Second Floor Common Room, Thursday Afternoon

[endsthegame]

This wasn't the best of days, even if the nuisance was pretty small. Ender'd made the mistake of going outside this morning, and although he'd fled inside at the first sign of trouble, 'the first sign' had still left a sizable pink splotch on his head, covering part of his eye and tailing up into his hair.

He was just going to choose to ignore it. He had settled inside instead, on the couch with a bowl of something a little like a snack, watching a history documentary about World War 2.

[ open common room, yep. ]

Comments

[momslilassassin]

"Your head is pink," Ben said as he walked into the common room.

Behold the observational power of the Jedi.

[endsthegame]

"So is yours," Ender replied, failing to divert his attention away from the television. "It just happens to be lighter."

[momslilassassin]

Ben stuck his tongue out at him. "Funny. Were you painting?"

[endsthegame]

"That would've made it easier to understand." Ender reached up to touch the spot briefly. It was more a demonstration than anything else. "Watch the skies."

[momslilassassin]

Ben blinked. "Paint is falling from the sky? Weird..."

[endsthegame]

Ender looked away from the television. He found Ben easily with his gaze and rubbed his forehead again, unconsciously this time. "You're telling me," he said.

[momslilassassin]

Ben flopped bonelessly onto one of the couches. "So how was your weekend?" he asked. "I woke up with some girl I barely know, so that was, you know, awkward."

[endsthegame]

He barely gave that any thought at all. "I've had worse weekends." Or, maybe, a little thought, "But that's not an invitation to repeat it. At all."

[momslilassassin]

"I've had to fight the urge all week to add 'of the Fandom Skywalkers' to my last name," Ben admitted with a small smile. "I'm fine with never, ever repeating that."

[endsthegame]

"I 'came back from boarding school'," he said. It was a little funny-- actually, it was very funny, and Ender had to grin just for the sake of it. "And nearly wound up going home with someone. But at least I still had my name."

[momslilassassin]

"I was fairly certain up until a few days ago that my family couldn't get stranger, but then I watched my cousin almost get married and get into a fight with her sister-slash-mother who looked nothing like her actual mother," Ben said, giggling. "Who'd you almost go home with?"

[endsthegame]

"A very vain man I've never met before in my life," Ender said, and if the statement came out a little dry, it couldn't be helped. "Seemed like the weekend for it."

[momslilassassin]

"It really was," Ben agreed. "And now it's raining paint. A few months of this and I'm not going to be able to recognize normal."

[endsthegame]

"Probably." At that, he flashed Ben something of a smile. "Although I don't think either of us did very well with 'normal' to begin with."

[momslilassassin]

Ben smiled back. "That is certainly true. At least here's normal is a lot more...whimsical...than home's normal."

[endsthegame]

"If I could choose," and that was always the big if, Ender didn't say, "I'd go with paint from above."

[momslilassassin]

Ben's smile turned a little wistful. "Yeah."

[endsthegame]

He knew that look. It made him think of somebody else. "I think you can still catch up with me if you head outside now," Ender noted, "There must be some blue lying in ambush for you yet."

[momslilassassin]

"I wouldn't want to be left out," Ben said, bouncing up off the sofa and returning a few minutes later with a splotch of bright blue paint covering his shoulder.

"Better?"

[endsthegame]

"It's fetching," Ender judged, his eyebrows knitting up in almost-amusement. "Although it's not as good as the head."

[momslilassassin]

"The ones coming down looked orange," Ben made up, "and I figured you wouldn't be able to tell the difference with my actual hair."

[endsthegame]

"Are you telling me I'm blind, Skywalker?"

He could use that tone as well as he ever had.

[momslilassassin]

Ben shrugged. "I thought if I was going to get my head wet, it should at least be interesting. Orange isn't interesting."

[endsthegame]

"And you've just decided that, small fry?" If asked, Ender would probably deny the fact that he was having fun. That didn't make it any less true.

[momslilassassin]

Ben sat back down on the sofa. "I did. Besides, you only have one splotch."

[endsthegame]

Ender levelled the remote at the television. The documentary he'd been watching had finished. "It's not my fault I have good aim."

[momslilassassin]

Ben snorted. "Was this really about aim? I just walked outside."

[endsthegame]

Ender shot him a look. "It is if you can't land paint on your head," he said, "How do you expect to defeat the entire universe with blue on your shoulder?"

[momslilassassin]

"Fine," Ben said, walking over to the window and opening it, then reaching into the Force to snag a half dozen rocks from the air. "Where would you like the paint now?"

[endsthegame]

"The head," he said, simply. "Try for the eye. We'll see how good of a shot you are."

Ben could go for his own head, or for Ender's; he was prepared for either possibility.

[momslilassassin]

Ben smiled, then closed his eyes and shot one rock straight at Ender's left eye and one at his own.

He was scarily accurate.

"Like that?" he asked, opening his eyes again and smiling through the bright purple paint.

[endsthegame]

Ender lowered the hand he'd been holding up in front of his eyes. Little splatters of the paint-stuff-whatever it was had made it past, leaving odd little patterns on his face.

"You might not be a completely useless shot after all." High praise, that.

[momslilassassin]

"Thanks," Ben said dryly. "A couple people at home don't think I'm half bad either."

Including a now-dead chief of state. Ben pushed that firmly from his mind.

[endsthegame]

"But not the best I've ever seen." That would always be Petra. Ender lowered his hand enough that he could take a look at the damage. "Are you trying to turn me into a technicolor giraffe?"

[momslilassassin]

"Do you want to be a technicolor giraffe?" Ben asked, shrugging off Ender's comment. He'd rather not pick up a sniper rifle again in his life if he could manage it.

[endsthegame]

"I don't think I've ever aspired in that direction."

Hm, he thought, but didn't voice it.

[momslilassassin]

Ben grinned and juggled the remaining rocks between his hands. "You could always branch out, be something different..."

[endsthegame]

Something in Ender's expression wobbled, but it steadied as quickly as it had come. "I don't think being a giraffe is in the cards for me."

[momslilassassin]

Ben caught the change in expression but didn't mention it. "Dalmation?" he asked. "Something else that's spotted?"

[endsthegame]

"I think it's only fair if you give it a test drive, first."

[momslilassassin]

"As long as I'm not the only spotted idiot in the room at the end of it, sure," Ben replied.

[endsthegame]

"We'll see about that."

[momslilassassin]

Ben raised his eyebrows. "You really think you're that much better than me."

[endsthegame]

"Physically, you have the edge." That strange... force... issue. "But I'm not planning on being an idiot."

[momslilassassin]

"Me either," Ben said, then kind of negated that by flinging another rock towards Ender.