Chapter Text
“Thank you so much for meeting with me on such short notice, Y/N.” Alex immediately greets you when you enter the coffee shop. You’re about to go order, but he stops you. “I already got your favorite.” The sentiment is touching, that your friend still remembered your favorite coffee after not being able to hang out for months.
You loved your boyfriends to Hell and back, but they were a bit overprotective when it came to your friendship with Alexander. You know they have the best intentions, but sometimes it’s a bit much.
“Thank you, Alex. Now what were you so frantic about that we couldn’t just talk about over the phone?” You were worried about your friend; he looked worse than normal -bags under his eyes that were designer at this point, jittery, hair was a mess, etc.- but it was never this drastic. He needed a nap; Hell, what he really needed was a warm shower and a hibernation period of three months.
“I need your help with something.” He looked over his shoulders suspiciously. You were freaked out by his erratic behavior. If you didn’t know better, you would think he was strung out on something sold in a dark alleyway. “Alex, what did you-” “I need help proposing.”
Whoa. Did this guy just read your mind? Earlier that week, you were trying to text him to ask him to do this very thing -have coffee and ask for advice on how to propose- but the glow of your phone woke Thomas when you were typing the message late at night and you couldn’t risk it.
“Dude, I am so not the one to ask right now. I am going through the same problem with my boys. I have no clue how to do it or when or where, it’s a nightmare.” Alex’s mouth formed an ‘o’ at the revelation.
He may not have liked them, but your happiness still meant a lot to him and since you were happy with your boys, he put on a brave face. He was always there for you to vent… if you were ever able to find a moment alone.
It made you sad that despite being with Aaron, James, and Thomas for as long as you have been, they still didn’t like the concept of you being friends with Alex.
“That- that’s huge, Y/N! But that doesn’t help either of us find ways to do it.” Alex congratulates you, a hand sliding across the table to grasp yours before taking a bite of the scone you didn’t notice he had. “You know, there’s a tiramisu in front of you, in case you didn’t notice.” Your eyes widened when you looked down and there was a plate of your precious tiramisu.
“Oh, well thanks Alex. I’m really happy for you, but you’re right, we really aren’t in the right places to help each other out on what we’re both wanting.” The both of you laugh at the predicament you both have found yourselves in.
Alex turns somber for a moment, the smile mostly leaving his face as he spoke. “I missed this, our days where we would just come here and talk. We all miss you, Y/N.” The admission made you smile, but on the inside you wanted to scream. You missed your friends too, but since they were, well, the infamous “Hamilsquad” that none of your boyfriends could tolerate (except Lafayette, they liked him), you didn’t get to see them much anymore.
“I miss you guys, too. But you know how my boys are…” You let the sentence drift off from there, Alex knowing what you meant. “I understand, and some of that is my fault, and I’m sorry-”
You hear what sounds like a snort from your Thomas and you turn towards the noise instantly, scared of what may transpire.
“How long have you been standing there?” You ask Thomas, and as you witness the fury contorting his face, you begin to write your will in your mind.
“Does it matter? You’re sneaking around behind our backs to see Hamilton, Hamilton of all people!” Thomas exclaims, eager to get Alex to fight back and prove whatever point Thomas wanted to prove.
But Alex was having none of that, staying silent with a death glare resting on his face. This was scaring you. Alex being quiet? Against Thomas? This was not going to end well.
“I wouldn’t have to sneak around to have coffee with my friend if you weren’t so overprotective!” You retort, the anger and frustration you’ve been pinning up inside from this very problem begin to rise from the depths to the surface. It would not be a pretty scene if you showed him your anger like this.
Thomas didn’t see that as a valid excuse. “I care and don’t want you hanging around the likes of him!” You began to get up to leave, but Thomas gripped your arm in a vice grip. “Thomas, you’re hurting me-”
“You’re hurting me by sneaking behind myself and the boys to be with Hamilton, who is in a relationship of his own. We’re leaving.” Thomas begins to pull you out of the coffee shop, nearly dragging you. You strain to free your arm from his grip, but your efforts are fruitless. Thomas has never been like this before and it was scaring you, and Alexander was doing nothing. The fact Alex was letting this happen frightened you even more.
“Thomas, please let me go-”
“You’re coming home with me whether you like it or not.” The fury radiating off of your boyfriend in tremendous waves was something foreign to you. His dark eyes were normally warm and playful, his voice smooth like butter and touch graceful and tender.
This Thomas, however, was the complete opposite. His eyes were a biting cold, no trace of their usual glow or radiance. His adorable Southern drawl now venomous and aggressive as he snapped at you like you were doing something that was actually wrong.
Alex looked away, unable to do anything in that moment, stuck in place like a streetlight on a corner. His eyes locked with Aaron outside of the coffee shop and Alex being a twinge more of himself than he has been in recent moments, sends his frenemy a text.
He assumed that Aaron had knowledge of Thomas’s expression of his emotions through his aggressions on their girlfriend and his best friend and sends a simple sentence that turns to an angry conversation.
A.Ham: And that’s how you ruin a life, congratulations. (16:09)
A.Burr: What do you mean? (16:10)
A.Ham: Ask your maned dumbass how he’s helping whatever situation you guys think exists. (16:10)
A.Ham: He’s making it worse, and how he is I have no idea because there wasn’t a problem to begin with until he interrupted our important conversation. He’s not being smart about anything at the moment. (16:11)
A.Burr: Watch yourself, Alexander. I don’t know what you’re considering important or what you’re implying, but I don’t appreciate your tone. (16:12)
A.Ham: The one time I don’t have half the mind to cause a scene about anything at all is the hopefully first and last time Thomas is hurting Y/N in mine or anyone’s presence. (16:13)
A.Ham: If I find out this isn’t the first time, someone will pay in one way or another. And Thomas will still pay for the nonsense he’s pulling now. (16:13)
A.Burr: You have no business making idle threats or accusations with no evidence, Hamilton. (16:14)
A.Ham: The evidence will most likely be on her body in a few minutes in the form of bruises. Watch him around her and you better fix whatever he is doing to her or I will. (16:15)
A.Burr: Are you threatening us? (16:15)
A.Ham: Promises. Get it right. (16:16)
Aaron has no more patience to talk to Alexander during the ride home in your car, a fuming Thomas sitting behind the wheel. “Thomas, please listen-” You beg your boyfriend. This was far beyond out of hand and it surpassed ridiculous months ago.
“Stop wasting your breath. You need to save it for when we get to the house and you have three people to whimper to.” Thomas retorts hatefully. You’re sat in the backseat, forced to tolerate the verbal onslaught from your boyfriend and trying not to cry. This is not the man you know.
“Thomas, take it easy-” Aaron tried to cut in, but Thomas was having none of it. “How can you be so calm right now? She was chumming it up with Hamilton behind our backs! God only knows what she was trying to do with our enemy!”
Aaron waits until he was finished speaking for the moment because interrupting Thomas is like wearing red in front of a bull. With an eerily calm tone, Aaron questions the motive behind his words. “Thomas, what are you trying to imply?”
You want to say something to Aaron about what Thomas was clearly insinuating, but you were fearful of the consequence you’d have from Thomas.
“You know damned well what I’m saying, Aaron!” Thomas shouted, the new volume startling you. “You know how Hamilton is! And you also know how close they always have been! Don’t you have doubts about anything? Nothing about this is fishy to you?”
You covered your ears, your head between your knees in a vain attempt to shut out the nightmare before you. The crying commenced, unable to contain it any longer as if it was a wild animal. You don’t have it in you to resist when two arms begin to attempt and fail to get you to uncurl from your ball.
Wait a minute, when did Thomas stop the car?
“He has it out for me, and what better way to do it?” “Thomas-” “She’s probably in cahoots with him, knowing how close they are!” “Tommy-” “I wouldn’t put it past either of them!” Thomas continued his yelling until a new voice interrupts both Thomas and the one attempting to silence him.
“Thomas, that is enough! Look at the carnage of whatever you’ve done! Do you not see or give a shit about our sobbing Y/N in the backseat?! And how did these bruises get on her arm?! Somebody better start explaining some things to me or I will beat the both of you from here to Hell until I hear all I want to hear!”
You could hear a pin drop. Your sniffles and whimpers ceased, the jaws of your other two boyfriends were likely on the floor, and yours would have been as well were it not for, well, the current situation.
“Jemmy-” Thomas finally attempts to break the silence, his voice borderline begging for James to listen to him. “No, Thomas! You will not use that name with me in that pleading tone! Do you not comprehend the gravity of the situation you have caused?”
Thomas isn’t sure of what James is talking about until the taller Virginian turns towards your quivering figure in the backseat. He moves a hand in your direction and is wounded when you flinch away from him in fear. Thomas appears to be gaining the control back over his temper far too late.
“Do you see now? I don’t care what this was started by, but I know damned well that nothing Y/N could have done would warrant her to be in this condition! You are not welcome in the house until you can fully grasp what you have done.” James lectures Thomas with no remorse, knowing what needs to be done and doing it unflinchingly. “Aaron, come help me get Y/N in the house. Do not call, text, email, or contact the three of us in any way until you’re ready to apologize for what you have done.”
Aaron was helping James remove you from the backseat by then and once you were being cradled by Aaron, James slammed the car door and stormed to the house.
The car sped away, tires screeching on the pavement. Once Aaron had carried you inside, he laid you on the couch while a frantic James was pacing the living room. “Aaron, you didn’t tell me it was this bad! What even started all of this?” You were still too frazzled to answer questions, but the sniffles were starting to be fewer and farther between.
“Tom and I were about to get coffee to-go from Starbuck’s and he was going to get them himself while I waited in the car. He noticed Y/N chatting with Hamilton at a table and ended up dragging her out of the restaurant when Alex began to text me.” Aaron answered the best he was able and handed James his phone where the messages between him and Alexander were open.
James said nothing as he read. “It’s obvious he cares about her. So what was Thomas yelling about when you guys got here?” “Jemmy, Thomas was accusing Y/N of cheating on us with the asshole! I know Hamilton is a pain most of the time, but I do know that he is a loyal man.”
James nodded at that, knowing the statement to be true. “And Y/N cheating is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard! When has she not been there for the three of us? When would she even have the time to sneak around with someone in the first place when all she does is tend to our every need? Tell me why, James! Tell me why Thomas would accuse our girl of that!”
Aaron was beginning to stifle sobs at the “tend to our every need” part, but his pleading pushed him over the edge. Aaron was now being embraced by the smaller man as he broke down, loud body-shaking sobs of pure anguish and utter defeat. You rose from your spot on the couch and wrapped the arms around the two men in front of you. “I’ll be right back, you two.” Kissing their foreheads, you leave the room.
You opened the door to the guest bathroom and in a Ziploc bag duct-taped to the lid of the toilet tank, are three black velvet boxes.
You open each one, knowing that you have certain rings for certain men. Taking one ring out at a time, you gingerly hold it up to read the engraved writing on the inside of the band. James’s was the first one you found. Now one of the two left is the one you’re needing at the moment.
Jackpot.
Grabbing the two for Aaron and James in one hand and Thomas’s in the other, you return to the living room and find the two sitting in your former spot on the couch.
You went around the coffee table in front of them and you opened two of the boxes, setting them in front of their respected intended owner. The other was off to the side, unopened and obvious who it was intended for. They didn’t look up, Aaron’s tears still pitter-pattering on the fabric covering James’s shoulder.
“Guys…” You wait for them to look up and when they finally do, the shock on their faces is bittersweet. This is nowhere near how you wanted this to go.
“You want to know why I was eating out with Alex? This. This was why. He’s going through the same thing too, this proposing thing, but he’ll probably have better luck than I am with the process, so… Yeah. There.” You glanced at your feet, twiddling your thumbs as you were unable to look them in the eyes.
The two men on the couch were beginning to realize how severely Thomas has fucked up. They retrieved the rings from the two open velvet boxes and upon noticing the engraving, happier yet still bittersweet tears fell.
“Y/N, this is…” “My god… Are you sure, sweetheart?” You nodded and their bodies are suddenly pressing against you on both sides, the rings adorning their fingers. The three of you were engaged and you were ecstatic, but there was an ever-growing void in your heart where Thomas and your love for him used to live.