Apparently Juka was going to learn to play chess. Him. Juka Miami. Learning chess. When did the world turn so far topsy turvy? When had he become the little geek who sat down at the table with the funny little timer thingy and moved around little white and black figures across a checkered board? Life just wasn't what it was supposed to be if he, Juka Miami, rock star extraordinaire, was learning chess.

All the previous night, after his usual patrol of the city, he had spent on the computer looking up information on chess. The basic rules, at least, he knew. Sort of. His attention had kind of flagged half way through his research and he had somehow ended up on youtube around 4 am and everyone knew that once you ended up on youtube the rest of the night was over and you were never getting off of it.

Even with his somewhat scatterbrained mind, though, he was excited. Who knew if he would actually end up with any sort of talent at the game, but at least it was something to keep his attention in those small hours of the morning where youtube was just not cutting it. He floated over from his apartment after feeding his kitties and landed in a secluded corner of Central park, walking the rest of the way to the designated meeting place.

Hunter was a little late arriving. Buying the books had not been quite as simple as planned. Spotting Juka he gave him a wave and headed over. “Hello,” he said handing the three books to Juka, “Some reading material for you.” The books were ”Logical Chess Move-by-Move” by Irving Chernev, ”Winning the Won Game” but Dr. Danny Kopec and ”The Immortal Game: A Histroy of Chess” by David Shenk.

“Now let’s see what you already know.” Hunter found an empty table and sat down. Placing his chessboard on the table he started setting up the pieces. His set was an antique, though he had bought it new. He’d taken care to have it custom made. The white pieces were ivory and the black onyx. Both had little additions in gold to highlight aspects of the piece. The board itself was ivory and onyx tiles with silver bands separating them. It had cost him a fortune at the time and it would be even more valuable now.

“So, do you know how to set up the pieces on the board?” he asked. After he’d suggested to the boy yesterday evening he wouldn’t be surprised to find that he’d gone and done a little research into the subject. There was a wealth of information on chess on the internet and learning the rules was easy enough.

Juka waved with much enthusiasm at Hunter when he spotted the other man. His good friends he would have run up and given a giant hug, but he was pretty sure their friendship hadn't quite gotten to that level yet, having only met the previous night. Besides, he was actually starting to learn that some people got uncomfortable with random hugs from almost total strangers. Strange people they were, too. Who could possible have a problem with a hug?

Juka accepted the offered books with a grin and a bow. He didn't ask about the price because the thought of money being an issue didn't even occur to him; one of the symptoms of growing up in a wealthy household and not having to work a day in his life. "You are such a lovely man, Hunter. So kind to offer me such thoughtful gifts."

Taking a seat at the offered table, Juka arranged the pieces in proper fashion. That much, at least, he had managed to pick up and remember from his little bit of research the previous night. "What a beautiful board," he complimented.

“Well I figured that you should get a proper grounding in chess if you intend to beat me,” said Hunter as Juka accepted the books, “I’ve been playing for a little longer than you after all.” Well three hundred and eighty one years longer, but who’s counting?”

“Good,” he praised as Juka set up the board correctly, “I had this board made especially for me in France in 1773. Now do you think you know enough of the rules to try a game?” Odds on the boy knew the basics, but would be hopeless beyond that. Still the best way to learn was from experience.

"What was it even like in 1773?" Juka asked. He remembered, vaguely, his history classes and he knew that there was no technology back then, at least not like he knew of it. Weren't they bereft of proper heating and plumbing too? Of course, those sorts of things wouldn't really bother him much anyway since, magical bubble that he had, he didn't really need either. Still, when else would he have a chance to talk to someone who had actually experienced life like that? Answer: Probably never. Unless he could learn to time travel. Add that to the list of mutant powers he had to learn (as well as being able to transform and manipulate pretty colours).

"I think I've got the basics down," Juka answered. After a moment's thought he moved a pawn ahead on the board. "Do you use the internet at all? Its got pretty much everything."

“It was a very different time,” Hunter said as he thought about back then, “Then again I was in France at the time and that’s an entirely different place altogether. Despite having lost most of their colonies to the British a decade earlier the French nobility were still in high spirits and I spent most of my time partying. Mind you I think the French nobility never stopped partying.”

“My boy just because I am over four hundred years old does not mean that I don’t know how to use modern technology,” he said with mock indignation, “Mind you the rate of advancement has really picked up recently. I’ve seen more technological growth in the past four decades than the four centuries before that.”

“Now, on to the game. Before we begin I’ll give you a rundown of how the pieces move. This is the king. Lose him and it’s game over. He can move exactly one square horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. Once per game each king is allowed to make a special move, known as castling, which I shall explain later. This is the queen and she can move any number of vacant squares diagonally, horizontally, or vertically. She’s your single most powerful piece. The rook, these ones that look like castles, can move any number of vacant squares vertically or horizontally. This is a bishop and they can move any number of vacant squares in any diagonal direction. These horse pieces are knights and they move a little differently to the others. They move two squares horizontally or vertically and then one square perpendicular to that. They can also move over intervening pieces. Finally we have the pawns. Their rules are also a little complex. They can move forward one square, if that square is unoccupied. If it has not yet moved, a pawn has the option of moving two squares forward provided both squares in front of the pawn are unoccupied. They can’t move backward. Normally to capture an enemy piece you simply move into the square it was occupying. However pawns are the exception to this rule. They can capture an enemy piece on either of the two spaces adjacent to the space in front of them, the two squares diagonally in front of them, but cannot move to these spaces if they are vacant.” Hunter pointed out each piece as he explained their rules and moved them to illustrate his point.

“I mentioned castling earlier. Castling consists of moving the king two squares towards a rook, then placing the rook on the other side of the king, adjacent to it.” Again he illustrated his point by showing Juka. “You may only castle if the king and rook you intend to castle with haven’t moved, there are no pieces between them, the king is not in check and won’t move through any square that would put him in check. Check is when a piece threatens to capture the enemy king. Checkmate is when the king will be captured next turn regardless of any move you make. Finally white always goes first. Any questions?” Hunter had just dumped a lot of information on Juka, but once they started it should all make sense.

"France would be a wonderful place to visit!" Juka stated with enthusiasm. "Maybe I'll float there sometime soon. Of course," a frown at the thought, "there might be the problem that I don't actually speak French. Oh, there are a whole bunch of countries over there that are worth seeing, aren't there? England and Scotland and Norway and Sweden. Maybe I'll just go on a personal floating European tour. What do you think?" He was almost literally buzzing with the enthusiasm of his newest plot.

After coming up with his newest of plans, it took Juka more than a little effort to bring his attention back to the game at hand. Here he was trying to learn to play Chess and all he could think of was floating over the ocean in order to go and visit new and interesting places. What must they be like? Were they similar to the US? Or even to Japan? Those were the only two places he had been in his life so far. Would anyone want to come with him on his trip? Would he even be able to bring anyone on his trip? Floating with people tended to make him tired after a while so he wasn't certain he could float someone across the entire ocean.

"I'm sorry," Juka apologized, realizing that Hunter was half way through his explanation on how the game worked and he hadn't remembered a word of it. "I guess I got kind of distracted for a moment. With a monumental influx of will, he vowed to pay attention at least until he knew the basics. Then he could proceed with planning his trip to France.

Hunter simply smiled at the absent minded boy. “I’ve travelled all across Europe at various stages of my life and the one thing I can assure you is that it is never dull. There’s a lot more variety in Europe than there is here in the States.”

“Now, chess...” and so Hunter went through the rules of chess again, using more examples this time and interspersing some humour to try and hold Juka’s focus a little better. Hunter had met people with poor attentions spans before and knew a few non violent tricks to keep their attention.

Visions of exotic cultures and strange languages danced through Juka's head. Why hadn't he thought of this before? Why, of course he could travel to Europe, pretty much whenever he wanted to. He was the bubble master extraordinaire and could go pretty much wherever he wanted to. A few days travel time wasn't really that bad, right? Or, he could make it a road trip (so to speak) and take an entire week to get there, pausing wherever something looked interesting. The only concern was how to avoid getting lost and he could probably do that with a simple GPS navigator. "Do many people over there speak English or Japanese?" That was the second problem that he could conceive of.

During Hunter's second description of the game Juka managed to only be slightly distracted, actually managing to pay attention (mostly) this time. First he would learn to play chess then he would go visit Europe and not the other way around.

“English is common,” Hunter said as he took a white pawn in one hand and a black pawn in the other, “But I doubt you’ll find many who speak Japanese,” he said in fluent Japanses. Placing his hands behind his back he mixed up the pawns before holding out his closed fists.

“Pick a hand,” he said still in Japanese. Despite being multi-lingual Hunter didn’t get much change to converse in the various languages he knew. Most people in America struggled to speak English let alone any other language. It was nice to find someone to exercise his language skills with.

Juka clapped his hands in pleasurable excitement at the realization that Hunter spoke Japanese as well. "You lovely man," he said back in Japanese, "you make me so happy I could kiss you right now." He didn't though. Even before he started understanding about personal boundaries he knew you didn't just go up and kiss people for no reason. "No except Shinny speaks Japanese. So, what do I need to know for my trip to Europe? And what other languages do you speak?" Oh, glorious exciting day.

Juka watched the jumbling of pieces in fists before choosing the left hand. He assumed it had something to do with deciding if he would be the black team or the white team. They were such pretty figures it didn't really matter to him much which one he ended up being.

“I speak English, Japanese, Russian, Chinese, French, German, Spanish, Romanian, Portuguese, Tibetan and a few others,” Hunter answered, “One of the trickiest things in the past was that each country had its own currency which meant that you needed to keep all sorts of money on you. Nowadays though must use the Euro, so you’re fine there. Just make sure you enjoy the unique qualities of each country.”

Hunter opened his left hand to reveal the white pawn. “You’re to play first then,” he said setting the pieces back on the board. He spun the board round so that the white pieces were in front of Juka and waited for him to take his turn. He’d answer the boy’s questions as they played.

Juka blinked at the lengthy lists of languages. "Wow. Is that what you do in your spare time? Learn languages?" He supposed it would be a rather useful thing to learn for someone who could live hundreds of years. "You probably can't live in the same place for too long can you? Or else people would discover you're all immortal and blood drinking right? Or at least, used to be." It was a rather sad thought.

Juka took a careful look at the chess board and, after some deliberation, decided on a move. He didn't really expect to win against such an expert, but that didn't mean that he was going to make it easy. Or at least he hoped he wasn't going to make it easy. There were an awful lot of rules, after all.

“I’ve travelled the world several times over,” Hunter said as he made his move, “Learning the languages became convenient. Back then I kept moving on as my immortality would arouse too much suspicion. However now that mutants are know about I see no reason I can’t settle down so to speak.”

Hunter liked spending time with Juka. The boy was so vibrant and full of energy. He had the boundless energy of youth that Hunter had not felt in a very long time. Most likely Juka would mellow by the end of the century but for now he could enjoy his youthful exuberance.

"Did you still have to eat?" Juka asked. He didn't exactly know a lot about vampires, after all, except for the fact that they drank blood. "What if you got stuck in a desert or something? Where would the best place to travel be?" He realized that he was running on with his questions again and tried to keep them back a little bit. Actually giving him a chance to answer of few of them first might be beneficial.

Juka moved another pawn on the chess board as he awaited his answers in eager anticipation. He may have known the rules but he didn't know much of anything about proper technique or strategy. Maybe after reading his new books he'd know a little more. Even in real life he didn't know a whole lot about strategy. His bubble had a tendency to make almost anything easy enough that he didn't really need to do much actual strategizing.