Okay but imagine chess prodigy Lena Luthor teaching Kara Danvers how to play:
Kara cheats, hilariously so, and somehow Lena can’t bring herself to care because playing with Kara is the only time she’s actually having fun while playing chess.
Once, Lena leaves for a snack and when she comes back, Kara put both her knights back on the board. “So, while you were gone, they actually managed to sneak through the tunnels and found their way back. It’s just about never losing hope and getting back up.”
“It’s really not.”
“Lena are you saying that you don’t believe in hope?”
And so the knights stay.
Another time, Lena finally corners Kara’s king and Kara goes “oh you know…maybe this is a good time to mention that my pawns, who are all women by the way, started a feminist revolution and instituted a democracy where the queen was voted president and all the pawns became representatives. So while this may look like you’ve got the king cornered, the monarchy is actually obsolete and therefore this move has no power.” She then jumps up and shouts “long live democracy!” and Lena isn’t able to fight her on this either.
“So I know it looks like I’m moving this pawn 3 squares forward, which of course wouldn’t be allowed BUT this one has been training for a marathon for the past 2 months, so he’s really fast and I don’t wanna disappoint him by only moving him forward one square like all the others, when he can do so much more.”
“Kara, you can’t throw your queen across the board to shield your king.”
“She is from Krypton. She has superspeed.”
“Kara, we both lost our queens.”
“Hmm, wonder what they’re doing over there all alone.” And then Kara winks at her and Lena goes weak in the knees and doesn’t speak again for half an hour.
Sometimes Kara places food all around the board and Lena always insists that “this is not chess food,” and Kara retorts that “all food is chess food, this game is so boring and long, at least let’s have some pizza.”
Some games are serious though and both of them try their best. Kara has actually learned a trick or two but Lena wins. Every time. It’s frustrating really. Except that when she wins a game, she always gets this small smile and that little gleam in her eyes that tells Kara that she is proud of herself. It’s always worth it.
One time, Kara actually wins a game fair and square and Lena is so proud of her, she takes her out for ice cream and pizza until both of their stomachs hurt.
One time, Lena asks her why she continues to play with her. Ever though Kara’s gotten good, Lena knows that she doesn’t actually enjoy the game very much and could probably list several hundred games she’d rather be playing. All Kara responds is, “because it matters to you.”