"I think I see it! Philadelphia!" Abraham announced happily from his seat behind Lafayette, peering over the Frenchman's shoulder at the sight of the city on the horizon.
"It had better be. I can't feel my thighs or anything between." Caleb complained before kicking his horse to pick up the pace, making Benjamin cling tightly to him from behind.
"I do the same?" Lafayette asked Abraham, not wanting to startle him with a sudden increase in pace.
"Go ahead. I've got a good hold on you." Abraham replied with a nod to the Frenchman with a small smile. Lafayette nodded and kicked the horse as well before picking up the pace, bouncing along with Abraham as they rode down and over the many hills after the other brothers to get to the city. He grinned happily all the way there, more than eager to get to the city, then to the dinner the following night, to meet the infamous General Washington and appeal to him about joining the American army.
They met up with the other pair just outside the city, having slowed down to a trot as they made their way into Philadelphia.
"So, how about we find an inn and call it a night?" Benjamin asked as they all rode together into the city. The men all agreed and they rode around together, asking for directions to the nearest inn before finding it and getting a couple of rooms for them to pair off and share for the night.
"We should wash? It has been a while." Lafayette suggested as they passed a washroom on the way to their rooms.
"I think that would be wise. We don't want to be ripe when we meet the General tomorrow night, along with a lot of other bigwigs." Caleb said easily, clapping Lafayette on the back contently.
Abraham nodded easily. "I agree. Let's get our things into our rooms and meet in that washroom."
They all nodded in agreement and continued to their rooms to drop off their things and get settled in for the night.
Abraham and Lafayette were the first pair to go inside the washroom and, after a bit of debate, they decided to start stripping off their trail worn suits while they waited for the other pair.
"Well, hello," Caleb said as he walked into the room, greeted by the sight of Lafayette's boyish, nude body in front of him as Abraham stripped nude as well.
"Hello. We did not want to wait, I'm sorry." Lafayette said to the other men as they came into the room with them.
"No, that's fine. I just wasn't expecting it." Caleb replied easily, moving to start stripping as well with Benjamin, forcing himself to look away as Lafayette bent over to fold up his clothes and set them aside neatly.
When they were all ready, they got the water and soap and started working to help wash each other's bare backs and bodies for each other, chatting happily all the while until Lafayette began to lead them all in a round of La Marseillaise as they washed themselves off, teaching them the words and pronunciations patiently. He would sing a bit, and they would repeat it after him to the best of their abilities.
Once they had all cleaned off each other's bodies and hair, they moved to dry off and get dressed again. Lafayette donned his nightclothes and pulled his long hair into a braid for the night. He couldn't help but smile when he remembered what the next day would bring them. The brothers bade each other goodnight and headed off to their bedrooms.
Abraham sighed happily as he collapsed on the bed. "Ah, so tired…" He hummed, looking over as Lafayette sat down at the desk and moved to rummage through his trunk to pull out his paper, quill, ink, and seal stamp. "You gonna write to someone? Your wife again?"
"Yes. " Lafayette replied with a nod as he started to write the letter to inform his wife what all was happening to him across the ocean.
"Do you miss her?" Abraham asked curiously.
"Yes, very much. I felt terrible for leaving her all alone with Henriette, but my heart knew I had to come here." Lafayette replied as he wrote.
"Oh, that's right, you have a baby too. I can see where that would be difficult." Abraham said softly, rubbing his eyes as the other man wrote a short, quick update letter to his family.
After a while, Lafayette finished up and moved to blow out the candle he'd been using to write by. "That was bad, I can't see now." He said softly as he realized his mistake, hearing Abraham laugh from the bed.
"Just follow my voice." The man said with a smile.
Lafayette nodded and awkwardly moved through the darkness to try and find the bed. He succeeded in finding it when he ran into the foot of the bed, awkwardly stumbling off to the side. "Ah, sacre-bleu." He said as he gathered himself again and found the side of the bed, feeling around the mattress to find the blankets and pillows so he knew how close he was to the head of the bed.
Abraham reached an arm out to grab Lafayette's wrist and guide him into the bed, not expecting the little shriek that came out of the Frenchman in response. He couldn't help but laugh at that, hearing Lafayette say something in French under his breath as the other man climbed into the bed.
"You okay, Lafayette?" He asked between laughs as the other man settled underneath the covers next to him.
"When I get over the scare you gave me, I will be." He replied with a sigh, lying down next to Abraham.
"Sorry, buddy. I didn't mean to scare you."
"It is all right. I am fine now." Lafayette replied with a yawn. "Abraham?"
"What is it?"
"What do you think General Washington will be like?"
"Well, I've heard he's very tall and they don't call him 'His Excellency' for nothing."
Lafayette nodded and smiled a bit. "I'm excited." He whispered to the other man.
"I can tell," Abraham replied with a smile and a laugh, reaching over to gently pat Lafayette's shoulder. "Let's get to sleep, buddy. We have a big day tomorrow."
Lafayette nodded and moved to shut his eyes and get comfortable cuddled up against Abraham. It didn't take the other man too long to fall asleep, but Lafayette's excitement kept him up for a good while, imagining what it might be like to meet Washington. After playing about ten different scenarios in his head, his exhaustion finally took him and he fell asleep against Abraham's chest peacefully.
He woke up in the late morning to the feeling of Abraham shaking his shoulder and periodically poking at his cheek. "Quest-ce que tu fais? Quelle heure est-il?" he asked drowsily, reluctantly opening one eye to look over at Abraham next to him.
"Lafayette, we have to go get breakfast before it turns into lunch," Abraham said to the sleepy young aristocrat.
"Lunch…. What hour is it?" Lafayette asked as he slowly forced himself to sit up in the bed and rub the sleep from his eyes.
"It's about eleven now. You're one hard sleeper, you know that? We've been trying to wake you since eight, but you were out cold." Abraham said as he helped Lafayette unbraid his red hair that now fell in loose waves from drying while in a braid.
"I am sorry. I did not want to make you wait." Lafayette apologized as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes before moving to get out of the bed and get dressed for the day.
"Don't worry about it. We still have plenty of time until the dinner." Abraham said, waving a hand dismissively as he watched the teenager get dressed for the day. "In the meantime, we were thinking we'd better get some lunch and explore the city for a while.
Lafayette nodded in understanding as he dressed, looking forward to being able to relax after traveling for so long and taking a break to explore Philadelphia for a while.
He finished dressing and went with Abraham down to get lunch with Caleb and Benjamin, eating and chatting with them contently before they all headed out together to explore the city for a while. They stopped in the shops that caught their eyes, grinning and laughing as they took turns trying on and modeling hats without any regard to whether they were made for men or women in one of them. Then, they found a blacksmith's shop where the shopkeeper proudly showed them his creations that included decorative swords, practice foils for fencing, and daggers and knives to be used as weapons.
Caleb took one of the practice foils and examined it a bit. "So, who dares face me? Which one of you pups is man enough to take me on?" He asked, posing dramatically with one hand on his hip, the other holding the foil on his shoulder.
"I would consider it, but I don't wish to hurt an old man," Lafayette replied with a grin to the other man. "Besides, this shop is little. There is no room for a proper match."
"Au contraire, monsieur. There's practicing space available in the back of the shop." Caleb said, pointing to a flyer nailed to the wall over a case of many other practice foils.
Lafayette looked over at the flyer. He couldn't quite read it, so he decided he'd just take Caleb's word for it.
"If I agree, do you promise not to break a hip?" The Frenchman asked, a grin spreading across his lips.
"I won't break a hip. But, if you don't watch yourself, I might break you." Caleb replied with a grin back to Lafayette, letting the younger man find a good foil before the four of them went out to the back of the shop.
Lafayette couldn't help but wonder how fair the fight would be, as he'd been trained in fencing since boyhood and was a musketeer of the king. He decided to give Caleb the benefit of the doubt and decided the man knew what he was getting into.
He got into position on the stretch of dirt and gravel behind the shop, standing across from Caleb, holding his foil up to his face as they both got into position.
"En garde, mon ami," Lafayette said easily, his eyes trained on the man across from him.
"En garde," Caleb replied with a small smile before making the first couple of moves and starting to lunge at the younger man.
Lafayette focused on the moment, his feet moving quickly to move backward and forwards as he fought with Caleb. He jumped over the sweeping strikes Caleb aimed at his shins, returning with his own strikes.
Abraham and Benjamin watched with awe from the sidelines as Caleb tried to preserve his pride and hold his own against the younger, skinnier French teenager. Lafayette, however, seemed to know exactly what he was doing, whirling around with the foil and jumping around, dodging each attack. Finally, the match ended when Lafayette landed a poke with the covered end of the foil right in the center of Caleb's chest.
"Touché, monsieur," Lafayette said, a grin spreading onto his face.
"You got me," Caleb replied with a laugh, reaching over to take Lafayette's nose and tweak it. "Now, wipe that huge grin off your face, you."
Lafayette just laughed happily in reply and moved to go back inside with the other brothers to put away the foils. They wandered around for a while longer, talking and laughing happily until they caught a carriage to take them to the dinner in the evening.
They showed up just as many other men in uniforms, along with a few women in nice dresses with their hair done up nicely, arrived and started to make their way into the large, grand building.
Lafayette felt his heart start pounding excitedly in his chest as their carriage pulled up to the building. He fixed his hat on his head and was the first to hop out of the carriage, leading the other three men into the building happily. He looked around at all the people, trying to take in everything, so he could write all about it all to Adrienne in a letter later. He wanted to tell her all about how different American parties were from French parties.
Everyone milled around, chatting with each other amicably, many of them seeming to know each other well. Lafayette couldn't help but notice that he was more than likely the youngest person at that party, and, therefore, stuck out in the crowd. Plenty of the men there were older and hardened from war and battle. He, on the other hand, was young and boyish.
"My God, boy, I think you have the smoothest face here. And that includes some of the women. Come here with your father, perhaps?" One man asked Lafayette, having approached him while Caleb, Benjamin, and Abraham had made themselves busy by socializing and helping themselves to the glasses of wine being passed around.
"Non, monsieur. I come with brothers." Lafayette replied to him easily, smiling gently at the man.
The man looked confused for a moment and opened his mouth to reply, though being cut off when a servant announced that everyone was welcome to move to the dining room.
Lafayette walked with the man and explained his journey from Paris to Philadelphia as well as he could, sitting down at the large table next to him and a couple of the man's friends. All the new men seemed to find him fascinating and talked to him until one of them noticed the servants taking their places by the doors.
"Oh, here comes His Excellency, the General." One of the men said with a small smile.
"You'd do well to rise up with everyone." Another whispered to Lafayette, tapping his elbow gently to get him to stand up along with everyone at the table.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, His Excellency, General George Washington." One of the servants announced while a couple others opened the doors to let the man inside.
Lafayette watched as Washington walked in, a grin spreading widely on his face as he started to jitter with puppyish excitement. The man was tall, even taller than him, and had a presence that could easily take command of any room he entered. He quickly decided that, if given the chance, he would defend that man and America with his life.
Then, everyone sat down and dinner was served as they all talked happily with each other across the table and next to each other. Whenever Washington spoke, Lafayette started to jitter again. His voice was deep, just as commanding as his outward appearance. The man was a picture perfect military general.
"You there, little boy." One man across the table said to Lafayette to get his attention as they ate and drank wine. "Shouldn't you be sitting next to your father?"
Lafayette looked up at the question, noticing that it had caught the attention of many other guests at the table. "Mon père est, um…. He could not come to here." He replied to the best of his ability.
"Who's your father?" A woman asked sitting next to the man across the table.
"He was Michel Louis Christophe Roch Gilbert Paulette du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette," Lafayette replied honestly before sipping his wine.
"'He was?'" The woman questioned curiously.
"Oui. I was tiny and small when he died." Lafayette replied, holding his hand out to signify how tall he was at two years old.
"Oh. I'm so sorry."
"C'est d'accord. I am proud to be his son. But we French are proud no matter what."
The woman blinked and smiled and laughed a bit with the men around her while Lafayette just grinned happily, knowing he'd more than likely just charmed, at least, that group of people. He glanced around and caught George Washington's eye when the man looked up to see what they were all laughing about on their end of the table.
Lafayette felt his heart beat hard in his chest, wanting to impress and charm that man as well, so he'd be able to join his ranks. So, he grinned even wider at him, holding eye contact for a moment before turning back to the group of people around him as they asked him about his life in France, Marie Antoinette, all of them adoring him like their shiny new toy.
He didn't mind at all, though, drinking up all the attention as he ate and drank with them, settling in with them and letting his puppyish personality shine through as he happily answered every question they asked. He stumbled over plenty of his words, his mind working too quickly for his mouth to keep up as he tried to get his thoughts out as well as translate them to English to the best of his ability.
Before the meal was over, he'd charmed nearly every other person sitting at the table.