A Midsummer Night's Dream
By Princess MacEaver
Disclaimer: This fic is based upon the play by William Shakespeare, and I credit to him the plot and certain lines. All characters from the movie belong to Disney, and everyone else belongs to themselves or me.
Act 1, scene i
Bittah stood on the roof, looking out over the borough of Brooklyn, her hands deftly stripping thorns from the rose stems spread on the ledge before her. Her mind was not on her work, but it would be impossible to guess what she was thinking of: the city spread before her, her upcoming wedding, or maybe nothing at all. So lost was she in her reverie that she did not notice her fiancé's presence until he grabbed her from behind, clamping his hand over her eyes.
"Spot!" she yelled, trying to pry his hand off her eyes, but she was laughing.
"I'm not Spot," he replied, deepening his voice and speaking with a strange accent, a wild cross between Transylvanian and Brooklynese. "I'se Dracula, and I vant to suck yer bloo-ood!" He fastened his mouth on her neck and she squealed and laughed with delight, but when his free hand began exploring her front she wriggled out of his grasp and spun to face him. She shoved her short blond hair back on her forehead and tried to keep a grin from sneaking onto her face.
"Can't ya wait just four days?" she asked him, catching his hands when he reached for her again.
"Four days is forevah!" he moaned, pulling her to him as he sat on the ledge. She let him pull her into his lap, winding her arms around his neck.
"Don't worry, Spot," she said, kissing his forehead affectionately. "Four days'll just fly by, we'se keepin' so busy gettin' ready an' all!"
He scooped up the now thornless rose stems and she slid off his lap so he could stand up. "I should go take dese to Mush an' da goils. Den I'll ask 'im if 'e can keep from assignin' ya any more chores, so da bride an' groom might have a little quality time." He grinned broadly at his bride.
"I still don't see why ya let Mush take charge of da weddin' plans," Bittah mused. "I like da boy, but I get da feelin' he's gonna bungle somethin' up."
"Aw, it's da least I could do. Good for his ego, don't ya think? Hey look, speak a da devil." He spoke just as Mush came stomping up the stairs to the roof, followed closely by his girl Athena, Bittah's friend who was also helping with the arrangements.
"Hi Spot, Bittah," Mush said breathlessly. "We'se gotta get dese flowers arranged now, an' also, you'se got some visitors."
"Who's heah?" Spot asked.
"From Manhattan," Athena spoke up. "It's Princess, an' her brotha William, plus Jack an' Skittery."
"Dey've come heah to fight it out in my territory, huh?" Spot observed, having heard the rumors that Jack and Skittery were butting heads over rights to Princess. Princess was currently a Manhattan girl, but she'd spent several years in Brooklyn in her pre-newsie days, in the same tenement building as Spot, in fact. Her brother, who made motion pictures in Chicago, had come to the city for Spot's wedding and somehow involved himself in the mess.
"Why don'tcha show 'em up 'ere?" he said, and Athena and Mush left to deliver the message.
Bittah also knew the circumstances of Princess's visit and quietly sat down to watch with great interest how Spot would handle the situation. She knew—and was pretty sure Spot did too—that Skittery and Princess had been making eyes at each other for at least a year before finally becoming an official couple. Now, months into their relationship, Jack had dumped Sarah and tried to stake a claim on Princess as well. "Stake a claim!" Princess had hissed to Bittah late one night in the bunk room. "Like he can just point and snap and I'm supposed to come running?" But Jack had persisted, and Bittah knew that Princess felt further conflicted because she had once liked Jack, but had put all those feelings aside when she and Skittery had discovered each other. To make matters worse, Princess's best friend Autumn had been pining for Jack for such a long time, and when he dumped Sarah only to pursue Princess, Autumn's heart had been broken. Bittah might not have shown her romantic side to most people, but she dreamed of a world where Princess and Skittery, and Autumn and Jack, might have been as happy together as she was with Spot.
The unhappy company trooped up onto the roof, Jack striding at the front, followed by Princess's brother William, then Princess hanging back to be near a morose-looking Skittery. They seated themselves in front of Spot, and Princess looked positively trapped to find herself between Jack and Skittery.
Before sitting, William greeted Spot, whom he hadn't seen for years. He was a short, broad man of twenty-three, who, along with his sister and younger brother, had been second family to Spot years ago. The two hugged and slapped each other's backs, but the air to the meeting was one of business.
"How goes it?" Spot asked.
"I come with a complaint," Will said. "When I left New York four years ago, you gave me your promise to watch out for my sister as if she were your own. I come here to find her consorting with this—this lowlife—!" he alleged, pointing an accusing finger at Skittery. Skittery gritted his teeth and a muscle in his cheek twitched, but he dropped his elbows onto his thighs and let his head hang down. Will wasn't through. "Who's bought her love with flowers and candy and trinkets and, and poetry…!" He turned to accuse Skittery directly. "Turned her obedience, which is due to me, and to Spot, and to her leader—," now pointing at Jack, "to stubbornness!"
"Oh, please!" Princess protested, looking disgusted, but there was a note of sadness in her voice.
Will kept on rolling, ignoring the interruption. "So I come to you to ask that you side with me in my decision to give her this ultimatum: either she's Jack's girl, or I'm taking her back to Chicago with me."
This threat obviously wasn't new to Princess or Skittery, but they both looked pained to hear it again. Spot didn't know what to make of this. It seemed to him unfair to take Princess from New York just for preferring one guy over another, even if the 'another' was the Manhattan leader. But he had promised William he'd be responsible for her, and part of the blame belonged with him. He thought it best to ask for Princess's opinion, as she was beginning to look madder and madder to hear herself talked about instead of to.
"Whattya say, Princess? You'se gotta listen to your brother, you know. Jack's not bad—"
"Neither is Skittery," she countered stubbornly. Skittery glanced up at her and managed a feeble smile.
"Not bad in your eyes," Spot explained, "but da issue is how he looks in your brother's eyes."
"I wish you could see him how I do!" Princess yelled at her brother. "What do you care anyway—I haven't seen you for a year and you suddenly want to run everything?" She started crying, and shook her head, dropping her head in her hands. "I'm sorry, Spot, I don't mean to get all emotional again. I'm just so sick of this!" Spot handed her a handkerchief, with which she wiped her face roughly. Skittery surely would have given her his, but he seemed afraid to touch her or even look at her. Jack had offered his first, but she had ignored his gesture and left him holding it suspended in the air.
"Tell me, Spot," Princess said, when she had composed herself a little. "Can he really take me from the city for this? What's the worst he can do?"
Spot sighed and looked to his silent fiancée. He had a feeling that his response would affect another relationship besides Princess and Skittery's. "Dat, yeah… or you could just leave da Manhattan lodgin' house, quit sellin' papes."
"Move out of the lodging house!" Princess jumped to her feet. "Where would I live, on the streets? Or worse yet, an orphanage? They're gonna cart me off to live with the nuns!" She began to cry again, dropping back to her chair and mashing the handkerchief to her face. Jack ventured a hand onto her shoulder, at which she spat, "But rather that than consent to be Jack's girl." There was such venom in her voice he withdrew his hand immediately, his eyebrows raising in his usual surprise to see Princess's formerly fond manner toward him turn so quickly to outright hatred.
"I tell yas what," Spot said. "Take a few days ta think about it, Princess. Den in four days, when I marry Bittah, you'll tell me your choice: you from da lodgin' house, or Jack as your man."
"Come on, Princess," Jack said. "And you too, Skitts. Why don'tcha just give up da fight?"
All persons present who had ever been in love looked at Jack with disbelief and outrage on their faces.
"Nevah," Skittery said, raising his head as he spoke for the first time. "You have her brothah's love, let me 'ave hers. Or is it him you want?"
Jack leapt from his seat at this insult and the two would have surely come to blows had not Will pushed Skittery back.
"I don't get you," Skittery said, stepping backwards as Will kept his hand on his chest. "I may not be da Manhattan leadah, but I'se from da same background as Jack…I earn as much as 'e does anyday. I'se nevah even been in jail, an' he has! We'se even in all areas, except dat Princess—whose opinion might count fer something—prefers me! You'se got no reason ta think I'se inferior ta Jack—Jack, who strings along Sarah Jacobs an' den drops her cold, den strikes up flirtations wit every girl of da lodgin' house. He messed wit Autumn's heart, an' won it easy, an' now she positively dotes on dis so-called man." He spat in Jack's direction, and when the two lunged at each other again it was Spot who broke them apart.
"I 'ave heard dis of you, Jack," he conceded. "You an' me an William, we'll go tawlk togedda. Princess, you try an' think of your brother an' how ta make him happy, or it's eitha you from da lodgin' house or a move to Chicago. Come on, Bittah, let's head downstaihs."
Princess began to cry again when all but Skittery had disappeared into the lodging house. He was tense and upset from his near-confrontations with Jack, so upset he was literally hopping mad, unable to stand still as he probably envisioned the fight that could have been, pacing and taking half-jabs at the air. But when he noticed Princess's tears, he stopped and shook his head and dropped to crouch beside her chair.
"Cheer up, Princess," he said, taking her face in his hands. "Now look, why are your cheeks so pale?" He wiped away her tears with his thumb, speaking softly to calm her. "How did da roses there fade so fast?"
"For lack of rain," Princess replied miserably, "so I try to water them with the floods from my eyes." The feeble joke made her wail harder, and she clung to Skittery tight. He let her cry against him until she stopped choking on her tears.
"Bettah now?"
"A little," she mumbled, wiping at her eyes.
Skittery stood and offered his hand as she stood. He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. "Don't worry. You know what dey say, 'da course of true love nevah did run smooth.'"
Princess's heart beat faster at these words—true love. Is that what they had? They weren't an expressive couple, didn't ever need to be, never exchanged mushy words or vows of love, just delighted in being near each other. Until this mess with Jack, they'd never verbalized just how much they meant to each other. In some ways, the ordeal was bringing them closer together—just as it tore them apart. Princess circled her arms around Skittery's narrow waist and rested her head on his chest. "I love you, Skit," she said impulsively.
"I love you too," he said, holding her close.
She exhaled and looked up into his eyes. "Are we gonna let 'em do dis to us?"
"A course not, pumpkin," he said, using a silly pet name to see a smile brighten her tearstained face. He kissed her hairline. "We'll do something. We'll run away togetha."
"Run away together!?" Princess sounded shocked, but her widened eyes were already sparkling at the prospect.
"Wouldn't you want to?" he asked, grabbing her shoulders. "Say you would, Princess."
"Oh Skittery—" Princess said breathlessly. "I—I think we should."
They kissed fast and excitedly, their heartbeats accelerating and hands beginning to shake.
"I have an aunt," Skittery said, breaking off the kiss. "She lives just cross da way, in Jersey. If we'se in Jersey, Spot can't touch us, not your brother or Jack or nobody. We could stay wit my aunt, just long enough to get a start… Den we could go anyplace, anyplace at all!" He tickled her and grabbed her up in a swinging hug. When he set her feet on the ground again, they held each other close and kissed long and deep.
Some time later, Autumn approached on the stairs, caught sight of the pair, and coughed discreetly to announce her presence. Princess and Skittery quickly disengaged from each other, but clasped hands behind their backs. Autumn was surprised to find her friends looking flushed and excited, because she knew the recent meeting had been an unhappy one.
"Hello, lovely!" Princess said with a sparkling smile, greeting her best friend with a kiss on the cheek.
Autumn did not return the kiss, but crossed to a chair and sat down heavily. "Don't call me lovely," she said dolefully. "Jack finds you lovely." She heaved a sigh. "Your sea-green eyes, your golden hair," she said, gesturing at Princess though she gazed off at nothing. She plopped her chin in her hand. "Oh, lovely, lovely Princess. Teach me ta look like you." She looked up at Princess with sad blue eyes, her dark eyebrows drawing together in despair, a plaintive wrinkle on her fair brow.
Princess and Skittery exchanged a knowing and sympathetic look and Princess sat on the arm of Autumn's chair. "I'm sorry, Autumn," she said sincerely. "You know I discourage him."
"I wish my encouragement woiked half so good," Autumn said.
Princess rubbed her friend's shoulder consolingly. "I tell you what, Auty," she said, looking to Skittery. "You won't have to worry about Jack and me anymore because Skitts and I—we're leaving."
"Leaving!" Autumn repeated, her head snapping up. Her face appeared a mix of delight and sadness because she thought of Princess both as her dear best friend and as 'that shameless whore who stole Jack's heart,' though she always amended the latter by adding, 'through no fault of her own.'
"Promise not ta tell anyone," Skittery said. "We'se leavin' tomorra night."
"We'll meet in Central Park—you know that spot we always used to go to talk?" Princess said. "We have to sneak out separately so no one suspects."
"We'd best not see each otha 'til then," Skittery suggested, bending to give Princess a peck on the cheek. "Don't forget," he cautioned.
"Of course not," Princess said, and they watched him leave.
Autumn caught the deliriously happy look on Princess's face and felt a stab of jealousy—or more accurately, she felt jealousy plunge an icy hand into her chest and toss her still-beating heart to the ground. If it had been Princess and Jack she had to see like that, she probably would have crumbled to dust on the spot. Autumn swallowed.
"I'll miss you," she said.
"I'll write," Princess promised, standing and shaking out her skirts. "And you write to me, and tell me how you landed Jack." She gave Autumn a hug and also headed down from the roof.
When she was alone, Autumn stood restlessly and paced around the rooftop. She kicked a flower stem, a dark expression marring her face and her fingers tugging at her long dark braid. She knew it wasn't fair—throughout the city she was thought as attractive as Princess, if not more attractive—Princess had a kind of innocuous fair prettiness, but she was no head-turner. What then, did she have that Autumn didn't? Jack. Autumn fell into a chair with a whump. As she thought bitterly (yet in anticipation) of Skittery and Princess's proposed escape, a plan began hatching in her brain. She could tell Jack of the lovers' plan, just for the joy of watching him pursue them and return, luckless. And for the information, she would have won his gratitude. She knew it was not a thing one friend did to another, but, she rationalized to herself, neither was stealing boyfriends. So for the moment, her attraction to Jack overpowered her obligation to Princess, and she fairly flew from the roof as she ran to find the boy she loved.