How Green Becomes Wood

"Sex," Cooger replied, making a face, "Have you really been living with a pregnant woman for 8 months and never learned what happened? They had sex. Probably when you were in the house."
 
Xander and Alec glanced at each other, surprised.

"I cannot believe he just answered like that," Xander stated.

Alec nodded. "So cool and calm and not even a hint of storks."

"Not even a bit of a blush," Xander agreed. He narrowed his eyes at Cooger. "The man is a machine."

"I was at least expecting a 'ask a parent,'" Alec agreed. "I don't know if we can trust someone who is so blatantly honest like this."
 
"Well I mean, come on, you're both fifteen and experienced homelessness, I think you're allowed to know what sex is," he chuckled, parking outside of his house, "Plus it's only the most obvious embarrassing question you could have chosen. I'm more surprised being told about how your parents have sex with you two in the house didn't upset you more."
 
They both shuddered, their faces contorting.

"Trust us," Xander said, opening the door and hopping out.

"We knew," Alec said dryly, following Xander out.

"Enkidu! COme on, pup," Xander called the dog. "Stay close. Nothing here is for chasing, okay?"
 
Cooger laughed as he shut the car off and got out, "Good, then we're all on the same page. Enkidu, you leave the cats alone, or else Hank'll get ya."

As if on cue, Hank, lounging on the railing of the porch like always, rolled onto his back and grumbled out his throaty meow. Enkidu looked towards the sound, but then very quickly bounded off towards the water's edge, tongue lolling out of his mouth.

"Ah, but he's been here before, he knows who's in charge," Cooger remarked, watching the dog run, "Alright, what do you two want to do? Y'all hungry? It's about 12:30."
 
Cooger looked over at Alec and then threw one arm around his shoulders, squeezing him into his side, "She'll be alright, kid. Both shes. But it ain't gonna help anyone if you go back home shaking like a leaf 'cause you hadn't been eating. Okay?"
 
Alec took a deep breath and nodded. "Okay," he agreed, trying to take Cooger's words to heart. He wanted to, his head understood that, but his belly twisted in knots. Their bizarre question-and-answer session had done its job in taking everyone's minds off of things for a bit, but now reality had returned. He needed to believe Cooger was right.
 
"Good, okay." Cooger nodded, releasing the teen and patting his back, "You gotta remember, this is literally the most normal thing anyone's ever done. I know it's early, but you two are twins, so you both were probably born early too, and you're both just fine, right? So don't kill yourself over it."

He headed inside, then, "What do you two want to eat? I've got pizza rolls."
 
"I love pizza rolls!" Xander grinned. He looked back at Alec. "Good, yeah?"

Alec hesitated a little longer before following Cooger to the house. "Good," he agreed, joining Xander. "And... maybe a salad?"

Xander made a face but nodded. "Yeah, to be healthy and stuff."
 
"Yeah, we can make a salad, I guess," Cooger said, digging through his freezer to find the pizza rolls. He threw the big bag on the counter, "We've got lettuce and stuff in the fridge. And ranch dip, assemble what you like. I figure we can order in for dinner. I guess we probably shouldn't get pizza, if we're having pizza rolls for lunch, so think up what you want. I always like having my meals sorted early on, so I don't gotta worry about it. And it sure helped Dark when he was still in that food-insecure mindset."
 
"Dude, who says we can't have pizza twice in one day?" Xander protested, going straight to the fridge. He stuck his head in and started digging around. "It's got all the basic food groups right there on an edible dish."

Alec frowned and started going through the groups he could remember. "Grains, dairy, vegetables... probably a bit of sugar... fruit?"

"A tomato is a fruit, and you can put pineapple on top," Xander said, emerging from the fridge with everything to make a decent salad. He used his foot to push the door closed.
 
"Hey, if you're fine with having pizza twice, I don't have an issue with it," Cooger held his hands up in surrender, "I just didn't want to force it on ya, wanted to give y'all the chance to explore the world. I've done my due diligence, eat pizza for every meal for all I care, now Dark and Daizi can't criticize me when they ask what you've been eating."
 
Xander paused to think about that. "I can't remember the last time they asked me what I was eating," he finally said.

"That's because the list goes on forever," Alec remarked.

Xander nodded at that and continued putting together the salad. "True enough. They do ask you, though, so do you want to be able to say something else?"

"No, pizza is fine with me," Alec assured him. Pizza was familiar and comforting. He liked that.
 
"Perfect. And I've got the stuff for s'mores, so we can make them again." He paused, looking out the window, "if we have the time. Clouds like that, it'll probably end up raining, but they're thin enough we'll probably still have time. Autumn is good for bonefires, I think. Don't have to worry about skeeters."

He popped the pizza rolls in the oven, "Now, I'm sorry we can't go out on the boat or swimming or anything like that, it's gotten a bit too cold, I think, but there's plenty else we can do, right?"
 
Xander grinned and leaned against the counter. "What, you aren't fond of the polar bear dives?"

Alec had wandered off into the small living room and sat down on the floor, watching the cats. They were such sweet balls of fluff in their own way! And so different from Enkidu. He held out his hand to the closest one and waited to see if it would take interest.
 
"I didn't swim last time either," Cooger pointed out, "but what I'm not a fan of is shivering, whining kids, catching colds so I get fussed at by their parents who, now, will be like, 'oh but the baby, her immune system, she's gonna catch it, and the boys, they have school, why'd you let them swim in this weather?' He chuckled, handing Xander a soda, "so it's probably best we find something else to do. We can watch movies, I guess."

One of the cats, a foster, saw Alec's hand and very slowly stretched out, one vertebra at a time, and then came over to him, swishing their long, orange tail. The cat sniffed Alec haughtily and then cautiously allowed themselves to be pet.
 
Xander snorted as he accepted the soda. "You have a point. Alright, no swimming. Not even wading. We'll sit inside all day and all night and watch movies while wrapped up in blankets." He paused and cocked his head. "Actually... other than the fact that I want s'mores, that doesn't sound like the worst idea ever."

Alec breathed out a soft sigh of delight and brushed his fingers over the cat gently, trying to guess where it wanted to be petted. It seemed to be showing him where it liked, so he focused on that. That long, flowing tail was certainly beautiful! He wanted to touch it, but he didn't think he'd be allowed.
 
"There are certainly worse things. And I'm sure I've also got a board game or two lying around, not Monopoly. By the way, never play Monopoly with Dark. He doesn't cheat or nothing, he just makes the game last even longer than the marathon it already is, and always makes it as agonizing for you as possible. He's gotta get his evil out somehow, I guess. But I've got Jenga for sure," he went back into the fridge and grabbed another soda, "Hey, Alec, you want one? Wow hey, lookit that, Stanley likes you, and Stanley's kinda an ass, so that's an accomplishment."
 
"I've never played Monopoly," Xander remarked thoughtfully, "but we used to have this game we invented because it was like this complete mash-up of six or seven other games. We'd lost a bunch of pieces from the other games, so we had, like, a Candy Land board, most of a deck of Uno cards, a bunch of dice, pieces from Sorry, and one of those tiny sand timers. Not sure where the timer came from. It'll be weird playing an actual board game."

Alec smiled as he rubbed the cat's ears. "I like Stanley. He's a good cat." He glanced over at Xander. "Can we get a cat?"

Xander stared at him. "We have a dog, a spider, a bunch of rats, and soon a mini person, and now you want a cat?"
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top