It was a highly strung and grumpy Ciel who turned up at the Chess club looking for a soothing match with one of the other members. He had wasted the better part of his free time that afternoon trying to write a reply to Sebastian's absurd statements. He had been half way through his 'reply' when the snarky bastard had slid another sheet under his gaze. Ciel had been about to snap an angry comment at the other, when his eyes fell on what was printed on the sheet.
It was a perfectly boring, normal, run of the mill, formally worded introductory paragraph.
Ciel had been so furious he had almost torn the new paper in two. Of course Sebastian wouldn't actually submit something so, so, explicit and personal just for a piece of homework. Ciel cursed himself for letting Sebastian play him for a fool. He had been so pissed off, he had snatched up the new paper, careful not to look at the smug look that he knew would be on the face of the other, and stormed out the library feeling angry and humiliated.
He had fumed his way aimlessly around the school before arriving at the Chess Club room.
Naturally to make his day better, the club room was empty; even the Chess club president hadn't arrived yet. Bad-temperedly he decided to study a practise match, opening the cupboard that contained the records of their plays. His eye ran across the orderly books and did a double take, sweeping back, to focus on the paper sticking out of the top of one of the record books. Intrigued, he took the book out and extracted the sheet of paper. The paper was labelled match 135 and listed two chess board setups. Under the two lists was written 'The Black army will always be on the move while the white army stops and watches the messengers retreat.'
What was this riddle doing here? Curiosity blew his bad mood away like a cleansing breeze. As he sat down and laid the two boards out, carefully reading through the two lists of positions;
Black king C1
White king D7
White queen E4
White castle D1
White castle A2
White bishop G1
Black bishop B2
Black pawn E3
Black pawn F6
Black pawn C6
Ciel frowned in puzzlement over the chess board. It made absolutely no sense. Chagrined he set up the second board.
White king E8
Black king E2
White queen B7
Black queen D2
White castle H2
Black castle E3
Black castle H6
White bishop H3
White bishop C7
White knight D6
White pawn G7
White pawn A5
White pawn F3
White pawn C3
White pawn B2
Leaning over the two boards, Ciel's frown deepened as he stared at them. This one didn't make any more sense than the other one. Once again he read through the two sentences.
Army… stopping and starting… messengers… could it be Morse code? Ciel sat down to start decoding, drawing dashes and dots. So if each line was a Morse code letter, and if he substituted black for dashes and white for dots that would form the code. Taking down a book from the reference shelf at the back of the room, Ciel began to interpret the code. He sat back after a few minutes, wondering if he had been wrong after all. The bluenette was sure he had decoded it all correctly, but it still made no sense. He had ended up with a jumble of nonsense letters. Had be missed a clue? Scanning the sheet he smiled as he figured out the last clue. However his triumph quickly changed to anger upon reading the message.
Sebastian really had no sense of when to leave him alone! How many more unwelcome messages had the idiot planted? Ciel felt his muscles tense as he fumed on the presumptuousness of his so called boyfriend. First he had the effrontery to waste Ciel's time and now he was invading the places where he went! The teasing and mocking he could handle, but setting up traps like this was beyond reasonable bounds.
Ciel's mental tirade was interrupted by the sound of the door swinging open. Ciel twisted round to face it ready to unleash his fury on Sebastian, only for his anger to freeze and die away under the cold, impassive gaze of the president of the Chess club.
For a moment Ciel felt like a cornered deer or rabbit staring into the eye of a hunter. There was a viciousness, a calculating presence in the other's gaze, as if he was going to rip Ciel apart. However as sudden as the impression had been, it vanished, leaving Ciel wondering if it was all part of his imagination. The president's cognac eyes warmed slightly as he took in Ciel's aggressive stance, the harsh line of his mouth curved into a scimitar smile. He glided over to the table where Ciel sat and leaned against the table where the smaller boy sat. Ciel felt himself become flustered under the scrutiny of someone he admired.
The president had a commanding presence; a quiet word from him could silence an argument. This might also have been because of his attractive appearance; although he wasn't handsome in the conventional sense, or even by modern standards, his pale skin and sharp tawny gaze gave him an elfin cast. He was also highly intelligent, consistently scoring in the top ten percent of his year level. That same intelligence showed itself when he played Chess, which had lead him to not only become the president of the chess club, but also the secretary of the student council. The silence between them stretched, almost becoming uncomfortable as Ciel studiously avoided looking at the other. Ciel almost jumped in surprise when the other spoke, his smooth baritone breaking the silence enveloping them.
'Is something wrong Ciel?' he asked inquiringly, his tone mild with a hint of curiosity. 'You seem to be very upset. Do you want to talk about it?'
'Not particularly.' Ciel replied, wincing at the shortness of his reply as well as the twinging of his muscles. He could feel the beginnings of a tension headache forming. Absently he lifted one hand to massage his neck, his face scrunching up a little in his discomfort.
'Well how about I give you a shoulder massage. It is after all my responsibility to look after the well-being of all the Chess club members, and you seem to be overly tensed.' The president said as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, before looking concernedly down at Ciel. The bluenett felt the colour rising on his face in embarrassment at being the unexpected focus of the other's attention.
'No, it's ok. Really I'll be fine.' Ciel assured, looking up at the older boy, only to be pinned by the obvious worry and concern in his gaze.
'Are you sure? You'll feel better once your muscles are more relaxed, and you'll probably be able to think more clearly. I doubt you would be able to play a decent match, when you're this tense.' The amber eyes drew closer to Ciel, as their owner's voice softened.
'Really I don't want to inconvenience you…' Ciel replied uneasily, tearing his gaze away from the other, only to focus on their feet.
'Let me help you… loosen up.' He whispered cajolingly. 'The other club members won't be here for another twenty minutes, and I don't have anything more pressing to attend to at the moment.' The faint warmth of the other's breath caused Ciel's skin to prickle. He shifted uneasily in his seat, suddenly very conscious of the distance between them.
'Well if you really insist…' Ciel said reluctantly looking back up. He was rewarded by a slight smile that eased his apprehension. The older boy moved behind Ciel, his large hands resting firmly, but not heavily on Ciel's shoulders. The dexterous fingers began to gently knead into the muscles, feeling out the tensed muscles as they danced across his shoulders and up onto his neck. Ciel yawned and blinked sleepily at the late afternoon sun, trying to keep himself from falling asleep. He started awake, as he let out a sleepy cross between a grunt and hum of contentment.
'Ciel, the collar of your shirt is in the way, can you remove it?' The elder male said quietly as his fingers gently pressed into the soft skin just above Ciel's shirt collar. Absentmindedly Ciel undid his school tie and unbuttoning the top couple of buttons on his shirt, unaware of how the greedy eyes feasted on the exposed skin. The fingers immediately went to work on the warm flesh, pressing and kneading the muscles, a red flush spreading across the snowy skin. The bluenett's eyes slid shut and a contented moan escaped as he teetered on the edge of sleep. Ciel gasped in pain, as the expert fingers moved to a new area of his neck kneading the tense muscle into submission. However he cut off the exclamation of pain, not wanting the other to stop. He focused on keeping his breathing light and breaths short, and so missed the lustful smirk as a tongue darted out to moisten the Chess Club president's lips.
A/N: Yes, there genuinely is a coded message. If you follow the instructions you get EMETADESAELP, which doesn't really make any sense, however if you read the instructions the last part says that "the messengers retreat", retreating is going backwards, so if you reverse it you get PLEASEDATEME, which with the spaces correctly inserted becomes PLEASE DATE ME.
