How Green Becomes Wood

"I should probably talk to them alone," Milo said, almost morosely. Then he frowned and took a deep breath, "I have to talk to them alone. Because I don't want to talk about it here at the school. It's a stupid place to have a serious talk."
 
"Yeah," Xander agreed. "Fair enough. You got my number, okay? You need me, call or text anytime. I can come get you if you need or whatever."

Alec put his hand on Milo's shoulder. "Deep breaths. You got this," he told the taller teen.
 
Milo nodded to near excess and took a deep breath like he was told. "Okay. Yeah, I've got your number. Thank you." He looked up at Xander, and repeated himself, "Thank you." Then he picked up his bag, took another deep breath, and walked up to his grandparents. His grandmother made an attempt to touch him but he shrugged her off, said something, and then opened the door to get into the backseat, but he stopped himself, put his bag in and turned to his mom, "I'll talk to you later, Mom." Then he got into the backseat and allowed himself to slam the door shut. He had earned that much.
 
Alec and Xander stayed where they were, watching him leave. Messy, but not the messiest they'd seen. Messier than the majority of what they'd lived through. Still, strangely, it hurt almost worse than some of the stuff they'd personally gone through. Was it harder because they could do nothing?

Alec finally reached up and gave Xander's sleeve a light tug. "Come on. We should go home," he said softly.

"We rode with Ba," Xander reminded him, but turned toward the school. "And the busses are all long gone."

"We could walk," Alec suggested half-heartedly.

Xander almost took that option but stopped himself with a sigh. "It'd worry Ba and Mama. We'll just have to wait until he's ready to go." He moved a little away from Alec, his skin itching and tingling like it was on fire. He couldn't take anymore touching, not even from Alec. It was too much!
 
Dark was waiting in his classroom, pretending like he hadn't been watching everything from out the window when they walked in. It wasn't for Milo's sake, really, but when he knew his kids were waiting outside, he had been keeping an eye, especially after the late bus left, and they were still out there waiting. When they walked in, he set down the papers he was holding and looked up at them. "I am just finishing up here," he said, choosing not to bring up what transpired first. Especially because as far as they knew, all he knew was Milo was supposed to leave, and whatever Alec had included in his text.
 
"Okay," Alec said quietly. "We'll just wait. Quietly and unobtrusively." He found a seat far away from Dark to try to give him as much peace and space as possible to do his work.

Xander sat near Alec but no next to him like usual. He drew one leg up and gripped it tightly for a while before hunting through his pockets for his collection of fidget puzzles. He found a wooden one and started messing with it almost frantically, his fingers flicking this way and that as he took it apart and put it back together again multiple times, his expression never changing from stereotypical "moody teenager." It had been their the CPS agent, Lance, who'd gotten him hooked on little puzzles like this, and now he owned so many they filled a small box. He tended to swap out which ones he carried every so often, keeping only the ones that were challenging no matter how many times he solved them.
 
"It is not particularly important," Dark replied simply, keeping a subtle eye at every little thing they did, "I am preparing for a meeting I need to have with the parents of some of my students." He flipped a page, squinted at it, and wrote something down in the margins, "It would not be bothersome if you were obtrusive." His eyes flicked to Xander's puzzle, and wrote a note on a separate sheet of paper.
 
Alec pulled both knees up to his chest and hugged them, a bit of a feat considering he wasn't as small as he once was, but the high school chairs had not grown up. "That sounds important." He didn't follow that up, instead resting his chin on his knees and watching Xander. It was hard not to.

After a few times of solving the puzzle, Xander set it on the desk near him and found another one. This one was metal, and the clicking of the pieces hitting together was inevitable, though he did slow down and try to muffle the sound as best he could. The feel of the cold bars after the warm blocks of wood soothed his fingers a little.
 
"It is, but it is not until next week." He pinched the bridge of his nose, "I am only preparing now, but I do not like his parents, or the student, particularly, so I do not fear a distraction." Now, he was not watching Xander, looking down exclusively at his work, although he wasn't particularly focused on it. Really, he just did not want to stare, he knew Xander was upset, and being stared at didn't help anyone.
 
"Oh." Alec wanted to ask questions, to keep this conversation going in order to distract himself, but distracting Dark meant it would take him longer to prepare, which would mean it would be longer before they left. That, and it was rude to pry into the affairs of other students. So, despite the clamor inside his head, he fell silent and tried to let Dark work so they could all go home.
 
Again, he took a quick glance up at Alec, then glanced at his computer monitor to check the time. He worked for exactly six minutes, intentionally, and then scooted back in his chair, put the papers he was working on in his bag and said, "We should go home, I do not want to be here any longer than I need to be."
 
Alec scrambled to his feet and hurried toward the door. Then he went back and grabbed his backpack. Xander stowed his puzzles away, picked up his bag, and followed his brother and father out the door. Home. Home was exactly where he wanted to be right now.
 
Dark walked out with them, purposely not slowing down like he normally did when he walked with people so much shorter than him, because he knew they wanted to get out quickly, and he knew Xander liked to move when he was upset. Then he got in the car, turned on music he knew they both liked, and drove home.
 
Xander sat in the back with Alec, each of them on their respective sides, both looking out the windows. Xander held perfectly still, afraid that if he moved too much he might actually explode. Alec fidgeted but said nothing, making it a quiet ride. The music did calm them a little, giving their minds something to focus on instead of chasing their own thoughts around in pointless circles.

When they got home, Xander practically charged inside, kicking off his shoes without minding where they went and barely touching the salt. He went straight upstairs, not even trying to greet Daizi as he went straight to his room to drop off his backpack and then to the bathroom. He touched the salt because it made Daizi happy and it was a habit, but as far as Xander was concerned, nothing purified like the feeling of running water. Especially when it felt like his skin was being attacked. Too much touch! Too much! He needed the sensation OFF!

Alec put away Xander's shoes with his own before practically plunging his hands into the salt dish. He believed even less than Xander did about the salt thing, but of all days for it to work, he hoped it would be this one.
 
Dark followed them inside, carefully took off his shoes, waited for Alec to be finished taking the time he needed with the salt before touching it himself. Meanwhile, Daizi came up to greet them, with Ivy. She had been warned the twins were going to be upset when they came home, although he hadn't provided her with specifics because it didn't seem like his business to share, although she expected they'd be upset even before the text.

"I made dinner," She said softly, "It's mac-and-cheese," she had never made mac-and-cheese before, but it smelled nice, "I put chicken in it."

"It smells delicious," Dark replied, stepping forward to greet her and Ivy, who was the only one who had no idea what was happening. She just squealed and grinned at her father and Alec.
 
Alec looked up and managed to smile at Ivy. "Hi, Mama. Hi, Ivy. Ivy, you look nice today, and very happy. How was your day? Mac-and-cheese with chicken sounds truly amazing."
 
"I do hope you like it," Daizi said, keeping her voice gentle, "I've never really tried to make a fancy bowl of mac-and-cheese, and Ivy and I picked... a good number of different cheeses for it. I also have frozen garlic bread I can heat up for it." she explained over the sounds of her daughter's happy babbles. "I wanted them to be fresh. But there's no point chatting in a hallway, you should go rest, the first day back from break is always exhausting. I remember that well enough."
 
Alec nodded, gripping the straps of his backpack tightly. "Okay." He started for the stairs and put one foot on the bottom step. Then he turned and came back. "It was a good day. Until the end. Milo's mom... she's not taking him with her, I think because his grandparents told her not to? And he hugged Xander a bit, kind of, and Xander hugged him a bit, and..." He sighed. "Things are quite messy now, I guess."
 
"Oh," Daizi said, handing Ivy off to Dark and turning towards the living room so she and Alec could sit and talk, if that's what he wanted, "That sounds really hard. I'm sorry, and I'm sorry for Milo. That sounds really hard for him to navigate. I'm glad he had friends with him, even if it wasn't easy for either of you to see, either."
 
"It was hard," Alec said, following Daizi. "Especially because even though the situation with his mother is really, uh, less than optimal, and he's been hurt a lot by it, he wants nothing more than to be with her. I understand it, I completely do, but he's so focused on loss, he's not seeing gain, if you know what I mean. I just... I really wish he could be happy here, with us, and with his mom, but I don't think we can have the best of both worlds like that."
 
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