Bathroom, Room 1, Akumal Beach Resort, Late Friday

[withoutverona]

After Round 10 of I Never -- a game he was, again, swearing he would never play again -- Romeo lead Yurika into the hotel room bathroom.

It was far from the setting he had imagined for this, but it was nearby, and he wasn't sure he trusted his slightly drunken legs to carry him much further. And at least there would be people to intervene if she tried to kill him.

"I meant to tell you," he began, without preamble, leaning against the cool tile.

Comments

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

Yurika sat down on the sink, her face a carefully composed blank. "Really? When? I may not have much in the way of morals, Romeo, but I don't fuck around with married men. It's not fair to her, wherever you've got her stashed."

[withoutverona]

"What?" Romeo was horrified. "Then we have that in common, since I would not be here or with you if I were still wed."

Great thing to tell a girl, Romeo.

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

She folded her arms over her chest defensively and narrowed her eyes. "Great, so I'm the back-up from the ex. That's fine, I don't have a problem with being the rebound normally, but I do appreciate it if people are honest with me. Anything else I need to know, or are we done?"

[withoutverona]

Stupid, stupid, stupid; Romeo cursed his tongue. "I said that wrong. You are not a rebound," he said quietly, trying to put a hand on her arm. "And we are not done, if you want me to be honest."

He took a moment to bury his face in his hands. Why was he trying to have this conversation with five drinks in him? It felt like it should be either none at all, or many more. "She died," he finally said. "My wife, Juliet. It was ... our families loathed each other. It felt as though it was marry her or lose her forever, and I thought her my world."

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

"Oh." Yurika looked at his hand, and then down at the floor. That put a whole new spin on things. "I. Sorry. When you said...I thought..." She closed her eyes and hugged herself slightly, trying to stop the shaking.

"Sorry."

[withoutverona]

"I would have thought much the same, were our places reversed," Romeo admitted. His eyes were staying on the tile. "It's ... I want to be my best self for you, and it felt like telling you this story would spoil that. So I delayed."

A kind of hard amusement overtook his face. "Shall I tell you all, or do you want to go back to interpreting the furniture's thoughts?"

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

"What I want is for you not to leave me in the dark," she said, the hard edge returning to her voice as well. "I don't like being played. If I want to spend time with a guy who's going to lie to me, I'll go home. Gods know I've gotten plenty of that already."

[withoutverona]

"Omitting isn't lying," Romeo said, just as strongly. "When should I have told you, at the dance?"

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

"Maybe before I woke up in the same bed as you," Dōjima said, shrugging. "Just a thought."

[withoutverona]

Romeo had to admit he probably deserved that, actually.

"Let me start over," he said, and was dizzy trying to find the entrance that would let him do that without talking for hours.

Almost at random, he chose the one that he had known from the cradle. "At home, my family and another have and fight over the money and power. It is an old blood feud, nothing to do with me," That was important to him, that he hadn't started it, had just inherited it. "And last summer I went uninvited to a party hosted by the other family."

"And there was a girl there."

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

Yurika remained perched on the sink, watching him. "I'm listening," she said. It wasn't the friendliest tone ever, but she wasn't bitingly hostile anymore.

[withoutverona]

She didn't sound like she wanted to take his head off anymore; that was progress. Emboldened, Romeo continued. "I loved her at once, and we were married the next day, before that magic of first love wore off," he said, and reached for his wallet, flipping out and handing over the one picture he had kept of Juliet, their wedding portrait. "This is her."

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

She took the photo silently, staring at it for a few minutes before looking up at him. "What happened?"

[withoutverona]

"Our marriage was secret until the priest could work things out with our families, and her cousin was a violent idiot," Romeo answered, taking the picture back. "A very, very nasty piece of work. He wished to duel with me for crashing the party to start with, and, as he was family, I plead for him to leave us in peace. My dear friend fought him instead, and was killed."

He really, really did not like the next part, but he knew it was better he get it out than delay again. "So I found the cousin and took his life in return." His eyes were moist, though he tried to blink that back. "That is why I left home. The law would have put anyone else to death, but for a Montague, banishment."

A hesitation, and then, "Would that were all, but I fear it is not." Briefly because it is OMGlate and everyone reading this knows the play he explained the plot to fake Juliet's death, the lost message, his return to Verona, his suicide attempt, Juliet's death.

And then he stopped, leaned back against the wall. Waited to see if, he supposed, she would ever speak to him again.

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

She was quiet awhile longer, trying to assimilate everything he'd just told her. Finally, she uncrossed her arms and looked at him.

"If you had the chance to do it all again, even knowing how it would turn out, would you?"

[withoutverona]

Romeo knew this was a test; he just didn't know the right answer.

"Which of it?" he wanted to know. "Yes to meeting her. Everything after that, I should have done much differently, if at all. There was never time to think, and I am too impulsive to start with."

"If it was all or nothing," he went on, quietly, "then ... no. I should sacrifice knowing her for her life and Mercutio's, hard as that would be." And yes, this was a way in which his thinking had changed since he came to Fandom.

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

"It hurts that you didn't trust me enough to say anything in the first place," Yurika said quietly. "All you had to tell me was that you were coming out of a relationship that ended badly, and I would have accepted that. If I had known even that little bit, this wouldn't hurt so much. Instead, I get blindsided during our vacation."

"I have no shortage of people in my life telling me what I need to know, or how to think, or where to go. Can you tell me that you're different, then?" Yurika shook her head. "I wanted you to be different."

[withoutverona]

Romeo knew he deserved that, but he still took it like a slap. It took a moment for the sting to recede enough for him to speak.

"It was never about not trusting you," he finally said. "I do. I was enjoying things seeming uncomplicated, I was enjoying being someone other than the tragic Romeo. I let myself have that pleasure longer than I should have, and that fault is mine."

"But I do trust you," he reiterated. "And I do want to be different for you." He didn't realize how much that was true until he spoke it. "I'd more than enough of people telling me how to think myself -- I should hate to do it to someone else."

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

Yurika hopped down from the sink and walked over to stand toe-to-toe with him. "It didn't need to be complicated, Romeo, but you're the one who complicated it, and I won't apologize for being angry. If you're using me to forget 'tragic Romeo', that's fine, but you need to be honest with me about it." She smiled bitterly, self-loathing flashing briefly in her eyes. "You wouldn't be the first, and you won't be the last."

"You say you want to be different for me? You're going to have to prove it. I can't take you at your word, not anymore."

[withoutverona]

"I am not using you, I can swear to that much," Romeo said, and despaired. This was going wrong, all wrong. "And I would half-think something wrong with you if you were not angry."

His eyes met hers. "If I promised no more secrets or lies, no matter what the cost to me, would you give me a second chance, or is it all for nothing?"

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

"You're willing to promise something like that?" Yurika blinked, surprised. "You...you'd do that? For me?"

[withoutverona]

"I am and I will," Romeo said, feeling an odd sense of relief. "Secrets do me little enough good; I should cast them off."

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

"I'm not going to ask that from you." Yurika reached up hesitantly to brush some of the hair out of his eyes. "That you'd be willing to do that, it's...it's a good place to start, yeah?"

[withoutverona]

He leaned forward, into her hand. "A place to start is all I can ask for, and I will do my best with it. Thank you."

Thinking, he added, "The only other thing I should tell you before someone else does is that Brooke and I had a fling. Would that bother you?"

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

"I'd be more worried if you claimed to be immune to the charms of all other women," she said wryly. "Are you still seeing her? It's fine if you are, I don't mind much, but if you are, you should make sure she knows about me."

[withoutverona]

"Anything but immune, trust me," Romeo said. "But no, she and I turned into friends" -- he was leaving out that she had basically turned him down; he had promised honesty, not to humiliate himself -- "and I got to know you." A cloud crossed his eyes.

"Which ... is this a relationship? If I do not waste this second chance too fast, I mean."

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

"I..." Oh, fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. If Father Juliano found out about this, she was going to be screwed.

Note to self: Edit your reports to SOLOMON. Heavily.

"I can't promise you that," she said softly, brushing her hand against his cheek. "That's just not who I am. If this goes right, if we get back to where we were? I can try. But I won't make a promise that I might not be able to keep."

[withoutverona]

"I cannot ask you to be someone you aren't," Romeo said, not sure if he was more relieved or utterly terrified to be in these unknown waters. "I was trying to take it slow with you, especially with so much over my head. We can keep doing that and see where it takes us."

And, because she was touching her face, and because she looked pretty, and because he wanted to say he was sorry and grateful and a lot of other things, he leaned in, softly, to kiss her.

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

And because she was scared, and angry, and ecstatic, and he was right there, looking so very sad, she kissed him back, arms reaching up to wrap around his neck, pulling him closer so she could drown in the taste of his lips.

"Still angry," she whispered once they broke the kiss. "But I think I can live with it."

[withoutverona]

And because it was such a very good kiss, he was standing there, a little dazed, for a moment before he spoke. "Good," he finally said, just above a whisper. "Should we try to go back out to the party? I fear they're already starting rumors about what we're up to."

At least, he would be, if he were on the other side of the door.

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

"If they're going to start rumors, I'd rather give them something to chew on," she teased, slowly sliding her hands down his chest to rest on his hips. "Besides, I'm sure they're too busy drinking to notice we're gone."

"I know we said slow, but, would it be too forward of me to ask for another kiss before we face the drunken hordes?"

[withoutverona]

That slow slide of her hands to their final resting place was, quite possibly, the most distracting thing in the universe, and between that and their recent conversation Romeo's brain was throwing up static instead of words.

So he just ran his hands around to the small of her back and leaned in for a deeper kiss. He assumed that would be answer enough.

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

It was a perfect answer, the type of answer that musicians write songs about, and poets dream of being able to put to paper.

Which is why Yurika eventually, regretfully, stepped back, turning to nervously fuss with her hair in the mirror. Kisses were all well and good, but she couldn't let herself forget why they were in the bathroom in the first place. Forgetting wasn't going to solve the problem, no matter how nice his hands as he held her.

"I don't look like I've been crying, do I? Not that I was going to cry or anything, it's just that I don't like letting people see that I'm upset."

[withoutverona]

Romeo shook his head, still finding his words. "You look perfect," he managed, and she did to him, possibly a little shaken but that might just be him seeing what he himself felt. "And as you said, they're all drunk. No one will be looking too close."

He quit slouching and stepped to the side so he could see himself over her shoulder. His eyes were a little red, maybe, but nothing a quick splash of the cold water didn't help hide. "Am I all right?"

He was aware as he spoke that that question could perhaps be taken in more ways than the one he meant it.

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

Yurika just grinned and shook her head. "Sou kana...but we'll find out, ne?"

[withoutverona]

That drew a shaky smile. "I understood about half that. But we will, either way."

He reached for the doorknob.

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

"Consider it payback for all the fancy words you use," she teased. "Um, like, 'I wonder' or 'I don't know', but joking?"

As the door opened, Yurika looked at the scene before them, and blinked. Twice. "Romeo, why are there naked people in our room, and why weren't we informed? I might have quite yelling sooner if I had known there was naked."

"Pretty naked, no less." Ah, Dōjima was a shallow creature, and so easily distracted.

[withoutverona]

"We missed all the fun," he agreed, soberly.

And would have offered compensatory naked at a later date, except it didn't seem to go with the whole "go slow" theory they had just been ... ahem. Discussing. Possibly loudly.

Instead he said, "At least we get to see them?" and went to fix her a drink. And made himself one as well.

More alcohol would make everything better, right?