How Green Becomes Wood

"Or you can just take naps here," Daizi replied, smoothing his hair with one hand, "We can all nap when Ivy does." She paused for a few moments, curling a lock of his hair around her finger, "And I'm always here, you know? Even with everything that we have on the horizon, I'm still here, anytime you want me. Not just when you need me."
 
Alec got up and headed upstairs. He paused and checked the calendar. It was hard to believe it was already that time again. He continued upstairs, trying to shake off the sudden mood that fell over him. Nevermind the future. Today had been and was going to continue to be a wonderful day!

The school day started in the blink of an eye, and it was time again to fall into the old routines. Xander was in black as usual, and Alec in his colorful clothes, but he was wearing his mother's old coat. He didn't wear it much anymore. It barely fit anymore, but he'd manage to adjust it a little in the shoulders, and thankfully, he was still narrow and slender as a dancer rather than bulked out like a fighter as Xander had begun to be. Not that Xander's choice in clothes ever showed it.

The first couple of days back went well, but the twins seemed edgier than usual. A little snippy, jumpy, and withdrawn with each other and their friends, though they did try to keep their ill tempers to themselves.
 
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When Alec came down in Tara's jacket, Dark immediately recognized what that meant. It wasn't like before when he wore it daily, when it came out now, he knew. Well. It was good they had family therapy coming up again.

At school, Sloan rolled her eyes when her friends, one in particular, was a bit short with her. She still didn't appreciate it, and was comfortable enough in their friendship now that if they pushed too far, she'd push back, but this wasn't at the line, yet. And she knew, most of the time, especially when both twins were acting off, there was probably something going on, so she'd be gracious until it passed or they told her what was happening.

On the other hand, when Milo realized this difference, it only made him more skittish. He had finally settled into whatever this friendship looked like, but this was a stressor he hadn't accounted for, and didn't know at all how to engage with it.
 
At the end of the second day as school was coming to an end and everyone was heading out, Becky came over to talk with Alec. Xander stood by impatiently waiting, and Austin came up to him.

"Hey, um, I was wondering if you'd gotten a picture of the math assignment? Or wrote it down?" Austin asked Xander hopefully. "I didn't get the chance before it was erased."

"Maybe you should have gone a little quicker then. You know that board gets erased way too fast," Xander groused, but he dug out his notebook and held it out so Austin could take a picture of it.

"It's not his fault he can't write at superspeed like you," Alec huffed at Xander.

Becky giggled. "Super illegible speed!"

Alec scowled at her. "It's not funny."

"It kind of is," Becky said with a grin.

"Why do you always have to be so cheerful?" Alec snapped.

"Um," Austin said uncertainly, looking between them.

"Look, why don't you," Xander started to say. Then he stopped short and took a deep breath through his nose. "I'm going that way." He turned and started walking off.

Alec shook his head. "Sorry, Becky. I didn't mean it. I'm going that way." He turned and walked in the opposite direction from Xander.
 
Sloan had been standing by her locker when Austin came over to Xander, and she made her way over with her hands in her back pockets. As hard as she tried, she couldn't resist rolling her eyes when Xander had his sharp remark to Austin, although since she was standing behind him, only Austin would've been able to see. Before she even had a chance to address it, Alec was going in on Becky, and then both twins were stalking off.

Rubbing her face with both hands, Sloan sighed and then, putting her hands on her hips, and looked a long, long way up at the footballer, "Austin?"

Meanwhile, Milo was only scurrying by when she saw the minor commotion, but he stopped to watch it, and after Xander started walking away from it all, he turned direction and followed after him. At first he didn't say anything, but then he worked up the courage to ask, "um... Xander?"
 
Austin looked at Sloan, bewildered. "Did I say something wrong?" he asked uncertainly. Sloan seemed more annoyed than surprised, so maybe she knew what was going on.

"Oh, don't worry, big fellow," Becky assured him, rolling her eyes like Sloan. "It's not your fault. Right, Sloan?"


~~

Xander jumped a little at the sound of Milo's voice and looked back. "What?" he asked, the word coming out more harshly than he intended thanks to his own tension. He looked away and tried again. "What is it?" he asked, forcing his voice into a calmer range.
 
"No, you didn't do anything," Sloan promised him, "They're just on one today. I don't know why, haven't had a chance to talk to them about it yet. Try not to take it personally, okay?"

~~

Milo flinched at the sound, but after a moment frowned at his friend and said, sounding more sure than he felt, "Don't talk to me like that." After Xander adjusted his tone, he said, "Just wanted to, you know. Check in. You seemed upset."
 
Becky glanced at Sloan in surprise. "You don't know? I mean, him not knowing," she gestured to Austin, "makes sense. He's new. You not knowing, that's weird."

"Then maybe you should inform us?" Austin prompted gently.

Becky glanced around before coming in a bit closer. "They are going to be legally and fully adopted here soon, but you know what else happened next week? Well, next week a couple of years ago."

~~

"Then maybe you shouldn't chase someone who's clearly upset and startle them if you don't want to be talked to like that," Xander said pointedly. "Yeah, I am upset, and I want very much to be angry at someone or something, so maybe you shouldn't be here."
 
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"...Clearly not?" Sloan replied, wondering what it was she was supposed to have known, "They must be more open with you than they are with me." In truth, she hadn't been at school the week their mother died, she was away at a competition, so she never learned the date.

~~

"You can be angry without yelling at people who care about you, but whatever," Milo replied, "If you don't want to talk you don't have to."
 
Becky blinked at Sloan. For her, the drama had caught her up even though she didn't even know who the twins were at the time, and she'd been one of the ones pushing for some sort of driveby and honk for remembrance. She realized now that it had been a stupid idea, but it had sounded good at the time. "The third is coming up. The day their mother, you know, passed on."

"Oh,"Austin said, his eyes widening.

~~

Xander growled in frustration. "Milo, as far as I can tell, you take every tone I have personally even when I'm not talking or yelling at you," he said in a level tone. "And right now, keeping a 'nice' tone is really freaking hard. So, no, I don't want to talk to you because you'll just end up hurt. Like always. This is why I am walking away. To not hurt people. Would it be better if I could talk? Sure, but it's not happening right now. Right now, I need to calm down enough to be able to drive home safely."
 
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Sloan swore under her breath and rubbed her face, "Don't look at me like that, I'm not a bad friend, I just didn't know the date. I was at competition when it happened, miles away, and one of my teammates broke her arm and needed surgery, I was occupied with my own stuff. I knew it was around this time, just not the week or the day."

~~

"You're able to yell, just not cool to yell at people," Milo replied, "If you're angry at the situation, there's no harm in yelling about the situation."
 
"That's a lot of stuff to deal with," Becky agreed quickly, "and it's not like any of us really knew them then, right? But I think that's the summary of it. Something really bad - their mother's passing - and something really good - getting adopted - are kind of clashing."

"That really sucks for them. No wonder they've been in a bad mood," Austin said seriously.

~~

"Dude, I'm not even-" Xander cut himself off and glared at nothing in particular. "F-k it. I don't know why I'm even arguing with you about this. Forget it. It's not like it even matters, anyway."
 
"They're never like this for no reason, didn't know it was this," Sloan said, sighing and staring at the ground. It still bothered her that they were being short with everyone. Of course she understood, and empathized, but at the same time... some part of her that she wasn't proud of wondered how was she meant to know when to be sensitive and understanding and when it was fair to push back, when Xander especially would start acting like this for major hurts and minor runs.

~~

Milo shifted his weight uneasily, "Don't mean to argue with you about it. Just, you know. Don't like being snapped at before I had a chance to do anything wrong. That's all. I care that you're upset, just don't wanna get bit for caring."
 
Austin scratched the back of his head. "So, um, what do we do?" he asked uncertainly.

Becky shrugged. "Not a clue!"

Alec came wandering back, his expression tired, his hands in his pockets. "Hey," he said, looking around and a little surprised to see everyone still here. He glanced at Becky. "Sorry. You can be as happy as you want to be. I'm just... having a bad day. Sorry."

Becky smiled and gave him a one-armed hug. "Forgiven because you asked."

~~

Xander's jaw clenched. He'd snapped because Milo had startled him. He hadn't even had a chance to register who it was, and then he'd corrected it immediately. He told Milo he wasn't in a good mood to behave properly. He warned Milo he didn't want to have good manners. Why was Milo insisting on sticking around? He was getting bit because he was here! Why was Xander in trouble when it was Milo who wasn't leaving him alone? Xander appreciated Milo cared enough to come check on him, and maybe later he'd express that, but right now... right now what? He didn't know! All he knew was that he warned Milo not to stick around if he didn't want to get hurt, yet here he was still protesting and pushing.
 
Sloan smiled warmly at Alec, "You're allowed to have bad days. I'm sure you've got a lot on your mind."

~~

Milo stood awkwardly, glancing around the hallway for a few moments with his hands stuck in his pockets. After a little while he said, "Don't really know what your version of hiding in a closet is."
 
"Thanks, Sloan." Alec glanced at Austin. "Did you get the math assignment?"

Austin nodded. "Yep, got it. I can read it."

"Good. Good." Alec stood awkwardly and glanced around. Xander wasn't back yet, which meant he didn't have a ride yet. He'd just... wait.

~~

That was odd enough that Xander turned back to Milo. "Huh?" he asked, bewildered. "Closet... Oh. Right. What you do. I had something I'd do, but apparently, it's bad for your health." He mimed smoking.
 
Sloan rubbed the back of her neck, trying to think of something to say when they were all trying to not mention what was coming ahead of them. If it had just been her and Alec, she'd try to say more, and would reach out later, but some of the stuff wasn't right to say around Alec.

"Fall break is coming up," She said, her hands in her back pockets, "Just like... two weeks out."

~~

"Oh. I remember that, actually." Milo replied, and after a moment said, "I gave you shit for it. Glad you stopped."
 
Alec brightened a little and managed a smile. "That'll be really nice. I'm looking forward to that! I told Emma I'd take her out a couple of times during the break since my work hours don't change."

Becky grinned and gave him a little nudge. "You and Emma, huh?"

Alec blushed bright red. "Maybe. I think? Things haven't been solidified yet."

Austin looked between them quizzically, not certain he followed the subtext or if there even was subtext.

~~

Xander snorted. "Glad you're glad, but I haven't found something to replace it yet exect those stupid puzzel boxes and fidget things. They don't last very long. My the- Someone else told me I should find something constructive that can be taken with me to replace it. Something that lasts longer. Running out of ideas.
 
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