How Green Becomes Wood

"Why would I not be invested? I have known him longer than anyone in my life, of all adults I know he is the second most dear to me, and he has a history of ruining things with women he likes." Dark strode away from the window, "I already chose his outfit for this, anyway."
 
Xander rolled his eyes skyward. "Heaven help the mini." He glanced at Dark. "Maybe you should plan a date night with Mama. I bet she'd like it. And you can offer the opportunity to do that doubel dating thing."
 
Dark watched him for a few moments, "You are very concerned with the possibility of Ivy dating. My plan to deal with it is, as she grows up, take her out to places just us so she knows how she should be treated." He nodded, satisfied, but then after a moment softly added, "And politely threaten whoever she brings home."
 
"Dude, I made like three references because it applies to the situation. That's not being 'very concerned,' that's following a joke," Xander said, rolling his eyes. He headed for the stairs. "Your mere existence and interest in her life is a threat to at least ninety percent of the guys out there."
 
"You were a horrible high school boy," Xander pointed out, "and as long as she doesn't give me any details and doesn't try to 'fix' the 'damaged' ones, I don't care. Later." He headed upstairs, taking them two at a time to escape dating talk.
 
Had Xander stayed for a moment longer, Dark would've pointed out he was good to Daizi, which seemed to outweigh his other problems, at least as far as boyfriends went. But, since that wasn't an option, he shrugged his shoulders and walked back towards the living room, noting how anytime Xander felt uncomfortable with any subject, all he tried to do was go as far from it as possible, rather than attempting to work through and process his discomfort. Maybe he should bring that up to him, at some point.
 
The days passed peacefully, and it seemed they'd only blinked and it was time to go back to school. Alec spent an absurd amount of time the day before choosing his outfits for the entire week. Xander had three shirts in varying shades of black and one pair of black pants to wear for the entire week. They got into an argument about whether Alec was overdoing it or Xander was underdoing it and ended up not speaking to each other for the next two hours.

In the morning, they were prepared extra early and ready to go, but it felt strange. Dark didn't need to get ready. He didn't need to go. He was staying home, and they wouldn't see him at school. They couldn't even do lunch together! Alec nearly started crying when he hugged Dark goodbye but pulled himself together and followed Xander out to the car. Time to go.
 
Dark did find it very strange for the start of the school year to approach, and not need to start writing and submitting lesson plans, or waiting anxiously to know if his classroom had been moved last minute. For so many years, his plan was to take over the history department, and he had, in the past year or so, felt like he was really coming close to getting that promotion. And now it was all behind him. He wasn't sure, if he went back when Ivy was in school, if he'd ever get it, now. Despite knowing with absolute certainty, choosing to be a stay-at-home father was the right choice for him... that understanding saddened him. He had never stopped enjoying teaching, after all.

When he sent the twins off, he hugged Alec a little tighter than usual and then set them off, telling them to enjoy their first day as upper-classmen. High school was half-over, now, soon enough they'd see the finish line. Then, when the door was shut, he remarked to Daizi how quiet the house seemed.
 
When they arrived at school, Alec started looking for friends he hadn't seen all summer as well as friends he had seen through the summer and greeted both with equal enthusiasm. Becky greeted him with a lot of squealing and joy and hugged him in the hallway. Xander stayed well out of their way and only really looked for Milo. Alec had finally started feeling as though he had a community in the school, but Xander was still as much of a loner as he'd always been. Well, not quite. Now he had Milo.
 
That day, Sloan had put a lot of work into making herself look nice. It was the first day of her senior year, so it seemed important. Although she greeted her friends, she didn't squeal and hug like Becky did, after all it had only been a few months, but she accepted the other girl's exuberance as a fact of life.

Milo entered the school warily. Having had comparatively more first days than most people he knew, there wasn't much excitement to it, but this particular one was strange, because he couldn't remember the last time he had his first day at the same time as the rest of the student body. "Hey," He mumbled to Xander, hands in his pockets and not particularly dressed up, "People seem... energetic."
 
Alec noticed Sloan had dressed up a bit, so when he was able to get a moment away from the others, he complimented her and told her she looked very nice. It seemed only right. Not long after, Rumy was walking down the hall, and she gave Sloan a wave and a thumbs up. She had died the ends of her dark hair a very light bright blue, and her outfit was very spacecore meets cyberpunk, with baggy jeans and a shiny, synthetic top and assorted silver and gold jewelry with cosmic style symbols. She got some odd looks but didn't seem to care.

Xander leaned against the wall with one foot propped up, his arms crossed. "You'd think they haven't seen other people in months," he said dryly. "I guess it's better than doom and gloom. As long as no one expects me to be happy about it with them."
 
Sloan thanked Alec for the compliment. She was wearing her normal green jacket, but had at some point over the summer, added a large moth patch to the back of it, a acid-washed denim skirt, a graphic t-shirt, and heeled boots. Alec ushering towards Rumy made her roll her eyes-- she trusted him for many things, but this was not one. She went over towards Rumy with her hands in the back pockets of her skirt, "You look like StarLab. It's cool."

"Who expects you to be happy?" Milo asked, "Nobody really stands out today, I think, because everyone is kinda new."
 
"Thanks!" Rumy grinned, clumping to a stop to talk. She was wearing white Doc Martins, which added a good two inches of height. "Hey, nice moth! Where'd you get that? Moths are super cool, but everyone looks over them for butterflies."

"Helf the teachers. The other half get it because they aren't happy to be here, either," Xander said dryly. He glanced at Milo and thought about saying something about his first days but discarded the idea. "Heard about the new history teacher yet?"
 
"Oh, thanks. I just went to a fabric store, I wanted something more interesting on the jacket and I like adding patches to things to customize them. I thought about adding something smaller by the collar or on my chest, but I didn't want to add too much and regret it." She rocked back on her heels for a moment, "I think moths and butterflies are both awesome. I don't like comparing them, it's not a butterfly's fault they're more popular, and moths deserve to be appreciated without constant comparison."

"Teachers have a vested interest in students not hating them. I don't know if they need you to be happy or just not an ass." Milo replied blandly, "I don't know anything about them, no."
 
"Right on!" Rumy grinned. "I think a collar patch would be awesome and a chest one too much, but I'm wearing cow earings with a moon and sun necklace, so I might not be the best opinion to listen to!" she laughed. "There are some beautiful moths, but you're right, they're so different it's easier to compare apples and oranges."

Xander shrugged. "I think I can work with just not being an ass. Might manage that. No promises. Do we share any classes? Alec and I share them all this year."
 
"I just chose a moss because I like earthy colours," Sloan said, "I thought something vibrant like a butterfly would be distracting. I like making things my own, though. It's cool when you know you won't run into someone wearing your exact same clothes."



Milo fished around in his bag for his schedule and handed it to Xander, "I dunno. These are my classes, I think they're fine. They put me in Honours English, so I guess I tested well after summer school."
 
"That is so cool!" Rumy grinned, moving so she could see Sloan's moth better. "I think you did an awesome job. I always get distracted and don't have the patience to do much to my own stuff, so I just do weird pairings and things. Maybe I should work on my patience more."

"Nice. If you're not careful, you're going to end up valedictorian," Xander remarked, looking over the schedule. "Looks like we share a lot of the same classes, but not all of them. Definitely not Honours English."
 
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