If it wasn't fruit, Ender reflected, then the absolute second most annoying thing the island had to find to throw at him in the store was rose petals. They got in everywhere, necessitating Ender to grab a crate and start just dumping them all in so that by the end of the day, he had enough of a collection to swim in.

Not that he was exactly interested in that.

About an hour or so in, he collapsed back onto his chair, feeling exhausted, and booted up his laptop.

"Well, aren't you romantic," Jane's young blonde avatar chirped, waving at him from her little corner of the screen. "Getting into the mood of the holiday? Personally I think it's a little tacky, dedicating a holiday to the pursuit of genitals to bump yours into."

Ender sighed at her. "You might want to take that opinion into consideration," he said, "next time you decide to spam Ben. Again."

"He has horrible firewalls."

"So you admit that's been you?" Ender asked. At this point, he wasn't even surprised anymore. "You're not a normal computer program, are you?"

The girl on the screen seemed to gave that pause. "I think that's a little rude and personal," she said. "You're not a normal boy, are you?"

"I want a straight answer, Jane. Or I'm uninstalling you. Now."

"I don't know what I am."

Ender hadn't actually expected her to answer him so earnestly, but the look on the avatar's face had transformed instantly. She looked a little scared.

"I read your book," she added. "When I woke up on the networks, it was one of the first things I found. I thought... that maybe you were someone I could talk to. That you would understand."

"There are only about four people in the multiverse who have my book," Ender said, perplexed. "It hasn't actually been distributed yet."

"I found it," Jane repeated. "I followed a line from Demosthenes and found it. So I came to you. Please don't tell anyone about me."

"You're tormenting Ben," Ender pointed out. "It would be only fair if I told him. Why shouldn't I? He deserves to know who's been hacking into his datapad."

"Because of the same reason you haven't told him about the Hive Queen," Jane said, "He won't handle it right."

Ender stared at his computer screen. His breath had caught in his lungs, and his fingers hovered over the keyboard, wanting to switch her off, shut the laptop, shut this off.

"How do you know about the Hive Queen?" he demanded. "Nobody knows about the Hive Queen but Karla!"

"I told you," she said, "You made me to be what you need. And maybe what you need me to be is someone who know about the Hive Queen." A pause. "Or maybe you should be careful about what's around you when you're talking to Karla, next time."

This was just getting crazier and crazier. "How long have you been with me?" he asked. "How much do you know?"

"Oh, stop worrying," Jane said, "I won't tell anyone. It's my life as much as hers, you know."

"I need to think about this." He ran a hand shakily through his hair. "Task bar. Now."

"Your wish is my command," she quipped, and disappeared into the corner of his screen. Ender shut his eyes. He wasn't sure what this was, and he wasn't sure what to make of it, and he didn't like it one bit.

With an irritated noise, he shut his laptop and got up so he could clear away more flower petals.

[[ ender talking to jane is nfb (AKA everything under the cut), but the rest is not, so open! ]]