How Green Becomes Wood

"Really? I thought she'd love getting down and dirty in the mud with you," Xander commented. "Or egging on you and Cooger if he was here."

"I think Mama has outgrown those ideas," Alec said loftily.
 
Alec was busy snorting in laughter and trying to be quiet.

Xander wadded up his plan and chucked it at Alec. "Be quiet, you. And you," he pointed at Dark, "don't you have a wife and a daughter to go see?"
 
Dark raised up both his hands and walked out of the room without another word. In the living room, Daizi was still on the chair, her legs draped over the side, with Ivy in her arms. From the looks of it, Ivy had given in and fallen asleep, snuggled with her head against her mother's breast, but Daizi was doing her best to stay awake while quietly singing in Arabic. She was, clearly, totally unaware of what had just transpired in the kitchen. Sighing softly and trying to recalibrate his mind, Dark walked up and crouched in front of her, greeting her in Arabic and tucking a strand of her hair back, which made her face break out into a big smile.
 
The twins cleaned up their project and stacked their papers neatly. They had a few serious ideas they had actually been considering, but they'd run them by Dark later. For now, they gave their father a few minutes to say hello to their mother and then wandered in to see them.

"It was a really nice day that ended with ice cream," Alec reported.
 
During those few moments when they were alone, Daizi passed Ivy over to Dark and sat upright, stretching out her back, while Dark settled in on the couch.

"Just the two of you?" Dark asked Alec.

"No, all four of us went, and Enkidu, but they didn't have anything for him," Daizi replied, "We went to the park, first. That's why she's so tired now."
 
"The park was such a blast!" Alec grinned. "Ivy went down the slides!"

"Alec went down them, too," Xander said.

"There were swings!"

"We all did the swings.

"And playing fetch with Enkidu!"

"He behaved very nicely."

"Mama barked at a guy!"

"It was very effective."

"And Ivy got to turn a steering wheel!"

"She'll do great when she's tall enough to drive."

"And there was tic-tac-toe!"

"Alec lost. Against Mini."
 
Dark listened to the long list of what his family had gotten up to without him, feeling more or less like it was impossible for him to interject because they were in such a flow state as they described everything. Once they finished, though, he looked at the two of them, then at his wife, and asked, "She barked at someone?"
 
"Yep," Xander said, as if it was perfectly normal. "Nice, proper barking, too. Very 'woof' like."

"He was a jerk who was up in her face after he tried to tell us we were being jerks," Alec said cheerfully.
 
Dark looked at Daizi again, a look of love and admiration in his eyes, "I cannot believe how that still always works for you."

"I do what I can," She said coyly.

"Are you all okay, though?" Dark asked after a moment, looking back at them, "He didn't do anything else?"

"He ran off with his tail between his legs, we're okay," Daizi promised.
 
Both of the twins took note of the phrase, "still always works," but chose not to follow it up. At that moment. Later, definitely.

"He thought we were being rude and disrespectful by playing fetch with Enkidu even though no one was around in the area," Alec reported. "He wouldn't stop yelling at us even after we had Enkidu in hand, on his leash. So, Mama came up and told him to shut up and ship off. She was very cool."
 
Dark exhaled and shook his head, "I cannot stand people like that. But I am glad it was not more severe."

"Yeah, we were okay." Daizi promised, "and I got to impress our sons, so it worked out in my favour."

"Your mother is very cool," Dark told Alec and Xander, "You have a remarkable gift to never feel embarrassed."
 
"Really remarkable," Xander agreed.

"She really is," Alec also agreed.

"He left after the barking thing. Barking was probably a better alternative to hitting him, but he was pretty rude," Xander mused.

Alec patted his shoulder. "If he shows his face again, you can hit him then."
 
"You are not hitting strange men unless you have no other choice, and never if I'm there," Dark told them seriously, and then after the obligatory warnings were through asked Daizi, "Did you tell them about the time you made ape noises instead?"
 
"I already said it's one of the most important tools that I have," Daizi shrugged, "I don't even remember every time that I've done it. Whenever I'm catcalled, basically, unless I choose to scare them off by being unhinged in a different way, or if a friend is being harassed in a bar. But the ape time..." She tucked her hair back and got up out of her chair so she could sit next to her husband on the couch instead, "We were still in New York, and I was working on my master's degree, and I think that was when your father was a...?"

"I was a waiter," Dark answered.

"Right, yes, because I was in my first year of my MSc," Daizi confirmed, "And he had the flu, and he had it bad. It was to the point where not only did he say that he needed to go to the doctor, but where I immediately agreed to go with him, despite the way I feel about those things. We should've taken a cab, but it was the end of the month. I had a monthly stipend, so I was broke, and he had been missing work because he was sick---"

"It reminded me of having cholera," Dark griped.

"---and so we took public transit and then had a bit of a walk. We got there fine, but we when we were heading back to the apartment, this man tries mugging us. If you ever get mugged, you're supposed to just give them your money for your own safety, but we were broke. Your father, the lovely, sick little fool, still tries to scare him off and is completely willing to fight him, but he was barely standing, and if I just yell for help there's a good chance nobody will, and a city is full of barking dogs anyway. So I make myself big, start pounding myself on the chest, and making ape sounds at this man, which actually attracts the attention of the people in the apartments above us and the people in the alley, so then we had all these New Yorkers seeing this guy trying to mug a potentially insane blind woman and a visibily ill man, and the guy runs off."
 
"Wow!" Alec said, his eyes wide. "That's amazing! You are incredible, Mama! Also, Ba, I'm glad you are still alive after all of that."

"You had cholera?" Xander asked, because of course that was the point of the story.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top