Work Text:
“Any event that hikaru doesn’t play are slightly less decent”
- Magnus carlsen
Hikaru knows he wasn’t a normal kid.
At the ripe age of seven when children are supposed to play football or swing on swings, Hikaru only had two things in his mind:
A chess board and a checkmate.
In his eyes, his step father was the best chess player in his world. After all, He was the one that taught him all of the chess openings, he had taught him everything he knew.
Hikaru knew from a young age, he was extraordinary.
He liked working for his rewards. After his father, his brother was the one he wanted to defeat the most. He worked really hard for his checkmate
He was smart. Smarter than everyone he knew.
Calculated chances are always proportionate to calculated risks, his strong suit was tactics.
Stealing away any chance from the opposite player and ruthlessly planning and executing a mental demise of his opponent.
So when he defeated his brother for the first time, He almost felt like a chess god. And he knew no one could defeat him.
Hikaru knows he is smarter than the others.
But then one day, he got to know he wasn’t the smartest of all.
As magnus sits with his forearm pressed in the preening table top, with his cheek propped in his right hand, looming around the silent battle infront of him, Hikaru shivers in anticipation.
He moves his favourite piece, his knight, aiming for a check mate.
“Hah! It’s soo easy!” He thinks and huffs leaning back in his chair, folding his hands and closing his eyes.
The anticipation builds and he awaits for his win.
For his checkmate.
“Check-mate” says a voice which was not from his mouth for the first time in a while.
He cracks open his eyes.
He got a check mate from……a pawn????
What the fuck.
He is spiralling.
This wasn’t the first time he ever lost. But it felt like one.
He looks up to find magnus, smiling with arson in his eyes. He looks like the very incarnation of the devil.
In his world, the devil had now defeated the god. The challenge in his eyes dares him to claim his title again. So the checkmate war begins.
“I will win against you next time.” He grits in seething anger and in return is met with an almost amused and spitted “We shall see that, darling.”
…..
The second time when Hikaru loses, he doesn’t feel anger. He feels ashamed. Ashamed that he likes losing to magnus.
“You got the wrong move again, nakamaru” says the devil, with his cheek laid nonchalantly in his right hand, as if he didn’t just use his real name in an official match, leaving behind all of the formalities.
“Oh really?” Hikaru taunts smugly, checking the king with his queen this time, heart definitely not pounding from hearing his real name from his opponent.
As magnus hum, he sees the clogs of his mind rearranging themselves in real time. His eyes twinkling like luminating stars in the dark abyss of the night sky. It’s almost beautifu- wait what?
“Good but not good enough. Checkmate” he smirks.
Hikaru scoffs petulantly and lifts his left leg and puts it on his right leg, sitting a little too prideful for someone who got defeated in 12 moves.
Magnus kicks him in the sheen of his legs, making him stumble forward and makes him look in his eyes.
“Are you even listening to what I am saying or is your ear as blocked as your brain cells?” He cocks his left eyebrow as he laughs at him.
“I am trying my best.” hikaru retorts meekly as he stares at magnus. And then he challenges him again and leaves again like the cliché that he is.
…..
The third time, he Isn't even looking at the game. He is just looking at his eyes.
Magnus likes curves of hikaru’s eyes, those beautiful orbs almost never blinking as if afraid that he would steal his favourite players and set him up to failure again.
Magnus likes playing with hikaru. He likes gauging those reactions out of him, he likes the way he plays with tactics, he likes the way he used logic over a mere factor as simple and mundane as fate.
Indeed, he was soo smart that something akin to a carnal desire settles inside that makes him think of things he liked about the man./> He liked making him feel like he is the god of chess, making him feel all cocky and smart until he rips that ego out of his hand, he almost likes seeing him all miserable and pitiable.
Call him a sadist but then it's not like hikaru seemed to find it offensive. He believes maybe he likes losing more than magnus found sheer pleasure in defeating him. He liked that about the ma'am.
But then, He liked alot of things about this man.
He liked to stare at his eyes his Hikaru tries to strategize his next move, a blinding fire in the reflection of his eyes.
There are soo many things he likes about this man. But the most he likes about him is his lips. Pursed in thin line, nibbling his lower lip whenever he was under stress, swiping his lips with his tongue whenever it got too dry........ He looked dangerously cute.
He could have checkmated him if he wanted to but he wants to look at him more(I am not sorry)
“You look cute today” he purred fondly and is surprised to see hikaru turn a bit red. This was the most normal conversation they had ever had and he is willing to compliment him more in future if that’s the reaction he would get in future.
And then ofc when that cocky bastard checks him again, just to teach him a lesson again, he check-mates him in the next 2 moves, as swiftly as possible.
This time when Hikaru tries to leave like last time, magnus holds his hand and makes him look at the obnoxious wink that he would throw only for him and tells him “see you next time, cutie”
Hikaru pretends that he fucking hates the comment but the red ears tells him an entirely different story.
….
“Let’s do this, baby. If I lose today, you can do whatever you want with me. If you want me to resign and announce on twitter that you are the best chess player in this world and I TOTALLY didn’t defeat you for like 14 times, I can do it for you” says magnus.
“Oh whatever I want huh?” Quips Hikaru with a determination in his mind,and definitely NOT blushing at the pet name that magnus used.
He feels it in his bones. He got this. He wants to do this. He has to do this . It’s this or it’s nothing at all.
He wants to perform the best checkmate of his life.
Magnus sweats and swears a lot in this game.
Hikaru had been silently studying magnus’s game strategy, memorizing it in his mind, layering it behind his eyes.
At first all he had for him was jealousy. But now he just admires him.
He admires the way he plays like a silent predator. He is observant and a witty player, his unique trademark of making the weakest pieces of the general chess his strongest leverage makes him like him even more.
He admires the way the sweat drips off his face, hands twitching when he moves, as smoothly as possible. But once finds his eyes looking at him as he looks at him with something behind those everlasting fire in his eyes, he knows he has to do this.
So he does it.
“Checkmate” Hikaru says.
Magnus looks at him with a pride in his eyes, very impressed.
"Looks like i finally lost huh?" Magnus chuckles in mirth as he cracks his fingers and languidly stretches his arms. But soon enough, he leans in, folding in hands as if you surrender, a dark glint piercing his eyes. “So what do you want from me, Hikaru Nakamura?” He cocks his eyebrows up and smirks, as if to mock him with gaze that said 'i know what you want'.
Fucking hell. This bastard can almost read him like a chess strategy book.
He wants nothing but a truce.
“I want you, Magnus Carslen ” and then they kiss.
And that was indeed the best checkmate of his life.