Work Text:
Thomas Jefferson knocked on the door aggressively, like he had been doing for the past five minutes.
Washington had sent him to Hamilton's house to deliver some papers he didn't want to be seen by anyone else. So here he was, waiting outside Hamilton’s door. Washington had given him a key to the apartment, but Thomas had left it in his car and was really hoping that he wouldn’t have to go get it. He rolled his eyes but ran back to his car to go get the keys.
He unlocked the door with ease before calling out Hamilton’s name into the seemingly empty apartment. He decided to drop the papers on his desk, knowing that he’d probably see them at one point or another. It was when he walked into the room that his whole world changed.
There was a thing sitting in Hamilton’s desk. It had light blue skin and antenna peeking out from behind purple curls. Its eyes were huge and unnaturally green, almost like they were emeralds.
“Fuck.”
Thomas knew that voice anywhere.
The thing was Hamilton.
“What the hell?!”
“Look, Jefferson, I can explain,” said Hamilton, astonishing Thomas once more as he watched the thing slowly morph back into the body that he normally saw at the office, not whatever he had just seen. “Just give a second, okay? You need to understand that you can't tell anyone about this, alright?”
Thomas just nodded silently at a loss for words, he followed Hamilton towards the man’s living room and sat down on the couch.
“Can you promise me that you won’t tell anyone?”
Thomas nodded, still in shock
“Yeah, I promise.”
Hamilton nodded
“Okay I guess I’ll explain this to you,” he said, “I’m an alien.”
“Yeah, I figured.”
“Shut up Jefferson I’m trying to explain this to you,” he said, “Anyways, I’m from a planet that’s a trillion light years away. It’s called Axistlary. It sounds horrible in this language, but I make do. Basically, I’m the only one left. In something akin to Superman, my parents sent me here because they believe it won’t explode until I’m long dead.”
Thomas was processing the fact that earth was going to explode when Alex stopped talking.
“So you can shape-shift?”
Alexander rolled his eyes.
“Is Alexander even your real name?”
“No,” he said, rolling his eyes as if it was obvious, “My name is-”
The next thing that he said was something that Thomas couldn’t begin to understand. It sounded like music, almost like a piano.
“Holy shit.”
Alexander laughed at him, though it sounded almost like bells.
“What can you do?” Thomas asked, “What makes you different from us humans?”
“I can shape-shift,” said Alexander, eyes twinkling with mirth, his tone almost teasing, “We as a race have always been able to adapt our bodies for the situation. Like if I was dropped from the sky I could shape-shift and wings could appear on my back. Or if I was thrown into the sea! I could grow gills and fins. This is my standard form.”
At these words, Alex morphed back into the form that Thomas had found him in. Now that Alexander wasn’t scared and surprised Thomas could really take in his form. He was thin and had slender fingers as if he had never eaten. His fingertips glowed and his eyelashes were an inch long. He had purple freckles that glowed as well. He was ethereal.
“We’re all something like what you all call an empath. I can give send and radiate emotions to people. I can also send my thoughts and memories to people, but that one's a little harder so I can only do it through touch.”
Was it bad for Thomas to want to feel it for himself?
Maybe.
He didn’t care.
“Can you show me?”
Alexander hesitated and Thomas wanted to take it back, tell Alexander to ignore what he just said.
He was going to too, but when he opened his mouth he felt a thin finger on his temple.
Rushes of memories flooded into his brain. He saw Alex’s home planet. It was beautiful, it was vibrant and so alive. He didn’t understand why Alexander had to leave. Then the memories changed, it showed a different race coming and invading Alexander's home planet making it almost unlivable. He watched Alexander’s journey to earth and how he made his way through the earth, beginning to adapt.
It was unbelievable.
“Don’t worry,” Alexander whispered.
“About what?”
“About those aliens invading earth,” he responded, “Nobody wants to touch Earth. The way that humans use and abuse their planet and each other scares us. Even they don’t want anything to do with earth. Because Earth is so far behind us technologically, we don't want to give you guys that opportunity.”
Thomas didn’t know if he should feel offended.
“Okay, but why the fuck would you ever not be in your disguise thing?” Thomas asked, “It doesn’t even make sense! Like you should’ve known this would happen at some point.”
“The whole adapting thing is tiring,” Alexander explained, “My body needs a break.”
Thomas should’ve expected that.
“So what are you going to do with this information?” Alexander asked eyebrow arched, “Destroy me? Turn me into some scientists to get experimented on? I would expect nothing less.”
“What?!” Thomas exclaimed, surprised, “No! Why the hell would I do that?”
“You seem like the type,” Alexander said shrugging, “I’m not worried though. All I would have to do was erase your memories. It’s part of the whole empath package.”
Thomas paled. Would Hamilton do that? He guessed it made sense, Alexander had always seemed like he would do anything for his work and staying out of experiments was a pretty big part of that.
“Don’t worry though,” Alexander said, shrugging, “I trust you.”
That shocked Thomas even more. Why would Alexander Hamilton, someone who had hated him for as long as he could remember, trust him?
“And what if I do tell everyone?” Thomas asked “What would you do then?
“Nobody would believe you, Thomas,” Alexander said, “I mean, what would you even say. That Alexander Hamilton, the Treasury of the Secretary, was from a different planet? That he could shapeshift. Please. They would think you were crazy. You would lose everything.”
“Does anyone know?” he asked, genuinely curious, “Washington? Lafayette?”
Alexander shook his head.
“If I told anyone they would call me the crazy one,” he said, “So I live in secret, alone and with my work. What more could I want?”
The last part was different. Thomas could hear the bitter tone in Alexander’s voice.
“Now get out Jefferson,” said Alexander a hint of a smile on his face, “Or I’ll do an alien ritual on you.”
Thomas left, but not without wondering how living a life like that couldn’t be lonely