Preacher's Daughter: A Modern Clato Fanfic

Chapter 10

He liked her. Cato knew at least this much. Something about her was a mystery, and he planned on figuring out everything about her. She didn't seem like any other girl he had ever met, and that was a good thing. 

His lips turned up into a smirk once he spotted her again that day. She was sitting underneath the tree he saw her with her friends earlier, but this time she was alone. Clove sat with her backpack on the grass next to her. She had her legs crossed and a book was laying on her lap. Every so often she would flip the page, brush her hair out of her face. 

He strolled up to her and sat down. She looked up at him and glared. "What do you want, Cato?" Clove sighed, placing a bookmark into her book and slipping it back into her bag. The blonde shrugged. "Nothing, really. Just wanted to have a chat with you." 

Clove bit her lip, which sent Cato's mind into some kind of a daze. 

"What were you reading?" Cato asked and reached over to pull the book out. Clove pushed his arm away and did it herself, passing it over to him. She blushed and dropped her gaze. "Stupid, I know," she admitted, looking back up at the blonde. "I mean, such a typical thing for a teenage girl to read." 

Cato ran his fingers over the title imprinted on the front cover. "I don't think so," Cato told her, looking her straight in the eye. "I mean, we all have to read it some time or another." 

Clove let out a small laugh. "I expected you to at least roll your eyes," she declared, and he smiled. "It is, after all, Shakespeare." 

"Well, I for one find the story of Romeo and Juliet both tragic and unrealistic." Clove rose her eyebrows. "How so?" 

"Well," the boy started out with. "Yeah, it's sad. I mean, they both end up killing themselves. But I don't think that it's possible to fall in love with someone you just met. Don't you need to get to know them first? I mean, come on. You and I just met, but that doesn't mean we're going to run off and get married to each other tomorrow." 

Clove took the book from his hand and smiled. "I think it's beautiful," she said, flipping through the pages. "I mean, yes, you have a point. But how much they love each other is unbelievable. And, I cannot believe I'm saying this, but I think that it was a good thing that they rebelled against their parents, you know? I mean, they shouldn't have brought their kids into their problems. And you shouldn't be told who to love and who to hate." 

Cato glanced down at the page that she had turned to, and began to read, "If I profane with my unworthiest hand, this holy shrine, the gentle sin is this: My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand, to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss." 

Clove looked at him as he reads, and then recited a few lines herself. "Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, which mannerly devotion shows in this, for saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch, and palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss." 

The two stared at one another for a few moments. Blue orbs gazed into brown and Cato felt something set off inside of him that he never felt before. He decided to go on because he wanted more of this feeling. 

"Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?" 

Much to his amazement, Clove continued on with the scene as well. "Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer." The words rolled off her tongue as if she was actually in the moment, back when old English made sense. 

"O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do, they pray; grant thou, lest faith turn to despair."

"Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake."

Cato replied, "Then move not, while my prayer’s effect I take." Both Cato and Clove then looked down at the page only to come to realize that is when the lover's exchange their first kiss. 

Clove turned away and blushed. "I, uh..." she mumbled. "I guess I should get going." And just like that, the moment they shared was gone. "Yeah," Cato agreed, helping her up to her feet. 

"I'm sorry about snapping at you earlier," Clove apologized, slinging her bag over her shoulder. Cato shrugged the comment off. "It's fine," he told her, scratching the back of his neck. Clove bit her lip, while scratching the back of his neck was his habit. 

"I'll see you tomorrow,"  Cato grinned as the two began to walk away from each other. "Don't plan on it!" Clove called, going back to their usual banter. 

"You know you want me!" Cato said smugly, and Clove rolled her eyes but chuckled. "I know I want you gone!" she retorted, but her tone was not at all serious. 

Turning away finally, Cato actually smiled a genuine smile. 

Little did he know, his life was going to turn out a lot like that silly little love story he had just read. And it was going to happen with the girl he had just read it with. 

***

Not much for this chapter. Just some small fluff, if you will. 

I don't own the play Romeo and Juliet. I don't think I would ever be able to write something to that high of a standard.