Untap Step (R,A)

“So, what’s next?” Dick asked. They’d taken their showers to clean themselves off from their escapades together in the sauna, and they’d briefly discussed going swimming like she’d suggested earlier before she realized that he’d get hit with her modesty effect even more and probably shed his swim trunks without noticing. So that had been out of the question.

“Mind an early dinner?” She asked, waiting with him for the elevator to open.

“Sure. Looking forward to that fancy steak dinner from last time?” The elevator opened, and they both stepped through. He pressed the button for the auditorium.

“Honestly, this is going to be better. Not that Stella’s steak wasn’t great, you know her, but the plate was so small.”

“So what’ll it be instead?”

“It should be her Sichuan chicken, Stella said that she and Genet made it last time while we were stuck in that cave.” The elevator let them out, and it was a short walk out the auditorium, across the plaza, and into the dining hall where Genet was waiting.

The host had two steaming plates she’d just set down on the closest table to the door and gestured for them both to sit.

“I’m so proud of you both!”

“Ok?” Ava said awkwardly as they stood in the doorway. The congratulations had thrown both of them off guard, despite the fact that they’d thought they’d become used to her foibles.

“Sit, sit.” She ushered them down into the benches. “A few more good dates like that, and you might beat me. I’ll get out of your hair for now, but I’ll bring over seconds or thirds if you want it in a little bit.” She ruffled Ava’s hair, then strode back to the kitchen where they could hear Stella start giving her directions.

Ava leaned over to ask a question. “She’s always been… her, but it feels like she's been getting more her. Is that just me?”

“No, I get what you mean.” It’s like she doesn't care whether she wins or not.

Ava started eating, and he started more slowly as he looked around. At the far corner where Maeve often sat, she was there tonight with Aubrey and Luna. His girlfriend appeared to be giving them both a lecture that Maeve was paying far more attention to. His best friend used the fact that the other two were distracted to silently check on him with a thumbs up, followed by a thumbs down. He gave a thumbs up back, and she went back to the lesson Aubrey was teaching.

Dinner was fine. It wasn’t bad, but once she finished her second plate before he’d finished one it was obvious she liked it more than him. He missed the fancy steak dinner that they’d had last time, the only thing he would’ve changed is toning down the romantic parts so Ava didn’t get uncomfortable. But they were there, and he could hear their friends, and it was good enough.

They left the dining hall after they finished eating, and she was obviously in a good mood. “Do you mind if I stop by the Trident to pick up a few games to play before bed?”

“Sure. Anything in mind?” He asked.

“Wonders, of course. Destroyer for something quiet if we feel like it. On the other end of the spectrum, I know you like Really Loud Librarians. We should show Aubrey that later, you guys could try it together sometime!”

“She’d probably like that.” She opened the door to the house, painted to look like a submarine hatch, and they went in together. “Have you been thinking about- wow. This place is incredible!” He looked around the hall, themed like an underwater paradise. It reminded him of the sort of decorations he’d see in the amusement parks he and Hel had been to as kids together.

“It is, isn’t it? You should go check out the bedroom.” Ava said, splitting off to go into her closet and look for the games she’d mentioned a moment ago.

Doing as he was told, Dick walked past the closets to her bedroom. It was immediately obvious why she’d suggested it from the wall long aquarium. In the empty bedroom, the glow of the tank immediately drew his attention. His knowledge of marine life was exclusive to crabs in the northeastern coast, but he was pretty sure some of these fish shouldn’t be able to coexist together.

She rejoined him after a moment, her arms full with boxes and deck cases. “Isn’t it cool? The Pom and the Stone don’t have anything like this.”

“Arrow doesn't either. Did Genet say why this is here?”

Ava did her best to shrug. “Back when she was still in her ‘I’m serious and scary, you shouldn’t question me.’ phase, she mentioned that they were from a friend and that was it.” She paused. “Could you check the time?”

“Five forty-six.”

“Did you want to start playing here and talk about the fish more, or should we head back to your place?”

“We can head back.”

So they left the fish behind, the glow of the tank illuminating the empty room as they shut off the lights again and closed the door. They walked across the plaza again to the Master’s Cottage.

The lights were already on in there, which was unusual. Even more unusual, there were purple flower petals in a trail down the hall, laid like someone had carefully measured the distance between each petal. It curled like a cat’s tail towards his bedroom.

“This wasn’t you, right?” Ava whispered.

“No.”

“Good. You think it’s Genet? I thought she’d understand by now I’m not ready for this stuff.”

“She probably knows better than to do this.” I hope.

They both crept along the hall, the only noise coming from the faint rattle of dice in Ava’s games. Even though this was his own living quarters, Dick felt like he was stepping into something he wasn’t supposed to. Should we text Genet? He briefly considered, before deciding not to waste everyone’s time. He opened the door to his bedroom and looked inside as Ava lingered behind him with the games.

Felicia was laying in the bed, sound asleep. Her clothes were in a pile, next to the bed.

“It’s Felicia.” He whispered to her roommate. “She’s sleeping nude in there.”

Ava just sighed. “Shit. Hold these.” She handed off the games and went into the room, looking closely at her best friend before covering her with several blankets. She came back out and quietly closed the door. She cocked her head towards the house’s kitchen for him to follow. “We’ll hang out here for a while. She’ll need her rest if we want her not to be grumpy tomorrow.”

Dick nodded, quietly helping her spread out the games she’d brought on the kitchen counter. He figured they were both pretending to forget what they saw in there. Then she hit him with a question that stunned him:

“Is that something you’d be into?”

He panicked, not sure what she was referring to. Is she referring to sleeping sex? Being caught? “Is that something you’d be into?” He asked back, hoping she’d provide more context.

“I don’t think so? It seems like a lot of unnecessary fanfare. But I’d be willing to try it if you wanted.”

At this point he needed to just ask. “What are we talking about?”

“The whole rose petals leading to the bed, where you find the hot lady in lingerie with pretty lighting and gentle music? That seems like what she was going for. I know I’ve seen it in movies. I like showing off sometimes, so I could try it if you want.” She offered.

“Where’s this coming from?”

Ava shrugged. “I figure I should be trying to experiment.” She shifted the topic. “Want to start with Wonders? It’s been a few weeks since you’ve been able to play.” He nodded, and she handed him his deck before grabbing her favorite, Jörmungandr.

They shuffled and started the game, both spending the first couple turns just preparing their resources. It seemed like Ava drew a bad hand, so with Dick’s faster and more aggressive deck he was able to bring out Sir Bors on turn three.

On his next turn, he was able to attack. “You blocking at all?”

She gestured to her side of the board, with nothing but four temples. “What do you think?”

“So that’ll be three damage then. I can’t use any of my attack triggers because you’ve given me nothing to destroy, but I suppose there’s worse problems. I’ll add Lost Knights to my board”

The fifth turn proceeded similarly. She used a spell to push Sir Bors into his hand, but still lost two life from not being able to block his other knight he’d played last turn.

The tide started turning on turn six. She made a big show of spending everything to play Jörmungandr, and the giant snake was too strong for either of his knights to make it through. He needed to hold his attacks just to be prepared for hers, and lost the Lost Knights the turn after.

“Would you want to do something like today again with me?” She asked after finishing her attack and playing Eternal Crab. “I enjoyed the... sex parts more than I expected to.”

Dick blushed, despite what he’d done so far with most of the other women on the island. “Yeah. I wouldn’t mind that.” He played another knight and attached a sword to it before ending his turn.

She played Undersea Pilgrimage and a small shark before asking another question. “You know that I’m not trying to be your girlfriend right now, right? I like having you as a friend, and I liked what we did together, but I’m not into you like Aubrey is?”

He paused, trying to decide how to answer. He felt like Window Pain should be urging him in one direction or another, but it was silent. “I get that.” He laid down a multi-turn card, Quest for the Grail, hoping it’d let him catch back up later.

“I’m not sure whether or not that would change in the future. If I never change my mind, you’d be alright with that?”

This time the answer came easier. “Yeah. I never expected more than Aubrey, and before this all started I’d lost hope on whether that could work too.”

“Good. Not that’d you’d lost hope, but that you don’t mind me having boundaries. By the way, I’m sacrificing Undersea Pilgrimage to swing at you with everything. That’ll be seventeen unblockable damage, raised to twenty three after I cast Baldr’s Aid. After I add Bestial Invocation, they’ll all have double strike. That’s forty six damage and game.”

“I guess it is. You didn’t ask me those questions because you were trying to distract me, right?”

“No?” Ava answered, a little confused. “Was that a bad time to ask? I just wanted to know how you felt and there’s a lot of quiet moments in two player Wonders.”

“I…” He decided not to beat around the bush. “It was a bit distracting.”

“Sorry then. Mind if I look at your hand to see if there’s anything you could’ve done differently?” She requested. He handed over his cards and she looked it over before shaking her head. “You could've destroyed Undersea Pilgrimage with Sir Bors' attack trigger, but then I could've killed him with my defense and wiped you out anyways. He kind of just struggles with bigger attackers. This hand would be great against Felicia and maybe good against Stella, but against Jörmungandr and my other sea monsters you’d just be treading water. If you’d like I can try using some of my cards to tinker with it sometime, though it’s up to you whether you’d want more survivability or to close games sooner.”

Dick nodded. “Maybe that could be something we do the next time we have a…” He tried to check Window Pain, and it was silent. “You’re alright with me calling it a date?” Given that she tried to stress she wasn’t my girlfriend and how badly she took the moonlight dinner last time, I would have thought she’d hate that word.

“That’s what the game says it is. It’s arguable whether most people would consider something like this a good date, but it’s two people gaming together and maybe getting each other off on our ‘designated date day.’ I don’t mind leaning into the mechanics if I get to hang out with you. It feels like you’ve been busy, like, all the time. Next time we’re on a date together I’ll tinker with Sir Bors like I did for Stella’s Idunn deck recently. For now, though, maybe switch games before our next Wonders match? We could do Destroyer, then you can try out a deck I’ve loaned people before that has a good track record against Jörmungandr.” She suggested.

“I’m always up for anything.” He agreed.

***

Twenty minutes later, they’d put the cards away back on the counter. They’d set up the other game, Destroyer, and both hidden their sets of boats for the other to guess at. He’d sunk her battleship and carrier, while she’d sunk his destroyer. It seemed like she hadn’t noticed that he was experimenting with putting everything in the rightmost third of the map.

It was her turn again to guess when she took a breath. It wasn’t unusual for her to breathe of course, but she had a certain breath that he could recognize sometimes when there was something very Ava she was about to say. He braced himself, never knowing what to expect.

“Hey Dick?”

“Yes?”

“I don’t think either of us say it often enough, but I’m glad we’re friends.”

***

Note from the author: While I usually don't name my references outright when I can avoid it, Really Loud Librarians is a real 2 player word game I'd recommend.