Near x Reader- Collaboration

Loyalty

Halle had a composure unlike those of her coworkers. Certainly she did share the disheveled appearance as the other two; her hair hadn't seen a shower in almost a week, her lips parted with her color gloss, her wardrobe remained unchanged, and a decent meal was long overdue. What made her unique at the moment was her trance-like state. She was sitting with proper posture and fixed her gaze toward 

"What the hell are we gonna do," Stephen angrily sighed, "the public wants answers we don't have! We want the answers that we don't have!"

"We're just gonna have to keep working at it like we always." Anthony countered, drinking another cup of coffee.

"And in the meantime, what do we do for the city?! Just tell everybody to stay indoors indefinitely until we can figure out how to stop him? We have had no new leads since we took this case a week ago! Near isn't even trying-!"

Ever so suddenly, Halle slammed her fist on the coffee table from behind her, and the rest of the world caught up to her silence. 

Nate was never able to quite deduce why people, especially in masses, tended to follow the conventions, banalities, and laws provided by both society and government. Fundamentally he figured that people preferred order and structure despite individual grievances in contemporary thinking. Any laws, by nature or by man, ultimately kills the illusion of freedom. But the man who never tests his boundaries does not question whether or not they are free.

Maybe, he also rationed, he should try getting more sleep like the girl had always pleaded to him.

An often under-appreciated benefit of the girl's employment was that he always had a chess partner. It went without saying that he had yet to lose a match; that was not to say that the girl hadn't provided a challenge almost half of the time. She also had a penchant for the game of strategical competition, but her skills dwindled to the capacity of a novice whenever she played with him. He looked beyond her as his king conquered her own.

She grinned.

"I think I have the pleasure of witnessing your first mistake."

With that, she moved her ruffled sweater sleeve to reveal a bishop, its path diagonal to his king. He had already submitted his move by removing his slender fingers from the piece. An ignore was given to his gasp as she flicked his king. He sat in silence, again staring at her.

"You cheated," He sounded more amused than angry.

"No, I saw that you had forgotten about my bishop, so I wasn't going to remind you."

After she hid her piece during their game, she found herself somewhat drenched in perturbation. He hadn't ever forgotten about which pieces were still in play. The whole staple of his genius and work was his attention to detail and ability to conjure previously seen images in his head with impeccable accuracy. Certainly he was susceptible to mistakes as per the human condition, but he never made stupid mistakes; his calculus may be challenged, but his algebra was always perfect. 

Still, he was not one to waste time on regretting his errors too greatly. In an unceremonious action, he placed the pieces into their bag and set the game aside from his space and attention. With some resemblance to the preceding structure, his empire of playing cards encased the room, but underwent revisions in design, and now had adequate spacing and pathways. In the center, he contained his toys and self within a sphere, with enough free space to comfortably hold five people. Trains, automobiles, and planes stayed in one corner, robots took another, and most of the time, the girl sat in the one closest to Nate. 

"Are you okay?" She asked.

"I'm fine." He picked up a pair of dice.

She knew he lied not because of a lack of a convincing facade; rather, he simply wasn't going to give her an opportunity to ask about what she wasn't prepared to hear.