Work Text:
Benvolio sat in the dark of the living room, face lit by the unnatural white light of his laptop screen. Usually, Benvolio wasn’t one for procrastination, but that week had been trouble from the start. For one thing, Romeo had gone missing for a day, which was no fun for Ben. He’d apparently found a girl in one of his classes and decided to spend the night at her place, which was unusual based on his previous romantic attempts. Benvolio had “freaked the fuck out,” as Mercutio so eloquently put it, and called the police to report a missing person. Fortunately, Mercutio had wrested the phone from his grip, apologized to the very confused receptionist, and convinced him to actually text Romeo to see where he was. Romeo responded a couple hours later, and that was the end of that. Just because he doesn’t come back to the apartment for one day doesn’t mean he’s dying. Cell phones were made for this purpose, Mercutio had said.
On top of that stress, Benvolio actually had a job on top of school unlike his two roommates. Mercutio didn’t need a job, being an heir to the richest man in Verona, and Romeo was a direct descendent of one of the two most powerful families after the Escalus family. Benvolio, however, was only indirectly related. And while he certainly wasn’t poor, school in Verona was expensive, and comfortably paying rent required him to hold a job. He’d had a shift earlier that day, right when he would have liked to start his paper. He was quite tired now, but the assignment was due the next morning at ten, and there was no other time to write. Benvolio sipped his hot chocolate. It was going to be a long night.
“Yo, nerd.” Benvolio jumped in his seat and almost spilled his drink at the sudden sound of the voice.
“Mercutio! You startled me,” he said looking around to see Mercutio in the doorway of his room. Mercutio shut the door behind him and came to sit next to Ben on the couch.
“Seems like I did. You practically squeaked. It was kinda cute.”
This had been the other large reason that Ben had been unable to complete the paper earlier: Mercutio. Mercutio and Benvolio and Romeo were all very good friends, the only thing that kept them sane living together. And when Romeo was out of the house Benvolio and Mercutio always ended up spending a lot of time together. But this week had been…unusual in that regard. Benvolio had felt as if he hadn’t had any time not with Mercutio, besides work and class. Mercutio was just… closer. Physically closer to him more frequently. And the things he’d been saying had been more flirtatious in a way. Ben wasn’t really sure though. I mean, he flirted with everyone he saw, so it wasn’t that unusual. It was probably just Ben being more sensitive to that than usual.
“Ben? You ok there?” Mercutio was looking at him with a small frown wrinkling his forehead.
“Oh, yeah, I’m fine. Sorry, I got distracted.”
“Clearly,” Mercutio chuckled quietly. “I suppose it was my immense charm.”
“Oh, of course.”
Mercutio raised the back of his hand to his forehead dramatically, “How cold that response was, Ben. I’ve never been so insulted in my life.”
Ben smiled. “Of course. It’s my job to take your ego down a few pegs.”
“Of course… So,” Mercutio said, stretching, “what’re you working on there, Benny?”
“Just a paper for Hoerner. It’s due tomorrow.”
“Wow, not often we get to see Ben scrambling to finish an assignment the night before it’s due,” he said. As he did, he placed his arms on the couch, just behind Benvolio’s shoulders. Ben smiled a very small smile, though he couldn’t put his finger on exactly why. It surely wasn’t real. But, it was enjoyable. He hid his smile from Mercutio though. If Mercutio suspected that he didn’t take his flirtation as strictly a joke, who knows how uncomfortable their friendship might become.
“Well, this week hasn’t been ideal for me, has it? It’s been kinda hard for me to get work done around work.” Mercutio was silent in response. Ben looked over at him after an uncomfortably silent half minute. “Mercutio?”
“I’m just trying to figure out if you’re being dense or willfully shutting me down.”
“What?”
Mercutio turned to him, running his hand through his curly brown hair in what seemed to be frustration. “Have I not been making myself very clear this week? I mean I’ve been around you all the time you’d let me, and flirted my ass off. All week. Good god, the only reason I haven’t totally given up by now is that I’ve seen you literally not realize someone was flirting with you when they were trying to slip you their number on a receipt.”
Benvolio frowned. “I… what? I’m confused. That guy accidentally wrote his phone number instead of the service num—oh.” Mercutio put his hand across his face.
“So.”
“So. Hang on. Does that mean… you’ve actually been flirting with me? Like,” Benvolio paused, looking for the correct way to phrase his question, “with romantic intent?” Fuck. That was wrong.
Mercutio looked up at him very slowly. Then he snorted with laughter. “Was that a way of asking if I want to ask you out?”
Benvolio spluttered, feeling heat in his face. “I—no, n-no that’s not at all what I mean—“
“Because I do.” Benvolio fell silent. He stared at Mercutio.
“Really?”
“Yeah. I mean, I like you a lot. And in a different way than I’ve liked other people.”
“Um… wow. Thank you?” FUCK. THIS IS NOT RIGHT. HOW DO PEOPLE DO THIS?
“Ok, now you’ve confused me. Most people would respond with… I don’t know a response, I suppose?”
“I… yes. Sorry. Um, I’m not sure how to say this without being really direct.” Benvolio spoke softly. He moved his laptop off his lap and reached to take Mercutio’s hand. “I feel the same. I’ve liked you for a long time. Whenever you’d flirt with me, though, I just kinda froze up a bit. Because… well you kind of flirt all the time. And I figured you didn’t mean anything by it. And I was scared that if you realized that I hoped you did mean more by it, you’d be mad or hate me.”
“Seems like we were afraid of the same thing then,” Mercutio said wryly. “So… Is that a yes? You’ll go out with me?”
Benvolio considered. “Yes, I think it is.”
Mercutio grinned. “Cool. I should get an award. For scoring the best boyfriend in Verona.”
“I need to work on my paper, you,” Benvolio was smiling just as widely. “Kindly release my hand so that I may type.”
Mercutio sighed dramatically. “Ugh fine. I suppose I can let go of your hand for a few hours.”
Ben shook his head and started working on his paper again. Mercutio leaned his head on Ben’s shoulder. They sat like this for ten minutes, Ben focused again on the assignment.
“Hey Benny?”
“Yeah, Merc?”
“May I kiss you?”
Benvolio paused his typing. He thought.
“I think that’s also a yes.”