(Third book) Philip Hamilton X Reader: The almost truth can beguile

-After Britain part 2-

"Back straight," Alexander huffed, slightly leaning his elbow on the table, looking straight at Y/N. "And speak with more confidence, damn it!" He criticized before shutting his mouth and waiting until she would say something again.

After hearing about the incident at the miller's, Alexander decided to train Y/N in confident speech so this would never happen again. Every day, for the past week, they sat in his study and every day, for the past week, Alexander had told her to convince him of something untrue.

This time, he said: "Convince me that apples and lemons are the same thing,"  

Y/N frowned when she first heard this. "Apples and lemons aren't the same thing-" "I know that. But please, convince me otherwise," When she would mix up words, say "erm" too much or take too long to continue talking, Alexander would stop her and tell her what she was doing wrong.

"I really don't care about the apple trading in this country. I want to know why apples and lemons are the same thing," Alexander said when Y/N started to get off track. She would huff and often times, the exercise would end up in her yelling at him. Even then, he criticized her arguments and tone.

It was very draining, but it did eventually contribute to Y/N's speech. It also taught her how to lie through her teeth but that was just a side-effect. 

"Fam, you can't tell me she's never lied before! I didn't teach her how to lie, I told her how to do it better," Alexander told Philip when he confronted him about Y/N's new found habit of lying about the empty cookie jar. 

After their daily routine, Y/N sat down in one of the chairs in the study. "This is getting depressing," She noted. "Why?" Alexander asked. "I used to be so confident and this little problem just wrecked my whole personality," She sighed. Alexander shrugged: "Your confidence nor personality is wrecked. Sure, it might be damaged but with some aid, it can be better and stronger than before," He said to which she, in turn, shrugged. 

"Also, your problem isn't little. You experienced quite a lot of trauma and change in little amount of time. Don't try to ignore those feelings, Y/N," He told her. "I won't," She mumbled in a sigh. Not fully believing her, but knowing not to edge her on, Alexander nodded and turned around to continue his paper work. "Tell Eliza that I'll be out in a minute," He said as she stood up. "Oh, and Y/N,"

She turned around and looked at Alexander. "If there's anything bothering you, know you can talk to me. To us," He said but Y/N didn't respond to that. She slightly nodded and headed out. On her way to the stairs, she passed by Eliza. 

"Alexander said that he'd be out in a minute," She informed her. "Thanks for telling me, dear," Eliza sweetly smiled as she stroked the creases out of Angelica's brown dress. "Can you hang these up for me?" Eliza then asked as she pointed at the basket full of shirts. 

Y/N really wanted to go upstairs to rest. Not that she was physically tired yet she felt drained all the time. "Sure," She said and grabbed the basket. "Thank you!" Eliza smiled, grabbing the brown dress and heading upstairs to hand it to her daughter. When she disappeared, Y/N let out an audible sigh before heading outside.

There, at a string which was tied from one tree to another, she set down the basket and grabbed the first slightly soaked shirt. You could still smell the soap Eliza had used. She hung the shirt over the string and then grabbed the next. When she finally hung up everything she decided to sit down in the dried out grass to stare at the nothingness for a while.

She didn't really enjoy being alone because then questions would roam her mind. Questions she really didn't want to know the answer to. But when she was around people, she felt like a bother. Especially since she ruined the cheerful mood with her problems. So she preferred sitting alone and in silence. 

"You waiting for the clothes to dry?" 

The daze Y/N had fallen into got pierced by the sudden voice. "Philip," She said and looked behind her. Philip sat down beside her when she noticed who it was. "I guess," She finally said after they had been staring ahead for a while. "Sitting in the wind like this isn't healthy," He commented directly after. She waited a bit before answering again. "I know," 

The breeze was indeed very chilly, she hadn't even noticed that. "You'll get sick if you stay here," Philip said in a matter-of-fact way. "So will you," She mumbled. "I'm not leaving until you're leaving," Philip argued back. "Then I guess you'll get sick," Y/N said a bit annoyed.

With a huff, Philip scooted closer to her, wrapping his arm around her. "What are you up to-" "Let's at least keep each other warm then, no?" He mumbled, looking ahead. At first, Y/N felt really annoyed. She just wanted to be alone. Not that she had anything against Philip. 

Quite the opposite really.

So she calmed herself down before continuing what she had been doing for an hour or so. Staring into the nothingness. But something felt different than before. The warmth. Y/N suddenly acknowledged the sunset right before them. She had been staring at it for a while but now she really took it in. The colors in the sky shifted from red to yellow is such a beautiful way. The clouds were a light shade of purple, contrasting the skies. It almost looked surreal.

And so she remained where she was, slightly leaning towards Philip. There was complete silence. Not uncomfortable. Just... peaceful silence. Finally, after a while, she let her head rest of Philip's shoulder who had then put his own head over hers. 

The mutual understanding and unspoken words were better than being alone.