-7 Months Later-

"Hey, glad to see you made it!" Alexander exclaimed as Laf got out of his car. "You ready for college?"

Laf nodded, smiling. He seldom spoke, and if he did it was only a one or two word answer, usually in French.

"Great. Here, we can help you with your bags." Grabbing one as John grabbed the other.

The three of them walked up to their room on the third floor.

"Hey Alex, we're in room seventeen eighty-one, right?" John asked, who was ahead of the other two.

"Yeah, just go in. Laf, what do you have in this bag?" Alex asked, struggling to carry it.

Laf smiled and grabbed the bag, carrying it as if it was empty.

"What? How?"

John chuckled. "You're just really weak."

"Hey!" Alex said. "How dare you!"

John threw open the door. "Alex, are you sure this is the right room?"

"It should be, why?" Alex caught up and looked in. "Oh." There was multiple pieces of fabric strewn throughout the living room section of the room, with a sewing machine in the corner and multiple bobbins covering the coffee table.

"Someone got here early." John said as he and Laf set the bags down. "Laf, we're gonna go get our stuff. We'll be back up in a minute."

Lad nodded. There was a small hallway with two rooms on either side. Might as well let John and Alex share a room. The two of them are pretty much inseparable. He heard music playing from the other room, so he knocked gently before walking in.

There was a guy sitting at one of the desks with a beanie pulled over his head. From what Laf could tell, he was holding a thick piece of fabric in one hand while holding a needle in the other. Laf shut the door and the guy turned at the sound, pausing his music.

"I didn't realize you were showing up today," he said, his voice deep. "Are there more than just you today?"

Laf nodded.

"Cool." The guy continued. "You know how many? One? Two?"

"Deux." Laf replied quietly.

The guy frowned. "Look, I'm sorry. Was I supposed to know? There's no need to be rude."

Merde...it sounds like I just said 'duh'... Laf realized. Why couldn't John or Alex be here to explain…? "Sorry!" He exclaimed quickly. "Sorry...sorry…"

"You could've just answered me instead of being rude."

"I-I...well, um…" I can do this…

"Um, you're shaking...are you alright?"

Laf held up his hand to signal he would talk in a minute, then began digging through his bag until he found his pills. He grabbed one out of the bottle and swallowed it.

"S-sorry…I didn't mean to sound rude…" Laf stuttered out. "I-I'm French...deluxe means two...if you don't like it I won't speak French...I won't speak at all actually!" He rambled. "It's what I've been doing the past few months. Sorry, I'm rambling, aren't I?"

"No, no, you're fine." The guy replied. "You can speak French, I don't mind. Can I ask what the pills are for?"

"P-panic attacks…"

"Oh geez, I didn't trigger one, did I?"

"It's not your fault. I had someone that would get really mad at me whenever I spoke French...whenever I spoke, really. I'm still not over it…"

"Oh. Well, I think we started off on the wrong foot. Let's try again. I'm Hercules Mulligan, but you can call me Herc." He said, extending his hand. "It's nice to meet you."

"I'm Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette." Laf replied, chuckling at the surprised look on Herc's face. "But you can call me Laf." He said, shaking his hand. "It's nice to meet you too."

This is the end of this fic! I will have another story at soon sometime in the next few days. It won't be part of the 'Just Starting Out' universe, though I originally came up with it while writing this story and had wanted to include but it didn't end up working with the storyline. Again, I want to thank you all for reading, please review!