(no subject)

Freddie had gone for a long walk after the movies. He couldn't believe some of the things he'd seen. In one, things had happened mostly like he remembered. More than that, Anatoly hadn't lost. He had won...for chess. Freddie didn't know what to think about that. He didn't know what to think about the other version. The one where he'd become the champion again and Anatoly had deliberately lost against him. Was he just supposed to accept that win? Had he known?

Finally, he headed back to Bohemia and his feet led him automatically in their usual direction: he headed to Prior's.

He headed inside quietly, in case Prior was asleep, and started removing his clothes.

(no subject)

When Freddie had walked into the rec room this afternoon, he found something strange. For all intents and purposes, it was a chessboard. It was also unlike any chessboard he had seen before. It wasn't just a single layer, it was many. He thought, at first, that it was some new-fangled game that someone had created in the last few decades, but then he began to remember some new stir in the chess world. 3-D chess. He'd never played it, of course, but the pieces that had come with the set were definitely chess pieces.

In fact, the entire set was unusual because it wasn't built out of wood or any kind of sturdy material. Instead, it was built out of glass. Clear glass for white and gray-colored glass for black. He couldn't help running his fingers over the pieces as he unpacked them. It was a beautiful if precarious set and it was almost too bad that it wasn't going to last past his first or maybe second fight with Sergievsky.

Maybe he could get someone to make him a replica in wood. He could keep this away from the Russian and only play with...well, play with who?

He ignored the card, unread, that fluttered to the floor as he finished unpacking the pieces: For: Freddie Trumper.