This was supposed to be mostly a joke, but.... Actually. Yeah. Romeo as trans Juliet.
Juliet who escapes her family's expectations by sneaking out, crossdressing, and running around getting into trouble with Benvolio and Mercutio. She's safely pining after Rosaline, who never will accept "Romeo" anyway, so nobody will ever find out, right?
Except Mercutio and Benvolio talk Romeo into attending the party, where her cousin Tybalt recognizes her.
Juliet knows that the best thing she could do now is beg Tybalt to keep her secret, and never go out as Romeo again.
She can't. She can't just stop being Romeo, it's her, she's Romeo, he's Romeo. What's in a name? Can't she just be Juliet? "Deny thy father and refuse thy name... And I’ll no longer be a Capulet."
The next time she goes out, Tybalt challenges "Romeo" to a duel. She refuses - he's her family! - but of course Mercutio won't let the insult stand, and then there is Juliet, with her cousin's blood on her hands.
"Romeo Montague" is sentenced to exile. Juliet Capulet is left behind.
Juliet is left behind, and is expected to be wed. He'll never be Romeo again, and it feels like something is being torn out of him.
If Juliet has to die for Romeo to live, so be it.
When Romeo wakes up in Juliet's grave, he has no clothes to change into. Something must have stopped Friar Lawrence from sending them, as they'd agreed.
Instead, there is her hapless fiancé. It doesn't matter whether he'd have called the resurrection a miracle or a curse. Romeo can't let anyone know.
Romeo Montague leaves Verona under the cover of night, wearing the mourning clothes of a count.
The body left behind in the Capulet crypt is that of a boy, dressed in the clothes of a girl. Of course it is. It was always going to be.
