Critical (Jamilton)

10. Dancing With The Stars, Except Better

Hamilton

Alexander sighed for what felt like the eightieth time in the last hour. He woke up maybe an hour and a half ago and couldn't fall back asleep, and while that might not have been really a new thing for him, he still hated it. All he had to do was close his eyes and sleep, that's it. 

It's not even that he was scared to sleep, he just could not do it. 

He sat up and stretched for a second. Thomas, who had his arm hanging loosely around Hamilton's waist, groaned with disagreement. 

"What are you doing, you're warm," Jefferson muttered, still half asleep. 

"Can't sleep," Ham answered nonchalantly. 

Thomas opened one of his eyes to look at Alex. 

"Nightmare?" He asked, sounding slightly more awake. 

"Nope, just can't sleep. I tried, it's not happening." Alexander wiggled himself out of the bed. "It's fine, I'll just watch a movie and pass out on the couch or something, go back to sleep." 

"If you're awake in the middle of the night, so am I," Thomas argued, sitting up for a second to pull Alex back down by his arm. "And it's cold in here." 

"Well turn up the heat then, cheapskate." 

"Nah, body heat is way better than a heater." 

"I can't just lay here and do nothing if I can't sleep, I'll just be bored all night." 

Thomas was quiet for a second.  Suddenly, he got off the bed and turned on the light, momentarily blinding Alex. He went and dug around in his closet, leaving the other confused on the bed. After around a minute of digging through a couple boxes, he pulled out a small, 3D decagon looking machine with a power cord. He flicked the light off and plugged the thing in, sending a light show of constellations onto the ceiling and walls. It started spinning slowly, making the stars seem that much more relaxing.

"I got this for Christmas one year from a secret Santa thing," Thomas started, going over to his phone and scrolling for a second before tapping the screen and turning up the volume. The song Perfect by Ed Sheeran started playing. "I never saw any reason to use it until now." 

"What are you using it for now?"

Jefferson didn't answer, he just went back to the bed where Alex was barely paying attention to him, instead, staring up at the show the star machine was putting out. Thomas held his hand out for Hamilton to take as help up. 

"Wanna dance?" He asked lightly. 

Alexander smirked and took his boyfriend's hand, letting himself be pulled up. Thomas wrapped one arm around Alex's waist and swayed slowly, moving around with the stars. Ham got so caught up in how pretty the stars looked dancing to their own tune across the ceiling and walls that he tripped over Thomas's feet. 

"Whoops," he apologized nervously. 

Thomas smiled sweetly and started singing along to the music instead of actually answering. 

As the music played and Thomas sang softly along with it, he twirled Alexander around the room. Their feet were patting lightly against the carpet, but nobody other than Jane and Mary was home, and Thomas assured Alexander that both were heavy sleepers, so their midnight dance session wasn't going to disturb them at all. 

Alex didn't realize that the song was looped until the beginning started again, and he wasn't complaining. The lyrics seemed to describe the night perfectly and he didn't want to associate any other song with the memory he was creating. 

After a few more seconds, he was back to staring at the ceiling. He named every constellation he could remember mentally. Really, it was just O'Ryan and the Big Dipper and some of the zodiacs, so it wasn't really all that hard, but it was still fun to see them travel across the room like it was the sky. 

O'Ryan took the role of Alex's wingman and traveled behind Thomas's head, forcing Ham to go on from staring at stars to staring at the face that he'd missed the most. It was like he was really seeing Thomas for the first time since he'd gotten back. It was a perfect time, too. The soft glow of the gold light in the star projector lit his face just well enough for Alex to decipher everything he needed and wanted to remember. 

They were still dancing, but as Alexander stared, time seemed to stand still. All he could feel was Thomas's arm guiding him gently in circles around the room and all he could hear was the soft humming coming from Thomas as he went along with the song.

"You're staring," Thomas whispered with a smirk on his face. 

Hamilton didn't even want to think of a snarky comeback. He couldn't.

"You just have a nice face," he said instead. Thomas laughed. 

"How romantic, Hamilton." 

Alex rolled his eyes and let out a small laugh of his own as Jefferson spun him again, this time leaving him hanging for a second before pulling back with a little more force. 

"You've got a pretty decent face yourself," Thomas muttered. 

He connected their lips and Alexander could have sworn that the floor fell from under them, which is such an immature thing to say, but Thomas's song choice described it pretty well. It was definitely perfect. Everything from the dull glow of the stars to the way Jefferson's stubble tickled Alex's face was perfect. 

They stopped dancing for a second, making the kiss last as long as it could before they pulled away to breathe. Neither of them went back for another because one was enough. Just a slow, romantic kiss to tie together everything else and that was it. 

Thomas pulled Alex into more of a hug and they started swaying to the beat of the music. Ham loved how Jefferson's chest vibrated as he started humming to the music again. Alex sighed and let his eyes flutter closed as he enjoyed the situation. He made sure to appreciate everything about it so he wouldn't forget just what it felt like to be back, not to be there, but to actually be back. 

For once, Hamilton was glad he couldn't sleep.