Apparently, I forgot about the part of the prompt where it's their first time on stage together. Or, alternatively, you can just assume that this is the first time they've technically been on stage together.

IDEK. ENJOY YOUR GODDAMN DRABBLE.

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“Do me a favor, Uzumaki, and try not to be a pervert about this?”

He laughed. He laughed. “How about you try not to be a high and mighty bitch first?”

The urge to punch him was almost overwhelming, but Ino, at least, could count self-restraint among her many virtues. They were going on stage any second now, and blood would probably stain the carpet. “How about I rip off your appendages one by one, starting with your di--”

“Uzumaki! Yamanaka! You’re up!”

With an undisguised grin, Naruto bounded up the aisle and onto the stage, leaving Ino to follow much more sedately, uncharacteristically but necessarily silent in her anger. The only question she had left to ask herself, though she’d asked it many times before, was why? Why was she stuck with this hyperactive prick? Why did she have to do this scene with him? Why did he have to be so damn good of an actor when he was so damn obnoxious as a person?

It just wasn’t fair.

“Scene?” the professor prompted, shuffling his papers around even though Ino knew he wasn’t actually looking to answer his own question.

“Romeo and Juliet, act one, scene five,” she answered for the both of them, disinclined to let Naruto open his mouth more than strictly necessary. That was the other thing; Romeo and Juliet was just so cliché.

Naruto wiggled his eyebrows at her, speaking under his breath. “Let’s go, blondie.”

Not to mention Naruto was the worst Romeo she could’ve picked. Or not picked, as it went.

“Try not to screw up this time,” she hissed back, taking her position not a hairbreadth’s away from him, and watched as he grinned again, a brief flash of teeth, before wiping all emotion from his face. It was almost eerie, how easily he flipped that switch.

Romeo. He was Romeo.

Ino took a deep breath, then curled her fingers in his proffered hand. His grip was strong, confident, she noticed, his fingers calloused and thumb gently resting on the back of her hand. Their professor had taught them that, when dealing than a less than desirable scene partner, the best way to fake chemistry was to take some desirable physical feature of theirs, any desirable physical feature, and focus on that.

Unfortunately, Naruto had a lot of desirable physical features she could focus on, except for those scars. It made it easier to fake chemistry, she supposed, even as another part of her lamented again that someone as blank--in this case, handsome--as him was so annoying.

She sighed, as if entranced by him, and rested her hand on his shoulder, waiting for him to start the scene. As far as she was concerned, though, they’d already begun.

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