Stark Industries, Monday

[endsthegame]

He'd been poking at the little mouse-droid all weekend, and by the time Ender got to work he'd come up with a few ideas for the satellite project. He took a good seat by some of the computers and took up on typing.

Code mainly. He'd get back to the hardware in a little bit.

[ open! ]

Comments

[momslilassassin]

Ben walked into the shop, a bit of the nav computer's hardware in his belt pouch if Stark came out to check.

"I'm out of circuit boards," he said with a tiny smile.

[endsthegame]

"Then I'm afraid I'm going to have to kick you out," Ender commented, as his fingers flew over the keys to produce another line of code.

[momslilassassin]

Ben snickered. "Shortest visit ever."

[endsthegame]

"Which would make Stark happy," Ender voiced, "I don't want him getting uppity."

[momslilassassin]

"Can't have that," Ben agreed. "He might think he's your boss or something."

[endsthegame]

"Which clearly isn't the case," Ender finished smoothly. He looked over his shoulder. "Get a chair."

[momslilassassin]

Ben waved a hand and pulled a chair over, then scooted it close to Ender. "Coding?" he guessed.

[endsthegame]

"No, I'm banging away on a keyboard because I don't like it," he said. "I have some stuff I need to get through."

[momslilassassin]

"Anything interesting?" Ben asked.

[endsthegame]

"If you think fuel's interesting," Ender said, "It's not going to shoot lasers."

[momslilassassin]

"It should totally shoot lasers," Ben said with a grin.

[endsthegame]

"It's not going to shoot lasers," Ender repeated firmly, and shook his head. "You'd like it too much."

[momslilassassin]

"Because you're anti-lasers?" Ben replied.

[endsthegame]

"Because I'm a cruel man."

[momslilassassin]

"Yeah, I'm not really buying that," Ben told him.

[endsthegame]

"That's because you never trained under me," Ender pointed out, "My old commanders wouldn't agree."

[momslilassassin]

"You can be strict without being cruel," Ben argued.

[endsthegame]

He thought of what he'd done to Bean, and shrugged. "Sure," he said. "So. Circuit boards?"

[momslilassassin]

"You're changing the subject," Ben said, never afraid to point out the obvious.

[endsthegame]

"You're keenly observational," Ender said, without blinking.

[momslilassassin]

"Jedi," Ben replied dryly. "I've known cruel. You're not it."

[endsthegame]

"That's the thing about this island," Ender said, with a shake of his head. "The stakes aren't very high."

[momslilassassin]

Ben gazed at him appraisingly. "No," he said quietly, "but that doesn't mean I don't still see you."

[endsthegame]

"Ben," he said, simply, his voice perfectly calm, "I'm being realistic."

This just made him want to crawl out of his skin again and run away.

[momslilassassin]

Ben picked on the emotions. "Anyone who was really cruel wouldn't feel guilt," he countered softly.