How Green Becomes Wood

Watching them, he didn't really care much about the pudding cup. He was too busy wondering what it would have been like to have siblings. They both wouldn't fit in this house, or most of the places he had been, but he would've had someone who knew.

Or, knowing his luck, he would've had a sibling who also didn't like him.

"I guess if you're an engineer and you keep cutting corners, the person who cut back on the thing that caused the accident is the one who gets in trouble," Milo shrugged.
 
"Hmm, good point," Alec said cheerfully. He started picking up the pieces and then stacking them up. He wasn't making the jenga tower, however, he was making a Stonehenge.

"You wanna be an engineer when you grow up?" Xander asked lightly, knowing the answer was likely no. He watched Alec and added a couple of pieces.
 
"No," Milo replied, unwittingly confirming Xander's suspicions, "I don't know what I want to do, but I'm not good at math. I mean, I guess I probably would be fine at it, but math is hard to learn out of order, so I think even if I wanted to be an engineer I'd be out of luck. Do you know what you want to do?"
 
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Xander shrugged and realized Milo had far fewer of the blocks than they did. He pushed several closer to him in case he wanted to do anything with them while Alec tried to figure out if he could add another level to his stack. "Nah. Thought about maybe seeing if my uncle will take me on as a regular employee in his handyman business. Don't know if that's what I always wanna do, but I'm decent at it. Or maybe run a junkyard or something. Dunno what other options there are for a guy like me, but a junkyard would at least be kind of fun."
 
"What do junkyard workers even do?" Milo asked, picking up the bricks and absent-mindedly stacking them, "I feel like I only see them in cartoons and they just crush cars on giant machines that nearly kill the main characters. Do you know what you want to do, Alec?"
 
"Depends on the yard. They store things for an indefinite amount of time, pull working parts out of damaged vehicles and things and put them in working vehicles and things, sometimes restore junk, and I think recycle stuff," Xander said.

"Not really," Alec said. He tried to spin a block on his finger and failed miserably. "I've thought about it a lot, actually, and while I know making a living is really important, I don't want to stop living, so I want a job that is interesting in some way. If it's not interesting, then I want it to be as short as possible so I can do things I am interested in. Basically, a backup so I can metaphorically pay the rent while I dabble in stuff that is not as guaranteed to bring in income. Maybe I'll try doing artwork on the side, and I've thought of taking up pottery, and the band could bring in income, but that's not a guarantee, either, and I'd love to do more with dance, and maybe act if I can find the right kind of crowd. I really love entertaining people, so maybe I could look into learning how to plan events! Like weddings, birthdays, and things like that. That could be really fun if stressful. There's all sorts of things I want to try! Maybe even aecrobadics!" He paused and stared off into the distance. "Huh..."

Xander raised a brow, but Alec didn't seem inclined to expound upon his "huh."
 
"Oh, that's pretty cool. That kind of work is important, anyway." Milo said, leaning back against his wall, "And you've got a better idea of whar you want to do than me. So that's something..." He got up and peered in the direction Alec was looking in, "What are you looking at?"
 
"Hmm?" Alec tore his gaze away and returned it to Milo. "Nothing. Or rather, I suppose my eyes were aimed at something, but I wasn't seeing it. I was just thinking about something. So! What would you like to do now? Unless you want to go again with Jenga? Or build a cool thing with all the blocks?"

Xander pushed himself up and wandered over to the birdcage to peer at the birds. "Do you have a back yard?" he asked, frowning at the feathery creatures.
 
Cyclone, one of the birds, bobbed his head and stepped to the side.

"I was hoping there would be an alien." Milo said, scooping up the pieces and putting them back in thekr container, "My grandparents have a wisp of a backyard. There's really not much space for anything. What do you want to do? ...I wish I could offer more, I just don't... own, a lot. And I don't normally have friends over, so I don't know what people, you know. Do."
 
Xander tried to remember which bird was which and muttered their names, pointing back and forth between them. He bobbed his head back at the bird curiously.

"That's alright, you don't have to have a lot to entertain friends," Alec assured him. "I just don't want you to feel like we're bossing you around or assuming too much. This is your space that we're invading, after all." He thought for a moment and then brightened. "Spa day!"

"No," Xander said flatly. He pointed to the bird that had bobbed its head at him and muttered, "Cyclone. Right?"

Unfazed, Alec continued, "Or we can make something in the kitchen if your grandparents wouldn't mind, tell stories, or, hey, I know! We could look up some magic tricks online and try to learn them."
 
"Yeah, that's Cyclone. They're both boys. Comet is the more yellow one." Milo confirmed, turning around to watch the birds. There was something about them he liked, even though they woke him up, "You can let them out if you want. They like to throw glasses to the ground if you leave a cabinet open, but otherwise they don't cause too much trouble."

He got up and stood beside Xander, sticking his hands deep into his pockets, "You just have to be careful where you pet them. You can't pet their back or belly... I guess we could try to cook something. My Grandma wouldn't mind."
 
"Do they go around the whole house? Or just stay in here? They won't get hurt? What about the dog?" Xander asked, frowning in concern. That was probably the most questions he'd ever asked in a row before with Milo.

Alec made certain they'd located all of the Jenga blocks since Milo had put them in the box and picked it up. "I'll go put these away, then! I know the way. Then you two should decide what we're making!" He headed out with the box, happy to have landed on something Milo approved of.
 
"Paisley can barely see, she won't bother them. They tend to go wherever when we let them out, we just have to keep an eye on them... You don't have to if you don't feel comfortable, my granddad normally lets them out when he comes home from work and before he goes, so they have plenty of time not caged up. And it might not be great to have them loose if we're cooking, I guess. I'm not sure what we have, but we can look... We probably have stuff for... cookies, I guess?"
 
"Maybe when we're done they can come out," Xander suggested. He eyed the birds skeptically but with interest before turning. "I know a couple of cookie recipes, cake, turnovers... maybe not turnovers unless you already have puff pastry hanging around. Puff pastry is a pain in the ass to make. Where's the kitchen?"

Alec took the Jenga game back to the closet and put it away back where he thought he remembered it went. He took a moment to look over the other games out of curiosity. He wondered how long Milo's grandmother would remain asleep and when his grandfather would return. Would they approve of Milo's friends? He hoped so. Closing the closet door, he headed back toward Milo's room in hopes of following them to the kitchen.
 
"I can cook a little bit, but I've never really done much baking, so you can tell me what we can do," Milo said, opening the cabinets and taking out flour and sugar because he knew they, at least, would be necessary. As more people milled about in the main room, his grandmother on the couch stirred, getting up hurriedly and smoothing her clothes.

"Oh gosh," She said, tucking her greying hair back, "I'm so sorry. Milo, I thought I told you to wake me when you got home if I was asleep?" She turned to the twins, "Hi, I'm Millie Beth, I'm Milo's grandmother."

"I didn't want to bother you," he replied, looking down, and he quickly explained to the twins, "She has long shifts, sometimes. Grandma, this is Xander and Alec."
 
"Cookies, then," Xander decided. "They're easy. Got any chocolate chips?" He paused and turned when he heard the grandmother stirring. "Sup? I mean, nice to meet you. Ma'am."

Alec smiled brilliantly. "Hello! It's really nice to meet you. We've heard good things about you from Milo, and I love your scrapbooking collection. So many colors!"
 
"I'll look," Milo murmured.

"It's good to meet you two!" His grandmother said warmly, "We're very glad he's making friends. What are you three up to."

"We were going to bake cookies... if that's okay..."

His grandmother paused, looking at them for a moment, then shook her head, smiling to herself, "Of all things, the sort of trouble you worry about is baking. That's how I know you take after our side of the family."
 
"We can do peanut better, that's only three ingredients. Or chocolate chip if you got any. Cookie butter cookies, no, you probably don't have Biscoff or similar. Or there's shortbread or Amish, I guess. What are you feeling?"

"My brother is a really good chef," Alec told Milo's grandmother. "He leans more toward cooking, but he's a good baker, too. I help! In between making a mess. I'm not very good."
 
"We have peanut butter," Milo said, utilizing every ounce of his strength to not comment about how technically Xander would be a cook, not a chef, "Grandma, do we have chocolate chips?"

"Just be sure you all clean up after yourselves," Millie Beth commented before quickly going into her pantry and pulling out a half-full bag of chocolate chips, as well as some pecans, should they want them. "Well, I'll leave you boys to it, I wouldn't want to get in the way."
 
"Thank you for the use of your kitchen!" Alec told Milo's grandmother before going to help Xander as he hunted through the pantry and the cupboards.

"Two bowls, flour, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla - oh, this is decent stuff - milk..." Xander muttered. He handed the things to Milo or Alec, whoever happened to be closest at the time, as he went through the recipe in his head. Alec picked a spot to unload everything, helping himself to a pecan when he had the chance.

Xander gave Milo the job of mixing together the three dry ingredients while he started mixing together the wet. Alec helped until he dropped an egg. He cleaned it up with much apologizing, but Xander still steered him to a chair in the corner and made him sit.

"Your grandmother seems nice," Alec said to Milo, accepting his fate and staying put in his chair.
 
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