How Green Becomes Wood

"You." He said directly to Xander as he set him down, "Other bed. Sit." Rubbing his face, he took a step back and called down the hall, not wanting to let the twins out of his sight in case they ended up fighting the moment he turned his back, "Daizi, it is okay. It was only our sons. They were fighting."

Daizi didn't call back, and instead walked bewildered down the hall, bouncing the baby she was trying to get back to sleep, "What?"

"They were fighting. Rolling around on the floor."

Daizi took a slow, controlled breath, fighting back the desire to point out the fact this was the exact sort of thing she was afraid of. As she exhaled, she said, "I am going to get Ivy back to sleep. And then we are going to talk about this. I do not care what time it is."
 
The twins glared at each other across the divide in their room, leaning slightly toward each other. It was hard to tell which one started it, but they both started grumbling quietly, whispering and muttering insults under their breath. It was a good thing Dark didn't leave.
 
"Hey. Quiet." Dark replied when he heard the muttering, knowing even without being able to make out the exact words what was happening.

When Daizi finally, arduously, got Ivy back to sleep, she stood over the crib for a few moments to steady herself, and then quietly left the nursery and returned to the twins' bedroom. "Let’s talk downstairs," She said, "It is neutral territory."
 
They quieted at Dark's command, but the heated glares didn't stop. When Daizi told them to go downstairs, they stood to go, but then there was an awkward shuffle and near scuffle as they tried to sort who got to go first. Xander ended up going first and heading downstairs. Alec muttered a few choice things as he followed.
 
Dark looked at his wife for a few moments before going downstairs with them, walking in between them to prevent any further altercations. Daizi followed them in the back. When they reached the living room, Dark explicitly directed where Xander would sit and where Alec would sit, keeping them on opposite ends, while he and Daizi sat in the middle. There was no way to have had this talk in their bedroom, they both realized, because then they'd either both need to share a bed with one twin, alienating the other, or they'd both have to "pick a side." Neither seemed like a smart idea.

"Alright," Daizi said after a few moments of silence, "one at at time. What is going on."
 
At first, neither twin responded. They stayed silent, glaring at nothing in particular.

"He's being a jerk," Alec started.

"Me? I'm being a jerk?" Xander interrupted.

"Yes, you are!" Alec snapped back. "You're being the biggest jerk you've been in ages!"

"That's rich coming from you!"

"One time! One time I lose my s**t, and you act like it's the end of everything!" Alec yelled, inching closer to Xander without leaving his seat.

"Yeah, it was a big load of s**t you lost, you coddled pansy!" Xander growled, mirroring Alec's movement.
 
"Okay!" Daizi exclaimed, not going to listen to them yell at each other, while Dark physically held out his arms to get them away from each other, even though they hadn't begun to fight physically again. He felt like he had two unfriendly dogs attached to the same leash. "If you two wake that baby again, we're going to have a different problem. Xander. You first. What is going on."
 
Xander crossed his arms and threw himself back onto the loveseat. "Not my problem. He's the one who cornered me and started demanding stuff," he grumbled. "He started this."

"I started this?" Alec squeaked furiously.
 
"No." Dark replied, shaking his head, "If I find you on top of your brother, you lose the right to be cagey. The moment the two of you are in a fist fight, it is your problem."

"Alright, Alec," Daizi sighed, "You speak then. What happened."
 
"You mean just right now?" Alec huffed. "Just right now? Just right now, I decided I have had enough of being ignored and treated like some kind of pariah, so I demanded answers! He's treating me like the scum of the earth for doing exactly what he's done a million times!"

"I have not yelled at someone else's friend a million times!" Xander protested.

"Fine! A thousand!" Alec snapped at him. "He's done it over and over and over again, and I've always stuck by him even if I'm one of the ones getting hurt! Then I mess up in that same fashion one time, and he can't even be near me! He's the biggest hypocrite I have ever met in my entire life!"

"It's been a short life," Xander grumbled.

"I doubt that fact will change in the next twenty years, you self-righteous white knight!"
 
"We're not insulting each other, and we're not interrupting each other." Daizi said firmly, "We are only speaking about how we feel. Alec, you feel hurt that Xander has cut you out for yelling at Milo, yes? Because you've stayed with him, even when he has yelled at others, but he did not treat you the same way?"
 
"Yes," Alec said flatly. "I did wrong. I hurt someone else and myself because of it. I made a bad choice following that. I got punished by being grounded. How is that not enough for him? I'm still hurting both because of what Milo did and because of what I did. I hurt myself doing that! Emotionally and metaphorically speaking," he added hastily.

Xander snorted and looked like he wanted to protest, but he forced himself to remain silent.
 
"Okay." Dark nodded and turned directly towards Xander, "and how do you feel?"

With her hand down by her waist, Daizi twirled her hair around her finger, thinking. Then, she added, "When Alec first yelled at Milo, how did you feel then? In that moment?"
 
Xander started to snap out his usual fast reply, but then he hesitated. He looked away, frowning. "Confused," he finally admitted. "Angry. Confused. Stressed. I didn't think Alec noticed that I noticed and that I was..." He stopped and fidgeted, his toes digging into the floor. "Hurting," he finally admitted. "Then angry because he was ruining things. Scared."
 
"'Cause Milo hurts himself," Xander stated.

"What? He does?" Alec blurted.

"And it's not bad right now, but I thought he might do worse," Xander finished. "Nothing Alec said was... entirely wrong. Maybe a bit wrong sometimes. And he can't handle the truth. He needs the lies. Even the half lies. And... he's got no one. Not really. So, I thought... he'd do worse to himself."
 
"And is that what made you so angry with Alec?" Daizi asked, "Because you felt like he said was going to cause Milo to do something dangerous to himself?"

Dark shifted. Wearing short sleeves, was able to feel thin, faded marks on his arm, ones which nobody now could see unless they looked too closely, but which would always be there. He had never been on this side of the conversation, before.
 
"Yeah, and maybe, I dunno, make Milo try to run away to his mum or something or just... not be friends," Xander said with an uncomfortable shrug. "And Alec just gets to say sorry and that's it. Everything's fine again." He scowled, his anger growing. "He didn't have to hold Milo's hands in a closet. He didn't have to worry his friend wasn't going to ever talk to him again. He didn't have to worry his friend was going to do something stupid like leave his grands and run away cross-country. His grands are idiots, but at least they are trying and they're safe. His mother is an even bigger idiot, but she is like his safe zone, his happy place, all of that, and he needs to look after her. It wouldn't surprise me if he tried to run away to her just because he thinks no one cares or listens to him here. And Alec doesn't have to worry or care about any of that."

"Yes I do!" Alec protested furiously, distraught.
 
Both Dark and Daizi fell quiet, neither of them knowing what to say to that, for different reasons. When they finally landed on something, they opened their mouths to speak at around the same time, but Daizi got the words out first, "I know how terrifying it is when someone you care deeply about is unwell in that way. I know what it's like to be afraid something someone says or does will be what sends that person into a dangerous situation you cannot pull them out of on your own." She felt like there should be a 'but,' she felt like there needed to be a way to redirect that feeling into something positive---She knew exactly how that felt. She understood that brand of anger. She didn't know what the 'but' should be.

"You did not know?" Dark asked Alec, neutrally and without accusations, "You did not know how bad it was for Milo?"
 
"I knew it was bad, and I thought maybe he picked or did something very small, but I never thought it was that bad!" Alec insisted. "Of course I worry about him! If I didn't worry and care, then none of this would have ever been an issue! I knew he was hurting and scared and way too attached to his mother and I knew that he had very good reason to be all of those! But I didn't think it would be that," he pointed at Xander, "bad."

"Well, maybe because you never listened to him," Xander told him.

"Well, maybe because he never talked to me without appologizing for bringing the mood down or leaving," Alec retorted.

"Well, maybe he did that because someone always told him to look on the bright side!" Xander growled.

Alec grabbed a pillow to scream into before he woke Ivy up. "Would you stop saying that? That is never what I said!" he hissed in the squeaky voice of someone trying very hard not to scream. "You two are perfect for each other because you are both so stubbornly certain that no one ever listens to you while never listening to anyone else! Why don't you get married and ride off into the sunset together?"
 
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