The Ever-growing Suspicion... (Dated 3/17)

[chesspolitik]

For a moment, Anatoly considered being the better man and letting Freddie walk away. He could pick up the pieces and continue the game as if it had never been interrupted - he had certainly played against Freddie long enough to be able to have a sense of his move patterns. This was the best thing to do, the right thing to do.

He considered all of these things then got up and angrily followed Freddie out of the room. He would come back later for the board but this was more important. It wasn't as if it could get up and walk away, after all.

"Trumper!" he shouted once they were outside. "You are walking away and you call me the coward?"

Comments

[loveofmasters]

She couldn't let it continue, it was just... ridiculous, it served no purpose but bruised fists and egos. "Enough! What is wrong with you two?!"

Coming into the room, she intentionally and deliberately placed herself in-between the two. If they wanted to continue the fight, they'd have to do it through her. "I can't believe you're fighting like children. Now, stop!"

[chesspolitik]

Florence witnessing their brawls was the last thing Anatoly had ever wanted to happen and yet here she was. The only consolation he could take from this was that at least she had seen Freddie behaving childishly too. Freddie could no longer take the moral high ground.

"I am sorry," he said, looking down at the ground. "I did not mean for you to see this, Florence."

[pitythetrumper]

Freddie cursed inwardly. He'd wanted Anatoly to actually have a chance to vent and now that Florence was here, it looked like he was going to bottle it all up again. It figured.

"I should say that he's not sorry for hitting me, just that you caught him in the act."

He looked past Florence to Anatoly and snorted.

[loveofmasters]

"I wonder if either of you are sorry for anything." She really did. All the fighting and all the hurt and anger, she wondered if they ever regretted it at all as she looked back from one to the other.

"I am so tired of the both of you fighting. Can't you ever just get over it?"

[chesspolitik]

For a moment, Anatoly looked over at Freddie, resignation in his face. Florence did not understand why the two of them were locked in their constant cycle of arguments and fist fights and he did not think she ever would. It was wrong of him, he knew, and if he were a better person, he would make every effort to stay clear.

The truth was that he needed Freddie as much as Freddie needed him. They were bitter rivals, they were each other's benchmark. They were two great grandmasters in a titanic battle and no one could come close to matching them. They were tied together because of Florence and all the other things that had happened and if they didn't go up against each other, they might go mad.

"You know him," Anatoly said to Florence, deliberately ignoring Freddie. "When have you ever know him to get over anything?"

[pitythetrumper]

Freddie nearly choked in an effort not to laugh. He and Anatoly understood each other, that was the real problem. It had been one thing when they'd just been bitter rivals. It became something else when they saw each other's lives played for them out on screen. Freddie leaving the game. Anatoly intentionally losing, the bastard. Now, Freddie didn't want to destroy the other man. Oh, there were definite times he did. There were times when he was royally pissed at something Anatoly had done. Then destruction certainly entered into the picture. Mostly, he just wanted to push. On and off the board.

Their conflict...it was just a part of who they were. He had a temper; she knew that. Did she not know that Anatoly had a temper to rival his own?

"If you're tired of it, you don't have to watch it." He shot Anatoly a glare at that last remark. Oh, he'd get what was coming to him for it, no doubt about that.

[loveofmasters]

"You know, Freddie, you're right." Florence actually laughed, feeling what might be the last of a series of weights leaving her. She looked from one to the other, barely believing she was actually about to say this, but she was. "You're absolutely right, I don't have to watch this, I don't have to watch either of you ever again."

Taking a step towards the door, she'd completely forgotten what had brought her up here in the first place. "I'm done, I'm moving on. You can hang yourselves for all I care."

[chesspolitik]

Anatoly's first instinctive response was to run after Florence and cajole her back but he restrained himself. As much as it hurt, she was absolutely right. They were no longer her problem and she was well within her rights to leave them to murder each other.

"No, you should not have to watch," Anatoly called out to her. "It must be very old watching him act like a spoiled child."

He turned back to Freddie and crossed his arms. "Which you are."

[pitythetrumper]

Freddie had to tense and tell himself that this was for the best. He didn't need her. He didn't want her in his life and he certainly hadn't asked her to come. He didn't love her anymore. He was in love with someone else. Someone who loved him back. He watched her as she began to walk away and forcibly reminded himself of their conversation in the bar. It didn't matter how much he tried, she was always going to reject him. He just needed a thicker skin.

There was a particular glint as he looked at Anatoly. He'd come here to help the other man get out a little aggression, maybe figure out what was going on with him, but now he was beginning to lead toward just beating him senseless.

"I think you can do better than calling me a child."

[loveofmasters]

Florence stopped cold, turning to face them both again. "You should be locked up, both of you, until you learn how to behave like adults? What are you even arguing over anymore?" She threw her hands up in exasperation. She didn't understand it, she really didn't.

"You don't have a championship to fight over, we all have our separate relationships that we're all happy with, and yet here you both are, ready to beat each other up over what? Old times' sake? Tell me, please, why I don't go find the IPD, Prior and Lex to drag you both apart and keep you separated."

[chesspolitik]

Anatoly glanced at the two of them for a moment then laughed bitterly. He had not wanted to tell Florence of their arrest but it hardly seemed to matter at this point. She had seen them at their very worst, tearing into each other as they could do so well, there seemed to reason to hide this any longer. "They tried that, Florence. We got into an argument and were both of us arrested by the IPD. As you see, this changed nothing."

[pitythetrumper]

"Lex? Lex would just join in." Freddie sighed and shook his head. "You don't understand it. You can't. You were the one who started it. Besides, what proof is there that we were doing anything?" That was why he'd taken Anatoly out of the compound. He didn't want some random person walking in on them. It would have to be some nonrandom person walking in on them.

"We fight because it's what we do." It was their relationship. They hated each other, they grudgingly liked each other, they needed each other, they couldn't stand to be together.

[loveofmasters]

"And you're both so old and crochety and set in your ways to better yourselves, is that it?" She arched an eyebrow. "Never figured you that lazy, Freddie, something else I missed."

Florence headed back to the door, pausing one final time. She was frustrated, defeated. Right at this moment, she wondered what she'd seen in either of them. "I really don't know what I thought was going to happen. What I expected. I guess I expected better. From both of you. Beat each other up, I don't care anymore. I've moved on. Pity you couldn't do the same." And with that she left. Regardless of what she'd been doing earlier, she just wanted to go find Jack, curl up, and maybe cry over the last death of what had been her life.