"And if'n I do profane with my unworthy hand-"
"This is not redneck Romeo and Juliet, Mister Dixon," Professor Walsh interrupted, followed by many not-so-quiet giggles from the seats behind him. "Please read the lines as written."
Daryl shot a glare that would kill if it could. It was no secret that he and Walsh didn't get along and the Theater teacher enjoyed pissing him off. He didn't look for opportunities to do it, he actually didn't care enough about Daryl to get him to the point of dropping the class, but certainly took any that came.
Hell, if he didn't need the credit Daryl wouldn't haven even signed up. He just thought it'd be an easy one. And at first he'd just ignored Walsh's heckling, because it was obvious that Walsh recognized him for what he was. A guy looking for an easy out. By the time Daryl realized his professor wasn't going to let him treat it like that, it was already too late in the semester to drop and get into another class. He needed the credit hours to retain his full time student status. He didn't like Daryl for treating the class so casually and he didn't like how much Daryl talked back.
Glenn certainly wasn't going to. Which was how he'd ended up reading the part of Juliet opposite Daryl. He'd made a token protest that was quickly shut down by the professor saying that there weren't enough women in the class for everyone to pair off perfectly. Which was true, but that didn't mean they couldn't have a couple of the women read opposite more than one guy. Daryl was also half-convinced it was done because Walsh wanted to poke him some. Might have thought he'd be upset about having to kiss another man. And he was. A little. More because it wasn't his choice and it would be public. That was just embarrassing. And there was no way Walsh wouldn't insist they do the scene in full and 'push aside their own personal hang-ups' for the sake of the part they were playing.
Daryl's mouth flattened into a tight line and he gripped the script before taking in a deep breath and letting it out. His eyes rose to meet Glenn's, who looked as equally uncomfortable. He attempted to smile at him, a show of solidarity, and was rewarded with a rueful one in return.
"So hey," Glenn said, brightening like a light bulb had just gone off in his head. "Why don't I do Romeo's lines? Juliet's are shorter. I mean, it's only by one, but they are."
Walsh's eyebrows rose as Daryl ducked his head and spared just a quick look. He caught the man's mouth stretch into a grin and had to squeeze his eyes shut because of course the man would go for it. Glenn had given him a perfect opening to make Daryl even more uncomfortable.
"Sure," Walsh's answered, enjoying the idea way too much. "Daryl can be Juliet. Remember, Daryl, Juliet isn't shy, but she is constrained by the social expectations of women of her time. That she cannot be the first to reach out to an unmarried man. Even in privacy, she is cautious, despite her interest and instant attraction to Romeo."
The man turned his attention to Glenn, "And you should keep in mind that Romeo is bold and confident. He's a ladies' man who falls in love at the drop of a hat and is completely infatuated with Juliet, therefore he must have her. But he wants it to be mutual, so he has to convince her to say yes."
He let that settle in for a moment, then clapped his hands, "Action."
"If I profane with my unworthiest hand," Glenn read the line in a nervous monotone and reached out blindly for Daryl's hand. He fumbled with the dead weight of it when he finally found it, but raised it up to hold between them in an obvious manner. So everyone could see that he had it. It was met with more snickering, which made him drop his head as he continued his part. "This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this: My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss."
Daryl hesitated in his answer, busying himself as he raised his script up to look at and buy himself some time. He liked Glenn and he had thought about holding Glenn's hand before. But not like this. This was just bad. It wasn't romantic at all and it was obvious Glenn wasn't into it. Even if Daryl liked to imagine otherwise, he was pretty damn sure Glenn was into that Maggie girl. He'd tried to hide his disappointment when she was paired off with Theodore for the scene, and had been mostly successful. But Daryl had caught it.
Still, the kid's nerves weren't helping his own and the hand holding... Daryl sighed and dropped his shoulders, his head. The hand with the script went down and he knew Walsh about to open his big mouth. He extracted his hand from Glenn's and held up a single finger to hold the man off.
Daryl lifted his head so he could meet Glenn's eyes. He took a deep breath. Let out it. And he smiled.
He smiled like Glenn was his world, the way his momma used to smile at him when she was sober. The smile she had in the pictures of her wedding as she looked at his daddy before things got bad. The smile of someone so in love with someone else that it hurt when her face turned ugly and twisted.
He brought his hand back to Glenn's slowly. Fingers curled loosely inward until his knuckles met the kid's palm. They widened outward, like a flower opening, pushing Glenn's fingers wide and holding them tips to tips.
Glenn's eyes were just as wide and his breathing had hitched. Daryl glanced away, feeling shy at the response. Like he'd just made Glenn think about him the same way the kid had stared at Maggie all semester. He turned his head so his smile could be seen by Walsh and the audience before his hair could fall away from behind his ear and hide it.
"Good pilgrim," he recited, keeping his voice loud enough to hear, but soft all the same. The way he'd talk to a scared animal or lost and wary child. He had to lift his script again so he could read the words exactly as written, "You do wrong your hand too much. Which mannerly devotion shows in this. For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch, and palm to palm..."
He turned his hand so his fingers could thread through Glenn's, pulling their palms against each other, "is holy palmers' kiss."
"H-have," Glenn stammered the first word of his single line, blinking fast and licking his lips. He had to glance at his script again, but he continued to stammer the line, "H-have n-not saints lips? And h-holy palmers, too?"
Daryl nodded slowly, tilting his head toward the shoulder nearest Glenn so he could look over at him through his messy bangs, "Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer." He couldn't hold the gaze, however, not with Glenn looking so flustered. That really hadn't been his intent and he felt embarrassed for finding the appearance more attractive than he rightly should.
Glenn's fingers were still loose between Daryl's and the man shifted from foot to foot, voice getting higher as he rushed through his line, "O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do. They pray. Grant though, lest faith turn to despair."
Daryl tightened his grip, getting Glenn to look at him while he took a step closer, smirking at the fully intentional irony of that action, "Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake."
"Then move not," Glenn gulped again, head down and eyes firmly on the page, "while my prayer's effect I take."
He gulped hard for a third time and Daryl lifted his face to make the kiss as easy on the other man as possible. He even shut his eyes expectantly. Glenn darted in and barely brushed his lips against Daryl's own. His breathing heavier than it should be for someone who didn't want to do what he was doing for the sake of the script. "Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purged."
Daryl tilted his head again and studied the man. He was more used to seeing people, especially guys, react with anger and bottled rage when they really and truly detested having to do anything close to what Glenn and Daryl were doing. And it made him wonder just how much Glenn actually disliked what was going on. Either way, the kid was cute like that.
"Then my lips have sin that they have took," Daryl answered with the right line, but he was no longer acting shy. He was teasing, his mouth twisting into a playful smirk as he tugged on Glenn's hand.
The other man looked up at him out of reflex and instead of fear or anger, all Daryl could see was excitement that he quickly tried to hide by looking back down. He grinned and bit at his lower lip, the tension that edged into his shoulders a completely different kind now that Daryl had broken character with his own line. Like the dam on ridiculousness had finally been broken and he could relax.
"Sin from thy lips?" Glenn asked, lips pursing in an attempt to hide his smile before he gave up and laughed and tossed his arm out wide, "O trespass sweetly urged! Give me my sin again."
It was absurd and Daryl had to join in the laugher that he was finally a part of instead of target of. He tossed his script over his shoulder and yanked Glenn to him with their entwined hands, the other meeting the back of the man's head to pull him into a kiss. Glenn squeaked when he was tugged forward, but met Daryl's lips with good humor. It was big and dramatic. Playful and silly as the rest of the class laughed along with them. Even Walsh was conceding that they'd done okay and clapping with the audience. It was friendly, full of comradery.
Until it wasn't.
Glenn's free hand made its way up Daryl's neck and he untangled their fingers so his other could wrap around Daryl's back and pull him close. Too close. Intimate. Daryl barely noticed that something had changed, that his tongue was somehow meeting Glenn's, until Glenn was pressing into him and he stumbled backwards. There was nothing to catch them and Daryl was forced to break the kiss to keep them from falling.
The auditorium had gone silent and Glenn was panting into him, wide eyes going from pleasant haze to horrified realization. He was the one to push Daryl away while Daryl stood there, feeling like he'd just gone into shock. Walsh was next to him at some point, shaking his shoulder to get his attention. He made out the words of an apology, but Walsh was the last person he wanted near him while he could still feel Glenn's mouth on his. Daryl pushed him away and stumbled off stage.
He ran his hands through his hair and took a deep breath. Tried to focus. He pulled in a shuddering breath and looked around, searching for Glenn in the large theater. The other students had gathered near him in the front row where he stood with his back to the chairs, head down on the stage. A few looks of pity were thrown Daryl's way. And when he started toward the group, Maggie went to intercept him, pleading with him in whispers not to hurt Glenn. That it was just a mistake and he'd just gotten really into the role.
"Like hell it was a mistake!" Daryl shouted at her and he could see the entire room cringe. He stepped into her personal space and to her credit she didn't flinch. But she also didn't make to block him anymore.
"Glenn!" he barked, the other students around him moving away at his angry approach. Glenn straightened but he didn't have a chance to turn around before Daryl's hand was on his shoulder, spinning him so he could grab a handful of his shirt. Daryl let that look of terror sit for all of a heartbeat before he grinned.
"Give me my sin again," he breathed out as husky as he could make it, pulling Glenn back into a kiss that should never have been broken.