Gift for reconquista - Part 3
Title: The Romolo Vargas Theater
Author: Asriel27
Recipient: reconquista
Character(s) or Pairing(s): Spain/Romano, Germany/Italy, France/Jehanne, slight Germania/Rome, slight Russia/America, mentioned in passing and vague Fryingpangle, etc.
Word Count: 8,260
Rating: R
Warnings: Excessive cursing, Boys love (of course), character death mentioned in passing
Summary: Antonio is the head male dancer for Francis' ballet company, and Romano is the surly stage painter that watches him dance in secret.
Author notes: The works mentioned are as follows: Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth are movies using William Shakespeare’s revised scripts. Coppélia (L. Delibes), Cinderella (S. Prokofiev), Giselle (Adoplhe Adam), Sleeping Beauty (P. Tchaikovsky), Swan Lake (P. Tchaikovsky), and The Nutcracker (P. Tchaikovsky) are live ballet performances. The Marriage of Figaro (WA Mozart) and La Boheme (G. Puccini) are live opera performances. Wicked (Stephen Schwartz) is a Broadway show.
Additional notes: I am NOT a fan of ballet. Sorry if it doesn’t focus on ballet as much. OTL I’m more of an opera fan. Also, sorry if I use very stupid terms about stage management and stage design. Google can only go so far.
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7 We found out more
Romano paints the backdrop. Brushes dances up and down in sure strokes over the canvas. He holds a long roller instead of a brush. But even with six pairs of hands, the blue sky background for the much awaited Coppélia can’t be done any faster. He nearly breaks down in tears when he imagines how he will paint the drop if he’s alone to do it.
“Aww, man! This is too boring!” Alfred exclaims as he throws his brush on the ground for the umpteenth time. The brush falls on the newspapers with spot on accuracy.
“I swear, you just like seeing the paint splatter around you, bastard,” Romano grumbles under his breath. (He can say it out loud but two consecutive weeks of sleeping three hours a day is really taking a toll on him by dimming his spicy personality.)
“The girls aren’t even here today,” Gilbert whines some feet away from Romano.
“Why do we have to do this? It’s too boring!”
“Quit complaining and get back to work!” Vash shouts. Both men (boys, really) shut up and return to painting. Alfred picks his brush and spreads the pain nonchalantly on the cloth.
Something taps Romano’s knee and he looks down. A face peers up at him.
“C-can you please not paint so close to my shoulder, Mr. Rovino?” the quiet voice begs. Romano spares a glance at the man’s sweater spotted with sky blue paint.
“Sorry,” he mutters as he moves a little farther from the edge of the drop, “I didn’t see you there.”
The man smiles and… Romano forgets what he says. Someone startles him by hugging him tight.
“Hi, Rovi! What are you doing?”
Romano can’t understand a word so he yells back, “What the fuck?! Who the fuck-?! Get off!” and paints Mattie’s arm with the sky.
So his name is Matthew?
Anyway, he turns around and scowls at the Ass. Yes, he can recognize Antonio Fernandez Carriedo, principal male dancer of the - Company. Yes, he also remembers to rest his roller on the floor.
“Dude, not cool! Hey Mattie, are you okay?” Alfred rushes to his brother, crouched behind Romano.
“So, what the fuck does the famous Antonio Fernandez want?” Coffee has a way of reducing Romano’s brain functions…
The Ass is dressed in gym clothes. He lays his black bag down and fucking ignores Romano to stare at the half-painted sky.
“Are you guys painting?” the Ass asks. There is a pair of deep green eyes accompanied by a blinding smile in front of him. Vash proves to be useful for scenarios like Romano’s temporary brain loss.
“He doesn’t need to be here, does he? We can throw him out, Rovino,” and Vash stands up to crack his knuckles at the Ass. Romano is impressed.
“Don’t mind him. He’s just here to poke fun at Rovino,” Gilbert mumbles from where he’s working. The Ass moves and speaks with him instead.
“Gil! I didn’t see you there! How are you? Is that a brush? I didn’t know you worked here. Can I try?”
The Ass holds a brush and colors the canvas blue before Romano could even blink.
“Brother…” blond-potato-bastard-who’s-too-close-to-Feli sighs.
“It’s fine. That’ll keep him quiet for a while and we get another volunteer for this boring job,” Gilbert grumbles and dunks his brush with a bit more force that he intended. Gilbert yelps as the watery paint spills on his pants and into his shoes. Romano delights in the fact that the bastard will have blue socks for the whole afternoon. Vash raises a questioning eye brow at him. He waves him off and raises his roller, careful not to hit… what was his name again?
8 About the hero
“Antonio grew up in a farming family in the Levante, somewhere in south Catalonia. He went to public school and later sponsored by his family to learn ballet in Paris. While studying, he met his best friend and later colleague, Francis Bonnefoy. They promised to start their own ballet dance company and recruited most of their classmates at the time. In the present, the - Company consisted mainly of graduates of the - Ballet Opera Conservatory.
“Life was hard for Antonio. He had to plow through rock hard soil to farm their land while studying to be a danseur, but he overcame his troubles and now performs professionally for 5 years with the - Company and starring shows for the Romolo Vargas Theatre. Quite recently he had been injured while perfor-”
Antonio turns off his TV. The interviewer and her viewership will think they know most about Antonio Fernandez. But there are lots of facts the interviewer forgot to ask him. Out of spite, Antonio seizes a piece of paper and scribbles answers he believes his interview should have included.
1 Antonio was born in a farm house in Andalusia.
2 His mother’s maiden name was Carriedo.
3 His favorite fruits/vegetables are tomatoes. He eats these raw.
4 His most favorite person in the whole world was his adoptive father.
5 His last intimate relationship was with the resident conductor and pianist of their previous theater space a couple of years ago. Roderich Edelstein was his boyfriend for a year, two months and five days.
6 Yeah. He’s gay.
7 No. He didn’t choose ballet dancing because he’s gay. He loves to dance.
8 He can dance the tango as well as other ballroom dances. That’s how he met Gilbert by the way.
9 Francis groped him during ballet class. Somebody punched Francis so hard he had to be rushed to the clinic. Antonio doesn’t remember who it was though.
10 He absolutely hates Arthur Kirkland from the - Ballet Opera! That person is his sworn enemy and, sadly, his brother-in-law through civil partnership in the UK and legal marriage in Spain.
11 He visits both of his families, the one in Catalonia and the one in Andalusia, whenever there’s a break between seasons. He also buys them the occasional ticket to watch his performances. He never sends them tickets redeemable on the same date.
12 He loves the farm. He loves watching the plants (his babies) thrive in the soil he tilled and watered.
13 He lived with Francis and Gilbert for a while. Francis moved out recently to live with Jeanne.
14 He owns the balcony in their apartment and a dozen of his babies are living in there. He harvests tomatoes and other herbs once in a while.
15 He likes his coffee black only if he gets to eat sweet cookies with it.
16 He sings Macarena in the bathroom before every show. Every. Show… Shakira just doesn’t cut it for him.
17 He fell down on the stage and grazed his back on a hanging nail during Swan Lake. Rovino was furious but didn’t let go of him till the medic arrived. Antonio expects it to scar soon. He gets a forced vacation because of the incident.
18 He loves getting flowers randomly but he prefers tomatoes.
19 He knows people love his green eyes and lush lips. He puts both to good, manipulative uses. (Why are you looking at me like that?)
20 He drools in his sleep and has drooled on a lot of people.
21 He sometimes wonders how long courting usually happens because Feliciano swears Rovino is gay and Antonio catches him looking at his backside too much sometimes and Antonio prepares him coffee and gives him tomatoes to munch on and helps out with painting the set when he’s free but Rovino always says he doesn’t have free time when Antonio asks him out and Antonio doesn’t know what to do anymore.
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Romano Vargas is a very peculiar, contradictory man. He charms his audience with bold themes and colors and shapes. He leaves no media in silence. Even in his real life, close friends and family testify to love his… overtly opinionated views and colorful language.
Romano’s personality asks, no, demands attention and focus to his being. His brilliance and genius expects it.
So it comes as a surprise when Romano Vargas refuses to have his picture taken during interviews and utterly turns down any acknowledgement except on paper at every theatre project he worked at.
There are complications. Stupid young artists use his name more often than he expects them to. It is a blessing that most important people knew who he is and respects his need for privacy. One of them is his grandfather, Romolo Vargas. When you have a grandfather like Romolo Vargas, you can be sure to do huge, impossible things.
Take Feliciano Vargas for example. Beautiful Feliciano who always smiles, ready to play his violin to anyone who would listen. He started like most violinists but he has climbed up to playing with a famous concert group at the age of 19 and is now touring worldwide. (Romano tries to forget the name of the group.) In between seasons, he plays for children at the park and bothers Romano when he comes to play with the potato in his studio. But he’s twenty four now, closely approaching twenty five, and it seems that he is getting bored of playing the violin to audiences all around the world. He is staying home at longer time intervals. Romano hates that about him. It makes Romano feel like he should stay home as much as Feli does.
Romano is still doing the same thing he was doing when he was five, just like little Feli. Romano believes he would have been a virtuoso pianist by now if not for his very delicate health during childhood. Back then, he easily catches fevers and must be comforted by his idiotic brother’s nails-scratching-the-wooden-board violin playing whenever he needs to stay in bed. He also acquires a very twitchy muscle reflex that drops expensive violas, clarinets and timpani while banging loud on the pianoforte. He can’t even draw.
Grandpa Romolo leaves him in dancing class every Sunday and Saturday. He watches the ballet dancers in their tiny tutus and tights. He nearly wishes he can dance like they do (because it is very beautiful!) but his spasms don’t let him stay still for a moment. He learns Ballroom dance instead, and some contemporary dancing. When Jeanne gets married, Romano hopes to use his rusty skills at the dance floor.
Sometimes, he slips into the practice hall in the theater’s basements. It is covered with mirrors all around. He removes his jacket and plays Latin American music off of his mp3 player (Feliciano’s gift and very rarely used.) He slithers, jives and jumps to the music and calms his mind. Nobody can catch him in the act yet. (How could they? Romano comes around 2am to 3am.)
Lately, he feels it too dangerous to dance in that space. Instead of complete solidarity, he feels the questioning eyes of dancers and actors behind his back. He visits them and takes their measurements. Even when they have all gone home, Romano can feel their gazes drill holes through him.
He stops coming by to dance.
Then again, he is designing a set for Sleeping Beauty for the - Company, Giselle for another ballet company, a modernized Macbeth and lastly, Wicked for a musical troupe. As he twists the door open, he thinks about dropping one of his projects.
He strolls into the room with classical music blasting his ears off. He’s angry at the dancers for leaving the cd player on after practice and hurries to switch it off.
Something jumps on the corner of his vision and he swings away just in time to stop a leg from colliding with his face. He retreats to the shadowed entrance of the space and stares in amazement as Antonio flies around the room. The man flutters, turns, twists and shows off to nobody, till Romano catches his eyes. Antonio grins at him before he bows and turns off the cd player.
“Is there something you need, Rovi?”
Romano doesn’t answer but he looks at Antonio all the same.
“Rovino?”
Romano recognizes his nickname and stutters out an answer, “I-I thought there’s no one here. It’s like, what, 2 am?”
“Yes, I guess it is,” Antonio laughs, “I really don’t want to go home to my apartment right now. Gil said he’ll be having his other friends over.”
“What friends? He’s leaving you by yourself?” (What type of best friend is he? Romano vaguely remembers how hard it is to shake Ludwig off of his brother and vice versa.)
Antonio’s smile is glassy and he turns his back to Romano, “I meant sex friends. He’s having them over for an orgy.”
Antonio gets his stuff together and slings his bag on his shoulder. Romano remains in the exact same spot Antonio left him, his jaw slack and open.
“Well, I’ll be going then Rovi,” he waves back at Romano as he exits the room.
“Wait!” Romano runs outside and grabs Antonio’s wrist. Antonio stops and looks at him with those dark eyes.
“We, I mean, my family keeps a spare room upstairs in case we need to sleep over. It has a bed and a small refrigerator. I can show you where it is,” Romano hates how he sounds like he’s begging. He isn’t. He doesn’t have to. It’s Antonio who needs the room to stay! His grip on Antonio’s wrist loosens.
“It’s just a suggestion,” Romano says as he runs a hand through his hair, “You look like you need a place to crash in and, honestly, no one even knows there’s a room up there except me and grandpa.”
“Can I really? You’re not angry?” Antonio asks him.
“Why would you think I’m angry? You can use it. I’ll show you where it is.”
Antonio never quite answers his question but Romano does leave the theater at 3:30 am with his heart light as if he danced the whole night away.
He promises himself to watch Antonio dance as much as he can.
TBC