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WHO: Bakura and Keith
WHERE: Central Park chess tables
WHEN: Wednesday afternoon
SUMMARY: Bakura is playing chess with the senior citizens in the park. Keith spots, observes, then cuts in. Awkward.
FORMAT: Para to start, whatever after.

Bakura's walk home from work had been something that resembled a comic strip than the normal straight cross through the park. First he had been spotted by one of the regular customers from Ryoko's and stopped for a chat. Then, after nearly gotten beaned upside the head by the ball a group of young children had been tossing around, he had seen the usual group at the chess tables and gotten flagged down to arbitrate Hashimoto and Takahashi's daily heated argument. Which was of course how he was now playing his third game.

So far, a very good day.

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Bakura nodded. "The game ends for the heroes once the Dark Lord is defeated. Then... I guess it's up to the people to rebuild from his damage and try and resume life as normal."

He massaged the scar on the back of his left hand a moment in an unconscious gesture as he spoke, thinking of the last time he had played that game, when the Dark Lord had been truly defeated. The Kingdom had been empty after that... the souls of his friends released from their game pieces and returned to their bodies. Release from death for more than just him.

He shook his head slightly, pushing the thoughts away before it distracted him much more.

"Then that's how it is." Keith looked down at their own game board, the chess pieces scattered about it now. "The players leave the world they've used in disarray."

There was that slight, not quite pleasant curve of his mouth that replaced a grin in most people. "At least in chess, the pieces are cleaned up and put away after the game."

"It's not quite like that. The heroes come in to stop further damage so that the world they're in can finally recover," Bakura corrected. "They aren't the cause of the damage or anything like that. And the board there can be reset in the same way that the board in chess can."

"People like games that can be reset," Keith observed. "Where they don't need to face the consequences of their actions." Win or lose, and it was over, he didn't add, because he didn't trust himself not to give something away with those words.

"Aa-- games are supposed to be things that are fun. A game where the 2nd half of it was cleaning up and putting things back together would start being like a chore rather than a game..." Bakura pointed out awkwardly. "And a little redundant, I'd think! Going back to replace all the artifacts and important plot pieces would be like rewinding the game, which sort of undoes the whole ending, in a way, I think. And with shorter games, there wouldn't even be that."

"Fun." The word sounded alien coming from Keith, but that was hardly a surprise. He glanced away dismissively. "It doesn't matter." It did, to him--he did everything he did because of what he believed about humanity, or at least so he told himself--but discussing it further seemed pointless. Or potentially painful--but he wouldn't admit that.

Bakura blinked a moment at that. "... it doesn't matter if a game is fun or not...?" he attempted to interpret. "Are games all serious where you're from?" Or was it the same as it had been with Matsuka, where he hadn't had the time to ever play them? Either way, it still just baffled Bakura, who came from a world where games, especially Duel Monsters, were such a vital part of life...

"It doesn't matter to me." Keith was silent for a moment, his thoughts suddenly elsewhere. "There are people it matters to." A beat. He had no intention of letting his thoughts stay there. "I don't ordinarily play games."

"Maybe you should," Bakura suggested with a small smile.

Keith looked down at the chessboard dispassionately for a moment. Then he looked back at Bakura, and although his expression didn't change, there seemed to be genuine curiosity in his voice...as much as he'd ever let show. "Why?"

"Even if you say that fun doesn't matter to you, it's something everyone needs, I think. Games-- they connect people, really. I've made a lot of friendships because of them, both here and at home," Bakura said with a soft fond smile. "And there's just something about them-- no matter what you use them for, whether it's friendship or logic or practice or just to win-- It's important."

And maybe, just maybe, playing games and having fun would get a smile on Keith's far too serious face. Even if it was just a smirk.

They connect people, Bakura said. For Keith, that was reason enough to avoid them. Connecting with people only brought pain and clouded his judgment. He had to be above them, where he could simply protect them.

"I'll start playing chess," he finally said in a considering tone. It seemed like a game that could be detached enough, and it would keep his critical thinking skills sharp.

Bakura nearly stared, not at all having expected that. He wasn't quite sure what he had been expecting-- a refrain of 'it doesn't matter' perhaps. Slowly, he gave a smile, nodding. "I think with some practice, you'd be really really good at it!"

He reached over to move a piece. "Check!"

"You're probably right." There wasn't any particular pride in Keith's voice. For now, it was simply a statement of probability. Later, when he'd mastered the game, he might allow himself to be proud.

He moved a pawn to block the check. He didn't intend to move his king yet; he wanted to leave the possibility of that unexpected move he'd seen, the one called castling. Besides, the king was like the system. It stayed in place while the pieces around it sacrificed themselves to defend it.

Perhaps Bakura was right. Perhaps there was a value in playing to lose.

Bakura nodded, moving his next piece in a seemingly unrelated move. "Though, if I can be so bold as to offer advice.. you're far too straight forward in your moves, I think."

He had relaxed a great deal already since Keith's agreement to play. It seemed almost like a victory of sorts, not that he had been aiming for anything like that to start. Like Matsuka with the Rubik's Cube, it felt like he was doing some good. With what little he knew about their world and with the military background...

Maybe he was being a bit optimistic, but with how often Yuugi had reached out with Duel Monsters and solved otherwise irreconcilable problems through a game...

It was a start.

Keith scanned the board, searching for the advantage that move gave Bakura. After a moment, he moved another knight out, freeing the king and the remaining rook to castle if need be and giving himself another line of defense.

"Thank you," he said, to the advice. "I'll keep that in mind." The truth was, he could be more devious. He could play to conserve his pieces and pin down his opponent. But that was what he needed to do in real life, back in his world. What he wanted to do was throw pieces away recklessly.

He would use this game, then, to train himself not to show that.

Bakura nodded to himself, noting the set up. "You'd probably be really good at fighting games as well," he smiled as he moved another piece, setting up a trap for the impending castling. "Just going by how you're playing now."

It was a lot like how Jounouchi played, only Jounouchi never feel back on strategy when the initial punch failed. Only in Keith's case, the strategies seemed mostly borrowed, since he didn't seem to have had the time to truly form his own. Bakura was sure the 2nd game would be utterly different, more polished and controlled, most like Kaiba than Jounouchi. Sort of odd how this game was like a fusion of his two friend's styles. Both involved power-playing, but one with more raw, reckless force and the other with a controlled blast.

Idly, he wondered what that said about Keith.

"Fighting games?" Keith asked. He held off on castling for now, waiting until it seemed necessary. It was important to keep avenues open. To not back oneself into a cage. At least, in the game.

He studied Bakura's pieces. He wondered if perhaps it was such a good idea after all to allow Matsuka to associate with the boy. Then again, he had far less of a choice than he did back home. He was playing by different rules here. He knew the way he treated Matsuka was cruel and manipulative and wrong; back home, no one would notice, and if they did, they wouldn't call him on it. Here was a different story.

As he thought of Matsuka, Keith found himself moving a particular pawn closer to the heels of the queen. A moment too late, he realized he had no particular reason for doing so, save that it seemed right for the pawn to be at the queen's side.

The tiniest of frowns flickered across his face.

Bakura blinked. That move seemed...

He looked up at Keith, trying to judge his reaction and blinked again. Was he...

Yes, that was a frown. Something unintended? Something he didn't think of until after he'd done it?

There was something significant to that move, he was sure of it as Keith hadn't done any seemingly random moves yet. He'd have to keep an eye on that pawn...

Right, Keith had asked a question.

"Un, like in the arcades, video games. You have a character who has special moves and you want to knock out your opponent. Normally there's a ladder system so you start at an easy fight, then work on up to the boss battle at the end that's designed to eat all your yen," he grinned. "Power plays work best in that sort of game, since it's one on one instead of team. It's a different strategy set as well, especially since it involves speed as well."

Another seemingly unrelated move setting up a different trap. It was a faint, making it look like he was going to target that pawn when the goal was the queen behind it.

Keith stared at the pawn and the queen one more time, then glanced over the move Bakura had made. With that, he forced himself to detach. Associating himself with the queen as he had just done would lose him the game; he knew that much. He couldn't dwell on why, though. Instead, he moved the queen again, firmly separating it from that pawn. Better that way.

"Video games. Something like them was what we had to train with where I was educated." He didn't add that he'd almost never used them, finding there to be no need except--except that one time. (Shiroe. Who were you, on the chessboard? The rook that had been taken early, perhaps.) "I was good at them." That much was technically true.

Bakura couldn't hold back the smile as his knight jumped to take the queen. He'd most likely lose the knight, but to take out the queen was a worthy sacrifice. His associations with the pieces were always fleeting. Used to playing as the DM, every piece was a different puppet. An NPC to be given life for as long as was needed. It was his opponent who had the player characters, with only his king having any sort of presence as he commanded to the best of his ability. Not that the king was ever him, of course.

He'd really had far too much experience with games where the pieces had become the players to want to think of them that way in a situation like this. Not for chess. But every now and then, the piece he moved became his avatar. Risking ones self to protect the group as a whole-- that was what he always did, after all.

"The ones here aren't for training or anything like that," he assured, looking up to watch for any change of expression at his move. "Even the simulator games really aren't that realistic!" he laughed softly. As if anyone could learn to drive from a racing game-- almost a scary thought! "There's a good arcade, not too far from here, if you'd want to give it a try."

Keith regarded the knight's move with a blank stare. He could not show emotion now, not in the face of the probable loss of a mere game. Instead, he simply steadily moved a bishop to take the knight. Mercifully, he hadn't made any associations with the bishop yet. Nor did he intend to.

He glanced up from the board and gave the smallest dismissive shake of his head. "There's no need. I'll find something more productive to occupy my time."

"You can't be productive all the time," Bakura pointed out with a smile. "And there's no need to be here at the very least! After all, no one back home will ever find out how you spent your time here!" That was something Bakura was VERY thankful for. It had taken him a while to truly understand that no matter what he did, his father would never be able to find out disapprove. Like having a secret life you could never be caught at; a very relaxing thought for someone so used to worrying over what others thought.

Not that he'd ever really stopped, but he worried about it far less now.

Most of the time.

"No," Keith agreed. "I need time to rest as well." He didn't seem to consider recreation a particular need, though.

He paused at Bakura's other comment, though. No one back home will ever find out...

For a moment, he looked distant, maybe even a little lost. The marks of premature age on him (no grey hair, but a few too many lines around his eyes, perhaps) softened a little.

The idea that he was somewhere truly cut off from the system of his world, and could do as he pleased...

No, it couldn't be countenanced. He dismissed it. If he remembered this place, he'd report on it to Grandmother when he returned. If he didn't, she'd see it in his thoughts somehow all the same.

"There's no point in saying that," he finally replied, the distant mask returning to his face. "I still know." Therefore, Grandmother would too. Even here, he had no choice but to follow her wishes and represent the system. That was what he was born for.

Bakura knew that look. Not from having seen it, but from the inside. Even the brevity of it. That breif moment of daring to hope...

Was this what Matsuka saw in Keith? Moments like that that made him seem so different than the Keith in Blue's memories...

"Only while you were here," Bakura pointed out. The thing that he was afraid of, forgetting everything and everyone, maybe for Keith that wouldn't be something to fear but that would reassure? There had to be something there, after all, and if that was his protest...

"And you might not get sent back home. After all, I've been here almost a year now, and Hiruma-kun's been even longer! It's a long time to still be what's expected of you back home in a totally different place."

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... Have I mentioned yet that I really like your Keith? Because I do :)

Aww, thank you :)

And feel free to smack me if Bakura's getting too insightful here.

It's fine so far!

Games are like... the one thing he can be insightful about people with :)

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And to add to the symbolism...

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