incandescens | AU drabble for cat_i_th

Title: AU: night watch
Requester:

cat_i_th_adage
Series: Yami no Matsuei / Sapphire and Steel
Requested Topic: A Sapphire @ Steel/Yami no Matsuei crossover might be interesting. ("Hisoka plays chess, but not very well.")
Due to http://incandescens.livejournal.com/857773.html

Hisoka has always thought that he should be rather better at chess than he actually is: after all, he is rational, controlled, sensible, all qualities that should suit a chess-player.

However, he doesn't mind losing to this opponent so much.

Three nights now they've been watching. Hisoka and Tsuzuki turned up at the same time as the other team, and after some confusion, they agreed to keep the watch over the potential 'candidate' together. The woman gets on well with Tsuzuki, and they go out together to walk round the area and buy cakes, drink coffee, and talk about inconsequentialities.

The man sneers at Tsuzuki. But he seems to tolerate Hisoka. They play chess together.

Hisoka can sense nothing human from him, and oh, what a relief it is. He hears the cold precise movement of perfectly molded steel turning in endless wheels, and he smells the sharpness of bare metal, and he sees the cool perfection of mirroring mirror that asks nothing of him and offers nothing in return. It's like lying on cold stone in the middle of summer. It's a blissful rest.

He doesn't even mind that he keeps on losing at chess.