Oh Loving Hate
*_* A servant...and...wow, I actually was writing something I made up and not just reciting Shakespeare, a revolution, ne? If the wording I use gets really not Shakespearean, sorry, I'm working by not going off the book but from memory. I said there would be something sexual...And there's not. There will be. Eventually. Not making any more promises. *_*
I made my way down the brick path with the lovesick fool, his going on and on about lost love. Does he understand that we al have experienced lost love? My entire life, my point is practically based off of lost love! I was told by my untold love to go find love for someone else! Romeo is on about pain of being rejected while his life is still free fro the grasp of one-sided love. "Tut, man, one fire burns out another's burning!" I said. Mercutio, you are a fire, passionate and lovely, but in all, dangerous to the touch. "Take thou some new infection to thy eye, and the rank poison of the old will die!" And Mercutio was an infection to your eye. After falling in love with him, I cannot see any other person to love.
Romeo stopped in his tracks, and looked down, made a little "hmph" that sounded a tad bit like 'rank?' and then continued to walk in front of me.
I jumped to walk by his side. "Why, Romeo, art thou mad?"
He sighed. "Not mad, but bound more than a mad-man is; shut up in prison, kept without my food, whipped and tormented and—God-den, good fellow." he was cut off from misunderstanding my words by a young servant that came our way. He looked almost our age, and walked around completely confused.
The servant bowed slightly, and asked, "I pray, sir, can you read?" To both of us at the same time. Romeo sent him a little glare for interrupting our conversation, before I could even say I could read. The servant whipped around, to go ask another person.
Romeo, realizing his mistake, ran up to the servant, and said "Stay, fellow, I can read." and brought him back to where I stood. Then, Romeo proceeded to list the names of many nobles in Verona. I buckled slightly when he mentioned Mercutio. Romeo paused for a second after reading Rosaline's name, and I recognized the look on his face as love. We both cringed a little when he said Tybalt. "A fair assembly. Whither do they come?"
The servant merely answered: "Up."
"Whither?" Romeo asked again.
The servant said simply: "To supper, to our house."
"Whose house?" Romeo asked, getting caught up in the stupidity of it all.
"My masters." The servant said with venom.
"I asked you who that was before!" Romeo exclaimed, getting worked up over the servant.
The servant sighed, and finally let out the information. "The rich Capulet, if you be not of the house of Montague, come and crush a cup of wine." He said, shrugged, and walked away.
Romeo attempted following, but to no help. I grabbed his arm, and taunted him with a baby voice. "At this same feast of Capulets sups the fair Rosaline that thou so loves" and them energetically, "go thither and with and with an unattained eye, compare her face with some that I shall show, and I will make thee thing thy swan a crow!" I said, Mercutio was on that list, was he not? He probably wouldn't go...but if he knew that Romeo and I had been 'invited' he would. It would be perfect!
Romeo sighed, obviously not going to argue with me about this anymore. "I'll go along, no such sight to be show, but to rejoice in splendor of mine own."
"So we're going?" I said, making sure. If so, I would bound off with Romeo to Mercutio's house.
"Fine. We'll go." Yes.
I took his arm, this was perfect. We could mess around 'till the hour. Now to find Mercutio. He wouldn't be at his house, he never spends his time there.
So we wandered around Verona, trying to find the man. See, it was easy to find Romeo, he was either locked in his room with all the lights off, moping the sycamore grove, or wooing women in the market square. Where to find me? Well, that's simple, trying to find Mercutio.
"I can't see to find him anywhere." I said, flopping down onto a staircase of the Montague household.
"So then stop looking. We won't go to the Capulet feast, we won't start a fight, we won't get arrested, we won't get killed, and it will all be fine." Romeo said, following suit.
"Oh, you are going to that party tonight, Romeo, whether you like it or not." He was about to speak up and say he didn't like it, but I cut him off before he could speak. "Anyway, would I be the one to start a fight?"
"Tybalt." Romeo said, and gave me a look that I knew meant, 'yeah, you would.' I sighed. I probably would. "It's a Capulet party. If you didn't start one with Tybalt, Mercutio would."
"And you think you can tell the future, what do you thing you are, some type of witch? If you be so, have you come to torment me? Because you've done well, magical wench." I said, looking up into the sky, maybe it was just how cloudy it was, but the sky was beginning to get darker. Which meant we had spent close to...two and a half hours searching for Mercutio. Not like we had anything better to do.
"I can fortell your little plan to make me like someone else won't work." He said grumpily. And threw and apple that he must've gotten when we crossed through the market square to me.
"Oh, and how the hell can you tell that?" I asked, taking a bite of mine.
"So you mentioned, I've got the powers of a nymph." He said with a grimace.
"There you are, Romeo, goddamnit, I've been looking for you all over Verona. You know, it seems like no one ever knows where to find you? Oh, and what was that about you being a nymph? Girly enough to be one." A familiar voice said above us.
"Mercutio, I think it's us who've been looking for you." I said, standing up and brushing myself off.
"Well I suppose that's why it was so fucking hard to find you. Okay, okay. I got a letter to a party. A Capulet one. I mean, why do they think I, Mercutio, would attend one of their idioticlittle feasts. I mean to say, if they are no unintellegint that they cannot notice I'm partial to you, I would've already killed the cat." He said laughing.
"Actually, we were planning on crashing that." I murmured. "But Romeo's not up to it."
"Why not, dreamer? I thought you'd a liked a party, especially after, ah, what's her name...Mary dumped ya last week." Mercutio said, taking the apple from Romeo's hand and eating it. Savor that apple Mercutio. Savor it. And take mine next time.
"Mary? No, that carrion is out of my sights already. I've gained a new love." Romeo said, looking out into the open.
I saw Mercutio give a little down-trodden look. "But-" I said, "But. Apparently she's taken a vow of chastity. So...why don't we take out little idiot to a party, where we can do and have some fun. Maybe he'll meet someone worthy of his love." I spewed out.
"No one but Roseline..."
"Oh, shut your trap about this stupid little harlot for half a second, will ya?" Mercutio said. I marveled at his amazing power to curse in every sentence he said. "So, it's a masked party, so I suppose, ya know, put on a little costume, and the works."
"We need to?" Romeo asked.
"Yeah, or the fucking Prince of Cat's 'll scratch your pretty little eyes out." He said, and then got up threw the apple onto the street, waved on arm in the air and said, "To my house, minions!"
I sighed and followed after him, laying my apple on the street. It was going to be a difficult night. As long as Mercutio was alive and happy, I suppose it's okay.
"My fucking gods and goddesses, you gotta wear this." Mercutio said, holding out a piece of black fabric.
"No."
"No, you don't get it, Rome, you gotta wear this." Mercutio said. "You'd look perfect."
"I told you, no." Romeo said, took the piece of black fabric from Mercutio's hands and threw it at me.
"Fine that, be that way. Benvolio, it wouldn't fit ya, but you can try 'at on if it pleases your peaceful little head." He said, and dived back into his closet. It looked like either Merc had been to a lot of masked balls, or he had serious plans with Romeo when he was finally his. I caught the fabric sorta lop-sided, and looked at it. A full on cat costume. I cracked up.
"It's a masked ball, all you have to do is wear a visage of the night, right?" Romeo said, peering inside the closet. "Or just not go..." He added onto the end in a whisper.
"No, are you a fucking idiot?" Mercutio said. Too important to hear Romeo's last words. "Oh wait, I forgot, you are." He said, laughing, more fabrics from Merc's closet flew and hit Rome in the stomach. Romeo picked it off and learned not to go close to Merc's closet.
Was that really the way you treat your crush?
"We could all dress like damsels. Never notice us then!" Mercutio said. Taking a dress out of his closet. Now I really wished I knew why that was in there.
"Don't be an idiot, Merc." I said. I picked something up off the ground. "Oi. Rome how about this?" I said. It was a pirate costume. I heard a little growl over from the closet. I had forgotten Merc hated me calling Romeo by his nickname.
"That ought to do. Hey, Merc how did you pass that over?" Romeo said, picking up the costume and inspecting it. "Oh, I wore that out a couple of days ago. Must've left it on the ground." I was a bit stunned.
a. If Merc went 'out', where, and could I get in?
b. Why was Merc going 'out' in a pirate suit?
"I got this Grim Reaper one, I've been waiting to wear it." Merc said, and stood back. It was the picture of death, a cape, a scythe, and even a black mask. "Ben, how about you?"
"Oh." I hadn't been thinking about that. "I dunno. You got anything interesting?" I asked, taking a step towards Mercutio's closet, then thinking the better of it, and returning to my spot sitting on his bed.
"Have I got anything interesting? Ben, this entire closet is interesting." He said, laughing. "Have I got anything that will pitch your wasted interest? I must say not..." He said, cracking up.
"Um, Mercutio, how about this." Romeo said, picking something that had been thrown at him during the bustle at Mercutio.
"That actually fits quite well, Rome, great job of doing the unexpected!" Mercutio said, "That said, you're getting back to your old sane self, aren't ya?"
His question went unanswered, as he threw a costume over to me. It was a gladiator outfit, pretty much a roman toga with a tragedy theater mask to go with it. "Nice, planning on going to Olympus?" I asked, spreading it out and getting a good look at it.
"Don't ask, you little prick." Mercutio said jokingly. "Okay, now that we've got that all sorted out, what do you guys say we do now?"
I looked at Romeo, who returned my look. I wanted to go home and take a nap, personally, and Romeo probably wanted to lock himself up in his house, turn off the lights, and write poetry.
"Well, I say we have a little pre-party drink! Who's with me!" Mercutio said, standing up.
I looked at him blankly, and from my peripheral vision saw Romeo doing the same. "We're in a castle, you don't think Uncle Escaclus has a couple of bottles hidden?" He said, stretching. Romeo spotted something on the swordsman's wrist.
"Oi, Mercutio, where did you get that?" He asked forlornly. For once, I agreed with Mercutio entirely about alcohol. We needed Romeo drunk, he was just...not the average Romeo now.
"What? Oh, hadn't even noticed that." He said, pulling his sleeve down. "But, you, Rome, are coming with me." Mercutio said, grabbing Romeo by his collar like a mother cat, and dragging him off. "We'll be off finding my uncle's booze, Ben, do what you do best, and be the responsible one." And he exited dramatically.
I sighed. Mercutio was going to get drunk before a Capulet party, and probably blow our cover. I probably should've been angry because it would start the kind of fight that would make the prince kill us all. But for some reason, I wasn't scared of that. I was smiling, though I couldn't tell why. Mercutio was just being...such himself. And though Romeo was in his state of complete depression, and not himself at all. But this was how we acted, just put into actions. No, this was us. How we always were. I laughed a bit, and hoped I wasn't already drunk of my own thoughts. We were in our prime, and the world seemed to revolve around us. Everything was perfect. But then I thought of how easily it could changed, and frowned. There was immediate danger surrounding each and everyone of us. Whether it be arranged marriage, disease, or death in battle, it was centimeters from us at any and all times. We lived on the edge.
I lay down onto the bed, and laughed. And I supposed living on the edge was what made us so special! What made our friendship so...so awesome.
"Benvolio, what the hell are you doing?" I heard a familiar voice from outside the room. The door flew open, and there stood Mercutio, three bottles in his hands, followed by Romeo holding three glasses.
I forced myself to sit up, ignoring the dizziness from getting up too fast. "We are not drinking that much before a Capulet party." I said, from the bottles in hand arms to the smirk on his face.
"That, Ben, is where you are wrong. We are. It's wine, anyway, pretty good too." He pointed out, and sat, down on the ground. "Get over here, Romeo." He said, and took one of the bottles and poured some one the contents into a glass. Romeo respected what he said, and sat next to him. Mercutio poured a glass of the same drink to Romeo, and gave it to him. "What should we toast to?"
"I dunno," I said, and took the bottle from Mercutio's hand, and poured myself a glass, I saw that the bottle was almost empty. "Romeo's happiness?"
"Hell no." Mercutio said, laughing.
"More drinks?" I offered.
He shook his head again.
"How much life sucks?" Romeo said, shrugging.
"That aught 'ta do." Mercutio said, and lifted is glass up, motioning for us to do so as well. I saw his sleeve slip down, and a bloody somewhat raw ring around it. I wondered how he didn't know how he got that. "To Queen Mab!" He said, completely changing what Romeo said, and then downing his drink. He was a really drinker. I laughed. 'Queen Mab.' Pretty much like saying 'the whore, Candy'. Smooth, Merc. Smooth.
I followed, feeling the alcohol burn the back of my throat. I shut my eyes at the slight pain, and then smiled as I felt it warm in my chest.
Before we knew it half of the third bottle was gone. "Hey, hey..." Mercutio said, trying to get our attention.
"What?" Romeo answered. His face had gone red, and in his intoxicated state, he seemed back to his old self. I'd practically forgotten that he had been all mopey.
"Let's play Lords 'n Ladies." He said, and lifted up the bottle. Lords and Ladies was a game that pretty much involved a group of people drinking from a bottle, and whoever couldn't drink anymore first would have to kiss the one before them. In the original game, they would be so drunk they would have a pretend wedding. I almost cracked up, imagining Mercutio in wedding attire. Life does have its perks...
Romeo shook his head. "That's stupid. There are all 'Lords'." Then he looked around to double check, and repeated his sentence. "There are all men."
"That doesn't stop anything." He said, and looked at me, how had stumbled down from his bed and joined them on the ground. "Besides, Benvolio's as good as a girl, and as good a fighter as one, too."
"Am not." I said, stumbling over my words.
Then, out of nowhere, Mercutio grabbed Romeo's collar, and pulled him into a kiss. From where Benvolio could see, the kiss was very deep, and Romeo played right into Mercutio's arms, and even pulled Mercutio deeper into the kiss by grabbing the back of his neck.
Then I turned away, I couldn't look.
Oh...fuck. I stood up, and left the room. I whispered, "excuse me," but I doubt the two could hear. I ran to the bathroom, I knew where it had been, I'd been in Merc's house many times before, threw the door open, and puked into the toilet.
*_* Something happened...but not to Ben. Damnit. Also, if their nicknames piss you off, sorry, but I subconsciously type them. I really need to make these posts shorter, or else it will take me a very long time to write more...Who to blame? You. I've been reading fanfics all day. *_*