Aboard the Jade Shadow [Tuesday, Fandom time]

[momslilassassin]

Ben was grabbing a quick snack as he waited in the galley for his father to finish docking the ship on the first human-majority planet they'd seen in months and taking the chance to catch up on more reading about the Aing-Tii Monks. As soon as they restocked their supplies and checked for physical mail (Ben hoped that Tony's package would catch up with them here), they'd be heading into Aing-Tii space, which was a challenging enough flight that Luke Kriffing Skywalker looked slightly apprehensive about it.

Ben stopped being nervous by remembering that if Jacen had been able to do it, Luke would be able to do it better.

...it had never been said that Ben could not be very petty if the occasion called for it.

[OOC: Open for calls, texts, visits from the boy who's in space with him, care packages from home full of YA gay literature...]

Comments

[endsthegame]

"I mean she knows what she needs to know about me right now, and nothing more than that," Ender said, vaguely, and put the shirt aside. "I never realised just how many black shirts you own."

[momslilassassin]

"They're easy to clean," Ben said, "and you're getting deliberately vague on me. Does she know you're not on the same planet you used to be?"

[endsthegame]

"No," Ender said, fishing around the box for a pair of pants, "And it really doesn't matter. Are you done interrogating me?"

[momslilassassin]

Ben looked frustrated. "Interrogating is much less pleasant," he grumbled, "but yes, since getting you to talk about your family when you don't want to is as productive as trying to walk through a closed blast door."

[endsthegame]

Ah, pants. There we go. "I'm glad we agree about that," Ender replied.

[momslilassassin]

This time Ben deliberately sighed loud enough to be heard. "Doesn't mean I get it."

[endsthegame]

"I don't see the point in going into it," Ender said, simply. He folded up the pants. "But if it sets your mind at ease, I'll think about sending a quick message down to my parents."

Yeah, no, he wasn't going to do that.

[momslilassassin]

"No you won't, kreetle," Ben said, sounding sad.

[endsthegame]

"If you say so."

He was extremely methodical about the next few pieces of clothing.

[momslilassassin]

"I know we've had this...thing...before where I talk and you nod along and ignore me," Ben said uncertainly, "and you say they're not really your parents and don't have a place in your life now after all this time and okay. But I'm still sure they'd want to know you left the galaxy for a bit."

He frowned. "Or is this combined with you not wanting the IF to know that too?"

[endsthegame]

"Ladies and gentlemen, some applause for the man," Ender said, putting a jacket on top of his clothes. "I'd rather they don't figure out I've slipped the leash."

[momslilassassin]

Ben threw the clean black shirt at Ender, then took his own off and tossed that one for good measure. "You could have just said so."

[endsthegame]

Ender ducked the first one, though the second hit him across the side of the head, and he had to peel it off to... find out Ben was half-naked. Sigh.

"I had been hoping it wouldn't come up at all," he said, tossing the shirt back at Ben's bed in hopes he might put it back on.

[momslilassassin]

Ben wadded it up and used it as a pillow instead. "What, that'd we'd go an entire year and I wouldn't wonder if maybe someone from home might notice you'd disappeared?"

[endsthegame]

"So it was a particularly desperate hope," Ender said, trying to glare somewhere above Ben's abs.

[momslilassassin]

Ben wasn't making that easy by shifting onto his side to glare back. "Why didn't you just tell me?"

[endsthegame]

"Because it wasn't important," Ender said, mentally hammering his head repeatedly into a wall. "And I know you've got at least five reasons marching around your head about why it is, but if you examine them for more than a minute you'll realise all of them come down to 'I don't like it when you don't tell me things', which is not a reason."

[momslilassassin]

"Sure it is," Ben countered, "it's just not one you like to deal with. You hoard information like other people do jewels. I'm not a security risk. I'm your friend."

[endsthegame]

"Being my friend doesn't immediately make you entitled to knowing everything," Ender said. Whilst putting a folded shirt on the next stack as meticulously as he possibly could.

[momslilassassin]

Ben shoved aside a childish impulse to mess up that meticulous pile.

"Ender," he said, scrubbing his hand through his hair, "I don't want to know everything. But I know when I've hit a sore spot, and there's more to this than sneaking past the IF."

[endsthegame]

"I like how you've decided that all on your own," Ender said, lightly. "There isn't anything else going on. The IF doesn't know I'm here and I'd like to keep it that way, so the flow of information from me to home is limited."

Even more so than usual. "The end. No mysteries here, just a plain lack of relevance."

You were totally going to be able to note the moment this conversation happened in the timeline just by the general straightness of the clothes in the pile in Ender's wardrobe compartment.

"And every moment you're going on about it is turning this molehill into more of a mountain."

[momslilassassin]

"And you were just simultaneously having that conversation and really concerned about how all of your shirts lined up," Ben replied.

[endsthegame]

"Yep," Ender agreed, because he was a pain in the ass like that. "An orderly wardrobe is the first step to an orderly mind."

[momslilassassin]

"Kuso," Ben retorted, throwing the balled-up shirt again.

[endsthegame]

"Very mature," Ender said, snatching the shirt and tossing it at the bed this time.