"Knight to f4." Fai says, peering over the board he's set up, a mirror to hers he knows, he moves it on his side, sees her do the same across from him, in her own world.
She sits back, smoke drifts from her pipe, and she thinks.
"There are quite a few options here." She says pleasantly, meaning nothing by it.
"As there always is." Fai agrees, smiling brightly.
"You could chose to lose after all." He says, leaning back in his own chair, far less comfortable looking than hers.
She eyes him, amusement playing in her eyes, redder than they have any right to be.
"Well, I could," she agrees, "but why break a streak? You always make the most delicious pastries as a prize and Watanuki-kun is always thankful to have a little less cooking to contend with. I can't let my part-timer down now, can I?" She asks, voice soft, as if her words had less meaning than they hold. The witch sighs, cheek in her palm.
"I suppose I'll play rook to h4." Yuuko says finally, eyes glittering as she watches him, waiting for him to slip up as he always does.
"I suppose that is true." Fai hums, already turning thought to his next move.
In truth they'd never set up rules for what happens if Fai wins, not that it's out of the question. He knows that she cannot receive things for free, that she must pay a price for them, and that she cannot give things away without having been given something in return.
So they play their game and he sends her a cake, a box of croissants, a set of apple turnovers, and they both pretend to the fates that it is equal and just and the rules of their game.
One day, if Fai lets himself win, he looks forwards to whatever she deigns to give him in turn, knows that it will be small but that it will be equal in the affection they trade back and forth, as the pieces move slowly in tandem across the boards.
Perhaps in another reality they could have something more solid.
Here, in this one, a game whose prize is companionship is enough.