"I heard the news,"
Wheat blond hair was ruffled lightly in the breeze that flowed through the lush terrain. The owner of said head of hair was gazing at a good friend of his who, unfortunately, wasn't faring so well. It was almost awe-inducing how fast the human life came and went, spectacular yet incredibly depressing. It hadn't even been a week since the battle that claimed his life and yet it felt like an eternity for Alfred's dear friend.
"C'mon buddy, we could go get a drink if that'll help," The golden-haired boy crouched beside his darker-haired companion, a comforting hand plopping itself on the shoulder of the future founding father.
Hamilton was mourning at a tombstone that marked the worst possible thing. John Laurens was always a little- ok, he was incredibly rambunctious but his death still came rather abruptly. Alexander could still recall the last letter he received from John, they were few and far in-between but Alexander adored every one of them. Alfred could sympathise, he'd lost his beloved too though in a different sense. Even then, Alfred was still able to see Arthur, Alexander however…
"I still can't believe he's…" Hamilton muttered barely loud enough for Alfred to catch
"I know…"
Alexander Hamilton had been Alfred's closest friend for a while now, had been since their first meeting back when Hamilton was first promoted to being one of Washington's aides-de-camp. After the meeting and quick friendship, Hamilton invited Alfred to meet his friends at a bar. Once there, Alfred was introduced to John Laurens, Marquis de Lafayette (that was the only part of the man's name Alfred could catch) and Hercules Mulligan. Alfred was actually exceedingly worried that he'd have to keep up the formal talk but, thank goodness, the atmosphere around the friends was casual.
The three Alfred was introduced to were pretty quick to get drunk (or at least tipsy enough to act drunk) and Alfred had a laugh watching the trio start singing loudly. The young nation was grateful for the clique's cheerful demeanour; it helped him move past a lot of the turmoil he was suffering through because of the sudden break off from someone he dearly loved. It wasn't as if he could forget entirely though and his mood did start worsening as the night moved on and the friends had been more distracted with each other while he remained silent.
Luckily, his dampening mood was noticed, just not by someone who he expected to notice.
"Hey, are you alright?"
Alfred was pretty surprised to see a seemingly sober John Laurens beside him with a worried expression on his face. Considering the way he was acting just a few moments ago, they young nation would have just assumed the John had gotten drunk like the rest had. Even Alexander was slurring a little by this point, surely the curly-haired, freckle-faced loud mouth would've joined in on the fun. But no, Laurens was only slightly tipsy, maybe not even tipsy at all. Alfred could honestly say he was pretty shocked that he was being comforted by Laurens and not Hamilton.
"Uh...It's nothing," Alfred responded after a moment
"Really? You seem upset about something to me. I won't tell the others if you don't want me to, we and go talk outside. I'll just get Alex to look out for the other two," Laurens reassured
"You sure he's sober enough? He's slurring," Alfred pointed out
"He's not exactly the craziest drunk out there. Plus, I'd trust him to hold the forte for about five minutes. Look, don't worry about them, this is about you," John insisted
"But why are you even helping me? I mean, we're at a bar and drinking, why aren't you just doing that?" Alfred questioned
"Well, I'm not drinking because someone's got to babysit and make sure we don't end up destroying property. As for why I'm helping you, because why not? You look sad and you should probably talk it over with someone. Look, if you want to talk with Alexander tomorrow about it then I don't mi-"
"No-no-no, I'll talk it over with you. I think Alex would just kill me if I told him,"
And with that, John led Alfred outside the bar and they started talking. Alfred mentioned Arthur, the fact that he was only technically 17, the fact that he and Arthur had a huge fight which caused him to want to become independent and he even mentioned his reasons for why. Alfred wanted independence because of how he viewed Arthur. In all technicality, the two were adopted brothers but Alfred started feeling differently around the time he turned 17. At this time, he was becoming older and stronger than his colonizer and he honestly didn't want to view Arthur as an older brother anymore. Furthermore, Alfred was developing sexual and romantic desires and they just so happened fall directly onto Arthur. He knew that falling in love with his older brother and colonizer was wrong but what if he decided to become independent from said colonizer? They were only brothers because of the colonization, breaking off from that would mean Alfred would be free to love Arthur, right?
This, admittedly, confused John a little (it also disgusted him at first before Alfred further explained) but he didn't exactly doubt the reasoning. Alfred was a nation, immortal and probably didn't have any parents or he didn't know those parents if he did have them. It was entirely likely that family structures from nations were a bit more complex than human family structures and that adoption wasn't really a family thing and was more of a way to say that a certain nation was under your control. John couldn't really understand that part but he did finally realise why Alfred was so glum.
"Why don't you try writing to him?" Laurens asked
"Arthur and I are currently at war with each other, I doubt he'd be willing reply at all, let alone reply nicely," Alfred replied
"But he was your brother and he loved you before, didn't he?"
"Yeah, when I was obedient and not projecting him as the guy I wanted to...uh…'go to bed' with. Actually, I'm finding it strange that you're not mentioning the fact that I want to be romantically involved with another man,"
"Then why don't you just explain that you like him like this in a letter?"
"You ignored my second point and I already mentioned it to him. In person. While arguing. It ended as well as you'd think it would,"
Laurens went silent for a while after that and Alfred had promptly assumed he'd given up and wasn't able to help. As he got up, however, he felt a hand catch his wrist
"Look, you guys live forever, don't you?" Laurens asked
"Uh, yeah?" Alfred replied, looking back at him
"Then he'll have to come around eventually. It may take a while but centuries will pass, he'll have to get over his anger and start missing you eventually. You'll just have to wait 'till then," Laurens stated
Alfred thought it through and then smiled brightly and went to hug Laurens, catching the freckled man off guard.
"Thanks John, I really needed that!" Alfred exclaimed
"Uh, you're welcome," Laurens replied, patting the young nations back
Alfred let go and jabbed his thumb back at the bar "Let's get back before a tenant says someone broke a table or something,"
Laurens laugh and walked with Alfred back to the crowded building, searching for their previous table and drunk friends. In his search, he felt his arm being snagged and then something pulling him away from Alfred who had no idea of the abduction. Once he was outside, Laurens faced his kidnapper. Turns out it was just Hamilton.
"Where were you?!"
Ok, an utterly pissed Hamilton.
"I was just with Alfred, he seemed upset and so I talked with him, found out the problem and made things better. See, when you're sober, your mind comes up with great ideas like comforting a sad person," Laurens deadpanned.
Alexander had an utterly bewildered look on his face before exclaiming "I'm completely sober! I was worried about where you'd run off to!"
"You were slurring like a motherfucker!
Before Hamilton could retort, Alfred ran up to the both of them to try and end the argument before it escalated badly and ended up with either injury or being thrown out of the bar.
"Whoa-whoa-whoa, time out! Take a deep breath and then let it out, I really don't want Washington to find out we were kicked out of a bar and that it was partially my fault. He's my boss as currently; he has the responsibility to make sure I learn not to do that ever again and I really don't want the lesson," The wheat-haired boy explained
Laurens agreed to stop arguing but Hamilton was still not satisfied with Laurens' excuse for ditching the table and leaving him with a very drunk Hercules and Lafayette. The mentioning of the two drunkards was what prompted the trio to walk back inside and make sure they haven't killed themselves yet. The walk back was mostly silent and because of that (or possibly because Hercules and Lafayette were trying to marry each other to which, Alfred promptly wondered if that was the alcohol talking or not), the argument between Laurens and Hamilton was never resolved or even really brought up again.
It would be a few months before Alfred would find out why Alexander was so worried about John leaving the bar for a few minutes. Initially, Alfred had just assumed that humans could only ever be attracted to females and that it was only Nations were ever allowed to be attracted to males. He quickly found out that this was not the case when he managed to sneak a peek at one of Hamilton's letters to Laurens. He really didn't know what he expected the two to talk about but, in retrospect, it probably wasn't this.
Hamilton was seemingly asking John to inform the ladies about his 'nose'. He also implied Laurens had seen it which Alfred was surprised by. He honestly thought that humans and nations were different in romantic interests in that humans could only be attracted to the opposite sex and that 2 men couldn't fall in love. Nations may be able to fall in love with the same gender but most nations were also male. There weren't exactly many girls to pick from so Alfred assumed that this meant that nations could be attracted to basically anyone, including humans (which always ended badly). He didn't think this was a possible trait in humans however.
He would be lying if he said he couldn't see the two as an item at all though, he had definitely thought about the two being lovers before. The young nation usually attributed it to his active imagination but he swears the two are always around each other and usually touching each other near the shoulder, close to the neck, any position that looked like the two were about to kiss. Again, he used to attribute this to his own fantasy but it seems that those fantasies held more truth than he had first believed. Alfred kept scanning through the rather explicit letter, missing the sound of boots tapping against the ground.
"Alfred!"
The wheat-haired boy turned his head sourly, much like a puppy being caught making a mess of the carpet. Hamilton had clearly caught him red-handed in his snooping. Alfred thought back on his life and the things he regretted as he wished for forgiveness. Currently, rooting through Hamilton's letters was becoming his most sorry mistake and he was kind of hoping that maybe, just maybe, the man would leave him alone if he said sorry? Unlikely but a man, er, nation could hope. He could definitely hope.
"Look, I know I shouldn't be reading through your letters-"
"Then why were you reading through them?!"
"Because I'm curious and 17 years old?"
Hamilton didn't look any calmer.
"Look, Alexander, I don't really mind that you're in love with Laurens. In fact, you kind of make it obvious. Really obvious. As in, you're not subtle. At all," Alfred deadpanned
"…Ok, I'll concede that I am, in fact, in love with Laurens. I will not concede to that last statement though. I would have thought I was being incredibly subtle, how was my acts and wording not so?" Hamilton asked, attempting to sound like he had some form of authority over Alfred.
"You're telling Laurens to brag about your 'nose'. I don't care about how much detail you can put into a document, that isn't the slightest bit subtle. Also, why are you telling your lover to brag about your 'nose' to the ladies anyways?" Alfred questioned
"I still need to be wed and if I thought that maybe Laurens could advertise for me?" Hamilton replied
Alfred was silent before walking out, clearly done with the conversation.
A few months later, Alfred was reading through some of Hamilton's writings in attempt to proof read (as to what Hamilton was doing, he was currently in the middle of writing a letter to congress from Washington). He'd eventually read through everything twice over and made sure that there were no mistakes (which there weren't). Once done with that, Alfred resorted to sitting still and looking at the ground for about five seconds before shifting through more of Hamilton's documents and finding another letter to Laurens, always an interesting find. Reading through it, he was almost impressed by how bold a man could be. He was getting married soon and yet he still refers to his bride-to-be in lesser terms compared to his language to Laurens himself. Not to mention the talk of Laurens attending the 'final consummation'.
"Good grief," Alfred mutters to no one in particular.
And thus Alfred misses the sounds of boots against the floor yet again, leading to Hamilton sighing is an exhausted yet aggravated manner.
"Can you not read through my other documents? Which one is that, anyways?"
"Your most recent letter to Laurens. I have many questions,"
"Shoot,"
"Did you seriously invite Laurens to a threesome on your wedding night?"
And thus the conversation about how this was a stupid idea and how Alfred should respect others privacy came around yet again.
Laurens would visit once in a while, finally getting the time or just being ordered to come and work with Hamilton (and, by extension, Alfred because said nation wouldn't leave the poor aides-de-camp alone) which would lead to Alfred mentioning the letters and just giving the two a look when they kept at their 'platonic' touches. John had asked Alexander if he really let Alfred proof read his letters to Laurens and Alexander denied it on all fronts and told Laurens that Alfred just kept snooping through all his papers. John rolled his eyes with a gentle, loving when this lead to Alexander going on a rant about how the young nation needed to learn some manners.
Then Laurens would leave when he had to go back to South Carolina. His final visit was probably the most heart breaking in hindsight as Alexander was pretty upset to see John leave. It seemed as if the man was going to act on something but couldn't actually get to it in time. Alfred instantly assumed private wedding and actually sent Laurens a letter expressing this theory to which Laurens replied with a letter that essentially translated to 'Sounds just like him'. Alexander kept at his letters to Laurens but it seems as if Laurens was taking longer and longer to reply. The battle of Yorktown came and went and Hamilton was waiting for Laurens to reply to his most recent letter.
The letter he got instead was utterly heart-breaking.
Alexander, Alfred, Lafayette and Mulligan were all at their own things when they received a letter pertaining to the death of Lieutenant Colonel John Laurens on 27th of August, 1782. Alfred was distraught by the news but not nearly as heart-broken as Hamilton. The man had simply written a few simple passages about the death of John Laurens in a letter and nothing more, something Alfred theorised to be because of how upset Hamilton had been at the occurrence. The event of John Laurens' death was what had led to the events of today, what had led to Alfred and Alexander to drinking at a bar now. The pair had sorely missed their friend despite the short time he'd been gone, especially short in Alfred's case considering how old he actually was.
"I honestly can't believe that he's…" Alexander muttered
"Me neither," Alfred replied, staring down at the drink in his mug. He was now 18 years old, the victory of the revolution had advanced his age by a year. It was honestly exhausting how much raw emotion he'd experienced after just turning of age, he was now independent and worrying about how long it would be before Arthur had forgiven him. He could still remember his last encounter with the older nation, how crippled the green-eyed blond had been at Alfred's leave. That breakdown had installed immense guilt into Alfred already and now one of his closest friends was gone completely. And now the mentioning of death was bringing up bad memories of blue flowers and Da-
"Alfred, you're hyperventilating. Take deep, slow breaths," Hamilton tried his best to help the young nation despite the clear trauma he himself was experiencing.
Alfred took Hamilton's before calming down and looking back at the still mourning man. He honestly felt bad for freaking out over nothing while the man beside him was going through the loss of a lover. Alfred could still see Arthur and all humans die eventually, he needs to get used to that already. Right now, Hamilton needed more help than he did. Heck, Hamilton himself was destined to die someday, Alfred needed to get use to the loss of his friends.
And so Alfred brought themselves both another drink and, by the end of the night, the ache seemed to have faded for a while. He and Hamilton would occasionally talk about their late friend after the whole ordeal but Alfred noted how Hamilton seemed to have become more secluded and less open than he was before. Hamilton kept that way until his death at the hands of a duel with a former colleague, Aaron Burr. Alfred attended Hamilton's funeral but refrained from speaking to anyone, he was still hungover from George Washington's passing only 5 years before (it was amazing how short years seemed when you lived forever, it felt more like five months to the nation). He'd gotten better at handling death, he'd learnt from his time dealing with Laurens' death but it still stung. It always stung.
It always would.
Years passed, Alfred would eventually try to take his top half (did it have a name? Alfred couldn't quite remember it) under his control but was stopped by, who else, England. Thomas Jefferson rein of presidency came and went, so did the man himself as well with his friend, James Madison. Presidents came after those two, Lincoln abolished slavery and was then assassinated. Alfred would make further friends, keeping his cheerful grin throughout all of them. WWI and WWII came, changed the game of war, also mending Alfred's relationship with Arthur with their 'special relationship' which eventually led to Alfred and Arthur actually dating. Now it was present day and Alfred was at a graveyard sight. It was the 27th of August and Arthur was with him as he place a bouquet of yellow roses on the top of a tombstone.
"Ok, I understand your adoration for placing flowers on top of Hamilton's grave, he's one of the founding fathers, why wouldn't you, but who even is John Laurens and why are you placing roses on his grave?" Arthur asked
Alfred gave him a glare that had a surprisingly scary gleam around it. It also looked hurt, as if what Arthur had said hit too close to home for him. Arthur himself was looking regretful of his wording choice. Alfred's glare lessened the longer he looked at his lover to the point where all that was reflect in his eyes, azure and usually full of wonder, was utter sorrow. Arthur came up to Alfred and hugged him the most comforting way he could muster.
"I'm sorry, he must've been a dear friend of yours," Arthur mumbled into his boyfriend's shoulder.
"It's ok. John Laurens was a really close friend of mine and Hamilton's," Alfred began talking about his long-departed friend, explaining his experiences with him to Arthur. He explained why John was such a good friend, how he was connected to Alexander and even mentioned the pair's love affair. Arthur was glad to listen to Alfred's ramblings about one of his treasured friends but there was also a feeling that someone was watching. Not a bad person, just a person. Maybe John's soul was listening in to this retelling. Maybe Alexander was with him. Whatever it was, Arthur was convinced that Alfred's friendships from back when he was a rebellious colony had shaped him into the man he is now.
And the man he is now is pretty great.
The End.