How Green Becomes Wood

Milo sat by the window, choosing to look out of it rather than at Alec as the spoke. He didn't have any strong feelings about it, but he liked to watch where they were going. "I probably won't stay for long," he said, "I don't want to... I don't know. Be around and exhaust Xander and make it take longer for him to heal."

Hearing that specific brand of shuffling, Daizi said, "Ivy and I already did our best to clean up for him. We even cleaned the baseboards, I don't want your father bending down to fuss about them."
 
"Sure. Whenever you are ready to go," Alec approved, "but you should know that he and Mama are already planning on you staying for dinner. Mama's excited about it."

Xander paused and turned to look at Daizi. "Even the baseboards? Alright, that's pretty good."
 
"Oh, okay," Milo said, taking out his phone to let his grandparents know. He supposed he had told Xander he was interested in trying the middle eastern foods their parents cooked, and if they had already planned it, it'd be really inconsiderate of him to not eat it, because then they'd be saddled with leftovers. "I can stay until dinner, I guess."

"I really don't believe anyone ever notices what other people's baseboards look like, but it matters to him, so it matters to me." Daizi replied simply.
 
"If you need to go sooner, we will totally understand, of course, but we are excited to have you," Alec told him. As the bus slowed for a stop, he added, "We have two stops to go. So, have you heard any fun gossip lately? And I do mean actual fun gossip, not the mean stuff.'

"Makes sense to me," Xander agreed. He went to Ivy and offered her a fist bump before plopping down on the couch to wait. It was an awkward amount of time until Alec and Milo showed up.
 
"I don't talk to anyone and nobody talks to me," Milo replied, frowning out the window, "And I'm not really the kind of person who uses that to learn about other people's buisness. I don't hear much about anything."

Still, he tried to keep the conversation going until they came to Alec's usual stop, and Milo stood outside the looming house with wide eyes, "It looks like you should never have clear skies here."
 
Alec grinned, watching Milo's reaction. "Be sure to say hello to the crows. Ba feeds them. And you should see this place in the dark on a cold, winter day." He led the way up toward the door. "Oh, and we have a no shoes policy, and a bowl of salt you need to touch." He opened the door and called, "Mama, Xander, we're home!"

Xander wandered over, hands in pockets. "Sup? Tolerable day?"
 
"Crows remember who are nice to them," Milo commented, walking up to the front door, and looking curiously at the heavy door knocker, "I bet it looks cool on foggy days, too."

Upon stepping inside, he did as he was told, although he didn't understand the salt thing. Then he looked at Xander, briefly, but didn't know where to look that wouldn't be rude. Luckily, there was so much in the house to stare at, "Hey," he said, "how've you been?"

"Hi habibi, welcome home," Daizi called from the other room, wanting to get up to greet him but choosing to stay put so the teenagers wouldn't feel crowded, "Hi, Milo."

"Hi, Mrs. Wahid," Milo murmured, then shook his head, "Doctor."

"Just Daizi is fine!"
 
"Fuzzy headed and distracted, but alright," Xander said with a shrug. He knew his face looked horrible, especially as the bruise was turning green as it healed. It was smaller, now, but looked a hundred times worse. He didn't bother trying to hide it since it was just him and his family around the house. "Need a drink or anything?"

Alec finished pulling off his shoes - nearly falling over in the process - and hurried over to hug his mother and say hi to Ivy.
 
"I guess it's good it isn't worse," Milo replied, shifting his weight, "I don't need a drink or anything. I'm okay. Your house is cool."

Daizi hugged Alec and Ivy squeaked happily to see him, the sound making Milo jump because although he knew they had a baby sister, he somehow didn't expect to see her, and he poked his head around a corner at the noise. Having not seen her since the twin's birthday, he was a bit shocked at how much larger she was. "How many weeks of school have you gotten out of this year?" He asked Xander, turning back around.
 
Xander paused, trying to count them up. "A lot," he finally admitted. "My GPA is going to suck so bad. Good thing I don't have college aspirations" He gave the slightest nod toward the living room. "Come on. Lemme introduce you to the Mini. You kind of sort of met her already, but she's changed a lot." He started toward the living room. "Mini, say hi to Stitch."
 
"You still do your makeup work though, right? And your dad's a teacher, I bet he'd find you a tutor no problem. Have you ever heard of the, um, school to prison pipeline? It's a thing that says how kids who are kept out of school and are, you know, suspended a bunch are more likely to go to prison."

After saying that, he realized he maybe shouldn't have, so he shook his head, fixed his glasses, and said, "but also you've got a good support system so it probably doesn't apply."

Daizi made Ivy wave hello, and Ivy gurgled slightly before plopping back against her mother, grabbing onto her own foot.

"Um. Hello, Ivy." He waved back at her, not knowing what you are supposed to say to babies, "She has gotten a lot bigger."

"She's seven months old, now," Daizi said proudly, avoiding bringing up her adjusted age because, by the looks of Milo, it only would have confused him. As it was, he didn't know what to do with that information.
 
"Probably would have been true if we hadn't landed here," Xander said in reply to Milo's prison pipeline thing, amused at him bringing it up. "I've missed way more in previous years. Anyway, now that Mini and Stitch have met, you wanna come out and see my shop?" Milo had shared his photography with him. It was only polite that he share his leatherworking with Milo. It had nothing to do with the fact that he really did want to show Milo some of the things he was working on.

Alec grinned and tickled Ivy's foot. "You're so good at growing up! Yes, you are! And at grabbing feet."
 
"Sure, that sounds cool," Milo said, glad following him out. Once they were away and he felt confident he wouldn't be overheard, he dropped his voice and said, "I don't know how to talk to babies. They just kinda stare at you."

Ivy giggled, flopping over onto her back, and Daizi cooed over her, preventing her from falling off the couch with one hand, "She's the best at growing! Yes you are! And she loves being tickled, get her under her arms, she laughs so hard."
 
Xander slid on his sunglasses and let the way through the garden, following the path toward Dark's shed before breaking off toward his own. "Yeah, it's weird. Takes a bit of getting used to. Turns out, they don't really care what you say. They just like the fact that you are talking to them. I read her my geography homework once, and she thought it was a hoot." He paused to pull open the door to his shed. It tended to stick a little, but he'd gotten used to it and didn't even think to try to fix it.

Inside his shed, it was cool and dim. Not so dim you couldn't see as a lot of natural light came from the large windows, but indirect enough Xander felt comfortable taking off his shades. A long, wide workbench took up the entirety of one wall, and a few tools and stencils hung on the pegboard above the bench. Most of the space was taken up by leather in various stages. On the far end sat unused, raw pieces as well as items Xander meant to take apart and reuse, like old saddles and chunks of couches and chairs. In the middle were pieces he was in the process of creating, and at the far end hung his finished products. He had bins for some, hangers for others, and a couple of pieces lay on the bench still. Most of his finished pieces were fashion items like goggles, bracers, belts, and a few little items like hairpins. Some were items he was trying out that were not available in his online shop, like an intricate leather wallet, a couple of what seemed to be paperweights in cool shapes, and some sort of large duffle-looking item.
 
"Maybe she just finds geography fascinating" Milo teased, walking inside and taking a slow look around the shop. The leather smell was, to him, almost overwhelming, but he guessed Xander was probably used to it, like how he was used to the metallic smell of the chemicals he used when developing film. "You've got a whole buisness here, I didn't realize how... professional it all was."
 
Xander shrugged a little awkwardly and moved to open the windows. "Yeah. I sell a few things online. It's how I funded the car. It's not... steady... but it evens out since some of this stuff I sell for a lot. Sorry. I haven't been in here much lately, so it's gotten stuffy." He pushed open the two windows on either end to invite a cross breeze. He nodded to one of the two wooden stools tucked under the counter. "Want to sit down? You can touch stuff if you want."
 
Milo sat, still turning to look around, "I mean, you made enough money to buy a car. That's pretty cool. I bet there aren't many people our age who has a hobby that successful." He picked up an awl, looked at it, and set it down, "I don't want to break anything. You should see if you can sell in like... a craft's fair this summer."
 
Xander sat sideways to the bench and leaned against it, letting his leg stick out comfortably. "Nah, you won't break anything. If you do, I'll be glad you showed me a flaw or a weak patch. I guess I could try a fair or something, but I don't know if I want to face the public, if you know what I mean. I already get some really stupid messages from people with my online store. I had a lady write me a real nasty message about how I sent her daught some kind of inappropriate bondage gear or something. I'd sold her a belt just like that." He pointed to a very simple belt hanging on the back. It had some very simple, basic patterns stamped into the leather.
 
"Have someone else be the face of it then and pay them," Milo suggested, picking up the belt and turning it over in his hands, rubbing his thumb against the design, "Alec has all his actor friends, someone would probably love it. Or have Mr. Dark watch the stall with you. Who is going to insult you with him staring them down? But also, I think generally the only people who go to craft stores are the sort of people who want to be there."
 
Xander snorted. "He hates dealing with the public even more than either of us. I know you find that hard to believe, but trust me. He hates it. He's just good at hiding it." He shifted to a more comfortable position. "Not a bad idea, though. Even Alec might not be a terrible choice as long as he doesn't have to deal with anyone nasty."
 
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