How Green Becomes Wood

"That seems fair," Alec agreed willingly. He stretched briefly. "I think I'm going to head upstairs. I have a lot to think about. Things other than bets and rewards and punishments."
 
"We'll be here," Daizi told him, sitting up just a bit before laying back down again. Dark was still tossing Ivy, although was slowing down because the game could only last so long before it stopped being fun.
 
Alec headed upstairs following after his brother. Should he talk to him now? It felt too soon. The revelations too fresh. At the same time, if he waited, he might coward out and not do anything at all. What should he do? Perhaps he could see where the conversation led and try to naturally bring it up. They could talk about everything and anything, right? they always had before.

Xander sat on Alec's bed - not unusual. They seemed to often use Alec's bed almost like a couch - but even though he was holding a book, his eyes weren't moving as if he were reading. He sat stiff. Almost rigid.

"Hey," Alec called softly, closing the door behind him. "Are you okay?"

Xander didn't react at first.

Alec sat at the end of the bed and reached out to shake Xander's leg. "Xander. Are you-"

Xander jerked violently and yanked his leg away. His hands swung back, his book prepared like a weapon.

"Wait!" Alec yelped in shock.

Xander froze. "F***! You scared me!" he snapped. Then he dropped his book aside and shifted closer to Alec. "What the hell were you doing?"

"I-I was checking to make sure- sure you were okay," Alec stammered, shaking, his face pale.

Xander reached out and pulled him close. "I'm sorry," he whispered, holding him tight. "I didn't mean to. I got startled and... I'm sorry."

Alec nodded, leaning into his brother. "It's okay," he whispered.

"No, it's not," Xander said bluntly, "and I'll try to never do that again."

"What were you thinking about so hard?" Alec dared asked, hugging Xander.

Xander hesitated. Then he shook his head. "Doesn't matter. I forgot. Something about nothing. Sorry."

"It's okay. Really," Alec whispered, but he wasn't sure it was.
 
In the living room, neither Dark nor Daizi heard the slight scuffle going on above them. Instead, to make sure they won the stupid bet, Dark went outside to work in his shed while Daizi played with Ivy, switching off when Daizi knew she should go back to work. If they didn't spend time together, there would be no temptation. At dinner, they even made a point of sitting on opposite sides of the table. Unfortunately for their children, once they had worked out a plan, the bet to stay apart just became a new kind of flirting, similar to when they were trying to keep their relationship a secret from everyone. Going to bed that night was tricky, and they debated if anyone would even know if they broke the rules there, but Dark decided it was better to fully commit, purely for their own satisfaction.

The next day, before Xander left for therapy, Dark came over to check on his hand, mostly for his own peace of mind.
 
Alec and Xander were a little stiff with each other, but they gradually relaxed enough to bemoan and tease Dark and Daizi about their totally obvious flirting. Xander declared it was a terrible day in their household and that Alec had done a horrible thing with the bet. Alec mostly bemoaned the fact that it seemed he was losing. He was being quite dramatic, but he didn't actually mind. He expected it.

The next day, Alec spent a lot of time out back doing what he could to practice without a wheel, and he talked to Dark about the potential to by a Cyr wheel on credit once he had a stable job with stable income instead of whatever he happened to get while performing. It would be nice to be able to pay one off in installments while using it rather than waiting until after he'd saved up completely for one.

Xander spent his day avoiding people and bouncing from hoppy to project to chore. He felt restless and disoriented. Like he'd forgotten something, but couldn't remember what. Like he knew he still had a couple of bites from something he'd been eating, but after he'd set it down, he couldn't find it again. It was driving him nuts!

When it was time for him to drop Alec off at his Cyr wheel lesson qnd to get himself to his therapy, he didn't appreciate Dark wanting to look at his hand. It was looking fine, though a little angry because Xander kept messing with it. It would heal a lot faster if Xander would leave it alone.
 
When both the twins expressed discontented with how she and Dark were defeating the bet, Daizi really began to enjoy it. Dressing up Alec wasn't much of a prize, but this was.

The following day, Dark agreed buying the wheel with payments wasn't a bad idea, but cautioned him about how much the payments would cost a month and other important considerations when taking on debt.

Daizi could tell something was bothering Xander and occasionally tried to speak to him about it, but when it seemed that was unlikely to work, she came up with non-existent chores she "needed" his help on, to give him something to do.

This time, Dark didn't touch Xander to take a look at it, although he did tell him, "Do not touch it so much, it will not heal."
 
"I'll leave it alone," Xander promised, and he meant it, but seconds later he was fiddling with it. "Alec, are you ready?"

"Ready!" Alec chirped. He hugged Daizi and gave Ivy a kiss. "See you later!"
 
Dark couldn't help but sigh watching Xander get right back to messing with it, but short of a hand version of a cone, there wasn't much he could do.

"Bye, have fun!" Daizi told Alec, hugging him back. The door shut, they heard Xander's car drive away, and shortly after, a timer beeped on Dark's phone.

Twenty four hours.

Daizi set Ivy into the pack-and-play before giggling as her husband pressed her back against the wall, choosing drama purely for the sake of it.
 
When Xander got to the stables, he found Judson already out and getting warmed up.

"We're trying something different today!" the handler said cheerfully. "Ground work!"

Ground work, it turned out, involved working with the horse while walking on the ground, which seemed pretty self explainitory. It was the handler's job to guide the horse through a variety of obstacles, most of them pretty easy, but the catch came with the hander and their own confidence level. If they balked or didn't seem confident when approaching an obstacle, the horse would balk.

Judson was used to these trials, but even he was leary of obstacles that made humans hesitate. Xander tried to focus. He worked to relax and be confident, but sometimes he responded a little too aggressively, which annoyed Judson and made him balk. They still managed to work their way through a lot of obstacles, and Xander ended up drenched. The therapist praised him for his work and assured him he was doing well, but for the first time in a while, she went with him to clean out the stalls.

Meanwhile, Alec had an amazing lesson and was humming happily as he waited for Dark to pick him up.
 
Dark pulled into the parking lot and stopped the car so Alec could get in, "How was today's lesson?" He asked as Alec buckled his seatbelt before driving off. "Daizi and I won, by the way."
 
"I didn't, but next time I will," Alec promised. He bounced a little. "When I get a bit better, do you want to come watch? It's allowed as long as people don't go overboard."
 
"Yes!" Alec celebrated. "It's do much fun! And it has the potential to be so beautiful! In fact, today, we started working on a routine." He told Dark all about it, excited and energized despite sore muscles and aching fingers.
 
"So let us see," Dark hummed, after asking all of the questions he could think to, "You are a musician with a fairly successful local band, you have a strong grasp on your own sense of style, you are studying about plants, and soon you will be a master at the Cyr Wheel. Did you ever consider saving talent for others?"
 
Alec blushed, but then he gave Dark an impish smile. "You forgot artist, but I suppose I could be persuaded not to pursue sewing and similar fabric crafts. Xander can have that."
 
"I don't think we would have liked each other had we been teens at the same time," Alec admitted, glowing at Dark's praise. "But you are so cool you totally outshine me." He looked out the window, watching the buildings go by, and his smile faded a little. "I think Xander feels outshine a lot even if I don't mean to."
 
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