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...]

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[endsthegame]

Ender snorted, fishing another shirt out of the box. It was one of his old Property-of-the-IF ones, though. "Not likely, no," he said, "We'll probably look quite odd enough to them as it is."

[momslilassassin]

"And there's a huge difference between rock-hard abs and actual rock," Ben added, pulling out a pair of (yes, black) sleep pants.

[endsthegame]

"I can't believe you just used the phrase 'rock-hard abs', Ben," Ender said, folding up his shirt. Which looked like it was one of his old ones which was just a little too small. Sigh, Tony.

[momslilassassin]

"It shows up on infomercials at 3 in the morning a lot," he protested.

Because apparently that makes it okay.

[endsthegame]

"For your next birthday, I'm shipping you some books," Ender decided. "Your mind has clearly been idle."

Ben did have really nice abs.

[momslilassassin]

Ben's cheeks went pink and his eyes flickered guiltily toward where he'd stashed the other book. "I have books."

[endsthegame]

"Then you really have no excuse for the infomercials," Ender said, taking a whole pile of his clothes out of the box and tossing it on the bed.

Watch him not asking. A little obviously.

[momslilassassin]

"I can read and watch television at the same time," Ben said. "I'm an amazing multitasker that way."

Deflect, deflect, deflect...

[endsthegame]

The deflection was noted as such. Ben got a funny look from Ender, who finally just shook his head and leaned over to start picking through his pile of clothes.

Not. Asking.

[momslilassassin]

"It's not that good a book," he mumbled finally, burying his head in the box on a futile search for boxer shorts. "I'm a little embarrassed to even have it."

[endsthegame]

"Ben, I'm not going to critique your choice in reading material," Ender said, finding a pair of pants. He felt that one was pretty diplomatic, all things considered.

[momslilassassin]

"It's one of Karla's old cookbooks," he said finally. "Or it used to be."

If Tony knew about it, it seemed stupid to keep from Ender.

[endsthegame]

"Huh," Ender said. "I thought that would've turned back by now."

He was very good at acting casual when he was feeling very tempted to just find a bulkhead and hammer his head into it for a while.

(The sad thing was that he could also kind of hear Jane mocking him for his drama, despite not having the earpiece on.)

[momslilassassin]

"Weird, huh?" Ben agreed because he'd die before admitting to buying his own copy of the book.

[endsthegame]

"Very," Ender said, tossing some more folded clothes into the wardrobe. Almost done. "But not really worth the fuss."

[momslilassassin]

"I never expected to see again," Ben admitted. "It caught me off guard."

[endsthegame]

"Tony's full of surprises," Ender commented. He turned towards Ben. "Let's hope he hasn't dug up anything for me."

Yeah, like he even owned anything incriminating.

[momslilassassin]

Ben smiled a little ruefully. "You don't have anything like this, kreetle."

[endsthegame]

Ender's mouth quirked. "Maybe not," he agreed.

[momslilassassin]

A really stupid part of him almost offered to lend the book to Ender, but he stopped himself just in time. "But I think Tony's equipped you with enough sweaters to last a year, at least."

[endsthegame]

"Including a lot of shirts I'm pretty sure are too small for me," Ender replied, "Unless we're going to visit the planet of the midriff-bearing humanoids."

He was more than willing to get off the topic of the book; the air felt tense enough as it was.

[momslilassassin]

And there was an interesting mental image that Ben was going go shove hard to one side. "I think we're trying to give Dathomir a skip," he replied with a little laugh.

[endsthegame]

"No rancors, and decent clothing," Ender said, sitting back down on his bed. "I can live with that."

[momslilassassin]

"Well, here on Skywalker Transport, we aim to please. We missed by a lot on Dorin..."

[endsthegame]

"...So now you're taking me to an isolated planet full of rock people instead," Ender filled in. "At least Tony got me sugar and caffeine."

He was feeling a little self-conscious for the first time in a long time, and he had no idea why.