Summary: Frankenstein had entertained the thought of playing chess with Cadis for a brief second, but when it came to teaching the noble, he hadn't expected how long it would take, or the discussions it would inspire.

Contains brief bloody descriptions.

Prequel to Match.

I did research and…I basically found stuff out that totally makes this anachronistic. I do not care. XD; Frankenstein's teaching Rai modern chess from the past. *nod* Because he's that awesome.

This will so be jossed when we get more backstory. Also do not care. XD

So much thanks to Kaelin, who knows how to tell me to stop researching. XD; And for letting me bounce characterisation problems I have at her. Also thanks to Kai for letting me whine at him about this fic, reading it over and telling it me it wasn't as terrible as I thought it was. *hearts*

…This fic has been sitting in my laptop since February…

Also, I am so sorry about the info-dumps in the first half but this is Frankenstein we're talking about. D: And he's in teacher!mode. It's what he does.

Fill the Silence

By Dark Ice Dragon

Frankenstein looked around his laboratory, double-checking he hadn't forgotten anything – he had enough vials, and he'd destroyed the materials he wasn't bringing to Cadis' (as he had started calling the noble in his head - his name was too long to even think every time) mansion, in case they reacted with one another once he left. His eyes were drawn to the laboratory door and Frankenstein left, remembering one forgotten area of the house.

When he opened the door to the room, the room smelled of dust and stale air. Everything was where he remembered them, including the few things he had taken with him when he had left his associates.

The chessboard was in the corner, and Frankenstein couldn't take his eyes off it as he entered the room. When he reached it, he ghosted over the aged wood with his fingers, finding the familiar scratches and grooves etched across its surface. He hadn't brought it out since Desi had died, not feeling as close to the other researchers to ask for a match.

But with Cadis… Frankenstein was curious how the noble would react to being introduced to the human game; in the time Frankenstein had known him –within days, Frankenstein had to admit- it was obvious Cadis didn't look down at him like he was a lesser being, like Frankenstein didn't know how to look after himself. Cadis didn't treat him quite like an equal but Frankenstein could see his curiosity in the way the noble openly studied at him, moments for a time. It would have made him bristle had it come from anyone else, but he had seen what Cadis was like around the other nobles and how little he spoke with them.

Frankenstein picked the chessboard up and began to collect the pieces. If anything else, it would give them something to fill the silence.

xOx

A phase of the moon had barely passed before Frankenstein decided to take the chessboard out, each piece making a light 'tok' as he set them in place.

Frankenstein felt Cadis approach him rather than heard him; he had slowly been developing a sense for the noble the longer he stayed with him, but it wasn't perfect yet, the noble still able to sneak up behind him at times.

"What is that?"

"It's a human game," Frankenstein explained, setting the final piece (the black king) in place. "We call it chess."

He was met with silence, which Frankenstein wasn't too surprised at, but when he raised his head, Frankenstein had studied Cadis' features enough trying to decode his blank expression that he could see Cadis' slightly drawn eyebrows, the tenseness of his lips as he stared at the chessboard.

"Do nobles play games?" Frankenstein asked, mildly curious. It was hard to imagine the nobles ever being young, but at some point, they had to have been.

Cadis didn't say anything, but his expression changed, his eyes going distant. "I don't recall if we do."

…How old was he, that he didn't know if noble children played games, that he couldn't remember his own childhood? Frankenstein hadn't seen any children during his brief explorations around the castle, though he thought he might have seen a few relatively young nobles from the corner of his eyes.

"It's something to pass the time," Frankenstein said, wondering if Cadis would understand him if he told him it was something humans did to derive enjoyment.

"…What do you do?" Cadis asked as he seated himself opposite Frankenstein.

"It's a strategy game, where you try to capture your opponent's king" –Frankenstein lightly touched the top of his king with his fingertips- "while protecting your own" –here, Cadis gazed at the white king- "using the other pieces on the board."

Cadis didn't say anything, quietly staring at the pieces.

"Each piece has a set way they can move," Frankenstein continued, and it was because he was watching Cadis closely he saw his brow crease minutely. He paused, waiting to see if Cadis would ask the question he had.

It was a while before Cadis lifted his gaze to meet Frankenstein's. "You're waiting for something," Cadis said, his eyebrows rising slightly at a confused slant.

And there was the sense Cadis displayed sometimes, the insight that could uncover what a person was sure was hidden. Frankenstein wanted to know how he had that power when he had never heard of the other nobles having it, not to the same degree, if that was tied to why the Clan Leaders treated him with such respect.

"I'm waiting for you," Frankenstein said, tilting his head. "You have a question, do you not?" Or were nobles supposed to pretend they knew all, even when faced with something completely new? He wouldn't be surprised if that were the case.

Cadis slowly blinked. He was silent for a long time before he eventually said, "Why can the pieces only move a certain way?"

Frankenstein frowned, discarding his first, instant answer of 'That's the rules of the game' because there was something deeper being asked, even though he didn't know exactly what. "This game emulates battles humans have fought against each other," Frankenstein began, his hand starting to move again, "with the different elements we used. There are soldiers" –his hand hovered over the row of pawns at the front- "the cavalry" –he pointed to one of the knights- "the bishops, the rooks, the king and queen." He tapped each of the relevant pieces as he named them. "The bishop and the rook have changed since the original game, being the elephants and chariots then." Frankenstein cast his gaze across the board, a small shrug on his shoulders. "It's been pared down to simplify play, but it's the basics.

"Each piece and how they move symbolises how they would in the battlefield, though there are additions and limitations to make the game more interesting," he said, making sure Cadis was listening, and the noble was, his gaze focused on Frankenstein's fingers. "The soldiers are on foot and can only move forward one square at a time." Frankenstein moved a pawn as he spoke. "At the start of the game, and only when they haven't moved before, can they move forward two squares." He moved a different pawn forward two squares. Frankenstein moved one of Cadis' pawns forward two squares so that it rested diagonally from Frankenstein's pawns. "They can only attack diagonally" –Frankenstein raised his own and knocked Cadis' pawn over. It rolled in a quarter-circle before Frankenstein picked it up and set it off the board- "and-"

"-They die," Cadis said, gazing at his own pawn.

Frankenstein blinked, looking back at Cadis' pawn. "Yes," he said quietly, a frown forming, "they die." A surge of memories crashed into Frankenstein, when he had returned to his village to find nothing but destroyed homes and broken bodies, blood splattered across every surface.

Clenching his jaw, Frankenstein quashed the memories and painful emotions with well-practiced ease, intending to carry on, but he caught Cadis watching him again and Frankenstein's anger flared, already knowing the noble knew (and how much else had the noble picked up?)

"We are done here," Frankenstein said, standing up. He left the room without a backward glance.

xOx

The next time Frankenstein saw the chessboard, each piece was back in place. He frowned seeing it, knowing it could have only been Cadis who had done that. As for the reason why… Frankenstein shook his head and left the room again. He found the noble hard to decipher at the best of times; extrapolating his reasonings without the additional aid of his expressions would be impossible.

xOx

Frankenstein had already spent enough time studying Cadis to recognise when he started behaving differently. It wasn't something obvious, but Frankenstein sometimes caught Cadis' gaze wandering towards the room where he had set up the chessboard and Cadis had started walking more around the room as well.

Frankenstein left him to it.

xOx

Cadis' staring at Frankenstein had also changed, a new mix of curiosity and waiting. There wasn't an expectancy there, however, or impatience. Merely waiting.

They talked less, as it was usually Frankenstein who initiated their conversations, and the silence seemed worse than before. Frankenstein usually preferred it, not wanting to be distracted while he was in his laboratory, but he wasn't in his laboratory and he wasn't focused on research. And he knew Cadis had a question.

That, he couldn't leave. Frankenstein knew the exhilaration of learning something new, and whatever Cadis' question, he doubted the other nobles would be able to answer adequately.

The next time Frankenstein saw Cadis looking at him like that, Frankenstein didn't pretend to miss it, but held his gaze instead. "If you have a question, you may ask. I won't promise I will answer every question but the ones I will, I will answer to the fullest." There were just some things he would not discuss or talk about with other people.

Cadis didn't say anything for a moment. "I want to learn more about chess."

Frankenstein blinked, his eyebrows drawing together. "You want to..." he repeated, slowly. He had expected Cadis to ask about what had happened, why he had left so suddenly, or any number of things, but he hadn't expected Cadis to ask about the subject that had set it off in the first place. "You still want to learn?"

"Yes."

A small smile grew across Frankenstein's face. Well, Cadis had already proven he was different from the other nobles, that he had a strong sense of curiosity, so he shouldn't have been so surprised that Cadis had an urge to learn either.

"Very well," Frankenstein said, turning away, "I'll continue where we left off." He lead them back to the room where he'd set up the chessboard, the pieces untouched since they had been set back in place. Cadis hadn't followed him straight away -surprise at his acceptance?- but there was no trace of that on the noble's face when they were seated opposite each other, the chessboard between them.

"Is there any particular piece you wish to learn about first?" Frankenstein asked him.

"No," Cadis said, his gaze taking in the entire chessboard, and Frankenstein nodded.

"Then we'll start with the king," Frankenstein said, lifting his own and placing it in the centre of the board, "as that is the most important piece of the entire game. It can only move one square at a time," -Frankenstein moved the king around as he talked- "but in every direction. The game hinges on the king's survival - if your king falls" -Frankenstein knocked it over with a finger- "the game ends, and your opponent wins."

Cadis was staring at the fallen king, and Frankenstein waited to see if he would ask his question without prompting.

He didn't, and Frankenstein righted the piece. "Do you have a question?" He had a feeling he would soon become accustomed to asking that.

"Hm," Cadis said. "Why is the king important?"

Frankenstein frowned, blinking at him. "The king's important because... Ah." His expression cleared as he realised what the problem was. "Do you know what a king is?"

"No."

He shouldn't be surprised the noble didn't know how humans ordered themselves. While Frankenstein placed his king back in its correct square, he said, "Kings are rulers of human populations. They're supposed to lead and look after the people under them." As for them actually being successful at that, well. "Kings are...the Lord," Frankenstein said. That comparison should make sense to the noble.

"And Queens are their wives," he told Cadis, pulling his out and placing it on the centre of the board. "While the king can only move one space, the queen is the most powerful piece of the board, nearly unlimited in how it moves." Frankenstein moved his piece, knocking over one of Cadis' pawns before bringing the queen back and starting again, in a different direction. "You...don't have an equivalent of a queen," Frankenstein said. Or so he had surmised - he hadn't been interested in discovering how nobles courted each other or what happened afterwards. His brief research in that area had turned up nothing.

Cadis was staring at the queen, his eyebrows drawn in what Frankenstein would call confusion.

Frankenstein sighed, leaning back on his chair. "Do you have a question?" he asked quietly.

"No."

One of Frankenstein's eyebrows rose. He hadn't expected that response. "Then I'll end it here," Frankenstein said, standing up. Cadis looked up at him, a small frown on his face. "I've told you a lot of information, and telling you more would be detrimental for your retention." And it was obvious Cadis was distracted with something else. "When you want to learn more, you only need to ask." Maybe, that way, he would be able to get Cadis to start initiating conversations.

When Cadis nodded, Frankenstein left the room.

It was after he had closed the door that Frankenstein remembered how the other nobles, even the Clan Leaders, treated Cadis, how Frankenstein had mistaken him for the Lord until he had been corrected.

The nobles didn't have a queen, but they did have a second individual who stood above the rest.

If the Lord ruled over the nobles, then what was Cadis' role? As far as Frankenstein could tell, the other nobles avoided Cadis, their conversations short and stilted – and of the nobles that visited, the visit was always prefaced with the subject of 'the human'. None so far had come to solely talk with Cadis.

It piqued Frankenstein's interest, but Cadis had not asked about his past, so he would do the same.

xOx

Frankenstein had noted Cadis seemed a little more distracted over the next couple of days, his gaze distant, but that eventually faded. When Frankenstein passed the door to the 'chess room' (as he had started to call it), he sometimes found the door ajar, and other times, it was closed like he had only imagined it being open.

It took a few more days for Cadis to approach him again and Frankenstein gave him a smile when he did, wanting to encourage him to ask questions. While the other pieces were easier to teach (barring the knight), Frankenstein decided to continue the trend of short lessons; they had the time to do so.

xOx

Frankenstein sat across from Cadis as the noble stared at all the pieces of the board. He had taught Cadis the basic moves of every piece, and Cadis had asked to play a game a few days after.

Frankenstein waited a few moments, watching Cadis as he looked at every piece in turn, and then said, "The white side always starts."

Cadis blinked, and then nodded. "Why?" he said as he moved a pawn.

"That is merely a rule of the game," Frankenstein said wryly, watching where he placed it.

"That wasn't what I was asking," Cadis said, looking up at him. "Why did you make me play the white side?"

It was Frankenstein's turn to blink, and he looked down in confusion. He hadn't 'made' Cadis play the white side - they had both sat down at the chessboard, and Frankenstein hadn't even noted what side he was sitting on, habit more dictating his actions. …Which meant he had always sat at the black side of the board.

"I didn't," Frankenstein said, moving a pawn. "There's no particular advantage to making the first move, and it lessens the time deciding who starts the game."

"They attack first."

Frankenstein froze, his eyes widening as he made the connection. The white side attack first. The nobles made the first move, and then the black side (the humans - he) reacted to it. Or they tried to react to the mutants, but against maddened monsters gifted with a portion of a noble's power, most attempts were pitiful.

"They do," Frankenstein said quietly.

Cadis made his move and while Frankenstein was distracted with his thoughts, he shook his head and gathered himself. Cadis was merely advancing though, no apparent strategy in mind (not that Frankenstein had expected him to have one, not in his first game), and two moves later, Frankenstein captured a pawn.

Frankenstein watched Cadis carefully when he did so and the 'thunk' the pawn made when it was knocked over echoed throughout in the room. He collected the pawn and set it to the side, and while Cadis watched him do that, he didn't any anything either. It took a moment before Cadis stopped staring at it and made his next move.

It didn't take long before the game ended, Frankenstein the winner. He held his hand out towards Cadis over the chessboard. Cadis flicked his eyes towards it but didn't move.

Ah, nobles didn't shake hands, always keeping a minimum distance away from each other. Frankenstein didn't retract his hand, saying, "After a match, both players shake hands as a gesture to show that there is no lingering resentment between them, no matter what happened in the match."

Cadis' gaze turned more considering as he tilted his head to the side. Slowly, Cadis reached over and held his hand against Frankenstein's. His hand was warm, and Frankenstein lightly closed his hand around Cadis' and shook it once. Cadis still held his hand out when Frankenstein let go and pulled away.

It would be interesting to see what would happen next.

xOx

It was in their third game that Frankenstein realised there was something strange in the way that Cadis used his queen - it was his favourite piece to use, usually the first of the back row to move. He didn't think it was a strategy Cadis was implementing intentionally, however, not when he made it patrol the centre of the board instead using it to attack.

"You're starting to become predictable," Frankenstein murmured, knowing where Cadis would place it and Cadis paused, still holding his queen in the air. Frankenstein saw his eyes narrow and after a moment, Cadis returned his queen to its place. It was a longer moment before Cadis moved a knight, and Frankenstein gave him a brief smile before resuming the game.

xOx

Frankenstein smiled as he moved his pawn to Cadis' back row. He removed his pawn and picked up his rook from off the board, placing it upside-down on the square where his pawn had stood.

"What did you do?"

Frankenstein's fingers didn't leave the rook. "Ah," he said. "I had forgotten to tell you that rule – if your pawn is able to reach your opponent's side, you can promote it to whatever piece you wish, no matter if it's still on the board." He let his arm drop, nodding towards his upside-down rook. "I promoted it to a queen and seeing as my queen hasn't been captured yet, I had to improvise a piece."

"Why?"

After the questions Cadis had asked before, Frankenstein knew better than to assume what he was asking. He raised his eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"Why can the pawns be promoted when they reach the other side?"

Ah. Frankenstein hummed as he stroked his chin. "It symbolises how the soldier is promoted – they… Hm." How to explain this to him. "If the soldier is able to cross the battlefield without being captured by the enemy, they are rewarded with more power."

Cadis briefly stared at the upside-down rook before he nodded and they resumed the match.

xOx

Cadis had started defending more instead of merely protecting his pieces, Frankenstein noted in their next match. As well as starting to advance his pieces as well. He was moving a pair of pawns together across the board. Was he thinking they could protect each other at the same time?

It was an interesting strategy, but Frankenstein smirked when one pawn fell across the path of one of his knights. Cadis was developing, but his awareness of all the pieces on the board still needed to be improved. Frankenstein took the pawn.

xOx

"To win the game, you need to be able to sacrifice pieces," Frankenstein said as he took the noble's knight a few games later. Cadis was playing well, but Frankenstein knew he could play better – he still played rather straightforwardly.

Cadis frowned. "I don't want to."

"…You don't want to win?" Frankenstein repeated, surprised. True, that hadn't been the reason why he had first introduced the game to Cadis, but to be challenged by someone and not want to overcome them was a foreign thought to Frankenstein.

"No," Cadis said, "I don't want to sacrifice pieces."

Frankenstein sighed, watching Cadis' face more than what his next move was. Had that come from anyone else, any human, Frankenstein would have thought they were juvenile, but Cadis was far older than he was, so it wasn't he was juvenile but more…innocent. He snorted, straightening. "That's why your queen is usually the first piece taken." Cadis still used it the most, using it protect rather than attack, or to spring a trap.

"I don't regret that."

"If you did," Frankenstein said wryly, "you wouldn't keep doing it." Or so he would hope. Continually going against a fool who didn't learn from their mistakes would be boring. Cadis hadn't repeated too many of his mistakes before though, so Frankenstein doubted he was one.

"Hm."

xOx

"You're improving," Frankenstein told Cadis as they set the pieces back in place after one match.

When Cadis didn't respond, Frankenstein glanced up –while Cadis didn't say much, he still at least made a sound of acknowledgement to something Frankenstein said- and saw Cadis staring at him, his eyes a little wider than usual.

"You have been," Frankenstein insisted, surprised he didn't take it as a given like Frankenstein had expected him to. Their matches were starting to take longer; the compliment was due.

"Hm," Cadis said, his eyes settling back on the pieces.

Frankenstein watched him briefly before he returned his attention to putting his own pieces in order. Cadis wasn't used to being complimented…?

xOx

Frankenstein moved his king and sat back, waiting to see what move Cadis would make next.

He didn't. Cadis stared at the chessboard, fixated on Frankenstein's king.

Frowning, Frankenstein looked at the possible moves Cadis could make - and realised his king was in checkmate. Well, he'd been growing rather lax.

He let out a breathy chuckle, and smiled at Cadis when the noble glanced up at him. "So take it."

Cadis blinked once, and then looked down at the chessboard again. Slowly, Cadis lifted his queen and knocked over Frankenstein's king. Cadis then extended his hand over the chessboard, and Frankenstein took it, an anticipatory grin spreading across his face.

The next match was going to be fun.

I can't believe I wrote 4k just on Frankenstein teaching Rai how to play chess…

So, yeah, the anachronisms are how powerful the queen is (didn't come in until the 1400s) and the white side starting first (didn't become a set rule until the late 1800s).

I'd wanted Rai to ask what the Queen's role was, but it didn't quite fit.

Also, the word 'fun' wasn't used until the 1700s but I had to use it. XD;;