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."
 
"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.
 
Alec gasped and grabbed Dark's arm. "A sting ray! It's like a magic carpet! Look!"

"I think it's a manta," Xander said absently, eyes fixed on the ceiling so much he nearly bent backwards. "There's a tuna, I think. Big fishy. Big Fishy!" He yelped, pointing to a huge, white shadow.
 
"I do not know the difference," Dark admitted, instinctively holding one hand out just behind Xander. He wasn't touching him yet, but if the teen leaned back enough to lose his balance, he was ready to stabilize him, just in case, "The ocean is a completely different world."
 
Alec finally took his eyes off the ceiling to watch the fish on either side. The smaller fish darted among the rocks and decor making up what looked to be a real living reef. He laughed, thinking it looked like they were playing hide-and-seek with each other.

"Shipwreck!" Xander blurted, pointing to a massive structure that did, indeed, look like a shipwreck. Dozens of types of fish hid amongst the holes, including what looked like possibly an eel, but it slipped away too quickly to be sure.
 
"Oh," Dark replied, stepping closer to the shipwreck, trying to examine the materials as best he could, "I think it may not actually be wood. I wish it was. But I suppose that would be difficult to establish." He looked at the fish swim in and out as the walkway moved them down, "It is still very interesting." Then, turning his head, his eyes widened, "What is that?" Above them, a slow-moving sawfish was swimming down the tunnel.
 
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"I don't know," Xander admitted. "I didn't see a sign for it."

"A tooth fish?" Alec asked nervously.

Subtly and without thinking, both teens inched closer to Dark as the walkway took them below a fish that was far more ominous than any shark. They weren't sure what it was, later Xander would find out, but right now it looked like some kind of killer beast from another world.
 
Despite knowing perfectly well this strange fish couldn't possibly harm them because of the glass, when the twins crept closer to him, he instinctively tried to shield them with his body, wholly unaware he was doing so. At the same time, he pulled the stroller slightly closer, "That may be the most alien thing I have ever seen in my life." Dark said, awestruck. After a moment he asked, "Ivy, what do you think? Do you see the fish?" She cooed but in that moment was looking at other fish.
 
The twins turned to watch the swordfish as it went past and the walkway continued, suspicious and making certain it didn't try to follow them or something. Only once it was clear the thing wasn't going to be a problem did they relax and turn to watch the other fish.

"This is the weirdest day ever," Xander stated, still looking up. "Turtle!"

"Prettiest day ever," Alec said, trying to take the occassional picture and mostly getting blurs thanks to being constantly distracted.
 
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