Disclaimer: Don't own anything
A/N: This chapter might be able to answer questions from the last chapter.
Benvolio Montague set down his pen with a sigh of satisfaction. He had finally finished his school work for the day.
And not a moment to soon he thought to himself as he saw Mercutio walking up towards the Montague mansion.
Benvolio met him at the door.
"Thought you'd be by soon," he said as Mercutio entered, "God forbid it's almost been a full ten hours since you last dropped by."
Mercutio waved of the comment and sniffed the air, "Is that fresh pastries I smell?"
"The cook just made a fresh batch."
Mercutio licked his lips and rubbed his stomach, "Remind me to stop by the kitchen before I leave."
Both boys began walking up the large staircase.
"So how is he," Mercutio asked.
He was inquiring about his best friend, Benvolio's cousin, Romeo.
"Better I suppose."
"Do you think he'll be able to come and play?"
Ever since Romeo had come down with a summer flu Mercutio had been without a decent playmate. He had made up for it by visiting the Montague house at least once a day but he wasn't making a secret of his impatience for Romeo's illness.
"You know Lady Montague; she probably won't let him out of bed until he's sneezed the last of his sneezes."
Mercutio grunted in annoyance and then barged into Romeo's room without knocking.
"Romeo my love! We're together again at last," Mercutio shouted in exaggeration as he jumped up onto Romeo's bed.
The light haired ten year old blinked in surprise, but then smiled when he realized it was just Mercutio.
"Get off my bed. I might get fleas," he teased.
Surprisingly Mercutio complied. He hopped off the bed and bounded over to the window; where he threw open the curtains. All three boys blinked at the sudden brightness.
"Romeo you sound so much better."
"Really? Because I certainly don't feel it," Romeo said in a hoarse voice.
"So better in fact," Mercutio continued, ignoring Romeo's comment, "I think you'll be able to come out and play today!"
He jumped onto the bed once again, "So what do you say? Get out of those bed clothes and come out into the sunshine!"
Romeo shook his head, "Please Mercutio, my head still hurts something awful."
Mercutio threw his head back and groaned loudly.
"I'm going insane! You're sick and Bevolio's got his stupid school work to do-"
"Hey! It's because of you I got behind the work in the first place!"
"-Valentine's visiting our grandmother, Paris is off chasing some girl and there is absolutely no one around to do anything about my boredom!"
He threw himself face down on the bed and faked sobbed.
"There must be somebody," Benvolio said mildly, "What about those servant boys you were hanging around with the other day?"
"Oh them," Mercutio's head popped up, "Well they all looked up to Abram and ever since he got his face smashed all of them are too scared to sneak away from their chores."
"You mean Abram got punched," Romeo asked interestedly
"Yup."
"By who?"
"Tybalt Capulet."
"What," Benvolio's head whipped around.
"How'd that happen," Romeo asked.
"Well let me tell you," Mercutio sat up and his face brightened, like it always did when he was about to tell a story.
Benvolio turned to look out the window but kept listening to Mercutio. Unlike most of his stories this one had the chance to be interesting.
"All of your boring servants and I were walking around your orchards. Minding our own business even though I'll have you know I was terribly bored with some of those simpletons," Benvolio rolled his eyes, "When all of a sudden we see a pretty young dame. We approached her and asked the little thing her name. And it was…."
Mercutio withheld the name for one long moment before saying, "Juliet Capulet."
"A Capulet was in our orchards," Romeo shouted indignantly before he erupted in a sneezing fit.
"That's what I just said wasn't it," Mercutio waited for Romeo to stop sneezing and then continued, "Well the lads couldn't let that go off course and I was so bored we decided to punish her by pushing her in that stream by the road."
"You did what," Benvolio snapped at Mercutio, "How old was this girl?"
"Probably around seven or so."
"You were going to push a seven year old girl into a stream? What sort of vile-"
"She was a Capulet," Mercutio butted in before Benvolio could finish insulting him, "A rude little one at that. She insulted Abram just because he was a servant!"
"Oh, and was the before or after you threatened to push her into the water," Benvolio retorted, "And it's funny you should condemn her for insulting Abram when say exactly the same things."
"Fight about this later," Romeo said, "Tell us about Tybalt punching Abram."
"Yes, yes, on with the story," Mercutio seemed to have forgotten about the argument in a split second, "After she insults Abram and tries running away and all this stuff we finally catch her and start taking her to the stream right? Well then she screams for her cousin Tybalt, and she screams loud let me tell you. It's a wonder I can even hear after that."
"You deserved it," mumbled Benvolio, Mercutio ignored him.
"Then the girl starts crying and some of us start to feel a little bad about what we were going to do, myself included. See Benvolio I'm not completely heartless. But then some boy tries to comfort her and she calls him scum and then we're all for tossing her in the water again."
"Get to the part were Tybalt comes," Romeo said impatiently.
"Abram asks to push her in and I grant permission. He says some corny line about her dress looking good with mud and then we hear a voice say he thinks it looks fine or something. Next thing I see is Tybalt Capulet crunching Abram's nose back into his head."
"Wow," Romeo said amazed.
"Yep. When we were all standing around thinking if we should push her in or not apparently it had given her cousin enough time to sneak up on us."
"Did Abram go down hard?"
"Let's just say he traded places with the Capulet girl."
"Ouch," Romeo winced, "Did Capulet did hurt anyone else?"
"No."
"Why," Benvolio asked, surprised.
"I dunno. He said something about not wanting the girl to see anymore violence or something. Stupid. But then he said that if any of us bothered her again he's do the exact same thing he did to Abram."
Mercutio and Romeo went on discussing Abram's nose and how hard Tybalt must've hit him while Benvolio stared out the window, contemplating.
"You say you guys were in the orchard by the stream," Benvolio spoke up suddenly.
"Yeah…."
"Even if she did scream as loud as you said he did there's no way he would've been able to hear her if he was off our land," Benvolio muttered to himself, "That means he would've had to be in the orchard already."
"Your point?"
"If I'm right he was probably looking for his cousin. So he had risked going on Montague land just to look for her."
Romeo and Mercutio glanced at each other, puzzled.
"Yeah, and?"
Benvolio shrugged, "I don't know. It just seems like he was being…brave I guess."
"Hey you're not supposed to compliment the Capulets!"
"I'm not complimenting him."
"You said he was brave," Romeo pointed a finger at him accusingly.
"Well don't you think he is?"
Benvolio turned and looked at Romeo, who just looked back confused.
"Romeo are you telling me you wouldn't be scared to go on Capulet territory all by yourself?"
"Oh," his eyes widened, "Yeah, I guess I would."
"That's what I thought," Benvolio looked back out the window.
An awkward silence hung in the air for a moment.
"Well it doesn't matter if he's brave or not," Mercutio broke through the silence, "Because we have bigger things to plan."
"Like what?"
"Like how to make sure that Capulet girl gets what she deserves!"
Benvolio turned once again to glare, "What are you talking about?"
"She missed her punishment which was bad enough. But now that her cousins threatened us we definitely have to get her."
"Mercutio, I'm not sure about this…" Romeo said uneasily.
"He's right," Benvolio said heatedly, "Why are you intentionally going to go after a little girl. Just to satisfy your own boredom?"
"Well…yes," he admitted, "But you Montague's should want to do this too. I mean, Capulets were invading your land. Shouldn't the girl get the punishment?"
Benvolio shook his head, now he was truly angry.
"You can't be serious."
"Why?"
"Mercutio I don't want you to ruin the Montague name anymore."
"Hey," he began to protest.
"No, I don't want to hear it. How do you think we look to the Capulets? They're going to think we're savages after hearing about you attacking the girl."
"I didn't attack her-"
"And if the rest of the town here's this they're going to think the same thing."
"Well, uh," Mercutio tried to find an excuse for this but found none.
Benvolio sighed, and he calmed slightly, "Just stay away from the Capulet girl. Okay?"
With that he swiftly walked out the room and shut the door behind him.
Romeo looked at Mercutio, "What was that all about."
Mercutio looked over at Romeo, hurt slightly evident on his face.
"Do you think I ruin your family name?"
"Nah," Romeo shrugged, "Benvolio's just angry he has to stay inside and catch up on all that schoolwork."
"Yeah, you're probably right."
In a moment they forgot about it and went about discussing other things. All the while unaware that Benvolio was sitting outside, brooding.
He stared off into the orchards. For some reason he couldn't get over the fact Tybalt must've been on Montague lands alone. What kind of insane idea was that? Yet at the same time he was doing it to come and find his cousin, who he ended up rescuing.
Benvolio thought of Romeo, would he do the same for him? Yes, he would. He had always been protective of him and if he thought Romeo was in danger he would most certainly do his best to help him.
Yet at the same time he still wondered if he'd be able to get the courage to go onto Capulet lands all alone and face a group of boys.
"Brave," Benvolio muttered again to himself.
A/N: This chapter was a lot longer than I expected it to be but oh well. Benvolio and Tybalt will meet next chapter. Thanks to my reviewers, Pargoletta and blue22434. You two made my day. I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter and will read the next one.
Love you guys, Nicole
P.S. Please review!