How Green Becomes Wood

Dark sat back and just enjoyed the normal, mundane conversations he had with Xander, feeling (despite everything) very much at peace, at least in that moment. When the teen left, he felt comfortable in the knowledge that, if nothing else, one of his kids had at least one part of the day that wasn't miserable. Or he hoped that was the outcome.

Sloan was leaving the cafeteria as Xander neared it, looking tired and frustrated. Seeing the direction Xander had come from, it felt pretty evident he hadn't, like, abandoned her or something, and she had never really been upset with him in the first place, so she gave him the slightest of smiles and a little wave, "Hey dude," she said, as if nothing had changed, even though she felt miserable, and there were small smudges beneath her eyes.
 
Xander raised a hand slightly. "Sup?" He frowned and squinted at Sloan. "Should I tell you that your makeup looks smudged so you can fix it, or is that something that girls get mad about?" He honestly didn't know. His mother had appreciated it, but then clueless, seven-year-old him had told a bank teller that, and... well, the story didn't have a happy ending.

In the cafeteria, Alec was getting edgy. Every time he tried to make some excuse to leave, there was always "one more thing" to talk about. "One more thing" to mention. Finally, he turned around to look for Xander, hoping to maybe signal him, but... Xander wasn't there. He was gone. A sickening feeling rose up inside Alec. Where was he? Had he left? Where had he gone? Was he going to come back?

"I have to go, excuse me," he stated bluntly, all but bolting from his seat.

"Oh. Well. I can't wait to see you Saturday," Crystal trilled.

Alec nodded, barely listening as he looked around the cafeteria. What had happened?
 
Sloan swore, touching beneath her eyes. Then she drew her hand back, and quickly said, "Thanks man," so Xander wouldn't think she swore at him. She adjusted her bag on her shoulder, "I don't get mad at that kinda thing, but I don't know if girls... We're not a monolith dude, we don't have a girl council." That was enough to make her smile, actually smile, for the first time in a little bit. It was her own joke, so maybe it was a big egotistical to laugh at it, but it was a funny thought to her. All women getting together to decide what they'd be offended by.
 
"Yeah? I was beginning to think you did, like two of them," Xander smirked, leaning casually to one side. "One that's the pink fluffy council, and the other witches' coven, and it's the pink council you have to look out for." He winked to show he was joking.

Alec stumbled out of the cafeteria and immediately spotted Xander standing talking to Sloan. Relief flowed through him, leaving him shaking and weak. He was here. He was right here. He hadn't gone anywhere. He was here. Alec leaned against the nearest wall and tried to compose himself, but it was hard. He hadn't panicked like that in a while, and he was out of practice.

Xander noticed him over Sloan's shoulder and frowned. He stepped around Sloan and went toward Alec. "Hey, you alright? What happened?" he demanded, voice tight.

Alec just nodded. His voice didn't want to work yet.
 
"I think if we did have the two, your foster mom would be the president of the witchy one," Sloan joked, visibly relaxing as they just joked with each other, the way they used to before all... This.

But then Xander moved out of the way, speaking to someone, and Sloan turned, seeing Alec standing there, looking like the earth was falling out from under him. Of course, who else would Xander get so afraid over?

"You okay, dude?" Sloan asked, not sure if she should approach more closely or not, because she had never seen Alec like this before, and didn't know what he needed, "Do you need anything? I've got an unopened water bottle..." It was the first time they had spoken in a bit, but even though she was upset with him, she wasn't going to just leave him be.

She looked towards the cafeteria doors, thinking Crystal probably said some shit, like she knew she would. While waiting for Alec to say anything, she reached up and tucked her necklace into her shirt. Just in case. Then she went into her bag to get the waterbottle, looking between the twins.
 
"I'm, I'm fine. Fine," Alec finally stammered out, waving a hand a little jerkily.

"Hey." Xander cupped Alec's chin and made him look him in the eye. "Hey." His voice was soft and gentle. He raised his brows. "Are we good?"

Alec took a deep breath, focused on Xander, and let it out slowly. The frantic energy inside abated a little, leaving him still shaky, but more in control. "Good," he said softly. After a moment, he said, "I heard water?"

Xander nodded and stepped back, indicating for Sloan to give him the water bottle. "What happened?"

Alec shrugged, avoiding Xander's eyes, trying and failing to hide the guilty look. "Nothing. I just... I lost track of... things. There were too many people. That's all."

"Uh-huh," Xander grumbled, clearly not buying it.
 
"Here," Sloan said, handing it over to Alec, and then looked at Xander to try to figure out if he knew something, and then back at the other twin who was very clearly lying, "Should I go get Mr. Dark?" He would know what to do, probably, right? Or know better than her.
 
"No!" Alec yelped, squeezing the bottle so tight it was a wonder it didn't burst. "No, I'm fine. Nothing's wrong. Everything is fine. I just... I need some water, and we shouldn't be here. The bell is going to ring soon, and we'll be stuck in a crowd." He strode off, still holding tight to the bottle, but he wasn't quite walking straight.

Xander scowled after him. "If he's really fine, then I'll dress up as the Sugar Plum Fairy for the next talent show." He glanced at Sloan. "Thanks for the water. I gotta go deal with this. We'll hang later, right?" He headed off after Alec, having to walk fast to catch up.
 
"Oh, okay," Sloan said, standing to the side as Alec brushed past her, "Yeah, I'll see you. I hope you're all okay..." She was committed to not telling Dark what was happening, if Alec said that's not what he wanted. She wasn't a snitch.

Part of her wanted to go confront Crystal, but since she had absolutely no information, she knew if she stormed in there to cuss her out, she was likely to make a fool of herself, and that wouldn't help anyone. So she took herself to her locker and then went to class, much more lost and comfused than before.
 
Xander caught up to Alec and gently steered him into the boy's bathroom. The bell rang just as they escaped the hall, and the sound of pounding feet echoed into the tiled room through the door that never seemed to quite properly close. Alec stood stiffly next to Xander as a couple of boys exited the bathroom, leaving them alone.

"Okay," Xander said, turning to Alec, "what happened? And I want the real deal. Was it Crystal? Did she say something?"

"No," Alec mumbled, not looking at him, arms wrapped tight around his torso.

"Alec, come on," Xander growled, trying to make his brother look at him. "I can't help if you- are you crying?"

"No!" Alec hiccuped sullenly, shielding his watery eyes.

Xander let out a low growl. "That girl is gunna-"

"It wasn't Crystal!" Alec interrupted him in exasperation. He huddled in on himself and muttered, "Sloan."

Xander stared. There was only one response to that statement: "Hah??" It came out sounding like a goose's honk.

"Sloan saw... everything," Alec mumbled, cheeks turning bright red.

"Oh," Xander said, the light dawning. "You're embarrassed 'cause Sloan... you know that Sloan would never... I mean..." He stopped and shrugged. "I have no idea how to respond to that. I get it, I do, but of all people, Sloan's not going to care. You know that, right?"

Alec shrugged. He knew, logically, but illogically, he was still deeply embarrassed that Sloan had seen him so vulnerable. He didn't like anyone seeing that. He was already the weak and fragile twin. He didn't want to let anyone see him even more pathetic than he already was. Still, he tried to explain to Xander what had initially set him off. "It's not... neither of them... I just... I couldn't find you."

Xander put an arm around Alec's shoulders and gave a light squeeze. "Come on," he said gently. "Let's ditch. Haven't done it in a while, and now we have the pocket change for an Uber or something. Let's go home."

Alec gave Xander a watery smile and nodded. Neither of them thought twice about it. They'd skipped school a fair few times before, and the teachers never seemed to notice as long as they didn't miss to many days, especially not in a row. They gathered up their things, slipped out the back way where the janitor left the door propped open so he could sneak a smoke more easily, and walked a couple of blocks before catching a ride the rest of the way home. Neither said a word the entire way home, both lost in their own thoughts.
 
The twins were certainly lucky Daizi was no longer struggling with morning sickness and leaving work early, because otherwise they could have been caught immediately. Instead, well, it took an hour or two for Dark to get word that neither twin had been showing up to class.

But he did get word, and when he did, Xander's phone began to ring.
 
Xander lay on his back on the couch staring at the ceiling. Alec sat on the floor "not sleeping" with his homework spread out before him and his head occasionally leaning back into Xander's ribs. Both jumped when Xander's phone rang. Xander dug it out of his pocket, glanced at the ID, and sighed. Alec looked at Xander curiously, but Xander just answered.

"Yeah?" he asked tiredly. "Aren't you supposed to be in class?"
 
"I could ask you the same thing," Dark replied, having stepped out into the hallway while his students began to watch the video he had prepared, "where are you? And where is Alec?"
 
Xander paused, trying to think of a good response. His knee-jerk instinct was to tell Dark off, be sarcastic, or just straight-up lie, but now he found he didn't want to do those things. It made for more complicated interactions. "We're home," he said. "There was an incident, and staying would have been pointless. No one seemed to really care, and we didn't have any tests to miss."
 
Dark inhaled, and through the phone the sound of him pinching the bridge of his nose could be heard, "You cannot just--" he sighed, "Okay. Okay. I will handle it. Just this one time. But you need to tell me if you need to go home, you cannot just walk out of the school. How did you even get home?"
 
"We've walked farther," Xander commented calmly. "But this time we just called an Uber. Bit of a jerk, but he didn't ask any questions, just took our money and dropped us off at the end of the street." He paused a moment. "We're fine. We'll be fine. We just needed out, and literally no one has cared since that time in the third grade. Don't worry about it."
 
"Okay, well, I care," Dark said, "I understand needing mental health breaks, but you need to let me know these things, so we can go through the proper channels. Is important I know where you are. I appreciate you being honest with me, which is why I am not more upset with you, but I do not want to have this conversation again."
 
"Understood, Professor," Xander replied, trying to regulate his tone and struggling against the flash of anger that reared up inside. Dark was totally in his rights to ask what he did, but old habits of fighting against authority figures were hard to kill. "We won't. Proper channels from here on out."
 
"Okay. Thank you. I will be home at my usual time... try to get some rest." He waited to see if Xander would say anymore and then hung up. He needed to call Daizi, because it felt like today was not a very good day for the two of them to go out, but he also needed to go back in and watch his class. For a moment is seemed like a conundrum, and then he remembered he was bilingual, and he could very easily have a brief conversation while keeping an eye on his class.
 
After Xander hung up, Alec looked at him. "Are we in trouble?" he asked meekly.

"Nah," Xander assured him, playing it off with a shrug. "He was just annoyed we didn't go through the proper channels. I guess it would matter more since now we're kids of one of the teachers. Don't worry, he just wanted to remind me we can't just walk off anymore."

"Oh." Alec sighed and leaned back against the couch. "I hope this doesn't ruin their night out."

Xander scowled and swore. He'd forgotten about that! Oh well. Surely this wouldn't be a big enough deal they'd stay home, right?
 
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