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[ closed ] time killer

WHO: Light Yagami and Miles Edgeworth
WHERE: Residence #021
WHEN: 6/14. Late evening.
WHAT: A friendly(??) chess match!
WARNINGS: Likely none.

[It's probably too late in the evening for Light to be sipping on a cup of coffee, but that's hardly grounds to stop him. Seated at the kitchen table, he's setting up the pieces of a chess set with the methodical gestures of someone killing time until his opponent arrives. Each piece centered perfectly on their respective squares, white and black ready to face off in a miniature-sized, tactical war.

Not that it would be so dramatic. This was to be casual fun -- though he sometimes wondered how such a word applied to a man like Edgeworth -- yet an activity to provide his mind some sort of worthy stimulation. A distraction to focus on. God knows that he's been looking for a lot of those as of late.

Another sip of coffee and Light sets the cup down next to the board. He leans back in his seat, crossing his arms across his chest.

White or Black?]

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[He comes downstairs a bit warily. It's foolish to be wary, of course; this game had been his suggestion, and it truly does not matter to him whether he wins or loses. The thing is, simply, that any time he and Yagami are in the same room, things tend to be a touch...unpredictable, perhaps. It's always difficult to say whether the interactions will be peaceful or end in a bitter fight.

Well.

He takes the time to make himself a cup of tea before coming over to look at the board. It has been assembled with remarkable, decorous precision; even Edgeworth rather admires the symmetry of it.]

Thank you for setting that up.

[He sets down his tea and takes his seat across the board from Light.]

Do you have a preference?

[White or black?]

[He looks up from the chess set when he hears Edgeworth enter, not terribly surprised that he first moves to make some tea. Light watches, idly; he, on the other hand, doesn't feel the same kind if wariness Edgeworth does. Perhaps it's his (sometimes misplaced) confidence that he can handle conversations with the man without it spiraling out if control that provides him with a sense of calmness, despite singular circumstances where that simply just wasn't the case. But as he has a habit of doing, Light ignores his failures in favor of his successes.

And so he replies with pointed easiness when he's spoken to.]

I suppose I'll avoid overthinking it and choose black.

[He shifts in his seat a little, straightening.]

And I should be the one thanking you. For humoring me.

[There's a very slight lift of his eyebrow when Yagami claims black. What is it, he wonders - is the young man going to try to "take it easy" on him, or does he want to win a decisive victory? Does he want to embarrass Edgeworth? Does he want to demonstrate his superiority, or -

Stop it, Edgeworth tells himself; such mistrust is how the strife always begins between them. Enough of that.]

Am I humoring you?

[He doesn't waste any more time; he moves his first piece forward.]

[Something similar had gone through Light's mind before making a decision -- Would it matter which color he chose? Would Edgeworth find it patronizing, or assume that Light's giving him the handicap in the matter, or that he was trying to prove himself? Should he play a competitive game? Should he not?

He had stopped himself from "overthinking" it, as he stated, but such considerations were never completely gone from his mind, even as he takes his first turn as well.]

Aren't you? I imagine you have other things you'd rather be doing -- work, for example -- than playing chess with me. [It's not self-depreciating, the way he says it. (If self-deprecation is even possible out of Light remains to be seen.) It's an observation, one he believes to be true.]

If I wished to do work, I would be doing work.

[Not altogether true. There are very few moments when he doesn't wish to do work. But Lucifer is captured; the falsely accused have been released; Edgeworth needs to take a rest, needs to curtail his desire to always be working. He would sooner be working, yes; but for his health, he must do this instead.]

[Light raises a brow at him. A moment of silent consideration before he responds with:]

I see. Well I'm not going to argue against any respite you want to take; you've been busy. But you must be tired. I hope you'll at least take this opportunity to catch up on your sleep while things have calmed down.

[He inadvertently drums his fingers on the kitchen table. Unenthusiastically:]

Maybe everything will finally return to normal around here. As normal as it can be.

[Edgeworth looks fixedly at the board and moves a piece. He tries to sound dry and ironic; he fears that he just sounds tired. (And he does not particularly like proving Yagami right.)]

I get as much sleep as I need to get. But thank you.

In any case. [Moving along - ] I hope that it does. We've had rather too much chaos.

[He's tempted to comment on that, to say that he has a hard time believing Edgeworth isn't feeling a little overworked but... he lets it slide for now. He allows the conversation to move forward.]

I agree, of course. Too much murder, too much crime, not enough hours in the day to combat it all. [He evaluates the board for a second before taking his turn.] But the transition of too-much-to-do to not-enough-to-do isn't easy for some.

Hm.

[He pushes a bishop forward.]

What about for you? Is it not easy?

[He frowns.]

I -

[A hesitation. Is he coming off as complaining too much, after all is said and done?]

Well, there is a reason why I'm scrambling to find something to do with my time. I don't have class again for awhile yet, so I think it's just a matter of trying to acclimate to a different schedule. I'll be fine, though.

[Edgeworth glances up, brow slightly furrowed.]

Do you not have class? Why not? Did you...graduate?

[The question catches him off-guard, mid-move.]

Graduate? No. Though wouldn't that be nice. [Black makes another move, this one a bit less straightforward than his previous ones.] Final grades are in; we're on break.

Break?

[He remembers, a moment later, with a hot flash of embarrassment - right. That's simply how school works. They go on breaks. He just - He did not have a traditional education; he forgot, momentarily, how traditional education works.]

I - Right.

[He makes a perhaps slightly too aggressive move.]

What will you be doing, then? Possibly. While you've time.

[He looks at Edgeworth's chess piece a bit quizzically, immediately wondering if that aggressive move was a consequence of distraction more than anything else. He answers the question, honestly--]

I may look for another part-time job to keep me busy until class starts again. Maybe volunteer somewhere. After all, you know what they say about idle hands.

[ --before he loops it back around to the subject of education.] Were you not schooled in the traditional sense, Mr. Edgeworth?

[He hesitates, uncomfortable. It's hardly a sensitive question, but by instinct he does not like talking about himself. But he's decided to be polite, and decided to have peace between himself and Yagami; so, after a moment, he responds:]

I was not. Not after a certain age.

[Then:]

Where would you work?

[Light's naturally curious, and he wants to pursue with more questions; polite, generalized questions, possibly about Edgeworth's upbringing. He doesn't know that much about the man and it would be novel -- a sign of friendliness, even -- to learn more. To share. Because what else does one fill a chess match with other than idle chat?

But he's redirected again. In return, he's a bit more stubborn about it this time.] The police department. [Immediately followed by:] So were you home-schooled?

[He again takes a moment before he responds. He considers the board, makes a careful move. Doesn't ever look up at Yagami.

But he does answer.]

I had private tutors.

[And then, once again, he tries to push the conversation towards Yagami:]

What job are you seeking?

[His frown, it doesn't necessarily deepen, but something about it adopts a faint stubbornness that wasn't there before.]

I haven't thought about it long enough yet. [Which is likely not true, as Light has had a lot of time to so just that: think.] But it can't be a permanent position; I'd just have to turn around and focus on school again before I know it. But I need the experience here if I'm not going to be getting it at home.

[he takes his turn, capturing a white piece. It's fast, doesn't appear too calculated at first glance.]

Did you always know you wanted to go into law?

[He starts to answer with a terse Yes, and elaborate no further, but - Well. The boy clearly wants to know about his background, and the boy will keep asking if Edgeworth remains uncommunicative. So he bites that back and responds, instead:]

My father was an attorney. I knew that I wanted to follow in his footsteps from the time that I was a very young child.

[He could capture Light's piece in return; he plays a more cautious game, though, moving his piece to shore up his defenses.]

When did you decide your ambition?

[That answer seems to placate Light (though was that past tense he used? The question is filed away for now), or at least enough for his features to soften just a little. There's a part of him that can relate to it, and he lets that much be known in his reply.]

I told you that my father works in law enforcement; to be more specific, he's Chief of the NPA. It's a difficult, usually stressful job -- especially as of late -- but I've always admired the work he does.

[However inspiring that may sound, it isn't the one and only reason. Just a facet. He takes his turn again, an aggressive move to pull Edgeworth out of his defenses. An opponent who turtles up is usually the trickiest kind.]

But the main reason is that I wanted to make a difference in the world; a world that seems so... [he chooses his wording carefully] unwilling to accept change for the better.

Hm.

[Edgeworth doesn't let his defensive strategy be disrupted; he just moves a single piece to threaten Light's attack on his formation. Edgeworth is a strong player of chess. He's not brilliant, not undefeated, but he runs his games like he runs his trials: meticulous planning and enormous patience. Calmly waiting for his opponent to make a mistake.]

Are you speaking of your own world, or this one?

[For Light, there's something freeing about not having his every move scrutinized, even in a game of chess. Especially in a game of chess. If he were playing Ryuuzaki, his own strategy may be more like Edgeworth's; but as it stands, Light is playing boldly. He doesn't want to lose, but he also doesn't feel like he's playing under the lens of a magnifying glass.

He moves a piece forward, to bait his opponent out. Sacrificing a piece or two is required to win the game, after all.]

My world. But there's crime enough in this one, too. We've both seen that first-hand.

And you're going to have to bite eventually. [he says, referring to the game at hand.]

Indeed. When the time is right.

[And he doesn't take the bait. There's no ambiguity there: when you make a mistake.

But in the meantime, he does probe a bit further.]

A query. What is your definition of "change for the better"?

[He leans back a little and crosses his arms again. There's little to no hesitation in his answer.]

In an ideal situation? A world where people are not so corrupt, where crime is not shrugged off and ignored simply because it doesn't directly affect your own personal experiences. And before you tell me that's not reality, I know that. I just want to use my talents to protect people living in such a world, instead of standing idly by.

[Because it's idleness that he hates the most, though his opponent may already be aware of that. A reason why, perhaps, that a stagnant chess board bothers him.]

A lovely set of ideals.

[Another cautious move, once again merely biding time. If there's one thing Edgeworth has learned about Yagami by this point, it's that he wants to hold himself apart from the folly of impetuous youth - but that he is just as prone to it as any other of his age. He'll act. He'll make a mistake.]

But how to put them into action?

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