Spencer was supposed to be teaching you chess per your request. What he was doing was awkwardly fumbling for his words, rambling on unrelated details about the pieces and craftsmanship, origins of the game, and how he’d played out a million gameplays.

IQ of 187 slashed to 60; nothing but a babbling mess of incoherent conversations when he was faced with you.

He had you in Check multiple times in the first rounds, to which he graciously gave you the method to get out of it. His eyes softened imperceptibly when he heard that familiar hum of understanding pass through your lips, something he could easily imitate in his head by now.

By the fifth game and as you declared the first real round, the other four qualifying as practice, his head was beyond fuzzy. His eyes would nearly glaze over as he watched your contemplative expression every time it was your turn, an unmistakable glint of unconfined fondness sparking in his irises. He tried, really, to focus on the pieces stepping across the board, listen to the wood tap against each other with every move, but hardly anything could click in his mind when you sat across from him, in his apartment of all places.

Mildly pathetic, honestly, to watch a genius become of below-average intelligence just from your mere presence a couple feet away from him. His moves were mindless in the game, close to none of his brain on what he was doing as it solely focused on you.

When he saw the excited grin on your lips, he was too out of it to register the word that followed. ‘Check’ for a long moment. His eyes snapped to the board, his conscious returning as he started to properly function again. He blinked in blatant surprise, lips parting as his jaw dropped an inch.

“How-” he scrambled, trying to replay his steps that led him to this bad of a failure. Even with an eidetic memory, he couldn’t recall a thing (except for every minute movement in your expression but how was that helpful?) “Check? That’s impossible,” he started to protest before frowning, realizing any place he could move his King would be taken by one of your pieces.