John Laurens was the foster son of George Washington, the current King of the humans - he's only the current king because humans die quite often - and had been living at the castle on top of the hill for as long as he could remember. He was not yet old enough to recall the first great land and sea war as his ancestors could before him... not that they were alive anymore. Either way, John Laurens had been brought up in a loving household and as a result, grown up to become a fair and just prince, respecting all manner of life, whether they be from the sea or sky or land. In fact, no one in the royal household held any animosity towards any creature. Which angered their subjects a bit more than they cared mention. But the king and queen were well loved so no one really bothered to say anything.

On this particular day, John Laurens had decided to go sailing. Not for any particular reason on this particular day, but when he'd woken up and ambled his way down to a late breakfast he had announced his plans to his father who simply raised an eyebrow and muttered something about "Not getting kidnapped". This is why after said late breakfast, John had promptly made his way down to the kingdom's harbour, waving to everyone as he passed, and was just getting ready to set off when he came face to face with another face in the water.

To say he was shocked would be an understatement. It's not everyday you encounter a merman and frankly, oh by the seven seas - there were two more!? As soon as the merman had realised just what he had suddenly surfaced upon, he had immediately dipped back under and resurfaced with two more... and one of them had a sword... At this moment, John decided that the world actually had it out for him and was just deciding to toy with him before it incapacitated him for good. "Wha...", he muttered, staring at the three figures before him, bobbing slightly in the waves that rocked the ships.

"Mon Dieu! Alexander! You've done it now! Qu'allons nous faire? Il nous a vu! Il est connu de nous!, "Lafayette stage whispered under his breath, "Nous allons tous mourir!", he turned on Hamilton frantically.

"Laf. Listen. It's okay, it's okay! We'll sort this out!", Alexander grabbed the younger merman by the shoulders and shook him to stop his panicked babbling.

"No Alexander, I don't think we will! This is really bad! You know how much your father rants about humans!? And then you go and literally run into one?!" Hercules shouted.

"Shhhhh", Lafayette and Alexander both hissed frantically.

Hercules' eyes widened before he dropped his voice to a whisper, "This is bad Alexander. Very, very bad."

"Is your buddy speaking French?", John asked, coming out of his brief episode of trauma. The three merman looked at each other in surprise.

"Is that what you're speaking Laf?", Alexander asked his friend to which the curly - haired merman simply shrugged.

"Je ne sais pas."

"That's great Laf."

"That means I don't know", Laurens added helpfully.

"Thank you."

The initial shock from meeting the three creatures of the sea had worn off and now John had a chance to study the friends. Only friends would be able to bicker like that he supposed... not like he knew what any of that felt like but he supposed that if he had any friends they would probably fight just like the three were doing right now. In fact, with a wince he noticed their volume was slowly growing louder and louder.

"Guys?" the arguing continued. A few dockhands were starting to glance their way.

"Guys?!"

"Alexander!", the three stopped to look at him in surprise, "That is your name right?"

"Maybe...", the black - haired merman muttered.

"Wait... Alexander. Alexander Hamilton? As in the King George's son Alexander Hamilton?"

"I'm not his son."

"Oh..."

"It is... how you say... complicated?", the merman with the sword cut in, Laurens remembered Hamilton calling him "Laf", "Our King has very strict anti - human laws that Alex doesn't necessarily agree with"

"Neither do you Laf"

"Yes." the largest of the three mermen, whose name hadn't been mentioned, said calmly, "But unlike you Lafayette doesn't go around the palace spouting nonsense about human peace negotiations and living in harmony that could get him killed."

Hamilton crossed his arms and seemed to want to add more but was suddenly interrupted by the supposedly French merman, "Now is definitely not the time to fight mon ami."

Hamilton seemed to pout. Yes. Actually pout before he uncrossed his arms and nodded in solemn agreement, "Alright. But what are we going to do about him?"

John had watched their conversation, head swiveling back and forth as he followed their murmurings. He was broken out of his overwhelmed stupor when they mentioned him though... or at least he assumed that the conversation had now changed direction, "Wait, wait, wait wait, hold up... what about me?"

The three mermen stare at him with distrust. It's really unnerving to have three pairs of eyes in varying shades of brown boring into his soul, but the sea creatures manage it anyway.

"It's... not that we don't trust you...", the merman whose name has still gone unannounced starts, pausing when he waits for an answer.

An answer to what? An answer to... of all the times John's social skills would fail him... Oh!

"John... John Laurens"

"John Laurens, but there is currently a pretty major war brewing under the sea between you humans and us and..."

"Wait what? Why?"

The three mermen glanced at each other uneasily.

"You mean you aren't aware of the hatred we hold towards your species and how years of mistrust are leading to another war?"

"Nope. I don't think us humans hold that much abhorrence towards your guys."

Alexander's face brightened, "Really?!"

"Yep."

"Herc. Laf. You know what this means?!"

The two mermen glanced at each other (they seemed to do that a lot from John's observations) and nodded.

Alexander nearly jumped out of the water in excitement, his puppy - like demeanor was actually quite cute - wait what?

"Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, oh my goodness! This might mean my plans could actually work if... if we could get together every week to talk about peace negotiations this whole war could be completely avoided! Oh course I'll have to sneak out of the castle... and...and you probably would have to as well... I'm assuming you're from a royal family based on the state of your current dress wear. This is absolutely wonderful! Laf, you could totally get Charles Lee to cover for you!" - Lafayette gave Alex a look of disgust - ," And Hercules, I'm sure you could convince your folks to let you leave whenever!"

Hercules held up a well toned armed to stop the ecstatic merman, "It's not that simple Alex, not all of us have time to spare sitting around in our lavishly decorated rooms all day… it took me almost an hour to convince my old man to let me join you on your little excursion in the first place!"

"He's right mon ami, I can't just abandon my position on the guard… and I especially can't leave it up to that imbècile Charles Lee!"

Alex deflated a little but nodded in understanding, "In that case I can keep you updated. What say you John Laurens?"

John, who quite frankly had been a bit overwhelmed by the whole conversation just nodded mutely.

"Great! I'll find your boat next week! We probably shouldn't meet here right?"

John again nodded feeling slightly off put by Alexander's enthusiasm. No one had the right to be that adorable while excited.

"Yes! This is going to be fantastic! Goodbye John Laurens! Same time next week! We could actually prevent this war!"

"Ummmmm…"

"Oh my seven seas. I almost forgot! You know me, I'm Alexander Hamilton, foster son of the King. This is Hercules Mulligan, best tailor under the waves!" Hercules gave a sheepish wave, "And this!" Hamilton cheerfully grabbed the shoulder of the curly haired merman, "is Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de Lafayette, but no one has the time or patience to even attempt saying it all so we just call him Lafayette. He's the youngest captain of the King's Royal guard!"

The Frenchman blushed a bright red and shrugged, "It's not that big of a deal…"

"Of course it is Gilbert! My guardian as designated by legal documents certainly likes you which is quite the feat! He barely even likes my dear brother who is the epitome of the word flatterer."

John just nodded along, having lost both the direction and meaning of this conversation minutes earlier.

"Goodbye John Laurens! Till we meet again!"

And with that, the three mermen ducked back under, heading off to who knows where. The waves continued to beat against the side of John's sailing boat until he was able to pull himself away. These next few weeks would be quite interesting.