The Roof, Thursday Morning

[endsthegame]

By now, Ender had identified whatever was going on with him as the raging hormones that they were. He still didn't like it; the indirectness of the itch, the way it made him flush for no reason at all, was troubling. Maybe if there had been an actual target for it, it would've made more sense to deal with, but there wasn't

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[heartflames]

Eleanor had been feeling rather itchy herself since yesterday. She was used to rising early, but this time she was up purely because she couldn't sleep.

One can only handle tossing and turning for so long.

She thought the roof might be a good place to relax for a bit, catching the morning before she had to worry about class. She hadn't expected anyone else to be up there.

"Oh. Good morning," she said with a nod.

It might be noticed that she was still in her thin white linen nightdress with only a knitted shawl around her shoulders and bare feet.

[endsthegame]

It was a fact of life that if you took to the roof when you didn't want anyone to be there, someone would be there. Of course Ender spent a lot of time on the roof; it wasn't really a surprise, then.

It didn't stop that chimp from curling under his skin, leaning into not-quite-right but drawing his eyes to the lines of her skin by the nightdress anyway.

He fought it. His eyes went up to her face. "Good morning."

[heartflames]

"It's a lovely morning, isn't it?"

Not exactly a great conversation starter, but Eleanor couldn't think of much else. She was too busy noticing his eyes. Wow.

[endsthegame]

No, it wasn't a lovely morning. It was tiring, exhausting, even, and posing a strain. In the interest of maintaining a normal facade, Ender tried for a slight smile. "I guess," he said.

It wasn't brilliant, either. Not to his standards.

[bad_nose_job]

Penelope rushed out onto the roof, a hand covering her heart in a senseless attempt to still its rapid beating. Winded, she fled for the edge of the roof, both hands splaying flat against the barrier, and there she closed her eyes, gulping in the fresh morning air.

Sleeping had proved difficult. Her body ached; there were feelings she couldn't name nor express and she ached, not knowing how to satiate the raging need.

Unaware of anyone else out, she had fled here to try and quiet her minds thoughts, and more importantly get some sort of stoic grip on innominate emotions that continued to plague her.

[endsthegame]

Ender was distracted by the sudden movements, and then the lean of her body by the barrier. He closed his eyes and took in a breath to steal himself, mentally admonishing internal wiring, valves and wheels that had been long left in the dust to quiet themselves.

He didn't say anything to greet her - whatever it was that was going on with him, with the rest of Fandom, was something he felt no need to provoke.

[bad_nose_job]

Her face tilted upwards, to the sky, to the light, and she felt her body grow warm once more. The heavy sensation that provoked the very root of who she was, had her pressing against the barrier, claiming it.

If only it would push back the desire that seemed to ripple in waves just under the surface of her skin.

There was something wrong with her and she was easy to accept that it possibly could have started with the stick figures in Professor Bond's class yesterday.

"Oh," she murmured on a whisper, "please stop."

[endsthegame]

He shouldn't say anything. The more distance he kept between himself and everyone else, the easier it would be to isolate his own hormones, to keep things simple. "It's probably Fandom Weirdness," he wound up saying, despite his better efforts. "It's like the tides. It'll go."

[withoutverona]

Romeo gave up smoking when he turned 18, on the general theory he was past his days of courting an early death.

Today, though? There was something a little ... he didn't feel quite right in his skin, and even Yurika wasn't helping as much as she usually did. Maybe it was his conversation with Turtle last night putting him in a melancholy mood, he wasn't sure. At any rate, he was up on the roof earlier than he wanted to be awake, stray package of smokes he'd kept for emergencies such as this one in his hand.

Of course, he couldn't be the only one there. "Good morrow," he said, to no one in particular, as he lit his cigarette and found a place on the ledge to sit.

[endsthegame]

"Morning, Romeo."

He'd hoped that if there weren't any girls around, the whirling of his hormones wouldn't be quite as disorienting. Instead, Romeo seemed to make it worse somehow, and Ender caught himself staring at the line of his arm while he lit that cigarette.

He shook his head and wiped at his eyes, and thought about space coordinates.

[withoutverona]

Romeo caught the look, but chose to ignore it. It wasn't a new sort of thing for him, if he'd even read it rightly.

So: "I hope it doesn't rain all day," he observed, glancing a the sky and then out toward the coast. "It doesn't feel like the kind of day to spend trapped inside."

[endsthegame]

"I think the student population would probably survive better if they weren't," Ender said, neutrally. Space coordinates worked. They were logical, they patterned his mind in the right ways, and if he wanted to, he could add pictures, stretches of calculations, anything to give his brain a good rattle.

Safe and stable. "The island's in a mood."

[sorella_vecchia]

Triela wasn't sure at all why she was so restless, but she'd woken up early enough that she'd finished her run hours before she usually did. She was feeling too... something to shower and get dressed for class quite yet so she wandered up to the roof.

Which was rather out of character since it meant she was wearing a worn pair of running shorts and a short-sleeved shirt. And that her hair was slightly disarrayed and a fine sheen of sweat was still visible. The sweat was weird because she hadn't really been running that hard... Ditto the elevated heart rate.

[endsthegame]

Ender made a mental note not to go near the roof until any of this had cleared up again. "Triela," he greeted.

[sorella_vecchia]

Triela's eyes snapped to him and then, uncharacteristically, looked him up and down. "Hey, Ender," she returned, sounding distracted.

[endsthegame]

He had a good inkling why. "This might not be the best time."

[momslilassassin]

Ben had slept restlessly, even for him. He just couldn't find a way to get comfortable.

So he'd headed for the roof, hoping that some air would help.

...he really should have checked to see if anyone else was up there.

"Ho, Ender."

[endsthegame]

He should have, yes, as a sense of oh crap passed over Ender the same moment his inner chimp broke into a grin.

It wasn't easy to juggle both of those impulses at once; he suspected he looked a little like a deer in headlights, if more subtly so.

[momslilassassin]

Ben's forehead creased as he frowned. He'd gotten good at reading that face and could tell when something wasn't right. "Are you okay?"

Not that he was okay, himself, but making sure Ender was was suddenly much, much more important than it usually was.

[endsthegame]

"I'm fine," he said, snagging some of his precious cool by the horns and tugging it towards him. He couldn't be that person. He wasn't the chimp. "It's just a strange week."