fandomtownies | The Causeway, Late Friday Afternoon

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The Causeway, Late Friday Afternoon

It was awfully quiet on the causeway - what with it being graduation weekend, Ender had expected more... well, more people. Not that he had an issue with peace and quiet. It just... struck a strange chord.

"Your Portalocity people screwed up," Jane whispered matter-of-factly in his ear. "You're a week early."

... Of course. This was the last time Ender put any stock in portals.

He made a big fuss of taking his Earth phone and checking it over, frowning at it as he typed. "Ben?" he said. "This is April 26th."

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"But we're not supposed to be here yet," Ben said.

"I know," Ender said, shooting him a dubious look over the phone. "Portalocity dumped us a week out of the way..."

"We're sure we're in the right Fandom?" Ben checked. "Because if this is one populated by ponies..."

"No, it's the real Fandom," Ender said. "I'm... almost entirely sure."

"Have them doublecheck just in case," Ben said. "I don't want to get surprised by vampires when the sun goes down."

"I'll ask them," Ender said, poking nonsense letters into his phone.

"It's your Fandom," Jane sighed.

"Thank you," Ben replied, kissing his cheek quickly.

Ender's phone beeped a moment later, serving up some official-looking blather Jane had composed about how they were in the right place. "We're good," he said.

"Good," Ben said. "Now I don't regret not having a lightsaber any more."

"If only it were that easy," Ender said dryly. "You're going to keep regretting that for a while."

"True," Ben said. "There's the annual trial by graduation to look forward to..."

"But we'll probably not be able to do anything about that anyway," Ender pointed out.

Karla had been heading to the Portalocity office to schedule her portal back home tonight (and also back to the island tonight, thank you time shifts) when she spotted people on the Causeway. Being the ~~nosy~~ friendly sort, she wandered in that direction to see who needed a welcome.

Hey, last time someone had wandered across the Causeway, she'd needed to do an emergency Healing to make sure they didn't die of a bullet wound. Fandom had its quirks.

Her usual reaction to spotting the boyos would have been surprise, delight, and a hurtled hug in Ben's direction and a slightly more demure one for Ender. Today, however, it was surprise, a ghost of fear, and a sudden tensing as if she was going to run the other way--before controlling herself and pasting on a smile that lacked some of its usual brightness.

"Hi!" she called, giving them a wave. Her normal 'Kiss kiss' didn't want to be said. "What are you two doing here?"

Ender noticed, of course, because he was Ender and he always noticed. He had no idea what was going on, but he shifted his tone slightly to be non-confrontational, gentle. "We were supposed to come in for graduation," he said. "We missed by one week, I'm afraid. Surprise?"

"Very much," Karla said, with a touch of dark humor. Her hand kept twitching, wanting to touch her neck where Ender--where the other Ender--have savaged her. "Portal, huh? What can you do?"

Smile firmly in place, she closed the distance between them, though still didn't offer a hug. It would feel wrong, offering one to Ben and not Ender and she wasn't entirely ready to give Ender one yet.

"Staying for the weekend anyway? Because I'm just going to assume that Portalocity wanted you here for my birthday."

"I'm trying to get them to get us a portal to next week," Ender said, "Which may be the most awkward thing I've ever found myself saying."

He put his phone away, his eyes on Karla's face. He wasn't sure what was going on with her, but this hardly felt like the right circumstances to question her about it.

"So far, no luck. So we could be persuaded, I think--" He glanced towards Ben.

"It's not like the grapes can't take care of themselves," Ben said with a little shrug. "Ho, Karla."

"No one would think that after the way you baby them," Karla retorted, smile a little more real now that she was focused on Ben. "Ho, Ben. Now stop sounding like there was really a question about you two going home. Do you really want to imagine your life if you leave before my birthday? Or my Offering?"

"I think we could run fast enough," Ender offered. "Ben's spry."

"Not that spry, he isn't," Karla said, wrapping her arms over her chest. "Weren't we just talking about how effective I am at yelling?"

"Maybe we packed earplugs," Ben said with a grin.

"And head phones," Ender added. "And other escape-related tools we won't let you in on."

"Bah!" Karla tossed her hair. "You can try, but you think after four years of tricks like that, I haven't found a way to overcome stuff like that? Ha!"

She took a few steps back to preen and pose and, well, be a few steps back. Hopefully between all the preening and posing, they wouldn't notice how she didn't step forward again.

"But, seriously, even if you don't stay the whole weekend, tonight I'll be making my Offering to the Darkness. We should be back on-island tonight, so even if you don't want to stay the weekend, you could come to that."

Ben looked surprised. "It's that time already?"

"Time does fly occasionally," Ender said. And very little of what Karla was doing was slipping past him, but again, this wasn't exactly the time to talk about it.

"Let Ben and I talk it through for a moment?" He didn't really want to tie Ben up into anything - and Kaeleer was not exactly the happiest place in the multiverse.

"Your little girl's all grown up," Karla teased. Her eyes slid to Ender and she nodded. "Here. I've got some stuff to do to prepare for the trip anyway, so feel free to give me a--to text me or just meet up here later if you want to come."

She gave them the pertinent details and flashed them a wave. "If you don't come, then I'd better see you on my birthday. Bye!"

And then she was turning around and jogging back to the island.

"She was really skittish," Ben noted as soon as Karla was out of sight.

"There's definitely something wrong," Ender agreed, turning back towards him. "I'm not sure. It might just be the Offering coming up..."

"She didn't hug us," Ben said. "Normally she's like a mynock."

He meant that in the best way?

"I'll have to talk with her later," Ender decided. "As it stands-- how do we stand on the Offering issue? We've been gone for some time, and I'm not exactly aching to see Kaeleer again - but she'd appreciate it."

Ben was quiet for a long moment, thinking it over. "Maybe if we went we could figure out if the skittishness was just nerves," he finally decided. "It's not like anyone was expecting us here for a few days anyway..."

"Good point," Ender said, reshouldering his backpack. "We should probably get a room at the hotel before we leave, though. I'm tired already - it'll only be worse after this."

Ben nodded. "We can see if we can get a nap in before the portal to Kaeleer."

"You have no idea how amazing a nap sounds to me right now," Ender said, continuing down the causeway.

"That stop with nothing but mariachi bands was a bit much," Ben replied.

"Don't even remind me of that," Ender groaned. "I'm trying to forget about it."

"Me too, but the song keeps running through my head," Ben said, taking Ender's hand and walking toward the hotel.

"If you start singing, so help me god..."

"I don't have to," Ben said. "You're already hearing it in your head."

"Ingrate," Ender said, whacking him gently over the back of the head. "Go get us a room."

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The Causeway, Late Friday Afternoon

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