A.N. chapter 1- slight Shrew X Midsummer- Biondello/Hermia, Lucentio/Hermia
Other chapters to follow- not written yet, so M just in case.
(OF COURSE IN MODERN ENGLISH- can't write in old English)
Characters are younger than some think (TOTS either being with younger characters either being late teens or late thirties depending on director) - in this Lucentio, Tranio and Biondello are mid-late teens- Lucentio about 19-20ish, Tranio and Boindello about 16-17.
Set a year-ish before the actual play- missing the idea of the Sly scenes and the fact that the characters are… well, characters in a play! Set near what is now Lake Garda. And if any of the place names are Spanish, it's only because I was reading a script of TOTS set in Spain!
As Lucentio walked along the lake front, the breeze coming in from the water cooled his skin. It had been a year since he left his father in Padua to go to University. He had already dated a few girls, hoping to make his father proud when he went back to see him after he finished, hopefully with a wife. But so far, he had not been successful. It wasn't that he wasn't trying, but that there wasn't anyone that he actually LIKED.
Coming to a stop just before a small inlet that he had left Tranio, his trusted companion, and Biondello, he sighed. Once again, Biondello was chatting to a willowy brunette, who, from the position of his hand, he wanted to have a bit of time alone with. His hand had slunk around her waist and was now firmly positioned in the small of her back pulling her closer, pressing her against him. From the look on the brunettes face, it seemed to be that her parents or companion were further up the lake, probably in another inlet, or the small hut a few miles up and she didn't want them to see her in this compromising situation.
Tranio, however, was no where near. This was weird, as Tranio was usually in the same place as Biondello. They had, of course, lived, worked and generally been in each others company for as long as Lucentio could remember. Walking down the shallow, sandy slope, he automatically put on his fake smile. Despite the troubles he had in love, he still needed to make sure others had no idea about what was happening. This had gone so far as to make him tell Tranio that it was him that broke up with women, as opposed to the truth.
Around him, the breeze had started to rustle the trees, making them sing eerily. He had already pulled off his shoes, and the sand spilled out from in between his toes, little bits of grit stroking his feet. The sunlight shone through the leaves above him, casting pale green shadows over his already sun beaten face, shoulders and bare arms. Stepping out of the shadows, Lucentio saw immediately what Biondello saw in the girl he was clutching to his body. She was beautiful. Closer, her hair seemed darker, almost black, rather than the Ash brown he thought it was up on the hill. Her face was rounded, almost heart-shaped, and her hair had been flicked over her right ear, so it caught the sunlight and shimmered.
"Oh! Master! I must apologise, I thought you'd be gone for longer!" Biondello said awkwardly, his grasp loosening, allowing the girl to step away and pick up the sandals that had been flung a few feet away. Leaning over, her dress draped itself over a slender frame. In Lucentio's eyes, she was perfect. Her skin was olive, a stark, yet suiting contrast to her pale yellow dress that flowed around her.
"I'm sorry sir for distracting your boy. And for unnerving the other, who left in such a hurry." Her voice was like a breath, what Lucentio pictured a Nymph from the stories that had come over from Greece looked and sounded like.
"And may I ask what your name is?" Lucentio asked, his voice sticking in his throat, looking like a fish a few seconds before speaking.
"My name?" The Nymph whispered. "My name, if you must know, is Hermia, the daughter of Egeus, a good friend of Theseus, the Duke of Athens. And you are?"
So the Nymph has a name. A name as breath-taking as her beauty.
"Oh forgive me. I am the son of Vincentio, a wealthy businessman of Pisa. My name is Lucentio. The one who ran off was my companion Tranio, and the man that was entwined around you, if he hadn't introduced himself, which I have known him to do frequently, is my boy, Biondello."
At the sound of his father though, the Nymphs face had fallen. The look of serenity had faded, and now her lips had drawn tight, and her eyes had glazed over.
"Oh". She said her voice now hard, with a slight hint of anger in it. "So what brings you to this area then? It seems a bit above you." And with that, she stormed off.
Both men looked longingly after her. They were both alike, wanting what they can't have, and now they wanted her more than ever. As she swayed off into the distance, they both turned, and sat on the fallen log facing out onto the water surface. A long silence over-took them, until Lucentio drew a breath and began to speak.
"When she was apologising, she said that Tranio had been unnerved. What did she mean by that? He doesn't get disturbed by what people do around him."
"I know. But he was here before I got here, and he was talking to her. He could have found out who she was and didn't want to be part of it. You know how he gets when he's in a room of people higher up then him. Remember the party at the Capulet's house?"
"When you tried to chat up the Capulet's only daughter? How could I forget? Her cousin punched you so hard you could hear the crack of your cheek bone breaking. You weren't able to talk for a month after!" Lucentio mentioned, his face cracking the first real smile he had done in a week.
"Don't remind me! But remember- he was with me until I started to talk to her. It was then that he disappeared with Benvolio! But I wonder where he went today?"