How Green Becomes Wood

"What do you think about all of this?" Dark asked Ivy, tickling her under the chin. As always, she babbled back at him like she really understood, although to her credit, she was understanding more by the day. Her vocabulary was increasing rapidly, so more and more actual words were included.

"She always has so much to say," Daizi remarked, and Dark nobly declined to remark which side of the family she inherited it from.
 
Alec laughed. "She loves it all! As long as we remember how precious she is, she's happy."

"Like we could forget," Xander said. "Right, Mini?"

They finished eating, and after they'd all piled into the car, the twins grew a little quieter. Not sad, but more sober. They were going to see the one member of their family they could never truly see again. It was a complicated feeling, one that never got easier. If their mother lived, they wouldn't be where they were now, surrounded by so much happiness! If they were allowed a truly impossible wish, they both would wish that they could have both: their mother alive and happy, and their current family. It was a truly impossible wish. One that not even Alec would ever voice.

When they arrived, they walked the well-known path to her grave.
 
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Dark and Daizi followed their sons to Tara's grave, hand-in-hand. On his hip, Dark carried Ivy, who was gripping his beard with one hand and looking around curiously. This was an unfamiliar place for her, and she didn't understand why everyone's mood had changed, but she was old enough now to recognize that it had. When she murmured softly, Dark replied to her in gentle tones as they approached the simple headstone. As they stood looking at it, he nearly set her down, but did not know how she would behave---usually being outside like this meant it was playtime---and he did not want his sons to regret inviting their sister.
 
"Hey, Mum," Xander started. "Happy Mother's Day. We were going to bring you flowers, but we didn't want them to wilt in the car. We'll bring them another day, okay? Anyway, Ba, Mama, and Ivy are here."

"Ivy hasn't been here before. She's very cute and has a lot of gumption," Alec told the headstone. "Mama and Ba are doing well. It's been a while since they've been here."
 
Dark wasn't sure if it was right for him to speak up, although he had before. But although grief had walked alongside him for as long as he could recall, he did not have his own tombstones to mourn at, and didn't quite know the etiquette when at the grave of someone he had never known.

Daizi lacked that hesitation, and in even tones said, "I don't think I've been here in two years, not since my first mother's day. I hope you don't feel I've been avoiding you." She supposed Tara wouldn't think that way, since Daizi thought of her often, and during some of her workings, would speak to her through clouds of incense, when the need arised.
 
Alec smiled at Daizi. "There's no way Mum would feel you were avoiding her. Right, Mum?"

"You've had two years of learning to parent us, work, and corralling a toddler," Xander confirmed with a nod. He noticed a couple of weeds and knelt down to deal with them.
 
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