Children do really like to talk... (too much, sometimes)

[babywantsuckash]

Luna was bored again, and sick of being lectured by her Father. (Really, why was he still here? What was up with that?) A pixie stick in her mouth she sat in front of her computer and was playing a game that required lining up different jewels of the same color before the time ran out.

It was addicting really, but she enjoyed puzzle games. But it also got boring after awhile, with nothing else to really do, she figured it wouldn't hurt to try to call Grandfather.

After starting up the program she sat there, bouncing the pixie stick between her lips, waiting to see if he'd answer.

Luna had demonstrated an unerring capability of calling him at the most inopportune times. He had _just_ settled down in his favorite chair with a glass of wine and a nice thick book on the Plataganets when his computer chimed. So he put down his book and his glass and went to go answer the chimes.

"Ah, Luna! So good to see you. Take that out of your mouth." he said.

Luna pouted, what was it adults had against candy? Of all the things she had stored in her room, pixie sticks were the highest quantity though so she took it out, rolling her eyes a bit.

"Will you please come and get me now, I'm still grounded..."

Perhaps it was time to pay his son and his daughter-in-law a visit - and to rescue his poor grandchild for a short time. "I cannot promise anything but I will see what I can do." he equivocated. "Besides your soul-crushing boredom, how are you today?"

"I'm okay, but Father won't unground me until I explain why what I did was wrong but I tried and he said that's not right," she paused here and sighed melodramatically.

"I wish Aunt Wanda would visit, but she's probably busy because she got her kids back but they're not kids now they're teenagers and Thomas is really stupid now," Luna said, it not even occurring to her that Grandfather might not know about that. (Or that anyone might not want him to.)

Erik blinked. And then blinked again. "She ... got her children back?" He wasn't aware that she _had_ children, let alone teenaged children! Thinking about the timeframe, he was going to have to place a very strongly-worded call with one Mortimer Toynbee. If he'd gone behind his pack and touched his daughter without his - or her! - permission, there would be little on this Earth that would save him from the Master of Magnetism's wrath.

There was an outside chance that it could be one of her Avengers team-mates, but he'd take care of Mortimer first before exploring that path.

"That's very interesting, Luna. Can you tell me anything about them?"

Luna raised an eyebrow, "You didn't know? Don't feel bad, no one hardly tells me anything either," Luna said. Which kind of sucked, she liked knowing what was going on.

"It's weird because I should be older than them, because they were born when I was little and Aunt Wanda was still married to the Vision but they died or something and are now magically older. Being aged magically must make you stupid, because Thomas was. I didn't see William. Thomas looked a lot like Father," Luna added with a shrug.

William and Thomas. More data. "Thank you, Luna, for telling me. Both of my children are ... reluctant ... to involve me in any significant way in their lives." he said, letting just a hint of sadness show. He wondered if the children were mutants, and only felt vaguely guilty that that was one of the first thoughts he had. Still, the Lehnsherrs used to be a large clan, and it made him feel a little better that they were growing again. "It's a long story and not one you need to involve yourself with right now."

"Yeah, Father really doesn't like you. Mother says I shouldn't let that worry me though and I think you're nice," she said. And she did, she hadn't seen anything to make her doubt that.

"I'm sorry Aunt Wanda didn't tell you, I'm sure she meant to, maybe she was just worried what you'd think because it's kind of weird, isn't it? But I met Thomas when I was playing with Lockjaw, he wasn’t very smart. And he got in trouble, which was funny..."

The boy was in New York City? Fascinating. "It's an old argument, Luna. Listen to your mother for she has the right of things." What an odd thing to say about Crystal, but in this case it was perfectly true. He was going to have to give his errant offspring a call to get the full story directly from her lips. He owed her that much.

Hiding children from him. Did they really consider him to be such a monster?

Sighing, Erik put the matter aside. Of course they did. And not without some justification.

"I still think that if you just said you were sorry for whatever it was that it would be all better," Luna said with a shrug, "That works when I fight with Mother. I hope William ended up being nice, because I wanted Lockjaw to eat Thomas, does that make me bad?" she hoped it didn't. She wanted to be able to like her family.

"I would say that that doesn't make you bad." he said carefully. "Perhaps a bit unkind, as you do not know your cousins, but not bad per se." he said. The issue of apology he let go - neither child would accept it and he wasn't all that willing to make it. He was hard on his kids; there was no question of that. But it was - is - an ugly world out there and they had to be ready to face its horrors.

Time to change the subject.

"Would you like to continue our game from before?" he asked pleasantly.

"Aunt Wanda said it was okay if I didn't really like them because they're so much older than I am now," which really wasn't fair, Luna thought but that's the way it happened so she had to deal with it. But she also hadn't told Aunt Wanda that she had wanted Lockjaw to eat Thomas, or to make his head explode by having him drink pop rocks and pop. (And if that didn't explode his head, she'd so have a drink of that herself, it'd be double the fizz!)

Luna brightened when he mentioned the game, "Yes! Could we? I'd like that a lot, Grandfather."

Erik invoked the chess program and waited for it to do its handshake with Luna's system on the moon. Lag was always an issue with a comms link this long but with chess it was rarely time-sensitive, especially when one's opponent was a beginner. Once the program was displaying the board for both of them he loaded their last game and waited for the program to repaint the board with their pieces.

"Your move, child." he said.

"I know," Luna said and considered what to do, "This is a really hard game."

Luna pressed her lips as she looked at the pieces on the 'board' this was way harder and way more fun than any of her puzzles. It was also a lot harder than the games she regularly beat cousin Karnak in. (He was so funny when he lost...)

After about a minute of total thought Luna decided, "I'm going to move the horse piece!" she announced, and did so, not really knowing exactly how much danger it put said piece in.

"It's called a knight." he corrected absently. "It's a thinking person's game. It doesn't matter how quick your hand is, or how strong your arm is. All that matters in chess is your ability to reason, to see patterns, to anticipate and to devise strategy." He was quite fond of the game, having played it for some fifty-odd years now. He declined to take her opening and moved his rook into an advantageous spot.

Oddly, neither of his children were big chess players.

"Do you think I'm good at it?" Luna asked, chewing on her bottom lip a bit as she tried to think about what she could do next. It was hard to keep tract of her pieces but also all of her Grandfather's and exactly how they could move.

She pushed a pawn forward.

"I know I'm not as good as you," she said, "You've played for a long, long time."

Randomly, she wondered if her Uncle or Cousin Karnak played chess.

"No-one expects you to play at my level so quickly, silly goose!" he said with a small laugh. "Just that you play and learn from your mistakes," and speaking of mistakes, it was time to start capitalizing on hers. His other rook took her errant knight with a flick of his mouse.

"You've picked up the fundamentals quickly and you've got an agile mind. The rest will come with time and experience." he said. He composed her a quick email with some good chess references aimed at children. "Get your mother or Aunt Wanda to get you these books." he said. "They're a good reference and they're intended for the beginner."

"Aww, you took the knight," Luna pouted when it vanished off the board. "I'll see about having Mother buy those books, I want to be able to beat you one day," she said simply. No malice, just a child stating a fact.

Luna crossed her legs on her computer chair as she stared at the board and leaned in close trying to think, she moved the weird looking piece that could only go diagonally so that the next turn it could take the short piece that ate the horse.

Luna, like many children, lacked the ability to look ahead, to see the consequences of her moves. He didn't want to take advantage of her naiveté but at the same time her errors needed to be corrected. She was focused on taking his pawn but her moves exposed her queen.

Luna took the one piece she was after feeling proud of herself as she did so. Yeah, instant gratification over the big picture was a childish flaw she suffered from in spades, “Haha, I got it, Grandfather,” she said with a smug little smile.

"Requesiat im pace, Sir Knight." he said sadly before moving in to take her queen. "He died well."

He let her analyze what had just happened for a moment or two.

Luna blinked a couple of times and the joy of her victory over avenging the Knight was suddenly cut down, “Grandfather, why’d you do that?” Luna asked, “You took my Queen!” that seemed extremely unfair. Even if that was the point of the game.

"You left her vulnerable." he pointed out. "So I sacrificed my knight to get a chance to take your queen." When said like that, it almost sounded reasonable.

“Can I take back my last move?” Luna said, now wanting to stop the whole thing from happening like that, “Please?”

Erik could afford to be kind. "Just this once." he said, resetting the game back one move. "There you are. Your move, Luna." he said. "Consider your options carefully."

Luna did, and in the end opted to move her Queen out of the way of the upcoming attack, “There, now you can’t have her,” Luna said, relieved. One day, she figured she’d be as good as him at this, but for now, this was a small victory. “That scared me.”

Erik studied the board for a few moments then made his move. Mate in eight, if things went according to plan. His chess style was aggressive overall, with a fondness for daring attacks and cunning ambushes. None of that for Luna, though. She was only a child, so he kept things simple.

Happy that she had managed to save her Queen, Luna just moved a random pawn into the line of fire. She figured that’s why they were called pawns. Because you could set them up to go down if you wanted to, “This is really fun.”

Erik studied the board again. Completely by accident the girl had managed to make a very canny move. He was going to have to shift his strategy. He moved one of his own pawns to open up some new lines of attack.

Luna who was know just playing to play and wasn’t really thinking about moves, randomly moved her castle type piece up a few spots, “Am I getting better?” she asked, curious. She had to be, this game had lasted longer than the first one. “You’re not going easy on me, are you?”

"You've improved a great deal from when you first learned how to play." he said diplomatically. He moved his bishop into a flanking position, threatening her remaining knight.

Luna did catch that, she wasn't going to lose the other horse! She moved it out of the way, at least she hoped it was all the way out of the way, "Sometimes it's hard to remember how each piece moves," Luna admitted.

"It just takes time and practice. Our chess program can be set to allow you to play against the computer." he pointed out. "Perhaps you could fill a few hours improving your chess game against the computer?" he suggested, moving his rook.

"The computer doesn't let me take back moves or give me advice," Luna said, randomly moving the horse again. That had to be her favorite piece. That or the Queen, because it was the queen. "I like playing with you better."

Erik smiled at that. "No, that it does not." he said, already beginning to plan a beginner's chess program that integrated feedback and a crude AI into it. Moving his rook, he captured one of her pawns and set himself up in a very advantageous position.

"Why do they call the tiny pieces pawns?" Luna asked, watching as the pawn vanished (pawn-napped!) she thought about how to move and randomly moved the Queen thinking maybe she could totally just blow through her Grandfather's pieces and win a stunningly awesome victory.

"A pawn is one used or manipulated to serve another's purposes." he said to her. "Pawns are the lowest-ranked pieces on the board - and the most numerous." He left her to draw what conclusions she would from the arrangement of the pieces. "In Latin, a pedon is a foot soldier or someone with wide feet." he pointed out.

"They're so tiny too, it's kinda funny," Luna said, moving the queen again, getting one of her Grandfather's pawns, "and why does it also mean wide feet?"

"It's a long story." he said. Her Queen was vulnerable again, but Erik took the opportunity to nail one of her bishops to the wall with one of his own bishops.

"I like stories," Luna said and frowned as her bishop bit the dust, "How do you think I should move, Grandfather?"

"If I told you that it wouldn't be a very good game. I'd be playing against myself and you'd just be watching." he pointed out. "Think about the moves you have available. Then think about what you want to do, what you need to do to make that happen."

Luna stared at the board hard, "I dunno though, I want to win," she said simply. "And it's hard to beat you; I could move my Queen again."

"Yes." he said, acknowledging her words. "And you will win if you practice and think through your moves." he said. "Chess is a game of thinking, of knowing your opponent."

"I know, I know... but you're so much better at it," Luna said, deciding to move her other horse piece.

Erik just nodded. "I've had far more practice, and I honed my chess-playing skills against a telepath." he pointed out.

"Is it hard playing against a telepath?" Luna asked, after she had moved her knight, wishing she could get away with eating another Pixie stick while talking to her grandfather.

"Think about it, Luna. Imagine playing chess against someone who knew your every move as soon as you thought of it," he said.

"Did you win, Grandfather?" Luna asked, while waiting for him to move, "Was it really hard?"

"I lost as often as I won." he said. "Even without his gift Charles is a devout student of the game of chess."

"So he didn't cheat by reading your mind?" Luna asked, it'd be pretty tempting to do that.

"If he did, he concealed it well. And I can make it difficult for anyone to tamper with my mind." he said. Even without his helmet.

"How do you do that?" Luna said, moving her Queen again. "Is it hard to do?" Maybe if they kept talking, she could distract him into letting her win.

"It requires a certain degree of mental discipline." he said, lowballing how difficult it was by several orders of magnitude. "I can also use my power to make things difficult for telepaths."

"Really?" Luna asked, "So people can't ever read your mind?"

"Not unless I will it or unless they best my will." he said without a trace of arrogance.

"So is that why you're friend couldn't read your mind when you guys play chess?" Luna asked.

"I learned how to protect my mind from him." he admitted. And then taken it a few notches further, because most of the time it was Charles or his student Jean Grey he was trying to keep out.

Luna unwittingly moved her Queen into even more danger, "Why did you decide to learn how to do that? So he wouldn't cheat at chess?"

"That, and for other reasons." She didn't need to know about his early successes and failures. Not now. He looked at the board, and decided that it was time to bring the game to an end. He moved one of his Knights into the final position to begin the assault on her position.

"I bet that comes in handy a lot," Luna said. There were a few mind readers here, and she could imagine that it'd be pretty useful to keep them from knowing when you were causing trouble. She randomly moved another pawn, oblivious to the danger. "I'm having fun."

"Good." he said. "When you're older, I'll teach you how to do it," he promised impulsively. Now the girl was far too flighty to muster that kind of strength of will. And, with luck, she'd never have to draw on it like he had his. He'd survived horrors that no one should have to endure. Not her, not Charles, not anyone.

"I'd like that," Luna said honestly. "Grandfather, when you were little did you play chess with your grandfather?"

Erik's throat almost seized up at the girl's innocent question. "A very, very long time ago." he said quietly. The old man had not tolerated Auschwitz well. He hadn't lasted the first week, and Erik couldn't even remember his face now. Just the smell of his pipe, the feel of his coat, and the weight of his hand on Erik's young shoulder.

After that, Grandfather didn’t really seem to be much for talking, so they continued to play their game. He won, he always won but Luna didn’t mind. It was just fun to be able to do something with him. She knew her Father wouldn’t like it, but didn’t really care as her Mother said this was all okay.

After they finished and said good bye Luna happily pulled out the bag of pixie sticks and popped a blue one in her mouth. Ah, sugar.