How Green Becomes Wood

"If you say so," Xander said, fully not believing Dark, figuring Dark was being an adult and underestimating him. Not in a bad way. That was just how adults and teens usually faced off. Adults underestimating teens, and teens overestimating themselves.

Alec mostly believed. "Well, I'm looking forward to being taken as seriously as an adult!"
 
"I do," Dark replied, as their food arrived, "and I know because at seventeen I had no parents and almost no supervision, and yet, when I look back, I was still very young."

More willing to compromise, Daizi added, "Eighteen isn't a magic number, though, to be fair, so a seventeen year old can be just as or more mature as am eighteen year old, even if to someone a decade or more older may find both of them hardly adults."
 
Xander shrugged. "Numbers and maturity... All very suggestible. How about we suggest some food around here?"

"Mmm, food sounds like a better idea than discussing maturity levels," Alec agreed with a grin.
 
"We can't control when the server comes," Daizi sighed, "Be patient, habibi."

Thankfully for Xander, though, and for Ivy who was growing restless, soon enough their food did arrive and they could finally have their lunch after discussing it for so long.
 
After opening her mouth to speak, she shut it again, running her finger along the rim of her glass, "I know what I would wish, for something unrestrained by reality, but it's not a happy wish, so I don't know if it's what you mean."
 
As soon as Alec had asked the question about wishes, Dark knew what Daizi's answer was and had his hand on her knee without recognizing it.

"I would wish for Omar to be alive," Daizi answered, "I would not mind if he came alive as a newborn or if he came to me at six, like he would be now if had lived. Failing that, I would wish my brother Omar to be alive again. That is my outlandish, wild, impossible wish."
 
"I know, I'm sorry," Daizi replied, lightly rubbing the back of her neck, "I warned you it wasn't a happy wish."

"It is okay," Dark told her empathetically, moving his hand from her knee to her shoulder. Then, repeating Xander's question he asked, "What is your realistic wish?"

"That's harder to think of," Daizi replied, turning towards him, "I have so much of what I used to only dream about."
 
"I suppose so," Daizi agreed, "I'd like to go back to Egypt... I'd like to have a better relationship with my father, but I have you three, and I have Dark, and friends. I get to perform a little show this summer, and it's honestly a rather self-indulgent act, and I also get to enjoy my career. It's nice to just feel content."
 
"You can toast with anything," Daizi chuckled, "But it is better. It's like when a cool breeze finally blows in after you've been burning in the sun."

Gently adjusting a lock of her hair, Dark gazed lovingly at his wife, admiring her strength. With the significant exception of his recent fist fight, things had been well. Probably the best they had been since that one day in December of 2027. Maybe longer. It was a rare kind of calm where he wasn't searching for what was about to go wrong. For once, he didn't feel like he was only recuperating between battles and standing guard in preparation for the next. Although he didn't notice it himself, while his eyes still retained their hawklike, piercing quality, the dark circles beneath them had lightened. What he did notice, and adored, was the colour which had, over the months, crept back into Daizi's cheeks. "I think my only wish," He said, looking across at their three children, "is for it to stay like this for a little while."
 
"That's surprisingly sappy, Ba," Xander commented mildly.

"I think it's incredibly sweet, and I hope the same," Alec said with a smile. "But... not for too long. Change is scary, but it brings as much good as bad."
 
"That is why I only want it to be like this for a little while longer," Dark said, eyeing his toddler, "If it never changed from this, someone would be in diapers for the rest of her life. I can do without that."

"What would you both wish for? Something realistic and impossible?" Daizi asked her sons, and then, nudging her husband said, "You need to make an unrealistic wish too."

"You know what my unrealistic, impossible wish would be," Dark pointed out to her.
 
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