Second Floor Common Room, Saturday Morning

[endsthegame]

It was late morning, nearing noon, and Ender had finished his morning exercises a while ago. He'd sat down to work in his room afterwards, but this sense of-- moroseness he had been trying to avoid wouldn't leave him alone, making him restless and a little irritable. Jane's commentary about that hadn't really helped either.

Which was why right now he was curled up on the couch in the common room, with Animal Planet playing some documentary about Brazilian tree-frogs in the background. He'd taken the datapad Ben had given him for his birthday with him, and he was poking idly through stats for alien races he'd never heard of before.

He was still a little restless, but at least he was less irritable. The calm, he could fake.

[[ open! ]]

Comments

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"He teaches Home Ec." A beat. "But he apparently knew another version of me."

Or two.

[child-of-rer.livejournal.com]

Sov recalled that Tony had mentioned people knowing another version of himself before. "Is that a good or a bad thing? Not Home Ec, I mean. Knowing another you."

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"I'm not really sure at the moment," Tony admitted. "As long as people don't hate me for whatever they did, it hasn't been a big problem."

[child-of-rer.livejournal.com]

"Does anyone hate you?"

Sov was actually a little relieved that no one knew another version of them.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"Well, my 'big sister' here seemed to."

[child-of-rer.livejournal.com]

"Does she still hate you?" Sov said, frowning a little. That would be harsh, Tony was hardly someone easy to hate.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

Tony shrugged, taking a seat on the couch. "I haven't really seen her since then, to be honest."

[child-of-rer.livejournal.com]

"If she does, it's hardly fair," Sov said.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"I managed to find plenty of people way nicer anyway," Tony replied with a grin. "How have you been?"

[child-of-rer.livejournal.com]

"Good!" Mostly. Homesick, but they didn't want to talk about that. Then they added, with a smile and a tiny blush: "I went and saw a movie with Juliet."

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"Really?" Tony asked. "Are you two--"

He was possibly assuming Sov knew what he was talking about there.

[child-of-rer.livejournal.com]

Sov didn't, unfortunately. "Are we what?"

It was best to ask, after all.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"You know... dating?"

[child-of-rer.livejournal.com]

"I don't think so," Sov said, blinking. "I mean, she hasn't told me we are. What would that involve?"

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"Going on dates... kissing..." Tony wasn't sure beyond that. "Dating stuff."

[child-of-rer.livejournal.com]

"I think the movie might have been a date." Sov wasn't entirely sure. "But no kissing. I mean, I'm not even sure. She's in kemmer all the time," which was weird, "and that might be strange."

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"...Kemmer?"

[child-of-rer.livejournal.com]

It was still strange having to explain this. "You know, she's a girl all the time. And only a girl."

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"Well, yeah. Because she's a girl," Tony replied slowly. "Is that a problem?"

[child-of-rer.livejournal.com]

"Well, I'm not!" Sov replied, clearly a little nervous about this. "Would that mean if we kissed she'd want to have sex regardless of the time of the month?"

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"...what."

TONY WAS SO CONFUSED.

[child-of-rer.livejournal.com]

"I don't knnow if people here really want to have sex all the time because they're in kemmer all the time and never change gender because that's what people think at home." Sov might have rushed that sentence somewhat. "But I'm not prejudiced."

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

Tony was just going to stare for a moment. Or two. He needed a moment to process things.

"I think she'd probably give more warning if she wanted to have sex." Said the guy who accidentally got to third base after an older version of him hooked up.

[child-of-rer.livejournal.com]

"What kind of warning?" Because it wasn't like they'd be in a kemmer house, where it would be obvious.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"Well." Damn it all. Tony didn't know! "She'll probably want to kiss first. And go on more than just one date."

A beat.

"Did you even want to--you know?"