The Beach, Friday Evening

[endsthegame]

Truth was, part of Ender didn't really want to leave the room at all. After last night, Ben was a mess-- a mess who needed him. But he hadn't been feeling quite himself since they had gotten stuck here, a feeling that had only been exacerbated over the past few weeks. He couldn't simply sit there forever. He grew antsy.

He'd left at what he felt was the ideal time: Ben distracted, Ender's own caginess not yet so large it would register to Ben as a problem.

Then he had come here, as he had always come here when he needed some time to cope with himself. Even on a day like this, when revealing songs drifted through Fandom's nooks and cranies everywhere you dared to listen. Maybe he had even come here because he knew what song inevitably boiled up when he did (it certainly had nothing to do with any awareness of Peter singing about the same person), he wasn't sure.

"At least you don't have to play along today," he sang softly to himself.

He looked straight up at the sky. It was useless: it wasn't like he could tell which star housed Shakespeare colony. And yet...

"Somewhere out there,
beneath the pale moonlight,
someone's thinking of me and loving me tonight.

Somewhere out there,
someone's saying a prayer,
that we'll find one another in that big somewhere out there.

And even though I know how very far apart we are,
it helps to think we might be wishing on the same bright star."

[[ open ]]

Comments

[lockestheway]

And here Peter had hoped to escape the whole singing ridiculousness with some shreds of his dignity still intact.

He stopped a few feet away and shoved his hands into his pockets.

"Well, there's three versions of this story, mine and yours and then the truth."

He felt tired, mostly.

[endsthegame]

Well.

Ender sucked in a deep breath and shut his eyes.

"And we can put it down to circumstance: our childhood, then our youth."

[lockestheway]

Peter kicked at the sand. He didn't want to do this, but by now he knew he wasn't getting out of it one way or the other.

"Out of some sentimental gain I wanted you to feel my pain, but it came back return to sender."

He'd been avoiding Ender this summer for a reason.

[endsthegame]

"I read your mind and tried to call, my tears could fill the Albert Hall
Is this the sound of sweet surrender?"

Sometimes, these things didn't make much sense. Ender sighed, annoyed but long since resigned.

[momslilassassin]

"Ho, kreetle," Ben said softly. He'd been on his own walk, trying to clear his head a bit. "Val?"

[endsthegame]

"The usual," Ender agreed. "But don't remind me how ridiculous it is to say that."

[momslilassassin]

"If I sing one more maudlin song about accepting death, you have my permission to drown me in the surf," Ben told him.

[endsthegame]

"I had been thinking about it," Ender admitted. He was mostly joking.

[momslilassassin]

Ben flopped down next to him on the sand, then leaned back, ignoring how much sand would end up in his hair, and covered his eyes with his hand. "This daaaaaaaaaaaaay," he whined.

[endsthegame]

Ender patted him gently on the stomach. "It's not like this is a first."

[momslilassassin]

"I think that's what makes it even more irritating," Ben said. "I know there's nothing I can do to stop it."

[endsthegame]

"You could try duct tape again," Ender said.

[momslilassassin]

"Tempting," Ben admitted. "If I sing one more kriffing Sarah McLachlan song..."

[endsthegame]

Ender patted him again. "I'll muffle you," he promised. "Somehow."

[momslilassassin]

"Kuso," Ben said before beginning to sing:

Chasing fireflies, elusive dreams
This pre-life crisis is killing me
Beautiful tragedy who I was, wasn't me

Yeah, yeah
You make it easier to be
Easier to be me
It's hard to believe
You make it easy

[endsthegame]

Ender let out a big sigh, rolled on top of him, and kissed him.

It was the best way he could think of to muffle Ben without having to resort to something possibly lethal.

[momslilassassin]

Thank you, Ender!

Ben kissed him back with all of his focus. Go away, stupid singing.

[endsthegame]

The down side was that at any time one of their students could walk in and see them making out... a little aggressively.

So Ender pulled away after a couple of moments. "Well."

[momslilassassin]

"Better," Ben replied, sounding a little breathless.

[endsthegame]

Ender nodded, panting a little.

"Look back in silence; the cradle of your whole life-- There in the distance, losing its greatest prize. Nothing is easy, nothing is sacred. Why? Where did the bough break? It happened before your time."

Sigh. Just... sigh.

There were people there, lovely as you've ever cared. Tonight. Baby, you can start again."

[momslilassassin]

Ben leaned in to kiss Ender.

For science!

[endsthegame]

Ender kissed him back, because honestly, they had done this several years in a row and there was precious little in terms of... anything they were going to get out of something so annoying.

[momslilassassin]

"I ate something," Ben offered when they finally came up for breath again. "So you don't have to ask if I did."

[endsthegame]

"How much?" Ender asked without missing a single beat.

[momslilassassin]

"Fries," Ben admitted after a long pause.