How Green Becomes Wood

"It makes an excellent belt sash, gives you a little bit of flair," Alec told him. "Or, you can have it over your shoulders, kind of like a shawl, and tie it behind you. And if you think a belt sash is too flashy, I'll have you know that I wore a belly dancer's jingling belt while we were at the festival, and it was my mother - not me! - who put it on me."

"That sounds really weird when you put it that way," Xander said.
 
"I generally don't wear belly dance clothes or women's wear. In general," Alec said, waving a hand. "Just saying that on a random scale, you wearing that as a sash or belt is pretty low down."

Xander leaned closer to Milo and said in a mock whisper, "He got lost again, so Mama belled him like she does the Mini."

"There is that, too," Alec admitted.
 
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Milo was going to point out that it Alec slowing up in a woman's blouse probably wouldn't raise that many eyebrows, but soon found himself too busy laughing at Xander's reveal to do so, "If you're not careful, they'll buy you a leash."
 
Alec stuck his tongue out at Milo. "I am not a child!"

"I dunno. I'm thinking we should hire Milo to babysit you next time we go somewhere," Xander said thoughtfully. "A dedicated person to watch you."
 
"Do you ever think about what if when you were born, you were Alec," he pointed at Xander, then at Alec, "And you were Xander, but at some point when you were really little, your mom got confused, and she started calling you both by the opposite name so actually you stole each other's identities?"
 
Xander snorted and could not hide a slight smirk.

"That actually came up more than once when we talked to our mum," Alec grinned. "Sometimes, she'd say, 'Nah, there's no way I could get you confused! Xander has the bigger left ear, and Alec has the little bump on his nose.' I think she did that just to mess with us." His smile turned a little sad with a sudden pang of loss. He shook it off quickly. "Because then if we tried to pass ourselves off as the other..."

"I'd cover my ear, and he'd try to cover his nose," Xander said blandly.

"We were only, like, three at the time," Alec chuckled.

"Alec caught on first," Xander admitted grudgingly. "But then, when we were older, sometimes she'd tell us that she had no idea, and it was entirely possible that we were backwards."
 
"Well, that, first, sure," Milo replied with a nod, "But then. I don't know. Buy two more cribs I guess? And take a much deeper look at my finances, then make sure, you know, that I won't have any more kids after that."
 
"Maybe don't make that kind of permanent decision until after the kids are born and you and your partner have had a nice talk about things. In a rational, unpanicked state of mind," Xander said mildly, thinking about Dark and Daizi and how they reacted to big changes.

"Good thing that's a distance away for us!" Alec said in relief. "I don't hate the idea of kids, but not for a few years! I'm hoping to at least make it through college first."

Xander grunted, feeling no need to say anything about how he had zero plans along those lines.

"Has anyone seen Sloan?" Alec asked, turning as he walked.
 
"I want to be a dad, but I don't know if I want to have more than three kids at the most," Milo replied, "I'm willing to bet if I get married, it'll be to someone who agrees with me on that. But honestly, it's more than a few years away from me, I want to be comfortably in my thirties before I have kids." He then took a quick look around the hallway and shook his head to confirm he hadn't seen her.
 
"Just don't leave it too late, or else when you go to pick up your kids from kindergarten, their friends and the kindergarten workers will be like, 'Your granddad is here to pick you up!'" Alec said, walking backward.

"How do you remember that? You can't even remember what happened last week!" Xander demanded.

"I am a well of untold memory," Alec replied. "I hope she's here and that nothing is wrong. How about Claire? I don't think I've seen her. And Sloan is usually around Claire-ish."
 
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