How Green Becomes Wood

While out with his mother, Milo sent a text to Peter. After apologizing for late notice, he extended the invitation to his birthday and explained his mother was in town, he didn't know how long she'd be in town for, and was really encouraging him to have all his friends over because she wanted to meet them. Peter was, though, the last person he invited.
 
Peter was quick to respond that he'd love to come and was flattered he'd been invited. He was looking forward to this!

Later, Alec texted Milo to ask him if he wanted Alec to come or just Xander. He put in a lot of assurances that if he was only being invited because of what Elle said, he was perfectly fine making himself scarce.
 
Milo confirmed to Alec he was welcome to come. It was true his original plan was to only have Xander, and maybe part of him was sad to lose that time, but... His mom was here, and she wanted to meet his friends. He had no idea when she may next be able to, so it was worth it, to him. And he was pleased that his grandparents had moved his party back to the time it was, so he had time with her before there were other people to hang out with. For once, he was just going to enjoy this confusing new surprise without dwelling on what it meant... or at least without dwelling too hard on what it meant.
 
Alec was excited about the party and not sparing any thought to what it may or may not mean. He didn't want to judge Milo's mom - especially not after that blow-up Milo had had ages ago - and he didn't think she'd be self-absorbed enough to snatch him away so close to the end of the school year, so this, to him, was just a happy visit.

Xander, on the other hand, was far more worried. He focused his attention entirely on putting together several small tarts for the party. He didn't know how many more people Milo might invite, though he doubted there would be many, but the size had already doubled just from what he knew, from two to four. Plus, he couldn't go without taking something for the grands. He was very familiar with the complicated relationship of a son who loved a very flawed mother, but as he was Milo's friend, not his mom's, he was highly biased and he knew it. What if she had finally convinced the grands he could go live with her early? What if she was taking him away now whether the grands liked it or not? If that was what was best for Milo, that'd be one thing, but yanking him out of school with only a couple of months to go? How was that good for anyone? As it was, he still felt uneasy about it all. In his eyes, while she did seem to mean well, it was all about her and her guilt and her mistakes. He was self-aware enough to know he was probably overdramatizing it, but he didn't want Milo to get hurt. Outside of Sloan, he was the only close friend Xander had. He counted Peter among his friends, of course, and he had pals at Judo, but Milo was a close Friend. It was selfish, but he didn't want to lose his friend, and if he had to, he wanted assurance that Milo would be taken care of and his needs put first.
 
When Milo and his mom went back to his grandparents' house, they found his grandparents had put up a simple banner and some balloons. None of it was particularly fancy, but he couldn't remember the last time he had balloons on his birthday. His grandparents had set out presents for him, and he decided to open them then, rather than at his party, so it wasn't awkward, although he was persuaded to wait to open the gifts from his friends who would be attending his party when they came.

His grandparents gave him a book of Lateral trivia puzzles and a baseball hat with a camera on it reading Well, shoot. His mother, although having a second gift she was planning to give him at his party, gave him many, many rolls of film, and a leather shoulder bag that resembled the old medic bags to replace his backpack. It was something he had wanted for many, many years, complete with all the pockets he could dream of. Once he got over the amazement of the bag, he went to open Becky's gift.
 
Becky's gift was simple as she hadn't wanted to go overboard. As a joke, though, inside the wrapping, she'd put in as many loose little candies as she could, just as a reference to their odd relationship. She hoped he would take it as a joke, and she'd put tiny googly eyes on some of the larger pieces or put on tiny smilie faces. The main gift was a new guitar strap. It was Chicago themed with a dark, deep purple as its main color, and she'd painstakingly stitched on Milo's initials in silver near one end. There were, of course, a couple of sequins roaming loose. She'd managed to keep the glitter out.
 
Milo couldn't help but laugh a little bit at the candy. He wasn't totally sure if it sat right with him, but he was having a nice enough day that he was able to not dwell on it, and honestly... The guitar strap was really cool and thoughtful. He'd have to thank her better on Monday, because he did really like it. His grandparents didn't really understand the candy, but he had spoken about it on the phone with his mom enough that she laughed about it too.

Soon enough, it was time for the party to begin in earnest, and Milo was shocked to find he wasn't even really nervous about it.
 
Peter arrived first. He was a couple of minutes early, but he'd gotten a ride with a ride share, and it was a few minutes early or half an hour late. He chose early. He had a container of simple finger food treats he'd picked up so he wouldn't arrive empty handed even though he'd already given Milo his gift. He was dressed smart in a light grey cotton suit and a patterned t-shirt so it wouldn't be completely formal. He smiled and happily greeted Milo's grandparents. While he was not quite to Sloan's level of "Parents/adults love me," he'd attended enough formal functions with his parents and had grandparents with extremely high expectations, so he knew how to socialize with adults. He told Elle how delighted he was to meet her and how many good things he'd heard about her.

Xander and Alec pulled up next in Xander's old van. Alec helped him carry one of the two trays of tarts to the house. Xander had made multiple small tarts in four different flavors and one large tart to Milo's specifications. He hung back while Alec - who'd changed into dark blue pants and a shirt that was a giant rainbow and had put on a stereotypical cone party hat - greeted the grandparents and Elle excitedly.
 
Milo's grandparents greeted Peter and the twins warmly, very surprised their shy, awkward grandson had agreed to invite friends. Elle, though, seemed absolutely thrilled to get to meet the people she had heard so much about. Similar to Daizi, she seemed to have really taken the time to learn about them from the stories she had been told, and she did her best to ask them relevant questions for a little while, before all the adults quietly slipped away to let Milo have time with his friends without needing to feel watched.
 
"Nice party," Peter said, looking around at the balloons, genuinely enjoying the atmosphere. "Your grandparents have a really nice place, and your mother seems nice."

"How are the birds doing?" Alec asked.
 
"Yeah, it's nice," Milo replied, "and my mom's great. She's really excited to get to be here, we didn't get to spend my 16th birthday together. And she told me she was going to miss this one too, so it's... it's really good. And the birds are good, they're just in my bedroom so they don't get overwhelmed."
 
"Excellent!" Peter said, finding a seat for himself.

"That would be an amazing surprise," Alec sighed happily. "There's not topping that, I'm sure."

Xander snorted and flopped down to sit on the floor. "Topping isn't the idea, is it?"

"I meant it as an expression, nothing more," Alec assured him.
 
"I'm really glad that she's here," Milo said, looking down at his shoes, "At first when I saw her, I thought I was seeing things. She said she's staying nearby and I can visit her there tomorrow."
 
A silence fell over the three as they took that in. None of them quite knew what to say or how to respond.

Finally, Alec broke the silence with the question they were all thinking. "How do you feel about that?"
 
Shrugging half-heartedly, Milo said, "I feel a lot of things about it, I guess. When she told me to invite my friends, I thought she was going to take me down with her this weekend, and she was going to make this my big goodbye, and at first I thought... at least I get to say goodbye this time, but then I was annoyed, because it's not... good enough. To have just a sudden goodbye and then to leave again. It's not different enough from how it used to be," He rubbed his arm, but didn't scratch at it, "but it's not that, and I'm glad it's not that, and it is just a surprise to see me for my birthday, but then it's like... but I still don't know when I'll finally get to be with her again. And I asked if I could at least live with her this summer, since I won't have summer school, and she just said we'll see. But she also promised that when I move back in with her, it won't be just her coming and telling me to pack, we'll plan and discuss it together."
 
"That's a lot to digest," Peter said with a soft whistle.

Xander nodded quietly. "It's not simple, Stitch," he said. "It never is."

Alec moved to sit next to Milo, wanting to touch him, but he kept his hands to himself. "That's a lot of big feelings. A lot of complicated emotions that... well, they shouldn't be easy to sort out because they're too big for that, and that's okay. We want you here. We love having you as our friend, but we want you to be happy, and if being happy is being in Arizona with your mom, then that is what we want for you even if it means we don't get to see you much. If you need a moment, we can gather in the corner." He smiled at Milo and took off his party hat, handing it to him. "When you're ready." He moved to step away to give Milo space.
 
"It's okay," Milo promised, "I think it's okay, I guess. I'm not too... I guess, for right now, I'm glad to know she's not just going to pluck me out of my life whenever. I really want to go back to living with her, but I don't want that part of it all."
 
"That sounds like a healthy outlook to me," Peter said. "It'll be great to see you two together again, that's for sure, but, you know, healthily." He made a face. "That sounds awful."

Xander reached out with his foot and tapped Milo's. "That's good, Stitch," he stated quietly and solidly. What he wanted to say was that he was proud of Milo. Milo never would have been this clear in what he wanted or didn't want when they'd first met. He never would have done anything except leap at the chance to be with his mother and damn the consequences. He'd come a long, long way since then. But they were in front of witnesses, and even if they hadn't been, Xander wasn't sure if he could say that to his face. Still, he wanted Milo to know that he saw his improvement and his strength and was proud of him.
 
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