Ah, Verona. A fairly nice place, as far as places went. The prince of the town, Scramm, was a fair, just man whom was loved by all. The Prince had two young cousins, Barkovitch, 'friend' to the Garratys and Abraham, friend to the McVries clan.

The Garraty family and the McVries family were mortal enemies and had been as far back as anyone could remember.

On this day, Arthur Baker, kin to the McVries family, was walking the streets of Verona when he heard a fight. Fights were nothing new in Verona; if two servants from the opposing families ran into one another there was almost guaranteed a clash. Baker wasn't the biggest fan of fights – he just didn't see the sense in them, and though death fascinated him, he'd rather everyone lived.

So, he kept a hand on his sword and hurried to the source of the noise.

As he'd guessed, it was the servants of the Garraty house that had provoked the McVries servants. At least, that was what he thought was most probable – Collin Parker, kin to the Garratys was a very hot-headed lad and had begun pushing his beliefs onto the servants. Baker had run across him more than once and had not enjoyed these encounters.

But back to the present.

Baker pulled a rather mean-looking Garraty servant off of Peter McVries's manservant, a young blond boy named Percy. "Stop!" he yelled. The servants froze and Baker let go of the Garraty servant. "There," Baker said. "Percy, Curly, why don't you-"

"Arthur Baker."

And there was Parker. Baker immediately drew his sword, ready for trouble.

"Fighting with the servants? Goddam bastard," Parker said. Baker decided that having his sword out probably was not the best idea and hurriedly put it away.

"No, Parker. I only keep the peace." Noticing Parker's sword sitting lazily in his hand, Baker continued. He nudged Percy, a signal to tell him to run for back-up, just in case they needed it. "Put away your sword, unless you plan to use it to help me pacify these servants."

Parker laughed, and Baker backed up a few paces. Oh, why wasn't Abraham here? Abraham would be able to diffuse the tension with a joke, and even if it was offensive, he got along with Parker as well as it was possible to.

"Peace?" Parker nearly spat out the word. He discarded his shirt for no apparent reason, throwing it to the servant that had gone after Percy. "Peace is fuckin' overrated, just like you and those McVrieses you call kin. Unless you're a fucking coward – or have a death wish – you'll fight."

Baker barely had time to draw his sword again before Parker attacked. Baker parried, ducked, and played on the defense for two reasons: a) so that he couldn't be accused of starting it, no matter how hard Parker tried and b) Parker was a lot better than him and he couldn't get off of defense.

Thankfully, at this moment, one of the officers of the town and a group of civilians rushed onto the scene. Baker dropped his sword and let the civilians hold him; it made a far better impression that Parker, who was swearing and spitting and struggling. The officer himself had to wrench the sword out of his hands.

"Calm yourself!" the officer barked, and Parker glared. His bare chest glistened in the morning sun, and he looked like he was about to snap and kill all of them. "The Prince has been notified! Two young noble men such as yourselves-"

"Yeah, yeah, should be ashamed, who fuckin' cares," Parker snapped. "Let me go, I want to break his goddam face!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Baker could see Lord and Lady McVries (the Lady carrying the young Katrina, of course) enter the area. At the opposite end, Lord and Lady Garraty.

And then the Prince arrived. Baker was released (as was Parker, though the Officer looked like he wasn't sure if this was a good idea.)

Scramm looked around, a slightly bemused expression on his face. "I don't really see why you guys are fighting all the time-"

"'Cause they're fucking irritating," Parker said, glaring at the McVrieses. Katrina looked like she was going to burst into tears. "If you ask me, these bastards-"

"Why do you swear so much, Parker?" Scramm asked, but before Parker could answer, he continued. "This is getting kind of ridiculous."

"Shut the f-"

"Parker, I want to talk to you and the Garratys right now. Baker, you and the McVrieses after lunch," Scram said, nodding. He seemed satisfied with himself.

Before Baker could escape, the Lord McVries grabbed his arm. "Where is Peter?" he asked. Not bothering to wait for Baker's answer, he pressed on. "Who started it?"

"The servants of the Garratys," Baker said. He retrieved his sword and continued. "I tried to break it up, but… then Parker showed up. You can guess how that ended up."

All Baker wanted to do was leave this place and find Abraham. Abraham would take this story and twist it around so that it meant that Parker was obviously in love with Baker, or perhaps Percy, or even worse, Gary Barkovitch.

"Where is Peter?" the Lady McVries asked. Katrina clung to her mother and repeated the question.

"Where's Petey?"

Baker tore his thoughts away from Abraham and bit his lip. "I think… early this morning, yes, he ran off. Into the woods. I'm not sure where he was going." Well, beyond moping about Priscilla, he silently added.

Lord McVries sighed. "At least he is out of the house. Many a day has passed when all he will do is sit in his room with the shades drawn.

"Do you know the cause?" Baker asked. He, of course, knew that it was all because of Priscilla, but he wondered how much Peter's father knew.

"No," Lord McVries said. "He will not tell me."

"Have you at least tried to get it out of him?"

"I have tried. His mother has tried. But he is too secretive, and no-one can get him to talk."

Baker nodded, and out of the corner of his eye he spotted Peter McVries. He sported the scar that he'd gotten from his former 'girlfriend' – he hadn't actually been in a relationship with her, but had mooned after her until she'd gotten sick of it and decided to slash his face open with a dagger.

"There he is," Baker said. "I'll go talk to him and tell you what's wrong later."

"Alright," Lord McVries said, nodding. "Come, Lady, bring the baby and let us go home."

Baker waited a few moments, until both Lord and Lady were out of sight, then crossed over to greet his cousin. "Good morning, Peter!" he said, trying to be cheerful. Peter McVries just looked at him and Baker fidgeted, wondering where Abraham was. Abraham would be able to broach the subject of Priscilla without being too awkward.

"Is the day really so young?" Peter sighed, finally speaking. Baker wondered if he should get straight to the point, then decided to tiptoe around it for a few more moments.

"It's about nine," Baker said. Peter rolled his eyes. Oh. His question must have been rhetorical.

But he had a dramatic response, as usual. "Sad hours seem long. That was my father, wasn't it?"

A bit startled by the sudden change in subject, it took Baker a while to form a response. "Yeah," he finally said. "But back to your sad hours. Why are you so sad?"

Peter began to walk, trailing his hand across everything he passed as he formed a typical Peter, confusing response. "That which makes them short has gone."

"What's with the Shakespearean English?" Percy asked, popping up beside them. Baker shushed him, and decided that it was the perfect time to breach the subject he'd come to talk about.

"Are you in love?"

"Out-"

"Out of love?" Baker asked, interrupting him. Peter gave him one of his withering looks, and Baker managed a smile. "Sorry. Continue."

"Out of her favor. I am still in love with her, but she… is not so in love with me," Peter sighed, absentmindedly passing a hand over his scar.

"Love sucks," Baker agreed, his thoughts once more turning to Abraham. He shook the ginger from his mind. This was Peter's problem. He could deal with his own problems later.

"Love sucks," Peter repeated. "That's the understatement of the year." He looked closely at Baker, who had been thinking of Abraham again. "Are you laughing at me?"

Unfortunately, Baker had been thinking of one of Abraham's more amusing moments. "No, Peter, I weep."

"Why?"

"Uh… because you are unloved. I mean, at your heart's oppression." This apparently satisfied Peter, who nodded.

"You're a good kid, Baker," he said, then glanced around. The place had emptied considerably. "Well, then. Farewell."

"No!" Baker said. Peter paused and looked at him. "I shall come with you!"

"You really don't want to be around me right now," Peter warned. Baker shrugged it off and continued.

"Who is your love?"

He knew who this love was, of course. Everyone knew but Peter's parents.

"Don't make me say her name," Peter said, sighing once more. Wasn't he overdramatic this morning.

"Please, Peter." At this point Baker was trying to get some sort answer for no apparent reason.

Peter McVries hesitated, then opened his mouth to answer. "I do love a woman."

"I figured as much," Baker said. Peter grinned a little.

"Well, I'm not queer," he said, then continued. "She's hot. The one I love, I mean."

"That's great," Baker said, more than a little unnerved.

"But she doesn't want me. Or any man, I think. She's been swept off her feet by another woman. Jan, friend to the Garratys."

"Well," Baker said. "That would be a problem."

Peter was about to go off on some romantic speech about this girl, so Baker said something before he could.

"Forget about her."

"Forget? I can't-"

"Abraham has an invitation to the Garraty party," Baker said. "Come with us. You can find a new love there."

"Or perhaps she will be there-"

"Forget. Your. Former. Love. And. Find. A. New. One."

CAN YOU TELL THAT I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M DOING.

But, yes. This is a Romeo and Juliet, starring Peter McVries as Romeo and I think we can all guess who Juliet is. Baker is Benvolio, Parker is Tybalt, et cetera.

This will basically follow the storyline, with some extra scenes here and there.

Also I'm both a Bakeraham and Benvolio/Mercutio shipper, so expect much shippyness.

Anyway.

How'd you like it?