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FIC: Realism (Hamlet Done Haru-style)
Title: Realism (Hamlet Done Haru-style)
Rating: PG
Fandom: Haru wo Daiteita (Embracing Love)
Pairing: Kikuchi/Onozuka
Characters: Katou, Kikuchi, Onozuka, Yoshizumi, Asano
Word count: ~1,975
Disclaimer: No money is being made off this story; consider it a little wish fulfillment on my part. Should be obvious, but Hamlet dialogue was written by William Shakespeare, not me. ~_^
Summary: Katou's portrayal of Hamlet is perhaps a little too realistic.
Author's note: I blame this fic all on
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bronze_ribbons for feeding the plot bunny! ^_^ This was inspired by her drabble More Than Kin and Less Than Kind on the Youka Nitta IJ Asylum--I couldn't get the image of Katou and Kikuchi acting in Hamlet together out of my mind, and this is the result. I borrowed the director's name, Ninagawa, from the original drabble. (Please note--although Kikuchi and Onozuka are a couple in this fic, it is a stand-alone story and not part of my Kikuchi/Onozuka series that begins with Comeback.)
If you're a bit rusty on your Shakespeare, you can find a summary of Hamlet here, and the dialogue for the complete final scene here.
***
"The point--envenom'd too!" Hamlet (played by Katou Youji) shouted, his eyes blazing with hatred and fury. "Then, venom, to thy work!"
Even though the audience knew what to expect, they still gasped as Hamlet viciously stabbed King Claudius (played by Kikuchi Katsuya) with his sword. Claudius gasped also, clutching at his wound as he fell to his knees, a look of mingled shock and fear and anger in his eyes.
"Treason! Treason!" the courtiers cried frantically.
"O, yet defend me, friends," Claudius pleaded. "I am but hurt."
"Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane," Hamlet snarled, seizing the cup of poisoned wine that his mother, the Queen, had drank. He grabbed Claudius by the chin, wrenched his head up, and forced the cup against his lips. "Drink off this potion," Hamlet growled; Claudius gurgled and choked as the poisoned wine ran down his throat. "Is thy union here? Follow my mother."
The body of the King slumped to the floor and Hamlet stared down at it with satisfaction. Meanwhile, the dying Laertes (played by Onozuka Yuu) crawled over to Hamlet and reached up to clutch at the Prince's tunic, hauling himself up off the floor. He locked eyes with Hamlet, with a gaze of fierce intensity.
"He is justly served; it is a poison temper'd by himself," Laertes said in a voice that seemed quiet, yet still carried to the back of the theater. "Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet: mine and my father's death come not upon thee, nor thine on me." Then he gracefully collapsed, his body falling as if by accident across that of Claudius.
Hamlet continued with his death scene, dying in the arms of his friend Horatio (Yoshizumi Naotaka), and then Prince Fortinbras (Asano Nobuyuki) arrived to claim the throne of Denmark and close the play.
The cast took their bows and received a standing ovation. The curtain came down and the lights came up, and the audience filed out of the theater, chattering excitedly about the play.
"What an amazing performance," one man said. "I always thought that Katou Youji was just another pretty boy, but he really can act, after all!"
"Of course he can!" his female companion said indignantly. "If you'd seen 'Winter Cicadas,' you would know that!"
"He was nominated for a Best Actor award, after all," another woman chimed in.
"I wasn't interested in seeing another samurai drama," the man admitted. "But now that I've seen his acting, I'd like to watch it."
"Onozuka-san was wonderful, too," the second woman sighed. "He's so princely that I'd kind of like to see him play Hamlet."
"No way!" the first woman protested. "Onozuka is a good actor, but he's not on Katou-san's level yet!"
The man hastily changed the subject, hoping to prevent an argument. "Kikuchi Katsuya was really good, too. It's good to have him back in Japan again after his long absence. Actually, he's really matured as an actor, so maybe his time in America was well spent."
"The scene where Hamlet killed the king was very intense--it almost frightened me in spite of myself, though I knew it was only a play," the first woman said.
"I noticed during the curtain call that the King's tunic was torn and bloodstained," the second woman chimed in. "I didn't expect them to use special effects like that."
"I guess that Ninagawa-kantoku went all out with this production," the man said. "It really was a splendid performance!"
***
Backstage, a shirtless Kikuchi sat on a chair, glowering at Katou as Onozuka knelt in front of him, applying a little antiseptic and a bandage to the shallow, bloody scratch that ran across his stomach.
"You know that you're only supposed to pretend to run me through, don't you, Katou-kun?" Kikuchi asked dryly.
Katou gave him a sharp, wolfish smile and replied, "I was aiming for realism."
"And I think you left bruises on my face," Kikuchi complained, rubbing his jaw.
"More realism," Katou said.
"I think that you're enjoying your role just a little too much, Katou-kun," Yoshizumi said with a mischievous smile, and Kikuchi shifted his glare over to the other actor.
"Katou-san, you can't be shredding his costume like this every night!" the wardrobe mistress shouted, waving Kikuchi's torn tunic at Katou accusingly. "We don't have the time or the money to be replacing costumes after every performance! I can sew up the tear this time, but you'd better hope that the blood washes out!"
"Gee, thanks for being so concerned about me," Kikuchi said sarcastically.
"I wonder just what you did to make Katou-kun so angry at you, Kikuchi-san?" Yoshizumi mused out loud with an air of affected innocence. "Something to do with Iwaki-kun, perhaps?"
"What goes on in your personal lives is none of my business--except when it affects the show," Ninagawa said in a stern voice, and everyone fell silent. "Katou-kun, these swords may be stage props, but they can be dangerous if mishandled; that is why you and Onozuka-kun went through extensive training and rehearsals. I don't ever want to see you playing around with a sword like that again!"
"I don't think that he was playing," Kikuchi muttered under his breath.
Ninagawa shot him a quelling look, then turned back to Katou and said, "If there are any more 'accidents,' I will find someone else to play Hamlet. Is that clear, Katou-kun?"
"Yes, Kantoku-san," Katou said obediently, if a bit sullenly, and the director nodded curtly and walked off.
"It's okay if you get kicked off the play, Katou," Onozuka sang out, with a sweet smile on his face. "I have all your lines memorized, and I'd be happy to step into the role."
"Funny, I would have thought you'd prefer to play Gertrude," Asano muttered, not quite under his breath.
"Asano-kun, you're just jealous that you have such a small role," Onozuka replied without missing a beat, his smile not wavering in the slightest.
A slight narrowing of Asano's eyes was all that betrayed his irritation. He returned Onozuka's smile with one of his own that was just as falsely sweet, and said, "You are mistaken, Onozuka-kun--I am very happy with the role of Fortinbras. After all, I get to watch Katou-san die and claim his kingdom for my own. All that belonged to Katou becomes mine in the end."
Onozuka burst into startled laughter and gave his fellow actor a look of new respect. "I must admit, I never thought of it that way before, but you have a point, Asano-kun."
Katou gave both of them a fierce glare and growled threateningly, "Just remember that Hamlet's kingdom doesn't include Iwaki-san!"
"No offense, Yoshizumi-san, but it would have been interesting to see Iwaki-san play Horatio," Asano said with a sly grin. "It's too bad that he's busy working on a movie and couldn't take time off to be in the play."
"That would be interesting," Yoshizumi agreed good-naturedly, taking no apparent offense. "However, it would give the play a very different subtext--Katou-Hamlet would never have given poor Ophelia so much as a second glance with Iwaki-san around!"
"Oh, I don't know--don't you think that Hamlet and Horatio already seem kind of gay as it is?" Onozuka laughed. "Hamlet dying in Horatio's arms, and Horatio wants to kill himself, too, although Hamlet stops him."
"Speaking of subtext, I notice that you manage to fall into Kikuchi-san's lap every night when you die, Onozuka-kun," Asano observed wryly. "I don't recall that being in the stage directions."
"Ninagawa-kantoku didn't object when we improvised it that way in rehearsals," Onozuka said with a shrug, then gave Kikuchi an impish smile. "Besides, the stage floor is very hard and cold, and Kikuchi-san makes a nice cushion for my fall!"
"I live to serve," Kikuchi said sarcastically, but he smiled and reached down to tousle Onozuka's hair affectionately.
"It's getting late, people, and we have a matinee performance tomorrow," the assistant director reminded them. "You should all change and head back to the hotel to get some rest."
The actors began heading over to the dressing rooms to change out of their costumes and wash off their make-up, but Onozuka beckoned for Katou to stay behind. Once they were alone, Onozuka gave him another sweet smile, but there was a hint of a razor's edge beneath it, and a cold, ruthless gleam in his eyes.
"Kikuchi-san belongs to me, Katou--every inch of his skin, every ounce of his flesh, and every last drop of his blood. No one is allowed to cause the slightest damage to that beautiful body except me. I'll let it slide this once since Kikuchi-san did wrong you and Iwaki-san, but if you hurt him again, you'll answer to me."
"That dirty old man deserved it," Katou said defiantly. "Besides, what are you going to do--run me through with your sword? I'm a better swordsman than you any day of the week." He smiled confidently; he had put extra hours in with the fencing teacher, far more than was required for the choreographed fight scene, and both the teacher and the director had praised his dedication.
"Don't be silly," Onozuka scoffed. "I would never do anything so blatant, that might get me fired or even arrested. I'm much more subtle than that." He turned his head in the direction of the table on which all the props were laid out, until his gaze came to rest on the cup that was supposed to hold the poisoned wine. "You might want to be careful of what you eat and drink, Katou," Onozuka said sweetly. "One never knows when one might get food poisoning. You know, that fish we had for dinner tonight might have gone bad..."
"You wouldn't really poison me," Katou said, but there was already a hint of doubt creeping into his eyes.
"Try me," Onozuka said sweetly. "Not only would I be protecting my lover, I might get the lead role as well; I wasn't kidding about memorizing your lines. And despite what he said, Asano would probably be happy to move into the role of Laertes, and one of the extras could play Fortinbras."
Katou had broken out into a cold sweat. "But...we're friends," he protested weakly.
Onozuka gently patted his cheek, as if to reassure him. "I know, and that's why I'm giving you this warning. If it had been Asano, I'd have just gone ahead and poisoned him already."
"But Kikuchi tried to force himself on Iwaki-san," Katou argued.
"I know, and you've had your revenge, so leave it at that," Onozuka replied. "I can assure you, I'm keeping Kikuchi-san much too busy to have time to even look at another man, so your precious Iwaki-san is safe." He smiled in that razor-sharp way again. "And besides, he knows what I would do to him if he cheated on me. So just leave Kikuchi-san up to me, Katou."
Katou nodded mutely. Onozuka patted him on the shoulder and said pleasantly, "I'm so glad that we had this conversation," then sauntered off to the dressing rooms.
Katou exhaled slowly and shook his head. "Phew, I'm glad that he's my friend; I'd hate to think what he'd be like if I were his enemy!" Then he suddenly grinned and laughed; maybe Kikuchi had been adequately punished, after all, by having the devious and ruthless Onozuka as his boyfriend!
"The play's the thing," he chuckled to himself. "Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King!" Whistling cheerfully, he hurried off to his dressing room to call Iwaki-san and let him know how tonight's performance had gone.
THE END.
Next story in the series: Strange Bedfellows
***
ETA 1/15/09: I thought that Ninagawa-kantoku was an OC that Bronze Ribbons invented, but he is a real-life director famous for staging Japanese-language productions of Shakespeare, including Hamlet.
Afterword: I was so delighted with the gift drabble from
bronze_ribbons that I couldn't stop thinking about what Kikuchi and Katou would be like together onstage--I kept picturing Katou "accidentally" getting a little carried away during the scene where he kills King Claudius. ^__^ I was actually in the middle of working on my follow-up to First Date, but I was obsessing about the Hamlet idea so much that I couldn't concentrate, so I decided to just write it and get it out of my system.Originally, it was just going to be a little drabble where Kikuchi says the line about "You know that you're only supposed to pretend to run me through," and Katou responds with his quip about aiming for realism. But then I thought it would be fun to have Onozuka in the cast, but if I'm going to show the scene with Claudius and Hamlet and Laertes, then I need a Horatio and Fortinbras, so Yoshizumi and Asano ended up being in the fic, too.
Actually, I thought that Onozuka and Miyasaka would make a great Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, but I only wanted to focus on the final scene of the play, so Onozuka ended up being Laertes instead. Another one of my ideas was to have an all-male cast, as in Shakespeare's day, with men playing the female roles so that Onozuka could play Queen Gertrude, which would have been fun, but I wanted to keep the story short, so instead I ended up just giving Asano that sarcastic line about how Onozuka should play Gertrude instead of Hamlet.
Hamlet is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, partly because the university that I went to put on a marvelous production of it awhile back. In that production, Hamlet did indeed die in Horatio's arms (although the script doesn't actually specify that in the stage directions), and like Onozuka, it made me think slashy thoughts. ^_^
I also borrowed a line from Hamlet for one of my Petshop of Horrors fics (The Day After): "The lady doth protest too much". Police detective Jill says it to her macho partner Leon when he tries to adamantly deny that he has just spent the night with the androgynously beautiful Count D. Another Petshop writer used that same line in a similar circumstance in a completely different fic, and we later laughed about how great minds think alike!
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and you have Onozuka and Kikuchi here! you really makes me fall in love with this pairing.
amnd having Katou knowing their relationship is priceless! and i assume Iwaki know as well.. makes me wanna know what's their reaction when they first found out that Onozuka and Kikuchi is going out! XD
ivy
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So true! Me thinks there should be some slash fictions on them! XD
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