The Pool; Friday Morning [ 06/05 ].

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

Valentine figured she was pretty good at hiding the fact that she'd been pretty disquieted over the last few days. She had multiple theories that easily explained it well enough that she could shove it aside and not directly approach the topic. She was good at that, avoiding something until she was sure it could be useful to her. But the fact that she couldn't quite piece together how what she was feeling could be useful to her lead her to wanting to step back from it all for a moment.

She decided to go down to the pool, figuring it would be quiet in the morning, and she could just sit a while, thinking, comforted by the water and what water meant to her now. She considered ducking into town to pick up a swimsuit that was a little...more interesting than hers, basic and functional, but then settled on the fact that basic and functional was all that was needed. Anything something more interesting would accomplish would be to draw attention to certain aspects of herself...

...and she wasn't quite knowledgeable enough about those aspects to go flashing them around for other people to see, really. That's why she was here now, in the morning after her class, sitting at the edge of the pool and watching her feet trail through the water, enjoying the isolation of the big empty room and thinking about isolation in a lake basin on a raft.

It was a good way to kill the morning hours.


[[ open pool is open! ]]

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[endsthegame]

Ender stayed put, turning his hand a little so her palm could fit smoothly in it. "I know," he said, "I can take it." It wasn't anything like Ben, and all the confusion resulting from that-- it was just Val, and while he didn't fully trust her and he doubt she trusted him, it was Val.

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

Valentine snorted a little, and squeezed his hand a little. "You wouldn't be you if you couldn't."

[endsthegame]

"It would be a little sad," he said, smiling. "Ender Wiggin, felled by his sister's cruel insults."

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

"Sad," Valentine agreed, nodding gravely. "But oddly not surprising."

[endsthegame]

He brought his foot up for another half-hearted splash. "I'll be happy when this is over," he confided.

Well, for any standard of happy.

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

"When what's over?"

[endsthegame]

"Whatever the island is doing to screw with our hormones," Ender said, patiently. Or something of the kind, as he focused on Valentine's grip on his own hand. "I don't tend to get like this - the people don't tend to get this bad." A pause. "Ben tried to kiss me."

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

Valentine lifted an eyebrow.

"Did you let him?"

[endsthegame]

"No," he said, and shrugged. "I'm not too fond of letting irrational emotions get the best of me."

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

"Of course you aren't," Valentine said with a small grin, although she admittedly felt a little disappointed. And she was feeling like, somehow, the tickle fight between her and Ben was somehow linked in with this, although it seemed too obtuse to puzzle out at the moment. "You've been handling the insurgence of endorphins well, then?"

[endsthegame]

"I'm putting my focus elsewhere," Ender told her. And, you know, comparing all possible girls to Valentine, and when they didn't hold up, neither did the heat. It worked, on some level. "I'm going to spend most of my time working."

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

"SO I should expect you to be fairly productive."

[endsthegame]

"Arguably. I don't know how much I'll actually get done."