How Green Becomes Wood

"It's okay," He replied, "Glad you're back." He shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck. After so many years of keeping himself friendless, having that one day without someone to talk to was surprisingly isolating. It was good his friends were there, again. Milo missed them. "No, I don't think you really missed anything. How, um, how are you?"
 
"Doing alright," Xander told him, moving to plunk down at his desk. "Not a great day yesterday, but, I dunno. Cathartic, I guess. Today's a pretty good day."

"Today is a much better day," Alec said with a smile. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "A good day with even better days to come."
 
"Yeah," He replied, "Days like that always suck. Wish I could say they get better, but I think they just... get different. It's been almost a decade since my dad died. It's weird." He shrugged and shook his head, "You're getting properly adopted tomorrow, that's really cool. It's certain, yeah? No shot of them denying it last minute?"
 
"It is weird to think about," Alec said sympathetically. He hoped the day got better in the years to come. He hoped that in this Milo was wrong, but he wouldn't dwell on the possibility of him being right. Instead, he focused on tomorrow and the promise it brought. "Yep! It's all certain!"

"Nothing standing in our way, not even if that bio dad decided to show," Xander said, stretching out. "It's all golden." He nodded in satisfaction.
 
"That's good," Milo replied, exhaling, "I had been worried, you know, a little bit, had you'd all get there, and the judge would be able to say that he was rejecting it, actually. Cool. It's good that's not possible."
 
"Oh dear, is that common?" Alec asked worriedly. "I hadn't thought of that."

"It's not usual this late in the game," Xander assured him quickly. "We'll be alright. There's not going to be a rejection."
 
"I really only know about it from, like, tv dramas," Milo replied quickly, "and, you know, my experience with courts and home placements isn't. Cool. So." He shrugged, "But, I, I think it'll be okay. I'm just anxious, you know? I'm always anxious."
 
"Deep breath, Stitch. You don't have to go anywhere near the court," Xander assured him. "You don't even have to come tomorrow if it's too much. We won't be upset. Right?" He glanced at Alec.

"Right!" Alec assured Milo, nodding. "And this isn't some weird, subtle way of saying we don't want you there. We'd love to have you! We hope to have you! We also respect that sometimes things are just... rough."

Xander gave a nod. "For us, things are going to go fine. We just have to show up, listen to the grown-ups talk for a bit, sign a bit of paper, and then we're done. No biggie." A very big biggie, this was a huge event, but he hoped downplaying it a bit would help Milo breathe.
 
"Huh--no," Milo replied, shaking his head, but nonetheless taking a few breaths as directed, "It's not, I'm not---I want to go, and I will go, I'm going to go, because I want to be there, you know, for you, 'cause we're friends, right. And even if I had to go to court, and I know I don't, it's not like, I'm not going to have a trauma response, it won't give me flashbacks, or anything. I'm just saying, you know, don't--- don't take my worry about it and make it your worries about it, because my worries are irrational most of the time. Don't, when I say something, think, oh no, can that happen? because most of what I worry about probably can't. I hope."
 
Xander hesitated, carefully repeating what Milo said in his head as he tried to follow the sudden flood. "Right," he said once he was fairly certain he understood. "Just wanna make sure you aren't feeling pressured. Looking forward to seeing you there."

"And you don't have to dress in a suit if you don't want to," Alec said with a glittery wink.

Xander rolled his eyes. "Ignore him. He's got a new passion."

Alec grinned. "A birthday party in suits!"

"As long as it's not birthday suits," Xander grumbled.

"Or any party, really. Want to have a random suit party?" Alec asked Milo.
 
Milo looked at them for a few moments and then glanced away, "I don't own a suit. I mean. Except for the white one from your birthday, but I don't think that counts. It kind of just lives in the back of my closet."
 
"It counts," Alec told him.

Xander just sighed. "It's not happening," he told Milo. After a moment, he handed Milo a stress ball shaped like a green alien. "We worry about each other because that's what friends do," he said softly as the teacher started class. "It's cool."
 
He took the ball and looked down, "Sorry," he murmured, squeezing the alien, "I didn't mean to be weird. I just." He shrugged and then shook his head, forcing himself to let it go as the teacher came in, fairly certain he was the least charismatic person alive.
 
Xander shook his head at Milo in the most reassuring fashion he knew how and settled back. Ah, back to the good-old normal awkwardness of a teen in public school! Both better and worse than many other things he'd had to deal with lately.

Classes went by quickly, and soon it was time for lunch. Alec hunted down Milo before the other could slip away and quickly grabbed his sleeve. "Milo! I have a massive favor to ask you," he whispered urgently.
 
At the sudden grab, Milo jumped nearly out of his skin and then turned around to see Alec, "Oh! Uh. Okay." He swallowed, blinking as the initial surprise left him, "Um. Sure. What is it?"
 
"Uh." Milo blinked, absolutely flabbergasted that was the request, "I mean. I guess so?" He didn't understand why Alec couldn't just say he was running to the bathroom, but he didn't understand a lot about what people did, so he turned and went back over to Xander. Not that he had any idea what to say to him, now that he was forced to, so after a few moments of just staring at him, he said, "My grandparents are really happy for you."
 
"Thank you! I owe you!" Alec hurried off without further explanation.

Xander turned when Milo approached him, momentarily confused. "They are? Oh. That's... cool? I didn't know you'd told them." He frowned slightly at himself. "Don't know why you wouldn't tell them. Sorry, I think I need to feed my brain."
 
"They ask, sometimes," He replied, shoving his hands in his pockets, "And we, you know. Talk a little bit. Sometimes. They ask me about my friends and stuff. Didn't tell them about yesterday. It seemed more private. But, I told them about tomorrow. Hope that's okay."
 
"Oh, yeah, that's cool," Xander assured him. "I don't mind. I'm just not used to being the friend that is worth talking about. It's a different experience." He glanced around. "Have you seen Alec? He kind of... poofed."
 
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