checkers and sticky hearts
by taby
whose typing this at 5 am so ignore any typing bads please :)
about 11 hours ago I had a desperate need to write this, having finally finished this incredibly LONG (okay, long to me) cupid/pret fanfic, which I now get to revise and type. ~happy happy joy joy~
btw, I don't own any of these characters. only the stickers and the checkers. personally, I feel they all belong to rob thomas and paula marshall and jeremy piven.
"Game Over." Trevor grabbed his own wrist and dragged it up into the air like it was some boxing match. "The God of Love had done it again! Mimicking a screaming crowd he danced around the checkers board.
Claire had invited him -in- after he appeared on her doorstep to claim another 'victoriously successful match'. Actually, if truth be told, he snuck past her when an inquiry into the last time she made a match started her sputtering and monologuing.
Picking up a handy candleholder for a microphone he lowered his arm and addressed his adoring 'fans'. "Thank you. And you. And especially you - come by my dressing room later; I want to know how you got into that dress - I find its my duty to tell you all that this - this was not a fair match. God of Love vs. mortal psychologist. The odds," He shook his head sadly and started to tear up. "I feel sorry for Sparky here, so lets all give her a hand for a good, if fruitless, try."
Sitting on the floor, she stared at the board. Something was off - she hadn't lost a game of checkers since she was seven. This game had been going well too - until his second to last piece took out her seven in three brilliantly executed moves.
On the other side of the room either the applause had finally died down, or Trevor had gotten tired of his imaginary followers. "So," He plopped down next to her, causing his remaining pieces to jump a few inches into the atmosphere. "The people want to know: what's my prize?"
"Prize? For what?" It had ONLY been five games.
"Umm - Hello - O. Only for being the greatest checker pusher and jumper in the history of the fame. I AM the champ!"
"Yea right." And Mulder's theories are ALL correct. Oops, bad analogy. Just 'cause you dream something don't make it real buddy. Everyone knows you have to win seven games on seven different days to be named 'the champion'.
"Ignoring Claire's in-head siloquency, he plowed on ahead. "Helped create the game you know. Guy wanted you to move your pieces back to your side, and there wasn't any 'jumping' involved." He shuddered. "Set him straight on That. Always move closer together baby. It's the number one rule of physics."
"Uh-huh. Yeah, and so 'checker master' Trevor-"
"Grand checker master extrodinare and champion in all the known galaxy-"
"I have-" Digging in her purse she briefly considered a bottle of nail polish, but tossed it back into the depths. No telling what horrors he'd do with THAT. Anyway, it was entitled 'frosted love'. Better he never see that at all. Under her phone there were several sheets of stickers - treats for younger patients and offspring. That would do.
"-Protector of the poor checker pieces everywhere, the supreme marshal of hops, skips and jumps, and the patenter of the ultimate jump-"
"-Stickers." Flashing them triumphantly stopped his recitation of titles and accomplishments.
"Oh - now you're talking. Gimme." Shuffling through the stack he stared at a sheet of fuzzy unicorns, then up at Claire quizzically. "Are you sure you aren't teaching poor defenseless young minds to believe in unicorns? That would just be WRONG. Unless of course you believe in them yourself?"
On the next page he discovered his hearts desire. Well, close enough. First off, his hearts desire wouldn't go on a sticker sheet, and secondly, expecting her to purchase cupid stickers and bows and arrows would be- well- expecting too much.
Next to him, Claire wished she had remembered those were in there.
Trevor bypassed a shiny purple and pink striped heart to peel off a red, pink and white heart in a heart in a - well, you get the idea.
"Aww, Sparky, I didn't know you cared. Bet you never noticed how these babies are perfect representations for the L-word."
"No they're - okay - no wait. Yes, I did. So there."
"Uh huh. I bet dinner it's some mumbo jumbo about dry glue and ~lists of commonalties."
"No, it's not." Of course it wasn'y. Those were only supporting details. "The sticker shows how crafted correctly with rational expectations a person can bond with another. And while there are people who-"
"Ack!" Throwing his hands over his ears he rolled under her coffee table like bombs were being dropped. "Enough! You've got it all wrong! This-" Picking up the sticker with his index finger, he showed it to her. "-Is someone's heart. Note the desperate need to form a connection. Now the right surface comes along-" His hand moved to her face and she drew back instinctively, but he pressed the sticker onto her nose anyway. "- And they throw their heart and the two bond. Maybe for a night, a year, a lifetime. Maybe someone will come along and peel it off, or someone else may walk by fifty years from now and be inspired to do the same."
"Taking the heart sticker off, she handed it back.
"Or - Right. It may be returned. But the sticker still needs to stick! Here is my queen." Picking up one of his chess pieces - the red of course- he stuck the sticker right in the middle. "They are joined forever and forever Amen you may kiss the bride."
"But then how do you explain the stickers that dry up and fall off? Or the ones people later try to rip off; when they realize they no longer want them there?"
"Shrugging, he picked up another sticker; this one green with a happy face in the middle. "Bad match. They settled. And the ripped ones- they went for the glory. Saw a chance and took it, heedless of the consequences."; Leaning towards her, he deliberately chose one of her black pieces and held it side by side with the sticker. "What do you think?"
"Trevor NO!" Images flashed before her eyes. Friends coming over and seeing a checkerboard made of hearts with more hearts on every square-
"Really?" He stuck them together, smoothing the surface with his thumb. "They seem to disagree."
"Dreading his next 'match' she lunged for the rest of the stickers. Trevor, however, was faster, and she landed half on top of him. "Hey, Sparky, no need to jump ME." His face was in the carpet, but it sounded like he was grinning. "Not that I mind or anything - just that whole gods and mortals don't mix rule..."
She had removed herself from his person almost immediately, and so he was free to roll over and glance appraisingly at her legs. "And you aren't quite worth immortality." Speaking to her face with a very sympathetic expression, her only comfort was that it had taken his eyes so long to REACH her face. Comfort, that is, for the feminine vanity bit of her. Otherwise it was definitely a good thing he didn't was to sleep with her. Really. Hey, he WAS her patient, and he WAS delusional.
Then his eyes found hers. "It's not that I don't want to." A nice pick-me-up. Only it was more of a mess-me-up. It was something meant to be said lightly, jokingly. Not dead serious.
Apparently he realized that too because he broke eye contact and got the his feet; studying the stickers like they were the lost scrolls. Or tomorrow's sport highlights. Claire stared at the two checkers, willing the blood out of her cheeks and telling herself that of course Trevor couldn't read her mind.
Slowly he pulled off a sticker. "Hey Sparky." Still confused she looked up, but he didn't seem to notice anything amiss. He was back to mischievous schemer.
Instead of saying anything else he moved over to the mirror over her phone. Interested and slightly suspicious she followed. Waiting until she was close enough to stop him, he pressed the sticker onto the corner of the mirror.
"Trevor!" The mirror was an antique; a gift from her grandmother. Not a -a high school locker to cover in stickers! Then she noticed what sticker he'd chosen. Big enough for detail, it wasn't so big as to be gaudy, and the angle even made it look like it belonged there - as an accent or signature.
Mostly extra shiny silver, it appeared more a distortion of the reflecting surface than a foreign object. On the right was another, smaller red heart, and over the entire sticker flew perfect lightning bolts.
Feeling eyes upon her, her own eyes moved upwards until they caught Trevor's. For a moment they stood there, staring into a mirror; into each other. He smiled.
"Lightning bolt love?" A corner was unstuck, and she brought her thumb up to press it back down.
"Lightning bolt love." He confirmed it, and brought an index finger to help press, then smooth.
"C'mon." Breaking the moment, he kicked the checkers into more or less the same area of rug and headed towards the door. "You owe me a pizza."
Taking a last look at the sticker she followed. No harm in letting it stays there for a while. Until the next cleaning day even.
"We've got a lot more hearts to match up." Seeing the still full sheet he held up she laughed, and hurried forward to debate who won the bet - and thus who was really paying for the food. He'd probably win; that's the way it always seemed to turn out, but she didn't care. That wasn't the point.
