How Green Becomes Wood

"She is at home," Dark replied, holding Ivy a bit closer as she, as always, held onto his beard. After a few moments of looking at her he said, "I am sorry. My English deceives me sometimes. Babysitting is when you care for another person's child, is it not?"
 
"Well, yes, but, that is," she stammered, flustered now. "It's also when fathers take their children because everyone knows fathers are not natural caregivers. It's simply not in their natures."

Alec reached out and lightly touched Dark's arm, willing him to not get too upset at this stranger. She was merely spouting what she'd been taught.
 
Dark only looked away from her for long enough to glance at Alec and wordlessly assure him he'd be nice. Then he looked back at the woman, "I am a stay-at-home father," he told her, "so perhaps my nature is different."
 
"I see," she said stiffly, looking him up and down. "How... unusual." She hurried her kids forward, glancing back a couple of times.

"She'll be thinking about that for a while," Alec remarked.
 
"She should," Dark replied with a frown, setting Ivy into her stroller and kneeling in front of it to buckle her in before going into the diaper bag to give Ivy her snack, "The presumption I cannot properly care for my own children is somewhat offensive. But I was not going to be rude to her."
 
"I wouldn't know how to care for a kid, and before you, no one would have taught me," Xander replied. "It's one of those, like, self perpetuating problems or whatever."

"Yeah, but Matt and, um, his husband, I forgot his name, they learned how with books," Alec pointed out. "And what about Milo?"

"I'm not saying she's right, I'm just saying I get where she got the idea. We had those ideas."

Alec frowned. "Good point."
 
"Yes, and both your mother and myself came from extreme patriarchal countries where fathers are not expected to do much child rearing," Dark replied, pushing the stroller, "I have still grown to find it bothersome. The idea men are somehow meant to be the heads of the household the rest of the family must submit to yet utterly incompetent as parents is still irritating. But that is why I said she should think about it for awhile, so she hopefully unlearns those beliefs."
 
"I hope so. Even if the father is supposed to be in charge, that's no reason why he can't parent. After all, you wouldn't want an incompetent boss at work who can't do at least half the job his employees can do," Alec remarked.

"I'd rather talk about fish than bosses," Xander replied.
 
"Exactly," Dark replied, "Although I personally dislike the notion of the... I think in English I have heard it called the 'umbrella of authority.' Although that may be due to my own experiences with such expectations." He looked down at Xander, "I would hope so, given our location. But look, just ahead, the conveyor belt we have spoken so much about."
 
"Where?" Alec asked, still looking for something off the floor.

Xander debated the risks. Then he gave Alec a little shove, enough to get him stumbling onto the moving walkway.

Alec yelped, stumbled, and windmilled his arms. He almost lost his balance, but, thankfully, dancing had taught him a lot in terms of body control, and he caught himself. He stared down at his feet and then around him. "Ba! Ba, the floor! It's moving!" he yelped loud enough to draw the attention of at least one or two of the other patrons.

Xander snickered and stepped onto the walkway with confidence.
 
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"I know, I told you, the conveyor belt," Dark replied with a chuckle, carefully pushing the stroller onto the walkaway and resting his arms against the handles as he looked at the tanks on either side of the walkway and then, to his surprise, up at the tanks above them. "Oh." He exhaled softly as a nurse shark swam overhead, "Look."
 
Alec backed up so he could stand closer to Dark and Xander and then looked up. "Oh!" he breathed. "Wow!"

"What?" Xander craned his neck to see up and fell silent, his eyes going wide. "How?" he whispered. "How does it... stay?"

"They are so beautiful!" Alec whispered, reaching out to hold Xander's arm without thinking. "I thought they were supposed to be scary, but... they are so... beautiful!"
 
"Engineering, I suppose," Dark replied softly as though he wasn't really aware he was speaking. It wasn't only sharks in the tank, plenty of other fish swam around them. It was like they were truly underwater. "Ivy, look," he said, crouching down beside the stroller and pointing up for her so she knew to look. Then, he stood again and stood between his sons, happy to enjoy how wonderful it was with them.
 
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