Title: Skipping Stones
Fandom: The Queen’s Gambit (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Length: 100 words
Content notes: For fan flashworks challenge #365 "reverse". No content warnings.
Author notes: Constructive criticism on pacing, flow, language, story, characterization, and anything else welcome!
Summary: Canon compliant drabble, open ending (heartbroken/angry/exasperated, probably). Beth Harmon/Benny Watts.


Many think Beth is like fire. Red hair makes it an easy association. On the chessboard, she is.

For Benny, Beth staying in his apartment evokes the reverse. She is water, an overflowing river, eroding the walls he maintains around himself, then an all-consuming, irresistible rip current.

After she flies to Remy-Vallon and loses, she thanks him for his coaching, but she’d rather lick her wounds alone than return.

Benny had thrown his heart like a skipping stone across her waves. He has no one to blame but himself. They weren’t dating, officially. Heartbreak doesn’t burn; he wishes it would.