Shakespeare one shots

Mercutio's repressed fears

He himself was just fine, thank you very much. His pulse was through the roof and his three-hour adrenaline rush was beginning to wear off, but he knew he had a bunch of Bill Skarsgård interviews to catch up on, and thus to look forward to.

He turned to Mercutio.

Or rather, where Mercutio had just been. In the time it had taken Benvolio to analyze their friends, he'd gathered an armful of candy and begun stuffing it in the pockets of his long, dramatic coat. (It was much too cold for said coat, but Mercutio would never pass up the chance to vaguely resemble Neo, even at the cost of his body heat.)

"As much as I love you all, I have class tomorrow," he announced with a theatrical sigh.

Juliet gave a sympathetic "Sorry, man" at the same time as Tybalt's "Sucks to be you" and the two canceled each other out. Benvolio snickered.

"I can leave Romeo in your capable hands, yes?" he said, gesturing to the (still grinning) blanket lump on the couch. Juliet nodded. "Lovely. With that, we take our leave. C'mon, Cutio." He snaked an arm around Mercutio's waist.

It wasn't as if Ben had no knowledge of his boyfriend's paranoia; the Trail of Terror in years previous stood testament; so he registered and recognized the subtle over-the-shoulder Mercutio kept doing. Despite registering and recognizing, however, he still let it brush itself off, as Mercutio tended to do it when he was tense in any way.

Still, it was slightly off-putting to more feel than see Mercutio swiveling his head like an owl every fifteen seconds or so as they trekked across campus back to their shared rooms.

"I know you would never give a serious answer with Tybs around, but now that we're here, are you doing okay?" Benvolio asked carefully as Mercutio unloaded the contents of his coat into a bowl.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm good," he responded distractedly, punctuating his lie with another glance behind him into the dark hall.

"Babe, seriously. Look, I'm gonna go turn on some lights-"

"No!"

Benvolio jumped slightly at the sudden panic in Mercutio's voice.

"I mean- you don't need to, I'm okay. Really." And he finished with a fucking glittery smile.

Benvolio sighed. Once committed to a ruse, Mercutio would not be letting it go. (Unless/until his real emotions overpowered it, which Benvolio both hoped and dreaded they would.)

"Okay. I won't." He help up his hands in surrender. Mercutio let out a breath.

"I- okay. Alright. I'm gonna... I guess I'm going to bed. D-don't get eaten by anything, yeah?"

Then, with a strained chuckle, he was gone.

Benvolio considered this carefully. He sighed, kicked off his boots, and prepared for the emotional blow of being momentarily cut off from his boyfriend's life.

He knew how this part went. Leave him be, count to three, wait and see, as Romeo had coined it. Mercutio would be back to normal, if a little sleep-deprived, but that wasn't new, in the morning.

~~~

At the turn from 6:59 to 7:00 AM, Mercutio managed to summon the willpower to force his tense limbs into movement. Several times during his journey he had to pause with his back pressed against the wall, wild eyes staring at nothing but unable to close.

After much too long, he crept, stumbling, into a sleeping Benvolio's room. Mercutio carefully slid under the covers between the wall and his boyfriend, shuffling up to the former and searching the latter's face desperately for the comfort he always found there. After a brief moment (where Mercutio absolutely didn't feel a sudden need to check Benvolio's pulse, why ever would you think that, it would be much too Hamlet a thing to do), he carefully nuzzled into Benvolio's neck and found his hand under the blankets.