blank open eyes | reiner braun x reader

chapter twelve

"Last I heard, you were a genius strategist. Shouldn't you be amazing at games like this?" Reiner teased as he took yet another one of your pieces from the board. It went off to the side, just one more addition to the long line of pawns that had been stolen by the opposing color.

You sighed, contemplating your next move. It had been a while since you'd played chess, and even longer since you'd played against a player as good as Reiner. You had to get used to the feeling of the board once again, the way each piece moved in its own unique way.

"Just give me a minute to remember what I'm doing."

Reiner smiled at you fondly, and he shook his head with obvious amusement. "By this point, you've had many minutes. I'm not sure they're helping."

You glared at him, making yet another move that would most likely put you in a bad position. After your long examination of the board, there were not many other places to go.

"You sure you want to move there?" Reiner said as you released a heavy exhale, exasperated.

"I got off to a bad start." You rolled the bishop between your fingers before setting it down on a different square. The sparse pieces of your color felt dismal and foreboding. "There's no way I can win now."

At that, Reiner let out a sound of relief.

You frowned as you leaned back into the pillows of the hospital bed. "What?" you asked and crossed your arms like a petulant child. You'd always hated losing and found it difficult to accept defeat.

"I'm just glad you finally noticed that. I was getting a bit tired of giving you more chances to win."

You blinked at the board, and then back at Reiner, though his face was so stoic, you couldn't tell if he was messing with you or not.

You groaned and slumped backwards. The movement jostled the board that was resting against your thighs, nearly throwing all the pieces onto the floor. "Am I really doing that bad?"

Though, once you looked at the board, really looked at it without the cloud of forgetfulness, you could see all the ways that you went wrong. Reiner's entire strategy was spelled out for you, all the pieces that he planned to take and all the ones he'd stolen before.

He was in a perfect position to checkmate if he wanted to finally win the game. It now seemed so obvious that he had been prolonging it for the sake of your pride.

Reiner shrugged. "I think it's best that I don't answer that."

"Damn it!" It had been a long time since you'd lost a game of chess. It was a difficult pill to swallow. "I should just resign."

"This means your winning streak from ten years ago is over." Reiner made the next few moves that you'd anticipated, and you let him. The game was doomed from the start, at least, from your perspective. You just wanted to end it.

"I've become an awful chess player," you said dramatically, holding your head in your hands. "If only my younger self could see me now."

"Or maybe I've just gotten better after all these years." Reiner reset the board, focusing intently on assembling the armies into two perfectly straight lines. "We'll play another round and see."

"I'm almost too afraid to." You gave a half-hearted smile as you stared down at his hands. The way the tendons and veins under his skin flexed with each movement. It was almost mesmerizing. "Not that I'm surprised, really. Out of everyone, you always were my most challenging competition."

Reiner scoffed, rolling his eyes. "If you want to call it that. Bertholdt told me what moves to make half the time. I think he watched us play so much that he had your entire strategy figured out."