"I never expected anything to be fair," Ender replied, but then he was hugging Ben back, chin on his shoulder. He didn't sob, though he made a little pained noise in the back of his throat-- not just for the Earth, which was lost anyway, but for Peter who had asked for approval of all things, Bean and Petra and Alai and everyone else tearing themselves to shreds back home, for Karla and for all the bad stuff that had happened over the past year.

It was impulsive. He might feel silly for it later. Or maybe not. Ben had a tendency to coax him into the odd impulse.