Glory is for Another Day // Lams Oneshots

Cherry Blossom Painting//Lams

AN: this has weird beginning, but the end is fluff, not angst. Requests are open for any ship except jamilton, I will do historical or modern as well.

John turned restlessly in his bed. His world was crumbling around him, stones that he had molded with his own hands falling back upon the dusty earth. He watched them fall passively - emotion felt stolen from his body while his castle shattered about him. When the rubble had settled, he too fell to his knees, and cried out softly, "Alexander, I miss you,"

The sky, which had been bright blue up until now, began to fade into a deep gray and then eventual black. At uneven intervals, bright bolts of lightning would fly across the heavens, frightening John until he was forced to cover his head in sheer instinct. He prayed that it would end, why wouldn't it end? Rain started to splash down around him.

The sky started to recede back to a natural gray, and John took the opportunity to stand and rush from the pale ruins of his land, clutching his jacket around his wet body. The rain intensified, but the lightning did not return, and John took shelter under a rocky overhang. He closed his eyes, willing it all to end, and when he opened them again, he found himself looking at the sea.

Sighing in distress, he walked towards the water. It lapped gently at the sand, and as John looked closer he could see small shells that littered the water's edge. It comforted him briefly, and he stripped off his jacket and his soaking shirt before sitting in the soft sand. He liked how it felt under him: the warmth, the subtle squishiness that held him to reality while he sat. But then again, this wasn't reality. It was just a nightmare.

The wave came so quickly and so without warning that John had scarcely looked up when the great wall of water crashed over his head. He struggled for air, and when he couldn't seem to surface, he sunk slowly down instead. He gasped; the water filled his lungs further. He felt his mind slip into darkness. Darkness was nice. . .

He woke with a start in his own bed, his shirt pulled halfway over his head and his torso bent awkwardly over his knees. He pushed his hair from his face, his breath coming in short heaves, and stood slowly. Stumbling to the bathroom down the hall, he drank quickly from the sink and turned on a shower so he could clear his thoughts. While steam covered the mirror, John watched his body disappear. The steam didn't remind him of a storm because it was warm, but nothing else could be trusted. Quite frankly, he was almost afraid of standing under the shower water.

He checked his phone as he took the rest of his clothes off, noting that the time was only two hours before he had to get up for morning classes. "Alex doesn't have classes until noon, I hope I don't wake him up," John muttered to himself and set his phone on the counter.

The shower was better than he had hoped, and soon his nerves were calmed. There was an hour and a half until waking up was necessary, so John threw on some spare clothes and took a book to the couch. He tried to focus on reading, he really did, but his mind as usual started back towards Alexander.

He was pretty, naturally, but that was insignificant compared to his huge personality. He had eloquence and poise, but at the same time managed to be violently opposed to everything he disliked. Alexander was a fantastic speaker, naming Jefferson as his eternal enemy in debate, and John his eternal ally. Now that John thought about it, he couldn't remember a time when Alex was really mad at him, and John had only managed anger towards the man because of how many times he got into fistfights. Alexander was reckless, and at the same time, perfectly composed.

So maybe that was what John loved about him. He didn't need a personality to complement his own because he was a complete being. He was whole in a way that John had only dreamed of attaining, whole in the way that he was independent and original. John felt weak around him, and yet felt as if he could fly if only Alexander asked him.

Alexander, in short, was made of contradictions. It was beautiful.

And John wanted just a piece of that for himself. Just once a week, if he was able to sit down with Alex and merely speak to him, he would feel as if he had purpose outside of treacherous nightmares and a sweet group of friends. How he longed for the day when he would get what he wanted.

John was so lost in thought and so exhausted that he didn't notice Alexander's approach from his own bedroom.

"Johnny, what's wrong? Why on earth are you up so early?" His voice was sympathetic, his eyes soft.

John couldn't take it. Tears slid soundlessly down his cheeks.

Alex sprang into action. Sitting down next to John, he pulled the shorter man into his chest and held him there while he started to cry himself. "It's okay, Johnny, I've got you, please calm down. You're burning up, I'll call the professor later and pull you out of class for today."

John could do nothing. He was rendered powerless by pain, only able to choke out, "Th-thank you,"

"Don't thank me, John, I'd do it a million times over if it helped you at all," Alex wiped the tears from John's cheeks and tightened his grip on him.

John sniffed and started to pull himself together. "Go ahead and do whatever, Alex, I'm okay. You don't have to stay."

"I'm not going anywhere. I'll cancel my classes too, and I'll take care of you until your fever goes down. I'm already several assignments ahead, so a few classes won't hurt," Alex looked determinedly down at John.

John laughed weakly. "Is there no way to convince you to get to class?"

Alex shook his head softly and kissed John's forehead. "No,"

They sat there in each other's company for the rest of the day, and as three in the afternoon bled into four, Alex whispered to John's sleeping form, "I like you a lot, little Laurens. Just like your painting."

Alex chuckled and glanced over at the wall, where a pretty cherry blossom painting proudly declared 'I like everything a lot more than I should, and it's never looked so beautiful'.

While John slept near Alex, his dreams were filled with sweet words and cherry blossoms.

AN: If you didn't read it at the top, make requests below. Also, this is my first fic, so kindness plz, and sorry for any errors. Au revoir, my brothers/sisters/non-binary siblings,

Wolf
(1161 words)