Shakespeare Colony [A month later]

[momslilassassin]

They'd waited for the weather to turn more reliably warm and dry before hosting an outdoor dance in the center of the village. The fight over music had been mostly smoothed over by agreeing to vary the selections between what the colonists who'd arrived recently liked and what the natives had become used to after Ben had offered to provide enough droid spoken word albums to last the entire dance to break the impasse.

Because everyone had agreed that droid spoken word albums were the worst.

And now, in the fine tradition of dances everywhere, no one was dancing in the area cleared for that purpose as everyone gathered in nervous groupings around food and drink tables, staring at people across the floor and hoping someone would ask them to dance.

Ben sighed and tugged at the tie around his neck. "Should we draw names from a hat or something?" he asked Ender.

Comments

[endsthegame]

Ender shot him a wry look. "I'm not sure that would help much to get their jitters to go away," he said. "Maybe we should set an example."

[momslilassassin]

"You're volunteering to dance?" Ben asked with a smile.

[endsthegame]

"No," Ender said, "I'm asking you to dance. It's a subtle difference."

[momslilassassin]

Ben's expression softened. "In that case, I'd love to," he said, reaching for Ender's hand.

[endsthegame]

Ender gripped Ben's hand firmly and tugged him onto the dance floor. "I'm delighted."

[momslilassassin]

Ben smiled as he fell in step with the music. "They're all staring, huh?"

[endsthegame]

"Means we should make this look good," Ender said, smiling, following Ben's lead because-- well, Ben was the more graceful of the two of them.

[momslilassassin]

Ben made sure to keep the steps uncomplicated and fought off an unexpected pang of homesickness for the lightsaber warm-ups.

"This would have been much more impressive if we were dancing to Wookiee tree music," he decided.

[endsthegame]

"What's that like?" Ender asked, his gaze flicking briefly towards the people around them. Some of them were starting to move, at least.

[momslilassassin]

"Largely drum based," Ben said with a grin. "Very deep. Very loud."

[endsthegame]

"You could have just gone for something from Earth with a little more percussion," Ender judged gently.

[momslilassassin]

"Don't think I can replicated the Wookiees' yell," Ben added.

[endsthegame]

"I could try stepping on your feet," Ender offered.

[momslilassassin]

"I could kick you," Ben replied, "and then we could watch all of the colonists try to imitate our new dance--"

[endsthegame]

"You can start planning the colonial kickboxing competition next week," Ender said. "Keep your head in the game."

[momslilassassin]

"Providing an excellent example of the benefits of pairing off?" Ben asked innocently.

[endsthegame]

"Sorry?" Ender said, feeling as if he'd just missed some joke.

He was having to focus on his feet more than he was used to.

[momslilassassin]

Ben laughed and moved a little closer. "We're trying to show that being a couple is a good thing, right? And that dancing won't kill you."

[endsthegame]

"Presumably," Ender said. "I haven't been dancing too long yet." His mouth quirked a little. "I don't think we're alone anymore, though."

[momslilassassin]

"Who'd Val drag out with her?" Ben asked.

[endsthegame]

"Not Akbar," Ender said. He squinted. "...I think it's Ix."

[momslilassassin]

"Interesting choice," Ben said. "Better than Sel, at least."

[endsthegame]

"You say that now," Ender said, chuckling a little, "But before you know it, Sel's going to get ideas..."

[momslilassassin]

Ben laughed along "...would he even remember what to do with those kinds of ideas?"

[endsthegame]

"I don't know," Ender said. "Maybe Sel can bust a move..."