How Green Becomes Wood

"I don't know, your dad had a kid late but he isn't that old," Milo shrugged, "I'd rather be an older dad than have kids with the wrong person."

If Milo didn't know where Sloan was, he definitely didn't know where Claire was---he more or less wasn't fully aware who Claire was. Yet, down the hallway, there she was by her lockers, getting her books she needed for her first classes.
 
Alec wasn't really listening when Milo answered, and he missed Xander's comment about Dark's oldness. His eyes were on Claire. He made some vague excuse to Xander and Milo and then walked down the hall to Claire's locker. He smiled as he approached, trying to ignore the flutter in his heart. "Hey," he said as casually as he could. "How's it going?"
 
Hearing footsteps approach her, Claire turned and looked upwards. When she saw Alec walking up to her, without even Sloan there as a justification, a shy smile crossed her face and she had to look away for a moment. "Hey," She said back, slightly closing her locker, "It's okay. Mondays, you know. How about you?"
 
Alec shrugged and leaned against the lockers. He'd caught a bit of the smile, and it was so adorable he had to take just a moment to calm his heart. "Doing pretty good. Our family went to the Arab festival over the weekend, and that was pretty awesome. I picked up a gift for Sloan, and I was looking for her, but I can always catch her at lunch." Casually, he slid the backpack down and reached into it. Then he had to hide his panic when his hand did not immediately find the vase he'd gotten for her.
 
"There was an Arab festival? That's cool, I hadn't heard about it," Claire replied, hoping she wasn't blushing when Alec leaned against the lockers. He just looked so cool. "I think she's doing something for students council this morning, I can let her know you're looking for her."
 
"Yeah, it was pretty cool. If they have it again next year, and you're in town, you should totally come," Alec encouraged her. His fingers closed around the vase, and he heaved an internal sigh of relief. "Nah, I'll catch her later. She can't hide from me forever." He grinned at that, and then pulled out the vase, which he'd carefully wrapped in a small bit of pink wrapping paper with blue stars. "By the way, I got you this while I was there. I saw it and thought of you."

It was a small vase, a little bigger than a typical bud vase and rounded. It was pearly white with delicate blue flowers, and near the rim had been painted the word for "beautiful."
 
"For me?" Claire asked, her eyes widening and her mouth going slightly dry as her pulse rate picked up. She wanted to take the gift from him but she was afraid her hands would tremble, and worse that he'd see, and worst of all that he'd think it's weird. But after steadying her nerves, she took it, and after complimenting the wrapping, revealed the base and grinned brightly at it, taking time to admire the craftsmanship, "This is beautiful! Do you know what it says?"
 
When Claire didn't immediately take the vase, a deeper pang of nervousness went through him, but Alec steadied himself. Then she took it, allaying his fears, and her eyes and smile lit up. He'd picked right! He'd picked right! "I think it's a compliment," he said a little evasively, a faint blush creeping up his cheeks. He didn't want to tell her what it meant in case she thought it was weird. Friends didn't usually give each other gifts that said "Beautiful" on them, did they? At least, not friends of opposite genders who weren't dating. And couldn't date. He hurried on. "It was handmade by a potter, who was making a couple of pieces while there at the stall. I thought it looked really cool, and maybe you might appreciate it. You know, craftsman to craftsman. I thought about finding a flower to put in the vase, but there's no way that would survive school."

He could have smacked himself. A flower for the vase? That was definitely not something "just friends" did, was it? Milo would say he was thinking too hard, but he felt he was thinking just hard enough!
 
"Oh," She replied, running her fingers over the letters before setting it safely into her locker. Then she looked back up at him: Sloan had been telling her to just ask him out instead of waiting for him to ask her, but just looking at him looking at her made it hard to speak. All she could really do, as she looked at him, was pray to God he'd ask her out. Or just kiss her. Or something. But the vase was something, wasn't it? "Thank you, I really love it. I just." She squeezed her books to her chest awkwardly, "I wish I had something to give you, too."
 
Alec blushed, which made him embarrassed, which made him blush deeper. "That's okay. Gifts are supposed to be given without expectation of reciprocation, right?" He smiled at her. "I'm just glad you like it. Really." He hesitated. Should he leave now? Or continue the conversation? There was something he would like to ask her. "I was wondering, what are you doing-"

Xander chose then to walk over. "Hey. We need to get to class. Hey, Claire."
 
Watching him blush made her blush too, and she was just starting to say, "I guess I could give you my num---" when he started asking her a question which made her fall silent. Was it happening? She couldn't breathe and was nodding too much.

Then Xander walked up to interrupt them and Claire shut her eyes and turned back to her locker to hide her expression.
 
Alec glared at Xander for a fraction of a second before neutralizing his expression. "Sure, we need to get to class, but I don't think two more seconds is going to matter."

Xander looked at Alec, completely and blankly puzzled, but then shrugged and crutched his way back to Milo. "Don't blame me if you're late."

Alec turned back to Claire. "Sorry, I think you were about to say something when I said something. What was it?"
 
Claire watched Xander hobble pitifully away before she turned slowly back to Alec and stumbled over her words, "Oh, um," This felt so much more awkward now that the moment was disrupted, "I was just saying that, if you wanted, I could give you my number? I don't think I have yours."
 
"Oh!" Alec said, shocked and trying not to show how excited he was by this development. Play it cool. It made sense to have each other's numbers. "Sure! Just... don't be surprised if sometimes I don't respond for a while if you text or call me. I have a bad habit of losing my phone," he admitted sheepishly as he pulled it out and set up a contact for Claire. He gave her his number and checked twice that he had hers correct.
 
Alec laughed at the picture. "Oh, that's perfect." He took her phone to take a picture of himself and struck an exaggerated pose, smirking into the camera with a raised eyebrow, holding his chin in a V with his thumb and forefinger. He handed her the phone back. "I should probably catch up and get to class. Thanks for your number."
 
"Absolutely," Alec said breathlessly. He hurried away, heading for the classroom. He slid into his usual seat and sighed happily, gripping the hand that Claire had touched happily.

Xander frowned at him and shook his head. What was up with him?
 
As soon as Alec was out of eyesight, Claire hopped excitedly and wordlessly screamed before hurrying to her class and texting Sloan the whole time.

In class, Milo looked at Alec for a few moments and then asked Xander in hushed tones, "Was that Claire?"
 
"Uh-huh, that's Claire. Sloan's friend. Nice girl. Wears a lot of pastel and frills," Xander said.

Alec pulled himself together and started getting out the things he needed for this class.
 
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