A/N: You know the drill by now. None of 'em are mine, not even Duo. Slight shounen ai, 1+2, heavily implied 3+4. And R&R if you wish to live, puny mortal (in the nicest possible way).
Checkmate
Chapter 1: Battle
I was playing chess, and winning. As usual. The chess computer I was playing on was Quatre's, but he couldn't play chess to save his life and had said that we could all use it as long as we let him teach us to play Mousetrap (now one of my favourite board games). The computer beeped and moved its pawn away from my bishop. I grinned, taking the pawn and checkmating the computer for the eighteenth time that day.
What can I say? I'm just damn good.
"You want to actually play against a real person?" I looked up. Standing in the doorway with that ever-present glare on his face was Heero.
"What, you? I think you're kinda stretching the definition of 'real person' there."
"Hilarious." He didn't seem to be laughing, however. I have yet to see Heero laugh, but I bet that when he does it's scary.
"I didn't know you played chess." I said, more for the sake of having something to say than out of interest.
"There's a lot you don't know. Why do you think I call you the baka?" I still have no idea what 'baka' means, but that's not usually the kind of thing you tell Mr Perfect Soldier. He'd only hit me for being unmitigatedly dumb.
"You sure you want to play?" I asked, changing the subject before he changed his mind. It was gonna be fun to finally kick his ass at something, even if it was only chess. He nodded and sat down opposite me. I started setting up the pieces. "You're black, 'K?" He nodded again. Suddenly I had an idea and grinned evilly.
"What's funny, Maxwell?" He was still completely poker-faced.
I sniggered. "I've got an idea."
"If this is gonna turn out anything like the Noodle Incident, I'm leaving."
"Nope, this is nothing like the Noodle Incident. That was an accident, anyway."
"So what's this great new idea, then?" Sometimes I wish Heero had never found out what sarcasm is.
"Let's make this more interesting." I said, still grinning. "Winner takes all."
He looked a little confused. "All what?"
I rolled my eyes. "Roughly translated, loser has to do anything the winner says for 24 hours. Duh."
I hadn't actually been expecting him to agree without a bit more whining, but he nodded slowly. "OK. Anything within reason, though. I'm not gonna endanger future missions for the sake of a stupid game." I thought about reminding him that he didn't have to play, but didn't because he might take it seriously and I wanted to see just how good he was. Also, I was beginning to think of stuff I could tell him to do when I won. I was wondering whether I could get away with having him Silly-String Wing Zero when he snapped: "Are you gonna play or what?"
"OK, OK. Geez." I moved a pawn forward. The game was on.
[Three and a half hours later]
Heero glared at me over the board. I'd been surprised at how good he was - normally even at the highest level my games against the chess computer only tended to take an hour, and I invariably won. I looked down at the board, contemplating my next move. If I played this right, I realised, I could checkmate him in another couple of moves.
"Hurry up, Maxwell." I stuck my tongue out at him and moved a castle a couple of spaces forward. He stared intently at the board for a while, then slowly a humourless, shark-like smile began to spread over his face. He moved his queen right into the path of my one remaining bishop. I looked up in surprise.
"You trying to lose or what?" I've seen some idiot moves before (hell, even made some in my time), but surely he knew that losing your queen is losing a huge tactical advantage?
"Just move, baka." He glared at me again, which I seriously preferred to the smile. I looked down at the board again, deciding that he just didn't want to admit to making such a huge mistake, and moved the bishop. Hell, is it my fault he'd given me the chance?
As I flicked his queen off the board, he smirked evilly. "Great move, Maxwell." He picked up a castle and moved it just one space forward. "Checkmate."
"Huh?!" I stared in horror at the board. He was kidding, right? I could - wait, no I couldn't, his pawn was in the way. But surely - nope, no white pieces were threatening the castle's space. I swear my jaw dropped. It really was checkmate. "How the hell'd you do that?"
He leaned back in his chair, still smirking. "It's a little trick I picked up called 'being good at chess'."
I slumped defeatedly. "OK, you win. 24 hours and counting." He was gonna make me Silly-String Deathscythe, I knew it. He still hadn't forgiven me for the Noodle Incident (which really does deserve the capital letters, trust me).
He said nothing for a minute, obviously thinking. Any minute now, I thought, the phrase 'Silly-String' is gonna pop into his head. Or maybe he'll make me paint Deathscythe pink. Maybe he'll make me paint Wing Zero pink to remind him of Relena... maybe not.
...Eep! A sudden, terrifying new thought. What if he made me tidy my half of the room we shared? I'd been carefully accumulating junk all over the floor and furniture for ages, and I'd almost emptied all my cupboards. If I had to put all my stuff away, I wouldn't be able to find anything and weeks of hard work would be wasted. He couldn't be so cruel, could he? Oh yeah, so he could. Sometimes the whole Perfect Soldier thing gets kinda scary.
"Uh, hello? Maxwell? You're wasting my time here." Oops, I'd been so busy panicking that I hadn't heard him (the first seven times).
"So what d'you want me to do, then?" Another terrifying thought - no wonder I have nightmares with an imagination like this. "And before you ask, there's no way I'm gonna cut off my brai-"
"Shut up."
Well, that was a start. If that was all I was gonna have to do then, hell, I could handle that. Probably. For five minutes, anyway. Well, three. On a good day.
"Stand up." I stood up, my imagination working overtime. He probably wouldn't shoot me, well, not fatally. What else do you need someone to stand up for? He wasn't really gonna cut off my braid - I hoped. What about - shut up. I was scaring myself again, the main drawback of a morbid and graphic imagination. Heero stood as well, and if I wasn't mistaken he was almost smiling. This couldn't be good. I wasn't shaking, but only because of self-control I didn't know I had.
"Close your eyes." I took a deep breath and complied. This was it, then. Whatever 'this' was. I really wished he'd either get a damn move on or let me open my eyes because any minute I was gonna lose control and start shaking. Before then I hadn't realised that I'm actually slightly scared of Heero. Dammit, couldn't he hurry up? On the other hand, he was probably doing this just to make me sweat. If he was, he was succeeding.
"Hurry up, Yuy. I can't take the pressure." When in doubt, make a joke of the situation.
"I thought I told you to shut up." He had, but if I didn't say something I was gonna have a nervous breakdown or something. I tried to take my mind off the situation and think happy thoughts before I really did go nuts and scream or something. Annoying Wufei... playing Mousetrap with Quatre... winning Trowa's last Poptart in a poker game... listening to Green Day with the volume turned up to full blast...
My train of thought was stopped abruptly when a pair of strong hands gripped my arms, pinning them to my sides, and a moment later warm, soft lips were pressed gently onto mine. I stiffened and my eyes shot open. This had to be a joke, right? Any minute he was gonna break away and laugh or something. Or maybe I'd finally gone nuts, and I was just hallucinating about Heero... kissing... me, or I was dreaming, or drunk. Could I remember anything about any kind of strange-looking mushrooms?
Well, if it was a hallucination it was a damn realistic one. And I had to say, Heero (even if he was a figment of my imagination) was a better kisser than I'd thought - not that I'd thought about kissing Heero at all, because that would mean I had a crush on him and I didn't. At all. Whatever Quatre says.
Heero pulled away, still clutching my arms and breathing a touch more quickly. I stared at him, wide-eyed. "What the hell was that?"
He smirked slightly. "If you don't know that by now, Maxwell, there's no hope for you."
"But... why?"
He kept smirking. "Why d'you think?"
"I don't know, I mean I thought - I thought you and Relena-"
"That bimbo?" he sneered. "Don't make me laugh."
"I - I kind of thought that was kind of impossible. I've been trying for ages but I thought it was, like, physically impossible for the P-Perfect Soldier to raise a smile let alone a laugh-" He was looking at me strangely and it was scaring me a bit- "and, and I always sort of thought that 'cause Relena's all over you, like, all the time and you haven't shot her yet, that's gotta mean something, right? And what you just did, that was kinda scary 'cause I still have no idea why you did it and like I said I thought you and Relena were dating and you're always threatening to kill me or whatever and I - I didn't think WOULD YOU QUIT LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT??"
"Like what?"
"Uh, like you just were. With that weird expression. Um, I can't describe it. Sort of... when your face goes all... um." I babbled, getting more flustered by the minute. He was still looking at me strangely, half-smiling and half... something else. It looked like a mixture between confusion and what I could almost describe as anger or frustration. At me? At himself? I didn't know, but hoped like hell it wasn't at me. I've had Heero's bad moods directed at me before. "Um, Heero?"
No response. He just kept looking at me with those penetrating cobalt eyes. "Yeah, that sorta expression. Uh, like I said, d'you think you could knock it off? You're freakin' me out here." I tried to back away from him, but I'd forgotten that he was still gripping my arms and I got nowhere.
"Why-" Heero began, but was interrupted by Quatre's voice from downstairs.
"Duo! It's your turn to help me with dinner, remember? You're not gonna get out of it this time, so don't make me have to come up there and cry!" Quatre crying is a serious threat, not least because Trowa has deeply buried violent tendencies which come out on whoever upset Quatre.
"OK, I'll be there in a second." I called, turning back to Heero. "Uh, could you let go? 'Cause I sorta, um, have to go help Quatre."
He let go almost reluctantly and I turned to leave, more than a little relieved to get away. I was just about to open the door when he spoke again, quietly and hesitantly. "Wait." I looked over my shoulder. He opened and shut his mouth a few times, then muttered "Never mind. Go help Winner before he cries."
I nodded and reached for the door. "Bye, Heero." No response - I hadn't really expected one. I closed the door behind me and went to annoy - sorry, help - Quatre.
~TBC
Checkmate
Chapter 1: Battle
I was playing chess, and winning. As usual. The chess computer I was playing on was Quatre's, but he couldn't play chess to save his life and had said that we could all use it as long as we let him teach us to play Mousetrap (now one of my favourite board games). The computer beeped and moved its pawn away from my bishop. I grinned, taking the pawn and checkmating the computer for the eighteenth time that day.
What can I say? I'm just damn good.
"You want to actually play against a real person?" I looked up. Standing in the doorway with that ever-present glare on his face was Heero.
"What, you? I think you're kinda stretching the definition of 'real person' there."
"Hilarious." He didn't seem to be laughing, however. I have yet to see Heero laugh, but I bet that when he does it's scary.
"I didn't know you played chess." I said, more for the sake of having something to say than out of interest.
"There's a lot you don't know. Why do you think I call you the baka?" I still have no idea what 'baka' means, but that's not usually the kind of thing you tell Mr Perfect Soldier. He'd only hit me for being unmitigatedly dumb.
"You sure you want to play?" I asked, changing the subject before he changed his mind. It was gonna be fun to finally kick his ass at something, even if it was only chess. He nodded and sat down opposite me. I started setting up the pieces. "You're black, 'K?" He nodded again. Suddenly I had an idea and grinned evilly.
"What's funny, Maxwell?" He was still completely poker-faced.
I sniggered. "I've got an idea."
"If this is gonna turn out anything like the Noodle Incident, I'm leaving."
"Nope, this is nothing like the Noodle Incident. That was an accident, anyway."
"So what's this great new idea, then?" Sometimes I wish Heero had never found out what sarcasm is.
"Let's make this more interesting." I said, still grinning. "Winner takes all."
He looked a little confused. "All what?"
I rolled my eyes. "Roughly translated, loser has to do anything the winner says for 24 hours. Duh."
I hadn't actually been expecting him to agree without a bit more whining, but he nodded slowly. "OK. Anything within reason, though. I'm not gonna endanger future missions for the sake of a stupid game." I thought about reminding him that he didn't have to play, but didn't because he might take it seriously and I wanted to see just how good he was. Also, I was beginning to think of stuff I could tell him to do when I won. I was wondering whether I could get away with having him Silly-String Wing Zero when he snapped: "Are you gonna play or what?"
"OK, OK. Geez." I moved a pawn forward. The game was on.
[Three and a half hours later]
Heero glared at me over the board. I'd been surprised at how good he was - normally even at the highest level my games against the chess computer only tended to take an hour, and I invariably won. I looked down at the board, contemplating my next move. If I played this right, I realised, I could checkmate him in another couple of moves.
"Hurry up, Maxwell." I stuck my tongue out at him and moved a castle a couple of spaces forward. He stared intently at the board for a while, then slowly a humourless, shark-like smile began to spread over his face. He moved his queen right into the path of my one remaining bishop. I looked up in surprise.
"You trying to lose or what?" I've seen some idiot moves before (hell, even made some in my time), but surely he knew that losing your queen is losing a huge tactical advantage?
"Just move, baka." He glared at me again, which I seriously preferred to the smile. I looked down at the board again, deciding that he just didn't want to admit to making such a huge mistake, and moved the bishop. Hell, is it my fault he'd given me the chance?
As I flicked his queen off the board, he smirked evilly. "Great move, Maxwell." He picked up a castle and moved it just one space forward. "Checkmate."
"Huh?!" I stared in horror at the board. He was kidding, right? I could - wait, no I couldn't, his pawn was in the way. But surely - nope, no white pieces were threatening the castle's space. I swear my jaw dropped. It really was checkmate. "How the hell'd you do that?"
He leaned back in his chair, still smirking. "It's a little trick I picked up called 'being good at chess'."
I slumped defeatedly. "OK, you win. 24 hours and counting." He was gonna make me Silly-String Deathscythe, I knew it. He still hadn't forgiven me for the Noodle Incident (which really does deserve the capital letters, trust me).
He said nothing for a minute, obviously thinking. Any minute now, I thought, the phrase 'Silly-String' is gonna pop into his head. Or maybe he'll make me paint Deathscythe pink. Maybe he'll make me paint Wing Zero pink to remind him of Relena... maybe not.
...Eep! A sudden, terrifying new thought. What if he made me tidy my half of the room we shared? I'd been carefully accumulating junk all over the floor and furniture for ages, and I'd almost emptied all my cupboards. If I had to put all my stuff away, I wouldn't be able to find anything and weeks of hard work would be wasted. He couldn't be so cruel, could he? Oh yeah, so he could. Sometimes the whole Perfect Soldier thing gets kinda scary.
"Uh, hello? Maxwell? You're wasting my time here." Oops, I'd been so busy panicking that I hadn't heard him (the first seven times).
"So what d'you want me to do, then?" Another terrifying thought - no wonder I have nightmares with an imagination like this. "And before you ask, there's no way I'm gonna cut off my brai-"
"Shut up."
Well, that was a start. If that was all I was gonna have to do then, hell, I could handle that. Probably. For five minutes, anyway. Well, three. On a good day.
"Stand up." I stood up, my imagination working overtime. He probably wouldn't shoot me, well, not fatally. What else do you need someone to stand up for? He wasn't really gonna cut off my braid - I hoped. What about - shut up. I was scaring myself again, the main drawback of a morbid and graphic imagination. Heero stood as well, and if I wasn't mistaken he was almost smiling. This couldn't be good. I wasn't shaking, but only because of self-control I didn't know I had.
"Close your eyes." I took a deep breath and complied. This was it, then. Whatever 'this' was. I really wished he'd either get a damn move on or let me open my eyes because any minute I was gonna lose control and start shaking. Before then I hadn't realised that I'm actually slightly scared of Heero. Dammit, couldn't he hurry up? On the other hand, he was probably doing this just to make me sweat. If he was, he was succeeding.
"Hurry up, Yuy. I can't take the pressure." When in doubt, make a joke of the situation.
"I thought I told you to shut up." He had, but if I didn't say something I was gonna have a nervous breakdown or something. I tried to take my mind off the situation and think happy thoughts before I really did go nuts and scream or something. Annoying Wufei... playing Mousetrap with Quatre... winning Trowa's last Poptart in a poker game... listening to Green Day with the volume turned up to full blast...
My train of thought was stopped abruptly when a pair of strong hands gripped my arms, pinning them to my sides, and a moment later warm, soft lips were pressed gently onto mine. I stiffened and my eyes shot open. This had to be a joke, right? Any minute he was gonna break away and laugh or something. Or maybe I'd finally gone nuts, and I was just hallucinating about Heero... kissing... me, or I was dreaming, or drunk. Could I remember anything about any kind of strange-looking mushrooms?
Well, if it was a hallucination it was a damn realistic one. And I had to say, Heero (even if he was a figment of my imagination) was a better kisser than I'd thought - not that I'd thought about kissing Heero at all, because that would mean I had a crush on him and I didn't. At all. Whatever Quatre says.
Heero pulled away, still clutching my arms and breathing a touch more quickly. I stared at him, wide-eyed. "What the hell was that?"
He smirked slightly. "If you don't know that by now, Maxwell, there's no hope for you."
"But... why?"
He kept smirking. "Why d'you think?"
"I don't know, I mean I thought - I thought you and Relena-"
"That bimbo?" he sneered. "Don't make me laugh."
"I - I kind of thought that was kind of impossible. I've been trying for ages but I thought it was, like, physically impossible for the P-Perfect Soldier to raise a smile let alone a laugh-" He was looking at me strangely and it was scaring me a bit- "and, and I always sort of thought that 'cause Relena's all over you, like, all the time and you haven't shot her yet, that's gotta mean something, right? And what you just did, that was kinda scary 'cause I still have no idea why you did it and like I said I thought you and Relena were dating and you're always threatening to kill me or whatever and I - I didn't think WOULD YOU QUIT LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT??"
"Like what?"
"Uh, like you just were. With that weird expression. Um, I can't describe it. Sort of... when your face goes all... um." I babbled, getting more flustered by the minute. He was still looking at me strangely, half-smiling and half... something else. It looked like a mixture between confusion and what I could almost describe as anger or frustration. At me? At himself? I didn't know, but hoped like hell it wasn't at me. I've had Heero's bad moods directed at me before. "Um, Heero?"
No response. He just kept looking at me with those penetrating cobalt eyes. "Yeah, that sorta expression. Uh, like I said, d'you think you could knock it off? You're freakin' me out here." I tried to back away from him, but I'd forgotten that he was still gripping my arms and I got nowhere.
"Why-" Heero began, but was interrupted by Quatre's voice from downstairs.
"Duo! It's your turn to help me with dinner, remember? You're not gonna get out of it this time, so don't make me have to come up there and cry!" Quatre crying is a serious threat, not least because Trowa has deeply buried violent tendencies which come out on whoever upset Quatre.
"OK, I'll be there in a second." I called, turning back to Heero. "Uh, could you let go? 'Cause I sorta, um, have to go help Quatre."
He let go almost reluctantly and I turned to leave, more than a little relieved to get away. I was just about to open the door when he spoke again, quietly and hesitantly. "Wait." I looked over my shoulder. He opened and shut his mouth a few times, then muttered "Never mind. Go help Winner before he cries."
I nodded and reached for the door. "Bye, Heero." No response - I hadn't really expected one. I closed the door behind me and went to annoy - sorry, help - Quatre.
~TBC