Chapter 2: Welcome Folks, to The Washington Administration!
One year later...
"Ladies and gentleman, welcome to The Late Show! Here's your host, John Laurens! "
The audience cheered wildly as the freckled man jogged into the spotlight with a wide grin on his face. He straightened his black waistcoat as he waved to the crowd and live band. He looked down quickly to make sure his silver tie was straight against his dark green suit. Assured that it was, he beamed at the leader of the band, who was happily playing the piano. He turned back to the cameras with a lopsided grin, "Hello everyone and welcome to The Late Show!"
The audience applauded happily and he chuckled, "It's nice to have y'all here tonight. I'm your host, John Laurens. How y'all doing?"
The audience cheered again. "Ha, good to hear it! Let's see, what's in the news? Hm... Oh, right. The election has come to a close, and-"
John was caught off by the crowd cheering wildly. He laughed and rubbed the back of his neck, "Yeah, me too. Let's face it, this election year has been... something. Arron Burr was talking less, smiling more and not telling us what he's against or for. Charles Lee should take notes from Burr. Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton had a giant Twitter war. Again. Angelica Schuyler is still the oldest and the wittiest. Jefferson and James Madison still haven't gotten a room. Oh, and most importantly, former General of the US Military, George Washington won the election!"
The audience went wild and John's smile widened further, "Alright, alright! That's what I'm talking about! And this means that we won't have to say, 'President George King' ever again."
The cheers were even louder. "Ha ha! That's right, now we can say 'I like President George' and mean it. We have a great show for you tonight, Maria Lewis is here and we're going to talk shit about her ex-husband. Elizabeth Schuyler is here too. Lovely woman, but if she's here, I have no doubt Margret Schuyler will be here too and, as we all know, when two or more Schuylers are gathered and her name is spoken aloud, there Angelica Schuyler will be. So, I'm pretty sure the Schuyler Sisters are backstage, judging my fashion choices as I speak. We also have two year, going on three, Tour de France winner and part-time politician, Paul Revere here. Though, let's start tonight off with our favorite game, 'Is He Still Talking?!'"
The audience cheered happily, it was always a crowd favorite.
"Today on 'Is He Still Talking?!', Alexander Hamilton, and a speech he gave two days ago. For those of you who don't know who Alexander Hamilton is, um, what hole have you been hiding in for the bast year and a half?"
That got a lot of laughs from people who knew of the young politician.
"But, for those who don't know who he is, he's the short, scowling guy next to President-Elect Washington. Ah! That felt good to say. But, anyway, the speech."
John pointed at the camera and it switched to a clip of a young man in his twenties standing at a podium. He cleared his throat and looked out over the crowd, "... For the past four years-"
"And mute!"
The clip continued to play on the corner of the screen without any sound. John smiled mischievously as the audience laughed.
"We'll check back in on Mr. Hamilton later in the show to see if he's still talking. We have a great show for you tonight! Maria Lewis will be with us, after this, see you then!"
The band played and the crowd cheered as the show faded to commercial.
0-0-0-0-0
Alexander Hamilton calmly stepped out of a building with a small grin on his face. He replayed the conversation he had just minutes ago in his head. President-Elect George Washington had asked him to be Treasury Secretary and he happily agreed. He made his way to his car, skillfully avoiding any journalists that were about. Once he was safely in his car, he called a friend.
Ring...
Ring...
Ri- Click!
"Mon petite lion!"
Alexander chuckled at his childhood nickname, "Lafayette, it's been a while."
"Likewise, Alexander. It's always good to hear from you. How have you been? I doubt you've been fairing those New York winters well."
He sighed, "On the nose as always. However, I do have some news to share with you."
"Oh? What kind of news?"
"The kind you have to sit done and have a drink with me at my house to hear.
"Ha ha! Cheeky as ever! Fine, I'll be around shortly. See you there Mon ami."
"Likewise Laf." Alexander hung up and made his way home. He lived in a spacious apartment in Manhattan. It was homey, out of the way and hard to find. Perfect for the young politician. When he parked his car and made his way to the front door, he was happy to see Lafayette chatting with the bellboy.
"Lafayette!"
The Frenchman turned and smiled widely, "Alexander!"
He happily threw an arm over the smaller's shoulders and ushered him up to the fifth floor. As Alexander unlocked his door, Lafayette leaned against the wall, "So, what was this news you spike of, or did you just want an excuse to see moi?"
Alexander chuckled and opened his door, "Get inside Laf."
Lafayette smirked and waltzed inside. He reacted as Alexander expected him to at the current state of his apartment. He did clean, but he also tended to sit in on place for hours, if not days, without moving much, which lead to things being piled up in places he found most comfortable to work, like his couch and the island in the kitchen. The messes in question were from about a week ago when he sat at the island and wrote for three days before eating some and moving to the couch for another three days. Lafayette, having known Alexander for several years, knew exactly how long he sat there by the size if the mess. Lafayette reaction was looking at the isolated messes, turning to Alexander and hitting him upside the head while yelling at him in French to take better care of himself.
The rest of the night went well. Lafayette was predictably overjoyed at Alexander's news and the two of them had a few drinks to celebrate. By around midnight, the two of them were tipsy, sharing work stories on the couch. Alexander was having a good time, at least until his phone went off. He picked it up and looked over the email. Call him paranoid, but he had notifications set up for when his name came up online to see what was being said about him. This time it was a video that was uploaded to YouTube earlier that day. He stood, grabbed his laptop and sat at the kitchen island. There wasn't any harm in watching a video or two. He was in too good of a mood for anything to bring him down. Except for Jefferson.
He shook the thought of the man out of his head and looked up the video. It was from one of those late night shows he'd heard about a while ago. He never had the time to check them out, so he didn't know what to except. Lafayette sat next to him and watched the screen, "... Hm. 'The Late Show with John Laurens.' He spoke of you?"
"Looks like it."
"You're going to watch it, right?"
"Yep."
Lafayette chuckled as Alexander clicked on the video, "'Is He Still Talking?!' Sounds like something you'd be on."
He chuckled as the video loaded. When it started, Alexander was presented with a young, green-eyed man whose face was completely covered in freckles sitting at a desk. Alexander felt right to assume that this was John Laurens. He smiled as the crowd's cheering calmed down, "Alright everyone, before we leave tonight, we have one last thing to touch upon and that is Alexander Hamilton. Also known as The Lord of Getting Pissed at People on the Internet. He's like the patron saint of angry Internet users. If you don't believe me, just look at everything he's ever said to Thomas Jefferson on Twitter. But, in all seriousness, he's not a bad guy, in my opinion anyway. He just has no filter whatsoever. Like, at all. Though, I do tend to agree with a lot of what he says. He supports many good things and I appreciate him doing that. But, more importantly, if you remember, at the beginning of the show we started 'Is He Still Talking?!' where we started one of his speeches at the beginning of the show and muted it so we could hear ourselves think. Now, let's check back in and see if he is still talking."
John pointed at the screen and it switched to a video Alexander knew. It was the speech he gave not long ago.
"-e are not going to continue lying down and taking-"
"And mute!"
The video continued to play with no sound on the corner of the screen while John Laurens smirked at the camera, "And there you have it, folks. Alexander Hamilton is still talking. And he continued to talk for the next three hours. Yeah, Mr. Hamilton does not know when to stop. But I do mean it when I say I like most things about him. One of the things I don't like, his fashion sense. Hamilton has two dress modes, fashionable politician and homeless hipster. Here we have Exhibit A."
Underneath the muted video, a picture of Alexander next to George Washington at the Republican Convention. He was in a brand new dark green suit with a black waistcoat. He did look pretty good.
"And Exhibit B."
Next to the first picture, a second popped in. It was Alexander outside of a small grocery store. He was wearing a Cubs hoodie, a T-shirt of some band from the nineties, black sweatpants, and neon green flip-flops. John Laurens shook his head at the photo, "Yeah. I hate when rich people dress horribly. Like, you have a lot of money, Mr. Hamilton, use it. Buy nicer things. Or, at the very least hire someone to do it for you. But anyway, that's our show for tonight! You've all been wonderful! Goodnight!"
The crowd's cheers and John's smile were the last things shown in the video before it endorsed their channel and stopped. Lafayette had a wide smile on his face, "Ha ha! That was great!"
Alexander simply nodded. He hadn't seen anything like this before. Were all late night shows like this? The show poked fun at him, but that's all it was, fun. And this John Laurens person seemed like someone Alexander wouldn't mind knowing. Hell, if they had already met, they might be close friends. He quietly closed the computer and walked back to the living room for his phone.
"... Uh. Alexander? What are you doing?"
He simply smirked at Lafayette as he picked up his phone and started typing out a tweet. He wasn't sure if John Laurens would see it or not, but he figured any of his thirty thousand followers that watched the show would enjoy the slight nod. His main thoughts, however, were on what possible reaction John Laurens would have. He'd never admit it out loud, but he likes the comedian a lot. He was very funny and supported the things he said. It would be nice to have a talk with him, someday. With that idea in mind, he posted the tweet.