A/N: This is written using table 9 from the ten prompts selection from the lj community: 100_tables. The same community where I got the prompts for And I Called the Sea to Swallow Me Whole. I decided to use them for another 02 fic, although this time it's Ken and Sam's turn. I haven't written them in quite a while and I guess I was feeling a little nostalgic. :)
Little Kenny and the Big Bad Wolf
Prompt 001: Deceive
Playing games with Sam was impossible.
Perhaps I should rephrase that. It was more winning that was impossible. Playing the actual game was doable – if one enjoyed either being completely crushed or being corrected on every imperfect tactic – but no-one ever beat Sam.
He never let anyone win either; there were stages where I thought it was very cool of him, but I normally only witnessed that when I played with him myself, and then I was normally irritated that he didn't leave me with a chance.
Like the time he was teaching me to play chess. He beat me in four moves at least six times before I managed to last more than a minute. 1.06 seconds actually; he had set his timer.
It wasn't fair, I told him. I was just learning, so how could he expect me to play at his level?
He simply told me I wouldn't learn anything if he went easy on me. But his face was always stern when he said it – somehow unfriendly – and it wasn't until afterwards that I discovered how far I had come in such a short time…and also what lay beneath that deceptively aloof mask.