#modern!lams

modern times

Alexander Hamilton and John Laurens

The loud September sun beams through the curtain directly onto John's face, waking him up. He slowly opens his groggy eyes to a headache that feels like a jackhammer at a construction site. When he finally gets his eyes to open he sees a brown shag carpet most likely from the seventies and brown paneling. This is definitely not his apartment. Panic quickly sets in as he notices the noise coming from the bathroom. He can make out the sink running and (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction playing quiet enough that it wouldn’t wake him, but loud enough for whoever is in the bathroom to enjoy. He spots his phone on the coffee table and grabs it. Just as he is about to call Lafayette in attempt to figure out where the fuck he is, the creaky bathroom door swings open, almost hitting the wall. A guy who looks about twenty-three exits in a towel wrapped around his waist, a toothbrush in his mouth, and his wet hair is sitting on his shoulders. John takes a second to look at him. His abs are slightly defined, but soft. His arms are painted with a few tattoos and his face is soft, covered with a little stubble.

“Oh hey man! You’re awake! Let me go get you some Advil and shit,” Alex says to him.

“Uh, um, thanks,” John responds in a confused voice.

Alex ambles back to John and hands him a glass of water with two Advil. John stares at him a little, still totally lost as to why he is here and who this guy is.

“Are you gonna take it? Do I have to hold the glass for you while you take them?” Alex says a little sarcastically.

“Uh, no I got it. Thanks.”

“No problem man. Again, I’m Alex. I’m guessing you don’t really remember much, you were pretty far gone last night.”

“Right. Yeah. I’m John. And honestly, I’m a little lost. I just woke up on a strangers couch with very little memory of last night.”

“If you want answers, you’re asking the wrong person. I only got involved ‘cause you came up to my porch asking about dogs and then threw up on me. I mean, I couldn’t let you go back into the night like that.”

John can feel his face flush as some memories from last night whirl around in his head. Oh my god, I really did throw up on this guy's feet. Fuck. Before any of that happened, John remembers going to a club with Herc and Lafayette. They had to go to help John take his mind off of some things. He had just broken up with his long-term girlfriend, Martha. In his head, he can see himself doing shot after shot while grinding up against anyone he could. However, sometime in the heat of it all, he took a break. He remembers the cool September air hitting his face as he pushed his way through the club doors. The air was a little bit rejuvenating and gave him the courage to walk back to his apartment. Except, it is clear as day that he did not make it back to his apartment.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck. Fuck, my friends are probably so worried about me. What time is it? I have class today,” John says frazzled.

“Relax. I talked to your friend Lafayette last night and he is coming to get you at 10. It’s only 9 right now.”

“Oh thank fucking god,” John says while rubbing the palms of his hands into his eyes.

“I can’t believe this fucking happened,” John says distressed.

“Relax, shit happens. One drunken night isn’t going to ruin your life,” Alex responds.

“It’s not even that, I broke up with my girlfriend yesterday,” John tells Alex.

Alex can feel his heart sink into his chest. Well, there goes any chance of having him, Alex thinks. He starts to pick at his already non-existent nails.

“Oh, I’m sorry. That’s shitty, what happened?” Alex asks with a gleam of interest in eyes.

“Nah, you don’t want to hear about it. I shouldn’t be dumping my problems on some stranger who let me sleep on their couch,” John says as he laughs stiffly. “Anyway, you look like you were in the middle of getting ready. I’ll just chill here until Lafayette comes.”

“Oh yeah, I kinda forgot about that,” Alex lies, he is well aware of what he is wearing. “I’ll just come back out when I’m done getting ready.” He says with a grin on his face.

John watches him carefully ask he ambles back into the bathroom. He likes the way the towel sits on his hips and the way his hair curled near his face. Great. Just what I need right now.

“Fuckin’ feelings,” John grunts. His head continues to pound while he thinks about the other day. Breaking up with Martha was the right thing to do, he tells himself. He couldn’t the fakeness of the relationship. It truly wasn’t fair to her, even though she had agreed to go along with it after he came out to her. John and Martha grew up together in South Carolina. His father, Henry, always pushed John towards Martha. Ever since John could remember his father was trying to set them up and when John found out they were both going to the same college up north he figured he’d give it a try. It would get his dad off his chest and once they started dating the ‘Why don't you have a girlfriend yet?’ questions stopped. It felt good, really good, to have the constant questioning stop. His father laid off him even more than usual when he was dating Martha. Martha wasn’t upset with John at all. In fact, she was proud of him. To her, this was the first step to him coming out completely. There’s no fucking way I’m ready to do that. He hasn’t even come out to his friends yet, Lafayette and Herc wouldn’t mind, at least he thinks they wouldn’t. In the midst of his ongoing internal dialogue, a loud ringing catches him off guard. Thank God. That must be Lafayette.

John slowly rises off the ratty couch in an attempt to not get too dizzy. He begins to wander to the door. On his way there, he makes note of the dullness in Alex’s home. There are no pictures hanging on the brown paneling. No photos of Alex smiling with people who would probably be his family.

“Huh, strange,” John says aloud.

“What’s strange?” Alex asks while coming up behind John.

John jumps a little bit and puts his hand on his chest.

“Jesus Christ man!” John says.

“Oh shit, sorry,” Alex says with a smug smile on his face.

“But, really, what’s so strange about my house?”

“You-”

John is cut off by the loud ringing of the doorbell.

“Coming!” Alex yells.

John stands behind Alex as he goes to the small wooden door. Alex is wearing slacks and a button down. Huh, he must have a serious job. As he opens the door the strong Autumn scent fills the entryway.

“Hello! I’m Lafayette. I’m here to get John,” Lafayette says a little too loudly for 10 A.M.

“Alex. Nice to meet you. I like the accent,” Alex says as he extends his hand to shake Lafayettes. However, instead of returning the gesture Lafayette goes in for a hug. Alex grunts and shimmies around in the hug a little bit, clearly uncomfortable. Behind him, John is trying to hide his laughter. After releasing Alex from a hug that seems much too long for people who had just met Lafayette heads towards John.

“Mon Ami! I was so worried about you,” Lafayette announces.

“Yeah, but not worried enough to come get me last night,” John says with a little bit of frustration in his voice.

“Well, I’m not the one who took it upon themselves to get shitfaced and then venture out into the world!”

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s get going. I’ve extended my stay long enough. Thanks again for letting me crash here,” John says while turning towards Alex.

He goes to shake Alex’s hand after witnessing how uncomfortable he was made by Lafayette's hug. Alex returns the gesture and gently grasps John’s hand. John lifts he head to look Alex in the eyes and ends up looking at them longer than normal. Alex’s eyes remind John of waves. There is so much happening in them and John wants to find out about all of it. He could drown in them, but they also bring a sense of comfort to John, like he could float around in them in peace.

“Bye, I’ll see you around,” Alex says to John after letting go of a handshake that lasted much longer than he intended.

Short Lams one-shot. Warnings: none? Nakedness, but it’s not described at all.

Alex was having a bad day.

He woke up with a horrible head-ache, and didn’t get to eat anything while he was running down the hall, late to his 8 o'clock class. Teacher then yelled at him for his tardiness, and he had to sit next to Jefferson.

He had a double shift at Starbucks and a 20 page essay due the next day. A customer yelled at him, and he almost punched the guy.

On top of that, he forgot to charge his phone and couldn’t text John until he got back to their dorm. At 8 o'clock at night.

John was watching Netflix when Alex finally arrived home. He was tired, angry, and frankly just sad. He wanted to sleep, and never wake up again.

“Hey ba-” John started, but Alex gave him no thought. “Alex?” He walked right past him, dropped his bag in their room, and started the bath. He needed to calm down before he talked to anyone. He knew that. Or he was going to bit someone’s head off.

He peeled his clothing off, climbing into the warm, soapy water, Alex could almost feel the stress melting away, almost like magic.

He closed his eyes and leaned his head back.

Then there was a knock at the door. “Alex? Baby? Can I come in?”

Alex didn’t want to reply. He didn’t want to break the silence he has kept himself in so far. It felt good to stop for a little while. But instead, he sighed. “Yes.” The word came out more of a squeak then anything else, which only made Alex want to disappear even more.

The knob of the door turned, and Alex watched John enter cautiously. His hair was down, the beautiful brown curls framing his face. He smiled at the sight of Alex moping in the tub, and leaned down to plant a kiss on his cheek. “I’m guessing you didn’t have a very good day?”

“Don’t even get me started.” Alex said with a sigh.

“So you don’t want to talk about it?”

“Not really, no…” Alex closed his eyes.

“Well… can I join you?”

The question wasn’t surprising to Alex, but he still could feel that little ping in his chest. What that ping meant, he wasn’t sure.

“I’m not in the mood for sex, John.”

“Not sex,” John said. He stood and pulled his shirt off. The muscles on his chest are clearly defined from all of his time playing sports and exercising, unlike Alex, who never exercised and was way too skinny.

After stripping, he climbed into the small tub next to Alex, and squeezed his way next to him. The tub was small, but it could still hold two people well enough. “Just cuddles.”

Alex wrapped his arm around John’s waist, and breathed in the scent of his hair and cologne from earlier today. He kissed John’s forehead, and smiled. “Thank you,” Alex sighed, and sank a little lower into the warm water. “I needed this.”

“Anything else you need?”

“A 20 page essay.”

“Yeh, you’re on our own with that one.” “Darn.” John leans in and presses his lips on Alex.

Alex tasted like coffee and pen ink. He licked his lip hungrily and wrapped and arm around his neck.

John tasted like lemon and mint. He had a smug of purple paint over his eyebrow. Alex slowly bit John’s lip, teasing him. Then he giggled. “You are so cute.”

“Why thank you. You’re not to bad yourself.” John smiled.

(I literally never want you to stop *Cue the puppy dog eyes*)

Alex: *Grins evilly*

John: Oh no-

Alex: *pulls his pony tail loose, falls onto the couch next to John, bits his lip and looks up to him with adorable puppy dog eyes.* Johnny?

John: *Practically squeaking* Y-yes Alex?

Alex: *Flips over onto his stomach, and plants a kiss on John’s cheek,* I love you.

John: *dies*

John: You didn’t…

Alex: THEY DID! THEY FUCKING DID!!!! John is obsessed with turtles! I personally find it ADORABLE! He used to have a painted turtle, named Mona. After the Mona Lisa.

John: I thought it was a clever name…

Alex: It is a clever name, babe. Anyway, he also does lots of turtle drawings. He is minoring in Art. My favorite though, he has this little cartoon thing, and the character is a little turtle named Crush. He draws him EVERYWHERE! I have turned in at least fifty assignments with little Crush somewhere on one of my pages.

John: Yes! We get it! I like turtles!

Alex: I think it’s cute

Alex: Oh no…

John: OH MY GOD!!! ALEX IS THE BEST KISSER!!!

Alex: John-

John: He does this amazingly adorable thing with his teeth, where he nips at my lips, and he always tilts his head to the left. No matter what, always to the left…

Alex: Jo-

John: And he leans into the kiss amazingly, and he always tastes great and he likes to run his fingers through my hair, and he sometimes bumps his nose against mine…

Alex: J-

John: And when we finally break apart after our make-out sessions, he is always really flustered and can’t catch his breath.

Alex: *sighs*

John: Yes, He is a very good kisser. Definitely my favorite *Cue the adorable grin*

Alex: *Dies*