Title: Playing Games With Death

Summary: Drabble: Will Stanton and a Grim Reaper discuss the nature of playing games with Death.

Words: 366

Disclaimer: The only things of my own creation here are the ideas and the grim reaper. Will Stanton belongs to the beloved Susan Cooper.

Notes: Uh… Just a random bit of drabble that popped into my head yesterday. I edited it a bit today, though I may've missed a typo or two. If so, do forgive me, but point them out, please. Anyway, I like the idea of Will and a grim reaper playing chess. Which is the first image that popped into my head, and that image spawned this little bit of drabble.

Oh! As regards any of my earlier DIRS fics, umm… I'm probably never ever going to update those, so… yeah. But, I intend to write a few bits of drabble here and there. Like this one… so… Yeah. Please do let me know what you think!

"Checkmate." The man smiled, pleased to have won, but it wasn't a gloating smile. Merely a contentedly amused smile, directed more towards his opponent's flummoxed expression than to the fact that he'd won.

"H-how…? I had the advantage for… most of the game, and…" Will's voice trailed off, as he shook his head. "Huh."

The other continued to smile. "No one wins in any games against Death, my friend," he explained in a tired voice. "Not even you. Even your master, the good Merlin, never won against us, you know."

Will smiled faintly, shaking his head again as he continued to stare at the board in wonder. "I didn't know. But… I should think that an immortal playing games with one of Death's servants might at least stand some chance at victory."

"Then you would think wrong. We win every game played against every soul. You know this. Everyone knows this. But, everyone always must test us," he added with a shrug.

"So, if I played any others of your order in any game, ranging from archery to Tidally Winks to poker, your sort would always come out on top?"

"Naturally."

"Isn't that… cheating?"

The man was silent for a long while. "No," he said, at length. "Not if it's one of the rules to begin with. It may not be entirely fair, but it is still a rule. Everything must, in the end, succumb to Death, after all. Everything alive, at any rate. Even you, though yours is a different sort of death, I suppose."

Will shrugged. "I suppose." A sudden idea struck him. "What about a game with something that is not alive? Would you still win at that?"

The man blinked, then laughed. "Perhaps. I do not know… I've never played one."

"A computer game. You've never played one?"

The man shook his head. "Not yet."

"I see. You should, sometime, I think. It would be an interesting experiment. What about if you play Solitaire? Do you always win that, no matter how the deck is shuffled?"

"No. But that's another rule, didn't you know?"

"What is?"

"That Death doesn't always win out over Fate. And it is my Fate to be horrible at Solitaire."

END
A/N: As I said, I'd love some feeback. It'd be nice to know if it's worth it to post any of my other bits of drabble involving Will and assorted grim reapers, all of whom are my own characters. The reapers, I mean. Not Will. I might even write a drabble or two involving Merriman and The Lady and said reapers.

Love, Snarky