Title: K is for Knight
Author: stellaluna_
Rating: PG
Pairing: Mac/Don
Summary: For kinkapoodles.
Disclaimer: None of these are mine. Characters are the property of Anthony Zuiker, Jerry Bruckheimer Television, CBS, and Alliance Atlantis.

***

They've taken to playing chess lately. It's a way of being together without having to talk, which Flack tends to think is a good thing. Talking, almost every time, inevitably veers into subjects both of them are better off avoiding. Of course, there are other ways of being together without talking, but Flack is pretty uncertain about that option too these days. He supposes he isn't the only one.

He sits with Mac in a quiet corner of Sullivan's, studying the board while he waits for Mac to make a move. After what feels like forever, he does, then hits the timer and looks at Flack expectantly.

Flack frowns, playing back the move in his head, wondering if there's something he's missed, or that Mac has. "Go on," Mac says.

"But you just -- "

"Yes?"

"You just put your knight in the path of my king."

"Flack, you're not supposed to give me advice."

"But you didn't have to do that," Flack says. "It's not like that was the only move you had. You could have gone somewhere else."

Mac shrugs. "Sometimes you have to sacrifice a piece."

"Yeah, but -- " Flack stops himself. He knows how to play as well as Mac does; he doesn't know why he's arguing. He knows about sacrifice, too, and Mac's right about how sometimes it's necessary. Sometimes, though, it's not, and it wasn't just now, and that bothers him more than he can say.

"Right," he says after a pause. "Guess you know what you're doing."

Mac doesn't blink. "Guess so."

Flack takes the knight off the board.

***