Loki was taking deep breaths and trying to unclench his firsts as he left Fury's office with the new girl. Sylvie, apparently. He knew, he just knew, she'd picked theater to spite him in some way. Last year's production of Hamlet had been his best work yet, and he'd intended for this year's production to outshine it. Always working to outdo himself. Now, this girl showed up, punched him, and was going to ruin his play!

"Are you trying to give yourself an aneurysm?" Sylvie said beside him, pulling him out of his thoughts.

"Excuse me?"

She shrugged, "If you're going to keep doing that, at least say what's on your mind instead of glaring at the floor like it ruined your Louboutins."

"Why? Looking for another fight?" Loki asked.

Sylvie scoffed. "Wasn't much of a fight."

A slow sly smile crept across his face just before he stopped walking and turned to face her. "It could be," he said. "Here, why don't you hit me again? I can tell you want to." He leaned his face towards her slightly, grabbing one hand with the other behind his back.

He watched as the calculations ran through her eyes. She did want to punch him again, but it was an obvious play. Loki figured she was too impulsive to resist, though maybe she'd need a little more provoking. "I mean, I did make you all wet after all." He could see the rage flash in her eyes, and did his best not to flinch as he awaited the incoming blow.

It never came.

Instead, Sylvie rolled her eyes and started up down the hall again. "Nice try."

That genuinely surprised him. It was an obvious play, for sure. Get her to hit him again and she'd be suspended right away, but from what he'd seen so far she'd seemed too impulsive not to fall for it. "Do you even like theater?" he found himself asking after her.

Sylvie turned back to face him again, though she didn't stop walking, now taking a few slow steps backwards instead of her determined march away from him. "Of course I do, that's why I picked it. What kind of question is that?"

"I think you're lying," Loki said, finally starting to walk again to catch up to her. "I think you picked it just to annoy me. Come on, have you ever even been in a play? Ever auditioned for one?"

"You're so self centered," she rolled her eyes. "You really think I'd volunteer for three months of work just to annoy you? What an ego."

"That's not an answer."

"Yes, I've been in a play before," Sylvie snapped. "Several, actually. At my old school we'd do two every year, and I've been in all of them since I was a freshman. Happy?"

She was good. Loki was almost tempted to believe her. Anyone else would have, but Loki was a liar himself, so he trusted his gut when it told him someone else was too. "Oh, so you're quite the actress, then?" he prodded.

"Better than you," she huffed.

"Really now?" Loki couldn't help the sly grin. "That's a big claim."

Sylvie finally stopped walking again and rounded on him, hands on her hips. "Well it's one I can back up. You'll see. When are the auditions?" she snapped.

"Today after school," Loki replied innocently.

Unlike he'd expected, she seemed to relax. Seeming genuinely pleased with the answer. "Perfect, you won't have to wait long then." With that, Sylvie turned and went into the girl's bathroom, presumably to change into the clothes Natasha had given her, leaving Loki in a state he wasn't used to. Confusion. Perhaps she hadn't been lying, which was definitely worse.

Sylvie had been lying her ass off. She'd never been in a play before, never even seen one! Never taken a drama elective or anything! And yet, there she went, running her mouth about how great of an actress she was just to spite some asshole. Really Sylvie? Three months of after school commitment just to spite him? Sylvie sighed as she leaned against the bathroom's closed door. It was too late to back out now.

She pulled her phone out of her pocket to check the time. It was well into first hour, and as far as the teacher knew, she was still in Principal Fury's office. Being the new girl was never fun, especially not in the middle of the school year when the teacher's would want you to 'introduce yourself to the class!' or whatever. Coming into class late on that first day sounded like an even worse time. She'd never skipped a class before, but worst case she could say she'd gotten lost and couldn't find the classroom.

Luckily, the bathroom was empty as she made her way to the big stall at the end. First, she changed into the clothes Nat had given her. The jeans didn't quite suit her shape, but they weren't going to fall down or anything, and were definitely the better option over the ones covered in cold mud. She hadn't realized how cold the fabric was against her skin until she'd slid them off and replaced them with the dry material. The tee shirt was oversized in a fashionable way, so she dug through her messenger bag for a hair tie, using it to tie the fabric up at her hip. Not the worst first day outfit.

Sylvie sat on the toilet as she got her phone back out and started to Google. The rest of the day would be filled with new teachers and figuring out where she was in comparison to their lessons, so she'd use this time to learn all she could about how to ace an audition. Who knew? Maybe she'd even enjoy being in a play, and if not, she'd at least enjoy wiping the self-satisfied smirk right off Loki's face.

Loki kept an eye out for Sylvie the rest of the day, wondering if they shared any classes. Luckily, they didn't, though he did see her across the cafeteria at lunch sitting with Nat. Still, if that was the only time he'd be forced to share the same room with her, it wasn't too bad. Unfortunately, it wasn't the only time. Sitting in the front row of the auditorium after school, he saw her wander onto the stage from the hallway, following the signs for auditions.

"Hey, glad you're here," Mr. Mobius, the drama teacher and director, grinned at seeing a new person show up. "Just take a seat anywhere in the first few rows, and we'll start in a minute."

Why did he always have to be so damn welcoming?

"Something wrong?" Vis asked from beside Loki. Wanda, Vis's girlfriend, was looking at Loki, awaiting his answer as well.

"She's the one that punched me this morning," Loki answered.

"Oh, I heard about that," Wanda said. "What did you do to deserve it?"

"Why does everyone think I did something to deserve it?!" Loki huffed.

Wanda laughed. "Lokes, you know I love you, but you definitely did something to deserve it."

Vis at least had the decency to look a little ashamed as he nodded and said, "It was only a matter of time before someone did it."

Loki huffed again and pouted as he looked away from his friends-right traitorous friends they were, apparently!-just as Sylvie was walking up the first row of chairs. She was not going to...she was. She sat right down next to him.

Wanda leaned forward, to look past Vis and Loki, and said, "Hey, nice to see someone new here."

"Thanks," Sylvie smiled back. "I'm looking forward to it."

"Have you ever been in a play before?" Wanda asked casually.
Sylvie nodded, "Yeah, several at my old school."

"That's great, we're glad to have you here."

Loki rolled his eyes at his friend's kindness to the new girl who had punched him. "Suck up," he muttered under his breath.

In the blink of an eye Wanda had a pen out of her backpack and threw it to bounce off of Loki's head. They always joked Wanda's aim was so accurate she could move stuff with her mind, but she was known for tossing pens, small erasers, crumpled bits of paper, and whatever else wouldn't really hurt him, at Loki whenever he was being shitty. "Hey!" Loki laughed in protest.

"Maybe if you were nice to people you wouldn't get punched!" Wanda reasoned, laughing as well.

"Okay, settle down," Mr. Mobius' voice rang out as he jogged up the steps onto the stage. The chattering from the few groups of people around the room died off, including Loki and his friends. "Before we get started, any questions? Yes, um.."

"Sylvie," the girl sitting next to him answered, lowering her hand. Loki hadn't even noticed her raise it.

"Sylvie," Mr. Mobius nodded.

"I'm sorry, but what play are we auditioning for?" she asked.

Mr. Mobius grinned. "See, that's half the fun, you won't know until afterwards!"

The girl accepted it, but seemed a bit confused at that. Maybe she had been in plays before after all. Mr. Mobius was great, but a little odd in some ways, and this was one of them. He never told anyone what their play would be until after it was already cast. Said it had something to do with getting a more 'honest' audition without them trying to tailor their performance for a certain part.

"Now, everyone come up here and grab a monologue," Mr. Mobius instructed, setting a stack of papers on the edge of the stage. "You'll have 15 minutes to work on it, and then we'll watch your cold reads."

As always, Loki was the first one in line, grabbing a sheet of paper randomly from the middle of the stack, and then moving to one of the back corners of the theater to practice. He was well used to Mr. Mobius' audition process by now. The room filled with voices as kids practiced, spaced out away from each other, all working on something different.

The 15 minutes went by quickly, as it always did, with Loki engrossed in the work. He truly loved acting, and spending any time working on a new piece was his happy place. Even if the monologue itself wasn't so happy, though this one wasn't exactly tragic. 'O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?,' from Romeo and Juliet. Classic. Though Loki hadn't ever worked on this in particular, he decided he'd have to in the future, it was rather fun.

The timer went off and Mr. Mobius called them all back. Loki had been so lost in his work it wasn't until she sat down next to him that he remembered Sylvie was even there. Still, when Mr. Mobius asked who would like to go first, Loki's hand was already half way up. Unfortunately, so was Sylvie's.

"I like the enthusiasm. Sylvie, you head on up there," Mr. Mobius grinned.

Loki's mouth was hanging open and he blinked rapidly. -What?!- He always went first at auditions. Always! Everyone knew this. Mr. Mobius knew this! Sure, she was new so maybe she didn't, but why had Mr. Mobius let her? He was first! He was always first.

Sylvie winked at him as she walked past him, towards the stairs up to the stage. Oh. She did know. She very much knew he always went first, and that was exactly why she'd volunteered. Loki threw himself back into his chair in a huff, crossing his arms. Second. He'd have to go second. Well, hopefully he'd get some damn good entertainment off of watching her bomb the audition. She could spend three months working on two lines for her crappy background character while he got the lead in whatever play this turned out to be. He had a hunch it was going to be Macbeth, the other great Shakespearian tragedy for him to play the lead. That was a nice thought.

Loki glared up at the stage as Sylvie rolled her shoulders and took a deep breath, before planting her feat and starting to speak. He recognized the monologue immediately, one of his favorites. Antony's 'All is lost!' from Antony and Cleopatra.

From the moment she began, he was captivated. Just like everyone else in the room. It was a roller coaster of emotion, and he was on the ride right with her. Every word was filled with heartache, anger, loss, finally landing on a sense of resolution. Finality. It was everything that monologue craved.

When Sylvie stopped, popped out of character and said, "Scene," he was left breathless. He'd been so captivated, seeing her normal again felt like being splashed in the face with cold water.

Well….fuck.

Sylvie sat next to him again when she got off the stage, crossing her fingers behind her head and lounging casually as much as the plastic chair would allow, but the posture was meant to hide her shaking hands. She'd never known she had stage fright, it had never come up. It wasn't until she hopped up on stage and looked out to see everyone looking at her that her stomach had dropped and her breathing had swallowed. Somehow, she fought through it, escaping into the character for a brief moment.

Still, it had been worth it to see the shocked look on Loki's face. He didn't seem to notice as she'd hurried a little too quickly off the stage, if anything he seemed to be in a daze. Well then, good.

"Loki? Would you like to go next?" Mr. Mobius asked.

Loki, almost imperceptibly, shook his head as if shaking himself out of his thoughts. "Uh, yes, yes of course."

Sylvie watched as he hopped up on stage, wondering what monologue he'd gotten. She'd never seen one performed, but she'd read several of Shakespeare's plays. Whatever she was expecting, it wasn't what she got. Romeo and Juliet was her least favorite Shakespeare play, mostly because of how people interpreted it. As if it was some great love story instead of a car crash. It was about the folly of youth, how ridiculous teenagers could be because of infatuation. She'd never understood the obsession with it when there were so many other fantastic plays. But boy, did Loki ever do it justice.

The love in his voice. The desire. The injustice of it all. It was like she could feel him reaching out for his love, a love the world wanted to stop, but there was no reason to stop something so beautiful. Especially not over something as silly as a name.

When he got to the last line, Loki seemed to lock eyes with her as he spoke, "And for that name which is no part of thee. Take all myself." Sylvie didn't know how to take it, or how it made her feel, but in that moment she was with him. Eyes locked, as if she was the Romeo he spoke of. Then, it stopped.

He looked away from her, morphed from Juliet to Loki once again, and grinned as everyone applauded.