Hamilton / Lams Oneshots

Unconventional Job (Lams?) [Assassin AU]

Did I write this just for it to have a very unsatisfying ending and go nowhere? YES.

It was a rainy Monday, just around 7am, and if it had been any other day I would've been laying in bed, enjoying a lazy morning with my wife. Instead, I was hurrying through the empty park, trying my best to block off the rain with my leather jacket draped over my head, the heavy drops smacking me in the face and making my lungs burn. Needless to say, it was a shitty day.

My goal, an apartment at the other side of the city, was still about 40 minutes away, and I cursed myself for not bringing my car. It's always 'walking is so much more convenient' and 'it's just a bother to have it with you' until I'm sweaty and tired when I arrive at my destination, and yet I always overestimate my walking abilities in the mornings.

I wasn't in the mood for running, but I was already late, by eight my, uhm, client. He'd be out of the house and off to work, I couldn't afford to miss him and make my boss mad. So, I simply groaned in annoyance, and started off in a sprint.

I made it to the grey apartment block, next to another grey apartment block, opposite of another grey apartment block. The entire street was filled with them, large and dirty, more fit for prisoners of war than citizens. God modern architecture is ugly. Looking at the small piece of paper in my hand, my eyes searched the rows of windows, trying to locate the green curtains and red flowerpot I was meant to look out for. My colleague, god he's hot, don't let my wife know, had given me a detailed description of the home prior to my arrival, and so I had no issues locating the correct window.

Making my way up through the staircase of the building was a tedious process, and when I arrived at the door, I had to take a few seconds to catch my breath. Obviously, the thought that a multiple story building could use an elevator is silly, it's not like we're in the modern age! No need for architects to maybe, you know, consider that.

Knocking on the door, I felt just about as much enthusiasm as when walking into a math class. I wanted to go home, read a good book, have some tea. My favorite tea has always been peppermint, has just the right amount of pep in it to not be boring and yet feel very pleasant in your stomach. Of course, coffee is always preferable, but to me it's not a morning drink. No, I need coffee in the afternoon, when the 4 hours of sleep run out and I need my brain to forget I'm tired. Usually, I'll make myself some instant coffee at home, not very tasty but it does the job, and sometimes I'll even go to one of those fancy coffee shops, though they're really fucking overpriced.

Right, back to the story. The door opened and the guy appeared in the doorway. Tall, brown hair, glasses, red face. "Good morning sir, I'm here for a routine inspection, nothing fancy, I just need to check for any mold or faulty wires", I said, and the man grunted. He was wearing the stereotypical white undershirt, and by chance, with a huge stain on it too.

He let me in without a fuss, just grumbling something about 'hurry up', before going back to his couch. I wasted no time and went to the kitchen, walking up to the sink. The model was an unusual one, probably second hand, and for a second a felt a bit of nervousness brewing up in my stomach. I fiddled with the faucet for a bit, then, finally, it popped right off. I listened for a moment, but there was no disruptance from the home owner, and so I pulled out the small baggy out of my pocket and poured the powder into the space between the pipe and the faucet piece. Once he would turn it on, the powder would come into contact with the water, and become invisible to the eye.

As quick as I was in, I was out again, and hurrying down the stairs to the ground level. What a fucking day, I thought to myself as I walked out the door and onto the street. The whole operation hadn't even been 15 minutes, and as soon as I was away from the main street I started running. Maybe I could make it home before my wife woke up.

As soon as I was far away from the grey building complex, I pulled out my phone and dialed my boss's number. It rang, once, twice, was that fucker really gonna keep me waiting? Finally, the end of the line clicked, and the beeping stopped. "Hello?"

It was a pleasant surprise to hear my coworker's voice on the phone. "Hey Laurens, where's the boss, is he away?", I asked into the phone, making sure I payed attention to where I walked. "Yeah, he's not here yet, but he told me to check you off on the list. Did everything go as planned?" "Yeah, it did. Hey, do you wanna meet up for coffee? I'm exhausted." Yes, I did say that coffee is an afternoon drink for me, but I also said that this morning was a fucking disaster, so back off.

There was a bit of silence at the other end of the line, and I stopped walking, confused. "Are you there?" "Mhm... yeah, I am. Sure we can meet up, where do you wanna go?", he answered, his voice quieter. "Just, Starbucks at the corner. Are you okay?" "I'm fine, I'll see you there." The line at the other end clicked, and I stared at my phone, concerned. He seemed off, but then again the both of us ran on very little sleep, so maybe he was just tired. Still, I couldn't shake the uncertainty off, and so I quickly continued on my way, eager to reach my destination.

When I arrived at the shop, I was entirely out of breath, cursing silently to myself. It was crowded, with girls in their 20s getting their overly complicated orders before work, and a couple of students enjoying their free period. Spotting my coworker at a table in the back of the store, I quickly walked over to him and sat down at the table. His eyes were on his phone, scrolling through some pictures, I glanced over his shoulder and saw they were of a young girl. "Who's that?", I asked, and he flinched, shutting off his phone in reflex. I felt bad for scaring him, and so I grasped his shoulder and muttered an apology. He shrugged, and slumped back down after realizing it was me.

"Just work... do you want to get coffee? I can go, I know your order, was just waiting for you to get here." He started to get up, but I could sense that something was off about the way he was acting, so I grabbed his shoulder and pushed him back down into his seat. "No, wait. What's bothering you?" He shrugged, as usual, but I kept down my frustration and instead tried to search for answers in his eyes. "Is the boss making you do the dirty work again? Is that what those pictures were?"

He kept his head low, and I immediately felt sympathy bubble up in my stomach. He sighed, resting his head in his hand, he looked so confused and tired and concerned that I honestly didn't know what to do. "I- yeah, just... I'm thinking about quitting, Alex..."

My mouth fell open at the words, and I forgot all about the day. "Laurens, you can't possibly be serious." He buried his face in his hands, and shook his head. "I don't care what it takes, I'll move to a different country if that's what they want, but I can't keep doing this..." I couldn't believe what I was hearing, I knew that he was most likely to get into trouble with the boss, and that he'd regularly get the more straining cases, like kids or elderly or homeless, but quitting had never been an option in my eyes. We had been told that it was impossible, that there was no going back, there would be terrible consequences.

My first thought was to get mad, but then it slowly came to me that if he really was considering taking on that challenge, then the burden must be bigger than anything I could ever say, and so I simply squeezed his shoulder. "They'll be at your throat if you do that."

"I know."

"Why would you take that risk?"

"Kids, Alex! There's no reason to do this, it's just... useless..."

A few tears dropped onto the table, and I couldn't watch it any longer. I got up and hugged him tightly, in the middle of the store, just like that. He was tense, I could tell even without looking at him, but I couldn't think of anything that could make him feel better in the moment, as hard as I tried. Hesitantly, I let go of him. While I wanted to hug him forever, I could feel the stares that people were giving us, and figured that it would be counterproductive to his mood.

"Let's get coffee, okay? You've got time."