How Green Becomes Wood

"More or less surprising than Sally Hollis trying to mother you?" Xander asked, picking up the basket and starting for the stairs. "Or Jack Hollis getting you that super cool birthday card?"
 
"I do not think Sally trying to mother anybody is surprising, and Jack is quite friendly. I do not understand anyone being friendly, but that is a general surprise." Dark said with a shrug, lifting Ivy into his lap.
 
"Fair," Xander agreed. He carried the laundry up and set it in front of Dark's bedroom door. He hesitated outside of Alec's room and considered going in, but, ultimately, decided not to. Whatever Alec was working through right now, it had to do with Emma, and nothing Xander ever said about Emma was the right thing. So, he left Alec to figure it out himself and went down to his own room to do his own homework.
 
Dark gave Alec time to cool off rather than trying to force a conversation. Evidently there was something he was wrestling with, but he was trying to give them space to work through their issues instead of smothering them with support.

At home, at least, the week was fine. Soon enough, they were on their way to Tristan's home, which, presumably, had furniture likely to be too small for Dark, and perhaps even Daizi.
 
Alec did eventually apologize to Dark for his comment about someone else raising him and for snapping, but it was a quick, concise apology, avoiding continued conversation around it. He did feel bad for his reaction, but he was also getting frustrated. Some people might have been ashamed of their parents, especially their blatantly Gothic parents and unapologetically witchy mother. Alec was not. Yes, he had asked them to dial it back to not scare off Emma on their first visit, but he fully expected that anyone who stayed with him would need to be able to accept his parents as they were. Maybe work their way up to it a little, but accept them. However, Alec found himself not just explaining his parents to his girlfriend and her parents, but also explaining his girlfriend and her parents to his parents and his brother. Whether or not he actually needed to, he felt like he had to justify dating someone "normal" and not somehow off-beat. This felt backward. According to media, he was supposed to be justifying his Gothic, weird girlfriend to his normal parents, not his normal, all-star student girlfriend to his Gothic, weird parents. It was exhausting. The only good news was that once Emma told her parents that Alec's parents were not "Crazy, insane" kind of weird, just "Fun, expressive" kind of weird, like artists or musicians, they'd calmed down and hadn't asked Alec too many questions when he'd dropped by for an hour on Thursday. None of this was helped by Xander's and Emma's active avoidance of each other. They didn't talk about it, just always had somewhere else to be when the other came around.

It was a relief to finally get to go do something fun as a family! Finally, a bit of fun that had nothing to do with anything tender or arguable. The worst would be having to listen to a song all but one person hated, if it came to that.

Tristan's place was an apartment in a small complex. It was a nice, higher-end complex that even had a pool, and it felt incredibly sleek and modern, especially compared to the Nacropolis. His apartment was on the ground floor not too far from the pool, and it overlooked the small patch of grass that passed itself off as a "lawn." That was one of the three approved places for pet owners to take their (under 20 pounds) pets. He opened the door before they could knock and smiled up at them in greeting.

"Welcome! Come on in!" he said, backing up and holding the door open for them. "I don't really have a shoe policy, but I just swept and mopped the floors an hour ago, so you're safe to take off your shoes if you wish."

"Thanks, Uncle Tristan!" Alec greeted him, stepping inside with care.

Inside, the interior of the apartment did hold much of the same sleek, modern lines as the exterior, but it was softened with bold colors mixed among the white walls. The front door opened to a small entryway with that led past the kitchen and the bathroom to the spacious living room. The kitchen area was a small area, set back enough so that a person could cook without standing in the entryway, but the cupboards and appliances only took up one short wall, making it only a little bigger than a kitchenette. Despite its small size, it had not been shortchanged in style. The lower cupboards were a rich, dark green while the uppers were natural, medium-toned wood. The backsplash was a colorful tile that looked almost like real stone. The walls were white in the living room, but wainscoating painted a dark, moody grey-blue color that echoed some of the colors from the kitchen backsplash went around the room. The bathroom had large, rectangular, stone-like tiles laid on the floor, and the mirror was flanked by interesting sconces, but the rest was regrettably white and mostly uninteresting. The door to the bedroom was closed, offering no peeks there. The unit had not been fully accessible when Tristan had moved in - except for the bathroom, thankfully, and spacing in the doorways - but after he'd lived there for a year without incident, he'd talked to the management and convinced them to allow him to renovate the space. They saw the benefit to being able to advertise a fully accessible unit in the future should he move out and agreed. Thus, Tristan had hired Cooger to install new, lower counters, new counter tops, lower light switches, and several other small tweaks that likely wouldn't even be noticeable. He did not have a kitchen table, preferring to eat at the counter just under the window. There were no rugs anywhere, allowing the vinyl wood flooring in its inoffensive neutral color to run uncovered throughout all the rooms except the bathroom. The space was small, yet roomy at the same time.

All around, plants on stands, bookshelves, and countertops peaked out, making themselves known in a warm, lived-in way, and not a "lost in the jungle" kind of way. Several were vining plants that had their own little hooks in the wall, holding them up and trailing them across various surfaces. In the living room, there was a sofa at the same height as Tristan's wheelchair, but also a regular, comfortable chair at regular height. That one looked somewhat new.

"I'm sorry I do not have very much seating," Tristan apologized. "I do not often get visitors."
 
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"Thank you for inviting us over," Dark said, casting his eyes about the room, both approving of the effort put into decorating and a bit anxious about where to fit someone of his size.

Daizi held onto her husband's arm because she had absolutely no idea where anything was. In preparation for this new environment, they allowed one of the twins to bring in Ivy so they would need to work with her and learn to navigate. "I'm sure it's lovely," Daizi said warmly.
 
"You have a fine eye for design," Tristan told Daizi with a twinkle in his eye. "Right this way." He led the way into the living room and indicated the couch and chair. "I already have a seat, so feel free to sit wherever you like. Ghalib, if you don't mind, there's a folding table just behind the couch. If you would get that out and fold it out for me and set it in the middle of the living room?" He wheeled back into the kitchen, pausing to let Alec, Xander, and Ivy past first, and fetched a couple of trays of finger foods.

Alec had Ivy, and he took her to look out the window that looked out at the grass and could just see the edge of the pool. Xander went to help Tristan and carried in a pitcher of juice and paper cups. It wasn't much, but it was decent fair for someone who did not entertain and barely used his kitchen. To be honest, he would have happily downgraded his kitchen to something more like a kitchenette as it felt wasted on him, but it was what it was. At least it was a nice space to repot plants, which was what he used it for the most. The toaster overn got the most use.
 
"You know, I've been told that before," Daizi teased while Dark helped her find a spot on the couch. After she was settled, he went to get the folding table for Tristan, "Oh, before I forget, we brought you halva. It's in the diaper bag."

"I will grab it in a moment," Dark said, setting up the folding table.
 
"Halva? I feel I should know that, but I am afraid I do not," Tristan admitted, frowning as he tried to remember. It was likely something he'd had before at their house or at their vow renewal, but he couldn't remember for certain. He waited for Dark to finish setting up the table and then set his trays on the table.

"It's good stuff," Xander said, setting the drinks on the table, as well.
 
"It's a middle eastern dessert," Daizi said while Dark took out the treat and handed it to Tristan, "This one has cardamom, tahini, and pisachios in it, but there are so many variants across MENA countries."

"My favourite is rose and pistachio," Dark said, "Semolina is also quite common."
 
"Thank you!" Tristan smiled, gladly accepting it. "This sounds delicious. How do you eat it? With a spoon, on bread...?"

"You can put it on bread if you want," Alec volunteered. "Or you can let it get cold, break it apart, and eat the shards. I like it cold!"

"I prefer putting it on bread, but it's got to be flat bread," Xander told him.

"I don't have any flat bread, but I could put out some white bread if you'd like to share," Tristan offered.
 
"You can do white bread," Daizi said, "I personally also prefer it cold, I don't know if I've ever tried it on white bread."

"I have not," Dark said, "But it is a gift, you can eat it how you like."
 
"It is lovely, thank you," Tristan said. He set it on the table and went to get some white bread. He cut it into triangles and set it out on the table alongside his own contributions of mini corn dogs made with beef hot dogs, crispy hot honey cauliflower bites, sour cream and onion deviled eggs, and spinach dip rolls. It sounded and looked fancy, but they were all super easy to make. It was the most he'd ever made in one go, but he wanted to make certain everyone had an option.

"This is a nice spread, Uncle Ten," Xander remarked, picking a mini corn dog. He ate it in one bite, nodded in approval, and snagged two more.

"Ten?" Tristan repeated, confused.

"For Tris-tan," Alec told him.

"Huh. Okay," Tristan said, accepting it but confused.
 
"It smells delicious, thank you," Daizi praised.

Ivy looked curiously at all the foods she had never seen before, and pointed to the deviled eggs, tugging on Alec's shirt and babbling at him.
 
"Please, dig in!" Tristan invited, amused by Xander's enthusiasm.

"You want to try a deviled egg?" Alec said aloud to her. "Sure, we can try one." He sat on the couch with Ivy on his lap. "Let's make it smaller, first." He used one of the forks Tristan had left out and a paper plate and cut the deviled egg into smaller pieces. He handed one to ivy, holding a napkin at the ready.
 
"Alright," Alec laughed, managing to catch the spit egg with his napkin. "You don't like sour cream and onion deviled egg, which is a new one on me."

"Deviled eggs are the one thing I can do reliably, so I like to play with them," Tristan said. "If she likes just egg, you could scoop out the filling."

Alec tried that with another of the smaller pieces, cleaning it off carefully before presenting just the white to Ivy. "If you don't like this, maybe one of those spinach dip roll things.
 
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