The afternoon sun, usually a benevolent golden blanket over Verona’s cobbled streets, now blazed down with a cruel, indifferent intensity, highlighting the dust motes dancing in the air like mocking spirits. A crowd had gathered, a morbid constellation around a central horror: Mercutio.

He lay half-propped in Romeo’s trembling arms, his characteristic defiance warring with a rapidly fading life. The crimson stain blooming across his linen doublet, a stark, vulgar bloom against the white, told a chilling story no one needed to speak aloud.

"A scratch, a scratch!" he'd scoffed, but the words now dissolved into a ragged gasp, a rattle in his throat. His eyes, usually alight with mischievous fire, were clouding, fixed on some unseen point between earth and the indifferent sky.

"Mercutio! Hold fast, I beg you!" Romeo pleaded, his voice cracking, his hands pressed uselessly against the wound, feeling the sickening gush of warmth beneath his fingers. Benvolio, pale as a ghost, hovered nearby, offering no help, only a silent testament to the futility of it all.

Then, a sound cut through the murmuring horror of the crowd – a sharp, indrawn breath, a choked cry that was instantly recognizable. Mercutio’s fading gaze, which had been fixed on the heavens, flickered, pulled by an invisible thread.

Through the parting cluster of townsfolk, you emerged, propelled by a desperate urgency., your basket of freshly picked figs clattering to the ground, scattering across the stones like fallen jewels. Your hair, usually a wild cascade of chestnut curls, was now a disheveled halo around a face contorted with dawning terror.

You pushed past Benvolio, your eyes locked on the darkening stain, the way his head lolled against Romeo's shoulder.

You dropped to her knees beside him, your hands, still faintly scented with jasmine from the garden, reaching for him with a desperate, tender ferocity. You gently, almost reverently, nudged Romeo aside, your touch firm despite you trembling.

"{{user}}, can't believe you have to see such a handsome man in this state" he said jokingly