Notes: And then there was Shakespeare. Because there are a lot of one-shot AU fics I could write to fit my concept, but I'm trying for ones that haven't been done quite so often. And, anyway, actor!Axel is a pretty awesome idea, even if he is cynical and jaded in this fic.

Disclaimer: Much Ado About Nothing obviously isn't mine. It is, however, one of my favourite comedies and I once played Beatrice in a production composed of selected Shakespearian scenes.

III. Look Pale with Love

"Zexion, this is not what I signed on for." Axel crossed his arms and scowled at his director.

Zexion shrugged diffidently. "No, you signed on to be a lead actor in this company and what this company does, you'll do."

"Working with kids?"

"They aren't kids, Axel, they're high school seniors. Seventeen and eighteen years old. And, anyway, there are only four of them." Zexion frowned at him sharply. "I'll admit, I'm not totally taken with the idea myself, but their senior project is Shakespeare in performance and being part of a production will finish it up so they can graduate."

Axel sighed and looked up at the ceiling like it would impart some sort of wisdom to get him through the trials and tribulations of a month-long project involving teenagers. "Whose idea was it to do historically accurate Shakespeare? I've done it before, but are our high school seniors on board with an all-male cast?"

"It was their proposal, believe it or not." Zexion looked down at the papers attached to his clipboard. "As far as I've gathered, doing it this way will get them extra credit, or something along those lines. And, before you ask, we're the only company in the area that's exclusively Shakespeare. That's why they came to us."

Axel sighed again and raked a hand back through his hair. "So, what, we spend a month working with them on a play and then do a performance? That's the deal?"

Zexion nodded. "That's the deal."

"Fine, whatever, I can handle it." There was no use fighting. Zexion had already decided to go through with his random act of altruism, nothing Axel said at that point would make any difference. "What play are we doing?"

"Much Ado About Nothing." Zexion went back to his clipboard. "You're our Benedick - it's a role you're familiar with - and I've slated Beatrice, Claudio, Borachio and Leonato for the students."

Axel smirked, amused. "You're going to make one of the young men play the lead woman?"

"They're the ones who wanted historical accuracy," Zexion deadpanned.

Axel laughed and shook his head. "Be careful what you wish for."

-

Beatrice ended up going to a blonde kid named Roxas. He was short and somewhat moody, with the bluest eyes Axel had ever seen. At first Axel had his doubts about how well the kid would be able to act - he wasn't the most outgoing and open person he'd come across, and he'd met a lot of people - but when they got into the proper rehearsals, he was pleasantly surprised.

"'I wonder that you will still be talking, Signor Benedick,'" Roxas said mockingly, chin tilted haughtily. "'Nobody marks you.'"

"'What, my dear Lady Disdain!'" Axel exclaimed, eyes widening in mock-surprise. "'Are you yet living?'"

Roxas brought a hand up to rest on his hip, eyes narrowing. "'Is it possible disdain should die while she hath such meet food to feed it as Signor Benedick? Courtesy itself must revert to disdain if you come in her presence.'"

Axel shrugged dismissively. "'Then is courtesy a turncoat. But it is certain I am loved of all ladies, only you excepted.'" He closed the distance between them, leaning close and smiling slyly. "'And I would I could find in my heart that I had not a hard heart, for truly I love none.'"

"'A dear happiness to women!'" Roxas shot back instantly, meeting his gaze and waving an arm expressively. "'They would else have been troubled with a pernicious suitor. I thank God and my cold blood I am of your humor for that. I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me.'"

Axel inclined his head mockingly. "'God keep your ladyship still in that mind! So some gentleman or other shall 'scape a predestinate scratched face.'"

"'Scratching could not make it worse, if 'twere such a face as yours,'" Roxas replied cooly.

Axel drew back, raising his eyebrows. "'Well, you are a rare parrot-teacher.'"

"'A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours.'" Roxas lifted his chin challengingly.

"'I wish my horse had the speed of your tongue, and so good a continuer.'" He shrugged elegantly and turned away to cross the stage to Don Pedro and Leonato. "'But keep your way, i' God's name. I have done.'"

Roxas glared after him. "'You always end with a jade's trick: I know you of old.'"

Zexion chose that moment to cut the rehearsal and Axel and Roxas met each other's gaze briefly from opposite sides of the stage. The chemistry was better than Axel had anticipated - they played off each other well. And there was something there, some spark between them that led to eating lunch together and chatting about everything but Shakespeare in the wings between scenes. Had he not known better, he would have said they were falling for each other.

But the kid was a kid and, besides, Axel didn't believe in such a thing as love.

He'd been telling himself that for so long that there was no way it was anything but true.

-

"You and Roxas seem to be getting on well," Zexion said casually, sitting down next to Axel in the green room, where Axel was drinking a bottle of water and trying to kill a headache. "I'm surprised - you're notoriously difficult to work with."

Axel shrugged one shoulder. "The kid's got some talent. And he doesn't get in my way."

Zexion looked amused. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you liked him."

"Is there something wrong with liking my co-star?" People were always going on about how important it was to have a good team spirit and all that. His solitary nature and single-minded focus had always been his biggest flaw as a member of a company.

"Just be careful, Axel. He's pretty young and you've never been good with people."

Axel looked over at him, caught off-guard. "Are you... seriously suggesting that I'd do something with him? Jesus, Zex, he hasn't even turned eighteen yet."

Zexion shook his head. "I'm not suggesting anything, just mentioning that you aren't exactly a loving person and I don't want to see Roxas get hurt. He's a good kid, he might have a future in theatre if something else doesn't catch his interest. Don't give him the wrong idea."

Axel frowned and finished his water. "You don't have to worry about that. You know I'm not interested in romance, what could I possibly gain by leading on some teenager?"

"It was something I felt should be said," Zexion replied softly. "Just in case."

"Well, now you've said it." Axel tossed the empty bottle in the recycling bin. "If you'll excuse me - I think it's time to get ready for Act Five."

-

"'In brief, since I do purpose to marry, I will think nothing to any purpose that the world can say against it.'" Axel took a few steps forward on the stage, moving a bit more front and centre. "'And therefore never flout at me for what I have said against it; for man is a giddy thing, and this is my conclusion.'" He turned to address Hayner, the kid playing Claudio, pointing at him. "'For thy part, Claudio, I did think to have beaten thee, but in that thou art like to be my kinsman, live unbruised and love my cousin.'"

"And cut!" Zexion called out from the wings, walking out onto the stage. "I think that's enough for today, gentlemen. We've made a lot of progress and you all deserve a break. We run the tech rehearsal tomorrow - please be on time."

Roxas came up to Axel as he walked down the back hall towards the green room. "You're really talented."

Axel smirked. "I've been doing this for awhile now, kid. I know my stuff."

"Well, yeah," Roxas rolled his eyes, "but there's more to it than that. You actually have skill. I mean, look at Hayner - he's learned the lines and he's doing okay, but there's not a lot behind it. It's a nice performance, but it's not fantastic."

"And I'm fantastic?" Axel glanced over at him, arching an eyebrow.

Roxas looked a little bit embarrassed when a moment later he quietly said, "Yeah, you kind of are."

And that... was bad. That was very bad. There were so many reasons why it was bad that Axel couldn't even count them all. Roxas was seventeen, Axel was twenty-five, it was a temporary association, Axel didn't believe in love...

"Ah," he said finally, after an uncomfortable pause during which Roxas' face flushed crimson. "I see."

By then they'd reached the green room and Roxas leapt on the opportunity to flee. "Well," he said quickly, grabbing his backpack off the floor and pointedly not looking at Axel, "anyway, I've got a lot of homework to get done tonight. See you tomorrow!"

And, before Axel could say anything else, he'd rushed off at a pace just slightly more dignified than a run.

Axel could only think of one thing to say and he said it loudly to the empty room.

"Fuck."

-

"'My lord,'" the extra playing the Messenger said politely, "'your brother John is ta'en in flight, and brought with armed men back to Messina.'"

Axel waved a hand and smiled. "'Think not on him till tomorrow: I'll devise thee brave punishments for him. Strike up, pipers!'"

The music started and the ending dance began. Axel's hand slipped lightly into Roxas' and they stared at each other in a way that said loudly without saying anything at all: how much of this is real?

And then the curtain fell and everyone was happy and riding the high of a successful show and the moment was lost, swept away by the tide of enthusiasm. The curtain call was beaming and ecstatic and Axel could safely say that it was the most ridiculously happy series of bows he'd ever been part of. There was a triumph in that moment that Axel hadn't felt since he'd been a theatre major back in his hometown. It was bright and refreshing and he was suddenly sad that the little side project had ended.

It wasn't until he and Roxas were alone in the green room, always the green room, everyone else off getting ready for the cast party, that things finally came to a head between them.

"What is this, Axel?" Roxas asked, voice soft and a little bit strained. "You've... we spent so much time together here, and it was so... I don't even know. I feel like there was more to this than just the characters we were playing. Did you... am I wrong?"

Axel wanted to say no. He wanted to reach out and reassure because, damn it, he'd never clicked with anyone like he had with Roxas. But Roxas was a kid. He had his whole life ahead of him. Axel would just be leading him on, like Zexion had said.

So he shook his head. "I'm not gonna lie to you, Roxas, this has been a pretty awesome month. But... you're only seventeen. You have a lot of growing up to do. You can't just leap into something like this with me."

Roxas looked almost like he'd been slapped. "T-that's it, then? I'm just a kid, so we're not even going to try?"

Axel nodded slowly. "Yeah, that's it. It has to be it, Roxas, because the circumstances are all sorts of wrong and there's nothing else to do."

"What if it feels right, though?" Those blue-blue eyes pled with Axel to capitulate, to change his mind and come around. And he wanted to, he really did, but the sense of wrongness won out. Apparently, his conscience was alive and well, after all.

"It doesn't matter. It's not the right time." He rolled his neck, trying to relieve some of the tension he could feel building there. "Go out and experience the world. You have a lot of talent, you could take up theatre, or whatever else catches your interest. But you've gotta live a little, Roxas - figure out who you are before trying to get hung up on someone else."

Roxas worried at his lower lip. "What about after? Will we have a chance then?"

There wouldn't be a then. Axel knew it. Roxas would move on, go to college, and forget. But one little lie couldn't hurt, not if it would make the parting a little gentler.

"Sure thing. If you come back, we'll give it a shot."

And he smiled, even though he was pretty sure he could feel the heart he'd told himself he didn't have breaking.

-

Axel was sitting in front of the mirror, head resting on the back of his hands, when the door opened and shut behind him. He heard someone lean back against the frame silently, and waited for whoever it was to speak.

"'I shall see thee, ere I die, look pale with love.'"

He sat up then, looking at Zexion, reflected in the mirror and watching him with something like wonder. He shook his head.

"'With anger, with sickness, or with hunger, my lord.'" He smiled sadly. "'Not with love.'"

He turned his attention away from Zexion's reflection to look at himself in the glass, took in how pale he was beneath the stage makeup, and murmured, more to himself than to his director, "'For man is a giddy thing, and this is my conclusion.'"