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Title: games never played
fandom: Ars Magica
square: in public
word count: 1023
summary: "Many Tremere magi consider playing chess a form of intimacy. Some refuse to play with members of the opposite sex, because they consider it an erotic familiarity."
- Houses of Hermes, True Lineages
content notes: characters are both adults, one (who is 22) has a 15-year old's body: no other standard notes apply.
Nicolae leans across the table, towards him, giving him a look as if to ask 'what is your problem, anyway?', golden eyes narrowed in boredom and irritation, and Lycoris smiles evenly back at him, listening to the sounds of conversation in the taverna, sifting through the dross and apparent dross for the useful information.
"I need to study, Nicolae." he says, the same demure refusal that he uses every time. This isn't the first time that Nicolae has asked him to play chess in the time that they've been acquainted, and every time, he's given the same answer.
"You always need to study." Nicolae replies, flatly.
Carefully, Lycoris inclines his head to him, in graceful acknowledgement. "That is as it may, but it comes with being a wizard."
Nicolae snorts. "Even wizards are human, the last I checked, and need to rest." Lycoris meets his gaze, calmly, as he continues talking. "It would do you no harm to sit and play a game with me."
Lycoris isn't certain that Nicolae quite understands the implications of what he's asking: he knows the dhampyr has served House Tremere for several years, but it is not the same as growing up trained for and by the House, steeped in its culture for eleven years and counting. Chess is important to House Tremere, in more ways than simply a game, though it is a hobby as well: tool to teach strategy, cornerstone of a school of certamen. He'd played chess before his apprenticeship when he was a child, the variant that had come to Constantinople on the trade routes, but nowhere near as seriously as he would afterward.
(one of the first things he noticed about how his parens played chess was less how and more with who: Allectores never played chess with a beautiful woman unless he was dallying with her)
He'd learned that playing chess was a form of intimacy: he'd met a few Tremere magi who didn't, in the brief time he spent in Coeris, but they were few and far between. And while he has played chess with others, Nicolae is the only person he has steadfastly refused, each and every time, draws the line there: not for Nicolae's attraction, because Lycoris has noticed, and taken it into account in his plans, but for the potential of his own. Especially in public, and he blushes, vaguely, thinking about it.
Lycoris doesn't mind playing chess with people he isn't attracted to and aren't attracted to him, or who are attracted to him that he isn't attracted to. He coyly flirts from behind demurely lowered lashes when it suits his purpose, considers any chess games played against such an opponent, if he does, to be the closest to familiarity that they will get and he will allow.
It's a very fine line, the one he draws, and he isn't certain that Nicolae would understand even if he explained it, and he does not particularly care to explain himself. Playing with Nicolae would be an erotic familiarity, for his own potential attraction added to Nicolae's own attraction. Not all Tremere draw such a fine line: some refuse to play with the opposite sex at all, but Lycoris simply refuses to play with the man he could want as a lover but doesn't and perhaps never yet.
"No, thank you, Nicolae." he says, softly, standing in a swirl of silken robes. "Truly, if you are that bored, perhaps Paolos will be willing to play with you."
Nicolae catches his wrist, pulls him forward against the table, and pieces tumble haphazardly across the board. Lycoris remembers to breathe and remembers scattered pieces and the women his teacher rarely and usually subtly took to bed, and thinks, almost detached, that maybe he was wrong and that Nicolae did have something of an idea.
He can feel the blush: he knows that the others in the taverna only see perhaps an argument over the game, because they don't see the meaning in it that he and Nicolae do, but he's half-bent over the table with Nicolae's hand in his hair, he's open, vulnerable, and very aware of that fact.
"If I wanted to play with Paolos, I would have asked him." Nicolae says, roughly, and his grip in Lycoris's hair tightens. "But I asked you." Because I want you, is the unspoken undertone, and Lycoris closes his eyes for a moment, before he glances up at Nicolae demurely, trying to ignore how fast his heart is beating, how Nicolae's other hand settles on his hip, how the pieces are digging into his skin.
He can imagine the liberties Nicolae could take, even here - there are layers of silk between them, the layers of his robes, but even so, and Lycoris can feel the blush. Nicolae smirks and presses closer, and Lycoris can't push himself away.
It isn't just desire, Lycoris can tell from his expression without needing a spell: desire would be simple to deal with, it isn't the first time and far from the last, but Nicolae is intent on needling him. On making him react. And he has no desire to play that game, or any other, with him, especially not in public, not where everyone can see.
"No," he says, soft and clear, pushing at Nicolae with one hand, fingers firmly pressed against his chest. "Let me up, Nicolae."
It takes a moment, but Nicolae finally lets him up. Lycoris brushes down his robes and arranges them again, as pristine as he can manage, tries to straighten his hair and not look too flushed, make himself look like it was just an argument, however brief, over the game. He's grown used to ignoring what he wants in favor of the long-term, his goals, his plans: this is simply a distraction, after all, one to ignore and it will go away.
"My answer won't change, Nicolae." he says, calmly, trying not to hint at his own uncertainty, wrapping cold and petals around himself again before he turns in a flutter of silk and walks away. He doesn't stop to hear Nicolae's response.
fandom: Ars Magica
square: in public
word count: 1023
summary: "Many Tremere magi consider playing chess a form of intimacy. Some refuse to play with members of the opposite sex, because they consider it an erotic familiarity."
- Houses of Hermes, True Lineages
content notes: characters are both adults, one (who is 22) has a 15-year old's body: no other standard notes apply.
Nicolae leans across the table, towards him, giving him a look as if to ask 'what is your problem, anyway?', golden eyes narrowed in boredom and irritation, and Lycoris smiles evenly back at him, listening to the sounds of conversation in the taverna, sifting through the dross and apparent dross for the useful information.
"I need to study, Nicolae." he says, the same demure refusal that he uses every time. This isn't the first time that Nicolae has asked him to play chess in the time that they've been acquainted, and every time, he's given the same answer.
"You always need to study." Nicolae replies, flatly.
Carefully, Lycoris inclines his head to him, in graceful acknowledgement. "That is as it may, but it comes with being a wizard."
Nicolae snorts. "Even wizards are human, the last I checked, and need to rest." Lycoris meets his gaze, calmly, as he continues talking. "It would do you no harm to sit and play a game with me."
Lycoris isn't certain that Nicolae quite understands the implications of what he's asking: he knows the dhampyr has served House Tremere for several years, but it is not the same as growing up trained for and by the House, steeped in its culture for eleven years and counting. Chess is important to House Tremere, in more ways than simply a game, though it is a hobby as well: tool to teach strategy, cornerstone of a school of certamen. He'd played chess before his apprenticeship when he was a child, the variant that had come to Constantinople on the trade routes, but nowhere near as seriously as he would afterward.
(one of the first things he noticed about how his parens played chess was less how and more with who: Allectores never played chess with a beautiful woman unless he was dallying with her)
He'd learned that playing chess was a form of intimacy: he'd met a few Tremere magi who didn't, in the brief time he spent in Coeris, but they were few and far between. And while he has played chess with others, Nicolae is the only person he has steadfastly refused, each and every time, draws the line there: not for Nicolae's attraction, because Lycoris has noticed, and taken it into account in his plans, but for the potential of his own. Especially in public, and he blushes, vaguely, thinking about it.
Lycoris doesn't mind playing chess with people he isn't attracted to and aren't attracted to him, or who are attracted to him that he isn't attracted to. He coyly flirts from behind demurely lowered lashes when it suits his purpose, considers any chess games played against such an opponent, if he does, to be the closest to familiarity that they will get and he will allow.
It's a very fine line, the one he draws, and he isn't certain that Nicolae would understand even if he explained it, and he does not particularly care to explain himself. Playing with Nicolae would be an erotic familiarity, for his own potential attraction added to Nicolae's own attraction. Not all Tremere draw such a fine line: some refuse to play with the opposite sex at all, but Lycoris simply refuses to play with the man he could want as a lover but doesn't and perhaps never yet.
"No, thank you, Nicolae." he says, softly, standing in a swirl of silken robes. "Truly, if you are that bored, perhaps Paolos will be willing to play with you."
Nicolae catches his wrist, pulls him forward against the table, and pieces tumble haphazardly across the board. Lycoris remembers to breathe and remembers scattered pieces and the women his teacher rarely and usually subtly took to bed, and thinks, almost detached, that maybe he was wrong and that Nicolae did have something of an idea.
He can feel the blush: he knows that the others in the taverna only see perhaps an argument over the game, because they don't see the meaning in it that he and Nicolae do, but he's half-bent over the table with Nicolae's hand in his hair, he's open, vulnerable, and very aware of that fact.
"If I wanted to play with Paolos, I would have asked him." Nicolae says, roughly, and his grip in Lycoris's hair tightens. "But I asked you." Because I want you, is the unspoken undertone, and Lycoris closes his eyes for a moment, before he glances up at Nicolae demurely, trying to ignore how fast his heart is beating, how Nicolae's other hand settles on his hip, how the pieces are digging into his skin.
He can imagine the liberties Nicolae could take, even here - there are layers of silk between them, the layers of his robes, but even so, and Lycoris can feel the blush. Nicolae smirks and presses closer, and Lycoris can't push himself away.
It isn't just desire, Lycoris can tell from his expression without needing a spell: desire would be simple to deal with, it isn't the first time and far from the last, but Nicolae is intent on needling him. On making him react. And he has no desire to play that game, or any other, with him, especially not in public, not where everyone can see.
"No," he says, soft and clear, pushing at Nicolae with one hand, fingers firmly pressed against his chest. "Let me up, Nicolae."
It takes a moment, but Nicolae finally lets him up. Lycoris brushes down his robes and arranges them again, as pristine as he can manage, tries to straighten his hair and not look too flushed, make himself look like it was just an argument, however brief, over the game. He's grown used to ignoring what he wants in favor of the long-term, his goals, his plans: this is simply a distraction, after all, one to ignore and it will go away.
"My answer won't change, Nicolae." he says, calmly, trying not to hint at his own uncertainty, wrapping cold and petals around himself again before he turns in a flutter of silk and walks away. He doesn't stop to hear Nicolae's response.
