TITLE: How to Lose at Chess (and Win at Love)

SUMMARY: Yes, Sakura might truly be the kingdom's worst chess player… but she was also, uncontestedly, the most adorable one. [Written for LeoSaku week 2016]

PROMPT: Chess

WARNING: There are traces of smut, but nothing explicit.

SPOILERS: Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation

Playing chess with Sakura was… well, Leo wasn't quite sure how to best describe it, but it certainly was an experience.

As an avid chess player himself, he was surprised to encounter a lot of "firsts" in the game when facing Sakura as an opponent. For one, he'd never played against someone who got upset at him for even using the word "pawn."

"But, Sakura… that's just what the piece is called," Leo told his wife, almost exasperatedly.

"Well, that m-may be so... but... don't you think that it's kind of hurtful?" she wondered seriously. "I don't want them to think they're just b-being used, or that they're expendable to me. I want all of my pieces to know that they're making an important contribution, and that I truly treasure them for their efforts."

Leo stared at her as if she had three heads, or maybe nine tails.

They were still talking about chess, right? The game with the wooden, inanimate pieces that, to his knowledge, were neither sentient nor sensate?

"Um, well," Leo started, clearing his throat to avoid his discomfort as she pouted at him. "I suppose that there is a renowned Chevois chess player, Rémy Bonhomme, who famously said that the pawn is the soul of chess…"

Sakura seemed to light up at his words, clearly glad that someone else in the world had acknowledged the importance of the pawn, and an increasingly familiar sensation tugged at the corners of his heart as she smiled so brightly at him. Even with his vast pools of knowledge, he'd never truly known how to characterize such a feeling, but he was smart enough to know that her presence was generally the cause of it.

His mouth seemed intent at that very moment to undo his carefully crafted scowl, and he at least hoped that no one was around to see him grinning at her like a lovesick idiot.

And yet, alas, her sentimental philosophy on the game made her a terrible chess player. Whereas his own unmatched (and sometimes, ruthless) logic made him quite exceptional at the game, her tender heart seemed to sabotage her at every turn.

He recalled one time when he'd even blatantly made every move that he could so that she would actually win the match, only for her to falter at the end.

"Sakura, why didn't you take my rook?" he asked, stunned at her obvious oversight. "You would have had checkmate…"

"Oh, w-well, I would have had to use my bishop to capture it," she said with a completely straight face, as if that explained anything at all.

"... And?" he asked, utterly confused.

Perhaps the most ridiculous part of it all was that she was looking at him as if he were the crazy one.

"It's a bishop, Leo," she said again, as if repeating it would cause the statement to make actual sense. "If he's a man of the gods, then don't you think he'd be opposed to violence? It just d-didn't seem right for me impose my will to win the game on his devout beliefs like that…"

There was simply no veritable way for him to respond to that, so instead, he just rested his face into his palm and sighed deeply. Internally, he debated whether this was worse than when she'd gotten her pawn all the way across to the other side of the chessboard, only to be deeply hurt that she couldn't promote it to the designation of… pawn.

For obvious reasons he'd always thought that the pawn was her favorite chess piece… that is, until one day when one of the black knights had gone missing. He'd been in a sour mood once he'd noticed its disappearance, scouring the library doggedly to find it, until a guilty-looking Sakura had produced the piece and informed him that it'd been in her pillowcase the entire time. At first Leo had thought she'd hid the piece from him on purpose so that they wouldn't be able to play together anymore. Yet, when he'd relentlessly teased her about it (... perhaps she was tired of constantly losing to him?), her eyes had glittered with hurt.

"Oh, n-no, Leo, I would never do that!" she insisted.

"Oh? Then why else would the piece be in your pillowcase, Sakura?" he persisted, feeling smug.

At that she looked away from him, and he smirked in triumph.

Check and mate.

"Actually... I sleep with it in my pillowcase every night," she confessed quietly, clearly feeling self-conscious. "I g-guess that I just forgot to put it back this time."

He merely blinked at her. Once. Twice.

Three times.

"And why ever would you do that?" he finally asked, completely baffled.

"W-well, it's just that… that piece reminds me of you," she told him simply.

Leo looked at the black knight that he was now holding in his hand, then back at her, and he was pretty sure that the entire castle would be well-heated that night from all the warmth that was currently radiating from his cheeks.

She must have been too embarrassed at having been caught with the piece to sleep with it anymore, so the next night, he decided to slip it into her pillowcase for her. Even though he slept right beside her, he liked the idea of having another little piece of him so close to her during the night.

Even just the thought of it made him smile.

Yes, Sakura might truly be the kingdom's worst chess player… but she was also, uncontestedly, the most adorable one.

Perhaps the oddest part of it all was that she was the one who kept insisting that they play together, even though she was so unapologetically terrible at the game. Not that he minded, of course. Playing chess with Sakura might be one of the less cognitively stimulating things that he could do with his time, but there was nothing he enjoyed more than being with her. Plus, if he was being completely honest, he couldn't wait to hear what her next endearing notion on the game he loved so much might be.

And as time went on and she reached the twilight of her teenage years, he also came to find that their little chess matches presented the perfect opportunity for him to stare at her unabashedly. He'd always thought that she was cute - pretty, even - but as she'd gotten older, the mere sight of her began to take his breath away. It'd been slightly disconcerting at first to feel like not even a moment would pass without him being plagued by such base desires, but soon enough, he'd managed to come to terms with his insatiable hunger for her.

It certainly wasn't a coincidence that they generally enjoyed their most intimate moments right after their chess endeavors, considering that the timing always correlated with him getting to stare at her so closely for the better part of an hour.

Maybe this time, he wouldn't even wait for the match to be over before he made his advances. Although, he wasn't sure if "wouldn't wait" or "couldn't wait" was a more accurate reflection of his present state of mind. Currently, she was very quietly and fiercely concentrated, which was a bit surprising as it seemed to be a long way off from the buoyant earnestness that she usually brought to the game. Still, there was something quite alluring about the methodical and serious expressions that she kept making.

He watched as she bit her lip, nearly growling as he imagined laying her down on top of the chessboard and claiming her lips for his own. At first she'd probably whimper in surprise, but it wouldn't take all too long for her to reciprocate his fervor, writhing on top of the chessboard with want as the black knight she'd been lying on pressed into her back. She might offer some small protests at first about how anyone could walk in on them at any minute, but her worries would quickly die out as her mind and body became otherwise occupied.

"Ch-check…"

Then he'd move his lips down to her collarbone, which was a place that he'd discovered she was quite sensitive. She'd cry out with pleasure as he sucked gently on the vulnerable spot, caressing her waist simultaneously with one of his hands. Maybe then he'd even find the other black knight and trail it down her body provocatively, stopping only an inch below her belly button, at which point she'd start begging him to take her. Still, of course he'd have to tease her just a bit more, waiting for her to call out his-

"... checkmate!"

Leo became momentarily confused at why Sakura was yelling "Checkmate!" at him in his fantasy, until wisps of logic so rudely replaced the captivating scenes of his vivid imagination with what was happening in the present.

Wait… did she really just say… checkmate?!

His eyes bulged with disbelief and he nearly fell out of his chair as he shifted abruptly to get a better look at the chessboard below him.

But, undoubtedly, there was no move that his king could make without being captured, and for a moment, Leo found it difficult to breathe.

He'd… lost?

Leo forced himself to clear his throat. "Well… um… good game, Sakura," he congratulated her with an air of diplomacy that would have impressed even King Edmund IV, the only Nohrian monarch in the last two centuries that hadn't brought their kingdom to war.

Yes, surely he could lose graciously…

Unfortunately, though, he couldn't seem to keep his right eye from twitching.

"Oh, th-thank you," she said softly, but he wasn't even looking at her. Instead he was staring straight at the board, as if the pieces that had betrayed him would move into their rightful positions were he to simply continue to glare at them. "Um, I'll b-be right back, if you don't mind?"

He nodded listlessly, only half hearing her while he tried to recount the match in his head, and where it'd all gone wrong. He was pretty sure that he'd started the match by moving his queen's pawn to D4, and then…

But after he'd gone through the entire match move by move - well, at least the parts that he could remember, having been a bit distracted for most of the game - he suddenly realized that Sakura still hadn't returned. Frowning, he abandoned the chessboard (which still contained the evidence of his humiliating loss… he'd be sure to fix that later), and he left the library to go and find her.

However, he only managed to bump into Elise… a very, very angry Elise, who was looking threateningly at him.

"What did you do, you big jerk?" she accused, and Leo bristled in surprise.

"What? What are you talking about?" he responded with no small amount of bewilderment.

"I just saw Sakura running down the hallway, crying," she told him, and his confusion instantly turned into alarm.

"I have no idea why she's crying, Elise," Leo informed her, quickly scouring his mind for any reason that she might be upset. "I didn't do anything…"

That response seemed to earn him a swift, hard kick in the shin.

"Ow! Are you kidding, Elise? Did you just kick me? Seriously, I know that you claim to be an adult, but have you somehow been regressing in age this whole time?" he asked with uncontained annoyance.

"Hmph. The only thing regressing is your stupid, ugly vest!" she countered.

Leo was ready to pull out his hair. "That doesn't even make any- argh! No, you know what, I don't even care. Can you just tell me where to find Sakura?" he pleaded.

"I think she was heading to your room, but I'm not positive…"

"Fine. Good," Leo said, and without another word he ran in that direction.

"If you make my sister cry again, you'll regret it!" she called out after him, and she actually sounded almost frightening.

Her sister? By marriage, yes, but Leo was Elise's brother by blood - one would think that would count for something and instill some kind of loyalty. He knew that Elise and Sakura were as thick as thieves, though, so he supposed he should appreciate the fact that Elise was so protective of his gentle wife.

Speaking of Sakura, it wasn't much longer until he found her, since she was in their bedchambers just as Elise had speculated. The door hadn't been locked but it had been closed, so when Leo barged in almost frantically, she'd been quite startled. She promptly started to rub at her face with her hands as if she could somehow hide the fact that she'd just been crying.

"Sakura? What… what's wrong?" he asked. His heart was pounding with unease at the sight of her in such distress.

"Oh! I-it's nothing, Leo. Please d-don't concern yourself over it," she told him as she continued to sniffle.

"Sakura, please talk to me," he implored her, remembering Elise's accusations when he'd bumped into her in the hallway. "Was it something I did, or said? Did I… did I hurt you in some way?" He felt ill at the thought, but clearly something had happened, and since he'd just been with her, the logical theory was that he'd been the one to cause her tears.

Maybe he should have let Elise kick him even harder.

"No, Leo, it w-wasn't you at all!" Sakura promised, as her own maroon eyes grew large and insistent. He felt partial relief at being absolved of bringing her to such a state, but the fact that she was still upset didn't allow him to relax completely. "It was… it was just the g-game," she told him, and once again, he was at a complete and utter loss.

The game? If anything, shouldn't she be happy that she'd won?

"What about it, then?" Leo wondered, trying to understand

"Um, well, you see… in order to win, I had to s-sacrifice my queen," she told him.

"Yes. The queen's sacrifice is a well-known tactical move in the game of chess. You did well to entrap me that way," he affirmed, trying to be encouraging.

"Maybe, but… I didn't even consider… well, what if it was a hollow victory for the king without his queen there by his side? It was so c-cruel of me to choose to just separate them like that, don't you think?" she inquired guiltily. "Maybe the king really loved her, and he would have rather l-lost his kingdom than his queen."

It took incredible effort for Leo to resist giving her a blank stare at the knowledge that this was why she was crying. Instead, he racked his brain to try and think of something comforting to say.

"Sakura…" he started slowly, not wanting to upset her further. "You know that they're just chess pieces, right? They don't have actual feelings."

He'd always humored her on this issue in the past, at least in his own scowling and occasionally frustrated way. Yet, if she was going to get this upset about it, then perhaps it was best if she just stopped playing chess at all.

Although, the thought of never hearing her adorably ridiculous views on the game again made his chest ache, as if he'd be losing something precious.

"I know you think it's s-silly, that I get so worked up about the pieces," she sniffled, wiping the tears from under her eyes with her index finger.

"It is silly," he agreed, and her lips started to wobble ever so slightly.

He smiled at her and pulled her hand away from her face, holding it gently in his. "But honestly, I also think that it's rather sweet."

Her eyes widened and her mouth opened into a small 'o', clearly surprised by his admission.

He then cupped the side of her face with his other hand and leaned down to kiss her. There really was no one quite like her in the world, was there? No one else with a heart so big that it even extended to the anthropomorphic figurines on a chessboard, of all things.

And somehow, out of all the men in all the kingdoms, she'd chosen to be with him. He was the lucky one who got to be the beneficiary of her warm, caring feelings, the same ones that had blanketed him in the coldest and darkest of moments.

As their kiss drew to a close he was glad to see that her tears had finally ceased, and she was even smiling up at him now. However, there was one thing that was still bothering him…

"Sakura, there's something that I've always wondered," he told her, and his eyes searched hers probingly, as if he could somehow find the answers he sought directly from her large, maroon orbs. "Why do you always suggest that we play chess together? It can't be much fun for you to keep on losing, and yet doing what you need to do in order to win just seems to hurt you."

"Well," she started, "you love chess more than anything, so I thought that p-playing together would make you happy."

No, you're wrong. It's not chess that I love more than anything.

"But, I knew that I wasn't challenging you, and that playing with me wasn't really fun for you at all," she continued quietly. "So, I really wanted to t-try my hardest this time, even if it made me miserable. P-perhaps that sounds strange, but I… I'd do anything for you, Leo."

He almost had to take a step backward as her heartfelt words barreled into him. Once again he started to feel breathless, as if his body was so distracted by the feelings she'd instilled in him that it forgot how to perform its most basic function. After all, even though it was her kind heart that had caused him to fall in love with her so quickly and so hopelessly in the first place, when she directed the full weight of it at him like this, it was nearly overwhelming.

"You know, you were right before, Sakura," he then told her, but it almost sounded like there was a piece of gravel stuck in his throat. "If your king in our game cared for his queen nearly a fraction as much as I love you, and she'd sacrificed herself for his sake, then it would have been a hollow victory for him indeed." He then pulled her in closely to him, holding her by the waist while she rested her hands on the lateral muscles of his back. "I know that you'd do anything for me, but not that, never that. Do you promise?"

The 'queen's sacrifice,' that's what he was referring to. It didn't matter that he wasn't the king, that she wasn't the queen, and that Xander had ushered in an era of peace with Corrin and Ryoma once Anankos had been defeated. Anything could happen at any time, and he wouldn't risk losing her, not even for Nohr and certainly not for his own sake.

"Leo… n-nothing like that will ever happen," Sakura said soothingly, brushing her fingers through his bangs and then against his scalp, like she always did when she was trying to calm him. "The world is at peace now."

He forced himself to ignore the pleasure of her gentle caresses in his hair, consciously making the effort to prevent his eyes from rolling back into his head, and instead he leaned his forehead down to rest it against hers. "No, Sakura. That's not good enough. Promise me," he commanded, unable to let the point go, not when the thought of ever losing her was simply too terrifying.

She was silent for a long moment, causing him to tighten his hold on her. "Okay, Leo," she finally acquiesced. "If that's what you r-really need to hear, then… I promise."

He finally felt the build up of tension leaving his body. "Good," he told her, staring down at her beautiful face. He then used their proximity as an excuse to kiss her, slipping his tongue between her soft, pink lips.

Her sweet tongue soon moved against his while their lips continued the intoxicating pattern of press and release, press and release. His hand then reached around to the back of her head to push her more tightly against him, as if he'd somehow be able to consume more of her that way.

When he finally pulled away her eyes opened but were glazed over, and his desire for her was so palpable that he longed to lean back down and lose himself in her completely.

Yet, as difficult as it was, he made himself resist. He had some other plans in mind for them today, after all…

He therefore disengaged from her fully in order to ensure that he didn't fall prey to her own advances, nearly smirking when he saw the clear signs of disappointment flashing over her face.

Patience, my dear wife. We can indulge in each other to our heart's content soon enough.

For now, though, there were too many things that had been left unsaid, too many things that he needed for her to understand. "You did make one miscalculation earlier, Sakura, and I'd be remiss to not inform you about it," he told her, picking up their conversation again.

"Hmm?" she asked, yet her thoughts were clearly elsewhere and it took a moment for her to refocus her attention.

"You implied that I didn't enjoy playing chess with you because it wasn't challenging enough," he reminded her. "That's not true, though. In fact, you challenge me in ways that I never could have imagined. Your pure heart defies all logic and is still a puzzle to me, after all… one that I want to spend the rest of my life trying to solve. And that part of you never shines more brightly than when I watch you fret so fervently over your inanimate, wooden soldiers."

"Leo…" Sakura breathed, but he wasn't finished.

"I don't ever want you to feel like you need to compromise that side of yourself just to make me happy," he continued seriously. "To think that I've led you to ignore your kind instincts, or caused you any pain because of it… that's not something that I ever want from you, and, quite frankly, that's not something I want on my conscience. I married you because of who you are, Sakura, not because I wanted you to become more like me."

In fact… that would probably be the last thing that he'd ever want.

"I had n-no idea that you felt that way, Leo," she responded as a tint of pink started to cutely stain her cheeks. "I have to admit, though, I'm a bit relieved. It's just that, you're so smart, and… w-well, sometimes I fear that I might start to bore you."

His eyebrows shot all the way up into his forehead at that, although she couldn't even see his stunned expression since she was now looking at the ground.

"I can promise you, that's not possible," he told her, reassuring her with his touch as he pulled her in close to him.

"Even if I k-keep losing to you in chess?" she asked as she peered up at him, but she was smiling now, and he could barely even manage to make himself swallow as he looked at her.

Suddenly he picked her up, ignoring her surprised squeals as he shifted her into a more comfortable position in his arms. "That's really not a problem," he told her playfully. "In fact, I quite enjoy winning."

"Leo! Wh-what are you doing?" she cried out as he continued to carry her bridal style, now marching her into the hallway.

"We have unfinished business in the library," he told her, fully intending to show her just how little she bored him.

"What?" she asked, confused. "But we already f-finished our game. Are we playing again?"

He suddenly recalled the fantasy he'd had earlier during the match. The image of her lying down on the chessboard and completely at his mercy was still all too fresh in his mind, and he smiled wickedly while his grip on her tightened.

"Oh, don't worry, Sakura," he assured her, gazing down at the girl who never failed to make his heart race. "I have a different kind of game in mind for us this time."

Her sharp intake of breath indicated that she realized his meaning, and she pressed her embarrassed face into his chest. However, any protests on the matter were noticeably silent, and his smirk only grew larger.

Yes, it looked like it was going to be yet another chess "first" for them… and hopefully, just one of many more to come.

Many, many more.

END NOTE: Well, this is probably about as unangsty as it gets from me, so, I hope you liked it! I'm not sure that I'll have time for any more prompts with the holidays coming up, but if I am able I will certainly contribute.

Thanks to all the organizers, contributors, readers, and commenters making this LeoSaku week a great one!

P.S. Janiforme on Tumblr is planning to do an art companion piece for this fic at some point, probably this week, if you want to check it out!