"He'll love it, tortue, I promise." Alex assured his boyfriend, making sure to slip in a French endearment as he did so.
"But I don't usually paint, and I'm really worried he'd rather have something else." John was balancing the large wrapped gift in his arms, and had begun to feel self conscious as they got closer to the party.
"Relax, John. He'll love it, I promise. And if he doesn't I'll write fight him."
"No you won't, Lex."
"That's a fair point, he is much bigger than me. I'll most definitley write a very angry and strongly worded letter, though!" Alex joked.
John just snorted in response.
Walking up to the door of Washington's apartment, they began to hear the first straining notes of holiday music leeching into the hallway. Alex laughed as he moved one of his gifts to the other hand to knock on the door, as the gift John was holding was much to big to bother setting it down just to pick it back up again.
The door swung open to reveal a very festively dressed Lafayette, donned in a velvet santa hat and a dark green "I'm the naughty one" sweater. "Bonjour, mes amies! Come in, come in!" Laf guided them inside the doorway, where they were greeted with the much louder rendition of the song they had heard in the hall.
The boys moved over to the Christmas tree, setting the gifts down. (Very, very carefully on John's part.) Turning around they saw George entering the room, in a matching dark green sweater to Lafayette's, however, his said "I'm the nice one" in the same script.
"Merry Christmas!" George beamed at them both, moving in to hug Alex as John walked into the kitchen after Laf.
"Merry Christmas, George." Alexander smiled at his faux-older brother, feeling the tide of gratefulness wash over him that he always felt whenever George showed affection for Alex. He was so grateful to have George in his life as a protector of sorts, an adopted older brother.
"I have a surprise for you- well, actually, Laf and I both do." George grinned slyly at Alex, walking into the kitchen. Alex chose to follow, curious. They walked into the kitchen together, seeing John and Laf leaning against the kitchen counter chatting happily, Laf having already made John some sort of drink.
"Did you both pull my name? We're not supposed to do extra gifts, George-" Alex's eyes fell onto the small menorah that was placed on the kitchen counter, with two of the candles lit. "Oh."
"Lion, we knew that you used to celebrate Hanukkah back on your island, and we wanted to include that." Laf smiled at Alex who was staring at the menorah in silence.
"We know you're fine with celebrating Christmas, especially since you're not really religious, but we wanted to include it still." George added, fidgeting with the base of the religious symbol.
"I- thank you." Alex croaked quietly, still not tearing his eyes away from the menorah. "I, uhm. I have to go to the bathroom, I think I got some of Laf's stupid tinsel in my eye or something." Alex backtracked out of the room quickly.
The three men remaining in the kitchen shared a broad smile, not commenting on the quick departure, instead letting the cheerfullness of the holidays wash over them.
The apartment quickly began filling with the group soon after the arrival of John and Alex. The eldest and youngest Schuyler sister arrived together, weighed down with beautifully wrapped gifts in elegant silver paper. Angelica quickly detoured into the kitchen, claiming she needed a "stiff drink" as "my fucking professor chose to post the exam grades tonight." Never one to shy from drinking, Thomas Jefferson, who had arrived right after the sisters, followed eagerly to "give Angelica moral support".
James and Peggy were talking in the living room, Peggy worrying aloud that James looked a little ill, and James reassuring her that he was fine.
"It's just having to put up with Thomas, is all. He's terrible for my complexion." James had joked, earning a snort from Peggy. As she was about to respond, a knock pounded on the door. George swooped in to answer from seemingly nowhere, always the proper southern host.
"Eliza, welcome! Hello again, Maria!" He greeted the ladies, ushering them in from the chilly hallway.
As he was about to shut the door, he heard a "Wait!", and Aaron jogged up the stairs to the apartment's floor and slipped in quickly.
"Why hello there, Mr. Burr, sir!" George joked at the heavily-breathing man, who had sprinted to escape from the freezing weather and the startings of hail.
"Hello, George." Aaron panted in between breaths.
"Damn, Burr, you're out of shape, huh?" Hercules laughed, coming into the small foyer.
"Hello Hercules." Aaron greeted dryly. Hercules just laughed in response, offering to take Aaron's gifts from him and put them under the (now very crowded) tree. Aaron gave him the presents gratefully before slipping out of his heavy coat, hanging it on the hooks near the front door.
"Everyone, get your booties in here!" Peggy called excitedly, directing her loud voice to the main portion of the apartment. "It's tiiimmmeee!" She sang excitedly. Slowly the group started shuffling in from their various placements around the apartment.
The friends crowded together in the room, not having dispersed onto the couches yet, awaiting instructions from the eldest Schuyler.
Taking a long sip from her drink before speaking, Angelica centered herself in the room. "Ok! Now that I'm ready to start this-" Angelica began, her voice shushing the group who had been carrying on their conversations still.
"You mean now that you're tipsy." Alex interjected, a smirk painted clearly on his features.
Angelica fixed him with a stare before continuing. "Now that I'm ready to start, I think we should go around and pass out the gifts one at a time, and then when that person opens their gifts, we can all guess who gave it to them. Capice?"
"Yes ma'am!"
"Oui."
"Yeah, Angie."
"Come on!"
"Let's get turnt for Jesus!"
"Capice!"
The group quickly finished piling into the room, filling up the open furniture and floors quickly, eager to begin the gift exchange.
"OK-" Angelica crouched down to the base of the, examining the gifts, that were wrapped with varying levels of expertise. Extracting two boxes both addressed to "Jefferson." in scrawling penmanship. She passed the gifts along the chain of people until they reached the large-haired man. Everyone watched excitedly, to see the start to their culmination of hard work over the past month.
Thomas began unwrapping one of the gifts delicately, as if to attempt to save the wrapping paper.
"Oh my god, Jefferson, how are you making unwrapping infuriating? Just tear into the damn present." Alex groaned after thirty seconds of deliberately slow movements.
"I'll have you know, Alexander, that I am merely trying to respect the person who went into wrapping this, as any good southern gentleman would do. Furthermore-"
"Oh my god, Thommy, just unwrap it. Please." James interjected, not wanting the evening to sour so soon with the charateristic squabbling.
"Fine." Thomas finished tearing the rest of the paper off, going silent as he saw what lay inside the wrapping.
"What is it Thomas?" Asked Lafayette from across the room, straing his neck to see.
Thomas let an enormous smile grace his features as he held up the large cook book, entitled "500 of the Best Mac and Cheese Recipes (for the Connoisseur)".
"Whoever gave this to you is trying to give me diabetes." Laughed James, happy to see his boyfriend so pleased.
"Oh my god, we're totally reinstating Macaroni Mondays." Thomas said excitedly, flipping the book back over, ignoring the sniggers going around the group. He began leafing through the book, captivated.
"Jefferson, I think there's another one to you." Alex said after a moment, pointing at the other wrapped box.
"Hmm? Oh- right. Thanks, Hamilton." Thomas said, relunctantly setting down the book. He began to unwrap the next present, and when he got the lid to the box off, Jame bent over in laughter upon viewing the contents.
"What is it?" Asked Eliza.
Thomas threw her the pillow, a wiry smile on his face as he returned eagerly to the book.
"Oh my god, it's you as a pillow." Guffawed Hercules upon seeing it. The group passed around the magenta monstrosity as they all shared a good laugh, the high spirits capturing the group.
"So, who do you think gave you those?" Prompted Peggy, once the excited energy in the room subsided some.
"Lafayette, perhaps? He truly understands how sophisticated Macaroni et fromage is." Thomas looked at Laf questiongly, who only shook his head.
"Who was it? Show yourself!" Laughed Peggy, wanting to know who pegged Thomas so well.
"Whoever it was does know you quiet well, Thommy." Said James, leafing through the cookbook.
"Well- who was it?" Asked Jefferson.
Alexander raised his hand, for once choosing not to speak. The group erupted in noise at the movement.
"Alex?!"
"How?"
"Those were actually good gifts!"
"You didn't give him, like, Debating for Dummies?"
Various other exclamations of suprise rang out from the group, the room-wide shock palpable at the fact Alex could manage to give Thomas not only real gifts, but ones he clearly liked.
"Thank you, Alexander. These are very kind." Thomas spoke diplomatically, but the smile gracing his features gave way to his true feelings of happiness.
"You're welcome, Jefferson. Just, uh, do one thing?"
"Yes?" Asked Thomas apprehensively.
"Try not to kill James with the mac and cheese." Alex joked, trying to alleviate to tone of shock still lingering over the group. James smiled gratefully at Alex's joke as the group laughed and Thomas rolled his eyes.
"Okeydoke- let's move on!" Eliza said happily, motioning for Angelica to pick out another gift from the tree.
Angelica picked up a dark blue bag embellished with silver snowflakes and a matching color of tissue paper exploding from the top. "To: Aaron, with love From: Santa! (Ho Ho Ho!)" Was written elegantly on the name tag, in perfect cursive. Angelica leaned over to Aaron and handed it directly to him, before deciding to just station herself in front of the tree, taking a seat on the floor.
"Thank you, Angelica." Aaron smiled at her, accepting the gift eagerly. He read the name tag, smiling even bigger upon reading the sweet inscription.
He waited a few more seconds, just staring at the careful script and mulling over his feelings of happiness to have found this rag-tag family until a groaned "Burr, what are you waiting for?!" From John pulled him out of his reverie.
"Sorry." He smiled, starting to take out the pieces of perfectly fluffed tissue paper, before extracting the main component of the gift, also wrapped in the colored tissue. He set the bag on the floor before tearing into the circular object.
"Oh wow." A hushed exclamation came from beside him as Angelica saw the beautifully made cross stitch, the intricate patterns immediatley letting her know who made the gift.
Burr felt his eyes well up slightly as the phrase his mother had told him all his life stared back at him in a shining violet, the flowers of the same name stitched around the words, another link to his mother. The group had fallen into a hush, all straining to see the gift from their seats, but not wanting to disrupt the moment.
"The violets are the birth flowers for February, since both of your birthdays are then." Eliza broke the silence quietly, claiming the gift indirectly in her explanation.
Burr looked up to her, clearing his throat. "Thank you, Elizabeth. This uh- this means the world to me, to be able to have this memory of her. Sometimes I wish she could tell me this, when it's needed to be heard. Now I can read it when I need the reminder."
"Of course, Aaron. I know it means a lot to you. I'm glad you love it." Eliza spoke, affection lacing her words for the man who was still visibly emotional. He smiled in response, clearing his throat again, wanting the gift exchange to continue. He was uncomfortable with being the center of attention- that was more Alex's area of expertise.
"Here, Herc, how about you go now." Angelica delicately tossed him the wrapped box, which he expertly caught from his place on the couch beside John.
Tearing into the pacakging uncermoniously, he tore open the carboard box as well. On top was a framed piece of typography, the beuatifully printed words in varying colors of blue stating "KATYA WAS ROBBED", with a lipstick-ed kiss mark in the lower left corner. Hercules immediatly thought of the night he and Peggy finished the All Stars season of Drag Race, culiminating in Hercules angrily stating the framed phrase in his hands. Hercules busted out laughing, looking around the room until his eyes fell on Peggy.
"That's actually her kiss-mark. She made like 500 of those bad-boys." Peggy smiled innocently at the still-guffawing large man. He shook his head good-naturedly, passing the frame to Alex and John to look at, before returning to the box.
He extracted next a dark purple shirt, his cartoon counterpart smiling up at him, with the iconic saying "More like HUNKules" emblazoned underneath. He beamed at Peggy, immedietly standing to take of his current shirt (earning a few whistles from Lafayette and John, and an intense blush and averted gaze from Peggy) and tug on the snugger-fitting Disney one.
"Someone call IX-I-I!" Shouted John, laughing as Hercules flexed to match the on-shirt counterpart.
Herc looked up, upon hearing Peggy's laugh join the others in the group. He shot her a toothy grin, thanking her. She smiled and told him "Any time, Hunkules." A soft blush still staining her cheeks.
Hercules totally ignored the feeling in his stomach when Peggy indirectly called him a "hunk".
"Next!" Said Lafayette excitedly, motioning for Angelica to continue.
"Of course, dearest Marquis." She said, rolling her eyes as she shuffled through the gifts. "Here, George, you may have to come over here to open this. It's kinda big."
George tapped Laf's thigh, signalling he needed his boyfriend to get off of his lap so he could follow Angelica's orders.
John squirmed slightly in his seat, earning a tap on the thigh carrying a diffrent meaning from Alex. He'll love it, John. Alex sent him the reassurance through the subtle pysicality.
George began to unwrap the large gift, going still as he saw a part of the painted canvas, then tearing the rest of the paper off in one fell swoop.
"Thank you, whoever this was. Thank you." He spun the canvas around carefully to show the rest of the group the immaculate recreation of Mount Vernon.
"It was me, George." John said softly, raising his hand half-way, as if he was in class.
"Holy- John, did you paint that?" Aaron asked astonished- he knew John had expierence in art, but wasn't sure how far his talents went.
John's face turned a dark red underneath his freckles. Alex chose to respond for him. "Hell yeah he did. His hands are very talented."
John's face grew even darker still- of course leave it to Alex to somehow compliment him and embarass him with an innuendo in a single sentence. Oh, that man's power with words.
After the lenghty discussion on the groups' astonishment to John's artistic capabilities, James was next in line to unwrap a gift.
He was so excited by the oil diffuser he began to cough, Jefferson tapping his back roughly as if to dislodge a choked-on piece of food.
"Sorry- guess that's further proof how much I need this!" James laughed, turning the few bottles of oils around in his hands and reaching into the box for their information sheets.
"You're welcome, James. I do hope it serves its purpose." George spoke up, claiming the thoughtful gift.
"Me too- maybe he won't keep me up half the night coughing now." Thomas smiled angelically, as if the expression would offset the words.
"Hey now, James puts up with you keeping him awake half the night. The radiation from the proximity to your horrible attitude alone is enough to deprive a man of sleep." Alex interjected, wanting to annoy Jefferson.
"At least my boyfriend loves me enough to actually share an apartment; don't hate me because yours can't stand your insuffreable personality for more than one day at a time." Thomas shot back, raring to go. They hadn't had much time to excersice their normal banter, with them being out of classes due to break.
"Oh, please, Jefferson. At least my boyfriend doesn't have to-"
"Stop it!" Yelled John and James in unision, shushing their respective partners. They shared an exasperated look with each other; one of recognition and understanding, as if to say you deal with this too?
"Are you two done?" Asked Eliza haughtily, holding onto Maria's hand tighter in her frustration. "Honestly, we are all gathered to have a nice celebration and you two decide to start arguing?! It's Christmas. You need to let us enjoy our time together! We all love one another, and for godsake, Alex you even bought Thomas a nice and thoughtful gift! You obviously don't hate each other. Now, shut up, be nice, and let the adults carry on with our evening!"
"Yes ma'am."
"Sorry Eliza."
The response came in unision, both in the same dejected tone, coming from the thouroughly berated looking men.
"As a reward for that one, why don't we let Eliza open hers?" Laughed Hercules, directing his question to Angelica.
"Sure think, Hunkules." Angelica smiled at him, grabbing the large bag from under the tree. Eliza looked shocked, recognizing the bag that Maria had carried in. She looked over at her girlfriend in confusion, who pointedly looked away, pretending to see something across the room that caught her attention.
"Here, Liz." Angelica said, handing the large gift to her younger sister.
"Thanks Angie." She quickly dispensed of the tissue paper, pulling out one of the items in the bag. It was a small scrubs top with pictures of Tweety Bird gracing the fabric. "Oh, 'Ria!" Eliza exclaimed happily, looking at all the cartoons up close.
"I know you'll need them for your job in the future, obivously, but your pediatrics rotation is coming up soon and I wanted you to have at least one kid-friendly scrubs top before you started." Maria smiled at her, the red lipstick making her teeth shine.
Eliza grinned at her, moving to say something before Maria motioned for her to continue. Reaching back into the bag and pulling out a rather large frame, Eliza studied the beautiful collage of the two women, obviously made with love and quite a bit of effort. Photos from not only their friendship but their semi-recent realtionship adorned the collage, with cut-out quotes and other sentimental add-ons. Eliza looked up after studying the gift, leaning foward to give Maria a quick peck on the lips- it could've gone for longer, but their friends decided to let their presence be know at that moment. "Aww"'s and "Oooh"'s, and at least one wolf whistle (no doubt from Hercules) surrounded them, resulting in Eliza pulling back very red in the face, as well as leaving a very smug (yet still embarressed) Maria.
"Oh, shush you guys." Giggled Eliza, setting the gift down on the floor next to her. "Ugh- Ang, can we please start again?" She asked, the blush still prevalent on her cheeks.
"'Course, Liz." Smirked Angelica. "Oh! This one is to me!" She proclaimed excitedly, sliding the two-tiered present out from under the tree.
Unwrapping the top gift happily, she yelled triumphantly as she clutched the small bottle of tequila.
"Whoever pulled Angie knows her oh so well." Joked Peggy, earning a few chuckles.
"She's a hard one to buy for, our Angie." Laughed Eliza, poking fun at her elder sister.
In lieu of a response Angelica opened the next gift, yelling in an even more excited manner upon registering what the gift was.
"What is that, Angelica?" Asked John, confused by the box.
"They're himalayn salt shot glasses!"
"They're- what?"
"Shot glasses made from himalayan salt." James explained as Angelica was busy pouring a shot, combing her two gifts. She walked over to James and offered him the shot, a smile on her lips.
"Thanks, Madison."
Instead of his typical response of "Anytime." he downed the shot, grimacing at the taste of the rough tequila. His reaction earned a chuckle from Thomas. Angelica let the group pass around the glasses for inspection, as they had never seen such unique shot glasses before. As they were going through and looking, she finished fishing out the rest of the gifts from under the tree, lining them up in front of her for easier access.
Once a few more "Inagural Shots" were taken using her gifts, Angelica instructed the group to settle back down as it was time to finish the gift exchanges.
"Alex, it's your turn." Angelica smiled at him as she passed over the heavy box. Alex took a slightly-slowler than normal amount of time unwrapping it, and when he did and saw what was inside he just silently set the box in John's lap and got up to hug Lafayette.
"Merci beaucoup Lafayette, cela signifie le monde pour moi, que tu te souviennes et que tu t'en soucies." Aex said as he pulled away from his friend. He slipped into their shared native tongue, as though he loved his group of friends, he wanted this moment that held a deeper meaning to be between just them.
"Bien sûr Alex, je vous vois comme mon meilleur ami et frère d'honneur. Je vais toujours prendre soin de vous de la façon que je peux. J'espère que c'est ok Je vous ai donné ces même si vous avez dit que vous étiez heureux avec les autres." Laf spoke back to him, reverting to French with the ease of his breathing. He knew the deeper meaning that the soaps held for Alex, and wanted him to know he would always be there for him.
"Je t'aime, Laf.""Et moi, lion."
Alex returned back to his seat, pointedly ignoring the bewildered looks the rest of the group directed to him, as during the heart-felt exchange they discovered it was just scented soaps. He also made a point not to look at the confused look Thomas was sending him- Alex had forgotten Jefferdick knew French. He really had rather he not have been privy to the conversation, but it wasn't like he knew the prior context.
"Alrighty then; Uh, Laf, you can go next." Angelica passed along the wrapped gift, surpassing the confusion in the air from the emotional French exchange that had just occured.
Wasting no time Lafayette tore into the package, yelling in excitement as he lifted the garment out of the box. "Hercules! Oh mon Dieu! Was this you? Did you make this?!" Lafayette had jumped up and already pulled on the beautiful silk garment. It tastefully showed his extreme national pride, and was just sophisticated enough to play into his cultivated fashinista side.
"Damn, Herc, that's badass!" complimented Laurens, with several other heads nodding in agreement.
"Oui, it is indeed bad ass. Thank you Hercules!"
"You're welcome Laf- I figured, why not show how much of a baguette you are when you're just lounging too?" He joked.
The group laughed as Lafayette modeled it quickly with a few poses, Jefferson looking on almost as if he was jealous of the very French robe.
After the group had taken a snack break (as certain members had been geting restless, they returned much calmer to the living room.
"Oh my Freud!" Peggy beamed as she lifted up the "Pink Freud" shirt to show the group, which earned quite a few laughs. "This is awesome- my two favorite 'P' words! Psychology and Puns!" Giggled Peggy, as she set aside the shirt, intending to put in on momentarily. She reached into the bag and pulled out a nice and soft Columbia scarf that she squeeled at, wrapping it around her neck. "Who gave these to me?" She asled the group.
"That would be me, Margarita." Aaron waved at her.
"Thank you so much Aaron! These are absoulutley perfect!" she smiled.
"I can't take all the credit, this really nice and funny sales gir helped me a lot."
"Ooh- Burr, you got yourself a gal?" Asked John, wiggling his eyebrows comically.
"Well, no not exactly-"
"Did you at least get her number?" Interjected Jefferson, curious as well.
"Well, yes, but-"
"Woo! Burr, look at you man. See what happens when you don't just wait around for someone to make the move first?" Alex asked happily, glad for Aaron. Instead of explaining the more...complicated part of the whole ordeal, Aaron just smiled.
"You're just always right, Hamilton." Aaron joked.
"Alas, I admit it."
"Maria, would you like to go now?" Angelica spoke over the conversation, wanting to draw the girl into the group. Even though she had been coming over much more frequently lately, it was obvious she still felt as more of an outsider to the group still. Angelica figured if Maria opened her gift while some of the men were pre-occupied and the group's attention wasn't soley on her she'd be more comfortable.
"Sure, Angelica, thank you." Maria smiled as she accepted the gift, as the discussion over the conversation about Burr's dating life continued to float around her.
Unwrapping the gift her hands met a thick fabric, and she pulled out a nice and warm cable knit sweater, obviously a few sizes too big, just as she liked smiled as a few smaller objects fell into her lap when she unfurled the soft sweater. There was two charcoal face masks, a cherry red nail polish, and another face mask that was made from cucumbers.
"Hey- who gave Maria her gift?" Angelica interjected into the conversation, having no problem speaking up for Maria.
"I did!" Smiled Thomas, looking over at the woman in question.
"Thank you so much, Thomas- I really appreciate it."
"I noticed you always look cold and you love red, so I thought it'd be a good fit." He explained. She smiled and nodded.
"It's perfect- thank you again so much." She looked closer at the masks, not noticing Eliza sharing a big thumbgs-up over her shoulder with Thomas.
"Yo, Laurens! Here's the last one! It's from me." Angelica tossed him a box which he caught expertly mid-air.
"Thanks Ang!" He smiled as he began to unwrap the gift. Alex put his head onto John's shoulder, letting his eyes drift shut for a second. The gift exchange had been going on for quite awhile and he had been getting sleeply. Alex could feel the edges of sleep begininng to perforate his mind when he was jolted back awake by the shaking of John's shoulders and the rumbling laughs around him. Shooting back up, a shirt was thrust into his chest. Reading the shirt "If lost, return to John." He looked up curiously at John, who, much to the pleasure of the group, was holding up a matching shirt that read "I am John."
"Angelica these are perfect. Thank you- Like, seriously Angelica. These are so good."
"They do seem to be quite fitting for y'all's dynamic." Laughed George in agreeance.
"Here Johny boy, this is also for you." Angelica tossed the small gift bag as well, which hit Alex in the face rather than the designated target of John's hand. The room erpted into laughter again, at the expense of their dear friend who was now trying to cover the light from the room with the new shirt he had been given.
John unwrapped a very sweet looking turtle, his heart melting at the large eyes that stared back at him. "Oh, Angelica I love him! Oh- I'll name him Alexander." He smiled as he pet the top of the plush toy. Alex peeked out from under his shirt at the mention of his moniker, smiling when he saw John clutching a very cute turtle.
"Oh my god, Angie you were so right!" Laughed Peggy, sharing a look with her eldest sister.
"Huh?" asked John in confusion.
"I said you would proabably name that damn thing Alex or something." Angelica laughed with the group upon hearing the explanation behind Peggy's infectious giggling.
"Ugh, you two are so gross." Commented Jefferson, holding James' hand.
"Oh please, you two are no better and you know it Jefferson." spat back Alex, whose face was still completley under the shirt.
"Good Christmas everyone- and thank you all so much for being a part of our family here, and for awlays supporting one another. I love you all so much and am so thankful for you all. Merry Christmas!" Eliza gave a heartfealt toast as the friends clinked the small amounts of champagne that was left.
"Thank you all so much." Said Alexander simply, hoping for the first time that less words were actually more.
"I love y'all."
"Ditto."
"Love you guys."
"God bless America!"
"Merry Christmas!"
"Happy Hanukkah!"
"Joyeux Noël!"
"And to all a good night!" Laughed Hercules, joining in on the last clinking of glasses.
A/N: Thank you all so much for reading this, and leaving reviews! They all mean the world to me, and thank you so much! 3