How Green Becomes Wood

"I hope everything's okay," Milo murmured, looking briefly at Peter. "Maybe he just got into some mobile game. I'll see you later, okay?"

"Awesome," Sloan grinned, playfully nudging Alec, "Just let me know when. I'll help you get used to falling really quick."
 
The twins bid their friends goodbye for the time being as they split off into their different classes. It was a reasonably good day for them, and after school, Xander offer to give Milo a ride home silence the bike could fit in the van, but he wasn't going to be surprised or offended if Milo said no. He still offered.

He offered Milo a ride the next day, too, and then again on Friday. It wasn't a big thing, just a quick, "Want a ride?" and accepted whatever answer Milo gave him. It was an offer, nothing more.

Friday also had Toby's skate competition. Xander was vaguely interested in going, but he wouldn't go without Alec, and Alec was flatly not interested. It sounded like a terrifying crowd to him. He knew he was probably stereotyping, but he couldn't help it. So, they stayed home and worked on Daizi's Mother's Day gift in as much secret as they could manage. Xander had hesitation about the adoption idea. He knew he should talk about it, but he wasn't sure there was a point. He did actually want to be an official part of Daizi and Dark's family as he already knew they were as much a part of it as Cooger was, but there was something about it that nagged at him deep inside. He didn't voice it because of Alec's excitement. It was good to see Alec excited about it. He didn't want to ruin that. He could figure this out on his own without hurting anyone else.

Monday came around, and Peter brought with him photos of Toby's event that his dad had taken. Jack Hollis was a scenery and wildlife photographer, not a sports photographer, so they weren't perfect, but they got better as the event progressed and he got the hang of trying to catch hang time. Alec and Xander agreed that it looked "rad," and Peter took the duplicates to give to Toby while Alec, Xander, Sloan, and Milo looked at the pictures and Alec asked Sloan what she thought of the event. All in all, other than flunking a math test for Xander and barely scraping by on a history test for Alec (to his embarrassment), Monday went by like usual, and Xander offered Milo a ride on the way home. A typical day. Finally.

Tuesday dawned overcast but warm and with the threat of rain, but despite the threat, it didn't seem like the sky was going to fulfill its promise of rain and kept it to itself.
 
Milo never accepted Xander's offer. Sometimes he wanted to, but he also definitely did not want to go home, now, because going home meant being around his grandparents, being pushed into really difficult conversations, and the stress of knowing that's just where he was going to be... forever, maybe. Biking meant it took him longer to get home. Which meant he got to spend more time away from home. If Xander drove him, he'd lose those moments.

Sloan did go to the skating competition, and although she had some fun there, especially because she brought Rumy, and was able to get to know her a little bit better, afterwards she thought it probably wasn't her scene, which was surprising considering she felt like she understood a lot of the skaters and the work they clearly did pretty well, given the work she did, but it still seemed a bit boring to her. But she'd try anything once, and she was glad she went.

It did bother Dark keeping the secret from Daizi. He knew how happy it would make her to hear, he knew how thrilled she'd be. But at the same time, she wasn't unhappy, which made keeping it a bit easier. Had she still been crying over it, he wasn't sure if he'd make it, but all things considered, he handled the first week of silence on it fairly well. Although it helped other things were on his mind. When he was at work, all he wanted to be was home. But when he was home, all he could think about was what he might have missed that day. And when he started thinking about what he might have missed, he started thinking about everything else he missed. Everything his entire life. And when he started thinking about that, it was hard to get off of that track. And these thoughts had already been lingering in his mind for awhile, but they were only growing louder. When he exercised, or went to his shed, he heard them, and felt selfish that despite how much time he spent at work wishing to be home, there he was at home, doing something alone. It didn't matter if Ivy was napping, or if Daizi or either teenager were all equally occupied.

Once during the week, he got on that train while playing with Ivy, and didn't recognize he had stepped aboard until she began to cry because he wasn't responding to her anymore. And that only made him feel more guilty, because he upset her. Come Tuesday, it was another long day ahead.
 
Alec could tell there was something a little off about Dark, but that's all he thought it was, "a little," and thus didn't think too much about it. He figured that if Dark had a problem, then surely he'd talk to Daizi about it. Perhaps it was just the stress of having a secret he couldn't tell her. Surely it couldn't be that bad, right? And then on the other hand, he also knew Xander was a bit off, but he thought it was just the thing with Milo and not being able to help. That would unfortunately have to sort itself out. He thought that their Mother's Day plans would bring everyone out of their current funk. It would be amazing! He told Xander as much on the ride to school.

Xander dragged his feet a bit as they headed into school, really not wanting to be there. How could he spend an enforced eight hours studying stuff of uncertain life value when he had a real-life problem that was so much bigger? There was nothing for it. He couldn't waste his time sitting at home, so he might as well waste it attempting not to fail his sophomore year at school. He just wanted the year to end.
 
Like Alec, Daizi also knew something was going on with Dark. There were little ways she felt it, like when he took a bit longer to reply to her when they were cuddling in bed at night, she felt it radiate off of him. But she knew him, and knew he had times like this, and there was only so much she could do just yet. If it got worse, and he wasn't helping himself, she'd speak to him, but until then, she trusted him.

Milo came up to join Xander at school, looking at Xander for a few moments, and then smiled slightly as he settled down with him. It was kinda nice to be around someone who didn't expect anything from him. Despite Xander saying he didn't like normal, Milo liked that when they were able to just be quiet near each other, it made him feel normal. Even if neither of them were particularly happy. "Have you ever had mango?"
 
Milo went into his bag and took out a plastic bag full of mango cubes, which he opened up and presented to Xander, "It's nice. I mean, they're a little boring, I guess. My mom says its the best place to get good lotions, she didn't have access to a good moisturizer while in the facility, so that's really why we went there. I guess they do it each Sunday, so you can suggest going with your mom."
 
"They have lotion? Why would they have lotion? I thought it'd be all... you know, farm stuff. Fruits, veggies, maybe meats," Xander said, carefully selecting a piece. "How's she doing? Your mum. Is she heading out soon because of her lease?"
 
"Because a lot of farmers own goats," Milo replied, "and goat milk makes good lotions and soaps." Then he took his own piece of mango and chewed it for a few moments, thinking about Xander's question. "In a few days, yeah. She's trying to see if she can stay until Saturday, but probably she's going to go on Thursday."
 
"Mmm. Mango's good," Xander decided after eating his piece. "Nice flavor. Lotions and soaps are made from milk? I thought they were made from..." He paused. "Um. I have no idea what they're made from," he admitted. "Never thought about it. It's cool if she can stay longer. Get to know the town, hang with you."
 
"I wish she had decided not to take me before signing a lease so far away," Milo grumbled, "It feels so stupid. If she's not able to take me, she should've signed a lease here. So I can still visit. But instead she decided to get an apartment a million miles away."
 
"Not the best strategy," Xander agreed. "But, maybe, if it's a shorter lease, she can get back here. I dunno how leases or credit scores work exactly except that breaking one tanks your credit scores and makes it harder to rent elsewhere. Our mum did it twice, so I think her score was through the floor. Might be worth it for your mum to break hers anyway. Who knows?" He paused and then asked, "Can I have one more mango? Those are good."
 
"Really sunk, trashed, terrible, so bad that she couldn't rent anything but the crappiest places because of the credit score," Xander explained as best he knew, not really fully understanding himself. "Credit score, I think, just reflects how reliable you are at paying debts or something like that." He took the mango piece and ate it slowly. "Mmm, that's good."
 
"I understand," Milo nodded. It seemed a 50/50 chance if Xander understood his question or not, and he didn't want to clarify if Xander had intentionally dodged the question. "I think life was probably better before we had to worry about numbers conmected to us. Mango is good, it's interesting to me that it's sort of... dry in your mouth, but it's so wet to your hands."
 
"Yeah, that's how you describe it," Xander agreed. "Sometime, you should come over when our folks are making a real authentic Middle Eastern dinner. Well, kind of. Egyptian and Iraquian. It's good stuff when the person making it knows what they're doing." He wiped off his hands, knowing Milo wouldn't take the invitation. "Alec and I were thinking of getting ice cream after school. You want to join?"
 
"What's it like?" Milo asked, not immediately saying no. His curiosity was one of the only things that outweighed his desire to not bother anyone at any point for any reason. At the very least, he needed more information before saying no, "I don't even think I know what Middle Eastern food is like, honestly. But getting ice cream could be nice. I don't... really like going home."
 
Xander glanced at Milo. "Don't blame you," he remarked and moved on. "Egyptian is like... lots of beans, or, um, leggy-ums? Whatever that word is. Pita breads, chicken, spices - but not always spicy - hummus, rice, koshari... Iraq foods are similar, but more, like, lamb and different spices and stuff." He sighed, knowing he wasn't succeding well in describing things.
 
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