Chapter Text
“Jesus fucking christ, Romeo,” Mercutio cursed, quickly pulling the injured boy into his house. Romeo stumbled through the doorway, partly falling into Mercutio’s arms. His head felt heavy but his body felt light and he could feel bruises forming on his ribs. “Who the hell did this to you? I’m going to kill them.” Mercutio’s voice was filled with anger as he led Romeo to his room.
“It’s fine. I’m fine.” Romeo’s voice sounded far away even to himself and was followed by a ringing in his ears. “Don’t hurt him. He’ll just hurt you back.”
“It was Tybalt, wasn’t it. That dick has it coming.” Mercutio began to leave once he set Romeo on his bed. Romeo reached out weakly, grasping at Mercutio’s hand.
“Mer, please. Stay with me.” Mercutio paused, grasping the other boy’s hand, looking over his injuries.
“Fine. But only because I don’t want you to get blood all over my bed.” Both boys laughed slightly as Mercutio left to find first aid supplies. He returned shortly, first aid kit and washcloths in hand. “C’mon pretty boy, let’s get you cleaned up.” Romeo hissed as Mercutio began to clean some scratches on his arm. “How did this even happen?”
“Tybalt…he…he didn’t like that- ow watch it, he didn’t like that we were at that party last night. Apparently we ‘personally offended’ him.” Mercutio rolled his eyes. “I was down on the beach and he drove up and decided to confront me. You can guess what happened next.”
“Yeah, I can- can you just take your shirt off? It’s getting in the way and it’s covered in dirt. I can definitely tell what happened- Jesus christ Romeo, how did this happen?” Mercutio was referring to the darkening bruise on his ribs,
“His friend might have had a baseball bat.”
“A baseball bat? A fucking baseball bat Romeo? What the fuck? Did you even fight back?”
“I tried.” Romeo’s voice sounded small and he seemed to shrink into the covers around him.
“I’m gonna kill them all.”
“Please Mercutio, don’t say that. He’ll hurt you. Please, don’t. We’ll go to the police or something.”
“Fine, I won’t go after him myself but we are absolutely going to report this to the police.”
“Thank you, Mer.” Mercutio finished dressing Romeo’s torso wounds in silence before moving to the last gash, a medium-sized one on his forehead. He ran his hands through the other boy’s hair, brushing out dirt and dried blood. Romeo leaned into his hand, bathing in the kindness after a night of brutality. They both sat in calm, safe silence before Mercutio noticed how red Romeo’s cheeks had grown, quickly pulling his hand away from the other boy.
“I’ll uh… I’ll grab you something clean to wear,” Mercutio stuttered, rushing to his closet, smiling to himself at how adorable the other boy looked when he blushed.
“Oh, yeah- uh…thanks for this,” Romeo smiled, taking the hoodie from Mercutio’s hand and pulling it over his head, “You’re an amazing… friend.” Mercutio felt a pang of sadness in his heart at those words, reminding himself that he shouldn’t be surprised. Since when would Romeo like him?
“Yeah, no problem…dude. You can stay the night too if you want.”
“Yay, sleepover time!”
“Ok, calm down, don’t hurt yourself.”
Mercutio made them both hot chocolate. Romeo picked out a movie, a romance movie of course. They curled up in Mercutio’s bed, mugs of hot chocolate in hand, computer in Mercutio’s lap. Romeo made sure to hog all the blankets, using the excuse that he was horribly injured any time Mercutio tried to take one back. Eventually, the hot chocolate had been reduced to dregs, the end credits rolled and Romeo lay asleep on Mercutio’s chest, snoring slightly. Mercutio wished they could stay like this forever. But slowly, he pulled Romeo off of him, grabbing the mugs off the nightstand and setting his computer on his desk. He set the mugs in the kitchen sink and made sure his front and back doors were locked. Twice. He returned to his room, seeing Romeo hugging a pillow now, his sleepy face pulled together in deep, deep thought. Mercutio slowly pulled a blanket from around the other boy, wrapping himself in it and drifting off to sleep in the sliver of bed Romeo had left him.