Title: Chess
Author: darkmagic-luvr
Rating: FRT
Fandom: Dollhouse
Pairing/Character: Adelle DeWitt/Topher Brink
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters you see before you. However, any and all original characters are mine, and should not be used without my permission.
"Why did you program Whisky 1.1 to hate you, Topher?" He looks up at her, sitting on the edge of his desk, staring at him with the unwavering expression. He knows her, better than anyone else here. They come and go, but the two of them, they're here to stay. He thought Dominic was one of her closest friends, but it turned out he was NSA, betraying them. Topher shrugged, playing off the swirling guilt inside his gut with nonchalance and the superior smirk of his that has no desired effect on the woman who taught it to him.
"The doc never liked me in the first place. When you asked me to imprint Whisky I factored in hormonal imbalance and sexual tension, therefore if Doctor Saunders had been a female, 'she' would have distained me," he says with a shrug, turning back to his chess game. Adelle makes a move from the white side, smirking at him when he sighs and looks back up at her. "You know I don't like it when you play with me."
"That's because you never win," she raises her eyebrow at him, impelling him to make a move. Topher wrinkles his nose at her, but doesn't stick out his tongue. He moves his pieces.
"You're lying to me, Topher," says Adelle after another move. "Three moves until check."
Topher glares and leans down until he's eyelevel with the chess board, studying it carefully. "Lying about what?"
"About why you programmed Claire to hate you." Topher's barely paying attention and waves her question away before placing his hand above a rook, his fingers dancing above it in thought. "Topher!"
"Ah! What?" He moves his rook and sits up, his eyebrows raised. He's the only one who talks to her like that. Who she lets push her buttons and gets away with it. She knows him better than anyone, because he doesn't leave ever. She reached out and places her hand on his shoulder, and his surprise and anger deflates at her touch. She's not accusing him of anything, she just wants to know what his reasons are.
"My reasons are my own," she not convinced and to prove it she places him in check mate, moving her hand from his shoulder and crossing her arms across her chest. He glares at the chess set, then he glares at her. "It makes me feel better."
"That makes perfect sense." and she's rolling her eyes, her arms falling to the edge of the desk, ready to take her leave. She stops as his hand falls onto her thigh, too high in placement to just be friendly and she's aware that they've had this conversation before and remembers the actions that always follow. His hand on her leg, sliding up her skirt; her fingers tangled in his hair, pulling him closer. Dominic never could understand why she kept him around, when he was such an egotistical, condescending bastard.
He didn't have a heart, she couldn't have one.
"It's easier this way."
"For who, Topher?"
He always stands up, his chest pressed into her right side, his face so close to hers she wonders sometimes why it hurts so much to have him so close. His nose brushes against her jaw as he lowers his head, breathing in the scent of her perfume that's too expensive and completely her. His fingers are calloused and he smells like grape juice and aftershave, but she lets him touch her. She lets his lips move along the curve of her neck and back up along her jaw, his forehead pressing into her cheek because sometimes it's too painful for him to think about. That what he's doing has already killed him inside and she's the only one who makes him feel like something's still in there. It's why he imprinted Whisky with basic tolerance for him. Because he needs to be reminded sometimes that it's his fault.
She turns her head to kiss him and it's always only one, opened mouthed kiss that doesn't break or progress to anything other than one. He lets her leave because she has sarcastic things to do and he's got to update his laser tag game before Christmas. He didn't answer her question out loud, but she understood the answer well enough.