" Alai saw the tears but had the grace not to say so. " They're fartheads, Ender, they won't even let you take anything you own." Ender grinned and didn't cry after all. " Think I should strip and go naked?" Alai laughed, too.On impulse Ender hugged him, tight, almost as if he were Valentine. He even thought of Valentine then and wanted to go home. " I don't want to go," he said.Alai hugged him back. " I understand them, Ender. You are the best of us. Maybe they in a hurry to teach you everything." " They don't want to teach me everything," Ender said. " I wanted to learn what it was like to have a friend." Alai nodded soberly. " Always my friend, always the best of my friends," he said. Then he grinned. " Go slice up the buggers." " Yeah," Ender smiled back.Alai suddenly kissed Ender on the cheek and whispered in his ear, " Salaam. "