#leeferson

Everybody starts their morning differently.

Pastor Aaron Burr starts his morning with a prayer before getting out of bed and starting his day.

Charles Lee starts his morning by shutting his laptop off and getting two hours of sleep because he didn’t bother sleeping like a normal person.

Thomas Jefferson usually starts his morning being woken up by a frightened worker before shooting them dead and marching to the showers.

Pastor Aaron Burr gets in a button up shirt and some clean jeans before walking to the bathroom to put a bit of mascara on.

Charles Lee is still sleeping.

Thomas Jefferson gets in the showers and with one glare sends all of his workers finishing up and scrambling out of there.

Pastor Aaron Burr feeds his kitty, Marvin, before getting in the car and driving to starbucks for a coffee.

Charles Lee… is still sleeping.

Thomas Jefferson gets out of the shower and goes back to his quarters to change into a suit and tie. The usual magenta suit and white tie still brings a smile to his face when he looks in the mirror.

Pastor Aaron Burr gets to the Starbucks drive through only for a soccer mom with three or four kids to zoom in front of him and take his spot in the line of cars. He sighs and checks his wallet to see if he can pay for her. Once he knows he can he goes inside to do so.

Charles Lee is now half awake and making ramen in a cup. He walks downstairs to his store and looks out the window to see people waiting for it to open. Lee smiles and points at the closed sign before going back to his noodles. He laughs maniacally.

Thomas Jefferson goes to office to see what they’ll be doing today. With a long sigh he looks over the building plans for their new building and he wonders how he’s going to win the church and shop building over for his plans.

Aaron ends up getting coffee spilled over his church clothes, but rather than lashing out, he offers to pay for the person that the drink was going to. The waitress gives him a weird look but he still pays for it.

Lee opens the store of many wonders and lets the customers inside. He’s still in his pajamas, but any regulars would know not to ask or judge him for it. Last people that did were thrown out. Literally.

Thomas gets his stuff together, calls James up, and asks if he would like to go to church with him. James laughed for three minutes straight at the request but managed to get a yes out and said he would meet him at the Starbucks.

Aaron was leaving the Starbucks the same time Thomas was walking into it. They made a split second of eye contact. Thomas gave the short man a scowl while Aaron gave him a smile and held the door open for him. He made a mental note to give a little prayer that the man would have a good day.

Lee gets in a shitty argument with the church band next door about the fact that they’re playing too loud and he can’t hear himself think. As great as it is that they play current christian music rather than homilies and hymns, it’s loud as fuck.

Thomas gets in the car with James and they argue about why he needs that specific building site and Thomas defends that it’s in the lower part of New York and far away from the police departments.

That morning around ten am, Aaron walks into the church with his Starbucks and the coffee stain still on his shirt. He has a plan to talk about in the message today, because it’s rather fitting with what he was going to talk about. When he walks in he sees the band all standing near the back of the worship room and he sighs. Aaron walks to the front and makes sure he has what he needs. Tablet, bible, pencil, his sense of humor for whatever happens, and his tolerance for crying babies.

“Could we- No, shut up- Could you play a little quieter? Just a bit quieter? Please? Most of my customers are abusive, alcoholic, old men that want a tattoo about Trump or some shit like that and christian rock about following Jesus doesn’t appeal.” Lee explained, laughing a little through his sentence. He was leaning through the window connecting their two buildings, still smiling through the argument. The lead singer for the church band that morning, Samuel Seabury, was giving him the coldest glare Lee had ever seen.

Aaron sighed, “Good morning, Mr.Lee! I told you we’re trying to make the wall a bit more soundproof. Still need to work on it for a few more weeks or so. Would you like to join us this morning instead of listening from the window?”

Lee’s face turned a little pink before arguing, “I don’t listen through the window, Pastor Burr.”

“Pastor Burr was my father,” Aaron smiled, “Call me Pastor Aaron, Mr.Lee.”

“I’ll do that when you start calling me Lee or Charles.” With that Lee shut the window and got back to work on fixing the tanning bed. Why hire an engineer when you could fix it yourself with a little bit of elbow grease? Aaron sighed and went to the other side of the worship room to practice the message a little. The band tuned their instruments and practiced their songs, trying not to lash out at Seabury every time he scolded them for messing up.

Aaron closed his eyes and folded his hands. He began to pray, a usual thing he did before the church doors opened. He prayed for himself, all of the people here, the band, the man at starbucks, the workers at starbucks, for God, Lee, and finally his darling Theo who was hanging with her friends. Once that was over the doors opened and people began flooding in for church. The church wasn’t very big, but definitely got a lot of people. The church was a friendly accepting place of everybody, and considering the lead pastor was bisexual was pretty amazing. A lot of the LGBT and POC community went to the church for acceptance. Aaron loved it more than anything.

The church had been bought and build and brought up by Aaron’s father. But he died before being able to do anything with the building. Aaron decided to take up the job of being the lead pastor and it paid off really well. Sure, the money wasn’t as much as he wanted, but he was doing what God wanted him to. That was all he could ask.

Fast forward to half an hour later, Aaron is on stage giving the message, telling a little joke about how his morning went. He was basically talking about being the christian you should be, showing God through your actions and words, and loving others as God loves you rather than treating others as you treat yourself. As he was looking at everybody he noticed a familiar face in the seats and smiled to himself. The man from starbucks was sitting in the chairs, leaning forward and listening with a not bored expression. Aaron smiled a little at him and gave him a subtle wink before continuing on with the message.

Thomas’ face turned a light pinkish red and he slouched a little, clutching his sleeves. Why would he wink at him? Why would he even smile at him like that? Thomas let out a shaky breath and continued listening, brushing it off as nothing.

Charles was by the window. He had opened it right when Aaron started talking and was listening to the man talk. Aaron’s voice had a beautiful tone to it and swayed and danced into Lee’s ears. It made him smile and put him in a good mood, so yeah he listened. Lee would never be a christian, those days were over for him. But he still loved listening to Aaron talk. Charles realized a long time ago that he could still be a good person and live a happy life without listening to every single rule in the bible. He treated others kindly and was friendly and a comedian, but would never talk or listen to gospel. Lee only listened to Aaron for the little things. His smile when he went onto a topic he liked, the little laughs here and there, the way he walked a little when talking, addressing the people and not the crowd.

Thomas was more focusing on the way Aaron talked and acted and walked than the actual message. He was pretty sure James noticed this because he started snickering quietly and nudged Thomas. When Jefferson looked at his friend he was only met with suggestive teasing and Jefferson rolled his eyes, looking back at Aaron. This service felt like it was going on forever, and it made him incredibly bored. So analyzing the pastor and everything about him seemed like a wonderful pass time.

Once it was all finally over and Aaron was getting his stuff together James sighed and began walking to the exit. Thomas told him to start the car and wait while he talked with the pastor about the building. He walked up to him with a smile and Aaron politely smiled back. “I don’t know if you recognize me but you were at the starbucks this morning?” Aaron questioned, shaking his hand. Thomas nodded.

“Sorry about the look I gave you, it was a bit of a rough morning. I’m sure that you understand though.” Thomas teased, gesturing to his shirt. Aaron laughed and Thomas found himself laughing a little too. This man’s happiness and innocence was much too infectious for him to take. Thomas decided to cut to the chase, but Aaron started talking again.

Aaron spoke, “Listen, I’m in a bit of a hurry to get home to my daughter. It was nice talking to you Mr…?”

Thomas answered, “Mr.Thomas Jefferson. I just wanted to talk to you privately about some things if that would be alright. Maybe over some coffee tomorrow? Noon at Starbucks?” Aaron nodded in agreement and waved goodbye before grabbing his things and leaving the church. Thomas watched him go, biting his lip a little. The pastor wasn’t that bad of a looker, and he heard rumor around the gossiping single ladies in church that he was bisexual. Thomas made a mental note that if he couldn’t get the church he could play a fun little game of love to win it over.

Lee watched the stranger like a hawk, muttering insults under his breath. The man was tall with a beautiful smile and beautiful skin and a beautiful everything. He was wearing a suit and was extremely persuasive, Charles could tell by his eyes. Lee had met men like this, the kind that do anything and everything and anyone and everyone to get what they want. The stranger had his eyes on the pastor. Charles huffed and slammed the window shut. He went over to his large amount of flowers and began putting a bouquet together, picking all the right colors to signal a nice message of “Fuck off the pastor’s ass is mine you bitch as southerner fuck”.

Thomas heard the window slam shut and frowned. He also needed the building next door, which just so happened to be Lee’s building. If the man was a bit more angry and stone cold than he had been told, this wouldn’t be so easy. Thomas decided to focus on one thing at a time and left the church. Tomorrow he would meet with the pastor and buy the church from him and then he would get Lee’s building next. Simple and easy.

Pastor Aaron Burr went home to his darling Theo and helped her with her science project for school. They spent the rest of the day together and talked about how their days went. Theo stuck to her father like glue and loved him dearly, and Aaron loved having his Theo around. At the end of the day he crawled into bed and couldn’t help but think about Lee, the stupid soundproof wall he was going to have to make, and Thomas Jefferson.

Charles Lee continued working the store, a little fucking pissed off but still keeping a smile for customers. He sold food, gave tattoos, restocked the store, put money in the register, and managed to not throw another fit about the church band. The end of the day he shouted into his pillow and argued with himself about Thomas Jefferson and the man’s intentions with Pastor Burr.