How Green Becomes Wood

Alec shrugged, not looking at Dark. "Alternating between trying to stay out of it and trying to get them to stop. Neither was really working. They just... don't get along."
 
Alec rubbed his face with a sigh. "Ba, please. I don't want to talk about it. It didn't have anything to do with me, and I feel like I'm being asked to talk bad about my girlfriend and brother. Why don't you ask Xander if you really want to know?"
 
"I know, Ba." Alec flopped against him gently. "You know, it'd be really nice to have some kind of a relationship with someone that didn't cause all sorts of worries and concerns. Just once. For a little while. How's a few months? Does that sound reasonable?"
 
"Yeah," Alec sighed. Then he straightened and smiled. "At least I can get a date! Would you want me to look after Ivy for a bit and give you a break? Then I can go do my homework."
 
"Ack!" Ivy gurgled, grabbing onto him.

"Tell your brother what you would like," Dark prompted, smoothing her hair with one hand, "Would you like to explore? Or roll your ball? What would Ivy like to do?"
 
Seeing Alec had Ivy well in hand, Dark got up and went to get his shoes and coat so he could go and check on Xander.

Ivy, meanwhile, wiggled off the couch, not knowing why Alec didn't automatically know exactly what she wanted.
 
Alec stood to follow her. "What do you want?" he asked curiously. "Can you show me?"

Xander was in his shed with the door propped partially open for the airflow as he carefully used some stain on a batch of mostly finished leather pieces. The small music player on the bench attached to his old MP3 chirped out a rock song. The quality wasn't very good, but he didn't seem to notice.
 
"Oh, book!" Alec said, nodding. He paused and lit up. "Book! Yes! Good job, Ivy! That is a book! Let's read one together."

Xander looked up and reached over to pause the music. "Sure, come on in."
 
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