so soon, "Goose, you are the strongest, most courageous man I have ever known. Almost two Decembers ago you brought home our sons and one year ago I gave us our daughter, brought to us through unintended ritual. I have witnessed you become a father, witnessed you change your dreams, be forced to cope with long-sleeping demons, witnessed you make yourself uncomfortable to make yourself the best father you can be. I have witnessed you change and it only deepens my love for you because you are the most amazing father I have ever met. Listening to your kindness, your gentleness, and your resilience as you speak to our children fills me with pride, it inspires me, and it overwhelms me with the knowledge and the security we can outlast any force of nature."

"Of all our lifetimes, in all the universes, I am so glad I get to share this one with you. It was never certain, even fated as we are: we could have lost each other, and we almost did. Many times we came close to losing each other. But I will choose you again and again, I would run away from a hundred weddings for one more night in your bed because you are the only one I could ever love. The only one." She took a breath, her face crumpling as she squeezed his hands, "And I just wish, Eayni, I could go back and tell the little girl I used to be, who felt so broken, and so ashamed, that one day there would be a man like you who would love me so completely and so utterly, exactly as I am." Unable to stand watching her cry, Dark let go of her non-bound hand and reached forward to gently wipe her tears and with her eyes shut, she pressed her cheek against his palm, "I wish I could tell her how you love me without conditions, without ultimatums and that you encourage my passions and aren't afraid to let everyone know that I am who you chose. That you are proud to love me. That you would not have me any other way."

She fell silent, her breath shuddering and feeling his hand on her cheek before she opened her eyes and took his hand into hers again before telling him, "So to you, my love, my husband, the one who complements and soothes my soul, on the day of the tenth anniversary of our wedding, I vow I will love you unconditionally. I vow to hold you up when you cannot stand on your own and support you through any hardship past, present, or future. Ghalib, you are the only man I have ever loved, the only man I could ever love, and I vow to you I will walk with you wherever your road leads. Your past is my past, and mine is yours. The future is ours together. And, my love, Goose Mongoose Dark, I vow to love you from this life into the next and to always find you. I vow to cry out to the cosmos so every star knows the divinity inherent in loving and being loved by you."
 
Sally was doing her best not to cry too much as she dabbed at her eyes and smiled so very happily. Daizi was truly a most precious being! She was honored to know her.

Alec and Xander sat quietly, listening as their mother spoke her vows, watching the micro expressions on their father. They were easier to see than usual, open and honest.
 
Then it was Dark's turn. Like his wife, he took a second to just sit in the moment before telling her, "Daizi, you are the first person who ever loved me. I did not know until we met I was worthy of being loved nor that I could ever return the feeling. I do not know how to begin to thank you for loving me as I am. You loved me before I even learned to like myself. To this day, I do not know what it was you perceived, but you taught me not to question it. You taught me I am worthy and that I am more than all of my broken parts." He paused, watching her face. Beneath their bounds, he rubbed his thumb against the back of her perfect hand, trying to recall to mind everything he had worked so hard to memorize. Then he took her unbound hand and placed it over his chest, letting her feel his beating heart. "You saved my life, Daizi."

Whimpering, Daizi mumbled, "You saved mine too."

"I know, I know," Filling his lungs with air, he had no choice but to let a fear brave tears roll down his cheeks because he could not let go of her for an instant to dry his face, "You saved me. I would not be standing here today were it not for you. I would never have known such joys were it not your you. I would not have known our children, I never would have become a father. Spider, everything in my life I owe to you and that preternatural instant when you ran into me." A beat, "Literally." He smiled softly, and brought her knuckles to his lips before placing her hand back over his heart, "There is something mystic and magical in you which I have never known in any other soul. Nobody alive or dead has ever been able to love broken pieces with as much genuine warmth and honesty as you. You are the Kintsugi in my soul."

Once more he stopped just to look at her face, and he smiled visibly from how much love he had in his heart for the woman standing across from him and then he took another deep breath and fought to blink away his tears, "I have in my life been wounded and I have been saved. I have been marred and I have been spared. Few parts of me are not shadowed. And I have never met anyone more patient, more ambitious, more stubborn, or more gentle. There is nowhere else I yearn to be than by your side. In your hands, I am home. Considering I do not know who to thank for you, I will instead vow to support you through all of your endeavors. I vow to trust you to know yourself and to advocate for you when you cannot. I vow to hold your hand and walk beside you wherever it is in the world we go. But I do not vow to repay you, because above all else, you taught me love is not a debt. It is not transactional. It is shared and cultivated. I vow to spend the rest of my life adoring the frightening mystery you are. Loving you feels like hope."
 
Alec tucked his head sideways against Xander's shoulder, trying desperately not to cry as it would mess up his makeup, but he was fighting a losing battle. Dark was crying! Dark was crying! It was all too much. Too much! He didn't want to feel so much so deeply, but the feels wrapped around him in warmth and love and pain. All of it at once.

Xander was holding it together a good deal more than Alec, but he wasn't untouched as he watched Dark and Daizi standing there. How could something like that exist? And not only exist, but continue to exist? Sustain throughout the years? It didn't make sense. It was a fast-burning fire that should have eaten up its fuel by now.
 
In the seats facing the alter, Zeinab couldn't not cry, looking at her niece standing there so proudly with her husband. She had cried at their first wedding, too. Most of Daizi's friends were somewhere between tearing up and outright crying and Ivy gurgled quietly, shifting to look up at her brothers, tugging gently at them. She didn't understand it anymore than Xander did, but her confusion stemmed from somewhere else.

Cooger, the only other one standing up at the altar with them had to turn his face away and she did his best to wipe his eyes covertly before turning back to face all of the guests. The room was silent, except for the sniffling and the quiet murmurs of a baby. He found himself wondering first if it was normal for guests to applaud after the vows and that was why their silence seemed so all-encompassing, or if he just wished they did so it didn't need to be his job to break the silence.

His friends were whispering to each other.

"I love you."

"I love you."

But nobody else would be able to hear them. So, he took a breath, stepped forward, and continued the ceremony, explaining they would now be slipped loose of their handfasting without cutting the ribbons and then once more called the twins up to help with the drinking from the shared cup.
 
Alec managed to compose himself as Ivy tugged at him and smiled at her gently. "It's alright," he assured her in a whisper. He tried to wipe his eyes without smearing anything. "Happy, good tears!" He settled down to listen once more.

Xander turned Alec to him and quickly fixed up his make-up so that at least it was not obviously smeared everywhere, finishing up just in time for the shared cup. They both stood, Alec still carrying Ivy, and joined their parents for the ceremony.
 
Once the cup was poured, Dark and Daizi both held the goblet in their hands and drank long draughts from it, helping to hold it to each others lips. Then they handed it back to the twins so it could be set back down.

Since they were already married, there seemed little point in exchanging rings---having three seemed excessive---so Cooger stepped forward and said, "There is no power vested in me and I have nothing to declare you as, but as your officiant, you are very welcome to end your ceremony exactly as I know you have been waiting to this whole time."

And finally, Dark stepped forward, wrapped Daizi up in his arms, and kissed her with all the tenderness he had been longing for. For all of the grief they received for their physical affection, they rarely gave each other more than a peck of a kiss in public. But this was a wedding, or near enough to one, and he dipped her slightly down, not too far that it looked staged, because it wasn't, but just a little from the sheer joy of the moment.
 
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