She woke to frost on the windowpanes and dread hammering in her heart. Her memories of the night before were murky: a pale hand on her shoulder, the sound of material ripping, a man's low cursing, gunshots, blood, someone screaming, had it been it her?; and then His voice. Pietrov's.
She had blacked out then, and had come to with Pietrov's soft kisses and murmurings of love and concern, but how had he found her? She hadn't told him where she was going, she had been furious with him and his overbearing ways, determined to show him that while she loved him, he did not own her.
She rolled over, looking for Pietrov, but the bed was cold and empty beside her. She sat up and looked around the room, but there wasn't a trace of him anywhere. With increasing alarm...
The doorbell rang, disturbing Juliet's concentration. "Drat it!" She threw her pen down in disgust. "That is the fourth time today that I have been interrupted, I told Romeo I needed a butler!" His response had annoyed her, a bunch of heavy sighs combined with that "reasonable" tone he tried to use with her. It made her feel like a spoiled child. Then he went on and on about their finances, as if she were stupid and couldn't remember the fact that while they might have been gifted the house, they had not been gifted with the money for its upkeep. In fact, both of them had to bring in an income just to keep the lights and water on. The expenses on their "gift" were ridiculous.
Romeo had told her he didn't just want to make a paycheck, but he wanted to make a difference with his life as well. Of course, she wished him the best of luck with that, even if she thought he was all kinds of crazy for joining the mayoral campaign--- as a lowly peon of all things! Not like it would do much to change things either, the Mayor was below the Prince after all. At least he was ambitious, unlike some she knew, like her brother Tybalt who spent his days sleeping and his nights fighting and drinking. No, Romeo had set before himself quite the herculean goal: changing "Vernonaville's archaic ways", as he put it.
She picked up her pen again, and twirled it absentmindedly between her fingers. Her idea was to write a best seller, and make easy money that way. She had always toyed with the idea, and it seemed the perfect timing to try her hand at it, but so far, it wasn't as easy as she had expected.
The doorbell rang again, more insistently this time. She didn't care about logic or reason, she wanted a butler darnit! "Hold your horses!" Juliet muttered under her breath. She cast one last longing look at her notebook, before putting her pen down and getting up to answer the door.
She flung the door open, "Yes?" She asked crankily. This time it had better not be a salesperson.
The man in front of her was cute in a impish kind of way, and he paid her ill humor no mind, instead he grinned at her. "Oh! It's the lovely Juliet!" He exclaimed, as he gave her an enthusiastic hug.
She pushed the strange man away from her. "Don't touch me! And who the heck are you?"
"What? Romeo didn't tell you about me?" He feigned being hurt. "I am wounded, terribly wounded."
Juliet eyed him warily. He didn't seem entirely normal, and if Romeo was playing a prank on her, she would kill him, slowly and painfully. "I say," she said stiffly, "Mr.??"
"Summerdream!"
"Mr. Summerdream, I have no idea who..."
"Oh, no, my friends call me Puck!" He said sunnily. "And I am sure we are going to be the best of friends!"
Juliet definitely didn't trust the twinkle in that man's eye. She needed to get rid of the strange man, and quickly. "I think..."
His face brightened up. "Excellent idea!" he interrupted. "Invite me inside, out of the cold." He gave a slight shiver, and without warning he slipped past her and into the house.
"Hey wait!" She called out after him, alarmed. Had he really just invited himself into her house??
"He is not staying." Juliet said firmly.
"Puck, what are you doing here?" Romeo shook his head, "Besides trying to get me into trouble with my wife."
"She is very pretty, but needs to work on her sense of humor!"
"Puck!" Romeo warned.
"It's so cold outside, surely you wouldn't make me sleep in the snow?"
Juliet was impressed with the speed in which Puck could turn from charming to pitiful, while still managing to look adorable, much like a woebegone puppy.
"He's not staying." Juliet repeated.
Romeo hesitated. "Juliet..."
Juliet countered. "Romeo..."
"He is my friend, and he has no where to go, we can't just..."
"Yes Juliet! Have a heart! I don't believe any of those things that other people say about you. I know you are compassionate and..."
Juliet narrowed her eyes. "What people? What things?"
"Well," Puck said thoughtfully, "where should I begin?"
Puck absentmindedly tapped his fingers against his thigh, lost in a million memories of times past. He had been born an awkward child, to aloof parents more interested in themselves than in the children they'd had; and moving to Veronaville when he was six hadn't alleviated that any. If anything, it had exacerbated it, thrusting him into a society that hadn't understood him or liked him, because he had been different from them...he had come from the "other side of the tracks" so to speak. The horror!! Could anything be worse than that?
Puck snorted. Oh yeah, there had been, his pointy ears, unwashed hair, torn and dirty clothes, and his tendency to be a little mischievous...harmless pranks, all of them, but not many found them amusing, least of all...Tybalt.
Puck didn't know exactly what it was about him that Tybalt had taken an instant dislike to, but from day one Tybalt had set out to make his life miserable. The incident had only cemented it. He had been crying, he remembered, sobbing really, if he wanted to be honest, when he had felt the soft touch of a little hand. A girl, hardly two years old with big green eyes had looked up at him, a flower clutched in her tiny fist. She'd held the flower out to him, and he'd automatically taken it from her, without even thinking about it first. She had smiled at him, a cherub's smile, and patted his shoulder. He hadn't been able to understand her garbled words, but her intent had shone clearly through those emerald eyes of hers.
It was the first bit of kindness he had ever received, and it didn't matter that it had come from someone so small. She had touched his heart, and warmed his tears away.
And then, suddenly, Tybalt had been there, all fire and malice, shouting and yelling, kicking and punching. The blows to Puck's body had hurt, but what had hurt him more was to hear the crying of the little cherub, the one who had shown him love in his moment of despair. With every blow to his ribs, he had heard Tybalt's voice, screaming over and over and over, "Stay away from my sister you little ?!&*! Stay away from her you pointy eared freak!!"
He hadn't known who she was, his little cherub, until Tybalt had beaten it into him; she was none other than Juliet Capp, beloved granddaughter of Consort Capp. How she had happened upon him that day, he didn't know, but he had kept that cherished memory of her kindness close to him, and had watched her from afar. He had never made the mistake of being near her again. Until this very day.
He remembered too, the day he had met a boy his age with somber brown eyes, who had befriended the lonely boy Puck had been. Romeo had thumbed his nose at Tybalt and all the others, and laughed at Puck's pranks. They had been thick as thieves, both of them had played off the other. The taunts and cruel snubs had no longer hurt as much, now that he had a friend to weather the storm with.
As they had grown older, Romeo had started to attract the attention of the fairer sex. His friend was naturally athletic, charismatic, and could make a mean Pansotti alla genovese, all nicely packaged up with the vast Montague fortune. Puck had teased him a great many times about it, and Romeo had taken his ribbing with his usual good humor.
But then she had happened.
Roslyn.
A distant Capulet cousin that Romeo had sworn the sun and moon had shone upon. Puck hadn't cared for her much, she had soul eater eyes, and wouldn't even deign to speak to him. Romeo hadn't noticed though, he had been too enamored of her icy beauty.
After their first date, Romeo had declared that he was going to make Roslyn his wife. Puck had tried his best to get along with her, out of deference for his friend, but she had not reciprocated. In fact, she had it made it quite plain to Puck that he was an unwanted third wheel.
Of course, she had been nothing but peaches and cream when Romeo was around, so all of Puck's attempts to save his friend had been for naught, for Romeo was far too gone under her spell to pay any attention to Puck's warnings. Puck had tried to be philosophical about it, it wasn't like he was going to hang around Veronaville. He'd had big plans for his life, and they all revolved around leaving Veronaville in his rear view mirror.
He hadn't been able to kick the dust of Veronaville off his shoes quick enough to suit him, even though he had graduated a year early. He had left right away, without even a word to his parents, but he had promised to stay in touch with Romeo, and then he had promptly broken that word. He had reasoned in his mind that his friend would be enjoying his vows, and well, there was no love lost between him and Roslyn. She would have been glad to be rid of him.
But then, one day, out of the blue, his younger sister Tomi had called him. He had been happy to hear from her, and they had exchanged news. It was then that he had found out that Romeo had gotten married, but not to Roslyn, no, to the fair Juliet. He had listened in disbelief as his sister regaled him with the tale of just how Romeo and Juliet had ended up married.
He could hardly comprehend it, his little cherub married to his best friend? It wasn't like Puck had wanted her for himself...no, that idea had never entered his head. To him, she would always be the little cherub that had lifted his spirits on his lowest day, not that she had ever known it. She had been too young to remember him, but he remembered her kindness just the same.
He thoughtfully tapped his chin. Romeo and Juliet. Unhappily married. At the moment, at any rate. He scratched his nose, and pursed his lips. There just might be something that he could do for them, that would in some small way, repay his debt to them. They both deserved to be happy...
Puck nodded to himself. Yes indeed, that would be his mission, to make Romeo and Juliet fall in love. First, he would start with the written word, using Romeo's own handwriting, or a reasonable facsimile of it, if Juliet didn't look too hard...
Dearest Juliet....
Notes: Welcome to my new legacy!! Juliet Capp was one of my favorite sims in Sims2 (loved Puck too!!), and I loved Veronaville. Played so many hours on that game, it was ridiculous.
I also want to say thank you to the creators of the sims I am using---I fail in that while I had written down the whos and whats---I have lost it. *puts head down in shame* Anyways---I do remember using Buckey's Romeo D'Amore for Romeo, because Buckley makes such lovely sims!!! I saw him on my tumblr and I couldn't hit download fast enough, lol
I've also snagged sims from a number of legacies, so that I'll have some good genetic diversity. So you might catch a glimpse or two of a familiar looking sim. It also makes it a little more fun for me to see what some of my favorite sims are up to in my town.
For instance--this happened as soon as I placed her into town:
Skuld is giving everyone fashion advice, lol It didn't surprise me that she left poor Kent sobbing on the street though, ha!
A small list of some of the sims that I added:
I also had downloaded a bunch of sim dumps, and put some of them in there as well. It's interesting how sometimes the pretty sims make ugly babies, lol
I'll try to keep up on this one, my RL this past year has been crap, so sometimes I am just not in the mood to do anything. =(
Thanks for reading!
