Chapter Text
"You need to make sure to stay in character when you're onstage but your character isn't actively talking, " said Todd.
Neil gently tossed the hardback folio into the other boy's lap. "No, I agree." He conceded, standing up. "Skip to Titania's exit."
Jokingly high-pitched, Todd pulled a bookmark out, flipped a page, and finished Titania’s scene:
We shall chide downright, if I longer stay.
Neil, smiling as Todd began Oberon’s lines, positioned himself for the scene.
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ ✧.*
“My gentle Puck, come hither.
Neil and Todd had run lines every evening they could since the cast was announced.
Thou rememb’rest since once I sat upon a promontory...
It wasn't that they needed to, seeing as Neil had his lines perfected by the third week. They kept the daily practice because Todd liked seeing Neil truly happy, the light in his eyes and the change in his face, and Neil liked absorbing himself into the scene. In those moments, Todd could be commanding like Oberon the king or confident like Lysander, and Neil could be in awe of him. The fairy Goodfellow, standing enchanted, listens to the one person he would do anything for. Oberon sits on the edge of his bed, lit from the side with yellow. Every detail of his face, studied and memorized by Puck, is carved by shadows. The king turns toward the lamp, locking eyes with the sprite.
... hear the sea-maid's music.”
Puck huddled close to his liege, and touched his knees to the hardened ends of Oberon's loafers. He leaned forward, stabilizing himself with his hand on Oberon's thigh, and gazed up.
I remember.
Puck said.
Todd's chest lost its air, and he suddenly became aware of every rib in his body. He hadn't felt a reaction this visceral to Neil since their first interaction, before they had even lived together. Neil was so confident walking up to him that day, and Todd supposed that's what initially led him to pay so much attention. He grew to love Neil's voice and mannerisms, and how he treated him just a little differently than Charlie or the rest of his friends. He talked to Todd like he was building himself in Todd's brain.
Todd wouldn’t call it love — it wasn't like how he felt about girls at his old school, and he was sure he wouldn't feel that way about any guy, yet sometimes he let himself say it was, just in his mind before it fell asleep, and it felt right, attainable even. Neil didn't hide his occasional shaking around Todd like he did in groups, and Todd learned to help him through it. But in that moment, Todd snapped back to reality, and shyly glanced down to his book. Looking up at his roommate, Neil had his typical slight smile on his face, and his hair swooped just to his eyebrow, like it does when he tousles it as he thinks. His eyes shimmered, gazing directly into Todd's. His expression was so perfect, Todd knew his entire being was in character…
…which is what made it ache more. Neil wasn't looking back at Todd as Neil, but as Robin Goodfellow to Oberon.
Er-
Todd's voice cracked a little; he hadn't fully breathed yet.
That very time I saw, but thou couldst not…