A/N: Hey reader! One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine! It's duel time! Hope you enjoy this, I liked writing Laurens as something other than my poor lovesick son! (Don't worry, he's still in love, but he can handle it better now.)
Disclaimer: you know the drill. I don't even own a drill, let alone Hamilton.
"I'll kill that coward!" Hamilton shouted as he slammed the door on his way into his and Laurens' shared office.
"What's up?" Laurens asked, setting down his quill and walking around his desk to perch on the edge. He was immediately concerned about his friend - he'd only been back from his short honeymoon for a few days, and already he was seething with palpable fury. The time they'd shared at Hamilton's wedding, however brief, lasted in his memory, and helped Laurens to maintain his cheerful optimism. So his fond smile was, despite his internal longing for the other man, sympathetic and sunny as he focused on supporting him, and seeing it helped to soothe Hamilton's frustration.
He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself as much as possible. Then he garbled, "Charles Lee has been ridiculing Washington - he's turning the General into a laughing stock! Well who's he to pass judgements on his superiors, especially after leading a mass retreat at the battle of Monmouth against orders. I could make him regret this, and every other mistake in his life!"
"So why don't you? Obviously you're passionate about teaching him a lesson..." Laurens pointed out.
At that, Hamilton slumped defeatedly against the wall, closing his eyes and turning his face to the sky as if in silent prayer. He could only mutter his reply under his breath - if he'd allowed himself to add any more volume to his words, he would've ended up screaming them: "Washington's forbidden me. He says I've already caused too much controversy lately, I've humiliated too many powerful people, it's making people question his authority - if he can't stop his Aide de camp from running his mouth off, what hope does he have of leading an army?"
Laurens rolled his eyes, looking every bit like the sexy, testy teenager he could be as he replied, "Washington isn't meant to control your every move - he's not your dad!"
"I know that!" Hamilton practically howled, sinking down the wall to crumple into a ball of angry helplessness.
Laurens couldn't help but chuckle at the normally fearless man throwing a tantrum. He crossed the short distance between them and bent down to brush a strand of Hamilton's tangled hair, matted with the sweat which always appeared when he was truly angered, away from his forehead. The cool touch of his skin against Hamilton's hot head gave the sitting man a shock, and he let out an involuntary gasp. Laurens laughed again, and gently tilted the other man's head back a little so they could make eye contact. Both men felt a thrill of excitement at the contact, however it was heavily tainted by the blazing fury in Hamilton's dark eyes.
"You know, just because you aren't allowed to do something, doesn't mean nothing will happen," Laurens began, immediately causing a puzzled look to appear on Hamilton's face. "I can make something happen. I could ask him to duel with me."
"And how would you justify it, Laurens, "I want to fight you because my friend wants to fight you because you were rude about Washington and he won't let my friend do anything about it."?" Hamilton asked, sarcasm ringing through his response.
Calm as ever, Laurens replied, "I'd just explain that I don't approve of his acts against a man I work for and admire."
Hamilton stared intently into Laurens' eyes, trying to see if he was joking. He was smiling, but there was no trace of humour within it, only kind sincerity.
Surprised, he argued, "Don't just stand there smiling about your stupid idea. There's nothing to be happy about - you're talking about risking your life for what? To make me feel big and clever?"
"Precisely."
The frustration vanished from Hamilton's eyes, replaced with confusion and longing, the latter of which he tried to hide.
"Alexander, I hate seeing you like this. I want to help you get back to your normal self, and I know you well enough that I know you can't move on from something like this until you strike back. And," he added, attempting to use Hamilton's newlywed status against him, "I'm sure Eliza would want you to be happy, just like you told me."
"Eliza's not here," Hamilton murmured, looking away almost guiltily.
Laurens drew close enough that his smirking lips were just Brushing Hamilton's ear as he whispered, "But I am. And I believe your wife and I want the same thing..."
Hamilton felt the blush creeping up to his cheeks, his embarrassment about it only made it more obvious. He was sure Laurens must be able to hear the thunderous pumping of his heart. The subtext within the sentence ignited a flame of red hot desire within him, and he had to clench his fists so hard that his nails created tiny crescent moon trenches in his palms to stop himself from instead using them to grab Laurens' hair and kiss him with all of the passionate anger of the day.
Laurens always loved to flirt and tease, especially when he liked someone as much as he loved Hamilton. But the fact that the other man had such a strong reaction to him gave him a flicker of hope that maybe one day they might be more than just friends. But not yet, not when Alexander was so conflicted and emotional, and struggling so hard to resist his wants. But just because it wasn't right now, didn't mean nothing would ever happen...
Laurens stood up, and Hamilton suppressed a plaintive whine of protest. You're married, he reminded himself.
"So, you're going to duel him?" Hamilton checked, only slightly breathless.
"Correction: we're going to duel him. You're my second, okay?" Laurens was back to his easy, casual grin instead of his suggestive smirk.
"Okay... I guess I have to be, to make sure you don't do something stupid."
Laurens laughed. "I've done more stupid things than you could ever imagine, Alex." Including falling for you, he added silently
Sombre, Hamilton replied, "as long as you don't throw away your shot."
The grey dawn morning was silent other than the sounds of footsteps pacing on hard ground. All the correct procedures had been followed; now they were standing on the precipice, it was the final threshold. All that was left to do was for the two men to trade bullets, each hoping they would meet their mark before their opponent had a chance to make some mortal scratch.
"Laurens, remember what I said," Hamilton murmured to his friend, who fiddled with the trigger of his pistol.
"Alexander, you're the closest friend I've got. Of course I'm going to remember. Now get back, I don't want you to get hurt."
Hamilton silently obliged, only too conscious of the fact that this whole thing was happening simply to stop his ego being hurt. But it wasn't worth Laurens putting himself in danger for, it wasn't worth him possibly dying for. Hamilton couldn't dismiss - or rather, wouldn't tempt fate by attempting to dismiss - the knowledge that he had put the man he loved in danger to protect his pride. It wasn't like he didn't attempt to dissuade him, he'd tried, but Laurens seemed compelled by something he alone knew, something which made it seem like possibly giving your life was a worthy sacrifice for Hamilton's happiness. He knew the other man had been afraid of losing him, but since the wedding, he'd seemed much more his old self. Besides, fear is a paralytic; love is often a much stronger motivator...
"Oh!" He gasped in realisation. Finally, he recognized what had been so blindingly obvious for months: Laurens was in love with him. All the lingering touches and stares which lasted too long, the insecurity around women and the dance they'd shared at his wedding, they were all the results of romantic affection. Hamilton didn't know whether to laugh in joy that his feelings were reciprocated, or cry at his own ignorance or the sad truth that he loved and was loved by someone so great despite having the best of wives and best of women.
Or perhaps a more appropriate reaction would be to gasp again, because shots had just been fired, and one man immediately fell to the floor with a low, ominous thud...