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]

"Mine definitely don't," Ender sighed. "Clean up?"

[momslilassassin]

"Yeah," Ben said, closing his eyes. "One sec."

[endsthegame]

"Mhmm, one sec," Ender said, idly running the back of his index finger over Ben's jawline.

[momslilassassin]

"You still feel so good," Ben whispered. "Not in the uncomfortable 'so I'm compelled to jump you' Fandom way...just in a nice way."

Ben's brain wasn't exactly firing correctly yet.

[endsthegame]

Ender leaned in and kissed Ben's jaw, because formulating words was hard. "Thanks," he said. "You're not bad either."

[momslilassassin]

"Not bad," Ben repeated, laughing. "You seemed a little more compli--" frown, "--thingy before."

[endsthegame]

"You were doing really nice things," Ender pointed out.

[momslilassassin]

Ben kissed him softly. "I'm glad you liked it," he said with a slight blush.

It had taken Ben a long time to get even this comfortable with it all.

[endsthegame]

Ender smiled at him. "I did," he murmured. "You like it when I do a little of that, too."

[momslilassassin]

"Yeah," Ben said, finally getting out a tissue and cleaning them up.

[endsthegame]

"You okay with that?" Ender mumbled, watching his face.

[momslilassassin]

Ben bit his lower lip, then nodded. "Yeah."

[endsthegame]

"Know you get nervous," Ender said softly, nuzzling at Ben's neck.

[momslilassassin]

"Yeah," Ben murmured, holding a little more tightly to Ender.

At some point, he'd remember his vocabulary again.

[endsthegame]

Ender slid an arm over Ben's chest and cuddled close.

At least they were at roughly the same level of post-sex communication skills for once.

[momslilassassin]

"Love you," Ben whispered, kissing the top of Ender's head. "So much."

[endsthegame]

"Love you too," Ender said, smiling. He dropped his head on Ben's chest.

[momslilassassin]

Ben closed his eyes. "I'm still getting used to...aspects," he finally said softly.

[endsthegame]

"I know," Ender said, just as quietly. He reached out to rub at Ben's shoulder, wanting to be supportive without shutting Ben up.

[momslilassassin]

"And it's not that I don't trust you," Ben added in a whisper, "but it seems a little...odd."

[endsthegame]

"From a certain point of view," Ender murmured, "Everything about having sex seems odd, noisy, and extremely ridiculous. I still can't watch one of Tony's porn flicks without feeling sorry for the poor people in it."

[momslilassassin]

"True," Ben replied, snuggling closer, "and it does feel good, and it's you...and it's not like there's anyone listening in..."

[endsthegame]

"That being said, let's never record anything we do," Ender muttered, kissing Ben's neck. "Because that would look very silly."

He gave Ben a little squeeze. "You never have to do anything you don't want to, though," he added, his teasing tone fading into something more concerned. "If it's too weird..."

[momslilassassin]

"I know," Ben murmured. "I'm just easing my way into it."

[endsthegame]

Ender kissed his cheek. "I know," he said again, quietly.

His gut was telling him this would never be a deal breaker. He... hoped that was true.