How Green Becomes Wood

"Isn't Clueless a movie?" Sloan asked, but looked at Becky's phone as if she didn't know the film, "Or we could try to do Heathers. But that's probably cheating because I already have scrunchies. Not that I dress like them though."

"My..." Milo had barely started before his expression changed. Then he wiggled his facial features as if refreshing and said, "I don't know. Navy maybe? I've wanted to try dressing like... Indiana Jones, but when he was in the classroom, not when he's in a tomb." He reached into a rack for nothing in particular, then stopped and looked back at Xander, "Mouse brown?"
 
"Becky grinned at Sloan. "Do you want to both try dressing up like the Heathers? If you have scrunchies, we can work with what we've got!"

Xander frowned in thought. "Classroom... isn't that like a suit? A brown suit with a vest thing? I think they might have suits over there." He gestured toward another section. "Yeah, isn't that a color descriptor? Mouse brown?"
 
"We can, yeah. I don't really care what colour I am, so we can see what they have." Sloan suggested, stepping back to peer at the sections before heading towards the blazers section, "That's probably a good place to start."

"I doubt I can afford a suit," Milo said, "That's just a stretch dream, anyway." He pulled on the sleeve of his sweatershirt, "You know, for if I'm ever successful."
 
Becky followed her and spent the next several minutes looking over blazers and chattering with Sloan about clothes and school while checking for any plaid colors that might fit them.

"It's a thrift store," Xander pointed out. "It's worth checking." He thought wanting to stuff yourself into a brown suit sounded stupid, but it seemed important to Milo. "What do you want to be successful at? Teaching... whatever the hell it is Jones teaches the few times he's ever actually at the school and not shooting Nazis?"
 
"He taught archaeology," Milo said, "I don't know what I want to do, though. Sometimes I think I want to be a doctor, but I'm not actually that smart. Or I'll be... I don't know, a wildlife photographer." He absentmindedly tapped the camera he still carried with him, "I can't be a regular photographer because I hate posed photos."
 
"I've met plenty of doctors that aren't that smart," Xander remarked blandly. "That's what the bazillion years of schooling is for. Outside of that, all you need is sheer stubbornness and maybe a bit of a masochist side. Wildlife photography is cool. Bet it's way less stressful than being a doc." He reached the suits and pulled out the first one he saw. "This one's like forty bucks. That one's twenty. Bet we can find you something."
 
"What about you?" Milo asked, looking through the suits, "What do you want to do with your future? ...My grandma sure will be glad if I come home with a suit. She told me she fully expects me to come home wearing something stupid, but I know she'll be glad if I don't."
 
Xander shrugged. "Dunno. Haven't had a chance to think about it until recently. I've got a business set up selling leather stuff, but I dunno if I want to make it, like, a career." He smiled in triumph and pulled out a brown suit without a vest. "This is close, yeah?"
 
"I'll see if there's anything closer. Apparently, they don't make suits in 'tall and lanky,'" Xander remarked, moving on. "Leather items mostly for cosplays and stuff, but there's some everyday stuff, too. Belts, purses, scabbards, bracers... one person commissioned a breastplate. I used an old couch for that one. It was the only think I could find with big enough singular pieces."
 
"I'm not that tall. Your dad is tall." Milo said, scratching behind his ear, "That's pretty cool. My dad used to take me to Ren Faires and stuff all the time when I was a kid. People wear the coolest stuff there... Haven't gone in a long time." He squinted at the rack and pulled out, squished in amongst the normal clothes, a suit made entirely from cat print. Not the pattern of a cat's fur, cats. Full stop.
 
"Never been. Never really been interested, but there's a decent-sized demand for that kind of thing, and I like the challenge." Xander stared at the suit. "Please tell me the only reason you'd buy that is to burn it and put it out of its misery."
 
"They're sort of like... a music festival, the circus, and a costume party all at once. And when you go as a little kid, magic is real, and the joust to the death actually is to the death, and the unicorn's horn is real, and the wizard actually can shoot fire from his staff." He smiled a bit at the memory and then it faded, "Then you grow up. No, I wouldn't wear this, don't worry. But you could probably make an absolutely horrific cat bed with it. Or an ironic dog bed."
 
Xander glanced at Milo. "I never believed in the magic. I figured out Santa and the Tooth Fairy by the age of three." He turned back to the suits and held out a black one. "That was Alec's job. He believed hard enough for the both of us, even when he knew it wasn't real. Kind of envy that sometimes. How about this one?"
 
"The tooth fairy and santa are different. You don't get to see them with your eyes. I mean, you can go and sit on Santa's lap at a mall, but you're still in a mall, and it and it's kind of Santa's busiest season, so what's he doing on a press tour? But in a place like that... It feels different." He looked at the black suit for a moment, "I don't really like wearing black. It makes me feel like I'm going to a funeral." He pulled another one that looked to be able his size, this one was navy, and just a vest and pants. Best of all, it wasn't expensive, "This will probably fit. Then I can get a fun shirt."
 
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"I don't really see a difference, but I'll take your word for it," Xander told him. He nodded to the suit. "That could work. Or..." He pulled out a four-piece suit that was all white. "You could give this one a try." He smirked.
 
"That's because you've never been." Milo said and stared in shock at the white suit, "I'll look like I'm in a bad production of Jesus Christ Superstar." Then, after a moment, he grinned, "It's the most absurd, impractical piece of clothing I've ever seen. I love it..." He chuckled, "Imagine if we could dress your dad all in white. Do you think he'd die?"
 
Xander considered. "Possibly, yes." He glanced at the suit regretfully. "I doubt we can find anything in his size or I'd say we try it. That'd be awesome." He tossed the suit toward Milo. "How about a red shirt underneath? Call yourself Death."
 
"Yeah, probably. I think he's the largest man I've ever met. Are white and red death colours? I thought the Grim Reaper normally wears black." Milo said, taking the suit from Xander and draping it over his arm, "I think everyone else is going to look way goofier than you will, but it's your birthday, so that's okay."
 
"In China, white is the color of death," Xander told him. "Some tales take cues from that, I think, and the white horse thing of the apocalypse. Not sure. I think it works better, myself, but it doesn't matter yet." He frowned at his green shirt. "What, green isn't enough?" He glanced toward Alec, knowing exactly where he was. The entire time the twins had been in the store, both of them had been checking in on the other without even realizing it, assuring themselves of where the other was and never fully moving out of the other's line of sight for more than a minute or two. Xander turned his attention back to Milo and held up his shirt. "You think you can do better than one green shirt for me?"
 
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