YUGIOH

Chess

Narr: This is a general, rated K. Though there's nothing actually stated or shown in this fic on yaoi, there is still the hint of M/M, J/K if you look 'really' hard.

(I'd like to give a special thanks to Nenya's wonderful work, who's stories may have helped to influence a scene or two within....)

Kaiba glared down at his opponent, sitting on the other side of the chess board. Kaiba felt agitated. And it wasn't because his opponent was a good player. Oh, no....definitely not that. If anything, it was because of the 'lack' of challenge his opponent offered.

Joey looked over the chess board, as if he was looking at the maze within Yami's mind. For him, the game was just about as mind boggling as that.

Finally, Joey brought his hand up, taking the Knight and moving it....in the process, taking one of Kaiba's pawns. Kaiba once again rolled his eyes.

"Ha! I got your pawn! Whaddya think of that??" Joey said, about to do a victory dance.

Kaiba gave a bored reply, "I think for the third time now, you moved that piece incorrectly."

As Joey sat down looking confused and bewildered, Kaiba placed the pawn back, putting the Knight where it originally was. "Once again, this is how you use a Knight." Kaiba, as patiently as possible, showed Joey all the movement possibilities for his chess piece. Taking his pawn was not one of them.

"Ohhhh! I got it, now!" Joey said, nodding.

Kaiba just shook his head. "Why don't you give up? I told you there was no way you were going to be able to figure out this game."

"And I told you I'd learn it!" Joey retorted. "Maybe I aint as smart as you, Mr. 'I can learn how to beat a chess master in one day', but that don't mean I can't learn how to play this. And you'll see....in a couple days, I'm gonna figure this game out."

"I never agreed to spend that long to teach you how to play chess!" Kaiba spat.

Joey reminded him, "When we talked about this....I bet you that I could learn if you taught me. And then you said, there's no way I would learn...."

"....I'm well aware of what was said." Kaiba snapped.

Joey smirked. "I never said how quickly it would take for me to learn. But I will learn it."

Kaiba looked even angrier, now. How did he get himself stuck in such a mess? How did Joey of all people managed to trap 'him' into being forced to spend time with this low-life?? But of course, he would never outwardly admit that Joey trapped him into doing anything against his will. So instead, Kaiba planned on trying to make this little arrangement as fast as possible.

Kaiba slid his piece up, saying, "Checkmate." The game was over, and Kaiba began to put the pieces away.

"That's it?" Joey asked.

Kaiba replied, "For today." He then gave Joey a piece of software, and a decent-looking wood-carved chess set. "I will not be available for another game until later in the week. In the meantime, this piece of software can be loaded even on your antiquated computer at home. It's a chess learning tutor that will help you learn and practice the game more. And this is a chess set, so you can play with those little groupie friends of yours, instead of pestering me all the time. If you really want to prove to me you're willing to try your hardest at learning this game, then you can also use these pieces of hands-on material for study."

Joey stared at it, speechless.

Kaiba simply smirked. "Was my explanation too complicated for your little mind, mutt?"

"You gave me a gift...." Joey said in shock.

Kaiba blinked at that, stunned at Joey's realization. He then seemed to once again become agitated from Joey's mere presence, after realizing himself what he had done. Once more, Joey had somehow gotten him to do something he originally hadn't planned on doing. "Are we done here?" Kaiba snapped, avoiding the comment.

Joey smirked, totally changing the subject now, as he said, "I bet I know what your favorite piece is."

It took a minute for Kaiba to figure out what he was talking about. Of course....chess pieces. "And what piece do think that is?" Kaiba asked, looking bored....all ready anticipating what the answer would be.

And it wasn't what Kaiba expected Joey to say. "It's that horse thing, aint it?"

"It's called a Knight." Kaiba snapped, feeling insulted that Joey would so rudely call his favorite piece 'a horse'. Kaiba was actually surprised Joey guessed it, and didn't say the Queen. He figured that Joey would assume it was the piece that appeared to be the most powerful. But he didn't admit Joey was right, though. Instead, he asked him, "So, what makes you think it's the Knight?"

Joey grinned, saying, "Cuz it has all the moves. Even if a Queen lines up to it, it can do that fancy side-swipe, and she's toast. Besides, the thing is just as annoying and complicated to figure out as you are."

Though it wasn't the right answer as to why Kaiba liked the piece, the answer from Joey was amusing enough that he actually began to smile....until he caught himself, and once again took on the stone-faced look. "Actually, I prefer the Knight since it's the most unpredictable of the game."

"Uh....yeah, that too." Joey chuckled. He knew that was Kaiba's favorite piece!

Kaiba took out the piece and looked at it for a moment, saying, "Actually....the Knight really isn't as difficult to figure out, as it appears."

"It isn't?" Joey asked.

Kaiba shook his head, and looked back up at Joey. "If you put enough time and effort into it, you'd see it's much easier to understand than you think."

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Later in the week, Joey was playing a friendly game of chess with Yugi. Yugi moved a piece, saying, "I'm surprised you got into playing Chess, Joey."

"Yeah, well....I just started taking a liking to it, I guess." Joey moved his Knight.

As he did, Yugi smiled and moved his piece, taking one of Joey's pieces. "You always move your Knights around, Joey. Though you've learned how to moved them right, you haven't learned how to use them properly. Until you know how to use them, you should probably avoid playing that piece if you can."

"Yeah, but I aint gonna learn till I use 'em....right?" Joey said. "Besides....I like playing the horse."

"And why is that?" Yugi asked.

Joey picked it up, looking the Knight over. "I dunno. I guess....it's my favorite piece."

"Really?" Yugi asked. "And why is that?"

Joey smiled. "Well....I guess I like taking on a challenge. Plus, I originally thought the horse was really complicated and tough to understand. But, you know what? Once you learn enough about him, you realize he's not so tough to figure out, after all...."

Yugi chuckled. "Joey, you're just talking about a chess piece. It's an 'it', not a 'he'."

"Huh? Oh, yeah...." Joey answered.

END

Narr: I guess you can say it's deep, and you have to really read between the lines to get the full meaning of the fic. I actually came up with the idea of writing this short, after reading the latest chapter of 'Unheard Love', by Growing Pain. This short really has absolutely nothing to do with the story that inspired me. But, for some reason it just simply came into my head after reading it....that's all. But his story is a very good J/K fic, which I highly recommend to anyone who likes to read that particular coupling (like I do).

I'd like to thank everyone that gave me all those wonderful responses from my last fic. But the only problem with story endings or one-shot fics like this is, is that I can't offer a web response in the story thanking all my readers who reviewed....those readers I have to reply manually. But I can't really do that for my anonymous readers, even after they were so nice to me. So, I guess I'm kinda sad about that, since there's no way of thanking those reviewers and letting them know I appreciated it. Well, hopefully sending this little ending note will let you all know. I did get your responses and I appreciate it, thanks!