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“What’s this?” Kevin looks up from studying the Tablet. Sam’s been sifting through his various notes, and has moved a few sheets of paper to reveal a small wooden chess box.
“Chess board.” He mumbles before returning his attention to his work again. He’d brought the chess set to the boat on a whim really. He’d only played it once since bringing it, with Garth, who was pretty much hopeless at it, and it was boring, well sad, to play it on his own. He tries to focus on the Tablet, but his eyes keep on being drawn to Sam, who’s flipping the box around in his ridiculously large hands. Kevin smirks at the sight, but still pretends to be engrossed with his work.
Sam finds, and flicks up, the silver latch and opens the box. Inside are small wooden chess pieces nestled against the red velvet lining. Sam’s eyes light up at the sight and he gingerly picks out a couple of the pieces, and rolls them around between his fingers carefully. “Cool.” He says.
Kevin looks up and smiles at the hunter. Sam genuinely seems fascinated with the box. Kevin had bought it on a class trip to Poland, it had only been 40 Zloty (roughly 12 dollars), but it was beautifully crafted. Sam’s being very careful with the pieces, as though they’re made of glass instead of wood, and gingerly places them back in the box. He tries to close it again, but due to the pieces now overlapping each other the box refuses to shut fully. Kevin knows that it is an art to get the pieces arranged properly if the box is to close, but instead of helping Sam, he just sits back and grins. Though he appreciates Sam’s protective nature of him, it’s nice to occasionally get a glimpse of the clumsy giant he obviously hides most of the time.
Fumbling in his frustration Sam ends up dropping the box completely and all the chess pieces go flying. “Shit! Kevin, I’m so sorry.”
Even though one of the white pawns had hit Kevin on the head in its escape, Kevin can’t help but laugh as the gigantic man starts scrambling on the floor trying to collect all the pieces. He wipes a tear from his eyes, and leaves his chair. “Come on, I’ll help you.”
Sam laughs, “Thanks, I didn’t mean to distract you from your work.”
Once they’d collected all the pieces they could find under the desk Sam scuttles under the desk to retrieve the box. “Since you’ve already distracted me, why don’t we have a game?”
“Really?!” He hears a bang as Sam knocks his head on the table.
“Yeah,” he giggles, “besides setting up the match will also ensure we’ve collected all the pieces.”
Sam emerges rubbing his head. “Yeah, good idea.”
Once they’ve assembled all the pieces they find that they are in fact, missing a black knight. They both sigh and end up back on their hands and knees. They both end up at opposite sides of a small bookcase. It’s got a small gap underneath, large enough for an arm, but it’s pitch black. Kevin grimaces at what he might find underneath, the carpet’s bad enough in the areas accessible for cleaning, but he grits his teeth and lies flat on the floor so he can reach under and feel around for the chess piece. Sam does the same on the other side.
As he suspected he finds some sticky and gloopy bits of carpet and several dust bunnies. After a few minutes he knocks against something hard. “Ah-hah! I think I’ve got it!” He moves his hand over again and clutches the object. He freezes when he realises it’s much larger than a knight chess piece.
Sam laughs. “Uh, sorry to disappoint you Kev,” he wiggles his hand, “but that’s me!”
Kevin lets go quickly. “Oh, um sorry.” His cheeks warm slightly, but Sam laughs it off.
“It’s ok. Hang on a sec… wait… yep… gotcha!” Sam emerges from the other side of the bookshelf with the small wooden horse in his hand. He stands up and moves around, extending his other hand out to assist Kevin to his feet. Kevin stands and brushes of the dust. When he looks up his nose almost touches Sam’s chest. Sam towers over him and holds up the black knight before pressing it into his hand. “There you go. You got a coin? We need to toss to see who moves first.”
Kevin is momentarily stunned by the closeness of the hunter. He shakes his head slightly and processes Sam’s question. “I’ll be white. Since it’s your fault we had to crawl around looking for the pieces, I get first move.”
Sam raises his eyebrows slightly. “But…”
“My board; my rules.” Kevin doesn’t know why he’s being so authoritative all of a sudden; it’s really not like him. “Therefore I get to go first.” Judging from Sam’s shrug of acceptance, he didn’t seem to mind.
Sam and Kevin have very different styles of playing Chess. Through conversation during the game, Kevin discovers that Sam and Dean used to play quite often when they were growing up, using whatever set they could find to pass the time when their father was out on a ‘job’. Their father had taught Dean, who was very good, and it was Dean who had taught Sam. Sam, though good, didn’t have the natural tactical skills that Dean had for the game. He had cottoned on relatively early that whenever he won a game, it was usually because Dean had let him. In order to throw his brother off, Sam began playing recklessly, aiming to loose. He made his move always within 5 seconds and ignored the progress his brother was trying to make. He isn’t aiming to loose now, but habit means that he always makes his moves quickly, and often carelessly.
Kevin, on the other hand, is used to playing in competitions. He likes to take as much time as he can with his moves, and always plans several steps ahead. Unfortunately this tactic isn’t working for him now, as planning several moves ahead, means predicting the oppositions moves too, and because Sam isn’t being logical, it is throwing off his entire strategy and he has to start from scratch. He is still winning, but he spends a lot of time staring at the board frustrated.
During a rare break where Sam is actually taking his time over a move, Kevin slides back in his chair and relaxes slightly. His legs slide along the floor and he ends up nudging Sam’s bare feet with his own. He sits up “Sorry… sorry. I wasn’t thinking…”
He feels Sam’s legs wrap around his own, dragging his feet back to where they were. “It’s ok. Geez your feet are cold dude.” He lowers his calves so that they are resting over Kevin’s ankles and squeezes lightly. Kevin sighs at the warmth. Sam moves his Queen. “Check. Your move.”
Kevin takes Sam’s Queen with a Rook. “Big mistake man…” Sam just shrugs.
The game continues for a while. Each time it’s Kevin’s move he can feel Sam’s eyes studying him under a heated gaze. He tries to ignore it and not blush at the attention. He likes Sam, he really likes Sam, but he’s been so busy translating the Tablet and focusing on keeping off the demon radar to really consider the feelings properly, never mind worrying about whether the hunter would even return them. He thinks about where they are, and what they are doing. The warm weight of Sam’s legs on his feet, the light conversation and a simple game of chess that has kept them contently entertained for ages, it all just feels right.
Finally, Kevin decides to confront Sam about the staring. He moves a bishop slowly across the board and looks up to meet Sam’s steady gaze. He raised his eyebrows cheekily and asked. “Is there something on my face? Oh and Check, by the way.”
Sam smirks and takes Kevin by surprise by standing up slightly and leaning over the table, so that they are almost nose to nose. Sam’s eyes graze over Kevin’s features several times, as though to be absolutely sure. Kevin’s cheeks flush ferociously under the scrutiny, but Sam manages to keep his face completely neutral. His lip twitches into the faintest of smiles. “Nope.” He bites his lip. “Perfect.” Kevin’s breath catches in his throat. Sam looks down and moves a knight to take the attacking bishop. He lifts his head back up and his eyes linger over Kevin’s lips before moving slowly up his face again, pausing and staying on the eyes. “Your move Kev.” He doesn’t sit back down.
Kevin swallows and a shaking hand moves slowly to his queen, which he slides along the board steadily until it reaches and knocks over the knight. “Checkmate.” Kevin breaths. His eyes are still locked with Sam’s.
“Good. I thought you’d never get there.” Kevin smiles. Sam grins and leans forward so that their lips almost brush together. He raises one eyebrow. “Again Kev, I think it’s your move.”
“Always my move…” Kevin mutters before leaning up slightly and finally closing the gap between their lips. Sam sighs into the kiss, and leans even further forward to deepen it. The pieces scatter beneath the weight of his body, but this time, neither of them cares to move and pick them up. Sam opens his mouth slightly, inviting Kevin to take more control of the kiss.
Kevin makes a noise of hesitation, and a little bit unsure still he slowly slips into Sam’s mouth, caressing their tongues together. Sam moans, his hand has crept behind Kevin’s head and he lightly starts tugging and stroking at the soft black hair. Kevin presses a hand against Sam’s chest to stop Sam from falling on top of him. He can feel Sam’s heart thumping erratically under his palm.
When they break apart they’re both gasping for air. Sam rests his forehead against Kevin’s and places his hand over the one Kevin already has on his chest. Kevin is still panting heavily, he licks his lips and slowly clears his throat. “I-I…wow.”
Sam breaks away from the trance, and laughs at the scattered pieces beneath him. “Come on, I want another game. I’ll beat you this time.”
Though Kevin still feels light headed, he manages a short bark of amusement. “Seriously? What makes you think you’ll win?”
“Because,” Sam says placing a few pieces back on the table, he’s moved so that the table is no longer blocking them, and he now towers over Kevin and brushes their lips together in a soft, sweet kiss. He moves his mouth along Kevin’s jaw and takes an earlobe between his teeth before continuing, his voice low and quiet, “this time, we’re going to do strip chess.” Kevin’s breath hitches and he lets out a low moan. “That’s right Kev; every piece taken is one item of clothing.” Kevin’s head lolls back and he thinks his mind is going to explode from the mental image. “And this time,” Sam returns to kiss Kevin passionately. He breaks apart and whispers the words against Kevin’s open, gasping lips, “I get first move.”