I land on the ground, stunned, and roll over a couple times. I wind up lying on my back, staring up at Tybalt, who's staring down at me with a thousand emotions flashing across his face in rapid succession. He's clutching a bloody knife. A few drops of my own blood drip off the end and fall on me, as though it were trying to get back inside of me.

Mercutio scrambles over to me. "Ben… Benny… Benvolio, why did you do that?!" he stammers. "Y-you didn't have to! I'm not worth it!"

I stare up at him and wonder why he looks so distraught. And he's crying… not that I was able to tell by looking at him, though because my vision is getting a bit blurry. But I feel his tears land on my cheeks as he bends over me, cradling me in his arms.

At first I'm flattered. But then I manage to concentrate on what he's saying as he holds me- "Benny, no… this can't be happening. I can't lose you!"- and then I understand. He doesn't realize who I am. He thinks I'm his Benvolio- who's still just fine; who's still standing there in the crowd, able to have so many things that this version of me couldn't.

"Mm…" Speaking is difficult, but looking into Mercutio's dazzling eyes gives me the strength to get the necessary words out. "Merc, stop crying. I'm not-" I break off as a coughing fit takes over my body, making it jerk around wildly out of my control. Blood comes out when I cough, and it finally sinks in that I've just been stabbed.

"Stop crying?! How can I stop crying?" Mercutio pushes a few stray strands of hair out of my eyes and it helps me to see the way his beautiful face is contorted. "Th-that's like asking a bird to stop flying, or a fish to stop swimming, or…" He pushes the corners of his face into a weak smile that I can tell is for me rather than for him, as most of his jokes seem to be. "…Or it's like asking your cousin Romeo to stop chasing after girls. It just can't be done."

The sincerity of his words makes me want to start crying too- or maybe it's just the pain in my gut. But I try to sit up straight, although the pain that follows makes me black out for a second and I fall back. Mercutio catches me in his arms and props me upright so I can speak. It's such a simple gesture, but it brings a faint warmth to my cheeks even as more blood spills out of my back.

"Your me isn't this me," I tell him, but he doesn't seem to understand. "I'm the other one," I explain. "The one from the other future… I'm the one who lost you."

"Lost… me…?" A slow realization dawns in Mercutio's eyes. "It's you! You saved me?!"

"It looks like our roles have been reversed this time," I mutter. As soon as the words leave my mouth, another coughing fit overtakes my body. But this time, it doesn't stop. My vision is tinged entirely with red, and all my other senses only seem to be half-working. I can't control my spasming limbs, and more blood is coming out through both my skin and my mouth.

For a second, the spasming stops, and I regain control of my body. But I know it won't last. I can feel myself draining away. I search the crowd, which has gathered around more closely to watch me, for the other me. I find him hanging back, frozen in place, and I can't help but feel sorry for him. I may have had to watch the boy I love die in my timeline, but at least I never had to watch myself die. Still, I don't want him to be standing back there. So, with the energy I've got left, I make eye contact with the other me and beckon him over.

He doesn't move. He doesn't want to. I see it in his eyes- my own eyes, but these ones are focused while mine are having trouble focusing. We make eye contact; he gulps and slowly walks over to me.

Mercutio takes his arms away from me and stands, running up to embrace the other me before he can even make it all the way over. They stand in each other's arms for a moment, this version of me forgotten.

"I would have lost you again," the other me sniffles, burying his face in Mercutio's shirt. "Were it not for my future self, I'd have lost you twice now. And now we're losing him!"

"Oh, Benvolio, I'm so sorry," Mercutio murmurs. "I never meant to put you through so much. I… I never thought I meant that much to you. But seeing that other version of you- what could have happened to you- I never want to put myself in danger again."

The other me whispers something I can't quite make out. They pull apart for a moment, and then lean in closer to each other-

Suddenly, the world around me shimmers, and I get a splitting headache for a split-second. "What's happening to him?!" the other me gasps. "He's… disappearing!"

I don't understand what he means at first. Then I lift my hand up to my face and find that doing so doesn't hurt as much as it should. But that's not the strangest thing; it's far from it, in fact. When I take a closer look at my hand, I see that the edges of my fingertips are dissolving, as if they're being eaten away at by some invisible swarm of insects.

I open my mouth to voice my own bewilderment when the world shimmers again, and suddenly everything looks just a bit different. The town square is empty. The pool of blood I'm lying in is no longer there. I wonder for a moment if I'm already dead until the world changes again and I remember.

The potion! Maybe it did work after all, and it just had a delayed reaction! I struggle to hold on to the image of the other me in Mercutio's arms; try to think of what it is he said, but my surroundings have changed again. Now I don't seem to be anywhere. I'm just floating somewhere between time and space, only able to hope I'll like where I end up.

I close my eyes, praying I'm right about the potion. That hope becomes my last fading thought as the vast expanse of nothingness envelopes me.

Against all odds, I wake up.

Or maybe it's not really me that's waking up. Maybe it's some other version of me, and the version I remember being is dead. That or he never even existed. Or maybe we're all one and the same. Whichever one of these is true, one fact remains: Benvolio Montague wakes up, five years after a tragedy that never occurred thanks to him.

The mattress feels so soft beneath my back that it takes me a moment to realize I'm no longer floating. Instead, I'm lying on my back, staring up at a high, curved ceiling. A chandelier dangles from the ceiling, its crystals catching and reflecting the bright golden rays of sunshine that creep in through the open window.

A breeze blows in through that same window, making me shiver. It's only then that I realize there are no blankets covering me. I roll over to see a wad of blankets, in about the shape of a curled-up figure huddled up under them. A head of dirty blond hair emerges from one end of the blanket pile, and Mercutio rolls over to face me.

"Oh, good, you're finally awake," he mumbles sleepily. "I've gotta say, Ben, you had me worried for a while there."

"What…?"

"Well, you're always up a couple hours before me, right?" Mercutio says, sounding a bit embarrassed. "So, um, I've kind of gotten used to hearing the sounds of you doing stuff in the morning. But this morning I didn't hear any sounds and it kind of threw me off."

I rub some sleep out of my eyes and look around the room. It doesn't take a long look for me to be certain this is not the Montague household. Besides the chandelier, the ceiling is higher, the bed is a lot nicer- it even has a canopy- and on the opposite wall there's a beautiful and ornate bookshelf that goes halfway up the wall.

"Um, Merc, this might sound like kind of a stupid question, but…" I pause, hoping Mercutio won't laugh at me for asking. "Where are we?"

Mercutio blinks; he clearly wasn't expecting that question. Then he chuckles, leans over, and kisses me on the forehead. I definitely wasn't expecting that- especially not with how casually he did it! I turn away so he doesn't see me blushing.

"Why, my good Benvolio, don't you recognize our own bedchamber?" he murmurs. "If not, you must have had more to drink last night than I thought."

I sit up, propping myself up against the lacy canopy. "Last night…?" I echo, rubbing my temples. "What happened last night?"

"Okay, now that's just rude," Mercutio says, pretending to sound angry but obviously just more amused than anything else. "It was very nice of your cousin to come visit us. You can't expect the Montague-Capulets to come rushing up from Mantua every other day to see how we're doing- especially not with the kids and all. Seriously," he adds, giving me a concerned look, "just how much did you have to drink?"

Now it's my turn to give Mercutio a stunned look. There are so many things in his sentence that my brain wants to understand, but can't quite wrap itself around that I finally settle on the one part of it that I can almost understand.

"Romeo came to visit us?"

"Mm-hmm." Now Mercutio's amusement has vanished, and he's staring intently at me, looking worried and confused but also like he's just starting to understand. "Ben, you… don't remember anything, do you?"

I shake my head. "I don't remember any of the things you said," I admit, "Or a lot of what must have come before that, either. The last thing I remember is…"

I trail off. What is the last thing I remember? When I close my eyes, I can swear I remember myself dying, but that can't be right. In fact, now that I think about it, I am starting to remember all the things that happened- all the things that I experienced- wait, why would I have ever forgotten any of these things? I've been living happily with Mercutio ever since we confessed our love for each other five years ago, on the day that the future version of me…

Wait… am I the future version of me? Or am I the one form the past? Or am I both?

"I don't know," I groan out loud, clutching my head.

"Ah, that's right… it's been five years to the day, hasn't it?" Mercutio sighs. "Friar Laurence said something like this might happen when I told him about the way that version of you from the bad future disappeared. But it's been so long, and so many things have happened, that I forgot all about it."

He steps out of bed and walks over to the window, beckoning me to join him. I do, standing beside him and looking out at the fair city of Verona. It looks just like it did the last time I saw it from this window, and the last time, and the last… every morning since I moved in with Mercutio two and a half years ago. But even with all those days behind me, I still feel a bit caught off guard every time I look toward the town square and see no golden statue, although I can't be certain if I ever saw one there at all.

"It's been five years," I whisper, choking back the burning tears that spring up in my eyes. I don't even know why they're there. I have no reason to cry. "And we've been together all that time."

"Well, not all that time," Mercutio corrects me. "We've gotta have some time to ourselves, you know? Like when you go off to teach the schoolboys. I don't tag along with you then, because, well, can you imagine me as a teacher? I'm nowhere near as smart as you. Then again, I must have done something right in order to have such an amazing man in my life."

I smile, giving Mercutio a gentle nudge with my elbow. He grins, nudging me back a bit harder. Then he leans down and kisses me on the nose. It makes me flustered even though it has to be the thousandth time he's done it. Not wanting to be outdone, I stand up on my tiptoes and kiss him back- but I can't quite reach his nose, so the mouth makes an even better substitute. He wraps his arms around me, lifting me up off the ground and twirling me around. When he puts me back down, the tears that had sprung up in my eyes are rolling down my cheeks, and I still don't even know why.

"You're alive," I whisper, although of course he is- why wouldn't he be? "They're all alive."

"Well, that depends who 'they' are," Mercutio jokes. "If 'they' are, say, anybody else's chance at being loved by me as much as you, then you'd be wrong."

"You know what I meant, you handsome idiot," I murmur. Another breeze ruffles the curtains, and I close the window so the room doesn't get too cold. "…I love you," I add, suddenly feeling as if it's vital to say even though we've told each other this countless times before. "I really, really love you, and I'm glad I still have you."

I'm positive that Mercutio will tease me for being so emotional. But instead, he simply puts his hand in mine and smiles at me.

"I love you, too, Benvolio," he tells me. "And you will always have me."

He's right, of course. I always have, and I always will. I take another look around the room- our room. Memories of a world where he isn't here rest in the back of my mind, clouding it with doubt until the look in his shining eyes dispels it. The dreadful world I could have lived in doesn't exist anymore, and it never will again. That future has been redone along with the single day that made it all possible.

Maybe, I think to myself as we head downstairs into the kitchen to make breakfast, I did live in that other future once. But it seems so far away and impossible now that I can't believe it ever really existed. Maybe it was all just a bad dream, and now, five years later, I've finally woken up.

END.

A/N: would you look at that, it's finally done! Now that I'm finished writing it, I feel like an explanation is in order…

I read R&J in my English class this year, and got sucked into the fandom- which I was honestly amazed even exists- pretty quickly. This wasn't even supposed to be a Bencutio fanfiction initially (I was actually planning on turning this into an actual novel when I was older) if you can believe it, but once I realized that there were people out there who shipped the same Shakespeare characters I did- which I really thought for sure I was alone on until I went on the internet- I decided to make it a ~romantic~ story.

So there you have it! Now I can get back to writing about cats in the forest and gross aliens who are secretly in love. Hope you enjoyed!