Netto spun around in his swivel chair and sighed loudly so that Enzan and Laika couldn't ignore him. "Bored," he whined as the chair creaked while he span.
Enzan and Laika both rolled their eyes simultaneously but didn't give Netto the pleasure of knowing that they were paying him any mind.
Netto sighed even louder then before and flipped around, draping himself over the arms of the chair. He let his legs dangle off the sides of the arm rest and let his head rest on the other side. "Come on," he muttered. "Can't something happen? Anything?"
Enzan opened his mouth to say something but Blues cleared his throat and Enzan shut his mouth. He knew that replying to Netto would only make matters worse. Netto glanced at Enzan and grinned.
/Netto-kun, stop,/ Rockman reprimanded him mentally. /You're just making things worse for everyone./
Netto closed his eyes and leaned back as best he could in his slightly awkward position. /But I'm bored,/ he said, as if this made it okay.
/I don't care,/ Rockman replied sternly. /You're distracting everyone else from their work and annoying them too./
/What work? We finished everything two hours ago. There's nothing left to do and we can't go home because whoever attacked said they were going to attack again. We're stuck here with nothing to do and I'm bored,/ Netto shot back hotly.
Rockman sighed and massaged his eyes with his fingertips. Blues and Searchman looked over at the smaller blue navi and exchanged silent glances. Then they quietly walked away, over to where their operators were working, leaving Netto and Rockman to their silent argument. /I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do. Whining isn't going to help anyone and…/ Rockman stopped abruptly.
Netto frowned at the ceiling. /And what?/ he asked.
/Nothing, Netto-kun. I'm just saying that you need to put up with it, that's all,/ Rockman said.
Netto wondered if he should press his twin more but then decided against it. Maybe it wasn't something Rockman wanted to get into and he respected that. He knew the value of privacy, even if it seemed like he didn't sometimes. He sighed again, but this time it was more quiet and thoughtful rather then something to get attention.
"We could… play a game," he suggested thoughtfully after a long pause.
Rockman smiled and linked out of the computer back into his own PET. "That sounds like a good idea," he said. "What game were you thinking of?"
"Hmm…" Netto murmured thoughtfully. "I don't know," he admitted. "All the games I know are either played outside or they're at home in the closet."
"Yeah, that's a problem," Rockman admitted.
Enzan turned around in his chair and eyed Netto warily. "I know where one game is if you're willing to sit still enough to learn it."
Netto looked over at Enzan and then grinned broadly. "Yeah," he said excitedly. "What is it?"
"Chess," Enzan replied. "Manabe-san has a board and pieces in her office. I could ask if we can use it to play a game."
Netto sat up and swiveled around so that he could see Enzan. "Really? That sounds interesting."
"Do you know how to play?" Laika asked uncertainly.
Netto rubbed the back of his head. "Umm… kinda sorta," he admitted. "Meiru knows and we had a net battle like a chess game once but she really made all the moves and stuff. It looks kinda fun though."
A slight grin played on Enzan's lips as he stood up and stretched. "All right, I'll go ask. I'll be back in a few minutes."
Laika and Netto watched as the door to the computer room slid shut. Netto leaned back into his chair and stretched his arms above his head with a yawn. Laika eyed him and crossed his arms. "You know you've been acting like a child, Netto."
Netto laughed and stood up to stretch even more. "Laika, no offense, but last I checked we were children."
Laika looked surprised for a second before regaining his composure and turning away from Netto back to the computer screen. Netto grinned wickedly and plopped back down into his chair.
Rockman covered a small smile behind his gloved hand while Blues and Searchman both looked highly amused. "Well, he has a point," Rockman said very softly.
"I can still hear you," Netto sing songed.
Rockman rolled his eyes but didn't say anything in reply. He merely crossed his arms and continued to smile.
After a few more minutes of silence, Enzan came back into the room with a chessboard in hand and a note placed on top. Enzan set the board on the coffee table in the center of the room and sat on the couch on the left side. Netto and Laika exchanged glances then walked over and sat together on the couch on the right side. Enzan picked up the piece of paper first and read aloud from it, "Sorry kids, hang in there a couple more hours. We're close to finding who attacked and the next attack has been narrowed down to several buildings. We think it will happen in the next few hours but we want you to stay close and out of the net so that you'll be ready to fight when the attack happens. Thanks for understanding, Manabe." Enzan glanced up and handed the note to Netto. "Okay?" he asked.
Netto scanned the note then held up his hands in a pacifist gesture. "Okay, okay," he said. "I get it."
Enzan and Laika exchanged grins while Netto leaned over to place the note on the table. Then he eyed the chessboard and pointed to it. "So, how do you play?"
Enzan opened two compartments on either side of the board and pulled out black and white pieces and placed them on the table. "Okay," he said picking up the black pieces and handing them to Netto. "Take these and set it up mirror image to the way I do."
Netto watched as Enzan placed the tallest piece on the black square of the back row and the second tallest piece on the white square next to it. Then he placed the third tallest pieces on either side of the first two, the pieces shaped like horses heads next to those two and finally, the small squat pieces that looked like castle tops on the very end. "See?" he asked.
Netto nodded and mimicked the way Enzan had set up his board perfectly, except that his two tallest pieces were switched so that they faced their white counterparts on opposite squares.
Then Enzan placed all of the smallest pieces in front of the tall pieces on the second row and looked up to see that Netto had already figured out that part. He nodded and held up the small piece. "This is a pawn," he said. "It can move forward two spaces only on it's first move. You can also move it forward one square on its first move but then it can never move two. The only way a pawn can capture another piece is if it's diagonal to the piece you want to capture."
Netto nodded and moved it the way Enzan described and Enzan nodded. "Yeah, like that. Also if you get a pawn to the other side of the board and hit the back square you can call back any piece I've captured."
"Kinda like getting kinged in checkers?" Netto asked.
Enzan smiled and shrugged. "Kind of but not really." He then picked up the castle looking piece. "This is a rook. It can move forwards and sideways as many places as you want."
Laika decided to come into the action and grabbed the horse head piece. "It's been awhile, but this is the knight, right?" he asked.
Enzan nodded. "Yeah. It can move forward two and over one or over two and forward one," he explain and used his own knight to illustrate.
Netto grinned and picked up the next piece. "So if all the others move sideways and stuff then does this one move diagonally or something?"
Enzan and Laika both looked at him and Netto burst out laughing. "Did I guess right?" he asked.
Rockman nodded from the monitor. "Yes, Netto-kun. It's the bishop and it moves diagonally however many places you want."
"You can play?" Netto asked.
"Roll-chan taught me awhile ago," Rockman explained. "I'm not very good yet."
Enzan picked up the middle two pieces and showed them to Netto. "This," he said, showing the second tallest piece, "is the queen. It can move anywhere in any direction as far as you want it to go." He then showed Netto the tallest piece. "This is the king, it can move one space in any direction. The goal is to capture this piece. So you want to place your other pieces around it to trap it so it has nowhere to go. Understand?"
Netto nodded and then shrugged. "It's pretty complicated, huh," he asked with a small laugh.
"It comes with practice," Enzan said with a grin.
"Enzan-sama has been playing this game for years," Blues said softly. "I don't think he's going to go soft on Netto-kun."
"Uh oh," Rockman murmured but smiled in spite himself. "Netto-kun hates to loose."
"We've noticed," Searchman replied dryly. "Lucky for him, Laika-san also hates to loose and he knows how to play this game."
"Think he'll help?" Rockman asked.
Searchman nodded. "I think he wants to fight against Enzan-san."
"Ah," Rockman said.
Enzan made his first move and Netto moved his right most pawn up two spaces, having no earthly clue how to actually play a game of chess. After a few minutes it was clear that Enzan had much more experience and actually knew how to set up traps for other pieces. Finally Laika decided to help make the game a bit longer so that Netto wouldn't start whining again. "Here," he said pointing to a part of the board. "Put your bishop here."
Netto glanced at Laika then did as he was instructed. Enzan paused and sat back, thinking. "Nice move," he muttered.
Laika acknowledged the praise with a slight incline of his head and Netto glanced at him then at Enzan. Then he shrugged. Anything was better then being bored.
Enzan and Laika played a fairly hard game with Enzan coming out on top in the end. Laika sighed and leaned back. "It's been awhile," he murmured.
"Since your grandfather last asked you to play," Searchman said with a nod.
Laika's lips twisted and Netto patted his shoulder. Laika looked up and Netto grinned back then stood up. "Well, you and Enzan can play," he pointed out.
"And you can get better," Enzan said with a small laugh.
"It was my first game," Netto pouted. "That's not fair."
Enzan nodded. "You're right, it's not," he said fairly. "Come on, try again and this time I'll point out some things."
Netto grinned and plopped next to Laika, making Laika jump a bit as the energy was transferred through the cushions. "Relax," he told Netto. "You don't need to break the couch."
Netto stuck his tongue out at Laika and helped Enzan reset the board.
"What happens when we're called away on the mission?" Blues asked.
Rockman shrugged. "It doesn't matter right now, does it?"
Searchman shook his head, answering for Blues. "No, not really."
Awww, one shot yey. I haven't written a one off like this in forever. Enjoy and thanks in advance to my reviewers!