How Green Becomes Wood

Dark looked at him for a few moments and then simply said, "It is not within your power, do not take it to heart. I am sure you did all you could. He is desperate to work, but we can try other arrangements, I will see if we can reschedule his appointment to another week day. I do not desire to negatively impact your buisness."
 
"I'm sorry, too," Tristan sighed. "I wish I was better at this." He nodded toward the beaded curtain separating the front from the back. "He's sorting flowers for me. At least, I think that's what he's doing. That or waterboarding them."
 
Once more watching Tristan in perfect silence for a few moments, Dark ultimately told him, in a quiet voice, "It is difficult. And you are nearer in age to them than they are to their sister. I will take him home and save your flowers." Then he turned and went into the backroom, "Alec, do you have your belongings together?"
 
Tristan sighed quietly as he watched Dark go. Had Dark always carried that much weight? It felt heavier than Tristan remembered. He wished he could do more for Dark's sake, not his own.

Alec plunked in the last flower and watched it for a moment before turning away. "Yeah, I'm ready," he mumbled. "I really wanted to work today."
 
Alec relaxed just a hair as the thought of his rug distracted him. "Oh. Yes, it is getting close," he confirmed. He followed Dark out, telling Tristan goodbye as he went. "I wonder if I could finish that today."
 
"You have the extra time now," Dark said, holding up one hand to say goodbye to Tristan as they walked out. At the car, he opened Alec's door for him before getting in the driver's side, "I am excited to see the finished product."
 
"Me too," Alec admitted. "It looks cool, but also kind of funny because you can see how sloppy I was at the beginning and slowly got better as I went. It's like each spiral is a different level of competency."
 
"That is something I really value in sticking with a particular project. You really get to see how much you improve as you work on it. But I am someone who have spent decades of my life building one carnival."
 
"It can be nice to have two projects to switch between," Dark suggested as he began to drive home, "You still have the time to really focus on a topic but get to give your fingers a break."
 
Alec muttered something softly and wrapped his arms around himself, staring off into the distance. He didn't try to engage for the rest of the ride home, committing fully to his moody state. When they arrived home, he went straight up to his room, ignoring everyone else.
 
Listening to Alec go upstairs, Daizi frowned and said, "That didn't sound like it went well."

"He just needs time," Dark sighed, slipping out of his shoes and stretching deeply, feeling his vertebrae pop.

"It's different on this side of things," Daizi sighed.
 
Alec closed the door to his room and looked around. Nearly everything was in bins. Only a couple of things lay out like his rug and a pair of pants he was ripping up to add to the rug. The room was tidier than it had been in a long time. He swallowed hard as he looked around. There was no sense of chaos in here, only order. Everything was boxed up and ready to go somewhere. To move. To leave. Or forgotten. Hidden away from sight and mind to be left behind, put on the wrong truck, or just lost. Some would arrive, and it would all be new again.

New again.

And again.

And again.

Without thought, he strode across the room, grabbed the top clear bin, and flung out the contents all over the room. Neatly folded clothing waiting for their various crafts exploded out and scattered in semi-folded heaps and whirls of color confusion. He tossed the container aside, where it clattered across the floor and into the wall. The next box was the same, heaps of fabric and clothing and a few other cloth items like tote bags, damaged pillows, and a couple of broken stuffed animals. The third box held heavier items like broken mobiles and random knick-knacks. He tossed it just like he had the clothing. It hit the floor with a massive clatter. Chants, metal objects, and plastic items skidded across the floor. Some of them landed safely in the mass of clothes. Thankfully, by some miracle, nothing broke. He threw the box harder than the first two, panting from effort, his eyes glittering. He tried to pick up the last box, but it was filled with the heaviest of his stuff. He threw the lid at the bedroom door and started digging stuff out, keening wildly as he did so.
 
Hearing the clatter, Daizi stopped what she was doing and asked Dark to take over cooking so she could go check on Alec. It seemed like it should probably be her turn.

Once upstairs, she knocked lightly on the door, "Alec, habibi? Is everything okay?"
 
Alec let out a cry as he flung a book on pottery in the general direction of the door. It crashed into the floor and fluttered sadly and helplessly into a pair of jeans that were being made into a bag. No! He was not okay! Everything was wrong! It was all wrong! Nothing in his world was right!
 
"I hate this!" Alec yelled dumping out the last of the box, sending paint supplies rolling in all directions until something stopped their momentum. "I hate! I hate it all! I hate my things in boxes! I hate feeling this way! I hate doing this stuff! I hate my life! I hate therapy! I hate me!" He threw the empty box against Xander's bed. It bounced up, hit the wall, bounced back onto the bed, and tumbled to the floor.
 
Daizi flinched as the sounds of more crashing, "Habibi, baby, take a deep breath. You have nothing to hate yourself for." She wanted to walk to him, but from the sound of things, she had absolutely no chance of being able to cross the threshold of his bedroom without tripping and potentially breaking one of his belongings.
 
"I have everything to hate myself for!" Alec shouted. He didn't have anymore boxes, so he picked up the nearest thing - a poor book on how to mend clothes - and threw it against the wall. "Everything is screwed up because of me! It's all my fault! All of it! And everyone tried to tell me, but I wouldn't listen! Well, I'm listening now!" A solid rubber toy in the shape of a cat bounced off Xander's bed and went rolling. "I hate it! I don't want to exist like this anymore! I don't want to exist!"
 
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