One Shots (Feat. Shakespeare's Characters)

Time Stops When We're Together

A/N: The song linked at the top is SO perfect for this one shot. Ruth B. is amazing, and you all should give her stuff a listen.

*************************************

*Benvolio PoV*

I stepped up to the ticket booth nervously. Rationally, there was nothing for me to be worried about, Mercutio had said so himself. But that didn't stop my hands from shaking as I pulled out my wallet.

I took a fortifying breath, attempting to steady my hands. With a small smile, I spoke.

"Two wristbands, please." The woman nodded, passing me a pair of brightly colored paper strips.

"Twenty bucks, kid."

I pulled a twenty from my wallet and slid it onto the counter. The lady waved me away, already focused on the man behind me. Mercutio was leaning on a pillar a few feet away, staring at his phone.

"Took you long enough. I missed you," Mercutio smiled, pulling me towards his chest.

"I was gone for maybe five minutes, cool it," I protested. Mercutio pulled the wristbands from my hands with a smug smile.

"Felt like forever," He replied. He fell silent, and after a moment I felt a wristband slide around my wrist. After a moment of thought, Mercutio circled his fingers around my wrist as well.

"Come on, let's go ride some rides." He dragged me to the nearest ride, his hold on my wrist unforgiving as we stepped into the line.

"You can let go of me now," I complained, attempting to tug my arm out of his grip.

"Never." Mercutio kissed my knuckles and laced our fingers together.

"Oh my gods, you are actually the worst. Could you at least grab my other hand? I need my left hand to, like, write and stuff," I finished lamely. I wasn't actually mad, I was just a dick and wanted to be annoying.

"Nope, you'll have to suffer because I'm not letting go. Besides, I can't imagine you'll need to do much writing out here."

"I hate you so much."

"No you don't. You love me!" Mercutio smiled cheekily.

"Whatever," I replied lamely. Before Mer could respond, the operator waved us forward.

"Wristbands or tickets?" The woman asked tiredly. Mercutio held up our linked hands to show the wristbands and she waved half heartedly towards the ride.

"Remove all loose jewelry and shoes, you know the drill." She called after us.

The next few hours were a whirlwind of spinning and screaming, peppered with the occasional rip-off carnival game.

The sun had nearly set, and the grounds were illuminated by the thousands of brightly colored lights adorning the rides. Everything was basked in a surreal yellowish-gold glow, and it was beautiful. The view, however, did little to distract from my nerves. So far, my plan had been going smoothly, save for the numerous times Mer had nearly fucked it up in his obliviousness. It seemed like the fact that I was intentionally skipping one of the rides hadn't quite gotten through to him.

"Oh, I love the Ferris wheel! Let's go on it!" Mercutio gushed, pointing to the very obvious wheel as if I would have somehow missed it.

I shrugged, stomach twisting nervously. The plan was that we would ride the Ferris wheel in the dark, because that's when the grounds looked the coolest. Also, it was the most romantic, but that's besides the point.

"It's better in the dark, besides we haven't had any disgusting fair food yet." I said, desperate for an excuse to keep Mer away from the ride until the sun had set.

"I'm not really hungry, but we can stop."

"Look, they have caramel apples!" I gushed, shoving my boyfriend towards the nearest food stand.

"When, in the entire time you've been dating me, have I expressed interest in eating fruit?" Mercutio grouched. I shrugged.

"They have other things, but the apples are good." I responded, glancing towards the trees bordering the fairgrounds. The sun inched further from view, and I very nearly let out a sigh of relief. Keeping Mercutio away from the Ferris wheel was proving to be more difficult than I had expected.

I turned back to the stand, scanning the menu distractedly.

"Uh, I'll have a popcorn," I stuttered to the employee.

"And I'll have a large cotton candy," Mercutio interjected, sliding a twenty onto the counter. I whirled to him, cheeks coloring.

"I can pay!" I protested. Mercutio shrugged.

"We're dating, that's how this works. Besides, you bought the wristbands, it's only fair."

The employee cleared her throat in an "Are you just going to stand there and argue all day" sort of way and Mercutio smiled sheepishly at her. He grabbed our items and his change. Before I could divert him again, Mercutio strutted over to the Ferris wheel and got into the line.

"Don't think I didn't know you were avoiding this." He said cheekily, biting a chunk off of his cotton candy. My stomach dropped to the floor, and I started blushing again.

"I-I can explain!" I started, but Mer cut me off.

"Come on, this is my favorite ride. It's not like you didn't know that!" Mercutio said, an endearing half smile on his face.

"Uh, yeah!" I rushed. Crisis averted for the time being. Now onto the risky part. There's a plethora of things that could go wrong. I wasn't feeling particularly hungry anymore, so I excused myself to throw away the remainder of my popcorn.

At nearly the same moment I returned to the line, the ride stopped and people started getting off.

This is actually happening. You're going to get on that Ferris wheel with your boyfriend, and then you're going to do the most cliche thing in the entire world and kiss him at the top.

Nothing could go wrong here.

Suddenly we were at the front of the line and the operator beckoned to us.

"Please don't rock the seat, keep your hands and feet inside the ride at all times, and do not exit until the ride has come to a complete stop," the employee informed us. Mercutio bounded up the steps and into the seat. I followed, feeling more nervous than I had in my entire life.

The gate on the seat swung closed and the ride ground to a cacophonous start.

The ground shrank below us as the ride gently brought us closer to the sky.

"I know it's just perception, but it feels like I can see everything up here," Mercutio commented, leaning over the side of the seat to get a better view.

All I can see is you.

Mercutio glanced towards me, grinning, and pulled me to his side of the seat.

"Look!" He said, gesturing wildly towards the glimmering lights below us.

"It's amazing," I whispered, a small smile on my face.

"So are you," Mercutio whispered, bumping his shoulder into mine. I blushed. We were looking directly at each other now. A gentle breeze blew past us, making a strand of his hair fall into his eyes.

Part of me wanted to brush it away. But more of me wanted to do nothing but close the gap between our lips.

So I did.

*************************************
A/N: Ahhhhh! I love this one! It was something I thought of on the fly and I had a lot of fun writing it!

As for you, Mer, this is completely unrelated to anything involving you. 100%. Totally.

As always, thanks for reading, and I will see all of you humans next time.

Peace.