Chapter 3
The weather was fickle in New York. Sometimes it would start to snow in October, and other times it seemed like all the snow was building up and finally released right in the middle of January. This was one of those times.
"Well, looks like we're gonna have to get comfortable sleeping on the office floor," Angelica Schuyler joked, staring at the mountains of snow piling up outside the window.
Thomas didn't laugh, instead opting to stare grumpily at Hamilton, who was arguing very loudly at a co-worker Thomas hadn't bothered to remember the name of. "It's not funny, Schuyler."
Angelica walked over to Thomas and seated herself on top of the coffee table near his desk. "What? If we're stuck here we might as well make some fun out of it."
"Who says we're stuck here?" He replied haughtily.
"The mounds of snow blocking the roads. Or are those just a mere annoyance to the all-powerful Jefferson?"
Suddenly a loud noise came from the doorway as someone walked in. Or rather, the someone was the loud noise. Alexander was talking a mile a minute, most of it a angry rant directed towards the weather and the fact that the electricity had stopped working.
He looked like he was about to burst into flames, the ferocity in his tone. His wings flapped angrily, and they flared a deep orange like flame.
"Slow down, Alexander!" Angelica laughed. "We have all night to listen to your rantings. You don't need to compress it into 45 seconds".
Alexander started to pace back and forth, his hands on his hips. "The powers out, the roads are blocked, AND there's no phone signal!"
"Ohno, Hamilton has to spend an entire night in the same building as Jefferson! We're all doomed!" John Laurens said, laughing, as he waltzed into the room.
"Laurens," Thomas scowled, leaning against his desk. Why did Hamilton's friends always have to be so annoying? "Now is not the time."
"You're trying to tell me that? Charles Lee has a office next to me and he is not happy."
"Please, Lee makes a fit whenever something slightly doesn't go his way. He used to be next to me before I got promoted." Angelica interjected, rolling her eyes.
Laurens chuckled, but didn't say anything else. Charles Lee wasn't exactly his favorite person. Thomas was pretty sure Laurens could have done a six-hour lecture on why Charles Lee was the absolute worst.
Meanwhile, Alexander had stopped pacing and had decided to sit down. He grabbed a piece of paper from the notepad on the table.
"Hey! What are you doing?!" Thomas yelped.
"I need to write something down. What if I forget what I want to say?"
"Hamilton....," Thomas grumbled. Why is his soulmate so insufferable? If he's got to have a soulmate they could at least have been polite!
He sighed, turning away from Hamilton. He folded his arms as Alexander ripped out the page from the notebook.
"Well, that settles that then." Angelica sighed, looking between the two. "I'm going back to my office before you two kill each other and I'm convicted with accessory to a crime."
"Same here." Waved Laurens, walking swiftly out the door.
That leaves Alex. And Thomas. Together. Alone.
Oh no.
***
It was an hour before things started to get out of hand.
It started with the foot tapping. The sky was growing dark, and the office staff was raiding the food supply.
Hamilton and Thomas decided o stay behind, not wanting to get caught in the swarm of dibs and half-assed insults of someone's mother.
Thomas wasn't hungry anyway.
Thomas was looking out the window, staring at the snow piling up on the streets and sidewalks.
That's when he heard the tapping. It was gentle at first. Could barely be heard.
Soon it progressed into what sounded like a giant woodpecker was trying very desperately to put a hole in the floor.
"Hamilton, if we're going to be stuck here all night I'd rather not have my ears bleed from that insufferable tapping."
Alexander turned swiftly to face Thomas. "Jefferson, if my foot tapping against the floor is enough to deter you, may I suggest you find a different profession?"
Thomas sighed, and his head in his hands. Everyone else was out of the room, probably all on the other side of the building. Maybe he could try and talk to Alexander... try and make him understand.
He was about to say something when he heard Hamilton quietly get up from his chair.
"What are you doing?" He said, his annoyed tone replaced by something else. He watched curiously as Alexander sat in the chair next to him, his eyes looking down.
"Do you ever just get tired of it?" Hamilton asked, looking out the window.
"Tired of what?"
Hamilton looked at the world of white out the window in front of them, his eyes tired and his mouth pinched into question thin line. "Of everything. Of all the things you're supposed to do. Supposed to be."
Thomas looked at him with a questioning expression. "This seems like a rather strange conversation to have with your self-proclaimed mortal enemy. Even for you, Hamilton."
Alexander's shoulders dropped, and Thomas noticed the pale, washed-out yellow his wings were. "Hey- Hamilton? Are you okay?"
He had deep lines under his eyes, which Thomas figured must be from a lack of sleep.
"I'm fine."
Thomas was quiet for a minute. He didn't want to act like he cared about Hamilton- it would be too close to the truth. But.....well, he was worried.
"Hamilton, I've known you for about a year and though I wish I could erase you from my memory, I can at least tell when you're lying." Thomas said, trying very hard to keep a sour expression on his face.
"Really?" Hamilton said, turning to look incredulously at him. "I find that hard to believe."
"Fuck you. I'm trying to be nice."
"Yeah, well it's not working."
Thomas laughed, but his heart wasn't in it. He thought back to what Hamilton had said about being tired of it all. Maybe that's what Thomas felt.
"Seriously, man, are you ok? You look even more like shit than usual." Yeah, fit an insult in there. Got to sound realistic.
"I'm just tired is all, I guess." Hamilton sighed, looking down at the table. His eyes shifted to look up at Thomas, then quickly went back down.
Alexander asked Thomas something else, but Thomas was too deep in his own thoughts to really hear. He stayed quiet, looking out the window.
"Jefferson?"
"Mhm?"
"Remember that time I came over to your house a few months ago? We worked on our essays?"
Thomas raised an eyebrow, but answered anyway. "Yeah,"
Alexander fiddled with his watch, his face set in concentration.
"Why did you act so weird when I asked you if you met your soul mate?"
Thomas drew in a breath. A pit formed in his stomach, but he was smart enough to not show it.
"I don't know.."
"Really Jefferson? That the best you can do?"
"I don't know, Hamilton! Why did you get so defensive when I asked about yours!" He blurted, not thinking.
Hamilton looked down, silent.
Thomas got up from his seat and pushed in his chair, making a scraping sound on the floor.
"Jefferson..."
"You know, my home isn't that far. I think I can walk it." Thomas sighed, his eyes tired.
"Wait-"
"Have a good night, Hamilton."
***
Thomas flung off his snow-covered coat when he stepped into the hall of his house. He'd walked two miles in this God-forsaken storm all because of his stupid feelings.
He tried not to let the water from his soaked clothes ruin his wood floor as he stepped into the bathroom. He planned to take a shower and then sleep for the next hundred years.
He turned on the shower, waiting for it to get warm. He carefully pulled off his soaked clothes and let them fall to the floor, his bones aching with fatigue.
Was it worth it?
The warm water washed over his face, and he finally felt relaxed. He shuddered when he felt his wings fan out. It was slightly startling.
Thomas had always sort of felt what his wings felt, but never this clearly. Whenever he tried to look at his wings in the past, it had always just looked like a haze had sprouted from his back. He noticed how more awake his wings had been feeling lately. Less foggy.
He attempted to spread out his wings, trying to see them. At first, he couldn't see anything but the haze, but then a soft pink tint started to spread over the hazy forms. They proceeded to materialize until he was staring at a pair of rich magenta wings.
He flapped them a little, their feathery forms much too large for the small shower. It shocked him to realize this was the first time he'd ever seen his wings. At least, really seen them.
He quickly turned off the water, stepping out of the shower. His breath more rapid than normal, he stood in the haze the steam from the shower had caused.
Thomas wrapped a towel around his lower body and stepped out of the bathroom. The world seemed a lot different with the pair of wings glistening on his back.
He dried himself off some more before going to sit on the couch, his head in a buzz. His wings fluttered softly, resting when he sat quietly on the couch cushion.
What had happened to make his wings visible to him? Why hadn't he noticed it earlier? What did it mean?
He was so wrapped up in his own confusion he almost didn't hear the doorbell ring.
What the? Thomas wrapped the towel more tightly around him and grumbled as he went to answer the door.
Who the hell would want to come over in this weather?
He could feel the chill of the snow outside, and his warm wings wrapped around him giving his shoulders closure from the cold.
Thomas opened the door a crack, expecting to see a neighbor or someone else who lived nearby.
It was an utter shock when he saw the shivering form huddled outside his door, wrapped in a jacket that was way too thin for this weather.
“Alexander?”