A/N Sorry it took me so long, and sorry the story is really long. Hope you guys like it!
Act3
The lights went up as Juliet walked on stage. "Hey folks! Wow that was some second act wasn't it? Let's see what happens to our young lovers next. " She pulled out a script and started to flip through it. "Now let's see where we? Ah here we are. The prince was so angry over the death of Mercutio, and Tybalt that he banished Romeo from the city. Naturally Romeo was a little upset about this so he went to the good friar to try and find a way out of this." She closed her script and walked off stage.
The curtain opens to reveal the friar's cell; Yusuke was rolling around on the floor crying at Kuwabara's feet. "I'm going to die!" Yusuke shouted at the top of his lungs, "I'm going to die!"
"You'll be fine young Romeo!" Kuwabara attempted to stop him from rolling around on the stage, but got and face full of fist when Yusuke swung his arms. "The prince," he continued rubbing the new bruise on his cheek." Hasn't sentenced you to death only exile. You should count your blessings." At this Yusuke stopped rolling he glared up at Kuwabara.
"He should have said death for what is life without my fair Juliet! Heaven lies here in Verona where she lives, and to be banished from this heaven is to be cast into the deepest circle of hell. That is why, good friar, I prey for swift death, not this mercy you call exile." At the end of his rant Yusuke rolled on his side and went into the fetal position. Kuwabara couldn't help but notice the very real tears rolling down Yusuke's face, Kurama had told Kuwabara about what Yusuke had said to him in the dressing room. Kuwabara hated seeing his best friend in such pain. He walked over and knelt beside Yusuke, he placed on hand on his shoulder. Yusuke looked up surprised, this wasn't in the script Kuwabara was suppose to yell at him about what a brat he was being.
"Please don't fret young Romeo it shall all work out it the end." Kuwabara said giving Yusuke's shoulder a comforting squeeze. Right now he wasn't acting as the friar Laurence, he was Kazuma Kuwabara comforting his best friend in his time of need. "You will be with your true love I promise." Yusuke could see that Kuwabara was being serious and it gave him a strange sense of comfort.
"Thank you friar." Yusuke said standing up to leave. "Now if you'll excuse me I have a new bride waiting for me." He turned and gave Kuwabara an appreciative smile and walked off stage.
"May God keep you safe young Romeo" Kuwabara whispered. He couldn't help but feel and ominous cloud hanging over the whole stage. Something bad was going to happen he just whish he was able to stop it. The stage went black and the audience clapped wildly.
Meanwhile Juliet was in the wings jumping up and down like a cheerleader. " Yes! They love us! This play is finally back on track. Now everybody get ready for the wedding night scene. Yusuke! Botan! Get in your places!" Yukina came up and tapped Juliet on the shoulder. "Hm what is it Yukina? We're about to start the next scene."
"Yes um about that . . . we uh we have a small problem." She bowed her head as stuttered slightly.
"What's wrong?"
"Its Botan!" Yukina said gently, "She won't come out of her dressing room." Juliet gave Yukina a confused look.
"What? Why? Doesn't she know her big romantic scene is coming up? We need her out there." Juliet started heading towards Botan's dressing room, Yukina quickly fallowed her. When they got there they saw that Shizuru and Kieko were already standing outside the door. "When did she lock her self in there?" Juliet asked turning to Yukina, but it was Shizuru who answered her.
"After Hiei got shoot in the second act she ran off stage and into her dressing room, I tried to get her to come out but she was too upset. She said it was all her fault that Jin, Hiei, and you got hurt. I tired to tell her that you would all be fine but she refused to come out. That is until Yukina came through telling everyone that you were having trouble breathing. She finally came out and we went down to the green room with everyone else. After you woke up, and well ran out of the room, I went over to check on her. She looked like hell but swore that she was fine, and claimed she had to go get ready for her next scene. I didn't give it a second thought until Kieko came and got me a few minutes ago." She turned and looked at Kieko who took over.
"I was walking past her door to go get some props for Shizuru when I heard her sobbing. I tried to open the door but she locked it from the inside. I called out to her to see if she was ok but she just kept sobbing." Keiko quickly looked down, she couldn't help but feel guilty since this was all because of the plan the girls had come up with. Juliet couldn't help but notice the guilt in her face.
"And you have no idea what could have brought this on?" Shizuru and Kieko just shook their heads. They knew how much this play meant to Juliet, and she would kill them if she found out that they almost ruined it just to try and get even. Juliet just sighed "Ok well we can't do the wedding scene without our Juliet so." She paused and thought for a few moments, she snapped her fingers. "I've got it! Yukina tell everyone that we are skipping the wedding night scene and going right to Paris's marriage proposal."
"Okay." Yukina bowed and ran off to tell the others the change in plan. "As for you two," Juliet turned to Shizuru and Kieko, "I know you, you know exactly what's going on with Botan. So you have until the end of this act to tell me what's going on so we can fix it together." She turned and started to walk away, she turned her head to look at them. "Your not the only ones here who care about Botan, she's my friend too." With that she walked off to help every one get ready. Kieko looked up at Shizuru a small tear forming in her eye.
"We really screwed things up didn't we?" Shizuru pulled her into a hug.
"Yea kid we kind of did, but don't worry we'll fix it."
"How?" Kieko asked more tears spilling down her face.
"Well right now I have to get ready for the next scene. You go tell Juliet exactly what happened and we'll figure out something during the next intermission." She whipped away some of Kieko's tears. "We will fix this I promise." She gave her one more hug and then ran to her dressing room to get ready. Kieko whipped the rest of her tears away and ran to find Juliet.
As the musical interlude came to end the curtain rose. There was the beautiful Sazuka sitting at a large desk, Shizuru was standing at his right side. "Our poor daughter!" Shizuru sighed," she is so upset over her kinsmen's death. She won't eat, she won't sleep; she just sites in her dress-I mean her bedroom and cries."
"There, there wife." Sazuka said while giving her a firm pat on the ass. Shizuru had to fight the urge to slap him right there on the spot. " Your wonderfully beautiful husband, has come up with a brilliant solution. OH PARIS!" He yelled. Hearing his cue Shishiwakamaru walked up to the desk bowed to Shizuru and Sazuka.
"It is a pleasure to meet you Lady Capulet, I am sir Paris."
"You see my daring, if Juliet's days are filled with sorrow we shall give her reason to celebrate. This is where young Paris comes in." He waved to Paris as a sign for him to start speaking.
"You see my lady I wish to marry fair Juliet, and your noble lord as given me his permission and his blessing." Shizuru turned to say her next line but was cut off by Shishi. "Excuse me my lord but I have some matter I need to tend to, may I be excused?" Sazuka was not prepared for any kind of improve, he sat at his desk stuttering until finally Shizuru stepped in.
"Yes of course noble Paris, come back later this even so we may discuses the particulars of this affair."
"Yes of course." He bowed and quickly hurried off stage. Shizuru and Sazuka continued on with their scene as planned.
"What the hell are you doing?" Juliet asked as Shishi ran past her, towards the stairs to the green room.
"Sorry! Nature calls!" Juliet stared after the pretty boy.
"MEN! Can't they hold it for five freaking minutes!" As she turned back to watch the end of the scene Kieko came running up to her.
"Juliet! Juliet!, Botan still hasn't come out of her dressing room, and the scene is almost over. Juliet sighed and dropped her head, clearly the forces of the universe hated Shakespeare.
"Alright, now are you going to tell me what's going on?" She turned towards Kieko and crossed her arms over her chest. "I can't fix the problem if I don't know what started this." Kieko sighed.
"Okay I'll tell you, but you might want to sit down for this." Kieko told Juliet everything that had happened; starting with the real reason that Botan said she'd play Juliet, up to the present situation. When she was done Juliet leaned back in her chair.
"So let me get this straight. First you guys used my play to try and set Botan and Yusuke up?"
"Yes."
"And when that failed you decided to use my play to try and get back at Yusuke?"
"Yes"
"And now that has backfired and Botan thinks that everything is her fault?"
"Yes"
"Alright lets go get her."
"Wait what?" Kieko was expecting a long drawn out rant about how they shouldn't have been messing with her play in the first place. Juliet just stood up and headed towards Botan's dressing room she stopped and looked back at Kieko.
"Are you coming?" Juliet asked, snapping Kieko out of her shock. Kieko quickly stood up and ran to catch up with her.
"Aren't you mad? We kind of messed up your play."
"They haven't started throwing rotten fruit at us so as far as I'm concerted we still have a chance to make this play awesome. Besides friends are more important." Kieko smiled as they reached the locked door. "I was hoping that by switching the scenes around she would have time to calm down and maybe she would come out on her own, but it looks like were going to have to go get her."
"How?" Kieko asked, "She's not only locked this door but she locked the trap door that leads from her room to the green room." Juliet just gave Kieko an all-knowing smile
"Oh Kieko, every good director has keys to all the dressing rooms, and the green room made for just such an occasion." She pulled out a large ring of keys and started searching for the right one. "Ah here it is." She unlocked the door and pushed it open. There was Botan curled up into a ball in the middle of the room, she was still crying. Kieko and Juliet quickly ran to her and embraced her in a hug.
"Kieko? Juliet what are you-" She looked up at Juliet with a twinge of fear in her eyes.
"It's ok." Kieko said softly stoking Botan's hair. "I told her everything, she's here to help. "
"Juliet I am so sorry." Botan bowed in front of her, tears still falling to the ground. Juliet placed a hand under Botan's chin and lifted her head so they were looking into each other's eyes.
"Hush what's done is done. We can't change the past so we must move forward." Botan nodded and sat up. "Now in order o fix this, you need to talk to Yusuke—"
"NO!" Botan yelled. "Because of me two of his close friends got seriously hurt, I can't face him right now. Please Juliet I know the wedding night scene is important, but can we please just skip it?" Juliet wanted to say no, that the show must go on no matter what, but when she looked at Botan's pleading face, she couldn't possibly say no.
"Alright, but do you think you can do the scene with friar Laurence and the poison?" Botan nodded gratefully. "Good I'll tell Yukina to get everyone ready."
"Thank you Juliet, thank you so much." Juliet and Kieko left to let Botan get ready for her scene. Minutes later everyone was in place, Juliet walked on stage.
"In an attempt to ease their daughters pain the Capulet's arranged for her to marry the noble Paris the day after tomorrow. When Juliet tried to talk them out of it they threatened to kick her out of the house. 1 She ran to friar Laurence to see if he had a plan. Juliet left the stage and the curtain rose.
"Good friar you must have a plan to get me out of this. I am already married to my beloved Romeo, and I will not betray him." Botan pulled out a plastic knife and held it to her throat. "So either get me out of this second marriage or this cell shall be my death bed."
"Now, now don't be so rash young maiden." Kuwabara said scrambling to get the knife out of her hands. "I think I have a plan." He pulled a small vile filled with crimson liquid. "Take this the night before the wedding, and you shall take on a form similar to death. While you are taken to church to be buried with your kinsmen I will send a letter to Romeo telling of our plan. Then when twenty four hours hath past you shall awake from your death like slumber, and hence Romeo will come and whisk you away to Mantua." He handed the vile to Botan who stared at it nervously.
"And you are certain that this is the only way I can be with my love?" Kuwabara nodded solemnly. "Alright then thank you good friar." She leaned in and gave him a quick peak on the cheek. Botan tried to leave, as was her cue, but Kuwabara grabbed her arm as she was pulling away.
"Stay here I need to talk to you once the curtain drops." He whispered into her ear. She gave him a confused look he leaned in to whisper something else. "Its really important Urameshi is in danger." Botan froze with fear; she could hear her heart pounding over the rowing applause. After the curtain feel Kuwabara stood to leave. "Come with me we have to talk in private.
"We can go to my dressing room. " Botan suggested, "I have a few minutes before I have to be onstage again." Kuwabara nodded and the two quickly made there way through the wings. When they reach her room they went inside and Botan locked the door. "What's going on?" She asked anxiously.
"It's Urameshi. I think he's in danger." Botan stared at him confused.
"Why do you think that?" Kuwabara sat down on the day bed his head bowed.
"Well you see I was down in the green room getting ready for my next scene . . .
~Flashback~
Kuwabara stood in the middle of the green room locking for a piece of his costume. "Oh man, where is my bottle of fake herbs? Juliet is going to kill me if I go on stage with out it." He looked through all the cabinets and drowses but still couldn't find it. "Grrrr I don't know why she cares so much about a stupid play. I mean it's not like it's even a happy play it's a cruddy tragedy of all things!" His frustration grew as he dug through a small pile of costumes and props. Still no bottle. "GAAHHHHH WHERE IN THE WRLD IS THIS STUPID BOTTLE!"
He crossed the room until he reached the huge curtain that separated the main part of the green room form the dressing rooms. There were only six dressing rooms up on the stage. Three of stage left, for the girls, and three off stage right for the boys. Each of those rooms had a trap door that lead down to the green room. Those rooms where only for the principle actors, who were constantly going on and off stage. For the rest of the cast they had a makeshift dressing room, created by two curtains. One curtain cut the whole green room in half. While the second curtain cut right through the dressing area in an attempt to create privacy.
Kuwabara entered on the boy's side and began rummaging through the various piles of cloths and props. Not finding what he was looking for he quickly walked over to the girls side, taking care that no one was in there. He was currently digging under a pile of dresses when he heard footsteps coming down the greenroom stairs. "Uh oh if anyone finds me in here I'm definitely dead." He ran towards the separating curtain but heard the door open before he had a chance to jump to the other side. If he moved now he would be in deep trouble. He moved along the curtain until he was safely hidden between a rack of ball gowns and the back wall. Meanwhile the footsteps grew closer, Kuwabara peaked through a whole in the curtain and saw Shishi enter the boy's side. He started throwing cloths and props around obviously looking for something. Then there was another pair of footsteps coming down the stairs; Shishi quickly put all the cloths back, as the footsteps grew louder. Just then Sazuka entered Shishi looked relaxed and annoyed.
"What the hell took you so long?" Shishi crossed his arms over his chest. "You were suppose to leave the stage with me!"
"I know, I know, I'm sorry I just couldn't tare myself away from my adoring fans. Shishi rolled his eyes.
"Whatever, did you get what I asked for?" Sazuka nodded and pulled out a small bottle from his pocket. He handed it to Shishi.
"So you're sure this will work. Kuwabara peered through the hole, Shishi was holding what looked like a Kuwabara's bottle, only the light blue liquid was replaced with a deep crimson.
"Yes Shishi! Relax once Botan takes this she'll be out for days." Sazuka gave a sly smirk as he ran his fingers through his spiky blond hair.
"What about the . . .other bottle?" Shishi lowered his voice, but Kuwabara could still here everything. He watched as Sazuka pulled out another identical bottle, the liquid was jet black.
"That one will guaranty that Yusuke's big "death scene" will be more the convincing!" he finished with and almost maniacal laugh as he handed the bottle to Shishi. "Now what about our agreement I held up my end of the bargain."
"Alright here you go." Shishi reached into his sleeve and pulled out a small Macy's bag. "The latest eye shadow from Lady Gaga, the crackle nail polish form Katy Perry; and (deep sigh of shame) Justin Beeber's new line of perfume." He thrust the bag into Sazuka's arms.
"AHHHH Thank you Shishi! Not only will I be beautiful but fashionable No one will dare call the Beautiful Sazuka out of style!" After his rant the mad man ran off to prepaid for his up coming scene. When the door closed Shishi turned towards the curtain.
"You can come out now, you ignorant dope." Kuwabara stepped out into the open.
"So you knew I was there the whole time? You must have sensed my spirit energy,"
"No, you ugly fool, your breathing was so loud small children in the audience could probably hear you." Kuwabara fell over in embarrassment and quickly regained his composer.
"Whatever sissy boy! What where you and that fruitcake talking about anyway? And why do you have my bottle? I need that to go onstage you jerk!" He crossed so he was standing right in front of Shishi, who just smirked.
"I was hoping you would ask about that." He sat down on a stool in front of the mirrors. "As you can see I am the most beautiful demon around," Kuwabara couldn't help but laugh, Shishi scowled at him and continued. "Because of this it is my job to make sure my children are equally beautiful, and the only way to do that is to make sure my mate is gorgeous. So I searched all through Makai looking for the perfect mate, and while I did see many beautiful women I could not mate with any of them and do you know why?"
"Because little Shishi wasn't up for it?" Kuwabara burst out laughing. Shishi sat straight up in his chair his horns flaring.
"NO YOU IDIOT!" He waited for Kuwabara to stop laughing before he continued. "As I was saying I couldn't mate with them because I realized no matter how beautiful they are now they will eventually get old and ugly. You see I need a mate that will not only stay young forever, but will also keep me young forever. That's were Botan comes in, she is the grim reaper she controls death and there for time. If we were to mate not only would are children be beautiful, but I could stay hansom forever!" Kuwabara just looked at the demon with utter confusion, he had it all wrong. Botan was in charge of helping already departed souls get to spirit world safely. While Botan had some healing powers, over all she had no control over life and death. If someone was meant to die at a specific time there was nothing she could do to prevent it.
"Look man you got it all wrong Botan isn't'-" Shishi cut him off.
"Isn't interested in me? Oh trust me I know that's why I've come up with this!" He held out the bottle full of black liquid. "I know all about her little crush on Urameshi. I know that the only reason she agreed to do this play is because he was in it. More importantly I know that he only did this play so he could finally confess his love to her. I've tried to win her over with the normal methods flowers, candy, and autographed headshots of myself real romantic stuff like that. But it looks like that's not going to work so I have to take more drastic measures.." He leaned towards Kuwabara and held the bottle up to his face. "Tell me idiot, do you know what this is?" Kuwabara glared at the demon, he had a guess, "It's poison, I got Sazuka to steal some from the Foxes bag. I plan on switching it with the fake poison so when Romeo takes his dying breath it will be Uramshei's last." He chuckled darkly to himself. Kuwabara tried to grab the bottle out of his hand but Shishi moved his hand out of the way. "No no no I can't have you going and messing up my plans now can I?"
"Then why are you telling me this in the first place? You know I'm just gonna go tell everyone what you're planning."
"Hahahaha no, see here's what going to happen; not only are you going to keep your ugly mouth shut, but your also going to give this to Botan." He held out his other hand, which had Kuwabara's bottle in it. "It contains another herb I got from the Fox, only this isn't a poison it will simply put her to sleep for awhile."
"But why would you want her to fall asleep?"
"Simple you dunce I need her out of the way while I take care of her "Romeo" then when she wakes up and finds him really gone she'll need a shoulder to cry on, and that's where I come in."
"Why the hell do you expect me to help?"
"Because," Shishi said pulling out his sword," I know all about you as well. You've had your eye on a certain ice maiden for quite sometime now." Kuwabara gulped at the mention of Yukina. "It would be a shame if she were to die before you got the chance to tell her how you feel wouldn't it?" Kuwabara growled at the demon. He knew Shishi was much faster then him and could easily get to Yukina with all the chaos going on in the wings. He couldn't let anything happen to her, he bowed his head in defeat. Without saying a word he took the Bottle from Shishi and headed for his place on stage. "Good boy" Shishi coed as he put his sword away.
~End Flashback~
"So I figured if I told you right after the scene he wouldn't have a chance to do anything to Yukina. What are we going to do?" Botan looked at the bottle Kuwabara had given her on stage. Her head was spinning from all this new information. She didn't know how to process it all. Finally she settled on the most important thing, Yusuke was in trouble.
"Hiei!" She finally yelled after a few moments of silence. "We need Hiei!" Kuwabara was completely lost.
"How's he gonna help?"
"Simple, go tell him everything, especially the part about Yukina in danger. Hiei will do anything to protect her, so we know she'll be safe from Shishi." Kuwabara scowled at her.
"Why does shrimp man care so much about her?" Botan forgot Kuwabara still didn't know about Hiei and Yukina. She wounded if Hiei would still kill her if she told Kuwabara in this situation. She didn't want to risk it.
"She thinks of . . . Kurama as a brother, since he's been helping her learn about healing herbs and such. If Kurama asked, Hiei would do anything for him since they are in love and all." She hoped that Kuwabara wouldn't press any further. She was dying inside, thinking about what could happen to her poor Yusuke. Kuwabara could see her stress and so nodded agreeably.
"Okay I'll go talk to Kurama you go deal with Hiei," They stood up and rushed out the door hurrying to find the couple.
"Yusuke!" Botan murmured to her self as she raced through the wings, "please be ok!"
End of Act 3
Next Time:
Will Botan and Kuwabara save Yusuke in time?
Will Shishi be stopped?
Or does he have one more trick up his sleeve?
Trust me what happens next you won't see coming.
1 This is the part of the play that never made sense to me. If she had just let her parents throw her out of the house then she could have gone to Mantua and lived happily ever after with Romeo. I mean she is willing to fake her own death but not leave her house? It's just weird.