How Green Becomes Wood

"Remind them I'm staff and they wouldn't ask the caterer to dance." Milo replied flatly, "But my mom isn't here. I'd dance with my mom if she asked. It's the moral thing to do. Moms and grandmas."
 
"My mother would totally ask the caterer to dance," Xander grumbled. "Ba would have to talk her out of it. Oh, and aunties. If one of those aunties asked you to dance, that'd practically be law, too."
 
"Why do you think I'm hanging out here with you? You're always close to the best boltholes," Xander smirked. "If they asked, I guess I'd have to say yes, but I hope they don't."
 
"Good luck to you," Milo chuckled while the cake was brought out and Dark and Daizi went to cut it. They didn't care much about the "first slice" tradition of making everyone watch them enjoy a slice of cake. It didn't strike them as particularly romantic or cute but they also knew there was no way their guests would be the first to slice into this beautiful red and black heart-shaped cake so they went ahead to do the cut it and feel they had successfully done their duty.
 
Alec came to stand next to Milo and Xander at the cake cutting, making absolutely certain to stay out of the way of Milo's camera. "I'm kind of surprised the heart isn't bleeding," he remarked. "It seems their style."

"Probably deemed it too messy for this event," Xander snickered.
 
"It'd definitely be messy," Milo agreed, "And it'd probably be gross. I only care that it tastes good, too. Chocolate cake was a good choice."

Now that Ivy was a full year old, she was allowed a piece of cake, but unlike on her birthday, she was not allowed to just smash her face into it and instead was carefully spoon fed. She clearly wanted to do it herself, but the last thing her parents were going to allow was a baby covered in cake around so many beautiful, expensive clothing.

As everyone finished dessert, Daizi stretched and walked off for a moment to catch her breath, wanting to drink a little bit of wine and enjoy the experience of being there while Dark chatted elsewhere in the room. As she stood there, she heard the sound of footsteps approach, and she turned at the sound a voice saying, "Daizi, I have been trying to catch you alone."

Inhaling sharply, she turned proud and indignant towards the voice, "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to see you. My visa does not expire until after this, since originally you invited me."

"Please tell me I didn't pay for your dinner." Daizi said sardonically, wondering which of her gods she had pissed off to make her father reappear on what had, so far, been such a perfect day. Message received: stay humble.

Shaking his head, Saladin explained, "No, no. I only sat in for the ceremony. I tried to just go the hotel after, but I came back because I need to speak with you before I go."

"Yeah, well, you should've flown back to Egypt two weeks ago." Daizi told him, "I don't want you here. I don't want to speak with you."

"Daizi..."

"It's astounding, really, how adamantly you refuse to respect any of my choices."

"Just listen..."

"I'm ashamed at how you always manage to surprise me when you are so predictable."

"Daizi, I came back because I wanted to apologize."

For the second time in less than five minutes, Saladin surprised his daughter and completely stopped her in her tracks. It took until the song chnaged for her to react, "I'll give you five minutes."

"What?"

"Just until the song ends." She told him unflinchingly, "And then you are leaving."
 
Peter sidled over to Milo when the twins were both distracted elsewhere. "Hey," he said softly. "Who is that talking with Mrs. Wahid right now? Can you see him? I caught a glimpse, but I'm too short to see around that flower stand. Tell me it's not who I think it is."
 
"I um," Milo replied, glancing down at Peter, "I don't know who you think it is. But it looks like it's her dad...?" He looked back over, but didn't raise his camera this time, "Do you think that's... okay?"

Pulling Daizi aside, Saladin said, "Daizi, I do not understand you. I do not understand whatever... it was you included in the ceremony..."

"No, Baba," Daizi sighed, turning away completely ready to give up on him for a second time.

"But," He said, gently touching her arm to stop her, "I am glad it is something which makes you happy. I do not know if I will ever be able to understand your decisions, but I am glad you are happy. I want you to be happy."
 
Peter frowned. "I don't know. I don't think so, but it doesn't look like an argument. No, wait, he just grabbed her arm. Does this place have security, or should I tell Mr. Dark?" He was already scanning the room, looking for a source of backup, the question vocalize more as a thought than an actual question.
 
"I don't know..." Milo replied, glancing behind him towards Dark, "He's probably more equipped to handle it than we are."

"I am happy." Daizi replied, "I have told you I am happy a thousand times."

"I know," Saladin looked sadly at her, "I just worry about you. You're my daughter."

"Yeah. So you've said. And you're, what? I mean, really, I don't understand the point of all of this. I have given you so many chances and..." She began to say something else but then gave up.

Shifting uncomfortably, Saladin scratched the back of his neck before saying, "I love you, Daizi. It matters to me that you are in my life. I'm sorry I made you feel like I shouldn't be."
 
"I'll go let him know," Peter said, moving away. "I think in this case, size is helpful." He wished there were some security people here to escort Saladin away without causing further distress to the "bride and groom."
He made his way through to people toward Dark and lightly put a hand on his arm to catch his attention. "Mr. Dark?"
 
Being touched unexpectedly, Dark quickly turned around before seeing Peter and relaxing. It was too loud to hear footsteps well, "Yes, Peter? What can I do for you?"

"That's not..." She sighed, tipping her head back, "You didn't make me feel like I shouldn't have you around. You proved yourself time and time again to not be a safe or kind person to be around and you made it my responsibility to try and cope with that instead of putting your emotions aside. So honestly, I don't understand the point of your apology now. I'm not going to coddle your ego and pretend like everything's forgiven and just fall back into how it used to be. It's not my job. I'm not going to let you control me."

"I don't want to control you," Saladin promised, whatever his promise was worth, "I only want you to be in my life. I'm an old man, I..."

"Are you sorry for what you did, and have been doing to me my entire life, or are you sorry that you're finally facing consequences?" Daizi asked, calm and distant.
 
"I'm very sorry, sir, but your father-in-law is here talking with your wife," Peter told him, trying to talk loud enough to be heard without broadcasting what he was saying to everyone around him.
 
"What?" Dark asked, utterly confused and then he turned and saw Saladin and Daizi talking and he simply said, "So he is. Thank you for telling me." before making his way in that direction.

"I love you, Daizi," Saladin told her. To his credit, he knew it was going to be a difficult conversation, he didn't expect her to immediately embrace him with open arms, but he didn't expect it to be this hard.

"I want to be able to forgive you," She told him, "I really want to be able to forgive you. I want to have a normal relationship with my father. But I can't. I want to believe you, but... It's too soon. I can't trust you. I can't trust that you've changed or that you won't fall back into insulting my family and insulting me. I won't live that way."
 
Peter caught sight of Xander glancing toward Dark and walked over quickly. Before Xander could catch sight of Saladin, Peter said a quick, "Hey! Milo could use your help with something."

Properly distracted, Xander turned to frown at Peter. "He does? With what?"

"I am not sure," Peter said honestly. "He said camera-related words."

"Alright," Xander shrugged and headed toward Milo. "You needed something?" he asked Milo as he approached.

Peter, standing behind Xander a few steps back, nodded in an exaggerated fashion at Milo and hoped he got the message.

Alec was fully distracted by talking with a couple of Daizi's friends and essentially learning all about them.
 
"Uh..." Milo stammered, looking at Peter, recognizing he was being encouraged to lie but didn't know what he was meant to lie about, "Yeah. Uh. Well. I don't have. A good picture. At height." He blinked and nodded. "It's not a big deal."

"You are just going to send me away again?"

"I told you as much when you came up to me." Daizi said stiffly, "Your five minutes is up. Maybe things will be different if you work to prove you've actually changed, but until then I'm not letting you close to me or my family."

Walking up to them, Dark immediately had his hand on Daizi's back, standing just as proud beside her, "Saladin, I did not expect to see you here."

"He was just leaving?"

"Was he?"

Saladin sighed, disappointed, but said, "Yes. It was a beautiful ceremony. Thank you for having me."

Then, this time listening to his daughter, he left without another word. Daizi only shut her eyes and turned towards her husband, falling tiredly into his embrace and letting him kiss her head before she tilted her face up so they could kiss properly.

"Are you okay, Spider?"

"I'm a bit proud of myself, actually. Held my ground."
 
"Um." He glanced at Dark and Daizi just in time to see Saladin walk away and the two remaining adults snuggling up and being very loving and attentive to each other, "You know, it's okay, probably. Thinking about it, I'd probably just capture a lot of bald spots."
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top