Chapter III

Helloooooo Hamilfans.

So sorry about the delay, I am the most unreliable author ever and you really should not be surprised.

I suck.

Anyway, not much action this time 'round, but the info needs to get out there, and we can begin the agonizing slow burn typically known as Lams.

That's all, see y'all next time, love you all dearly, and do me a favour. You've probably been sitting at your computer for a while now. Get up, stretch, maybe walk around the room a few times. Go on, the chapter will still be here after you're done.

Back already? Good.

Remember to smile, you're all beautiful, the world is brighter with you in it.

Cheers!

-London

"A-L-E-X-A-N-D-E-R, we are, meant to be!"


"Angelica you're free, go woo your man." John called, the door to the coffee shop swinging shut behind him.

"Finally!" Angelica yelled, tossing her apron aside and walking out from behind the counter. "Have fun with your graveyard shift freckles!" She called from over her shoulder, and John groaned and rolled his eyes, slipping behind the counter and grabbing an apron.

He tightened his ponytail as he pulled the apron over his head, blowing some stray curls out of his face. Tying his apron, he glanced over at the lounge area, only finding a few college students huddled over a laptop on a table in the corner, most likely working on a group project due the next day.

Well, this was going to be a long fifteen hours.

John took a seat on the stool behinds the counter and pulled out his iPad. He idly scrolled through his online textbook, he was supposed to have the chapter read by Friday, but as much as he loved Washington, he couldn't bring himself to care about a bunch of dusty old white guys getting into duels over the stupidest things.

He glanced up as the bell hanging over the door rang, and grinned when he saw a certain debate team genius walk in the door.

"Yo Hamilton!" He called, shutting down his iPad and tossing it to the side. Alex's eyes widened, and he walked over to the counter. He was clad in an oversized sweatshirt and jeans, his hair pulled up in a messy bun. He looked exhausted, but there was still that manic glint in his eyes that had first caught John's fancy.

"John Laurens, right?" He asked, and John grinned and winked.

"The one and only. What can I getcha?" He asked, hopping off his stool to grab a metal cup.

"Triple red eye, or the equivalent." Alex replied, and John whistled.

"Damn, how many pages do you have to write?" He asked, grabbing the espresso mix.

"Well technically only eight, but how the hell am I supposed to make a point in eight pages?! I need at least two for the thesis alone-" Alex started ranting, and John raised his eyebrows.

"I'm going to cut you off right there, psychiatric ward is down the street and to the left." He pointed out the door, and Alex looked alarmed. "Kidding. Eight pages, is that for Washington's class?" He asked over his shoulder as he continued making the caffeinated nightmare.

"Yeah, how'd you guess?" Alex asked, leaning on the counter.

"I'm in it too, although I haven't even started the paper yet, hell, I haven't finished reading the chapter." John admitted, raising his voice so he could be heard over the whirring of the machinery.

"Seriously?" Alex shouted to be heard over the loud grinding, and John looked back over his shoulder at Alex.

"Look, I took the class basically because of Washington and because I need elective credits, I can't bring myself to get invested in a bunch of corpses." He admitted, and switched the machine off and deftly poured the contents into a plastic cup. "Whipped cream or no?"

"Hell no, don't screw up my coffee with that sugary shit." Alex threatened, and John scoffed incredulously.

"The fuck Hamilton, I can't even drink coffee without at least six spoonfuls of sugar!" He protested, sliding the coffee towards Alex.

"Oh no, you did not just say that to my face John Laurens." Alex shot, raising his eyebrows and taking a swig of his coffee.

"How do you not have third degree burns in your throat?" John asked, momentarily distracted by Alex's frankly alarming coffee consumption.

"Spoken like a true amature. You're lucky you're cute, or else I'd take my patronage over to King's Tea." Alex said, smirking and god did that not make John want to kiss that stupid smirk off his face.

"Oh you wouldn't." John said with only half-feigned horror, and held his hand out. "Four sixty seven, pay up. And don't forget to tip the attractive barista." He winked, and Alex laughed and dug a five dollar bill out of his pocket.

"Only cuz you're cute." Alex said, and John grinned.

"Hey, I've got to get through med school, I need every penny I can get." He commented, slipping the bill in the cash register and slipping the change into the tip jar, and Alex whistled through his teeth.

"Med school? Damn Laurens, aiming to be the new Dr. Sexy?" Alex grinned, and John wiggled his eyebrows.

"Dunno, you think I could fit the label?" He flirted, inwardly flipping out. This was most definitely flirting, the guy couldn't be straight.

"Nah." Alex said dismissively, and John blinked, taken aback, then saw the smile fighting to appear on Alex's stern demeanor.

"Oh you ass." He laughed, and Alex's haughty facade broke and he and laughed with him.

"You're more cute than sexy though. Look at those freckles!" Alex reached over the counter and pinched John's cheek, and John swatted his hand away, laughing.

"You're just as bad as Peggy, don't you have a paper to write?" John asked, rubbing his cheek (Damn those pinches hurt), and Alex pouted.

"I'm hurt, you don't want to spend time with me?" He complained, but John just raised his eyebrows pointedly at the laptop under Alex's arm. "Fine, fine, but I'm warning you: I have questions, and by the end of your shift you are going to answer them. When is the end of your shift by the way?" He asked over his shoulder as he made his way towards one of the couches.

"Nine am. Now shut up and write your essay." John ordered, and Alex stuck his tongue out from the couch where he settled and plugged in his laptop. John watched him for a moment (Because that wasn't stalkerish at all), and then felt his cheeks heat up when Alex looked up and they made eye contact. John immediately looked away and down at his iPad, sighing as he scrolled through the pages he still had to read.

Fucking history.

John rolled his eyes and pulled up docs, ready to one hundred percent bullshit his way through this essay. Eight pages, that was about three thousand words. God, this is gonna suck.

John started typing, switching between the textbook and docs, letting his mind wander as he mindlessly plagiarized the textbook and Shmoop. He'd edit it later, make it sound more professional and less like he copied the textbook word for word.

He glanced up when the bell above the door rang and the door swung open to reveal a head of curly hair, the head tilted down so he couldn't see a face.

The figure approached the counter and sighed, and mumbled "Coffee. Please."

John grinned and shook his head as he finally placed the figure. "I'll take that to mean Carmel Frappe and a shitload of whipped cream?" He smirked at Peggy, who blinked and finally looked up at John.

"You know me too well." She grinned, but John froze and stared at the black eye marring Peggy's complexion.

"I am totally not judging, but what the hell did you do to your face?" He asked, while turning to mix up her frappe.

"Friggin king's men. I ran into two of them, they started talking shit about us, loud enough for the whole campus to hear, and I was going to ignore them, I swear, but they saw me and started talking about Eliza," John's fists clenched, "and I wasn't having it. I punched the one and he went down quick, but the other one was obviously looking for a fight because he managed to get this in," she gestured to her face, "before I kicked him in the balls and stormed off."

"Shit Peggy, as much as I'd like to yell at you for getting into a fight without backup, I'd be a total hypocrite and if they were talking 'bout Eliza then all bets are off. Do you want some ice?" He asked while putting much more whipped cream on her drink than was allowed by company policy.

"Ice would be great. I was hoping you'd be working, I need help covering this up before I go home." Peggy admitted, and John slid her drink over to her and waved off the money she tried to give. "You're fine, this one's on me."

"No, it's not. You're A: a broke ass college student and B: my brother, you're not supposed to be nice to me. I can pay for my own damn coffee." Peggy rolled her eyes and shoved the money down the back of John's shirt as he was bent over shoveling ice into a plastic baggy.

"Fine." John grumbled, shaking out his shirt and bouncing until the bills slid out his shirt. He threw the bag of ice at Peggy who caught it with one hand and pressed it against her eye.

"You have the supplies?" She asked, and John nodded and rooted through his backpack.

"If Angelica or Eliza notices, I had nothing to do with this." He warned, inwardly shuddering at what he knew the older sisters would do to him if they found out he helped hide something like this from them.

"Fine. Oh, dad wants to know if you can come over this weekend for family bonding." Peggy rolled her eyes. "This time it's board games, which are more likely to tear the family apart to be honest."

"Very true. Remember when we played Risk?" He grinned, pulling a small bag from his backpack and placing it on the counter.

"Angelica only won because you're all cowards too scared to cross her." Peggy muttered, scowling.

"Hey, you had the opportunity to attack her in Australia and I didn't see you take it." John shot back, unzipping the small bag and dumping the contents onto the counter.

"It wasn't in my best interests." Peggy sniffed, and removed the ice from her face. The swelling had reduced a bit, but the discoloration was becoming more noticeable by the minute.

"Coward." John coughed, and Peggy swatted him upside the head. "Ok! Moving on! Dry off your face and hop up." He instructed, and Peggy jumped onto the counter and swung her legs over so she was facing John. He sifted through the various makeup items littering the counter, stopping once he found what he was looking for. "This is your concealer, right?"

Peggy leaned down to examine the small bottle. "Yeah that's mine, see the yellow sticker on the top? It's all color coded, come on Laurens!"

"You guys have an unhealthy obsession with color coding." John grumbled, squeezing some concealer onto the back of his palm.

"Hey, you try growing up with two sisters then tell me you don't need a way to stake your territory." Peggy protested, and John's hands froze for a second before he continued dabbing the makeup onto Peggy's bruise.

"I have, actually. Twice if you want to be picky." He said, trying to keep his tone light, but Peggy must have picked up on his falter because her hand curled around his wrist, pausing his ministrations.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring that up." She said softly, and John shook his head.

"It's fine. So Angelica's still seeing Church?" He asked, and Peggy nodded.

"Yeah. I dunno, he seems nice enough, but he's not an even match for her, you know what I mean? If she wants a partner, he needs to be able to match wits with her, challenge her, not just stare at her rack and agree with everything she says." Peggy commented, and John wiped the extra concealer off his hand with a towel and grabbed the powder.

"Yeah. I don't know what she sees in him." He shook his head before grabbing a brush and swirling on some powder. "Close your eyes."

Peggy obliged and pressed her lips together. "I don't know either."

"Open." John stepped back and surveyed his handiwork. "Looks good, just don't hold eye contact too long and for god's sake don't talk to Angelica."

"Thanks Johnny boy." Peggy smiled, hopping down from the counter and wrapping John in a hug.

"Of course." John replied into Peggy's hair as he rested his chin on her shoulder. He inhaled her scent, coffee and mixed with strawberries, and smiled softly.

"Ok, I should get home before Eliza gets worried. I'll tell dad you're in for Saturday, ok?" Peggy said, pushing back and smiling at John.

"Sure." John replied, pressing a kiss to her forehead and then stepping back. "I'll see you here tomorrow. Now get out of my coffee shop!" He threatened, grabbing a towel and snapping it threateningly.

"Oh you're such asshole." Peggy laughed, hopping over the counter, grabbed her frappe, and ran out the door, bells ringing wildly as she made her exit.

John shook his head, grinning to himself as he shoved all the makeup bag into the bag and put the bag back in his backpack. He glanced up, checking for any potential customers, and upon finding none, sighed in relief. He glanced over at Alexander, who was hunched over his laptop, fingers flying a mile a minute. John noted the empty cup besides him and winced, that couldn't be healthy.

"Hamilton! You need a refill?" He called, then frowned slightly when he received no acknowledgement.

"Ok then." He grumbled to himself, and jumped over the counter and walked towards Alexander. "Earth to Hamilton." He called again, sliding into the seat across from him. Still, he achieved no acknowledgement, and he raised his eyebrows.

"Alexander!" He called again, leaning over and tapping Alexander's forehead.

"Wha- Oh! John!" Alexander yelped, apparently surprised to find the seat across from him no longer empty.

"You really get lost in your work, don't you?" John commented, and Alexander winced.

"Yeah, I do, sorry if you were trying to get my attention. Is this a good time to interrogate you?" He asked, and John could swear the bags under his eyes had gotten darker since he first walked in.

"I suppose. Give your eyes a break from the screen." John suggested, and Alex blinked and rubbed his eyes.

"That might be a good idea. Umm, how long have I been here?" He asked, and John raised one eyebrow.

"About three hours. Are you ok?" He asked, and Alexander sheepishly scratched the back of his neck.

"The phrase 'getting lost in your work' really does work for this situation." He admitted, and John raised both eyebrows.

"Ok then, you definitely need a break. You said you had questions?" John asked, leaning over and closing Alexander's laptop.

"Ah, yes. Questions. So, how exactly did the revolution start? I got the bare details from Burr, but I have a feeling there's a lot more than he says." Alexander began, closing his laptop.

"Geez, you don't start small, do you?" John laughed, running a hand through his ponytail as he tried to figure out where to begin. "Yeah, Burr wasn't there for most the stuff before the Revolution really got rolling, so I'll just start from the beginning. Ok. So, one could argue that this whole thing started when George King took over as principal, but no one actually did anything till my sophomore year, this year, started." He began, and Alexander leaned forward.

"Basically, King is a tyrannical bigoted all the -phobics you can think of dick. He gives special privileges to the rich kids, accepts bribes to pass kids, all that jazz. People have tried to catch him, but there's never any evidence. " John paused, and Alexander nodded.

"I'm not surprised." He groaned, grabbing for his coffee and looking disappointed to find it empty.

"Yeah. All his favourites are automatically drafted into the Redcoats, his debate team, but you knew that, right?" John stopped again, looked up to find a Alexander staring at him a bit more intently than the situation warranted, and he could feel his ears start to heat up.

"Yeah, Aaron told me that much. So how'd you guys start your own? Don't all clubs have to be approved by the president or some shit?" Alexander asked, and John coughed and nodded.

"Yeah, I'll get to that. Right, so I think the spark that really started this all was the Biology Massacre. Ok, massacre is a bit overdramatic but it sounds better. Anyway, for the marine biology majors there is this trip to either South Carolina or the Caribbean every spring to survey turtle nests or follow migrating patterns, marine biology stuff. Lucky bastards, I fucking love turtles." John muttered the last part, then quickly cleared his throat and continued. "Only ten can go every year, the spots are usually given to the ten students with the highest grade in the class. But this year, King interfered and only chose his favourites, basically any of his Redcoats, to go, which is so unfair I don't even know where to start." John shook his head, and held up a hand when Alexander opened his mouth. "It's better I get it all out in one go, you can ask questions later."

"Anyway. The other pissed off marine bio majors started a protest outside King's office. Some Redcoats showed up, and things got violent. A lot of people got hurt, but here's the thing. The Redcoats? Got off with absolutely no punishment, but five of the other students were expelled, and six got suspended." John ranted, and Alexander's eyes got big and John could tell he was trying to hold back words.

"So naturally everyone heard about it, and a lot of people got pissed, myself included. This next part not many people outside the revolution know about, so don't go running your mouth off about this, ok?" John paused, and Alexander nodded, and he continued.

"It's common knowledge that King fucking loves tea, he opened a freaking tea shop on campus for god's sake. So one night me, Laf, Herc, Angelica, Eliza, and Peggy broke into his shop and stole a shitload of tea. And when I say shitload, I mean at least three crates each. We loaded it all into Peggy's truck and then dumped it in the lake on the west side of campus."

"Oh my god that's awesome!" Alexander broke his vow of silence, and John grinned, reliving the moment.

"It was amazing, and really satisfying. But it really didn't help. King got so unbelievably pissed, to this day he never figured out who it was." John laughed, shaking his head.

"So a few weeks after the tea party, King finally hit back. He raised the prices on fucking everything on campus. Textbooks, coffee, tuition, cafeteria food, dorm rates. even the goddamn souvenir shop stuff! Everyone was furious, I was living on campus at that point and just living got so much more expensive, which was a problem for broke college students, you know?" John groaned, he had gone barely eating for a month and a half to pay for dorm costs and tuition.

"So a friend of Angelica's, his name is a Thomas Jefferson, he's a junior, you two are really alike actually now that I think about it." John considered, tilting his head and examining Alexander. "He's in France for the semester, I think you'll either get along great or absolutely hate each other."

"Let's hope for the former, but I can't make any promises." Alexander shrugged, and John laughed. "Do you get along with him?"

John considered, and chose his words carefully. "I respect him. I met him before college because he's friends with Angelica. We're not particularly close, but we worked together a lot to form the Revolution. He is really smart, and he is firm in his beliefs. I don't agree with some of them but everyone's entitled to their own opinion, as long as it doesn't disrespect anybody's existence. He can be really loud and obnoxious and arrogant, but can't we all?" John shrugged, and Alexander nodded.

"Anyway, he got really fucking pissed about the whole thing." John started back into the story. "The money and everything wasn't a problem for him, he comes from a wealthy family, but his best friend, James Madison, he's in our year, you met him yesterday actually. Anyway, his family struggles financially, so the new prices were really hard on him. He has a lot of health issues too, he has to spend a lot on meds, and with the new expenses he had to go without them, which made him really sick."

"That's fucking terrible!" Alexander exclaimed, and John nodded.

"Yeah. He's Herc's cousin, so we spent a lot of time with him trying to help out. Anyway, back to the Revolution. Thomas got pissed, and he wrote an email to King titled A Declaration of Independence, and it was awesome. It basically told King to fuck off and told him that the students wouldn't stand for his actions anymore. He listed everything King did, and got about a third of campus to sign it. Then he forwarded it to Angelica, who proofread it and told him to include how degrading he is towards women. He agreed, and Angelica printed out two hundred copies and she gave a stack to me, Eliza, and Peggy and we put them up all over campus."

"I." Alexander interrupted, and John blinked and stared at him.

"Sorry?"

"Eliza, Peggy and I." Alexander repeated, and John gaped at him for a few seconds.

"Oh my god, you are such a nerd!" He laughed, shaking his head and swatting Alexander, who groaned and buried his face in his hands.

"I can't help it!" Alexander protested, laughing and looking up at John, who rolled his eyes and continued.

"Fine. Eliza, Peggy, and I plastered them all over campus, and it set up a huge uproar. Redcoats were taking them down as fast as they could, but other people got their hands on them and started making copies and putting them up faster than they could be taken down. Eventually, people started calling The whole thing a rebellion, which kinda slammed the breaks on the whole thing, because we're in college for a reason and we kinda need the diploma? But then Eliza had the brilliant idea of forming another debate team, and calling ourselves the Revolution. Everyone jumped on the idea, and Angelica and got Washington to be an advisor, and here we are." John finished, leaning back and sighing. "Questions?"

"You were actually really thorough." Alexander said, and John grinned.

"I try. The next debate tournament is in Brooklyn next week, you're gonna love it. There's gonna be a lot of Redcoats, it'll be good experience." He commented, then the bells above the door rang and a half asleep college student walked in. "I should go do what I'm paid for, good luck with your paper Alexander." He smiled, and stood up and wavered for a minute, then grabbed a sharpie from his apron.

"Here," he said as he scribbled his number and a turtle, and after a brief hesitation, a small heart onto a napkin, "is my number. Text me!"

John spun around quickly before he could see Alexander's reaction and hurdled the counter just in time to help the customer. As he mixed a ridiculously complicate latte, he glanced over his shoulder at Alexander, who was looking at him, napkin in hand, and John smiled, and turned back to his drink.

This should be fun.