[AIM Log] [Dark horse, scattered petals] [Shikamaru + Byakuya + Hana] [Closed]

[supine_sky]

[AIM chat log between Byakuya, Hana and Shikamaru. Each turn has no line breaks just to give you the heads up in reading.]


Hana sat at the table, chin propped up on the palm of her hand as she observed the checkers board in front of her. She sighed and switched hands, leaning in the other direction and glancing up at her companion with a raised eyebrow. After a second, she reached out and moved a piece on the board, knowing that it was doomed to be consumed by one of Byakuya's pieces. Oh well, that was life, she supposed. But, she'd promised herself that she'd eventually beat him, and in order to beat someone at a game, one had to play the game first. "Your move," she said, leaning back in her chair.

Byakuya had made no comment about her choice of moves, though he privately thought that she ought to have moved it to a safer spot. Actually, he'd already figured out which three pieces she actually needed to move to have even the slightest chance of winning the game. The one she'd moved hadn't been one of the three. She had, in fact, placed it in a very prime eating spot. Sad, but true. Still, his eye was on a different one, the one dangling out there, just waiting to be eaten. He might have to sacrifice one of his pieces, but the sacrifice would be worth it, because it would result in a victory in the long run. He made his move and knocked out a little red chip, purposefully setting himself up to be eaten, should she take the bait.

Hana made a sour face. She knew she was being lead into making certain moves, but that was the nature of the game. If she captured the piece that Byakuya had set out in the open, it'd be good for her, but she realized that making that move would open her to having two of her pieces taken. No, she decided against that, and moved one of her pieces into a defensive spot, sitting back in her chair once again.

Ah, so she didn't take the bait then. Byakuya sat back in his chair, pondering his next move, brow furrowed as he considered just exactly how he wanted to play it. There were two ways open to him now, he could go the aggressive route, or hang back and do a little behind-the-scenes manipulation. Was he feeling like being a knight on a charger? Or a spy in the background? Consideringly, he reached out with a finger to move the one piece in the corner, then changed his mind at the last minute and went for the other route instead.

Scratching the back of her head, there was another pause of consideration. What to do, what to do. Hana tilted her head, finally sliding a piece across the board, advancing it closer to enemy territory. She hummed a little before removing her finger from the piece, ending her turn. She smiled at Byakuya and crossed her arms, pulling her feet up to tuck under her on the seat cushion. Her dogs lay scattered on the floor around her, except for Shouri who had taken a position underneath Byakuya's chair. Traitor.

A black piece almost immediately nipped into the vacant spot left by Hana's piece. He hadn't expected her to move that particular one, but it was a stroke of luck for him. It would be safe for the next couple turns while he reevaluated his strategy. He looked across the table at her, taking in the smile and the dark hair, tousled from her fingers having run through the long locks while she was deep in thought. He sat his hands back down on the table from where they had been braced at the back of his neck, his quiet voice sounded loud in a room silent except for the tick-tock of the clock and the soft wuffing breaths of the dogs lazing around. "Your turn."

A very windswept Shikamaru plodded his way up the steps, hopelessly attempting to displace stray strands of unruly hair from his face with his forearm as his hands were full, one cautiously carrying a hotcup and plastic bag as the other searched for his keys. He pushed through the door of number nine and immediately heavily deposited his burdens on the kitchen table, shaking off in a manner that might have made Akamaru proud. Umber eyes then raised to the company over the rim of his chai with brows raised, surprised to see a foreign, stoic figure. "Oi. Vet friend? I got bread." He carried on into the common room, stooping to ruffle the hackles of the nearest hound.

"Ooh, bread! Um, this is Kuchiki Byakuya, from next door. We're playing checkers." Obviously, but still. Shinri shuffled over to greet Shikamaru, and Hana made another move on the board. "Hey, Byakuya, Shikamaru is a great chess player. Do you like chess?"

"Hello, Shikamaru," Byakuya greeted the boy politely, and nodded at Hana. "Yes, I do like chess." He was really a better chess player than checkers player, though he hadn't played that particular game in years either. His attention returned to the board before him, eyeing possible movements in his head before tweaking a piece a step closer towards becoming a King.

"You guys should play a game together. I put my money on Shikamaru." Hana grinned and moved her piece, trying to defend her side of the board. She felt slightly frazzled. Playing against Byakuya was always challenging, and she always appreciated a good game. Watching a good game was fun too. She winked at Shikamaru as she leaned back in her seat.

"Kuchiki. So you're Rukia's brother? Good to meet you, then." A stray chair was taken up as chai temporarily abandoned as he leaned forward with his knees apart, taking Shinri by both ears and rubbing them thoroughly. Thus he earned the esteemed titled of chinrest, a bemused expression falling on the husky before returning his attention to his human company. He relaxed into a slouch and returned to nursing his drink, eyeing the board thoughtfully before Hana's words fell on him and a smirk clawed over his lips. "Pawning him off on me?" Dark eyes scored the black and white battlefield, analyzing what he must have missed. "You'll be a good game." Directed at Byakuya this time, his tongue swiping over chapped lips.

The older man was resigned to being known as 'Rukia's brother' around these parts. It seemed to be the primary way people referred to him, Rukia being the louder of the two of them, and thus, by extension, having made the greater number of acquaintances. Friends, he reminded himself. He arched a brow at the boy, wondering at his smugness. He must be good if he seemed that confident. "You seem confident enough, and Hana has endorsed you. You ought to be quite good." He reached out and moved the piece he had been contemplating, and told Hana in that quiet way of his. "I get a king."

Hana sighed and returned one of the captured pieces to Byakuya, kinging his piece. "There you go." She immediately moved one of her own pieces out of the way of Byakuya's king. Evasion seemed like the best tactic at the moment, she decided. At this point, she knew she was going to lose. Hana sighed and resolved to try harder next time.

The king was safe against the edge of the board for the moment, there was really no rush in ending the game in one fell swoop like that. Instead, Byakuya started formulating a plan that would properly utilise the properties of his kinged piece. He steepled his fingers, a frown curving his mouth, pondering the board, thinking of potential moves. Strategy fixed firmly in his mind, he made his move.

Shikamaru's smirk settled into a subtle curve, falling into the passive cockiness he carried himself with. It was always awakened in the face of a challenge. "Of course Hana would endorse me; she's known me since I was as tall as Kuromaru." Shikamaru and Chouji had met the Inuzukas after Ino had moved to the city, but it was still a young start. She may as well have been their surrogate brother--until they all realized she was indeed a girl, at least. He refrained from letting on that he was undefeated in his game, for whatever cockiness he held, he didn't like to brag. Shrugging off his messenger bag and retrieving an unfinished sudoku and pencil, he leaned back into the wooden support until they were finished, always keeping an eye on the game.

Hana laughed to herself at the memory of a tiny Shikamaru being scared half to death by how huge Kuromaru was when they first met. "Kuromaru is mama's dog," she explained to Byakuya before falling silent. After a few agonizing minutes of Byakuya cleaning the board of all her pieces, the game was finally over. Hana sighed and stood up, popping her back and picking up checkers pieces. "I'll get the chess pieces and then make a snack, sound good?"

"Ah, yes..." Byakuya agreed, cocking a head at the younger boy, who seemed preoccupied with his book of puzzles. He started keeping the little round tiles, methodically collecting white disks in one pile and black ones in another, putting them away in their individual ziploc bags. "Old friends, then," he commented. The very idea was unfathomable to him. Friends had been few and far between in his young life, and each had eventually left on diverging paths, rarely to return, calling him up only when they needed money or his influence for help.

Hana got the bags for the chess pieces and began to set them out on the board. "Shikamaru was always closer to Kiba, but we're all sort of like a big family out there. Right, Shikamaru?"

Coming out of his daydream clouds, Shikamaru set aside his mind-stimuli and sat up (albeit slightly) to draw in closer to the table, mindful of Shinri. "Aa, this entire...full apartment are all old friends. Didn't even all move in at once." Taking up Hana's lead, he positioned the board appropriately to wind up with the black set. He liked being at the disadvantage. A somewhat bemused expression washed over his visage then as dark eyes scaled up the stoic figure across from him, elbows resting on the table and fingers interlaced beneath his chin. At first taste his cover was laid out in stark contrast to Rukia's, whereas Hana and Kiba were obviously apples fallen in one single, wrestling pair. Curious to see Byakuya's first move, his fingertips pinched the circumference of his cup's lip to bring it to his lips.

So the opening move fell to him, hmm? Byakuya paused for thought. How did he want to play this? He really knew little about his new opponent, though from Hana and Shikamaru's banter, it seemed as if he must be good. At least, decent. Well, there was nothing to it, he would start with a classic, the Spanish opening. His hand reached for the pawn in front of his king and moved it two squares forward, leaned back in his chair and nodded at his opponent, waiting to see his reaction.

His hand slid his cup from him self sidelong, umber eyes following stately hands as they carried out the opening move. His expression had grown more solemn and thoughtful now that things had actually begun, though a slight quirk remained at the corner. Almost without hesitation his digits enclosed around his corresponding pawn, drifting forward and releasing two spaces forward to meet Byakuya's in the center of the battlefield. An opening he'd indeed witnessed innumerable times in his career, although he was quite fond of its forwardness. Withdrawing his upper body only halfway back as though truly engaged in something that required his muscles to stay taut, a strange state for those who knew him well to be in, he re-clasped his hands and returned his slightly creased eyes to his opponents.

Hana knew better than to interrupt two men who were in a chess match. It made her troublesome, or something like that. So she poured a glass of water for herself in the kitchen and pulled up an extra chair to sit and observe the game as it proceeded. She'd seen Shikamaru play before, though had never challenged him. She figured that the reason he acted so lazy was because his brain was working overtime and so his body was slacking to make up for it. Though she'd offered to get snacks for the others, she knew that they'd become locked in a mental battle and probably wouldn't want the distraction, so she decided to sit back and wait for a while before actually getting up to serve the offered snacks.

The response was fairly predictable, Byakuya had seen many similar openings himself, and many similar responses. His knight would go next, to threaten the black pawn, and, he was sure, that his knight's counterpart would respond in kind, in support of its own comrade in arms. Did he want to change his chosen opening? He looked across the table at Shikamaru, black eyes meeting umber across the board. Hn. Probably not. Not at the outset, anyway. His next move would put him in control of most of the central four squares. His knight moved, threatening the black pawn.

Shikamaru was being led along, and he played into it for now. It was the next move that would generate the more interesting and subtle details of the match. His own knight diagonal marched forth into the expected defense, hand straying thereafter to his cup to polish off the remnants. Not one to pry into the fathomless minds of women--although curiosity delved lightly--Shikamaru wondered just how this almost chillingly composed man had ended up here with Hana, a woman he knew to be quite able in the art of getting dirty, wrestling men (and winning) and treating mange without as much as a grimace. Shikamaru rolled his shoulders, leaning back minutely once more and returning his eyes into dark depths he just couldn't read.

The expected was quite unhelpful. It hid the intricacies of the workings of the boy's mind behind the known. Had the youth picked something different, Byakuya could have begun an assessment of his abilities. It wasn't the known that Byakuya worried over, it was the unknown. He wanted to evaluate the probabilities of the unquantified variable before him. Probability tables would do him no good here. His expected move would be his king's bishop, opening the way for him to castle, further protecting his king. At the very least he would avail himself of that particular opportunity. But where would he move the piece to? Would he soften the beginning attack and stop it a square shy of challenging the knight? Or would he go full force forward? They were merely in the beginning steps of the game, he could always retreat later. He made his move, the green felt beneath his bishop softening the sound of wooden piece sitting on the white diagonal from the black knight.

Now Shikamaru was set to attack. His calm and methodical placing shifted when his queen's bishop dragged forth to the dark square cornered by his own black knight and Byakuya's white bishop, rising to the challenge. As he'd planned ahead for this specific move and wouldn't need to plan again until he saw Byakuya's response, he took the moment in the echo of his piece's settling to turn his attention to Hana, rising from the clouds of somber thought effortlessly. An easy drawl returned to his voice, eyes half-masting as he leaned back. "What do we have for snacks, anything quiet?" By quiet he meant not crunchy, something that wouldn't break thought. His hand drifted down, finding a warm dog's ruff to scritch at.

"Well, we have some nice bread. And I got some pudding cups from the store yesterday, too, or fruit. I can make some more tea, too." She nodded as she considered assorted non-crunchy food items that were stocked in the pantry or the fridge.

"Nn, bread and tea sounds nice," Shikamaru cracked his knuckles, continuing with the politeness with which he'd learned quite strictly to attribute to women when asking a favor, "if that's no trouble."

"Okay. No trouble." Hana glanced over at Byakuya. "How about you?"

"Ah. Tea would be sufficient, thank you," he replied politely.

Hana nodded and made her way to the kitchen, returning after a few minutes with a plate of bread slices and two mugs of tea. She set themwithin arm's reach on the table and got her own mug, sitting down once more to watch the battle of brains.

While Shikamaru and Hana were busy contemplating stomach fillers, Byakuya had been plotting his next few moves. He'd abandoned his initial strategy then, brow furrowed as he set his chosen piece forward. The game moved on, mathematical mind pitted against the brain of a sleeping genius. Each move and counter played out, a miniature battle created along black-and-white lines. The boy was good, Byakuya would give him that much. Very good. He'd had to change tactics multiple times to accomodate each new movement and get himself out of unexpected traps and slick manoeuvres.

The game was starting to wind down, and the pressure was building. Brow creased, Byakuya concentrated hard on the board. He'd just barely managed to save his king a few rounds back, but Shikamaru was closing in. Eyes narrowed, he pondered. Finally, subscribing to the notion that a good defense was a good offense, he snicked his queen into play. "Check."

A low breath tumbled from Shikamaru's lips after he'd analyzed the board and despite it being his move, he leaned back and closed his eyes. Finger pads came together beneath the table, elbows away from his lap, playing a game with his hands by trying to pull them apart while keeping his pads connected at all times as he strategized. When he opened his eyes again his visage was set, moving his king out of check. Once that was done he rebutted each of Byakuya's moves nearly seamlessly, his rook sneaking in for the kill. When he was done laying out his pieces he folded his arms, umber darting to black as he proclaimed; "Checkmate." He had been impressed, Byakuya had kept him moving and thinking and clearly had a mind to deal with, an intelligence that took advantage of the science of the game. He yawned then, shielding his mouth with the back of his hand and pushing out from the table, stacking his empty cup atop his plate to prepare for clearing the table up.

Hana clapped her hands briefly to congratulate Shikamaru, but she hadn't had any doubt about who would win the match. She'd never seen Shikamaru lose, not even once, and though Byakuya was smart, Shikamaru was... well, he was Shikamaru. "Nice game, guys!"

It was had been enjoyable game. "Good game," agreed Byakuya, nodding at his opponent, after studying the board, silently shaking his fist at the rook that had been nestled quietly in the corner, a viper that had struck him down unawares. He set aside his empty mug then, and started keeping the game pieces. He had enjoyed himself, the chess game and the company as well. He had found few people interested in playing a game with him. Rukia's idea of chess was a random movement of pieces across the board, and while cute, did not really employ much strategy. "I would enjoy another round some other time."

After lowly chuckling off Hana's applause, Shikamaru gave Byakuya an easy smile, quite honestly looking forward to another round for fun. It was one thing to do what he enjoyed for a...living, but another altogether to share it with someone who appreciated the game for what it was. "It was; I would like that." Between the three of them, everything was cleaned up rather easily and he was back to having his hands in his pockets. "It was nice meeting you Byakuya," eyes darted to Hana and back again, "I hope we'll be seeing you around again soon." With that, he excused himself, yawning unstilted and loping off to brush his teeth and get to bed.