Chapter 16: Winter

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by Amberiso

by Amberiso

23rd of December 1779

Y/N's P.O.V

Some time had passed since I've last been to the city and a lot has happened.

First of all, the battle of Monmouth. Lee screwed up big time but that didn't affect our friendship. I was there to comfort him after even though in the heath of the battle, I wanted him to just stop intervening. John and Alexander didn't appreciate me still hanging around him and try to keep me away from him as much as possible.

That's another thing that has changed. John and I became friends again after he apologized for his actions in the bar. Alexander also went through some changes. He became the righthand man of Washington. However, he wanted a position as general and that's why he was jealous of Lee when he got the role of general.

Here's the exciting part. It's Christmas and Washington is letting us go to town.

And now here's even more exciting news. Alex and I have been exchanging letters. I was writing to him as Robin and learned a lot about him. He's quite a nice person when he isn't forcing himself on people. Maybe he just had a bad day or something. So when I see him again as Y/N, I'll give him another chance.

Lee also gave me a journal to write all my emotions down. Because, as he had reminded me, Lee wasn't so good at dealing with other people's emotions. I also rambled to him a lot so he got annoyed and bought me a journal.

Anyhow, Alex had invited Robin for Christmas but I had to decline. Why? Because Philip had already asked if Y/N could come.

It was quite a difficult task to keep track of my mail. I was assigned to collect all the letters and then bring them to the post office. So I had to go through hundreds of letters to find the ones for Y/N. Because I write and receive a lot of letters, I basically have a big stack of letters. In the first week, I tossed all my letters together. But then I couldn't figure out who had written who and what was said. Then I also hear Philip and John talk about their letters and I try not to get flustered.

It's a hard-knock life.

Anyhow, I was on patrol. It was so cold at night so no one really wanted to walk around at this time. But guess who couldn't say no when Philip wanted to swap patrol times. This guy/woman. I sighed and stared up at the stars. "Is it Christmas yet?" I asked and closed my eyes.

Next morning

"Good morning!" I heard Philip cheer at the table. "Hmph," I replied and sat down. "You okay over there?" He asked. "No," I said and smacked my face down on the table, taking a few extra seconds to rest my eyes. "Oh yeah, you took my patrol," He sheepishly said. "Shut. Up," I groaned.

"Why are you so grumpy?" He asked and ruffled my hair. I smacked his hand away and put my hat on. "Because-" "Did you forget what day it is?" He asked. "Robin-gets-to-sleep day?" I guessed. "It's Christmas eve, you idiot," He chuckled.

"Wait, really?" I asked and lifted my head off the table. "What're you doing for the holidays?" He asked. "I'm just... Going to some family nearby," I said without giving it a second thought. "You said you didn't have any family in America," Philip pointed out, frowning a bit.

"I mean, just the family of some friends I made a few months ago," I corrected myself. "You could always come with us, you know," He offered. "I know, I know. But I'm always hanging around you guys. I need to make some other connections," I said

"You can always hop over, okay?" He said. "Okay," I said with a smile. With that said, he stood up from the breakfast table to get ready. I did the same and headed to my tent. When I arrived, Lee had already packed up everything to go visit his family. "You leaving?" I asked. "Yes," He said and closed his bag. "

"Good luck with the Hamiltons," He huffed which made me laugh. I grabbed a bag and started putting in some items. "Well, I'll see you in a couple of days," Lee said and ruffled through my hair as I loosened my ponytail. "See ya," And with that, he left. I fixed my hair up a bit and grabbed the new dress I had smuggled into camp a few weeks ago.

When it was all set and done I snook out of the camp and headed to the Hamiltons

However, when I saw the shops passing by, I thought that I should maybe buy some presents for all the family members, John, and Lafayette. I still had some money left and I also had a ton of wage left from working as a soldier. I counted them up and decided that I could just buy all of them a present.

A few hours and a ton of shops later

I had presents for everybody. That wasn't the real challenge. The real challenge was to carry all of them to their house. It wasn't the weight itself but it was the quantity. I had to carry 10 presents in total and I only had 2 arms.

A man on the street took pity on me and helped me carry them. "Thank you so, so much," I said as we started walking, 5 presents each. "No problem miss. I guess this is for Christmas?" He asked. "Yeah... My name is Y/N, by the way," I said and looked at him. "What's your name?"

"Oh, I'm Aaron Burr,"