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 smirked a tiny bit. "You liked that."

[momslilassassin]

Ben kissed the smirk. "I liked that," he confirmed.

[endsthegame]

"Good to know," Ender murmured. "And I do love that mouth of yours..."

[momslilassassin]

"I've noticed," Ben said, snuggling closer.

[endsthegame]

Ender rolled a little to the side so they could snuggle more effectively. He pressed a kiss to Ben's cheek, and then to the side of his mouth.

[momslilassassin]

Ben let out a small, contented noise. "This is comfortable," he said quietly.

[endsthegame]

"Very," Ender agreed, tucking his face in Ben's neck. "Mhm."

[momslilassassin]

Ben ran his hand along Ender's side, sending out a quick pulse of his slightly tired contentment.

[endsthegame]

"Not that tired?" Ender murmured. "I must have done something wrong."

[momslilassassin]

"You did everything right," Ben said, sounding a little more vehement than he'd meant to. "My brain's just busy."

[endsthegame]

Ender's eyebrows moved upwards briefly. "What's it busy about?" he said.

[momslilassassin]

"You, hoping everyone else had a good time at the dance, wondering how many pairings might come out of it, wondering if the grapes have gotten enough water or too much water, wondering how many dances we've missed now in Fandom--" Ben trailed off. "Guess your busy brain is contagious."

[endsthegame]

Ender leaned in and kissed him softly. "We've probably missed a couple," he said. "Your grapes will be fine, and you will not be tarred and feathered by the populace."

[momslilassassin]

"I turn 20 in a few months," Ben murmured back, "and I haven't added a new scar to my collection in two years. How did that happen?"

[endsthegame]

"You took control of your life," Ender murmured. "Sometimes that works out."

[momslilassassin]

"So thank you for that too," Ben replied. "Without you, I'd be back in my home galaxy without a hand or something."

[endsthegame]

"You're the one who made the call, I just facilitated it," Ender said, kissing his cheek again. "And by the way, it's a month and a half."

[momslilassassin]

"Planning a surprise party?" Ben teased, nuzzling Ender's neck.

Shh, it was a nice neck.

[endsthegame]

"I know better than to try and surprise a well-trained Jedi," Ender said, laughing softly.

[momslilassassin]

Ben kissed him. "You still manage to surprise me sometimes."

[endsthegame]

"Maybe," Ender said, sliding his fingers back into Ben's hair and kissing him back.

[momslilassassin]

"Sex in the hallway was new, for one," Ben replied, sucking on Ender's lower lip.

[endsthegame]

"I think that's your own fault," Ender said. "No patience." He made a happy noise in the back of his throat and pressed a little closer.

[momslilassassin]

"I'd say I was sorry, but I wasn't even a little bit sorry," Ben replied, pulling Ender on top of him.

[endsthegame]

Ender chuckled, abusing his new position by straddling Ben. "I could tell you weren't sorry," he teased. "We nearly did it on the stairs."