How Green Becomes Wood

"It'll be a minute." Cooger said, checking the time, "but don't worry, it'll still be hot when it gets here." He nodded a bit and stepped out, leaving Alec to finish up with the bedroom.

Enkidu wiggled, excited, eyes trained on the stick, and as soon as it was thrown, he took off at top speed to bring it back before dropping it at Xander's feet again.

About half an hour later, the pizza had been delivered, and Cooger used every ounce of self-control to not make a delivery-labour joke about it.
 
Xander spent the time waiting for pizza playing with Enkidu, throwing the stick as far as he could until his arm refused to throw anymore. Then he started a game of tug with the dog, playing around until the delivery man showed up. He stood with a hand on Enkidu's back as he watched the car. He wondered if they looked like some kind of backwood's family, complete with suspicious stares.

Alec thanked the delivery man enthusiastically and followed Cooger and the pizza happily. It smelled good! He still wasn't very hungry, but the smells were good. Xander came in, and Alec fussed at him to wash up before he touched anything.
 
Cooger absolutely was not planning to wash up before eating, but after Alec fussed at Xander, he felt obligated to do so too. He supposed it was probably the right thing to do, but he definitely did not regularly make sure to wash his hands before eating, unless they were visibly grimy. Then he sat down and ate. It was less dignified than how the twins would eat at home, Cooger took out paper plates, tossed scraps of cheese to the cats, and called it a day.

When they were finished, he went outside to start the bonfire, inviting the twins outside to join him for s'mores before the storm rolled in, which, judging by the ever-darkening sky, wouldn't hold off until morning. But as they sat outside by the fire, he took out a bluetooth speaker and played some relaxed bluegrass to wait out the time.
 
Alec ate one and a half pieces of his mushroom pizza. Xander gobbled down six slices of the mushroom and the supreme without even really seeming to try. It was pretty good pizza.

When it was time for the fire, Xander helped set up the bonfire while Alec stood back and watched. Then they both sat down near the fire and watched the crackling flames while roasting marshmallows. Alec took his time with his marshmallow, lighting it on fire, eating the shell, and doing it again. Xander sat quietly eating s'more after s'more. Occasionally, he snuck a cracker to Enkidu.
 
Cooger poked at the fire, occasionally humming (but never fully singing) along to the music. If it weren't for the quiet thoughts he knew were brooding at the back of everyone's minds, it'd almost have felt like a normal evening. It was a pretty decent Autumn evening. Sure, he ate too much pizza, but that was normal. He'd make do by eating too many s'mores to balance it.

At some point he had grabbed a beer, but had limited himself to only one, knowing he had to drive later, "It's really been an unexpected year," he said at last, "it's, what, two months till your anniversary with the family? Sure feels like longer."
 
"It feels like we stumbled into their house just yesterday," Xander said, chewing on an uncooked marshmallow.

"And it feels like we've been a part of the family forever," Alec agreed.

"At the same time," Xander confirmed. He offered Enkidu a cracker.
 
"Now you two aren't the newest arrivals anymore," he replied, while Enkidu munched down the cracker with great joy, "so your hazing period is over, I guess."

Cooger took another sip of his beer, looking up into the sky, "And for that new one, you have been part of the family forever. Y'all are gonna be some of the first people she ever sees. So I guess we've all been woven together, now."
 
Xander grinned at Alec. "You aren't going to be the baby of the family anymore. How's that feel?"

"I suppose I can learn to accept that," Alec said with a put-upon sigh. "Of course, that means you are the oldest, and therefore responsible for us."

"That's why I've been working out: to strengthen my shoulders for the weight of these responsibilities," Xander said, rolling his shoulders.
 
"You'll not only not be the youngest anymore," Cooger said in an intentionally foreboding tone, "You'll be the middle child. And that is it's whole own experience. But at least the two of you are old enough to be logical about it. It'll probably take him longer to adjust," he nodded towards Enkidu.

Distantly, in the distance, was a low rumble of thunder. Cooger squinted towards it, "It would be a day like this their bio kid is born. And that big snow storm followed your arrival at their place, too." He took a sip of beer, "Ain't that something."
 
"The middle child? What's so bad about the middle child? I don't hear anything about middle children," Alec commented.

Xander smirked. "Exactly. No one remembers them at all."

They paused with the low thunder and looked up.

"Well, we did all descend upon them like a surprise storm," Alec commented.

"A storm that never let up," Xander agreed.

"Shall we go inside?" Alec suggested.
 
"That's probably a good idea," Cooger agreed, standing to extinguish the already somewhat dwindled fire, "hopefully this'll be the last storm y'all have to weather. At least until she hits puberty and turns into a monster like everyone does."

After the fire was out, Cooger followed the twins inside, whistling to make sure Enkidu and Hank followed them in.

He sat down on the couch as the rain began to fall, and said, "We could watch a movie, I guess. Your folks never told me your bedtime."
 
"Hey!" protested the twins as they followed Cooger behind the cat and the dog.

"We are not monsters," Alec sniffed. "We might make a few ill-advised choices..."

"But I'd hardly say that counts as monstrous," Xander grumbled.

"Perhaps we should watch a movie about nice teenagers," Alec suggested, leaning on the back of the couch.
 
"I was referring to middle schoolers, not high schoolers," Cooger replied, indignantly, "but maybe you both protest too much. And come to think, I don't think I know any movies about nice teenagers."

He laughed, kicking his feet up onto the coffee table, "but if you know one, you're free to pull it up. I normally watch classic horror films like Friday the 13th or The Exorcist, but they're probably not a good idea for a night like this."
 
"I'm up for it," Xander said.

"I'm not," Alec replied. "Why not something like... fantasy? We could watch a King Auther movie or Lord of the Rings or... other fantasy movies."

"Your brain just forgot every fantasy movie in existence, didn't it?" Xander asked.

Alec just nodded.
 
"Dude, King Arthur is lame. All those knights act like clowns," He laughed, "although Monty Python and the Holy Grail is pretty good. We can watch that. Most fantasy films you'll have to watch with Dark, I'm more into the supernatural and paranormal than I am into fantasy, I never really bought into the whole 'elf' thing, right? They're just a person with pointy ears."
 
"Then we could watch Alien," Xander grinned. "How does that sound."

"What's Alien? Besides the obvious," Alec asked.

"It's a movie that has commentary on how Crohns disease can affect certain people, or at least how it feels," Xander told him.

"Really? Oh, that sounds interesting!" Alec said brightly.
 
Cooger looked at the teen, surprised that Xander, who was so freaked out by pregnancy and birth, wanted to watch a movie where a parasitic life form literally bursts forth out of its host's chest, killing them, and he wondered if that hadn't occured to him, "Yeah... Yeah we can watch that. It's a classic, you'll love it."

So, he pulled it up, and pressed play, before anyone had a chance to change their minds.
 
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The movie started out well enough, and Alec curled up on the couch watching with moderate interest. The tension grew, and he edged closer to Xander. Xander pretended he was fine, but he wasn't pulling away from Alec, that was for certain. Alec was going in blind, but Xander know a little bit about the movie. The chestburster scene was famous, after all, but he'd never seen anything leading up to it. The sheer panic on the actor's faces sold the scene, and even though he knew it was coming, Xander still let out a squall of shock, and they both practically crawled into Cooger's lap, eyes wide with fear.
 
Even though Cooger had seen the movie a few times, and knew what to expect, he still was so focused in on the film that he still jumped at the scene. But then when the twins ended up flattened against him, he couldn't help but laugh and joke, "Do you think that's what it's like for Dark and Tarot right now?"

To cut the tension... Mostly.
 
Xander turned to stare at Cooger, his face only a few inches from his adopted uncle's. "You mean... it's like... that's like..." What little color was left in his face drained away. Xander pushed himself away from Alec and Cooger and sat on the edge of the couch, hunched over slightly as he started to hyperventilate.

Alec reached over and gently patted Xander's back. "It's okay, it's okay! It's nothing like that! Not at all!" he tried to reassure Xander with a trembling voice. "Cooger is just joking. It's just... it's an alien. Nothing at all like... the other thing."
 
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