How Green Becomes Wood

"By her crawling on you and trying to eat your foot?" Xander asked dryly.

Alec sat down with Ivy and presented her with her breakfast plate. "Breakfast for Ivy! This tastes much better than feet."
 
Xander paused at that before sitting down to eat. "Okay. It could be worse."

Alec kissed the top of Ivy's head. "Emma's going to love you."

"Duh," Xander said around a mouthful of pancake. "When is she coming, again?"

"Three, for tea. And, Mama, remember, no funny business! No pranks or tricks, okay? She'll think you're for real and any attempt I try to say otherwise she'll think is to excuse it. Be nice!"
 
"When have I ever been known to play a prank?" Daizi asked innocently, "I don't recall being much of a trickster." Then she paused for a moment before saying, "I promise, I'll be nice. I'll never intentionally scare away someone you care about, unless I'm fully certain they're vile."
 
"I know, I trust you," Alec told her. "And I do love you just the way you are, and I want others to love you the same, but Emma's family is very," he paused to consider his word, "traditional. She'll need to ease her way into the water toward the deep end. Instead of cannonball. And you'll keep an eye on Ba, too?"
 
A smirk pulled at Daizi's features, "Something like that." Then, more seriously, she places her hand over Alec's, "We'll both behave, I promise. We know this matters to you, habibi, neither of us are going to mess it up or be unkind. I can't promise not to listen for anything we may be concerned about, though."
 
"I plan to run like heck, and he's lost in his tea, so I doubt he'll chase me," Alec said promptly. "Ready? One, two, three!" He handed Ivy over and dashed out of the room.

Xander watched him go and took a long, slow sip of his tea. "I'll get him later," he stated. He glanced at Daizi. "She's a dull know-it-all and I don't know what he sees in her, but I'll behave if you behave."
 
Xander raised his brow at her. He quite frankly did not believe that it was "important developmentally" to date the wrong person, but it was too early to argue that. "I believe you'd behave, unfortunately, because that means I don't get an excuse to misbehave."
 
"And isn't that the biggest trick I could pull?" Daizi asked, "If this were a sitcom, and Dark and I were asked to play nice for this, we'd go too far in the normal direction and scare her off that way, completely unintentionally. Hmm... Do you remember when you and I tricked your father and brother like that? I remember Alec ran screaming out of the house."
 
Xander snorted. "Yeah. That was a good one! I doubt it'd work with her, but... well, you'll know when you meet her." He shrugged and stood. "She's not the worst. She just rubs me the wrong way. I should start cleaning up seeing as the person who made this mess ran off."
 
"Maybe she improves the more you know her," Daizi suggested, adjusting as Ivy wiggled in her lap, "I'd help you clean up, but this one ended up sticky from the pancakes, and I figure she should try to make a good impression also."
 
"Probably," Xander agreed. "Good luck to us all."

The rest of the day went by uneventfully for the most part. Alec went around to clean the house, but other than a few of Ivy's toys, there was nothing to clean. So, instead, he rearranged the decor just a tiny bit. He pushed a few skulls or the creepier elements back on the shelf and pulled forward the family pictures, the images of things like a death's head moth, anything that was not immediately witchy, vampiric, or dark got brought forward. The rest of it was still there, he didn't outright hide it, and he left a couple of the more tasteful bones alone, but they were not the main focus.

After lunch, when it was closer to time for her to arrive, he dressed in brown pants with a 70's flair to them and a dark green shirt. He pinned a small, tasteful Christmas tree on his left breast area, but other than that and leaving his nails their bright, Christmasy colors, he actually kept things toned down. He hardly even put on any makeup, just enough to touch things up.

Xander refused to dress up. He saw Emma at school: why should he have to dress up to "meet her officially?" He didn't wear anything too worn or ragged, but it wasn't his nice set of blacks, either, and a single fang earring. He helped Alec set up a tea tray in the kitchen, complete with tiny sandwiches and scones, like a real English tea (though Sally would have laughed if they told her that's what it was), and two selections of tea.

Then, they were ready! Alec stood by the window, watching anxiously.
 
When Dark was finally awake, he noticed how Alec had adjusted the decor with mild, restrained, disapproval. He understood the purpose and he knew he likely should've been prepared for this, but it still didn't sit quite right. They weren't technically hidden, sure, but it felt a step deeper than simply having them dress down.

At the same time, he knew there was nothing to be done regarding the Baphomet sculpture in the yard or the goat's head door knocker on the front door. They were the people they were.

Nonetheless, he put on a black sweater over a grey button up shirt and black pinstripe pants. He only wore his wedding rings, not any others, although underneath the open collar of his button down he wore a simple silver chain. Normally he preferred gold, but he thought the silver suited the pin stripes on his pants. He did not apply foundation on the backs of his hands to cover his tattoos.

Daizi wore a dark purple floral dress over a black turtleneck. She went back and forth many times on if her silver bird skull necklace would be too much because she thought it fell at the perfect length, but ultimately didn't go with it. Then she debated about if her metal sun belt was too much, and ultimately chose not to wear it before crying out in agony and flopping pitifully on her bed---mostly jokingly. It amused Dark, anyway. She did wear the celestial hair clips Dark had given her for Christmas (grieving how great they would've looked with her belt!). Just as Dark had taken the stance he would not cover his tattoos, she kept some sort of jewelry in all of her ear piercings, although her hair was mostly down so it wasn't immediately obvious.

They dressed Ivy in a cute outfit which had not a single bat, ghost, or cryptid on it and added a few Arab snacks to the tray.
 
Alec gasped when a car pulled up. "She's here! Nobody panic! How's my hair?" He ran his hands through it a couple of times, somehow managing not to mess it up.

"Yeah, no one's panicking," Xander said dryly from where he sat on the arm of the couch watching Alec.

Alec frowned. "Huh. She's facing Sloan's house. The car's pulling away. Ah! She must have gotten a ride from her mom instead of driving. She's just standing there... Here she comes!" He moved to the front door and waited for the knock. At the knock, he pulled the door open. "Hi! Welcome! Come on in!"

Emma stepped in cautiously and looked around. "Wow. This is an impressive house," she said sincerely. "I thought you were joking when you said it was like the Addams' family but with more color."
 
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