Fuck this. Fuck this. Fuck this.

Louis sits in his seat in the near back of the auditorium, watching and listening to the bitch of a theatre teacher prance around the stage, talking about the importance of getting an audition just right. It was the usual stupid pep talk a woman in her late 40’s trying to teach boys how to be more “open minded” would give.

It was the sheer fact that she hadn’t had the decency to ask the all girls college just down the block to get involved with this production that really grinded Louis’s gears. On top of that, he was only auditioning because she said he had to. His course with her required a minimum of one audition for any production of choice and this was the last one of the year, much to his dismay.

Romeo & Juliet wasn’t something he was fond of and the thought of having to play as a girl was enough to make him want to vomit. He just hoped he got a part that just involved him wearing tights. He was used to that kind of or at least more so than god damned dresses. Her shit-piss of an excuse was that that was how they did it back when Shakespeare was alive.

Bull. Fucking. Shit.

It was then that the woman noticed him in the corner, clapping gleefully at the sight of his face, though it was obvious he wasn’t happy to be spotted. That meant he wouldn’t be failing her class any longer and she was more than proud. Louis may not have realized it, but he was quite the actor. He had the talent and now he just needed to prove it to himself. Maybe he’d even learn to like people a little bit more in the process.

Everyone knew Louis had had lung cancer and if they didn’t, someone told them whether they asked about him or not. Everyone felt bad for him and Louis hated it. It’d been a year without cancer and people were still giving him “sorry” left and right. Not only that, these were the same people who talked behind his back before then. They’d called him a slut and a whore, talking about things they had no business talking about at all. The truth of the matter was that people only cared when they thought you were dying and that was that.

“Mister Tomlinson, It’s a pleasure to see you here!” She exclaims, her big blue eyes even bigger in the lenses of the glasses that she wore. His ocean blues rolled, arms crossed over his chest as everyone turned to look at the poor cancer boy. He glared at them all as his way of saying “Fuck you!” since he couldn’t say it out loud or anything.

“Pleasure to be here,” He lies coyly and all of them believe it, but that’s the point; that’s why he needs to be here. He belongs here. A vast majority of the people in the auditorium are mediocre at best, but Louis was born for shining. It was obvious in the way he usually presented himself. It was the way he walked. It was the way he talked. Everything.

“Why don’t you come down here and join us,” She waves as she speaks, gesturing for him to come forward. His glare moves from the staring students to her. He really really doesn’t like her right now, but he gets up anyways, slinging his bag over one shoulder and walking down to the very first row, though he’s still a few seats away from anyone. He flops down in the seat with a loud thump, eyebrows raising as if to challenge the teacher to ask him to move again.

“Thanks,” She says instead before looking down at her clipboard of names of the people who had signed up. Louis knew for a fact that he’d be close to last considering he had waited last minute to sign off on his soul and possible dignity, that is if he got a part in the play. He was almost positively sure that he would just because of those stupid cancer perks.

“Harry Styles, it appears you’re up first,” She says after a moment of silence and Louis has to resist the urge to audibly groan as the curly haired beauty stands to his feet, that stupid grin plastered on his even stupider face per usual. The other boys clap for him as he takes the stage, but Louis makes no effort. She hands him a script, which he only looks at for a brief moment, before putting it on the floor and clear his throat. It’s obvious he’s memorized the lines already and that is another building block to Louis’s house of anger and annoyance at the world.

“What lady is that which doth enrich the hand of younger knight?” Harry begins and Louis can’t help but roll his eyes when Harry’s pointing in his general area. The twat was obviously dicking around with him even in a moment as serious as an audition. They hated each other in the most passionate form possible and Harry had been the only one to not show pity on him during or after he got cancer. Louis wouldn’t admit it, but he found that a bit respectable. Louis hated phony people.

“Oh, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night like a rich jewel in an Ethiope’s ear, beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear, so shows a snowy dove trooping with crows as yonder lady o’er her fellows shows. The measure done, I’ll watch her place of stand and, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand.” Harry appears to talk more to the other side of the stage for this part, to some invisible person, but then suddenly those greens find Louis’s blues.

“Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.” Louis is a bit stunned at first by the other’s actions, but that quickly leads to yet another eye roll and a half hearted applause. He’s just annoyed the other would direct his stupid speech near his area.

The auditions seemed to go by slowly and Louis started to wish he had signed up earlier, but Harry the twat was still here when he easily could have left like the majority of the other’s did. They were all either too busy to stay or just too frightened to size down the competition. Louis couldn’t help but laugh at that thought, because pretty much all of them had sucked complete fucking ass.

“Louis Tomlinson, it’s your turn,” The teacher finally says, yanking him out of his thoughts. The clap of encouragement as Louis takes the stage starts out dull until Harry joins in, being his usual dramatic self, which makes Louis beyond the point of agitation. The house has been built and now it’s turning into a fucking apartment complex.

“I know you might not agree, but I want you to read the part of Juliet for me,” She whispers into his ear as she hands him the script. He’s about ready to snap at this point, but he’s not going to make himself a fool in front of Harry so he decides to give it a go.

“Thou know’st the mask of night is on my face, else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek for that which thou hast heard me speak to-night. Fain would I dwell on form, fain, fain deny what I have spoke. But farewell compliment! Dost thou love me? I know thou wilt say “ay” and I will take thy word. Yet if thou swear’st thou mayst prove false; At lovers perjuries, they say, Jove laughs. O gentle Romeo, if thou dust love, pronounce it faithfully or if thou think’st I am too quickly won, I’ll frown and be perverse and say thee nay, so thou wilt woo- Can I stop now?” Juliet’s words are annoying him, making him feel nauseous and when he looks up, Harry looks in complete shock.

Good. The uptight little bastard.

“Sure,” She says and then he walks off the stage with more umph than needed, grabbing his bag as he was about to leave. He didn’t want to spend another second sharing the same air as Cunt Styles.

“Could you stay?” She calls out to him. There’s one more audition and then I need to talk to you.” This information does nothing but piss him off impossibly more, but he plops back down in his seat as she calls the last person up, looking more like an angry child than a 20 year old. The last person comes up and they do their speech, though Louis couldn’t tell you what character it was he was auditioning for if he tried. It wasn’t like he’d paid attention to it back when he had read it in secondary school.

“Thank you all for coming! I’ve already made a few decisions, but all of them will be posted by Wednesday afternoon. May the stars be in your favor!” The remaining people leave except for Louis and Harry. Could things get any worse than this?

“Louis, Harry,” She addresses them and gestures for them to follow her out and to her classroom. Harry runs into Louis’s back as they follow, making the shorter male turn on his heel in an aggravated manner. This whole time he had been a time bomb just waiting to go off and now he had ignited.

“Watch where you’re stepping, ya dick!” He snaps, but that just gets Harry to give him the talk to the hand gesture. Louis has half a mind to kick him in his nads before the teacher snaps her fingers loudly, making them both turn to her quickly, almost like trained dogs.

“Boys,” She says in that scolding tone that Louis is more than used to and Harry is not. She gestures for them to enter her room and they do so, though not in silence. They push at each other as they try to get through the door, making the woman sigh heavily, but not reconsider her decision even the slightest.

“I know you two don’t particularly get along-”

“You can say that again,” Harry grumbles, leaning against one of the desks, one boot crossed over the other as his palms pressed into the cool wood. Louis stood a good distance away from the other. It’s obvious that he’s not the happiest bird in the bunch.

“You two might want to sit down for this,” She says quietly and that’s enough to make them look at each other curiously instead of with malice before sitting down, turning their attention back to her.

“Spill,” Louis demands then, “I have somewhere that I really need to be,”

“What? Taking your daily wank back in your big little house in the suburbs?” Harry mumbles and he merely gets a middle finger from the other that the teacher doesn’t see from her position.

“I want you two as the leads of the play,” She says quickly. Harry’s jaw drops, his mind forgetting the smart ass comment he’d had in mind for the sassy little uptight cuntbag sitting a few desks away from him.

“What?!” Louis screams, jumping to his feet in disbelief, but she merely gestures for him to sit back down, which he does reluctantly.

“I think Harry would be a fabulous Romeo and you a wonderful Juliet,” She admits, clapping her hands together and trying her best at feigning innocence, but the boys look like rabid dogs about to attack her.

“No way,” Louis says, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Why not the gay guy who tried out? He wears girl’s clothes anyways,” Harry whines.

“Yeah, he would most certainly enjoy kissing your ass better than I ever would,” Louis growls back, “Though he’s definitely not as pretty-”

“Stop it!” She shouts, hands slamming on the desk loudly and making them both jump in surprise. “This isn’t primary or secondary school anymore, boys,” She looks at them sternly, her glasses hanging from the bridge of her nose. “This is Uni and I’m sorry that it has to come to this, but if you don’t do this, I will fail you both,” Harry’s mouth gaped open and Louis only answered in a groan, before looking over at Harry.

“Close your mouth, Romeo. Flies tend to flock to smelly areas,” Louis says then sarcastically, which gets a smile out of himself. That was why he said it in the first place, to make himself feel better about this obviously shit situation.

“How about go fuck yourself, Juliet?” He growls back, standing up a bit in his desk.

“What are you gonna do? Kiss me?” Louis taunts.

“Well at least we’re getting into character,” The teacher mumbles under her breath, placing her hand over her forehead. This was definitely going to be a work in progress.

3 months later…

So maybe Harry wasn’t as big of a dick as Louis had originally thought, so what? That didn’t mean he was anymore excited to do this stupid play. The wig was itchy and he would have to shave off his stubble, not to mention he’d be wearing make up and fake lashes. Harry just had the embarrassment of having to wear fucking tights and for Harry that wasn‘t even really much of an embarrassment.

It was the week before the show and Louis was walking around the balcony of his house, going over his lines, when he heard the sound of someone out in the yard. He stopped, squinting out into the darkness.

“But soft! What light through yonder window breaks!” a familiar voice shouts from the darkness, “It is the east and Louis is the sun!” It’s not long before the curly haired male is climbing up to the balcony, using the vines wrapped around the frame with hopes that he doesn’t fall. Once he reaches the top, he climbs over the railing with a cheesy smile on his features and Louis can’t help but roll his eyes then.

“Don’t be an ass, Styles. Why are you here?” Louis asks, only half amused, but Harry has this determined look in his eyes as he starts to recite again, though skipping a few lines.

“Two of the fairest stares in all heaven having some business, do entreat in his eyes to twinkle in their spheres till they return. What if his eyes were there, they in his head? The brightness of his cheek would shame those stars as daylight doth a lamp.” He moves a bit closer and suddenly Louis knows he isn’t dicking around with him. In practice, he never had that look, though it had been the same look from his audition.

Before Louis could ask what was going on, Harry had cupped his face in his rather large hands and kissed him. His lips were plump, warm, full of life. There wasn’t the slightest hint of alcohol on his tongue to use as an excuse for his actions. This was really happening while they were both in their right minds and Louis almost felt like his heart was going to burst. Their lips made this weird smack sound as they pulled away and his cheeks were flushed red as he looked up at Harry though dark lashes.

“With love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls, for stony limits cannot hold love out and what love can do that dares love attempt-” Harry says, slightly out of breath from the kiss, only to be cut off with yet another. They spend some time like that: kissing each other until they can’t breathe and have to pull away. Louis doesn’t really know what to say at this point, but words just start spurting out of his mouth before he can really stop himself.

“In truth, fair Styles, I am too found and therefore thou mayst think my ’havior light. But trust me, gentleman, I’ll prove more truth than those that have more coying to be strange. I should have been more strange, I must confess-” But it’s yet another kiss that shuts Louis up, though more intense than their previous ones. More heated. More driven. Louis finds his back pressed firmly against his screen door. Harry seems to tower over him, his body more built as their fingers tangle together in a gesture Louis never would have imagined he’d share with the boy just merely 3 months ago.

“I love you, Louis Tomlinson from the earth, to the moon, to the sun, and the stars. I love you passionately, endlessly,” Harry manages to say between lighter kisses and Louis just melts into it like putty. A smile graces his features when the pecks stop. Harry’s face slightly shadowed by the night and his own bright from the balcony light.

“I hate you,” Louis responds and he sees that twinge of pain in those dark green eyes, “Except for not really. I never did,” He admits and that pain quickly turns into delight. “Wanna come inside?”

“I’d be more than happy to, Juliet.”

End