How Green Becomes Wood

"...I suppose so," Dark agreed, able to recognize he spent most of his life thinking he probably wouldn't make it this far. He should probably be proud that he was going to, unless something went horribly wrong in the next few months. But recognizing he was going to reach 40 meant his life was going to be much, much longer than he ever expected it to be. That was a difficult adjustment, despite being an adjustment he had been making for a long, long time now. "But I do not like being old."
 
"You, my dear Ba, are never going to be old," Alec assured him dryly. "It simply will not take hold of you. Mama will become old, but that's because she's looking forward to it."
 
Dark was unable to help but scoff, "I do not think I was ever young."

"Well that settles it, then," Daizi replied, kissing his cheek, "If you were never young, you can never be old. You just are. And I like you that way." She leaned in to him, holding one of his hands, "I love you that way. Really, I don't care if you're young or old, I just care I get to do it with you."

"You are going to scare Alec off."

"Alec, don't be scared off." Daizi murmured, kissing Dark on the shoulder before sitting upright again, "Forty isn't old anyway."
 
Alec laughed but did start walking away. "I'm not being scared off, but it does look like you two could use some alone time, and you have a baby to snuggle before she goes down for the night."
 
"We were with each other all day!" Daizi pointed out with a small laugh, resting her head back down on Dark's shoulder.

"Yes, but we were in a very large group," Dark replied, looking down at her with a little smile. "I always want to spend more time with you."

"I always want to spend time with you too, darling, but I also want to spend time with our children," Daizi replied, turning again to Alec, "Save time after school tomorrow for me. We can play music together again. I'm so busy all the time, I really do try."
 
Alec brightened visibly at Daizi's offer and came back to give her a tiny kiss on the cheek. "I know, Mama, and I understand. I would love to play music with you tomorrow! I'll see you in the morning." He turned and headed upstairs. "Night!" Mondays were never fun, but now he had something to look forward to!

The next morning, the twins arrived downstairs for breakfast on time as usual and got ready to go. They gave Ivy and Enkidu their appropriate attention, said goodbye to their parents, and headed off to school. And then came back because Alec forgot his poster and then headed out again.
 
When Alec came to kiss her cheek, she hugged him with one arm and kissed him back, "Goodnight, habibi. I love you." Then she settled back in with Dark and adjusted Ivy between them, and she was just absolutely pleased to be tucked in between her parents again, enough so that she ended up falling asleep right there between them, happy as a clam.

In the morning, Daizi made breakfast, because she always tried to let Dark sleep in when she could, and even just letting him get five extra minutes seemed to do him wonders. They made there normal goodbyes and then tried not to laugh when they almost immediately turned around, although Alec coming back just to leave again crushed his sister.

At school, Milo was doing his best not to ruin his poster by fidgeting with it. He had his rolled up nicely, but he kept turning it in and out, and he knew he was at risk of crumbling it, but it was so easy to mess with.
 
"Morning, Milo!" Alec called with a cheerful wave. "Do you have your poster? I almost forgot mine!"

"We salvaged that," Xander said, ducking around a pair of boys sword-fighting with posters. "Looks like everyone had fun with them."
 
"Y-yeah, I have mine," Milo replied, nodding excessively, "It's just---we don't have to present them, do we? I don't remember being told we need to present them, but I looked, and I can't find anything about it one way or another."
 
"I'm pretty she didn't say anything about presenting them," Alec said encouragingly. "If we were supposed to present them, she'd have said, I'm sure of it."

Xander gave a slight nod. "Yep, not a word about presentations."
 
"Presents is torture and should be labeled cruel and unusual punishment," Xander grumbled.

"Punishment for what?" Alec chuckled. "All you have to do is face the wall and pretend no one else is there."

Xander eyed him. "Doesn't sound like a simple solution to me."
 
"No," Milo shook his head, "They don't let you present looking at the wall. I've never had a teacher let me, anyway, I get points off for looking at my shoes, they want you to be 'engaging' and look at your classmates. They make me stand up in front of everyone."
 
"The good news is," Xander remarked, "most of the kids you're standing up in front of couldn't care less what you are presenting and have zoned out."

"He speaks from the experience of one of the zoners," Alec remarked.

"Either way, we don't gotta do it, and we are all very happy about that," Xander said with a firm nod.
 
"Most isn't all," Milo replied, standing up as the bell rang and pulling at his bag, "I'm glad we don't need to present. If we go into class and she makes us I'm faking an illness, I don't care."
 
"She seems the type to be able to see right through that," Alec remarked. "But! The class is way too big to make all of us present unless it's a speed round, so you are still safe."

Xander gave Milo's sleeve the briefest and lightest of tugs, not even fully conscious of his action. "If she tries to make you present, just look at me and pretend that you're trying to tutor me."
 
"I think if she makes us stand up in front of someone it would actually make me throw up and then it's not fake," Milo murmured back to Alec, and then looked at Xander, only slightly pale, "I guess I could. Try that." He shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck, "I know we aren't presenting, and I've known that, I would've remembered her telling us we were, but it popped into my head last night, and now even though I know it's not happening, I can't stop worrying about what if it's the worst variant on a pop quiz ever."
 
"That I'll agree on completely," Alec nodded enthusiastically. "I might not hate it as much as other people, but I still need my prep time. Try thinking about something else, instead."

"Yes, because it's that easy," Xander agreed mildly.

"I didn't say it was easy," Alec started to say, but Xander had already moved on.

"If you get called on, I got it. You don't have to throw up," Xander told Milo calmly as they headed into their first class.
 
Milo shoved his hands in his pockets and looked down at the floor, not okay but better then he was before. Although if he threw up, he'd be free for tomorrow, too, probably. That'd be nice. But it was only the second week of class. His granddad kept telling him he'd never make it if he couldn't learn to be resilient, so he supposed he had better just deal with it as they went through class.
 
"There's a thing, an event deal happening downtown later today," Xander remarked as they walked toward their seats. "Don't know a thing about it, but there's bound to be some good shots to be got. Lots of ways in an out, so you could stay at the edges pretty easily."

Austin was in his seat, and he looked up when Xander, Alec, and Milo approached. "Hey," he said cautiously. "Milo. Alexander. Uh. Al."

"Close," Alec said graciously while Xander looked at him like he was insane.
 
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