Much Ado About Nothing
by: Paio Ichiris Jin
The ninth story in a collection of random "for-fun!" stories.
In other words, this is Shakespeare continued.
It had been a week into the preparations for the Romeo and Juliet play the A Team were showing for the cultural convention. News had spread quickly through the school that the main characters would be played by none other than the most powerful man in the school and the most timid and pathetic boy in the school. It would be an awesome play. Hell yeah.
Tsuna sighed for the thousandth time in the week, helping the set people paint one of the wooden boards. The short boy was decked in old clothes, splatters of paint all over his body from tripping over paint cans and accidentally stepping into trays of paint. A brush of blue had wiped across his cheek earlier when he wasn't looking, as he had been trying with all his might to finish off his work. To say he was looking colorful today would be an understatement.
Yamamoto and Gokudera watched their friend from the side, smiling in amusement as the boy's eyebrows furrowed cutely while he concentrated on painting a particular spot. His hand slipped and Tsuna sighed once again, slapping his forehead with his palm, sending paint splattering across his hair and onto a girl's skirt halfway across the room.
Yamamoto chuckled and slung an arm around Tsuna comfortingly. "If you sigh too much, all your happiness is going to fly away."
Gokudera grinned and helped paint the part Tsuna was having difficulty with. "Don't worry about it, Jyuudaime! I'll take care of it!"
Tsuna turned to stare at the silver haired boy with large eyes. "But... if you take over the painting... what am I supposed to do? I keep screwing up everything else!"
In fact, other than the props team (because they had already finished their work and were now helping the set people), he had been sent from team to team, every time leaving with horrific experiences and results that were less than crappy.
They first put him on paintwork, thinking no one could possibly screw up painting a wooden board black. But somehow--just somehow--he had managed to get his entire body drenched in black paint, the other boards--that had already been painted with delicate designs--soaked in black paint, other people surrounding him in black paint, all of the ground in approximately a four foot radius with black paint, and to top it all off, the board he was supposed to paint black had his face print, smack-dab in the middle of it.
They kicked him off the team and pushed him into the hands of construction work, thinking that little Tsuna couldn't possibly screw up in cutting up paper when there were lines to guide him along. But he proved them all wrong once again. When they came back to check on him, he had accidentally cut through a prop tapestry and he had apparently tripped over something, causing his foot to tear through all the papers, ripping them to shreds.
They hastily shoved him to another team. The costume team. At first, it wasn't so bad. He could do some sewing, albeit he punctured his fingers from time to time. But then, disaster struck. The next thing he knew, he had sewn the arms of a costume together. And when he had tried to cut them apart, he ended up ripping the costume in half. Romeo's costume in half.
They turned him away and hastily tossed him into the make-up team, thinking that maybe, maybe he could still be of some use. But of course, that was not the case. As he practiced on applying make-up upon another person, his hands shook so hard not only did he draw strange squiggly lines around the girl's face, he also managed to poke the girl in the eye.
Which had resulted in his immediate rejection from the make-up crew forever and ever. They would've made him do the lights if not for the fact he was Juliet.
So, now... without anything else to do, the set crew had reluctantly accepted him back in, telling Yamamoto and Gokudera to keep their eyes on him, which they gladly complied.
Yamamoto plucked the paintbrush from Tsuna's hand and helped Gokudera paint the wooden board. He sent a grin to the brown haired boy (or multi-color haired boy now) and suggested, "Why don't you practice your lines then?"
Tsuna frowned thoughtfully. "Really...? Should I practice them here...?"
"Yeah!" Gokudera whipped around, smacking Yamamoto in the face with his paintbrush. "Rehearse in front of us, Jyuudaime! It'll help you get over your nerves!"
Yamamoto spluttered as the blue paint got into his nose and mouth and he hastily wiped away the paint with his clean sleeve. Thankfully, he was wearing old clothes, too.
Tsuna glanced at the classmates standing a few feet away, painting their own parts. Would it really be okay to practice here... in front of all these people...? He gulped and nodded once. "Well... it is a good chance to practice... umm..." He pulled out a rolled up script from his pocket and he flipped to one of the scenes. "I haven't memorized this part yet... but the part before I think I know. Should I recite that one to you guys?"
"Yeah!"
"Sure!"
Tsuna smiled sheepishly and then rolled up the script again, tucking it back in his back pocket. "Okay... here I go...! Ah wait, I'll need someone to play Romeo since Hibari-san isn't here. Erm... what parts are you two playing?"
Yamamoto and Gokudera smirked and shrugged their shoulders as if they were twins. "Nope, Tsuna. You're not gonna know who we are so easily." Yamamoto chuckled and Gokudera grinned. A bead of sweat ran down Tsuna's head. They still weren't going to tell him?!
The boy sighed and shook his head. "Well, I'll need someone to be Romeo for now."
"I'll do it!" Gokudera said eagerly, "As right-hand man, of course I'm the one who's most worthy to help you practice as Romeo! Which part are we practicing?" Tsuna pulled out the script and passed it to the silver haired boy, pointing at the text. "Okay, I got it, Jyuudaime! Just count on me!"
The girls in the room gasped and their ears seemed to visibly enlarge, trying to hear Gokudera recite Romeo's lines.
"If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this:
My lips... two b-blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth? That rough touch... with a t-tender k-k-kiss...?!"
Gokudera paused, staring at the text with wide eyes. The girls swooned despite Gokudera's less than perfect recitation. Yamamoto peered over Gokudera's shoulder, blushing slightly after realizing what a romantic scene they would be performing.
And then, the people in the room blinked in surprise as Tsuna's soft and warm, yet faintly flirtatious voice reached their ears.
"Good pilgrim... you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrim's hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmer's kiss..."
Yamamoto blushed and nudged Gokudera to continue reading. The silver haired teen glared at the baseball player but started yet again, after licking his lips over twice.
"Umm... Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?"
"Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer." Tsuna followed after gently and let his gaze fall shyly down to the ground.
"Ohhh..." Gokudera trailed off, eyes flicking down the text quickly, trying to read what he would be saying before actually saying it. "Erm... um... then... dear saint, let lips do what hands do. They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair...?"
Tsuna smiled and continued with his line smoothly, "Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake."
Gokudera's eyes flashed across the rest of the words and Yamamoto brought a hand up to his mouth to hide the silly smile spreading across his face from reading the suggestive and romantic metaphors the two boys were currently reciting.
"T-Then move not, while my prayer's effect I t-t-take.
Thus from my lips... by y-y-y-yours...?! My sin... is purged..."
The silver haired teen turned his head around, staring at Yamamoto wide eyed. The tall baseball player noticed and stared at Gokudera curiously and the silver haired teen mouthed something that looked like, 'Are Romeo and Juliet supposed to kiss now?!' while his face burned up in a bright red. Yamamoto was about to answer when Tsuna's sweet voice pierced his mind, numbing all words about to spill from his mouth.
"Then have my lips the sin that they have took." And the people in the room watched in fascination as Tsuna's eyes fluttered closed like an innocent little girl's.
"Holy crap! Dame-Tsuna is perfect as Juliet!" A girl whispered to another girl sitting down, who had abandoned her set work to scribble drawings down in manga-style upon sheets of paper at a rapid rate.
"Awww, he's so cuuuute!" A few girls cooed from the side, already forgetting that the same cute little boy had previously dunked them all in black paint.
Gokudera's eyes darted from Tsuna's face to the page to Tsuna's face again, torn by what he should do now. He growled in annoyance when he realized that he was failing Jyuudaime in helping him practice. The silver haired teen nodded and carried on hastily.
"Sin from thy lips?! O trespass sweetly urged!
Give me my sin again!"
He stared at Tsuna happily, glad that he had finished with the next line and he waited for Tsuna's reply. But Tsuna hadn't moved from his previous position, eyes still closed and soft lips parted open slightly. Gokudera glanced at Yamamoto again and then at the other classmates, who were now all grouping around and staring owlishly at the trio.
"Erm... what?" Gokudera muttered slowly, wondering why all the supposed set people--who should've be working on set--had suddenly crowded around.
"Kiss him, god damnit!" A boy cried, throwing his hands up in the air.
"Wh-Wh-Whaa?!" Gokudera stuttered, cheeks flushing brightly. "I'm supposed to kiss him now?!"
"You just demanded Juliet to give you another kiss, you dimwit!" A girl cried in frustration.
Gokudera trembled and glanced left and right before staring at his boss, kneeling before him innocently. "Erm... then I guess... since Jyuudaime is allowing it..." He gulped and licked his lips once, before wiping his mouth clean quickly with the back of his hand. The students gathered around, eyes wide in awe. Yamamoto watched on, hiding his blushing face behind his hands. And then, Gokudera leaned forward slowly, making sure that he would be planting his lips directly upon Tsuna's.
But Tsuna's eyes suddenly snapped open and he pulled back, smiling sheepishly. "Ahh... sorry. I forgot my line after that... can I have the script?" He blinked curiously at all the blushing faces staring back down at him expectantly. "Huh? What happened to everyone?"
"NOOOO!" A boy screamed and clutched his head, banging it against the wall repeatedly.
"STUPID SAWADA! YOU RUINED IT!" Another boy sank to his knees, pounding the floor with both of his fists.
The girls wailed miserably, babbling incoherently while holding each other to keep from falling to the floor and bawling their eyes out. The girl, who had been drawing manga, sobbed into her arms loudly as she finished drawing the disappointing last scene.
Gokudera froze in place, face ablaze and lips still pursed together weirdly.
Tsuna eyed the people with a frown and put his hands on his hips. "What? What happened to all of you?"
Yamamoto let out a deep sigh and waved a hand in the air to cool his face down. "Tsuna... you're gonna kill us all..."
AN: Haha! Sorry about the OOC!Yamamoto. XD And you might notice that this chapter has a slightly different style and tone than the first chapter. That's because I wrote these two parts a few weeks apart... But hopefully, you enjoyed it all the same?