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The hoard of shambling, coffee deprived commuters pressed further into the shop, mumbling desperately for "brains" and "venticaramel frappuccinos."
Maria handed out another cup of caffeinated toxic waste, and vaguely wondered how this had become cafe culture. Joys of the morning coffee rush. She'd been holding off the caffeine zombies without help for about 20 minutes, and frankly she wasn't sure how much she could take. Beside her John, who was still looking at his phone, whispered "Holy shit," again.
Honestly, Maria would have been annoyed that he'd left her to do the morning rush almost completely on her own, but she'd never seen him react to anything like this.This was the guy who sassed super villains for being assholes and got a date and a pay rise out of it, who didn't blink twice at being held hostage in a bank, who videoed attacks instead of running for cover.
Eventually John Adams, their manager-on-duty, ushered him into the back room and took his place at the counter.
As Maria handed Thomas Jefferson (actual Thomas fucking Jefferson, how is this her life,) some pretentious coffee order, she made a mental note to ask John about it as soon as they weren't facing the cafe industry's equivalent of an actual zombie apocalypse.
Chat: Evil League of Evil
ThomasThomas: so..
ThomasThomas: @GoodHorse
ThomasThomas: when are you going to do your first attack on the city ?
GoodHorse: I'm not?
ThomasThomas: ???
ThomasThomas: if your nervous you're welcome to shadow me for a while, just until you get the hang of it
ThomasThomas: learn from the best n all that
LaBaguette: you're*
ThomasThomas: Shh
GoodHorse: I literally have no intention of ever attacking the city wtf
LaBaguette: @GoodHorse why are you even here?
Ghostie: I'm trying to work.
ThomasThomas: but it's like 6am
Ghostie: some of us have real jobs, thomas
ThomasThomas: NOT AT 6AM
ThomasThomas: NOBODY ACTUALLY DOES WORK THAT EARLY WTF AARON
GoodHorse: lol
"So," Maria said as soon as the morning rush had died down and the shop had (somewhat) emptied, "What happened?"
For the first time in almost an hour, John looked up from his phone. "The New York Post offered me a job." He said flatly.
"That's amazing John!" She squeaked, grabbing his elbow. Then she paused and shot him a slightly confused glance, "You didn't tell me you applied for a job."
"I didn't apply for anything." John said, still sounding rather stunned.
"What?"
"Apparently they found out that I always seem to be where super's are fighting, and they want me to run some kind of first-hand account column." John replied, finally showing her the email.
"Ohh.." Maria said with sudden clarity, remembering a conversation she'd had with Angelica not so long ago.
She was about to voice this when Alexander Hamilton came crashing through the cafe doors.
"Hey John, Angelica told me about the job offer! I'm so excited for you!" He said without once pausing to breathe, then he took in John's expression, "You don't look too excited."
John fiddled with his phone. He practically radiated nervous energy. "It just seems like..." He paused, desperately searching for words, "A lot."
Alex blinked at him, clearly a little confused. "Well," He said at length, "You're passionate about superheroes right?"
"I guess."
"And you already run the twitter account which, of course, they aren't asking you to give up or sign away?" Alex continued and Maria began to wonder whether or not he'd prepared this speech before hand. Probably not, this was Alex they were talking about.
John nodded, but still looked rather dazed.
"So," Alex continued, and Maria recognised this voice; it was the summary voice, the be all and end all conclusion voice, the 'if you don't agree with me at this point you're clearly an idiot' voice. Alex continued, "All they're asking you to do is a weekly column summing up the super events of the week, written in an engaging style which you know you can do anyway?"
"I guess.." John said, still sounding unsure but perhaps a little more confident.
"And you'll get paid to do it." Maria added, and Alex nodded in approval.
"So what's the downside?"
"Well, when you put it that way.."
"Great!" Alex exclaimed, "Anyway, the charges against my client just got dropped and you just got a new job so, I think we should celebrate!"
"Uh, okay," John said, "What do you have in mind?"
But Alex was already on his way out of the café.
"Great!" He called from half-way-out-of-the-door, clearly oblivious to John's question, "I'll pick you up at 6!"
And with that, Alex darted out of the cafe, leaving John looking much happier, (if still a little confused,) than he had before hand.
Angelica pulled the dressing room curtain back, revealing the next ball gown.
"What do you think?" She asked her siblings, considering her reflection in the full-wall mirror.
"Lovely." Peggy said flatly.
"That's what you said about the last one." Eliza replied, frowning.
Peggy shrugged, "They all look lovely, can you just hurry up and pick one?"
Eliza rolled her eyes and, when that seemed to have no effect, she gently jabbed her sister in the ribs.
"Ow!"
"Seriously, guys." Angelica said.
Eliza considered the dress. Despite it's empire waistline, the folded edges of the skirt still clung to her body a little; they type of dress she'd imagined Greek goddesses wearing when their mother used to read them stories before bed. Even more fitting was the colour; that very same candle-light shade of pink that Angelica was never seen without. The same colour as Athena's costume.
Eliza smiled. "I think this is the one, Angelica. It's perfect."
It seemed that dress shopping for Angelica's latest political event had taken over their Schuyler-Sister-day-out, but Eliza didn't really mind. Honestly, she was just happy that they'd finally found some mutual free time.
Between both of her sisters hectic double lives, it almost felt like their very relationship had been pushed aside.
They still see plenty of each other, of course; someone has to be there to patch up the city's damaged superheroes when they come home, but it's always serious. There's always a purpose, an agenda, a wound to be healed, a need to be fulfilled.
For once it was nice to just spend time together without any of that pressure piling up.
"So we're done dress shopping?" Peggy said hopefully.
"Yeah," Angelica smiled, "Now I need to go pick out some shoes."
Peggy groaned and Eliza tried to stifle her laughter.
Chat: Evil League of Evil
ThomasThomas: @GoodHorse please change your name it's still bothering me
GoodHorse: has changed their name to YankeeCandle
YankeeCandle: better?
ThomasThomas: sure
Ghostie: I am trying to work
ThomasThomas: @Ghostie shhhh
YankeeCandle: Honestly Aaron, just put the chat on silent. That's what Laf does.
ThomasThomas: Laf puts our sacred villain chat on silent?? How DARE THEY
ThomasThomas: Also @YankeeCandle hey could you do me a favour?
YankeeCandle: ???
James had been looking forward to the date as much as he'd been dreading it.
Thomas was chaotic, eccentric and rich enough for that combination to be both annoying and potentially dangerous. Plus, if there was anything to Dolley's claims, probably a super villain in his spare time.
But despite all the logical cons, James found himself genuinely wanting to spend time with him. So, naturally he'd been looking forward to their date.
But Thomas was rich as hell, and he'd once spent an hour and a half taking about French wine, and James wasn't stupid. They were going to end up somewhere fairly fancy, and James was going to end up being super uncomfortable about it, and then the whole evening was going to end up being super awkward. That's how these things worked.
From CoffeeGuy<3: hey um, slight change of plans
To CoffeeGuy<3: wanna reschedule?
From CoffeeGuy<3: that depends
From CoffeeGuy<3: do you like dogs?
To CoffeeGuy<3: dogs are great :)
From CoffeeGuy<3: good good :)
He’d been right. James had been so right; the place was fancy. Way too fancy. Like on the verge of black tie fancy. It was the sort of place that served really tiny portions that you’d have to take a mortgage out for. The prices on the wine list alone were like a whole month of James' salary.
Thomas, of course, wasn’t batting a fucking eyelid at all this. In fact he even had the audacity to look disappointed with the menu. James was beginning to feel a little queasy.
“Any preference?” Thomas asked, still surveying the wine list, “I’m rather leaning towards Domaine Raveneau Chablis les Clos.”
James, who was a strong believer that all wine over £20 tasted about the same, tried not to wince. Whatever, it wasn’t really like he needed to impress Thomas at this point. “I think I’ll stick with carbonated water, thanks.”
Thomas nodded, not really seeming to pick up on how uncomfortable James was. The wine arrived.
A waiter, who was probably better dressed than James came to take their order. Thomas ordered in fluent French, with a near perfect accent (though James could tell that a note of his southern accent crept in there.) James picked the dish with the most words he actually recognised.
“So, um.” James said, stretching for topics of conversation, “How about this weather?”
Thomas looked him dead in the eyes with what was probably the most serious expression James had ever seen grace his features.
“If I didn’t value my life,” He said slowly, as if he were savouring the very words, “I would break the Marquis’ pretty face myself.”
“Right,” James said, laughing awkwardly. Their conversation was drawing stares from nearby tables.
The waiter who was wearing more expensive clothes than James owned returned and began arranging bizarre pieces of cutlery in what James guessed was probably some sort of demonic sigil. Thomas looked totally nonplussed by this, only reaffirming James’ belief that all rich people had probably sold their souls for success.
Finally Thomas took pity on him.
“Shall we just go?” He asked in a slightly hushed tone, as if they were about to do something mischievous. James shook his head politely.
“I don’t want to ruin your evening out,” He said evenly, “And besides, we’ve already ordered.”
The ‘you insisted on paying for this and I feel bad about wasting your money’ was left implied.
Thomas dismissively waved the hand that wasn’t carrying the wine glass.
“I’m not going to make you sit through two hours of small talk in some shitty restaurant when you clearly aren’t comfortable. Anyway,” Thomas continued, “There’s this great food stand a couple streets away that literally only sells Mac n Cheese, and it’s probably the best street food I’ve ever eaten in my life.”
James smiled gratefully, carefully not commenting on how Thomas really needed to reconsider his definition of a ‘shitty restaurant.’ About half way down the street, he noticed that Thomas was still holding his wine glass.
“Its’ good wine,” Thomas said a little defensively, “I wasn’t just going to leave it.”
James rolled his eyes, and for a second Thomas almost felt as if he could see the ripples of exasperation and affection in the air around his expression.
Thomas was beginning to notice things like that - how the world seemed different when he was around James. Everything just seemed to be more, like the world had suddenly gone from VHS to HD Blu Ray - his wine tasted realer, lights shone brighter, colours were more vibrant, even his very emotions seem more intense. It was like nothing he’d ever experienced before.
Thomas loved it.
From YankeeCandle: Thomas why the fuck do you have so many spiders
From YankeeCandle: When you said 'babysitting' I was pretty confused but I never imagined this
To YankeeCandle: how r my children
From YankeeCandle: fine??? I guess??
From YankeeCandle: do spiders even have feelings??
To YankeeCandle: yes.
From YankeeCandle: this whole situation is incredibly disturbing
To YankeeCandle: shhh you'll upset them
At about four minutes past 6 (not that John was keeping track, or stressing about it or anything,) Alex turns up with like 7 very small and very energetic dogs attached to him. John thought it was quite possibly the cutest thing ever.
"Sorry," Alex said with an easy smile, "I was gonna take you out for a meal or something, but I, uh, I forgot I’m supposed to be dog sitting.”
John, who was currently on the floor trying to fuss over all 7 dogs at once, looked up at Alex and beamed. Alex relaxed a little.
“So there’s actually a park near here,” Alex continued, “Did you want to-”
“Yes. I’d love to.” John said quickly. He was now clutching one of the smaller dogs who had been having trouble keeping up with Alex on their way here.
The walk to the park was long, but it was nice. Alex talked animatedly about, well, everything – switching between topics fluidly and with never ending enthusiasm. It didn’t take John long to find his place in the conversation, adding opinions with almost equal vigour. Everything they said was in total agreement.
By the time they got to the park, they’d already moved from the weather (which, of course, led directly to the effects of super villains on the city,) to critiquing gentrification (because honestly that shit had never helped anyone.)
Alex paused to empty his backpack onto the floor, and suddenly the dogs went wild.
The backpack had been completely full of dog toys. Like bursting at the seams full of dog toys. It was probably the most dog toys John had ever seen in one place. Alex noticed him staring at the pile (which was being quickly disassembled by the dogs.)
“I don’t usually do this,” He said, rubbing the back of his neck, “And I wasn’t sure which dog toy to bring.”
“So you brought all of them?” John asked, managing to keep a straight face.
“Well, yeah.” Alex replied, looking a bit bewildered. John fucking lost it.
Eliza’s feet ached and her hands were raw from carrying the thing straps of several plastic carrier bags, but overall it was the happiest she’d been in a while. A few meters away, Peggy (who was still standing in the fountain, holding her bright yellow sundress up so the hem didn’t get soaked,) aimed another handful of water at her and Angelica, and missed pitifully.
For a moment Angelica looked like she was ready to join their younger sister in the water, but she was distracted by Eliza’s pretty peal of laughter.
"What is it?” She said, with curiosity rather than concern.
"Nothing," Eliza said, still smiling, "Just thinking about how lucky we are to be alive right now."
“Guys!” Peggy yelled, wildly gesturing to the mall security guard who was making his way over to the, “I think it’s time for us to go!”
“So who’s dogs are these anyway?” John said, once he had stopped laughing. There were still tear tracks on his face. He knelt down to pet the rather grumpy looking cocker spaniel.
“I’m not really sure,” Alex said, considering the dog, “Burr’s never mentioned having a dog before, but then he never really talks about himself. I think that one’s his, they have the same resting bitch face.”
John burst out laughing, and Alex continued.
“I’m just doing a favour for a few of my friend’s friends. Their dog walker cancelled so I just offered to take all of them.”Alex said, then he gestured to the two absurdly fluffy pedigrees who were fighting over a large plastic duck. “Apparently my friend’s friend is trying to win some petshop worker’s heart by buying all their stock."
"That's incredible." John said, resisting the urge to tear up with laughter again. Honestly, he wasn’t sure why he’d never thought of dog sitting as the ideal date idea, because it was absolutely wonderful. He almost wanted to capture this moment and hold onto it forever
The sun was beginning to set over the trees, painting the cloud-littered sky all shades of pink and orange, and John thought about drawing the scene in front of him. The sunset, with the last of the daylight illuminating Alex’s skin and turning it to gold and the dogs still playing in the distance with seemingly endless energy and enthusiasm (much like Alex when he was working on something, John mused.)
Somehow, he thought pencil alone wouldn’t do it justice. Maybe he could dig out his chalk pastel set, or his water colours. That could work.
From CountryGirl: Yo
From CountryGirl: Hows the date?
To CountryGirl: [picture attached]
From CountryGirl: DOGS
To CountryGirl: !!!
From CountryGirl: !!!
A street lamp flicked on across the street, and James finally noticed how dark it was. It had barley been early evening when they left the restaurant, had they really been talking this long?
James had offered to walk Thomas home, partly because he wanted to see how absurd this rich asshole’s house was, but mostly because their evening had gotten significantly better since they’d left the restaurant and James wasn’t quite ready to let it end.
The city seemed sort of different around Thomas, like James was gaining a new perspective of the place. Not that he was quite sure what Thomas’ perspective was, one moment he was criticising the 99% for their bad fashion sense, the next he was evangelising over the cheapest and oiliest street food James had ever eaten. He was something of a mystery, and James was beginning to enjoy solving it.
Thomas’ home had been exactly what he was expecting. It was one of those extravagant, fancy apartment blocks that were probably considered ‘New York’s most exclusive apartment buildings.’ And it suited Thomas perfectly - the outside was even painted purple, for fuck’s sake.
"Did you want to come up stairs for coffee or something?" Thomas asked, shifting a little uncomfortably - no, nervously.
Oh.
"No." James replied flatly.
"Oh." Thomas said, looking a little crestfallen but only for a moment, "Okay cool-"
Then James chuckled. "I know you Thomas. Your apartment is literally full of spiders, which, by the way, I’m still scared of. ” He paused and looked away for a moment, "Maybe next time you could walk me back to my place."
Thomas's face lit up even brighter than before. "Senator Hanover is hosting a Gala on Thursday, and it looks like it’s going to be the most boring event in the history of time. Care to accompany me so we can make fun of the city’s rich and famous together?"
"I'd love to."
Thomas looked up at the sky with an almost mischievous grin, and James followed his gaze. Despite all the light pollution and smog, the patch of sky above them seemed unnaturally clear. James could pick out a few stars beyond the dusky sunset.
"In that case, can I at least get s goodnight kiss?"
James leant into Thomas, rising to his tiptoes as he slipped a hand around the back of his neck, pulling their faces together.
Kissing James was like nothing Thomas had ever felt before. It was like lemonade and love hearts and pins n needles, and maybe that was why Thomas's entire mind seemed to be buzzing and fizzing with elation, like the first bubbles in a bottle of champagne.
Meeting old college friends is always a little weird. You can only reminisce about 'the good old days' for so long before memories grow dull and the distance that's grown between you really sets in. Still, Aaron had enjoyed his time at Columbia, and he wasn't exactly eager to distance himself from the few friends he'd actually made back then, so when he received an impromptu message from Charles Lee he was more than happy to respond. Somehow a stream of nostalgic texts and Lee offhandedly mentioning that he would be back in New York for a couple of weeks had lead to them catching up over drinks. It paid to keep good terms with powerful people.
"Honestly Aaron, I don't understand how you can live here all the time." Lee said bemusedly. Aaron smiled good-naturedly.
"Not all of us can be successful contract lawyers Lee."
"But all these attacks on the city! It must be horribly disruptive, how do you stand it?" Lee pressed on and Aaron recognised the pattern this conversation was beginning to form. After all these years, Lee still hadn't given up trying to get a real opinion out of him.
"We make do." Aaron replied noncommittally.
"Surely you've noticed the sudden increase of super villains in this city. It only seems to be getting worse, doesn't it?" Lee pressed on.
"I don't know," Aaron said slowly, thinking of Church who's only crime had been a total accident, and Seabury who couldn't be menacing if his life depended on it, "The new villains seem pretty incompetent."
Charles Lee began to cackle. It wasn't his usual light hearted laugh; it was something darker, more terrifying, more broken. Suddenly the whole mood of the conversation had switched, leaving Aaron with whiplash.
"You really don't know, do you?" He said through heavy peels of chilling laughter, then suddenly he sobered up. "Watch yourself, Burr. There's a storm coming. A hurricane."
Aaron made no move to stop his old friend as he walked away. Lee had always had a flair for the dramatic, but something about this meeting left him particularly uneasy.