How Green Becomes Wood

Dark looked over the frozen meals carefully before simply saying, "Let me know if you would like any easy recipes. There are some which keep well and do not require a lot of preparation."
 
Tristan chuckled briefly. "Thank you, Dark, I appreciate your intent to make certain I stay fed. It is very kind of you. I'm fine, I assure you." He paused and added, "If I ever do meet someone I wish to impress, though, I will be calling you."
 
"Call it cultural." He replied.

"Our holidays always involve passing food to members of our community," Daizi said cheerfully, briefly thinking about how hungry her husband was growing up.
 
"I am ready to check out," Tristan nodded. "This was rather enjoyable, if I may say. A much more enjoyable way to shop than on one's own." He glanced at Dark and Daizi. "This is not a way of subtly suggesting we do this again, of course."
 
"How ever will you cope? At least you have the boys to help you out if you go overboard," Tristan grinned.

They went through the checkout with Tristan awkwardly fishing his things out of the basket and putting them on the belt, pretending not to notice the stares of the cashier and anyone else around them. The children he did not mind. They needed to learn somehow, after all. The adults... at least they could make it less obvious.
 
Dark casually helped Tristan unload his items from the cart. Since he had placed down the bar to separate their shopping, it honestly seemed easier to help sort it. But, noticing the stares Tristan got, he rolled back his shoulders, unbuttoned his winter coat, and played up his Arabic accent when speaking to Daizi and Ivy. He hated public attention, but it was kinder for him to be stared at for being a goth giant in a normal grocery store than it was for his disabled relative to be stared at for being in a wheel chair.
 
Most of the people got distracted from Tristan and stared at Dark instead. Some tried to divide their attention. A handful continued to stare at Tristan, but they soon moved on. The cashier looked genuinely terrified by Dark but managed to keep things professional as they finished ringing everything up.

As they left with their bags, Tristan remarked to Dark, "There are days when I genuinely cannot decide which is worse for you: My shop with your adoring fans, or places like this."
 
"Places like this," Dark answered immediately, carrying his bags in one hand and Ivy in the other, "But only because I do not like fluorescent lights or the inescapable scent of plastic. If the lighting and olfaction were less accosting, my answer would be different."
 
"True. It is a real horror on the senses," Tristan agreed. He indicated the direction he needed to go, his chair loaded up with bags, some of them hanging from the chair handles. "I am parked down that way. I hope to run into you again soon!"
 
"I am sure we will," Daizi smiled, "Get home safe, Tristan."

Dark nodded goodbye and then handed Ivy to Daizi so she could go into the car seat while he put his groceries in the car. After they were all situated and driving home, he said, "I forget sometimes he is still so young."

"You sound ancient when you say that," Daizi pointed out.

"I know," He agreed.
 
Not long after Dark and Daizi had finished putting everything away, Xander and Alec got home from school. Their entrance could not be missed as Alec burst through the door calling, "Mama!" excitedly. He flung his backpack toward the stairs and ran to find his parents.

He ran to Daizi and threw his arms around her. "Mama! Mama! Please say we can do it! Please? Can we? May we?"

Xander went to Dark, and he didn't touch Dark, but he stared at him intensely. "Ba. Ba, please say we can't. Please. Say no."
 
Daizi's eyes went wide when Alec nearly knocked her over in his excitement, "What are we agreeing too?"

"Or not agreeing too?" Dark asked, pausing with a cup of tea partway to his lips.
 
"That really does not clear things up." Dark said.

"Is it something you're auditioning for, something you're wanting to go see...?" Daizi asked, putting her arms around Alec mostly to hopefully settle him. Meanwhile, Ivy was squealing and bouncing holding onto the coffee table because Alec's excitement excited her too.
 
"We were invited! Casted! Head hunted!" Alec told her excitedly.

"Yeah, by his friend, Becky," Xander grumbled, sitting near Dark.

"It follows a pair of identical twins who are both in loge with the same girl, a girl who is lost in a dark fae forest and hunted by someone else," Alec grinned, letting go of Daizi.
 
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