A/N: A special one shot dedicated to Agrotera Thanatos. Inspired by her story The Unlikely Event of Siblinghood when Zexion was having a mental conversation with Iezno. I wondered if the Radiant Garden research team actually played board games. This fic will also in a somewhat crackish way explain why Zexion uses a Lexicon. Enjoy! It's centered around Org. XIII when they were human, if you couldn't tell, so human names shall be used.
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, though I wish I did because Zack will be in Birth by Sleep. And the song Braig is singing is 'Bohemian Rhapsody' by Queen. Also the waiter outfit at the end belongs to England from Hetalia Axis Powers.
Iezno yawned and leaned back against the tree, casually reading his book. The late afternoon breeze played across his long bangs and young features effortlessly. He paused from his book as someone approached from the other side of the tree. "Hello Aeleus," he greeted and marked his page.
"Hello Iezno," the much larger man replied and leaned against the tree. "It's almost time," he noted briefly.
The younger scientist sighed, "Why must I be forced to attend this ludicrous farce?"
The larger man smiled kindly down at his friend, "as you well know, it's a good way for all of us to bond after a hard day's work."
Iezno sighed and stood up, "oh fine… if I must." He dusted his shirt off and followed Aeleus into the castle.
They walked through the corridors for a moment before they reached a large, brightly colored communal room. As they approached, Iezno and Aeleus clamped their hands over their ears as overly bright pop music erupted from the room. Somewhere in there, Braig could be heard singing at the top of his lungs. Though that wasn't to say that he was singing well, even with the decibels cranked, Iezno could tell his fellow researcher was horribly out of key.
"I'm just a poor boy nobody loves me! He's just a poor boy from a poor family, spare him his life from this monstrosity! Easy come, easy go, will you let me-" Braig was cut off in the middle of his line when Aeleus shut the stereo off. "Aww man that's not cool!" He pouted and glared huffily at the larger man.
Aeleus simply frowned and walked over to the bookshelf. He retrieved the well-worn box and set it on the table. He opened it, pulled out a small cloth bag, and emptied the contents. He proceeded to count the small tiles separating them into piles by letter. Braig pouted while Iezno opened up his book and reclined on the long couch in front of the fire. The older researcher was about to give the smaller a 'wet-willy' when a fourth person entered the room.
"Don't think about it," the newcomer restrained Braig with a hand on the shoulder.
"No fair Dilan!" Braig pouted at the dread locked researcher.
Aeleus stood from his task and waved them all over, "it is time to begin."
The two black haired men walked over and situated themselves around the low table on the floor. Iezno sighed, whatever board game Braig had decided on for this week, he was sure to lose. He had terrible luck with games, and a shiver ran down the young man's back when he remembered last week's game of Monopoly, he'd gone bankrupt and had to sell off his deeds. Then when he reached a chance square he drew a 'Go to Jail' card. He rolled doubles on his next turn and got out, but when he rolled again he got another double. His third roll then netted him a pair of snake eyes and his freedom. Only for him to end up in jail again two turns later, where he remained the rest of the game.
Still Iezno took his place at the table and retrieved his tile holder from Aeleus. He waited while the bag was passed around. He reached in and drew his seven letters, and set them on the board. It was only then when he realized the game they were playing. The one game he knew he could win at, Scrabble! A game based around his beloved literature. He glanced down at his hand and frowned, he had no vowels to speak of. Still he waited while the other three made their first moves, he spotted his opening near a double word multiplier. "Trench" planted him firmly on the board and removed five of his letters.
The game progressed a couple more rounds in silence, broken only by the sound of tiles, or the scratch of Aeleus's pencil as he kept score. Then Dilan's poker face fell to a sneeze, the man had mild allergies, but the timing made Braig crack up. "Dude use a friggin' tissue." He handed his friend a tissue from the box behind him.
"Language, Braig," both Aeleus and Iezno cautioned.
Dilan blew his nose, "thank you. The Paopu that Master Ansem had imported just keep aggravating my nasal cavity."
"Don't they make medicine for that?" Braig laughed as he placed down a word, nailing a triple word score point in the bottom right corner with 'Leek'.
"Yes…" Dilan grumbled in frustration as he threw his tissue away and played 'ill' off of Braig's 'Leek'.
Aeleus shrugged and tallied the points; Braig was on a roll with playing off of his previous works and nailing other multipliers. Iezno glanced over at the score sheet and frowned, he was barely across fifty while the others had all started to encroach on the hundreds. Braig led at one hundred twelve. The youngest player sighed and only managed to squeeze in a 'h' above Dilan's 'i', he was fortunate Aeleus played elsewhere. Still his hand was beginning to look as dismal as his score. He had come into the possession of a 'x', and the only 'z' and 'q'. What in the world could he possibly spell with those and still manage to make a comeback. He scanned the board and spotted his target along the top row with three wide-open triple world score spaces and interspaced with other letters between them.
Braig laughed as he racked up another chunk of points, taking him to 183 points. "Well then short-stack it looks like you're gonna be on kitchen duty for another week!" Iezno bit back a retort, only creating more laughter from Braig, "what now short stack! The bag's out of letters, and there's no way you're gonna make a come back!"
Dilan studied his options and finished off with, 'ally' for a grand score of, 139. He considered it a respectable score, especially compared to Iezno's pathetic, 78. Said researcher glanced off at Aeleus, his friend shrugged and played 'orange,' hitting the upper left hand corner's triple word score. His final tally came to 172; he glanced at Iezno and sighed. "I'm sorry, but it seems this game is over."
Iezno chuckled and covered his mouth with one hand. "Gentlemen, it has been a pleasure playing with you. Braig, I wonder how long you will keep up this lax charade once I win. I would like to note that my favorite dish is Steak Diane done medium rare and garnished with a side of roasted garlic. For desert I would like a hot chocolate cake, with an extra helping of whip cream."
"Just hurry up and play your last word already!" Braig grumbled, clearly eager to go back to bullying the young man.
Iezno shrugged and laid out his seven tiles along the top, intertwining them between the previously played words and nailing all three triple word scores. "Gentlemen, I present oxyphenbutazone." He gestured to the fifteen-letter word occupying the topmost row. "I believe that this will net me one thousand, seven hundred, and eighty points."
The group, Braig in the literal sense, felt their jaws drop. Iezno smiled quietly then stood up, "well then gentlemen, same time next week?" He stood up and picked up his book, strolling away quietly humming to himself.
Braig shook his head; "I swear that kid would be useless if he didn't have a brain shoved into his dictionary every day. He'd probably beat someone over the head with it in a fight."
The group cleaned up and proceeded off to dinner. Braig sighed and wandered over to the closet and pulled on his waiter outfit. Then he went into the kitchen and retrieved dinner for the rest of the researchers at Ansem's Castle. Xehanort had been peacefully chatting with Iezno about the book Iezno had been reading. Iezno had been explaining to the senior scientist, but said man sprayed his wine out of his mouth as he saw Braig come out in the waiter outfit. Most of the group had become accustomed to seeing Iezno in the small pair of black shorts accompanied by a small black apron and cuffs along with the ruffled collar. Iezno smiled as Braig reluctantly set the plate in front of the young researcher.
Xehanort frowned, "what in the world? Braig why are you wearing the waiter outfit?"
"He lost at Scrabble, and since winner declares the rules, I decided that he should wear it, rather than Dilan or Aeleus." Iezno noted and cut into his steak. Xehanort nodded a little weakly before eating his food. Why were his friends all insane?