Disclaimer: I do not own Romeo x Juliet characters. The only character I own is the narrator.
Once upon a time, I was a child: a child with a home, a family, and happiness unmeasured. But in one night, everything I knew about my life changed. There are very few things I remember about that time and what I do remember is more vivid than I had ever wanted it to be. The soldiers' voices as they broke in through our front door, the Montague family crest on their belts and swords, my parents' blood as red as the Capulet flag their heads, the bright blaze of the fire as my home went up in flames taking my parents' corpses with it. How I escaped, I will never know.
I was grateful to the Farnese family. Lady Farnese took me in after finding me on the street just before the worst storm in our history hit Neo Verona. I became a servant in the household and eventually Lady Farnese, her husband, and son, William, counted me as one of their own. It wasn't long after I had settled in that we received news that the throne of Neo Verona had transferred to Montague. The Capulet family had been murdered and the youngest daughter, Lady Juliet, had gone missing. At that moment, I resolved that I would not rest until Laertes Montague and his entire family were dead, even if I had to do it myself.
Little did I realize that I would never get my chance. The fate to destroy the Montague family did not rest as my own but was that of the young lost Lady Juliet herself.
Lady Farnese's son, who had taken on the last name Shakespeare for some unknown reason, decided to move out of his mother's home one summer. I was to go with him and live with a family that had moved in under the theatre where William would now be working to write his plays and perform them. I was told that the family's past was none of my business and I was never to mention that they were living under the building. My fear and respect for Lady Farnese greatly outweighed my curiosity so I did as I was told and never asked questions. In the family, there were two children younger than I was and another girl who was my age. Cordelia, the girl who was my age, and I became good friends. I helped her with the younger two children, Antonio and Odin. Antonio was my responsibility while Odin remained hers. Cordelia and I cleaned and took care of the household in general. As Odin grew, I slowly became as good of friends with him as I was with Cordelia.
I slowly began to find out that this 'family' was not really a true blood family. The only people who were actually related were an older man and the head of the house, Conrad, and my charge, Antonio, who was his grandson. It was us five who were consistently living in the underground chamber we called our home. But we also had plenty of visitors who would come and go, sometimes for days at a time. Will and his new ward would join us occasionally for a meal or two when his plays had gone badly and he needed some cheering up. His ward, Emelia, was one of the more annoying women I had ever met. I was her elder by a few years and I could never be happier at the thought that I wouldn't have to put up with her as much as Odin did, the poor thing. There was also another man who was apparently a celebrity and got around in society in many a way, Francisco. At first even I was a little smitten with him, not that I would admit it to anyone though. That all ended the moment he brought in another man with him one evening: Curio. He was a larger man and was scary at first glance. His brown hair was cut roughly and it only made him look that much tougher. His brown eyes were hypnotic when he looked at me.
For the first time in years, I blushed. I looked down at my dusty dress and apron. It was the hardest my heart had ever pounded. I silently prayed that he wouldn't hear it to the degree I was. It was all I could hear: the deep pounding in my ears as blush radiated from my cheeks. That was the first time I met him and it most certainly wouldn't be the last. For that, I was eternally grateful.
Thanks for reading. I'm going to keep this A/N short and simple so please review and let me know what you think about this and I'll continue it for those who review. Thanks again!