Musical One-Shots and Headcanons! (REQUESTS OPEN!)

Jeggy - When I Was Your Man (Modern AU)

A/N: A kind of part 2 to the "drivers license" songfic. I also edited out any extra choruses to avoid redundancy, as well as the whole second verse, so it's just first verse—first chorus—bridge—last chorus. Also, do not be confused. Laurens doesn't want to return to Peggy as much as he regrets letting their flame die and leaving her to begin with.

Mentions of Laurgelica and Pegbury.

Same bed, but it feels just a little bit bigger now.

Laurens was currently lying in his bed, eyes shut to avoid seeing the empty space where Peggy should have been right next to him. Where her sister Angelica would soon be.

"I needed to tell you something, Peggy," he had said just a few weeks before.

"Yes?" she had asked him nervously.

"We seem to have lost that spark a while ago. I want you to be happier." He paused. Her eyes locked with his in understanding. "And I would never want to be dishonest or lie to you. I found one with Angelica."

Our song on the radio, but it don't sound the same.

The other thing he was doing was listening to "Nuvole Bianche." They had danced together to that one and shared their first kiss. All the memories were rushing in with more poignance than ever before.

When my friends talk about you, all it does is just tear me down.

And oh, how his friends talked about Peggy--mostly about how she was now with Samuel Seabury.

'Cause my heart breaks a little when I hear your name.

Too true, Laurens pondered. Far too true for comfort.

It all just sounds like "Ooo-oo-oo..."

Nothing seemed to fit anymore.

Mmm, too young, too dumb to realize

Far too dumb. When did that spark they had taper off?

That I should have bought you flowers

"You're here!" Peggy had exclaimed when he drove up to her house. "Oh," she had said flatly upon looking at his empty hands. Laurens looked at her in shock upon hearing that.

"What happened?" he had asked.

She led him into the house. The table was draped in a yellow tablecloth with white pindots, and a chocolate cake sat at the center of the table. "Happy Birthday, Peggy!" it had said in red cursive letters printed in icing.

He had been too surprised by his own forgetfulness to say anything--not even an "I'm sorry." Worse yet, he never did bring the daffodils she so adored.

And held your hand

When even he had seemed to forget her, the little gestures tapered off, too, Laurens miserably thought. Even something as simple as holding her hand.

Should have gave you all my hours when I had the chance

Often, he stayed in and slept or hung out with his friends or played some game or other rather than being with Peggy, he realized.

Take you to every party 'cause all you wanted to do was dance

Most nights, he wasn't up to parties like his little dancing sunbeam was. If he took her, it was often reluctantly, and he'd rarely take the opportunity to dance, instead, getting drunk with Alex, Laf, and Herc.

Now my baby's dancing, but she's dancing with another man.

At the first party he had attended with Angelica, Laurens saw Peggy enjoying her dance with Samuel. And he was fine with it. He didn't, after all, want her to languish in a loveless relationship with him. He just regretted that he wasn't doing what he could to make her happy.

Oh, I know I'm probably much too late to try and apologize for my mistakes, but I just want you to know: I hope he buys you flowers, I hope he holds your hand, gives you all his hours when he has the chance. Take you to every party, 'cause I remember how much you love to dance.

At that same party, Peggy had a daffodil corsage--her favorite kind of flower--on her left wrist, and Samuel was holding her right hand. If that was any indication, she was enjoying all his hours and having a good time dancing at every party.

Do all the things I should have done when I was your man

Do all the things I should have done when I was your man

He opened his eyes, stared at the photo he still had at his bedside table of the two of them together, and, consumed by regret, cried. When he was done, he resolved to be for Angelica what he should have been for Peggy.

I won't make the same mistake. I'll learn from what's left. It's time to do better, do what I should have done when I was her man.