A/N: Explanation: I was in a theater production with my partner of the time, and I felt like  a fool who was in love. Which, looking back, was pretty stupid of me. But hindsight is 20/20.

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Benvolio all but tumbled through the doors of the theater, cheeks flushed from the cold. He smiled and hummed to himself as he signed himself in and deposited his jacket onto the rack. He set his backpack onto one of the aisle seats and extracted his script.

The theater was empty, save for the stage manager who was busily gathering props from the basement. The lights were glowing as brightly and the air uniquely scented by many years of paint and other elements of set designs. For reasons he could not fully explain, Benvolio found comfort in those things.

Of course, his reflective mood was interrupted when the rest of the cast burst through the doors, talking emphatically about several things at once. This sent a smile onto Ben's face. His smile could not seem to be dampened when he saw his boyfriend.

"Hello!" He said brightly, throwing his arms around his lover as soon as he was close enough. Mercutio smiled against his shoulder and muttered something similar to "missed you too, Benny," before extracting himself from the embrace long enough to remove his coat.

When he returned, Mercutio pulled Benvolio towards him and curled his face into the other boy's shoulder.

"'M tired, Ben," he whined, nuzzling further into his boyfriend's side. Benvolio let out an affectionate sigh and affirmed the statement. He gave Mercutio a gentle kiss on the temple and turned towards the other people in the room. The emphatic chatter was enough to make him smile again. The other people were cast from the same mold Benvolio was, extroverted, loud, confident and cheerful, at least when around others. The energy in the room made him feel incredibly relaxed.

The games they played lacked any sort of judgement or nervousness, just a simple concept with lots of room for experimentation. So, when the call came for them to circle up and start rehearsal, Benvolio was not nervous in the slightest. He crossed to the left of the stage and squished into the circle between his boyfriend and Hero. The game was simple. Say a pre-planned sentence to the person on your left and try to get them to smile.

The concept seemed simple enough. The game began on the opposite side of the room, with people collapsing on the floor and inflicting their voices in weird ways to get the other person to laugh. Benvolio was already aware that he would not do very well, seeing as Hero was a veteran of this game, and the fact that Ben couldn't think of anything extremely funny with Mercutio sitting beside him and stealing the majority of his attention.

When it got to Marcellus and Guild, Marcellus opted for the drawn-out words paired with uncomfortable proximity to your partner route, and won a nervous laugh from Guildenstern. When it got to be Mercutio's turn, he spun to face his boyfriend, a confident smirk upon his face.

Benvolio immediately realized that whatever his boyfriend had planned, it was not going to end in Ben's favor.

"Ben, baby, if you love me-" his boyfriend started the phrase, leaning extremely close to Benvolio's face. Ben felt his cheeks tinge pink, and his heart started pounding. He knew exactly the route his boyfriend had opted for, and wasn't sure how it would end.

"-would you-" Ben heard him continue the sentence, quieter now. He felt the eyes of everyone else in the room, and knew exactly how he was going to play this.

Before Mercutio could finish his question, Benvolio leaned forward and kissed him, smiling against his boyfriend's lips.

"Okay, okay, you win!" He exclaimed, pushing the other boy back. Mercutio looked stunned, but soon recovered and slid back to his spot on the floor, basking in the whistles and cheers from the other cast members, as well as the confused silence of the few who had not previously known of his relationship.

Benvolio, less confident, lost his own round of the game and spent the next few minutes radiating embarrassment and feeling extremely flustered, but not inherently bad. He eventually shook off his nerves and settled back into the routine of rehearsal. The rest of the evening went smoothly. Mercutio, having taken the kiss to mean the acceptance of extra PDA, dragged Benvolio backstage and into the lobby whenever there was downtime just to kiss him or snuggle him to his heart's content.

Benvolio pretended to be bothered by these spontaneous acts, but was truly pleased by them, and enjoyed the ridiculousness.

After a particularly long moment alone, Ben grinned at Mercutio. (PG-13, get your mind out of the gutter!)

"Did I really have to kiss you with the crown on?" He asked, pushing the plastic headpiece back over his forehead. Mercutio shrugged.

"Seeing as we're on the fourth scene, I'm still technically the prince," he stated. Benvolio let out an annoyed huff.

"That means you have to do as I say," he continued, pressing kisses to the other boy's cheeks.

"And right now-" he said, tangling his hands in Benvolio's hair."

"I say that you should stop talking and kiss me some more."

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Honey, I love youuuuu
*proceeds to sing all of Ophelia because it's such a good song*

Anywayssssss

Hope y'all liked it, it was fun to write!

Here's to hoping that your best friends don't turn out to be homophobic Nazis who hate you for being yourself. (I'm not kidding.)

As always, thanks for reading.
Until next time,
Peace.