Act Normal (Eriol/Tomoyo)

[storypaint]

Title: Act Normal
Day/Theme: 22 // you'll catch the flu or you'll catch the city
Series: Cardcaptor Sakura
Character/Pairing: Hiiragizawa Eriol/Daidouji Tomoyo
Rating: G
Disclaimer: Cardcaptor Sakura belongs to CLAMP.

Synopsis: Eriol and Tomoyo practice their acting, just like they do every day.

When she came upon him in the park, he seemed to be in the throes of some inspired madness, waving his arms around and speaking loudly and generally looking foolish.

When he noticed her, he jumped a little in surprise, but didn't seem ashamed. His eyes glittered with excitement.

"What are you doing?" Tomoyo asked.

"Practicing," he said, and she remembered that he had been cast as Hamlet in this year's production. Official practice started next week, but she had already learned all the lines Ophelia spoke.

"I see," she said. She pulled a cloth from her backpack and sat down under a nearby tree, her eyes focused on him.

"I had a spell going-- most people wouldn't have seen me," he said. Clearly he was puzzled by her ability to notice him.

"I always look twice," she said faintly, and waited for him to start speaking again. When he did, she watched him act, the passion he put into Hamlet's character, and the sorrow Hamlet felt that she thought Eriol probably felt too.

Sure, his mother hadn't married his father's murderer, but his one true love had sunk into the Meditteranean Sea (dying like Ophelia did, how strange) and they hadn't found her for three days. A tragic accident, a tragic character... That was Eriol.

But if Hamlet had smiled as much as Eriol did, there wouldn't be too much to the play.

A feather drifted down from the tree above, something downy that she brushed through her fingers as she thought.

If Ophelia had learned to love like Tomoyo did, then perhaps the water wouldn't have welcomed her.

But who is to say that the lines would change and that people and their passions could ever be reborn into something different? Wouldn't Tomoyo always love Sakura, and wouldn't Eriol always be Clow somewhere inside?

They would stand up and pretend love on a stage, and play at madness, and never brush close to the truth. Eriol and Tomoyo were too polite for that.

She liked to watch him act, liked to see him trade his character for this other one who let himself mourn. Tomoyo liked to act as well, and be this other character who chose to die instead of hurt. It was weak, but sometimes Tomoyo wanted to be weak.

When they performed and he jumped into her grave onstage (a coffin-like box scattered around with dirt), Hamlet ardently defended his love for Ophelia.

She smiled at him, since the audience couldn't see her face, and he almost flubbed a line in surprise, but he didn't speak of it afterwards.

They never mentioned to anyone else that on Thursday afternoons they still met at the park and pretended to be someone they weren't-- Hamlet, Macbeth, kings, queens, gods. It was good practice, after all.

"Who are you?" Tomoyo asked him once, breaking character.

"I don't know," he said with one of his trademark smiles, and she let it be.

He didn't correct her for breaking character. He just remembered that honest smile of hers and wished she would share it more often. She felt he should smile for real sometimes, but she never told him. They lived word by word, line by line, soliquy by lonely soliquy.

All the world's a stage, and all the men and women simply players.

Comments

[claire-chan.livejournal.com]

I think reading your livejournal has given me access to more good CCS fanfiction than all my other fanfic communities put together!!!

CCS and Shakespeare are a good mix. ^_^

Incidentally, the guy I like played Polonius in Hamlet.

[storypaint.livejournal.com]

You know, I wasn't sure that Shakespeare would work with CCS, but it surprised me. ^^

And I think your reading my LJ gave me access to the most feedback I've ever gotten. Thanks!!!