The meal ended and the dancing picked up once again. Lafayette decided to hang back as the other couples started dancing, content to just watch. When he felt a hand rest on his shoulder, he jumped a bit, looking over to find the general standing next to him.
"Your Excellency…" was all he could bring himself to say, fiddling a bit with the glass of wine in his hand.
"You're a long way from home, Marquis. But, by the way you carry yourself, one might think you've lived here all your life." The general said easily, watching the teenager fiddle with the glass and smile at him.
"I try to make as many friends as I can, Your Excellency."
"I can see that. A little bird told me you intend to find a place in the ranks of my army, is this true?"
"Yes, Your Excellency."
"Call me George. Well, Marquis, you've come this far, it would be cruel of me to deny you. Will you continue to learn English, though, so you may communicate effectively with your brothers at arms?"
"Yes, Your- George. I will try."
"Good. Then, I would like to know if you'd be interested in joining my family."
Lafayette blinked at the proposal before breaking out into a happy grin. He'd merely expected to join the military, but now he'd found himself with an adoptive father as well, one he could be very proud of, too. Without another thought, he threw his arms around the general in a tight hug, spilling his wine on the ground in the process. He happily kissed the man's cheeks over and over until George gently pushed him away with a small laugh.
"I suppose I can take that as a yes." George said with a small smile at the teenager who was practically jittering with excitement.
"Yes, of course, sir. When do you need me to be there? I will be there."
"How about you show up at the camps tomorrow at dawn? Then we can get you a uniform and get you settled with the other aides-de-camps."
"Of course, sir." Lafayette nodded happily and eagerly, resisting the urge to start kissing his cheeks once again.
He checked the time when they parted ways, moving to find the brothers he'd come with. He figured it would be a good idea to head back to the inn so he could sleep for a while before he arrived at the camp at dawn. He ended up heading back with Abraham, who was having ill luck with the women at the party and was getting tired as well. They talked the whole way back to the inn until they finally climbed into their bed together.
Gilbert found it harder than usual to get to sleep, his mind racing at the thought of being able to finally join the military the next day. The mere thought made him giddy. After a while, he fell asleep when could no longer keep his eyelids open. He found himself dreaming happily of returning home to his family all dressed in a dirtied military uniform and being able to hold his wife and daughter in his arms.
Abraham woke him the next morning before the sun had even begun to rise, gently shaking his shoulder so they could have a bit of breakfast before Abraham walked with him to the camps so he wouldn't get lost.
Lafayette dressed quickly and carefully before he grabbed his trunk of things and headed out of the room with Abraham, unable to stop talking about how excited he was. They broke bread together and ate it as they walked, the sun slowly starting to emerge on the horizon.
"We're all going to miss you, Lafayette. If you see any of us around, promise you won't be a stranger." Abraham said when they walked to the edge of the camps together, another soldier seeing them and approaching.
"Of course not, Abraham." Lafayette replied easily, kissing the other man's cheeks before hugging him tightly and making the approaching soldier stop uncomfortably in front of them. "Don't you be strange either."
Abraham smiled and laughed a bit, understanding the other's meaning, even if his words didn't totally add up. He reached over to gently tweak the other man's nose, laughing a bit more at his reaction until the soldier finally cleared his throat to get their attention.
"What's your purpose here?" The soldier asked, looking between the two men.
"The general told me come here at dawn." Lafayette explained
The soldier blinked a bit at that before nodding in understanding. "Alright, come with me, then. We'll find one of the general's aides." He said, keeping close to the Frenchman warily, having been told to be careful about letting new people in just in case they were spies.
Lafayette let the soldier lead him around the maze of tents as the other soldiers either slept or slowly started to wake up, making coffee by the campfires they'd set up. The soldier he walked with kept one hand on the back of his arm to guide him along as they walked around together. Having grown up in a military family, Lafayette was used to seeing well-disciplined soldiers in fresh, clean uniforms marching in perfect unison at sunrise to the shouted orders of whoever was in charge of them. These American soldiers, however, seemed to be more along the lines of a bunch of young and old men gathered together to form a sort of rag-tag army.
Eventually they stopped in front of a tent, the soldier pulling the flap aside to let him inside.
"Merci." Lafayette said politely before walking into the tent where a man was practically downing his coffee while pouring over all the papers spread before him. The soldier cleared his throat to get the aide's attention.
"What, what do you want?" The aide asked irritably, frowning as he looked over at the pair
"Monsieur France here says the General ordered him here."
"Huh. What's your name, Monsieur?" The aide asked, moving to rustle through the papers as if to find something he'd written down.
"I am Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette." Lafayette replied honestly.
The aide blinked and looked up at him. "Your accent is extremely thick. Can you say that again, slower, please?"
Lafayette nodded and complied.
"La Fayette… Oh, Lafayette. God, I'm stupid in the morning." The aide mumbled to himself. "He's clear, the General said he'd be coming around this time. I guess it's dawn about now."
The soldier nodded and gave the pair a nod before leaving the tent.
"Alright, let's get you a uniform and get you situated." The aide said, standing up from his desk.
Lafayette nodded, his eyes widening a bit when he noticed how much shorter the aide was compared to him. He couldn't help but smile a bit at this, trying to hide it when the aide looked up at with a cocked eyebrow. The aide said nothing and lead him out to another tent a bit further away.
"Oi, Laurens. Beanpole needs a uniform." The aide called as they walked into the new tent.
Lafayette blinked at the familiar name, breaking out into a bright happy grin the man turned around and made eye contact with him.
"You! Look at your face, it's like an angel's." John said happily, walking over to the familiar Frenchman, grasping his shoulders and letting Lafayette kiss his cheeks over and over again, returning the action to him.
"You said you would see me in uniform. Now you are giving me the uniform." Lafayette said with a happy smile to him when they'd finished.
"I did say that. God, I'm so honored." John replied, letting the man go to start rummaging around to find him a pair of boots and a uniform that would fit his tall, skinny body.
"Try this one on for size." John said after a bit, handing the uniform and pair of boots over to him. "Let's all say a little prayer that one of these, um, four uniforms fit you. They're the last ones we have available. "
Lafayette nodded and started to strip in front of the pair of men, smiling a bit when the shirt and pants seemed to fit him rather well.
"Hamilton, this is Lafayette, the French kid I was telling you about. I met him in a bar about a month ago. Lafayette, this is Alexander Hamilton, another one of the General's aides." John explained to each of them as Alexander looked Lafayette over and sized him up.
"It's good to meet you." Lafayette said to Alexander as he pulled on his jacket before turning over and bending down to get the boots and pull them on.
Alexander blinked at that. "Yeah, you too. You can feel free to share our tent, if you want." He said as he stared down at the other man.
Laurens looked over at Alexander, following his gaze down to Lafayette before elbowing Alexander in the ribs.
"I look good?" Lafayette asked once he was finished up, his hands on his waist with a wide, proud smile on his mouth
"Yeah, you do. It's a good fit for you." John said with a happy nod to the other man, moving to set a new hat that would denote him as an aide-de-camp on his head. "There. You're a vision in blue."
Lafayette grinned happily at that and let John and Alexander lead him out of the tent to show him around the area and to the tent the three of them would share, getting his things settled in the area they gave him.
"You need any help with your things?" John asked curiously as he watched the other rummaging around his trunk a bit.
"No, it's fine." Lafayette replied, pulling out the portrait of his little family show he could show it to his new pair of friends. "Look, it's my wife and baby. And me, but they're more interesting."
Alexander took the portrait from Lafayette's outstretched hand, moving to sit down next to him on the small area of bedding the three of them would share. "Your wife and baby are really pretty. What are their names?" he asked curiously.
"This is Adrienne and this is our little Henriette. They are my two favorite girls in all of France." Lafayette said as John came over to look at the picture with them.
"You don't like your mother?" Alexander asked curiously, passing the portrait up to Laurens so he could get a better look and their new friend's young family.
"Ah, I did like her, but I didn't see her too often after Papan died. She moved to Paris and Grand-maman took care of me instead. Years ago she died." Lafayette explained to him, shifting a bit uncomfortably.
"Oh, I'm sorry. What about your mother-in-law? Or dare I even ask?"
Lafayette frowned a bit at the question, cocking his head to the side as he tried his best to make sense of what the other man had asked him.
"Your wife's mother would be your mother-in-law. Her father is your father-in-law." Alexander explained to him, the other man's face changing from confusion to understanding in less than a second.
"My wife's parents are…. Well, I'm sure they mean well. I don't know if they really like me, though. They think I am some unbehaved child, I think." Lafayette explained with a small smile and a laugh.
"Misbehaved, they think you're a misbehaved child." Alexander corrected.
"Miss Behaved…." Lafayette repeated to try and commit the word to memory.
"Why do they think you're a misbehaved child?" John asked, handing Lafayette back his portrait and moving to sit with the pair on their makeshift bed on the ground.
"Well, um, Adrienne's Maman and Papan told us we had to have different chambers after we were married. But I snuck into hers anyway. They were very mad when she got pregnant. Her Papan almost struck me, but her Maman made him not." Lafayette explained, trying to make himself speak slowly so he had more time to think and mentally translate rather than stuttering and stumbling over the awkward new language. "Her Papan told me I can't sail to America, so I'm sure I will get mad letters from him soon."
"Do you miss your wife and baby?" Alexander asked him curiously.
"Yes, I do. I've never been away from them like this and Henriette is so little." Lafayette said with a nod and a small sigh. "I write to them very often. I wait a response."
Alexander nodded in understanding. "Hey, how big are your feet?"
"Excusez-moi?"
"Alex, don't. I know what you're doing, don't do it." Laurens said to the man.
"Are your feet bigger or smaller than mine?" Alexander asked Lafayette, blatantly ignoring John next to him.
Lafayette looked down at his feet in his boots, moving to take one off to expose his stocking clad foot to Alexander, who followed suit, the two of them lining their feet up at the heel to compare the size.
"What do you think, Laurens? Who's bigger?" Alexander asked the other man, smirking at the look on the other man's face compared to the innocent bewilderment on Lafayette's.
"Lafayette's a bit bigger than you, it looks like." Laurens replied to him honestly.
"Why are you worrying about feet?" Lafayette spoke up, wondering if there was something he wasn't quite understanding or if there was something he'd missed. Perhaps Laurens had extremely large feet and Alexander wanted to poke fun at it. However, when he looked down at John's feet, they seemed to be about the same length of his own.
"Don't worry about it, Lafayette. It's nothing." Laurens replied the moment Alexander opened his mouth. "Alexander's just an dirty-brained young man."
"Your foot size correlates with your length, you know." Alexander said nonetheless. "At least, that's what they say. I guess we can fact-check it later."
"My length?" Lafayette asked curiously, turning his attention back to Alexander.
"Alex, for the love of anything holy, don't say it. Let him have some innocence for a bit longer." John said with a small sigh.
"Laurens, he has a wife and kid. Besides, innocence has no place in a war, no matter how much you want it to." Alexander replied to John before turning his attention back to Lafayette. "There's a myth that the length of a man's foot correlates to the length of his cock. The longer the foot, the larger the cock. You look confused. A cock is another word for a penis."
Lafayette's eyes went wide at that, his face flushing about as red as his hair beneath his wig.
Alexander just grinned and laughed heartily while John shook his head and moved to wrap his arms around the Frenchman to try and soothe him.
"Sorry, he's almost always like this. Alexander's thoughts are either sexual or violent. I don't think there's much of a middle ground." John said softly to the shocked and scandalized Catholic in his arms.
"Oh, I like this one. I think I'm going to keep him." Alexander said happily, leaning forward to lightly and briefly kiss Lafayette's lips, leaving him even more shocked, his cheeks even redder as he excused himself to head back to his work.