How Green Becomes Wood

"They have things for belts that the phone clips into, but if he can't put it his pocket, I can't imagine he'd reholster it." Milo commented, looking at the door to the room he refused to call his, and then at the closet where the games were kept.

Then, a thought came into his mind. Which he thought was silly. And absurd. And ridiculous. But he couldn't not focus on it. So he went into the closet, took out the jenga box, and carefully emptied it.
 
Xander watched him go curiously. When the blocks came tumbling out, so did a familiar shape. Xander stared at it. Then he sighed. "At least it wasn't in the flour container again," he said blandly, not particularly surprised. "That's still pretty weird even for him." Raising his voice, he called, "Found it!"

Alec came trotting into the room. "You did? Excellent! Where was it?"
 
"In with the Jenga pieces. I know you had helped clean up and it was... sort of vaguely brick shaped." He commented, "Cleaner than other places it might have been."

Just a quarter of an hour after Xander texted Dark, he pulled up outside of the townhome. Around that time, Clark came back into the main room while Millie worked on dinner.

"Oh, are you boys leaving?"
 
"Yes, sir," Alec said as Xander pulled on his coat. "Thank you very much for hosting us! It was a lot of fun!" He glanced at Milo. "Really! And thank you for inviting us!" He went to hug Milo but pulled back halfway into the move. "Sorry. Habit," he said sheepishly before hurrying out the door.

Xander offered Milo a fist bump, holding the cookie bags in his other hand. "See you at school?"
 
"Oh, it was no problem. You're welcome here any time," Clark told them as they left, "Next time I'll have to meet your folks."

"Yeah. See you," Milo responded, returning Xander's fistbump before stepping back and watching them leave.

Out at the car, Dark didn't get out to greet them, but when they got in, the reason why was immediately obvious: He had brought Ivy, who was cooing happily to herself until she saw the twins, then she flailed and squeaked in excitement. "Did you have fun?" Dark asked, letting them get in, "I brought her so Daizi could have some time to herself."
 
"Hi, Ivy! Hi!" Alec cooed back at her, waving excitedly. Turning his attention to Dark, he said, "We had fun, I think, between long stretches of awkward. Xander basically commandeered the kitchen and made us all make cookies, so that helped. It was a good idea, too. I think it mostly stressed poor Milo out as he tried to figure out how to host guests."

"Good thing we're such experts," Xander grumbled. He leaned back and closed his eyes, thoroughly peopled out.

"Most importantly, I figured out the answer to a question," Alec said with a grin.
 
Dark looked at Alec in the rearview mirror before driving off, "It took me some time to learn to be a good host, and I was benefitted by strong hosting culture. What question did you answer?"
 
Alec shook his head. "I'm not going to tell you now! I want to wait to tell you and Mama together." He grinned at Ivy. "I think she'll love it. Can you guess? I bet you can't! Even though you are the smartest baby ever!"
 
"She is having a wonderful, relaxing time at home. We may have to battle to unsettle her." Dark joked lightly, glad he had brought Ivy to give Daizi a few moments of total peace.

Ivy cooed and smiled brightly, kicking her tiny feet. Recently she had just begun to babble, at least occasionally, so her little noises sounded just a bit more like speech, sometimes mimicking the rhythms of English, sometimes Arabic.

"How close is her guess to the truth?" Dark asked.
 
"So very close!" Alec grinned. He reached over to Ivy and tickled her little arm lightly. "I'll bet she'll guess it before anyone else!"

"Do you gotta babble so much?" Xander grumbled, eyes still closed.

Alec made a face at him but went quiet for him.
 
"Are you alright Xander?" Dark asked, taking a brief glance at him as they stopped at a red light. "I have ibuprofen in the glove box if you need it."

Unlike her brother, Ivy did not stop babbling, although Dark did try to hush her, and took the brief pause he had from driving to remind her she had her favourite toy, a little stuffed rabbit, with her, hoping she would put the ears in her mouth.
 
"Yep, just tired," Xander mumbled. That had been exhausting! Milo was so much like a skittish rabbit he'd found himself tense and trying not to move too suddenly or freely through the whole visit.
 
"Well, you'll be home soon. And you've got the whole weekend to rest," Dark murmured, but he did drive a tiny bit faster for his sake. When they parked, Dark freed Ivy (now just on the verge of sleep from the drive) from her car seat and brought her inside, lifting her hand up to touch the salt when she entered, "I will go lay her down for a nap, then get Daizi. Have you both eaten?"
 
"By, Ivy. It was nice to see you for a bit," Alec said, touching Ivy's arm lightly after he'd touched the salt. "No, not unless you count cookies, which I don't."

"What kind of a teenager are you?" Xander grumbled, pulling off his shoes.

"An outlier, apparently," Alec said cheerfully. "Have you eaten yet? Or should we put together dinner while you lay Ivy down?"
 
"She will wake up awhile before her firm bedtime. Really, I should probably keep her awake until then, but I do not particularly want to battle a fussy baby on a Friday night." He told Alec before lightly kissing Ivy's forehead, lingering for a moment to just look at her small, sleepy face. "No, we have not eaten. You can put something together if you like, but I do not think she is about to fight me."
 
"We can do something quick if you don't have anything planned," Alec assured him. "Right, Xander?"

Xander yawned. "Yeah, sure. Quick something. Mac and cheese?"

Alec made a face. "We can do better than that?" He trotted off to the kitchen with Xander trailing behind.
 
As they cooked, Daizi came downstairs, smelling incredible, wrapped in her fluffiest robe, with her hair clipped up off her neck, "You didn't have to cook, I would've put something together for you. Thank you, though. How was hanging out with your friend?"
 
"Oh it was great!" Alec told her enthusiastically. "It really tired Xander out, though. Milo's a bit... fragile, I guess, and didn't know how to really host a gathering. It makes total sense of course, it just means we were a little more uncertain than usual."
 
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