#dpsficexchange

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Dead Poets Society (1989) Rating: Not Rated Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Characters: Neil Perry, Todd Anderson, Charlie Dalton, Gerard Pitts Summary:

This is for @youtube-isnotonfire for the @dpsficexchange! The request was: “Neil being so excited and trying to get Charlie excited about Shakespeare. How their exchanges for the next week go of Neil trying to infect Charlie with Shakespeare and whether or not Charlie determines at the end of the week that Shakespeare is worth it.“

I hope I did it justice and that you like it! :)

word count: 1.638

Charlie blamed Mr. Keating. No matter how funny, smart, and generally awesome Mr. Keating was, Charlie blamed him for this – Neil’s new obsession with Shakespeare.

This is what happened.

On Monday Mr. Keating entered the classroom with a book in his hands. He was obviously in a splendid mood, judging by the song he was whistling. He showed the same enthusiasm as he did on his very first day of teaching. The week before they had started to talk about the early modern period in class, which is why Keating could finally talk about one of his favorite books.

It was the one in his hands. He held it in front of his chest after he reached the front of the classroom. His hands were framing the cover, the book on perfect display for the students. The pages were a bit yellowed and crinkled – it had been picked up many times.

A soft murmur went around the room, one of the students even grunted loudly at the sight of the book. He didn’t seem so keen on Keating’s pick.

“Shakespeare,” Keating said loudly, introducing their next topic. “Hamlet,” he added. With nothing more than those two words he opened the book and started to read out the beginning of the first scene. Everyone was silent all of a sudden, even the guy who groaned earlier. Everyone was hooked. This always happened when Keating read. He had the power to silence everyone in the room and then have them laughing out loud mere seconds later.

Neil very soon realized that this was his favorite thing Keating had taught them so far. Call it love at first sight if you will. It didn’t matter that the lesson was only five minutes in – Neil was hooked. It was the language, the flow of the words, and Keating’s voice that impressed him. To see if any of his friends were as enthralled as he was, he looked around and ended up meeting Charlie’s eyes. Neil raised his eyebrows as a way of asking what his friend thought, but he didn’t get a smile and a nod in return. Instead, Charlie seemed to be rolling his eyes. What?!

After class – one of the best hours of his life – Neil immediately went over to him. Because he didn’t see a spark in Charlie’s eyes as it probably was in his own eyes, he realized that his best friend was not as excited about all this as he was.

Neil was shaking his head. “Why are you not fascinated by what we just heard?”

“Is this the first time you’ve heard of Shakespeare?”

“Well no,, but the way theater worked during his time is so much different than it is today, and I think it’s fascinating. And also, I wish Hellton wouldn’t be so stuck up and had drama class or something like that and would put on a play once or twice a year. I’d join that in a heartbeat.”

“You? Acting?”

Neil’s eyes lit up. “Yes, Charlie, acting! I’ve always wanted to try it. And Keating’s lessons got me interested in plays. I want to read all of Shakespeare’s work, it sounds hilarious and intriguing.”

Charlie sighed. “Well, I’m not going to pick up any of his plays.”

“What do you mean? Why not?”

Charlie just shrugged. “Don’t feel like it.”

“When do you ever– have you ever even read any of the assignments?” Charlie just shrugged, a smug look on his face. “You know, I have a feeling you would actually enjoy Shakespeare’s plays,” Neil continued. “They are witty and funny–” Suddenly he stopped. “Hey, I know something else that’s both witty and funny.”

“And what’s that?”

“You,” Neil replied, a – what Charlie would call – stupid grin plastered on his face.

Charlie, in turn, had raised his eyebrows in suspicion. He could sense that Neil had an ulterior motive. “I know what you’re trying to do, Neil.” He raised his finger, wiggling it in front of Neil’s nose. “You’re trying to make me pick up a book. You’re trying to get me to read Shakespeare.”

Neil gasped exaggeratedly and put his hand on his chest in shock. (He really had that acting thing down, he’d make it big one day.) “Me? Getting you to do something you should be doing anyway?”

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Charlie added. “Also this won’t be the first time your plans are doomed to fail.”

“How do you know I won’t succeed?”

“It’s very simple, Neil,” Charlie said and stood up, ready to leave the room. “I do what I want.” He smiled at his friend before turning around.

“We’ll see about that!” Neil called after him.

From then on it became kind of a challenge. Every time Neil would be in a room with Charlie, he’d mention Shakespeare. At first Charlie had simply ignored him, hmming and nodding at all the fascinating information Neil told him about Shakespeare and his writing.

“Did you know that during Shakespeare’s time all the roles were played by men? And there is a lot of cross-dressing in his plays, so the men would be playing women who then dress up as men.”

“That’s really fascinating, Neil. Please tell me more.” Pittsie would be proud of the sarcasm in Charlie’s voice.

“Lots of sex jokes,” Neil tried.

“Now we’re talking.”

“Really?”

“Nah. I’d still have to read, so I’d have to think long and hard about it.”

“Huh, clever.”

That evening they all went to the cave again. They had been there so many times at that point, no one knew anymore how many times they’d held a dead poets society meeting. Everyone seemed to have found their spot, and so they sat down on the slightly damp stone, not minding it at all for the sake of a fun time. Knox put his jacket on the ground for everyone to throw on some snacks and candy. It was Pitts’ turn to start the meeting. Even though everyone knew the poem by heart by then, he still picked up Keating’s book to read it out.

After he was done, Charlie stepped into the center of the cave. Sometimes he brought along a poem or a scary story, but this time it was his saxophone. He lifted it up to his mouth and closed his eyes, getting ready to enchant his friends. The first note resounded from the walls, capsuling him and his friends with the sonorous sound. Everyone was staring at Charlie, watching his fingers dance across the instrument. Minutes passed, time seemed to fly and stop at the same time – that’s how good Charlie was. The song was over far too soon.

“If music be the food of love, play on,” Neil said after Charlie had finished. It sounded a bit too poetic, even for Neil, so Charlie immediately knew that he was quoting a certain someone. He lowered his saxophone, squinted at Neil, and whispered, “No.” before sitting down again.

Neil winked at him, giving him a taste of his own medicine.

Up until the next meeting Neil had taken a step back and “terrorized” (Charlie’s words) his best friend a bit less. He kept mentioning little bits of trivia about Shakespeare and his plays and he got really good at ignoring Charlie’s rolling eyes. But there was something Neil didn’t yet know, and Charlie was really looking forward to see the look on his face when that would change.

Meeks opened the meeting, rapping the poem and making everyone laugh. And because Charlie couldn’t wait any longer he stood up and positioned himself at the center of the cave again. Instead of his saxophone he had a crumpled sheet of paper in his hands. He folded it open and held up his flashlight to it, ready to read it out and let his voice fill the cave. “This is for Neil,” he said, which earned a loud awww from Meeks and Pitts. Charlie looked into their direction and winked before he switched his attention back to the paper.

“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” he started. Little did he know that these opening lines would improve his flirting game. “Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, and summer’s lease hath all too short a date. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, and often is his gold complexion dimm’d; and every fair from fair sometime declines, by chance, or nature’s changing course untrimm’d.” It was in that moment when Charlie really felt for the first time what Keating had meant when he said they let poetry drip from their tongues like honey. He was too into it to look up from the paper, although the desire to see the look on Neil’s face was big. He waited a few seconds before continuing. “But thy eternal summer shall not fade, nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st, nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade when in eternal lines to time thou grow'st.” There was a smirk on his face as he read the last two lines. “So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, so long lives this and this gives life to thee.”

It was silent in the cave. Then everyone started clapping and whistling. Neil clapped the loudest. He couldn’t believe it. He met Charlie’s eyes and raised his eyebrows. “So did I change your mind about Shakespeare?” he asked.

Charlie just beamed at him.

As part of the @dpsficexchange, I wrote this story for @desertrosetico and the prompt was: “college au – ‘i was out on my balcony and you started loudly quoting romeo and juliet at me’”. Also I hope you meant Neil and Todd with this prompt because that’s what I wrote :D (And I might have tweaked this a liiittle bit and turned the singular possessive pronoun into a plural one because I really wanted them to already live together)

It was a warm and sunny Saturday. Todd was sitting on his balcony and enjoying the sun, glad that he and Neil chose an apartment with a balcony that was facing south. His feet were propped up on the railings in front of him and a glass of lemonade was standing on the table nearby, drops of water running down the side from condensation.

Todd’s eyes were closed, his face was turned towards the sun and all he could see was red, which in a certain way was how his whole body felt. Warm, cozy, loved.