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]

"Just let me know when you've had enough," Ben replied.

[endsthegame]

"Trust me, if I want to go, you'll know," Ender said wryly. "Now don't keep hanging around here - I know you want to go talk to some of the others, and I have my own rounds to make."

[momslilassassin]

"Think I'll go ask Val to dance," Ben said with a smile. "Meet you back here in an hour?"

[endsthegame]

"I'll be right here," Ender promised. I'm going to go talk to Sel."

[momslilassassin]

"You can dance with him too," Ben said, winking.

[endsthegame]

"Oh, yes," Ender deadpanned, "That's exactly what I'll do."

[momslilassassin]

"Just make sure it's a slow song," Ben replied. "Don't want to have him throw out a hip."

On that cheerful thought, he disappeared into the crowd, smiling and making small talk with people he recognized.

[endsthegame]

Ender shook his head and then left to go talk to Sel. Despite his claim to Ben of being 'arm-candy', he did actually have his own job to do here - and while he would have rather spent the night just talking to the old veterans, that meant talking to the new colonists, too.

So he did, including a few he didn't know, and kept it up for some time before gravitating back to their table.

[momslilassassin]

Ben had brought three of the colonists back with him too.

"I told them you don't bite," he said, letting his eyes twinkle at Ender, "but they wanted to have a buffer in case I was wrong."

[endsthegame]

"Hi," Ender said, giving them his practiced governor smile. "He's right, I promise."

[momslilassassin]

Ben rattled off their names, where they were from originally, and the trivia he'd gleaned from chatting with them for a bit. He'd been to enough diplomatic functions as a kid to know how to make this feel seamless and effortlessly friendly.

[endsthegame]

Ender gave all of them a firm handshake and offered up a few jokes here and there. "I hope you've been enjoying the festivities today," he finished off with. "Everyone's put in a lot of work."

[momslilassassin]

Ben beamed as they assured Ender they were having a lot of fun, then sped off as quickly as they could and still remain polite.

Ben chuckled, shaking his head.

[endsthegame]

"That was charming," Ender said wryly. "Had fun?"

[momslilassassin]

"Here and there," Ben said with a grin. "Val wants you to know her toes remain untrod and she's glad you've made sure I've learned that."

[endsthegame]

"I did tell her at the start of the dance," Ender said, peering over the various heads. Some people were starting to leave, but there were still plenty around. "Still, it's always good to have it confirmed, I suppose."

[momslilassassin]

"I could've gotten milk drunk and clumsy," Ben teased.

[endsthegame]

Ender snorted softly. "So are you part of the clean-up crew?" he asked. "Because if I'm going home alone tonight, I might as well escort Val."

[momslilassassin]

"Nope," Ben said. "I helped set up and told them all you're old and boring and go home early."

He hadn't actually told them the second part.

[endsthegame]

"I'm glad I can always rely on you to do my PR," Ender said dryly, but he was smiling.

[momslilassassin]

"I'm here to help," Ben said, smiling back.

[endsthegame]

Ender offered his arm. "One last dance?" he asked.

[momslilassassin]

"Please," Ben said, heading back onto the dance floor.

[endsthegame]

Ender stepped close to Ben once they were there. "I also approve of this being outdoor, by the way."

[momslilassassin]

Ben grinned. "I thought the stars were still new enough to be interesting," he said quietly.