Work Text:
1.
It was actually John’s mug at first. He brought it over while the two locked themselves in Alex and Hercules’ apartment to study for what was known by everyone who took Washington’s Comparative Constitutional Law class as the test of Hell. John had pulled it out of his dark green backpack, a white mug with water droplets all over and the words “Tears of the Republicans” written across it.
It made Alex laugh and he poured John the first cup of many that evening. Alex realized it wasn’t his a week later when he reached into the cabinet one morning and pulled out a mug he didn’t remember buying. When he brought up the incident to John later during lunch, realization dawned on his face. “So that’s where it went! I thought Laf was hiding it from me!”
Alex wondered what the reason would be for their friend to hide a mug from anybody especially John, but asked, “Well, do you want it back?”
John shook his head. “Nah, you can have it. I’ve got too many anyway.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, I’m sure. Besides, Laf says that if I get any more, we’ll have no place to put the plates.”
And that was that. Alex got to keep John’s mug. It was a nice mug and it served it’s purpose well, either filled with Alex’s favorite americano coffee or chamomile tea or at times Cocoa Puffs when he was too lazy to grab a bowl or too tired to carry one after writing all night on a economics essay for Professor Franklin. Alex believed that the mug handle was created there to prevent spillage and it make it easier to bring into his bed.
Then it somehow became a thing, John giving mugs to Alex for special occasions or sometimes no reason at all. Whatever it was, Alex got a mug.
2.
Alex’s twitter is a pain in the ass to read and everyone who follows him knows that because once he gets going on a rant, it takes up to 15 tweets to get his full response. He also replies back to everyone, it beats John how Alex handles it all and not go crazy. It’s a Thursday night and Alex, John, Hercules, and Lafayette are at the local bar celebrating Alex’s new internship with Washington’s firm. They all knew Alex was going to get it, even if he didn’t seek out the opportunity.
“George loves you, man.” Hercules said, while holding his drink. “You drive him up a wall sometimes, but he knows you’ve got what it takes.” Alex smiles and pulls Hercules in for a hug.
The door to the bar opens and Lafayette waves to someone behind Alex and John. The two turned in their seats to see who their friend greeted and groan. Alex’s rival on twitter and in life, Thomas Jefferson and his friend James Madison had walk in and were seated at a two top near the door. It’s at this moment that John remembers the Star Wars bag he brought in when he arrived and pulls it from underneath the table. Alex points to himself and John rolls his eyes.
“No, it’s for Jefferson. Of course it’s for you, idiot!” Alex sticks his tongue out and opens the bag. He pulls out a small brown box, opens it, and sees the outline of a mug. Alex gives John a confused look, but all he says is, “Take a look.”
Alex pulls it out and laughs as the mug bares the image of a burn tweet he sent to Jefferson that got so much notice, it made Jefferson leave Twitter for two weeks. Alex shows it to the rest of the group and then taps John to move. “I’ll be right back.” Alex tells the table and starts to head for the front. “Hamilton, no. Leave him alone.” sighs Lafayette, while not trying to hide the smile from his face. John eggs Alex on, saying, “Do it.”
And, well, Alex is not one to say no.
John watches as Alex comes up to their table to show Jefferson the mug and the look of disgust on Jefferson’s face is too much, John can’t hold it in. He laughs so loud he gives away their location and Jefferson turns his attention to him and John gives him a thumbs-up. Jefferson pushes Alex aside and he and James leave the bar. The smile that is on Alex’s face is mirrored on John’s. Alex rejoins the table and shouts, “Whose ready for another round?”
3.
Alex and Hercules have lived in their apartment for over a year now and because of work and school, there hasn’t been time for either of them to go take a trip to IKEA or Home Goods and replace their mismatched pieces of furniture scattered about the place with decent ones. It’s the weekend and the only weekend where both Alex and Hercules have no plans so they make plans to go spend the day designing their place. That is until the shop where Hercules works at calls him to come in and do some last minute changes to a sweet sixteen birthday party dress.
Alex looks at Hercules’s apologetic face and pulls up John’s number.
Hercules throws his shoes on and grabs the keys to his car as Alex brings the phone up to his ear. “Al, I’m so sorry. The next time we’re free, we’re going.” Alex waves him off and then the other line picks up and John’s voice is in his ear. “’Sup Hammie.”
The only things in their cart are a blanket, two small green apples that light up when you shake them, and a bag of Swedish meatballs. They are slowly going through the many aisles when Alex stops and checks out a stack of these cool pizza plates. On the opposite side are a small section of mugs. John goes through them looking at the designs and picks one up that’s got a small chip at the top. He reads the writing on the front and turns toward Alex, clearing his throat.
Alex looks up from the plates and John pretends to take a sip from the mug that has the words “Hello Darlin’” in black script.
John doesn’t say a word, just watches Alex’s face. The next words he says make John’s heart beat stop.
“Tell me about it, stud.”
The look on Alex’s face has him feeling all warm and buttery all the way down to his toes and he hopes his face isn’t red from how hard he’s blushing. He’s thinks about being strong as steel as says, “Oh, really?” and takes a step closer.
Alex, whose smile screams up to no good, whispers back. “Shall I enlighten you?”
The two are so caught up in the moment that neither of them have noticed the girl in the yellow polo approach them. “Hello, can I help you guys with anything?” At the sound of her question, they both jump back and respond with similar replies.
“No, thank you.”
“We’re just looking right now.”
The girl smiles at them and leaves down the aisle. With the earlier tension now broken, they do the same. The mug is placed back onto the shelf, the pizza plates placed into their cart. After another hour of going through more housewares than either of the two could imagine, they enter the queue line and John says, “Wait, let me go grab something real quick.” Alex is approaching the cashier when John places the mug in their cart.
When they get back to the apartment, Hercules is just arriving back from work as he listens to Alex retell the story of how he and John almost got kicked out of IKEA because they were testing the firmness of the bed display and almost kicked a child in the face.
John hears Alex retelling the story with a little bit of exaggeration and shakes his head when Alex mentions the tall lams falling down. John’s in the kitchen putting away the purchases they bought. He takes the mug and places it next to Alex’s first mug, a I heart New York one. He sees Alex use the Hello Darlin’ mug the following morning and when Alex goes to answer his cellphone, John smiles to himself.
4,
When Alex gets a call from the police that his brother James had passed away, he doesn’t flinch. After they had parted ways, Alex moving to New York; James to wherever he decided to go, Alex hadn’t heard from him until this moment. Alex finds out from the phone call that James had no family. The only things left were his possessions, including ones that were given to him when their mother passed away. Which means their childhood home in St. Croix is now in Alex’s hands.
Alex had vowed to himself that when he stepped off that island, he wasn’t going back.
After the news settles in his mind, Alex comes to the decision that he doesn’t want to keep the deed to the house. He has no need nor the funds to keep up the house while being away.
He could sell the house as is and not have to step foot on the island but he gets this feeling that’s telling him that he should go. He doesn’t know if James ever stayed in the house, he should at least go and see if the house is even sellable.
By the time Hercules walks into the apartment from work, Alex is browsing airfare sites.
“Yo, Hammie, what you up to?” He hears Hercules say behind him and then feels his hands rub into his shoulders. “Oh, you planning a getaway?”
“Not really. I got a call this morning that my brother James passed away. I have to go fly to St. Croix and take care of some things.” Alex says softly as he scrolls down.
Hercules wraps his arms around Alex’s chest. “Oh shit. My condolences, Alex.” Alex pats his arms. “Thanks, Herc. It’s aright, I was never really close with him.”
Hercules lets go and pulls a chair over to sit next to him. “Still. He was your brother. Your blood.”
Alex nods and then takes a deep breath. He was starting to mentally prepare for this trip and if he was going to go back to the one place he didn’t want to return to, he didn’t want to do it alone. “I…I know it’s a lot to ask, but would you come with me? I would really like the support and I really don’t want to go back there alone.”
Hercules sighs. “I’m so sorry, Alex. I would go with you in a heartbeat, but I’ve got this huge assignment at work and they need all hands on deck to make this order.”
Alex nods. “It’s ok. I completely understand.”
Hercules stands up and opens his arms. “Come here.”
Alex ignores Hercules and pulls up Expedia.
“Come on, I’ll stand here all night if I have to.”
Alex lets Hercules wait as he exits out the website and shuts his laptop. He can look for flights later. He stands up and turns into Hercules who pulls him in for a hug.
“Ok. Herc. You can let go now.” Alex chokes out as he’s being squeezed from a Hercules Mulligan bear hug.
Hercules lets him go and Alex coughs. Hercules rolls his eyes. “Oh hush. It wasn’t that bad.”
Over Alex’s favorite dinner of rice and beans with chicken, Hercules suggest someone else to go in his place. “Maybe you should ask John to go with you.”
Alex shrugs his shoulders. “I’ll think about it.”
The flight to St. Croix is quiet between the two of them. Alex has his headphones on watching the clouds go by in the window seat and John is filling out the crossword puzzle from the plane magazine. John’s stuck on a word when he looks over to watch Alex. He remembers the call he got from Alex that now has him flying to a place his friend has kept secret.
“John?”
“Hey, Alex. What’s up?”
“Not much. Actually, no.”
“Alex, What’s wrong?”
When Hercules suggested that John go instead of him, Alex didn’t want to make his oldest friend upset. When he had decided to ask Hercules, he wasn’t going to bother to ask John. He didn’t want him to lay eyes on the place that tormented his childhood. For Alex, John was a part of his new beginning, not his terrible past.
“I got a call this morning that my brother James had died..”
“Oh, Alex…”
“..and I have to fly down to St. Croix to help close my childhood home, I have no need for it, anyway I was wondering if you could come with me to help. And be there.”
There’s a short pause then John answers.
“Yes, Of course. I’ll go with you.”
“Thank you, John.”
John lightly touches Alex’s arm to get his attention. Alex turns, pulling down his headphones. “Hmm?”
“I’m stuck on number five across.” John points to the crossword.
“What is it?”
John searches for the clue below the puzzles. “This Todd was a notorious demon barber on Fleet Street.”
Alex smiles. “Try Sweeney.”
“Spell it.”
Alex narrows his eyes as he spells out the word. “S-W-E-E-N-E-Y”
John sees that the word fits and he shows it to Alex. “Look, it fits!”
Alex gives John a small smile then moves his headphones back to his ears. Hercules dropped them off at JFK and he pulled John aside as Alex walked towards the ticket desk.
“Hey, keep an eye on him ok? If he’s quiet, just let him be. Don’t push.”
John doesn’t know of an Alexander Hamilton that is quiet, but from the look on Hercules’ face, he thinks he’s about to find out.
“Absolutely.”
When they land in St. Croix, it’s late and both of them are exhausted from the long flight. They both decide on a nearby hotel to rest for the night. Alex has kept quiet since they landed, John is fine with taking the lead on this.
As soon as John opens the door, Alex heads to the nearest bed and collapses, passing out shortly after. John checks the room out, deems it safe, and is out as soon as his head hits the pillow.
Alex is up and watching the waves outside the window when John awakes. John gets up and stretches, makes enough noise so Alex can know he’s awake. He walks over to Alex and watches the waves fall in and out and back again.
“Morning.” John whispers.
“Morning.” Alex says then brings the hotel mug to his lips. “I made coffee.”
John pads over to the coffeemaker on the small counter and pours himself a cup and returns by Alex. They stand by the window watching the waves until Alex breaks the silence.
“We should go by the house today. See how it looks.”
John looks over at Alex. “Ok.”
They pack their things and go down to the lobby to rent a car for the day. Once they get their car, Alex puts in the address into the GPS. The drive isn’t far and the weather is perfect, John rolls down the windows to let cool air come through.
“It’s beautiful here.” John say looking over at Alex whose watching the green scenery go by. Alex responds softly. John can hear from Alex’s reply that his mind is somewhere else. “It’s a great vacation spot.”
When the GPS signals the final turn, John slows down and stops at a small house halfway down the road.
The house is grey and brown stone with faded blue-green shutters and dual staircases on the side. John turns off the engine and watches Alex who slowly opens the passenger side door. Alex makes it a few steps before he stops and stands in front of his old house.
John gets out and joins Alex. He looks at his face, Alex looks scared.
John slowly reaches for Alex’s hand. Alex takes it and entwines his fingers with John. They stand there until Alex softly speaks. “This is it.”
John squeezes Alex’s hand. Alex squeezes back.
“We should go inside.” John whispers. “It’s getting hot out.”
Alex nods and they slowly make their way up the steps to the door. Alex doesn’t let go of John’s hand.
They stop at the door, Alex’s hand on the handle.
John squeezes Alex’s hand again. “I’m right here.” Alex turns and looks at him and John smiles.
Alex takes a deep breath, opens the door, and walks in.
They are greeted with the smell of salt from the ocean nearby and dust. There’s a thin layer on the objects in the rooms, but from the looks of it, James had been living there for some time.
John feels Alex let go of his hand and he watches him move around, looking at the room.
“Did you want me to bring a box in?” John asks as Alex looks at a bookcase in the corner. Alex had decided before they arrived that he only wanted to look for a few things, the rest could go to whomever.
Alex nodded and John went out to the car to grab the cardboard box. He found Alex flipping through a brown leather book.
“An old journal of mine. Filled this with poems and notes on books I read.” Alex said aloud as he flipped the pages. He flips to one and reads it to John.
Death comes rushing on in triumph, veiled in a mantle of tenfold darkness. His unrelenting scythe, pointed and ready for the stroke...
“Wow. Deep stuff.” John tells him.
Alex laughed. “You have your fists, I have my words.” He threw it in the box John was holding.
After looking through the bookcase and throwing a few more books into the box, Alex makes his way upstairs. John stops him before he goes up. “You want me to come up?”
Alex thinks about it before he answers. “No, I think I’m ok. I’ll call you if I need anything.”
John nods and watches Alex ascend the creaky steps. John steps away and walks into the kitchen. He opens the window to let the stale air out. He wipes his hands on his shorts and starts opening cupboards. Colorful plates and cups in one, pots and pans in another, silverware in a drawer and utensils underneath it. When John opens the last cupboard, he finds a few mugs. Most of them are the same but in various colors. There’s one that stands out. John takes it out and wipes the dust off.
It’s white with a painted colorful fish and the words “You Beautiful Tropical Fish” painted on with beautiful all in a ocean blue.
It reminds John so much of Alex that he sets it aside to bring home.
A few hours later, John walks up the stairs to the second floor. “Alex? Everything ok?” John asks out loud and Alex answers back “In here.” John follows the sound of Alex’s voice and finds him sitting on a small bed holding a sea shell.
“Hey.” John says as stands at the doorway. “Can I?” He asks as he points into the room.
“Oh yeah! Come in.” Alex scoots over and makes room on the small bed for John to sit.
John sits and looks around. The room is tidy and small, the only things taking space are the bed, a dresser, and a desk. Alex answers John’s question before he asks it.
“This was my old room.” Alex sighs out.
John pictures a young Alex sitting at the desk hunched over a book and jotting down notes in one of the leather books downstairs. He smiles to himself, knowing that he sees the same thing now, only instead of a book, it’s a word document.
Alex hands him the sea shell. “One day when the weather was like today, me and my mom went for a walk on the beach. We found this sea shell sticking out of the sand. I went to go pick it up but my mom said to leave it, that it belong to somebody. I told her that if it belong to somebody then why wasn’t it with them? She said that they could have forgotten and were now on their way to come get it. When we were walking back, we passed the shell and it was still there. My mum m said that if the shell was still there in a few days, I could have it. I went back every day and it was still there. After a week has gone by and the shell hadn’t moved, I picked it up and took it home. I cleaned it out and placed it downstairs.”
“You see this crack?” Alex asks John pointing to a thin crack along the side. John traces it down the side.
“My mom threw it at my dad when he said he was leaving us. Two days later, he did.” Alex softly says.
John is speechless. He looks up at Alex and Alex is emotionless.
“Funny thing is, after she threw it, she kept apologizing. I told her it was ok. It’s just a shell. If the shell shattered into a million piece, I didn’t care. What mattered to me was that she was ok.” Alex’s voice starts to waver. John watches him wipe a tear away and breathe in deep to stop more from falling.
John wants to pull Alex in so badly and hold him and he thinks Alex would let him but he also knows that Alex doesn’t want to look weak in front of anybody so he keeps his hands to himself.
He does keep the hand closest to Alex open in case Alex wants to reach over and hold it.
A few minutes later he does and John silently lets a breath go and lightly squeezes Alex’s hand. Alex stares at their joined hands and John watches him and then Alex is looking at him and another tear falls down and John catches it with his thumb, wipes it away.
“Damn it. Thought I was done.” Alex laughs out.
John smiles and Alex returns it and John really really wants to kiss Alex right now, chase the sadness away and bring all the love he has for his best friend.
John doesn’t and they sit there holding hands and then Alex leans his head on John’s shoulder.
Hours go by and the air has gotten chillier but John is warm from Alex whose fallen asleep on John’s shoulder. John checks his watch, 6:30 and then his stomach rumbles. He doesn’t want to wake Alex but he’s starving and he’s sure Alex is too. He softly nudges Alex to wake him.
“Hey babe.” John mumbles.
“What time is it?” Alex asks rubbing his eyes.
“6:30”
At John’s response, Alex’s stomach rumbles.
“You hungry?”
Alex laughs. “Yeah.”
“Wanna head out?”
Alex nods and John stands up stretching, his joints cracking from being still. He holds his hand out and Alex takes it and they make their way down the stairs. John thinks about the other rooms he didn’t see but Alex has given him so much today, he doesn’t want to push. John walks into the living room where the box is and picks it up. “Do you want to carry this?” He holds the box out to Alex and he takes it, holding it close. They walk towards the door and John steps into the kitchen to close the kitchen window and wraps the mug he saved into his jacket and they walk out.
John turns the car on and waits, looks over at Alex. “Ready?”
Alex looks at the house and nods. “Yeah, I’m ready.”
John pulls away in search for food for the both of them.
On the flight back the following day, Alex thanks John a million times for coming with him. “I know it was last minute and it took you out of work and you didn’t have to come with..” Alex rushes out.
“Alex, it’s no problem at all. You’re my best friend. And it’s me who should be thanking you. You took me to a place that means something to you. You shared that with me. Thank you for letting me come with you.” John tells him.
Alex nods. “But still. Thank.”
John holds up his hand to stop Alex. Instead John points to the small bag of pretzels they were given. “Are you going to finish those?”
Alex laughs and hands John the bag. “Nah, too salty. All yours.”
They land and Hercules meets them at the baggage claim. Alex runs and jumps into Hercules’ arms. “Woah there, buddy.” Hercules squeezes back and Alex lets go, letting John go in for a side hug.
“Everything ok?” Hercules asks them as they leave the airport.
John looks at Alex and Alex looks at him before answering Hercules. “Yeah, everything’s good.”
Alex falls asleep in the back seat as Hercules drives home. He turns to John and nudges his head towards Alex. “How was he?”
John clears his throat. “He was…quiet for most of it. I could tell he didn’t want to be there. But I know he was glad that I came with him.”
Hercules signals off the highway and stops at a red light, and whispers to John, “Good. That’s good.”
-a couple weeks later-
John blinks awake and he can tell that Alex is awake next to him. John turns over to look at Alex and Alex doesn’t smile at him. Just stares straight ahead.
“Hey.” John whispers softly.
Alex looks at him this time and John can see the sadness in his eyes.
It takes a couple of seconds for John to realize what day it is.
February 19. The anniversary of Alex’s mom’s death. Both of them had just come back from the trip to St. Croix, all that must be fresh in Alex’s mind, John thinks.
It’s the memories from the trip that John remembers what he saved from the house. When they got back to their room, he hid it in his suitcase so Alex wouldn’t know.
John gets up and pulls a pair of pants on. “I’ll be right back. I have something for you.”
Alex narrows his eyes and John leaves Alex’s room and heads for Hercules’ room. He knocks and opens the door when Hercules doesn’t answer. He’s still asleep but John knows where he hid the mug when they got back from St. Croix. He takes it to the kitchen and washes it. He takes some newspaper from the table and wraps it up and goes back into Alex’s room.
Alex is now sitting cross legged on his bed playing with the strands of hair on his Simba pillow pet. He looks up when John closes his door. John holds out the wrapped mug.
“When we were in St. Croix, I found this and I saved it because it reminded me of you.” John hands it to Alex and Alex slowly opens it, taking the mug into his hands.
Alex has tears in his eyes. “You saved this. For me?” John sits next to him and he feels tears welling up in his eyes as well. “Yeah, I did.”
Alex sniffs. “I can’t believe this survived. This was my mom’s favorite mug.” Alex lets out a watery laugh. “This means so, so much to me. John, thank you.” John’s fully crying now and Alex sits up and pulls him into a hug. They sit on Alex’s bed looking at the mug in the quiet of the morning.
5.
It’s 2 AM and they’re both in the kitchen. Before that, they had been in the dining room where Alex had set up his ‘think tank’ which is papers scattered everywhere and Alex’s white board covered with facts, photos and evidence from the Reynosa case.
In six hours, Alex will have to give the opening statements to a jury for the first time since being promoted on Washington’s staff and he needs to make sure he’s gives the best damn opening statement ever. John had gotten back from a hard day at work and stayed up with Alex all night helping him edit and prepare, playing the role as a juror, which he didn’t mind, because watching Alex talk about the law is mesmerizing.
They moved to the kitchen because Alex was craving a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and John’s was the best. Alex brought his laptop over and he ate food and typed. To keep himself awake, John grabbed his sketchpad and pencils. He opened it on his last drawing, Alex playing with Lafayette’s cat, Liberty in Central Park. He turned the page and started drawing.
~
Four hours later and John had finished his sketch: Alex, wearing his glasses, typing away and wearing John’s old Mets shirt. The man in his drawing had finally deemed his statement complete and was resting his head on his folded arms. John stood up and stretched. He ran his hand through Alex’s messy hair and scratched his scalp. A low hum came from underneath his hand.
“How does breakfast sound?” John asked. He was answered with a mumble.
There wasn’t much in their fridge except for butter, milk, an almost empty carton of orange juice, and two-day-old take-out. With Alex getting ready for trial and John with his social work, there hadn’t been time for either of them to go run out and get groceries. John opens the cupboard and sees the half empty box of Cocoa Puffs.
“Cocoa Puffs?” John asks turning around, shaking the box and sees Alex holding his head up with his hand. Alex yawns and nods. “Cocoa Puffs.”
“Cocoa Puffs it is.” John says and grabs the box, two mugs and the milk carton and sets them on the table. He grabs two spoons from the drawer as Alex takes the box and pours himself cereal and adds milk. “Thanks” Alex mumbles out and takes a spoon from John. John fills his mug and they both sit in silence eating cereal listening to the city wake up.
“What if…” Alex says as he stares out at their small window. “What if I stutter on a word or I repeat myself or I forget the next sentence and then everyone in the room will see me mess up and start laughing and then I’ll forget this whole damn thing we’ve worked hours on and then Washington will hear about it and he’ll be disappointed, I can’t let him down and what if I don’t win.” Alex says all this in a rush and he’s breathing hard and John can see that his hands that are holding the mug are shaking.
John slowly reaches out and touches Alex’s shaking hands. “Alexander.” At the sound of his full name, Alex stills. “Take a breath in for me.” John watches Alex as they both breathe in. “Now breathe out.” They do this until Alex has stopped shaking. John grabs the mug out of Alex’s hands and places it on the table. He replaces the mug with his own hands.
“Alex, I’ve sat with you and we’ve gone through all the evidence twice and we’ve edited and edited and I’ve listened to you go over this statement frontwards and backwards. I’ve thrown every possible scenario at you. You know this thing like the back of you hand. You going to go out on that floor and you going to tell that jury what they need to hear. Washington gave this case to you because he knows you can win this. I know you can win this.”
Alex shakes his head. “You’re right, you’re right. We’ve worked so hard on this. I can do this. I’ve got this.” John nods and ruffles his head.
Alex opens up his laptop. “Just one more re-read?” John laughs. “Go right ahead.”
John grabs Alex’s mug. “Coffee?”
“Yes, please.” Alex says as he starts reading the screen.
John turns on the coffee maker and watches the coffee brew and fall into the pot. He rinses the mug Alex used with the cereal. It’s one of those chalkboard mugs that come with a piece of chalk to draw with. John sees the piece of chalk among pens and pencils in a plastic cup and he gets an idea.
He grabs the chalk and starts writing. John knows that there are many better times to do this but with this moment right now, it just feels so right. He finishes the message and looks at Alex’s back and smiles to himself. He waits until the dripping stops and pours the coffee in, adding a little cream and sugar, just how Alex likes it.
He walks towards the table and sets the mug next to Alex’s hand. Alex looks up and smiles. “This is really good,” he says pointing to the screen. “We fucking did good.”
John laughs and watches as Alex reaches for the mug and takes a sip. He sets it down and continues to read his screen. John already knows he didn’t see it, but that’s ok. John doesn’t like waiting, but for this? He’ll wait however long it takes. He picks up his pencil to doodle some more.
Alex closes the laptop and sighs a breath of relief. When he takes a sip and holds it out, he looks at the message. John notices that Alex is looking at what he wrote and freezes, watching his face.
Alex’s breath catches in his throat. All that’s written on the mug in John’s handwriting is, “Will you go out with me?”
“John.” Alex chokes out and then he’s pushing his chair out and pulling John up and reaching for his face to kiss him.
“I’m taking that as a yes.” John breathes out when they both pull away to catch their breath.
“Yes.” Alex says and kisses John again.
~
30 minutes later with Alex hurrying about to get ready for court, almost tripping on his discarded clothes, and almost forgetting his laptop, they now stand by the front door, Alex holding onto John, kissing him slowly. John is the first to pull away to fix Alex’s tie. Alex tries to lean in to keep kissing but John stills him. “Your lips are going to be red.”
Alex shrugs. “I’m about to go into court and give the greatest opening statement in my life and I’ve got a date tonight with the most beautiful man in the world. So what?”
John is the one to pull Alex in and kiss him this time.
+1
When John’s not busy with his job at the community mental health center, he’s out and about New York City doing what he loves, taking photos. A Camera bag at his side, DSLR in his hands, and his eyes searching to capture a moment brings peace to John like no other.
Alex looks at the calendar on the wall next to the refrigerator and sees it’s a week away from John’s birthday. Alex racks his brain as he sips his tea from the Hey Darlin’ mug, on what to get him. He forgot his friend’s birthday at the last second last year and when John brought it up as they were cleaning up after dinner, Alex berated himself until John grabbed his hand. “Alexander, stop. It’s ok. You’ve been occupied with the California case, I didn’t mention anything because I didn’t want to put more pressure on you than what you already have.”
“But, John.”
“No buts. Trust me.” John rubs his thumb over Alex’s. “There’s always next year.”
“Yeah, well next year I’m going to blow your socks off.”
John laughs. “I’ll hold you to it.”
Alex has got to win with this year’s birthday gift. For Alex’s 25th, John took him to the Library of Congress and pulled some strings and next thing he knows, he and Alex are led to a closed off area where in the shelves contained writings from past presidents. Alex was in heaven. Alex can’t mess up this year.
Alex spends the afternoon, after going over some papers on a case, searching the web for the perfect gift. He comes up with a few ideas. He thinks John could use a new backpack because the one he uses is hanging by the strings. He checks the New York Aquarium website for any new events they could attend for the day. He also remembers John talking about wanting to take him to a Mets game after he told John that he hadn’t been to any live games ever.
Alex is about to close the window to go shower and get dressed before John got back from work when he sees it on the side of the screen.
It’s a travel mug and from the outside it clearly looks like a camera lens but the inside shows all the signs of a typical travel mug. Alex adds it to his cart and closes the window when he hears a key being put in the lock from the front door.
-Two days before John’s birthday-
Alex runs up the steps into the apartment building and sees the small box at their front door. He thanks god for unreliable New York City traffic and making John run late so Alex can keep his gift a secret.
-The morning of John’s birthday-
John blinks awake and sees the other side of the bed empty. He reaches out and his hand touches cold sheets. He then hears a soft curse come from the kitchen. Stuffing his feet into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles slippers, he walks to the kitchen ready to call 911. But there’s no need to as Alex is putting the last touches to the table that’s covered with plates of eggs, bacon, potatoes, fresh fruit and pancakes enough for the two of them.
When Alex sees John in the doorway, he grabs John’s hand and pushes him onto one of the chairs, sitting down on his lap and before John can say a word, Alex kisses him slow and soft, his hands in John’s hair.
When Alex stops, John smirks. “Well, Happy Birthday to me.”
Alex kisses his forehead. “Hungry?”
“Starved.” John says then brings Alex in for one more kiss.
~
“Do you want to open it now or do you want to wait until later when the rest of the gang gets here?” Alex asks putting the dishes in the dishwasher.
“I want to open it now.”
Alex goes into the other room and comes back into the kitchen with a box wrapped in turtle wrapping paper and hands it to John. John rips the paper away and sees the camera lens. “Oh, cool! I was looking at these a while ago and couldn’t decide if I should go with this size or the bigger lens. Can’t wait to take shots with these! Thanks, babe!”
“Wait, I don’t think you unders-…” Alex starts when John’s phone rings. John looks at the screen, “It’s Martha. Hold on. Hello?” John listens to his sister on the other line and takes the lens out of the box and sets it on the table. Alex goes and remakes another batch of coffee and waits for John.
John hangs up and Alex holds out his hand, pointing to the lens. “Can I see it?” John hands it to him as his phone dings with a new message. John shoots back a reply as Alex opens the lens and puts the travel mug top on the table.
John’s looking up from his phone when Alex says “See, I don’t think you get it, it’s a trav-…” and starts to pour in the fresh coffee into the lens. John drops his phone and jumps out of his seat.
“WHOA NO! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING, ALEX? YOU’RE GOING TO RUIN IT! THAT’S NOT WHAT…” John yells out reaching for the lens.
“JOHN, JOHN, JOHN! WAIT, AMOR STOP! IT’S NOT A CAMERA LENS. IT IS, BUT IT’S A TRAVEL MUG, SEE?” Alex yells back and turns the lens to the side where he can show John the shiny metal inside that holds the drink.
“WAIT, DID YOU FUCKING MESS WITH A LENS TO MAKE THIS? DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THEY FUCKING COST?” John says incredulously.
“IT’S NOT AN ACTUAL LENS. IT JUST LOOKS LIKE ONE. OH MY GOD, HOLD ON.” Alex retrieves his laptop from the living room and pulls up the website where he found the mug. “See, it’s not a real lens! And come on, I would never do that to a lens, I know how much these lenses mean to you.”
John stands while reading the description and lets out a breath. He sits back down and pulls Alex onto his lap and holds him. “I’m sorry. Probably should have read the box.”
Alex laughs, kissing John’s hair. “Or at least open the top.”
“I love it, Alexander. Thank you.” John tilts his head back and Alex leans down and kisses him. They stay like that, trading lazy kisses that soon turn into heated ones. Alex stands from John and pulls him towards their bedroom.
John halts and laughs. “Oh, is there another present?”
Alex winks and pulls John forward to their bed. “You’re just going to have to find out.”