The Place To Be ✔️

(FINAL CHAPTER) chapter 23

25th December 2017

(^^PLEASE NOTE THE YEAR TIME SKIP^^)

3rd Person POV:

"I still can't believe that we're stuck in hospital on Christmas Day." John paced from his seat in the corner of the stuffy hospital room over to Alex's bed where he was laying, his leg wound in a white cast, adorned with the names of their friends.

Of course, being the lovely boyfriend he is, John made sure to write his name across the entire front side of the cast as big as he possibly could.

"Johnny, it's not exactly great for me either. I'm sure that the others aren't having the best Christmas either, right guys?" Alex said, addressing the entirety of their friendship group who'd deemed it necessary to join John in visiting Alex in hospital.

A chorus of groans were heard from the group, apart from Hercules, who instead quietly mumbled "I'm enjoying all of the free pudding."

"I still can't believe you managed to fall off of that fucking ladder." John muttered, rubbing his eyes with one hand and holding onto Alex's hand with the other.

Alex shrugged. "I mean, Laf was supposed to be holding it still, and where was he? Oh right, making out with Herc." Alex and John shot their eyes over to the pair who, as if on cue, were sat together on one chair making out.

"Sorry, what was that mon ami?" Laf said as he pulled away for a few seconds, flitting his eyes between the two before going back to kissing Hercules.

"Nothing Laf." Alex said through gritted teeth. The Schuylers, who had remained very quiet during the entire ordeal, exchanged nervous glances and decided not to add anything to the conversation.

John looked back towards his boyfriend, who seemed to be one step away from foaming at the mouth with anger, and ran a hand through his hair. Recently Alex had gotten a very short haircut, so he loved it when John did this since it immediately relaxed him in any of his times of anger, of which there were many.

Alex almost melted under John's touch and immediately became putty in his hands. "I love you, Johnny." Alex whispered, smiling as a blush formed on the apples of his cheeks.

"I love you too, Lexi." John replied, softly kissing his lips as their friends awed at how adorable they are, even after all of this time.

John looked over to Eliza and subtly nodded, indicating that he was ready to go through with the plan they'd been discussing for months now. She smiled and mouthed 'Good luck.' before pulling her sisters, Laf and Herc towards the door.

"Hey Alex, it's about time we go now. Our dad wants us home in time for dinner." She excused, smiling sweetly at the two.

Alex grinned widely. "Okay, have a safe drive home guys, and Merry Christmas." He said with a wink as they started walking towards the door.

"I guess it's just me and you now, Johnny." Alex smirked, admiring John's freckles that were sporadically scattered across his face.

"Yeah, about that, I have something important to tell you, or I guess to ask you. John started nervously, biting his bottom lip as he finished speaking. Alex nodded for him to continue, so of course John acquiesced.

"You see, Alex, all of my life I've known that I was different. Every other boy was obsessed with talking about which girl they had a crush on at recess, but whilst I didn't immediately realise that I liked guys, I'd never found a girl that made me feel the same way that others did about them. Growing up in South Carolina, by the time that I realised that I was gay I also realised that there were really no other gay people in my school. When I came to college though, things changed drastically. There were plenty of guys to pick from, and during freshman year I dated a few guys. But during my second year, when you joined, I'd never met somebody they made me feel the way that you did, well, still do, and I'd never dated a guy that made me fall for him as quick as you did. You made me feel love, Alex. That's all I could ever ask for. And whilst we haven't been together for the longest time, I see no better time than this to ask. Alexander Hamilton, will you marry me?" John looked up to Alex, who at this point had tears streaming down his face, with wide, hopeful eyes.

Alex glanced down to see John fiddling with a small velvet box holding a silver band. Alex looked back into John's hazel eyes and, with his gentle tears falling, he nodded his head softly. John let out a happy laugh through his tears as he took the ring from the box and slid it onto Alex's finger.

Alex looked down at it and saw a fingerprint etched into it. Before he could open his mouth to talk, John decided to explain it to him. "I wanted to make it special so I got my fingerprint on it. God, Alex, I love you so, so much."

Alex looked up to John and pulled him by the collar of his shirt into a kiss, full of passion and love.

"I love you to John, so much more than words can describe, and that's pretty rare for me." He whispered, letting out a small giggle.

John suddenly remembered something, snapping Alex out of his loved-up trance. He looked over to see John rifling through the backpack he'd brought with him, only to pull out a gift wrapped perfectly with a red ribbon to top it off.

"Did Laf wrap this?" Alex asked as John handed it to him.

"Don't expose me Alexander, just open it." John chuckled, bending back down besides Alex's bed and holding his left hand, softly kissing the ring on it. Alex felt a small blush rise to his cheeks as he pulled away his hand, gently stroking John's damp cheeks, and proceeding to unwrap the present residing on his lap.

As he did so, he soon realised that it was a book, but when he had fully unwrapped it he realised that it was a book that John had created himself.

The cover read 'Alexander Hamilton: A Study Of Beauty' and as Alex flipped through the pages, he realised that the contents of it were photos of every piece of art John had done of him, each seemingly more perfect than the last. In the back few pages there were scans of many in-lecture doodles that, despite being done quickly, still never failed to amaze him. To the side of each piece, John had written a description of what materials he'd used for each piece and what had inspired him to create it. By the end of the book Alex had even more tears falling from how sweet John was and, from simply seeing such a positive reaction from Alex, John was crying too.

"Thank you John, thank you so much for everything." He sobbed, wrapping his arms around John.

"You're welcome. I thought you might like to look through this whilst you're in here if you're ever alone, not that I'm planning on leaving your side though." He winked, cuddling into Alex.

They spent a moment enjoying each other's presence until John had a thought. He grabbed his backpack again and pulled out his chunky pencil case, digging around until he found his metallic gold sharpie. He proceeded to write something on Alex's cast.

"Seriously, John? You've already taken up half of it, what is so important?" Alex said with fake impatience.

"Don't worry, you'll like it." John replied as he carefully wrote in the last few letters in consistent, small handwriting.

Alex craned his neck over as John finished, only to see two words below John's previous addition to the cast.

'HIS FIANCÉ.'

Alex felt himself blush all over again as he pecked John's lips.

"Yes, my love. I truly am." He smiled over to John, excited for their life together to truly begin.

AAANNNDD... THATS A WRAP! Despite how that ending sounds, there will NOT be a sequel for this book. As much as this was such a good experience and I've made so many great friends from it, this book is trash and I will not be making a sequel.

However, as I've mentioned before... I HAVE A NEW BOOK, COMPLETELY UNRELATED TO THIS ONE! WHOO! So I'll be posting that very, very soon, I'll make sure to post a reminder on here when that happens.

Genuinely, thank you all for reading this cliche ass story and sticking with me for these 5 months it took me to write this (whoops.)

Lots of love, always,

~Hol~
24th November 2017