#ofmasterminds

not even a deep study of the board showed a way out. kurt could see his check had most definitely been mated. he let out a huff and sat back after being hunched over and making mental maps of different potential moves. his movement turned into a stretch. once he was done he said, " good game, man. i'd say best two-outta-three, but i'm gettin' hungry." he checked his watched and his body released most of his tension. "it's actually not as late as i thought." he wondered why he might be so hungry at the current hour and concluded out loud, "musta be all the brain power those two games cost me." as he spoke, he reached for the box and began putting the board and pieces in their homes, kurt liked the knights and bishops best. "what kind of accents you think these guys would have?" he asked, wagging the queen in his hand. to make her talk, kurt went on in a (bad) british accent, "'ello seb. would ya' like to have dinner together?"

there were days, more so now it seemed that he actually had the time to think, when it felt like his world was crumbling around him. sometimes it made him ache for the days when he'd been in residency, worked to the bone, exhausted and drained, but fulfilled with a work that was still meaningful now, but not everything. it was odd to imagine that there was once a time when he'd felt like his life was entirely on track only for it to be derailed so completely now that he should be more settled - or for that version of nicolas to have rosanna to turn to for guidance. but for however shaky the start to their friendship had been, there were only a handful of people who nico would say he trusted more, which was perhaps why he found himself seeking guidance from ross more so than others. the bond that had been forged through shared disillusionment, grief, and growth something he treasured - although there were some days when he wasn't sure if he could ever repay the woman for the help she'd offered when he'd most needed it. "some carmenère for a bit of advice?" he'd hoped that with the pretext of wine, he'd feel less bad about intruding on her well-deserved happiness with the weight of his own baggage, but it did little to stop him from feeling like a stray cat showing up unprompted.