How Green Becomes Wood

"Right," Terri said uneasily. She glanced away. "Oh, look! There's Amber with her twins, Damien and Danny! I should go say Hi. They missed last week."

"Oh, say hi to her from me, too," Kyle said as Terri scooped up Tansy and stood.
 
"I taught high school history," Dark said.

"I work at the big museum downtown," Daizi told him, "I've been working from home since Ivy came along, but I'm getting itchy, so I'm preparing a schedule so I can work a few days a week to start to make the transition easier on all of us."
 
Kyle's eyes went wide as he glanced back and forth between them. "Whoa! That is out of this world! Teaching teenagers? Man, you are tough! And the head of a museum? You two are like a history power couple!"

Raymond had slowly made his way closer to Ivy, getting about halfway there. He sat contentedly stacking blocks with great care and surprising success. He still knocked them over some, but he was doing very well. Occasionally, he'd pause to stare at Ivy and see what she was doing.
 
"I'm not the head of it," Daizi said, "but I do have a team I lead. I'll tell you, we have great conversations some people find horribly dull."

Ivy was enjoying a baby puzzle designed for someone slightly older than her, and anytime she struggled with it, she'd grab either Dark or Daizi's hand and press the piece into their palm to try to ask for help.
 
"Oh, sorry, yeah, head of your department, then?" Kyle asked. "Very cool! I might not follow a conversation about a museum or teaching or history well, but that doesn't mean they aren't interesting." He looked around as if ensuring no one else could hear and leaned closer. "I slept through all of my history classes and got through with a C because I cheated," he whispered conspiratorially.
 
"Something like that," Daizi replied, "I enjoy my work very much and I'm fortunate to be able to do it."

"You are neither the first nor the last to do so." Dark said sagely, "It is a subject students often find irrelevant until the modernity begins to frighten."
 
"Like... reading a road map?" Kyle asked slowly, trying to follow and desperate not to appear dense. "Yeah, yeah, I can see that. I just hope people better at staying awake in their history class than me are the ones leading the expedition!" He smiled brightly.
 
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"More like a compass," Dark said, before falling silent in the vaguely uncomfortable way he did when he was thinking deeply about what to say rather than filling the silence with filler words and sounds. Then said simply, "It is why I am a proponent of everyone voting." He felt that was succinct enough to not be overwhelming.
 
"Oh, voting! Now that's a pretty serious topic!" Kyle agreed with a chuckle. "I stick to the local polls, myself. The big one every four years just gets my head all boggled, and it's pretty easy for them to lie to a chump like me. A lot harder when I'm living in their backyard. Not impossible, but harder," he shrugged. He eyed Dark's hand. "Man, you got some nice ink! Do you like that?" He was asking Daizi but didn't realize he'd have to verbally signify that.
 
Dark may have had something to say about that, but Kyle (unknowingly, he presumed) distracted him by mentioning his tattoos. Or, more accurately, distracted him by seeming to ask Daizi a question in a way she wouldn't recognize was directed towards her, so to save her embarrassment, murmured her name under his breath.

"Oh? Like what, his tattoos? I don't really have a strong opinion on them, honestly, it's not like they impact me at all," Daizi replied, "I used to get bored in the tattoo parlour with him, which is why I have so many ear piercings, but that's the extent of how they've altered my life in any way."
 
"Oh," Kyle said, still well and fully not getting it. He looked between them, not feeling the awkward but still very much confused. So, as he normally did when faced with confusion, he moved on! "I've got a couple, myself, but they're nothing like yours. Does your artist do touch-ups and cover-ups? I got one that I thought would make the wife happy, and..." He made a face. "It didn't."
 
"He does do them, but your best option is to find an artist who works in a style you like," Dark told him, "I can give you the name of my artist, but if you do not want this style of tattoo, he may not be the best choice for you."
 
Kyle pestered/asked Dark more questions about his tattoos, genuinely admiring them and not at all turned off by some of the darker themes or some of the apparent randomness of them. He had a lot of questions, mused about potential future tattoos for himself, and eventually turned the conversation toward working out. He compared notes with Dark, asked about the gym he went to, and when he discovered Dark didn't go to a gym, quizzed him on his home set up in hopes of replicating it for himself. Working out at home with a baby was a lot easier than trying to find time to go out to a place. Eventually, he realized he was cutting Daizi out again and apologized before asking her questions about her job, his eyes bright with curiosity. He asked a lot of questions that a child might, and it seemed he had no idea how museums worked or, really, what a museum was like outside of movies.
 
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