How Green Becomes Wood

"Well..." Milo hesitated, "I don't know. I guess, I'm so used to it. And I don't know exactly where we're moving to, like if it's a halfway house or a studio apartment or something, so..." He shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck. It just made sense to prepare, he figured. Just in case. "That one is really cool. She'd roll her eyes at the pun, but she'd laugh, I think. Even though she wouldn't want to."
 
Xander fidgeted with one of the shirts he pulled out enough to see its graphic. "We moved around a lot with our mum," he admitted. "Not... like how you did with yours. We mostly stuck to this town. We did live briefly in two nearby towns, but it was mostly just place to place around here. Boyfriend to boyfriend. Crappy apartment to crappy apartment. We never bothered to fully unpack after the age of about seven or so, and we always kept a backpack of important stuff, the stuff we absolutely couldn't leave behind, ready to go 'cause there were some times when we left with nothing but that. We never had much stuff to abandon anyway, but... moving sucked. It felt really weird when we landed with our foster parents. I didn't think it'd work. We expected to be kicked out or be running out at any second. Then... I dunno. One day, I just didn't put something back when I took it out of my backpack, and then I'm calling them 'Mama' and 'Baba.' I, personally, hate 'Baba,' but it's good enough for the mini, you know? After moving so long and putting up with crappy places and even crappier people, though, it felt like... like getting off a boat and being on land for the first time in years. When you're on the boat long enough, you stop feeling the rock. Then when you're on land, land feels wrong. It takes a while to get used to it, and some people never learn to like it, but if you stay long enough, you start to realize that it can be different. You don't have to rock." He put the shirt back. "It's just a weird sensation. I dunno. Maybe I'll get him a bag instead. He can lose stuff in the bag instead of all over the school and house and whatever."
 
Milo listened, but averted his eyes, not really knowing what to say to that. It made him feel... Well, he didn't really know how it made him feel. Sort of bad, he thought, but not annoyed, but it felt so strong but buried so far deep down inside, he couldn't even begin to explore it. Not without possibly getting lost in it. "I just don't know what's going to happen," he said, rooting through the nearest rack of items, which happened to be shirts for small children, just so he had something to do, "even if she has a nice apartment lined up that's gonna last, not a halfway house or something, who knows if we'll have a good place to hang it, you know? And it's a long road. It's a long drive." He rubbed the back of his neck and then shook his head, "Why do you hate 'Baba?' It's common in a lot of languages, isn't it? ..Alec might like a bag, I'm not sure anything here is sparkly enough for him. You should get him one of those, um, bedazzlers."
 
Xander glanced at Milo when he said he wasn't sure what was going to happen, but he only gave a slight nod before turning his attention to something else. It was an understandable feeling, no matter how hopeful you were about a new situation, and there was nothing he could do or think to say to make it any better. Instead, he allowed the conversation to move on.

"I remember our mum calling a baby bottle a 'baba,' and other kids calling their pacifiers 'baba,' so that's my association. It's hard to break," he explained. "I know, I should get over it, but when I say it, I can't help feeling like I'm talking about a seven-foot-tall baby bottle or something. It's stupid. So, I kind of stick with 'Ba.' It's the sound a sheep makes, but it's also kind of like 'Da,' so it helps. And, yeah, there's probably nothing sparkly, but maybe I can tell him a dark back will stand out against the sparkles. And he is not under any circumstances to ever have a bedazzler come into his possession. I might catch him bedazzling his face."
 
"If he does bedazzle his face, you just have to point out that it's the skin of a killer, Bella." Milo said simply, unaware if Xander would get the reference or not, but not really minding it either way, "it might be enough to snap him out of it. You should get one but then lock it away and hide the key so he can only use it under direct supervision... And I guess that's the tricky thing about multiple languages in one house. A word that means one thing to one person won't mean the same to another. For all you know, one day you will like Baba."
 
Xander glanced at Milo blankly, having no clue what he was talking about with some chick named "Bella," but he didn't have the heart to ask in case it was one of "those" references that everyone was supposed to get. "That's a thought," he agreed to Milo's idea of limiting Alec's usage of the device. "And, yeah, language can be weird, even if you technically speak the same one. It's weird to realize every house has its own thing, you know? Something you think is totally normal until you realize it's just your family." He held up a bag that said, "A Diamond in the Rough." "This one, maybe?" He wasn't actually too worried about which bag to get. Alec would love most of them. He was mostly stalling for time with Milo and enjoying getting his take on things.
 
"Twilight," Milo explained, seeing Xander's confusion, "Languages get even weirder when babies are involved because babies just kinda invent words all the time. Your sister might pronounce your name Sand, and then you'll just be called Sand for a few years. Apparently when I was a baby I called all dogs Bow," he pronounced it in a way that rhymed with cow, and looked carefully at the shirt Xander held up, "Is it legal to buy Alec something that references diamonds without it being at all glittery?"
 
"I could live with Sand," Xander mused, turning over the bit of fabric. "He does wear a few things that aren't shiny, glittery, sequined, or sparkly, but they gotta have color somewhere. This having a diamond on it without being shiny in some way, though... you're right. He'd hate it and try to glue glitter on the diamond, and it'll come off on my clothes. Again."
 
"That's why you need to compromise and get the bedazzler," Milo playfully chided, "The... dazzles? I don't know what they're called. But they pierce into the fabric so they won't fall off onto everything. And I bet you can dazzle with material other than cheap rhinestones. I bet that's how they put, like, studs on clothing." He went through some of the bags and held up a tote bag which had a groovy, rainbow sunset on it behind a silhouette of a mammoth on it and the museum's name underneath, "This has a lot of colour. It's not a joke, though."
 
Xander turned to look at the bag and nodded in approval. "That's a good-looking bag." He reached out for it. "Sure, I'll get him that. And maybe, maybe I'll consider a bedazzler someday. How about you? See anything you like around here?"
 
"You'd make his year," Milo murmured, pulling a shirt from the rack. It was simple and black, with a small white illustration of the museum's mascot and their tagline on the right breast and the museum logo on the back, "I like this shirt a lot. It's subtle, you know? But it's got the name on it. I like that."
 
"That is nice," Xander agreed. "Hold it up more? Yeah, that suits you. You should get that one." He held up the bag Milo had picked out. "I'm going to get this for Alec. I was thinking maybe I'd get myself a rock."
 
"I still need to pick jewelry for my mom. I want her to have something nice. She's not been able to have a lot while at the facility, you know? So she should have something nice when she's out." Milo said, trusting he'd be able to find something he could afford with the t-shirt, since his grandparents gave him spending money, "If we had come here after the photography exhibit actually opened, I bet they'd have had t-shirts for it. I would've liked one of those."
 
"Well, then you're going to have to keep in touch with me if you leave before it opens," Xander said, moving toward the jewelry. "I can send you a shirt then. So, what's her favorite color? Or rock? Some of these look like natural rocks just mounted as-is, and these ones are more... I dunno, processed? I like the natural ones better myself, but what would she like?"
 
"Really? That'd be cool," Milo said, sticking his hangs in his pockets with his shirt draped over one arm, but then she shook his head, "You don't have to do that, though. You already did all this... I think my mom would like the natural stones better. She'd probably try to make it metaphorical, like, the really processed ones are like trying to make someone perfect, when they are good enough as they are."
 
"Duh, of course I know I don't 'have to.' I wanna. And I get what your mum means, but just 'cause you're good enough as-is doesn't mean you can't take a bit of polishing up," Xander commented, picking up a pair of polished stone earrings. "But natural can be pretty dang pretty, too." He picked up another piece and held the two side by side. In one hand he held a pair of polished earrings that looked to be possibly amethyst, and in the other he held a necklace that was the cross-section of a purple geode. "Both have their place, don'tcha think?"
 
"Yeah, I get that. I guess she just doesn't want people to be over polished you know? There was a poster in my music class as a kid that said you can't have harmony if everyone plays the same note, right? And if everyone has all of their rough edges smoothed out," He turned the geode necklace over in his hands, "Then everyone's the same, and what's the good in that? Mom always said it's good I'm weird. It means I'm not pretending."
 
"That's good advice. So long as you're not hiding behind that as an excuse to never improve yourself," Xander commented. He wasn't thinking of Milo's mother in that moment, but himself. You didn't improve yourself for the sake of others. Well, maybe a little, especially if it was someone you loved, but mostly, you improved yourself for your own sake. "As it is, good advice. What color does she like?"
 
Milo flipped through the display of necklaces until she held up a turqouise one, "This one, I think. Her eyes look really blue when she wears the right colours." He rubbed his neck and then looked more closely at the geode on the necklace with a little smile, "So, that's the entire museum done, I guess. When we've paid, anyway. You should tell your mom."
 
"I'll text her," Xander agreed. He pulled out his phone and texted Daizi. "That was really cool. You got a hobby that has a lot of history." He tucked his phone away and paused, frowning at the earrings. There was a tiny selection of ear cuff pairs and their silver shapes appealed to him. He picked up the smallest size, one with some delicate filigree and a couple of tiny green stones and held it up to his ear. "What do you think? Green? Blue? Or looks stupid? They should have a mirror around here."
 
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