October 20 // Ender's Game // off that wall
Title: off that wall
Day/Theme: October 20 / all the king's horses
Series: Ender's Game
Character/Pairing: Bean, Ender
Rating: G
Disclaimer: I don't own Ender's Game.
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It's always the leader that takes the fall; the one who cracks, falls into fragments off a wall, starts shimmying into a straitjacket and bounces off that wall.
Bean knows this, so when Ender falls ill and sick and starts crawling deeper into the dark, hollow comfort of his blankets, Bean marvels that Ender's lasted this long. They fix Ender up, slap some bandages on his bleeding knuckles and feed a synthesized version of Valentine's voice in his ears when he writhes fitfully at night; and soon, Ender returns with a deceptively placid face, lips relaxed against teeth that have ripped through the skin of his fingers. But apparently, Ender's too fragile -- too much of a prize, too much of a risk -- to be sent back home after the war; even all of the Jeesh can't save him now.
And try as they might, they can't put Bean back together again, either, when it's his turn to be rocketed into the farspace and never return.
Day/Theme: October 20 / all the king's horses
Series: Ender's Game
Character/Pairing: Bean, Ender
Rating: G
Disclaimer: I don't own Ender's Game.
-----
It's always the leader that takes the fall; the one who cracks, falls into fragments off a wall, starts shimmying into a straitjacket and bounces off that wall.
Bean knows this, so when Ender falls ill and sick and starts crawling deeper into the dark, hollow comfort of his blankets, Bean marvels that Ender's lasted this long. They fix Ender up, slap some bandages on his bleeding knuckles and feed a synthesized version of Valentine's voice in his ears when he writhes fitfully at night; and soon, Ender returns with a deceptively placid face, lips relaxed against teeth that have ripped through the skin of his fingers. But apparently, Ender's too fragile -- too much of a prize, too much of a risk -- to be sent back home after the war; even all of the Jeesh can't save him now.
And try as they might, they can't put Bean back together again, either, when it's his turn to be rocketed into the farspace and never return.