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

[momslilassassin]

"Thanks," Ben said, beaming. Compliments from Ender still warmed him to his toes. "You should tell them so."

[endsthegame]

"I will," Ender promised. "Tomorrow. Right now I'm just here as your plus-1."

[momslilassassin]

"You think so?" Ben said. "So you don't have to dance with Sel to make him feel better about never getting to dance with Val?"

[endsthegame]

"Nope," Ender said cheerfully. "I'm your arm candy."

[momslilassassin]

"Lucky me," Ben said, giving his hand a squeeze as he led them off the dance floor. "Food now?"

[endsthegame]

"I could've gone for another song," Ender said, but quickly added, "But food is a better idea."

[momslilassassin]

"And they seem to be getting the idea that a dance is about dancing," Ben said, looking around and sounding pleased.

[endsthegame]

"What a marvelous idea," Ender said, "They're thinking innovatively."

[momslilassassin]

"Well, we're not all Battle School trained," Ben teased.

[endsthegame]

"I imagine a trained Jedi could really innovate on the dance floor, though," Ender teased back.

[momslilassassin]

It's just like lightsaber duels without the threat of imminent death," Ben said.

[endsthegame]

"The better way to do it," Ender said, turning towards the snack table.

[momslilassassin]

"I'm almost positive no one has lost a limb dancing," Ben agreed. He glanced out at the dancing colonists. "Though that guy might prove me wrong."

[endsthegame]

Ender winced midway into picking up some vegetables. "He's going to break his neck at this rate."

[momslilassassin]

"I'm sure he has many other excellent qualities," Ben said. "A sense of tempo isn't one of them."

[endsthegame]

"Perhaps he'll learn by doing," Ender said optimistically.

[momslilassassin]

"Perhaps someone will tranq him and take him off the floor," Ben countered.

[endsthegame]

"Making plans already?" Ender replied.

[momslilassassin]

"Only if his flailing gets worse," Ben said, tilting his head. "Yikes."

[endsthegame]

Ender sighed. "Stop judging and start eating," he said.

[momslilassassin]

"Yes, dear," Ben said, giving Ender a grin. "Try the cake. It's really good."

[endsthegame]

Ender took a bite of one of his vegetables. "In a minute."

[momslilassassin]

Ben chuckled. "Of course you'd eat vegetables at a dance," he said fondly. He lowered his voice. "There's milk over by the punch, too."

Because Ben was a sap.

[endsthegame]

Ender glanced that way, his mouth curving into a smile. "Thanks," he said honestly. "I had been planning to avoid the punch just in case."

[momslilassassin]

"I know," Ben said, giving him a swift kiss on the cheek. "That's why I made other arrangements."