How Green Becomes Wood

"You know, Dark has run into people at the grocery store more recently these past few weeks than he typically does," Daizi said, going back to her position by the push bars so she didn't get disoriented.
 
"The parents of Alec's girlfriend," Daizi said, dropping her voice.

"I wish Daizi had been with me then, she is much more charming than I am. I never know how to make small talk."
 
Tristan almost missed a beat in pushing his wheelchair. "Really?" he asked, twisting to look up at Dark. "Alec has told me a little about his girlfriend, but not much. He's been working on trying to keep his professional life separate from his home life." He smiled fondly. "It's adorable. I actually took a class on how to make small talk since that is a large part of my work. But aside from the awkwardness of small talk, how was it? What were they like?" He paused, checked his list, and added an item to the cart.
 
"Fine enough," Dark said with a shrug, keeping a subtle, curious eye on what Tristan was picking up in between getting the snacks the twins had requested, "I found them fairly standard, the sort of people most people would describe as fine and upstanding. I thought it was nice they chose to go grocery shopping together."

"Dark gave them a bit of a fright," Daizi said, squeezing her husband's arm with her free hand.
 
"Did you threaten to suck their blood?" Tristan teased lightly. He picked up a box of flavored "veggie straws" and added them to the cart along with a bag of Twizzlers. To his credit, that was all of the strictly "junk" food in his section of the cart. The rest of it, though, was frozen, dehydrated, or canned. A single bunch of bananas made up the fresh produce section.
 
"No, but I should have. They were mostly shocked I dress like this even when it is not Halloween." Dark explained, thinking about how if he did actually need to drink blood and he bit Tristan, he'd end up with scurvy. "Do you typically shop at a number of different stores?"
 
Tristan chuckled quietly. "I'm sure they were very nice people," he offered, amused. Dark's question confused him briefly, but he didn't think too much about it. "No, no, going through one store is more than enough for me. Occasionally, there will be a really good sale elsewhere, or a different store will have something I need, but I mostly shop here. I'm guessing you only come here for 'American snacks.'"
 
"The twins like to tease him for going to a different store every week, they think he wastes his time," Daizi replied.

"This is where I go for the American snacks, yes. During the winter months there is another store I visit for fresh fruit," Dark said calmly, "I was only curious if you do something similar."
 
"Different stores have higher quality fresh fruit," Dark replied, "sometimes they have more exotic ones. The pomegranates here are never as good."

"What fruits do you like, Tristan?" Daizi asked.
 
Tristan had to think about that. "I have not really thought about it, but I would say... blueberries. That is a fruit, right? I like blueberries. And those orange bits in the fruit trays. I can't remember what those are called. A melon of some sort, I think. Pomegranates are good, but quite tart."
 
"Canteloupe."

"I have a blueberry bush," Daizi said, trying to ascertain whether or not she had correctly heard Tristan double check if blueberries are a fruit, "I grow all sorts of berries."

"Come over for dinner, sometime."
 
It felt very much like a command that he should come to dinner, and Tristan glanced between the pair. "Thank you?" he said, mystified. He looked at his stuff. A lot of it might be frozen, but at least it was a variety! And frozen vegetables lasted longer and were just as nutritious. At least, that's what he'd heard somewhere once. He was fairly certain it was true.

"I only have one thing left on my list, plant food," Tristan said. "That will be over in the corner in the gardening section. Now, that is something I normally go to a different store for, but since I'm already here..."
 
The frozen vegetables weren't a concern, not really, his uncertainty about if blueberries were a fruit was. In conjunction with all the frozen meals.

"It's lovely having people over," Daizi said casually, "Ciara was over yesterday but she couldn't stay, she was on her way to the airport for a buisness trip. I wish she had said something, Dark would have driven her."

"Rohi, you must stop assigning me to tasks, I hate the airport."

"You'd do it if I had asked you to, though, if she needed it," Daizi replied, "I'd do it, but for some reason nobody trusts me to drive."
 
Rohi? That was a new one. Tristan made a mental note to look it up when he got home. He had no real intention of becoming fluent, but having the basic idea of their commonly used words was handy, he felt.

"You know, the other day, someone was asking for signups for a charity marathon, but when I offered to sign, they said they had filled the board and started shuffling away," Tristan remarked, pretending to be very put out by it. "It was most strange."

When they reached the gardening section, he perused the shelves with far more attention than he'd shown anything thus far. He checked the different types of feed, debated between liquid and a pellet, and then read the ingredients before finally selecting the one he wanted. He set it carefully in the cart and checked his list.

"That's me done. How about yourselves?" he asked.
 
They waited patiently while Tristan checked out plant food, Daizi rested her arms on the pushbar and talked to Ivy, who grabbed tightly onto her mother's hair and babbled back.

"We have a few things left," Dark answered, "luckily it is largely congregated into a few aisles. We get them their American Snacks but we refuse to overload them with unhealthy foods."

"It's also why we only go for them monthly," Daizi added.
 
"That is very wise of you," Tristan agreed, following them. "I don't eat much snack foods. I do enjoy my little treats now and then, but when I get a snack, it's usually from that little bakery down the street from my flower store. Honestly, that bakery is the most dangerous thing to ever happen to my budget."
 
"You can not imagine how dangerous all of the bakeries downtown were when I was pregnant," Daizi groaned, "I had to be so careful about everything I did but that walk from the train station to the museum was cruel, and not just because my back hurt. And delivery is so easy downtown!"
 
"I cannot imagine how taunting that must have been," Tristan groaned. "You poor thing! It is a lifesaver if I get out of the house late and skip breakfast. It is so convenient to be able to stop in for something hot and a tart or something."
 
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