Chapter 3: The Role
Surely enough, the next day, Touya regretfully found his name at the top of the list, next to the name Romeo. He sighed dejectedly as Nakuru squealed next to him, pointing to her name next to the role of Juliet.
"Look, Touya! We're official! WE'RE OFFICIAL!" She cheered.
She makes it sound like we're dating…He thought miserably.
"Congratulations, To-ya!" Yukito said. "Here, the teacher told me to give this to you." He handed him a script.
"Joy…" He returned sarcastically.
"Congratulations on your part too, Akizuki-san," Yukito said to Nakuru. She turned towards him and gave him one of her smiles.
"Thank you for going quietly, Rabbit," She said, patting his shoulder.
"Hum?" Yukito blinked innocently.
"Ah… Akizuki…" Touya began.
"See you this afternoon, TOUYA!" She cried and zoomed off down the hall.
Touya turned and started banging his head (that had been newly bandaged) against another locker.
Yukito looked at him worriedly. "To-ya…" He said sadly.
"Hey, hey! Kinomoto, Tsukishiro!"
"Hm? Ah! Look, To-ya!" Yukito said. "Takashi-san!"
"Takashi---" Touya began.
A young man walked up to the two of them, beaming his usual smile with closed eyes. "How's it going? My little brother says Sakura-chan's doing good," He said. His little brother was, of course, Yamazaki, and his older brother looked exactly like him but taller, and he was wearing a pair of oval-shaped glasses.
"Oh, I see you're sporting a new pair of glasses, Takashi-san," Yukito said cheerfully.
"Yeah! My mom says I can't see anything!" He said, holding his index finger in the air.
"Hm, I wonder why," Touya said, his voice dead-pan as he stared at the boy's tightly closed eyes. "What're you doing here, Takashi-san?"
"Please, call me Yazamaki!" He said. "I came to see if I got a part in the play!"
"How can he see at all?" Touya whispered to Yukito who covered his mouth and disguised his giggle with a cough.
"Yay!" Yazamaki said. "I'm playing the part of Mercutio!"
"Good for you, Yazamaki-kun!" Yukito said. "Well, we'd all better get to class, hm?"
"Yup, that's true. See you later then, guys!" He said, turning and walking off down the hall.
"Come on, To-ya," Yukito said.
"Right…" He said, glancing back at the list in a last hope to see if his name had been on the role under Romeo. Alas, it was in the right spot… "Man…" He said glumly. "I can't believe this…"
-
Class seemed to speed up into rushed gulps and slow down into unbearable slow motion as the day went on, and as lunch finally arrived, Touya was almost ready to scream.
A deep peace began to wash over him as he sat at his lunch table, just absorbing the other conversations that drew his attention away from what had happened.
"To-ya, you look frazzled," Yukito said, setting down his large bag lunch.
"This play thing is driving me insane…" Touya said as his peacefulness cracked and shattered all over the inside of his head.
"You haven't even started practicing… You just got your part today, To-ya…" Yukito said worriedly.
"Mmph…" He said, laying his head down on the table. "It's not the script that bothers me… It's my opposite…"
"Akizuki-san?" Yukito asked. "Why?"
"Why not?" Touya responded dryly.
"Do you want some of my sandwich?"
"No…"
Yukito left the sandwich for him anyways and opened a bento box, removing an onigiri and nibbling on it delightedly. "I really don't understand what the big problem is. Akizuki-san is fun, unpredictable, cute, sweet-"
"The unpredictable part scares me… also, her idea of fun might not be the same as mine, you know…"
"What's the worst she could want, To-ya? She's just a girl."
"By the way she talks about me, I think she wants to eat me…" He mumbled flatly.
"Well, you're probably tastier than I am," Yukito joked, giggling.
Touya turned red and hid his face in his arms. "You're stupid, Yuki."
"I don't believe Nakuru's a cannibal," Yukito laughed. "You don't have anything to worry about."
Touya peeked up at him. "What about the fact that she loves me?"
"So?"
"I don't love her…"
"Hm? Then who is it that you love, To-ya?"
"You know what?" Touya said, grabbing the sandwich. "I think I will eat this after all."
"Mm-Kay," Yukito said, gulping down another onigiri.
The question had made Touya extremely uncomfortable. Why must he be so innocent?
"You know," Yukito said, flipping through Touya's script. "I think you'll do extremely well. You're very talented if you put some work into it."
Touya rolled his eyes. "I'm not that talented."
"Don't be silly," Yukito chuckled. "Not only are you a star actor as of today, but you can also sing quite well and play soccer too!"
"You flatter me, really," He replied flatly. "Yuki, you can do all of that stuff just as good as I can, probably better."
"No way!"
"Yeah, totally," Touya responded, nodding. Of course, he was biased when it came to Yukito. Everything about him was so… how could he put this… perfect? When they first met, that scared him a bit, his perfection at everything (and his quote-on-quote "healthy appetite, but that's another story), but now it had come to be such a natural thing, so completely him. He really liked it. What was even maddening about it was how humble the snow rabbit was about the entire thing.
"I would have tried out, but I get awful stage fright if I have a lot of lines," Yukito explained. "Ah, the classic balcony scene!"
"I prefer Mercutio's role in it myself," Yazamaki sang, popping up out of nowhere. "True I talk of dreams which are the children of an idle brain, begot of nothing but vain fantasy, which is as thin a substance as the air, and more inconstant than the wind, who woos even now in the frozen bosom of the north, and, being angered, puffs away from thence, turning his face to the dew-dropping south…"
"Beautifully spoken, Takashi-san," Yukito clapped. "I see you've been studying your role."
"Nah, I can't see a thing," He shrugged. "I guess I need a heavier prescription of glasses."
"Yeah, that's why," Touya added in sarcastically.
"To-ya, do you want me to help you practice?" Yukito asked.
"-and what role would you be taking, pray tell?" He asked.
"Well, most of your lines I believe would be with Juliet, right?"
"Unfortunately," He replied bitterly.
"Goodness, you're acrimonious," Yukito pouted.
"That's some sort of circus show, right?" Yazamaki asked.
"Shoot me…" Touya said, slamming his head down onto the table.
"Now, now, To-ya, how many times am I going to have to tell you to stop doing that? It's really bad for you because you kill brain cells that way, and I wouldn't want you forgetting anything about that math test tomorrow," Yukito blabbered on and on.
"No… seriously… shoot me!" He whined. "Why can't things ever go right?"
"It's a tragedy, my friend," Yazamaki said, referring to the play, completely oblivious to the rest of the conversation.
"I'll say…"
-
"Show me your best, To-ya," Yukito said, sitting across from him in Touya's bedroom.
He sighed dejectedly and began with absolutely no enthusiasm at all, "She speaks. O, speak again, bright angel. For thou art as glorious to this night being over my head-- Yuki, I can't do this!"
"You're not trying!" He scoffed. "Try not to think of your role. Think of something that inspires you, and you can do better. Now, try it again."
He closed his eyes though he knew his inspiration was sitting in front of him, beaming his adorable smile, and he sighed, feeling himself become Romeo. Looking straight into Yukito's eyes, he stood and recited beautifully, "O, speak again, bright angel! For thou art as glorious to this night being o'er my head as is a winged messenger of heaven unto the white-upturned wondering eyes of mortals that fall back to gaze on him when he bestrides the lazy-pacing clouds and sails upon the bosom of the air…"
Yuki stood, apparently inspired as well and continued the scene for him, "O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou, Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name; or, if thou wilt not, but be sworn by love, and I'll no longer be a Capulet!"
"Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?"
"'Tis but thy name that is my enemy; Thou art thyself, though not a Montague. What's Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot, nor arm, nor face, nor any other part belonging to a man. O, be some other name! What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet--" He trailed off when the door opened. "Hello, Kinomoto-san."
"What're you two doing?" He asked, beaming his usual smile. "I thought no one was home."
"We be but studying--- Err," Touya smacked himself mentally. "We're studying the script for Romeo and Juliet…"
"To-ya got the lead role," Yukito chimed.
"-and you're his opposite?" Fujitaka laughed.
"No, Akizuki-san is. I'm just helping."
"That's nice of you," Fujitaka nodded, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Do you care to take a brake for a snack? I was given a cake from someone at work today."
"A lady?" Touya asked suggestively, raising his eyebrows.
"Actually, yes," Fujitaka chuckled, blushing. "I believe she might have a thing for me."
The two boys followed him out of the room.
"Unfortunately for me, my co-star is the same way with me," Touya said blandly.
"Who, Yukito?" Fujitaka joked, and he and Yuki both laughed.
Touya blushed. I wish…He said to himself.
(A/N: Not my best work. It's kinda short, very dialogue-ish, but you guys gotta gimme a break, mmkay? I mean, my writing is in a small slump cuz I just finished a story, ne? ;)