Cafe Fina, Wednesday Evening

[endsthegame]

Well, all right, Cafe Fina didn't have milkshakes, but it did have good food; Ender had a feeling Ben would forgive him for it. Especially considering that the first words out of Ender's mouth as he sat down at one of the tables were "I'm paying."

He figured that would work out okay for Tara, too.

"I still maintain you would have been better off going to that gaudy pizza place," Jane whispered gleefully in his ear. "He could smother his face in cheese and she could pretend like it wasn't disgusting."

Next time, he was leaving the Bluetooth at home, though.

[[ for they who are with him! ]]

Comments

[life_inshadow]

Tara glanced over to Ben briefly as she took her seat. She hadn't been to Fina since Kennedy was a student, maybe longer, but she had no intention of complaining about a free meal beyond the obligatory token protest.

"Oh! Great," she said, toying with the edge of her menu. "I mean, I could split the check if you wanted, but ... great."

[momslilassassin]

Ben grinned at Ender. "Just for you, I'll restrain from making sugar daddy references." He added a more sincere, "Thank you," though.

[endsthegame]

"I'm terribly grateful for your restraint," Ender told him dryly. He sat back with his own menu. "And don't worry about it, Tara, please. I'm told I have more money than I know what to do with."

It helped having a rear admiral's pay grade, never mind Jane's tendency to invest wisely across time and space.

[life_inshadow]

"Not a problem I've ever had," Tara said, though with no bitterness behind it. She opened her menu. "I might even get dessert, if it's good here."

[momslilassassin]

"Everything's good here," Ben assured her.

Because of course Ben had tried all of the food on the island. He was a 17 year old guy.

[endsthegame]

"And he'll have tried all of it again before the evening is through," Ender reported. "His stomach is a bottomless pit. You'd be right to doubt his judgement."

[life_inshadow]

"I'm not," Tara protested earnestly. "But, uh ... I'm usually a one dinner kind of person. But I'm just glad we aren't eating grass anymore."

[momslilassassin]

"It was weird that grass was surprisingly tasty this weekend," Ben agreed. "I mean, the horse thing was strange too, but I didn't know it would carry over to liking things ponies do too."

[endsthegame]

"Well, it can't be said we didn't have our fair share of educational experiences at Fandom," Ender said, putting his menu down.

[life_inshadow]

"I'd say I was going to miss it," Tara commented, and grabbed a bit of bread from the basket. "But ... that's a way to jinx myself and make sure it all follows me everywhere."

Of course, she was going to school in Sunnydale, so.

[momslilassassin]

"Yeah, waking up as adorable ponies would take some explanations," Ben replied, looking at the menu and deciding that "one of each" was greedy and wrong.

[endsthegame]

"I'm afraid the risk of that is already much greater than we could hope it to be," Ender said. He shot Ben a glance. "We're going to have to figure out how to explain this to the colonists eventually..."

[life_inshadow]

"'This' as in, yo guys being together?" Tara checked, "or 'this' as in ... hi, we went to a weird school so sometimes we're going to be five, just wait for it to wear off. 'Cause, uh, they both might be kind of hard."

[momslilassassin]

"I think mostly the second one?" Ben said because Ben was still a lot oblivious about how same-sex partnerships were perceived in places not his galaxy or Fandom.

[endsthegame]

"Mostly the second one," Ender agreed. But then he didn't foresee much trouble here, really. "Val will know what's up if we turn into something while we're on the ship, but it might give the captain a nasty shock, to say the least."

[life_inshadow]

"At least we usually don't turn into anything that would want to crash the ship?" Tara offered, nibbling on a bit of bread and aware that was not the most consoling phrase in the history of the world. "It's ... you know. Whimsy."

[momslilassassin]

Ben smiled. "Admirals are not generally known for their whimsy."

[endsthegame]

"I for one don't feel terribly whimsical most of the time," Ender agreed. "But I could just be deluding myself."

[life_inshadow]

"No, it's not one of the top five words I'd use to describe you," Tara agreed thoughtfully. "Maybe whoever's driving your shuttle will be special?"

[momslilassassin]

"I hope so," Ben said. "There won't be many people awake for the trip, so if he's a pain, it'll make for a really long flight."

[endsthegame]

"Or all three of us could hold out for a transformationless post-high school existence," Ender suggested. He motioned towards the waiter. "College seems like it might be... awkward... as a pony."

[life_inshadow]

"I could hold the pen in my mouth to take notes," Tara suggested. "It'd just be ... explaining what was going on to my roommate, who, uh, probably won't believe in talking horses."

She thought about it for another moment as she waited for the waiter. "That, and getting up and down the stairs."

[momslilassassin]

"We figured out the stairs!" Ben said, sounding enormously pleased with himself before he ordered his dinner.

[endsthegame]

"Try not to inhale your food this time," Ender told him idly, and with mild amusement. Then he put his own order in with the dutiful-looking plate. "And I'd suggest drafting up a note of some kind - something you can gesture at easily if you've been inconveniently turned into something without thumbs."

[life_inshadow]

"I flew out my window," Tara told Ben with a little shrug, then turned to the waiter.

Once he was gone: "Good idea, except for when you turn into a six-year-old or something and forget that the note exists. I like the idea of no transformations better."