How Green Becomes Wood

Feeling mostly satisfied his wife and child weren't outside, Dark stepped inside, looking at his sons. "I know you know where she is, I heard her ask you both for help."

He poked his head into the bathroom, seeing they weren't there either, and then made his way back into the kitchen. Hearing his footsteps, Daizi immediately gave Ivy another cookie, but she had her timing wrong. Ivy looked up at her Mama, and grinning in the dark, she said, "Shukran!"

"Sshh!" Daizi said, wincing. Never in her life did she think raising a polite daughter would come back to haunt her.

Feeling fairly certain he had heard his daughter, Dark walked towards the pantry, which he would've checked soon anyway, and said, "Ivy-Qadira! Did I hear my sweet girl?"

This seeming like their last stand, Daizi scooted to the back of the pantry while sitting, and while hunkering down with Ivy in her arms. Before she could attempt her last-resort plan, Ivy squeaked out, "Baba!"

A wolf-like glimmer shining in his eyes, Dark opened the pantry door and flipped on the light, "Marhaban."

Grinning sheepishly up at her husband, Daizi asked, "Oh hey babe, what's up?" while Ivy squeaked and held up one of her cookies towards him.
 
The twins both shook their heads with attempted wide-eyed innocence. Xander was terrible at pulling it off. They didn't have to try to hold out long thanks to Ivy's chirp.

"We should run while we can," Alec said gleefully.

"No way. I want to see how this ends," Xander stated. "Just stay out of arms reach."

Alec nodded in agreement and ducked by the table.
 
"Can you explain yourself?" Dark asked, while Daizi shrugged, playing innocent.

"She wanted a cookie, and I thought since we are so strict about when she can have processed sugar, it would be alright just this once," She told him.

"Do you think that is what I am talking about?" He asked, while Ivy got up out of Daizi's lap and wandered into the kitchen, stopping to hug her father's legs. "Look, she is on my side now. Tell me, Tifla, everything your Mama made you do to me." Dark said, picking her up and noting how Ivy had gotten foundation all over Daizi's clothes.

"Did something happen to you?" Daizi asked, "Goose, I'm so sorry, I had no idea."

"Really."

"Really!"

"So you have no idea how Ivy ended up applying foundation all over my chest?" Dark replied.

"Did she?" Daizi gasped, "I didn't notice! I thought you looked like you always do!"
 
"Mama, we always look the same to you!" Alec called from behind the table.

"Ba, do you really think she'd teach Ivy to finger paint?" Xander reasoned from behind Alec. "After all, if Mama teaches Ivy that it's okay to fingerpaint, especially with makeup, there will be color dragged all over the walls by tiny hands."
 
"Exactly!" Daizi replied, "How am I supposed to know if someone were to apply foundation to him!"

"Spider, I woke up to you kneeling on the bed tapping on my chest with a beauty blender," Dark said, "and when I asked what you were doing, you screamed, took our daughter, and ran away."
 
"That is pretty incriminating, I'm afraid. I don't know how you're going to talk your way out of that one," Alec grinned.

"She's not, but, lukily, Mini's holding him back," Xander pointed out.
 
"I could've been doing anything," Daizi grinned, still sitting on the floor.

"Ivy-Qadira, I forgive you because you are just a sweet girl, althoug I do need to wash your messy hands," Dark told his baby, bringing her to the sink. "But I am afraid your mother and I have trouble." He turned on the faucet.

"Oh, no, it was no trouble at all," Daizi said, slowly creeping towards her feet, fully intent on making a break for it now that, since if he was washing her hands, it meant his back was turned.

Except it was not, and she was doing exactly as he had expected she would.
 
"Do we warn her?" Xander asked Alec in an undertone.

"Hmm, maybe," Alec murmured.

Xander tipped his head thoughtfully. "Nah."

"Nah," Alec agreed, nodding. "The last thing we want is to get caught in the middle of a parental squabble."

"Terrible place for a kid to be," Xander nodded.
 
Dark knew once he set Ivy down, he had a limited time to act before she blew his cover this time. Daizi believed she had a limited time to escape before Ivy's hands were clean.

After a moment of apprehension where they both considered their options, Daizi took her chance and just began to run away, trusting she knew the layout of her house well enough. Dark set Ivy carefully down and then ran after Daizi, and being faster and stronger than her, soon caught her in her arms.

"No!" She shrieked, trying to throw herself forwards but finding herself utterly restrained. Dark only pulled her in tighter, the foundation on his chest rubbing off onto her clothes. Were they not already covered in it from running around with a toddler-covered in foundation, he would've avoided this, but it was clear she had dressed with the understanding helping Ivy to paint their father with makeup was likely to get messy anyway. "Goose!"

"It is too late," He said, lifting her off the ground like he was lifting one of Ivy's toys, "You can elude me no longer."

With their attention focused elsewhere, Ivy was fully free to discover the remnant foundation on her hands made great hand prints on the counters.
 
Alec laughed and spotted Ivy just in time. He started to step forward to stop her, but Xander caught his arm. He smirked and touched his finger to his lips. Not their problem! Alec grinned in response and nodded. Together, they made certain Ivy stayed corralled out of the way of her parents and that she wouldn't touch anything that would actually be hurt by being touched with makeup. Otherwise, they let her do what she wanted, keeping an eye on their parents and laughing at their ridiculous antics.
 
Dark looked down at his wife and realized he had absolutely no idea what to do now. He caught her, and...? In times like these, he wanted to just bring her back upstairs, but now they had three kids watching to see what he would do now that she was caught. And he was covered in foundation, and their sheets were very expensive. Locking her outside was played out at this point. Ghalib Marzuq Dark was many things, but a hack? Certainly not.

"You're being so rude, Goose," Daizi pouted, more or less accepting she was now in air jail, "You haven't even asked our sons how their days went."

"I am being rude?" He asked, "I do not recall you taking time to ask either."

"I was fleeing for my life with our child," Daizi replied, allowing herself to go dead weight on him.

"You make many excuses." Dark chided.
 
It looked like Ivy was starting to run out of foundation, so Alec scooped her up and blew a raspberry on her cheek, careful to keep her hands captured. Then he headed out with Xander behind him. It looked like Dark and Daizi were either going to calm down or heat things up, so it was time to make their escape. They took Ivy upstairs. and Alec washed off her hands, making sure every finger was clean. Xander brought a fresh set of her clothes and helped Alec change them by handing or taking away pieces while Alec made quick work of changing her clothes.
 
"How did you even get this foundation? It is not mine, is it?" Dark asked, doubting his wife would've wasted so much of it.

"I used BeMyEyes and had them tell me the brand and shade you wear so I know it'd match," Daizi replied casually, "The makeup store kept telling me it wouldn't match my skin, and that it's too high a coverage for daily wear, and I kept promising that was alright for my purposes."

"You realize I have to get you back, now, yes?" He told her, lifting her just a bit higher off the ground.

"Have you not already?" She said languidly.

Dark began to reply when he turned and saw Ivy's artwork. He pressed his lips into a thin line and said, "No, there is still a debt between us."

"Why?" Daizi asked, lifting her head up.

"Because your daughter left flesh-toned handprints over all our cabinets," Dark said flatly. Daizi, meanwhile started laughing so hard she nearly made him drop her, which made him laugh along with her.

"I'll clean it!" She promised as she wheezed. Anytime Dark laughed at something, it made it so much funnier, "I promise I'll clean it up."

"You have to wash all of them," He told her.

"I will," She swore, and then her eyes widened and her laughter stopped abruptly, "We need to find where she is."

This realization froze Dark to the spot and after setting Daizi down, the pair of them went off to try to find their toddler without another word.
 
The twins and Ivy were in Ivy's room. The twins sat on either side of Ivy, rolling a ball back and forth slowly between them and giving Ivy a chance to grab it. Ivy was now squeaky clean from all foundation and in a new outfit to boot. Alec was having fun talking in a quiet but silly voice, narrating what the ball was doing. Xander was replying in his normal, dry tone.
 
There were more places Ivy could be by herself than when she was hiding with Daizi, since she was so much smaller, and she normally was only quiet when she was causing trouble. Since the gate was still closed, Dark and Daizi presumed she could only be on the main level of the home and searched it from that perspective... Until they realized the twins also weren't around.

They didn't normally take her somewhere without alerting their parents, but after debating if it was more likely that Ivy was managing to be completely silent even while her parents called to her or if the twins just took her somewhere, they both poked their heads out into the backyard before heading upstairs.

In the nursery, Ivy was playing with the ball with increasing energy, always scrambling to get the ball and screeching in victory when she managed to get it. When it was her turn to roll the ball, it ended up more like throwing it at the ground. Because of these screeches, once Dark and Daizi went upstairs, they immediately went to the nursery, and let themselves in.

The second she saw her parents, Ivy stomped her feet in excitement and crawled right over Alec's lap before nearly running over to them and squeezing her father's legs in a hug. "Hello, Tifla," Dark said, "You are very energetic. And clean."
 
Alec wheezed when Ivy crawled over his lap and hit a rather sensitive bit as she did so, but he was able to recover fairly quickly. "We figured it would be for the best if she didn't track foundation through the house," he said, casually adjusting how he was sitting.

Xander leaned back to look up at them. "Seemed someone should keep an eye on her while her negligent parents argued," he said with a slight smirk to show he was teasing. "Get everything squared away between you two?"
 
"Thank you for that," Dark said, and would have picked her up had she not immediately started hunting around the room again, "Daizi has to clean the counters."

"I offered," Daizi said, "I think we're settled, because I have the punishment to clean up after Ivy."

"I will get her back." Dark said instead, a glimmer in his eyes saying he was scheming.
 
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Alec snickered. "I bet you will, Ba. I am sure of it!" He caught Ivy and rolled onto his back as he lifted her high into the air. "Got you!! Yes I do!"

"Just leave me out of this. All I did was get home from school," Xander chuckled.
 
Ivy squealed and squirmed, "Ack!" She cried out, reaching down for his face.

"That is all you did?" Dark asked dryly, but then said, "Now that everything is settled, I am going to take a shower. I need to wash this off."
 
"Ack! Ack! Ack!" Alec parroted, teasing her as he lowered her down almost close enough to touch then lifting her up again.

"Mama, you might want to be careful with what you touch, too," Xander told her.
 
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