How Green Becomes Wood

[pandakatiefominz]

"I'm an adult," Sloan pointed out, "I turn 19 in August. I'm about to graduate high school."

 

[BookKnight]

"Maybe, but you're still a holigan with the best of us," Xander smirked. "Holigans are always kids. Always."

 

[pandakatiefominz]

"I look like a hooligan now, but I'm the one keeping you out of trouble," She teased. "Do those drugs you're on work like a truth serum?"

 

[BookKnight]

"Don't think so," Xander said thoughtfully. "It'd be like a military secret if it was, I think."

 

[pandakatiefominz]

"Maybe..." Sloan replied, looking at him carefully, "Then again, you said I'm coolsville, so I'm unconvinced."

 

[BookKnight]

Xander shrugged. "Why wouldn't I say that? You are. Not a big deal, just a fact," he said calmly.

 

[pandakatiefominz]

"Because you never would've called me that without your meds," Sloan laughed.

 

[BookKnight]

"Huh. Maybe not," Xander agreed thoughtfully. "I guess I shouldn't talk to you drugged, should I? I could say anything. Anything at all."

 

[pandakatiefominz]

"Apparently not anything, you said it's not a truth serum," Sloan pointed out, "If you still have enough control to keep your secrets, you don't have to worry."

 

[BookKnight]

"Or not having any secrets," Xander pointed out. "I'm not as bad as my Ba, but I like to pretend to have more secrets than I really do. It's a lot more fun to pretend to have them than to actually have them."

 

[pandakatiefominz]

"Does your dad only pretend to have secrets?" Sloan asked, laughing slightly.

 

[BookKnight]

Xander tapped his chin, missing it slightly with every tap. "Yes and no. He's got secrets, but not as many as he thinks he does from people around him."

 

[pandakatiefominz]

"Do you think he knows he's more of an open book than he thinks he is?" Sloan asked. "What's something that you know but he thinks is a secret?"

 

[BookKnight]

"Like," Xander almost started to tell her something but then stopped himself, realizing even in his addled state that talking about that particular thing was a little too personal to be sharing with a neighbor. It was by far not the most personal thing, but still too much. Instead, he settled for one he didn't think Dark knew he knew. "Like the fact that sometimes, late at night, he sneaks downstairs for a snack, and it's almost always cheese straight from the fridge," Xander smirked.

 

[pandakatiefominz]

Sloan laughed, "Really? That's so funny, it seems so... normal. It makes him into just some man."

 

[BookKnight]

"And why he don't want nooooobody to know," Xander said with a satisfied nod. "He likes to be a vampire. A couple of kids at Uncle T's shop think he is a vampire. Uncle T and Ba encourage it."

 

[pandakatiefominz]

"When I was a kid I thought he was too, but when I finally worked up the courage to say so to my mom, she told me I was being ridiculous," Sloan admitted, "I think I was six when the house went up and they moved in. It was shocking."

 

[BookKnight]

"I bet. At least you had some warm-up before showing up on the doorstep after only knowing him as a teacher," Xander snorted. "My plan was to leave basically as soon as we stepped in the door. Mama did not help."

 

[pandakatiefominz]

"She didn't help you leave or didn't help make you want to stay?" Sloan asked curiously, "And I actually knew him as a teacher after knowing him as a neighbor first."

 

[BookKnight]

"To stay. She came down in fully witchy form and talked about, I don't know, eating us or cursing us or something like that," Xander said, trying to remember. "It was wild."