Fic: Checkmate
Another ficlet for 
fandom_stocking and, once again, I branched out from what I usually write. This time, it's Dollhouse fic.
Written for
aaronlisa I hope you had a fantastic holiday season!
Title: Checkmate
Characters: Topher Brink, Bennett Halverson
Pairing: Bennett/Topher
Rating: PG
Summary: Having a conversation with Bennett Halverson was like playing a game of chess. Set during "Getting Closer" in S2.
Disclaimer: Topher, Bennett, and any other people or places mentioned in this unofficial fanwork are property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. Not mine.
A/N: I didn't love Dollhouse the way I love Buffy, o this is the first fic I've written for it. It's not any of the pairings mentioned in your stocking, but, although I wanted to try Dollhouse fic, this was the only pairing on the show I felt comfortable attempting. I hope I've done the characters justice. Happy holidays!
Checkmate
Topher was in complete awe of Bennett Halverson.
He’d say having a conversation with her was like playing a game of chess, well thought out, subtle, and genius, but that wouldn’t be a perfect simile, because Bennett was the type to add an extra axis to the board, turning chess into some kind of three dimensional mind trip.
So, it was kind of a drag that she was Dark Side and all that.
But, she wasn’t evil now. Now, she was sitting with him in his office/lab/whatever, and making nice with the neurology. Of course, she was technically being held hostage, but Topher had always prided himself on his ability to dismiss extraneous or unwanted information.
“Can I interest you in a juice box?” he asked, distracting Bennett from her concentration on the broken imprint. He knew the repairs were important, critically so, and he was super on board with the whole “not being shut down by Rossum and turned into dolls” plan Adelle and Echo had going, but he just wanted to talk to Bennett.
Bennett looked at him, not blinking, before nodding, asking, “Do you have apple?"
“Apple, grape, lemonade...You name it I’ve got it,” Topher grinned, plopping a green juice box beside her, far to the right of Caroline’s imprint. Rook to B5. Her move.
“Thank you, Topher,” Bennett answered, voice formal, and gave him an awkward, fleeting smile. She had a perfect smile, Topher thought, as he stared at Bennett like a complete moron. Her Knight to D5, takes his Rook.
Bennett returned her attention to the imprint, and Topher couldn’t look away. He thought he might have seen Ivy walk through, though he wasn’t sure, because holy God, the woman was a genius. “You’re using non-linear transformation for all the cognitive controllers,” he mumbled, and he barely even noticed that he had spoken, he was so completely engrossed in watching her. Bishop to F4, then. Lamest move of the game so far.
She asked for a Dewey Pen (Rook to E7, takes a pawn) and, after another few seconds of performing his number one imitation of a talking, drooling boulder, he jumped to his feet. He almost ran into his office to scrounge around until he found her one (Pawn to F7), but instead he kissed her (Queen to C3, check) and all of a sudden it wasn’t like playing chess at all, because he was kissing Bennett Halverson and she wasn’t punching him, and this was so much better than any game he’d ever played, because now neither of them had to lose.
“Ow,” Topher whimpered as he pulled away, and even his bruised mouth couldn’t dampen just how amazing it was that he had just kissed Bennett Goddamn Halverson and, okay, it really did hurt.
“Sorry,” Bennett whispered, and, when he leaned in to kiss her again, she reached for him just as eagerly, and she was kissing him just as much as he was kissing her. “Sorry,” she whispered again after another hiss of pain, but she kissed him again and again and again and Topher didn’t even care that it hurt.
Maybe not everything was like a game of chess with Bennett Halverson, but if it was, she had definitely just achieved checkmate.
fin.
fandom_stocking and, once again, I branched out from what I usually write. This time, it's Dollhouse fic.
Written for
aaronlisa I hope you had a fantastic holiday season!
Title: Checkmate
Characters: Topher Brink, Bennett Halverson
Pairing: Bennett/Topher
Rating: PG
Summary: Having a conversation with Bennett Halverson was like playing a game of chess. Set during "Getting Closer" in S2.
Disclaimer: Topher, Bennett, and any other people or places mentioned in this unofficial fanwork are property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. Not mine.
A/N: I didn't love Dollhouse the way I love Buffy, o this is the first fic I've written for it. It's not any of the pairings mentioned in your stocking, but, although I wanted to try Dollhouse fic, this was the only pairing on the show I felt comfortable attempting. I hope I've done the characters justice. Happy holidays!
Checkmate
Topher was in complete awe of Bennett Halverson.
He’d say having a conversation with her was like playing a game of chess, well thought out, subtle, and genius, but that wouldn’t be a perfect simile, because Bennett was the type to add an extra axis to the board, turning chess into some kind of three dimensional mind trip.
So, it was kind of a drag that she was Dark Side and all that.
But, she wasn’t evil now. Now, she was sitting with him in his office/lab/whatever, and making nice with the neurology. Of course, she was technically being held hostage, but Topher had always prided himself on his ability to dismiss extraneous or unwanted information.
“Can I interest you in a juice box?” he asked, distracting Bennett from her concentration on the broken imprint. He knew the repairs were important, critically so, and he was super on board with the whole “not being shut down by Rossum and turned into dolls” plan Adelle and Echo had going, but he just wanted to talk to Bennett.
Bennett looked at him, not blinking, before nodding, asking, “Do you have apple?"
“Apple, grape, lemonade...You name it I’ve got it,” Topher grinned, plopping a green juice box beside her, far to the right of Caroline’s imprint. Rook to B5. Her move.
“Thank you, Topher,” Bennett answered, voice formal, and gave him an awkward, fleeting smile. She had a perfect smile, Topher thought, as he stared at Bennett like a complete moron. Her Knight to D5, takes his Rook.
Bennett returned her attention to the imprint, and Topher couldn’t look away. He thought he might have seen Ivy walk through, though he wasn’t sure, because holy God, the woman was a genius. “You’re using non-linear transformation for all the cognitive controllers,” he mumbled, and he barely even noticed that he had spoken, he was so completely engrossed in watching her. Bishop to F4, then. Lamest move of the game so far.
She asked for a Dewey Pen (Rook to E7, takes a pawn) and, after another few seconds of performing his number one imitation of a talking, drooling boulder, he jumped to his feet. He almost ran into his office to scrounge around until he found her one (Pawn to F7), but instead he kissed her (Queen to C3, check) and all of a sudden it wasn’t like playing chess at all, because he was kissing Bennett Halverson and she wasn’t punching him, and this was so much better than any game he’d ever played, because now neither of them had to lose.
“Ow,” Topher whimpered as he pulled away, and even his bruised mouth couldn’t dampen just how amazing it was that he had just kissed Bennett Goddamn Halverson and, okay, it really did hurt.
“Sorry,” Bennett whispered, and, when he leaned in to kiss her again, she reached for him just as eagerly, and she was kissing him just as much as he was kissing her. “Sorry,” she whispered again after another hiss of pain, but she kissed him again and again and again and Topher didn’t even care that it hurt.
Maybe not everything was like a game of chess with Bennett Halverson, but if it was, she had definitely just achieved checkmate.
fin.