Dearest, Soulmate (Jamilton)

23. Dearest, Relaxation

Hamilton

Alexander tapped his foot impatiently as he stared at the clock. Whatever his teacher was saying meant nothing to him as the seconds slowly ticked down, closer and closer to the end of the day. Typically, he wouldn't be so excited for the weekend but then was different. 

They were going to find a way into the building to, not only find John, but also hopefully use whatever was going on on the inside as a way to take down the entire organization. Hamilton didn't know what they would do if they didn't find anything to help them any further. He couldn't even stand thinking of what would happen. 

He also didn't know how much longer he could take sitting in class. The seconds seemed to tick slower which each passing one. 

Luckily for him, someone cut into his boredom, saving him from driving himself insane. 

Alex? Eliza said, sounding almost nervous to be using her connection. 

Liza! Aren't you supposed to be focusing on class? He tried acting like nothing happened to show her that she was fine to use the connection that was still up. They might as well enjoy it, right? 

Yeah about that, do you maybe want to skip? Me, Peggy, Thomas, Laf, and Herc are. Something about relaxing before we do this I guess.

Wait, we?

I want to help. If you guys really are serious about this, then I don't want to be the bitch sitting out instead of helping a friend.

Eliza, nobody thinks you're a bitch. You don't have to do this if you don't want to.

I know. I want to. 

Alexander smiled as subtlely as he could, but it was definitely hard. She obviously didn't hate him so much, which was a good sign. He didn't want to lose her as a friend. So, he thought over her offer for a second. Only a second, though, because it didn't take him long to come to the conclusion that it was important to relax a little. Not to mention the fact that he'd been a perfect student since he'd gotten into the school, he could handle one day of skipping considering everything. 

Not caring about his things much, Alexander told his teacher that he was going to go use the restroom, a blatant lie, and immediately dashed to the side doors that Eliza told him to meet him at. Apparently, everyone got ahold of each other since all Alex's friends were standing just out of sight of the main hallway waiting for him. 

"So, where're we going?" Peggy asked as everyone piled into Thomas's car, Alexander in the front seat. AT first, he was apprehensive to get in, so he looked at Eliza for permission, which she almost gladly gave. 

As Thomas started driving, he replied, "Don't know. Any requests?" 

"It's still sort of warm out," Lafayette cut in. "we could go to the beach."

Everyone immediately agreed and, keeping up with the carefree nature of the trip, Thomas agreed to drive around so everyone could grab their bathing suits. 

The beach they decided on was mostly empty, which meant the group could be as loud as they really wanted to be. The Schuylers, Hercules, and Lafayette were all in the water nearly immediately playing chicken fight and, as much as Alex wanted to join them, he just couldn't bring himself to do it for multiple reasons. One of which being the obvious association with the demolishment of hometown his and another being he didn't really want to have fun. He was fine relaxing, but it felt wrong having fun. So he stayed on the sand, burying his feet as deep into the sand as he could manage. 

Is this seat taken? Thomas asked sarcastically in Hamilton's head. It was still weird for Alex to hear any voice other than Eliza's but he couldn't really blame Thomas for wanting to use it as much as he could. He'd just gotten the ability to talk in someone's head like he'd been dreaming about and he was about to lose it too. 

"You can sit," Alexander replied verbally. They couldn't figure out how to form the two-way connection, but for then, the one-way was enough. 

Thomas sat down and stayed silent for a few seconds. "You don't want to swim?" 

"No, not really. I'm good on the ground where I can't drown," Alex said with as much humor as he could muster up. He didn't want Thomas to feel bad for the joke, he just wanted the situation to be lighter. 

"Awe, come on. Just for a few minutes? I can get Eliza over so she can help—"

"Please don't." 

". . . I could help you?" Thomas offered. "We're about to infiltrate a government building, you can't seriously be afraid now." 

Alexander knew Jefferson wasn't saying anything to be rude, so he tried his best not to take it like that. Instead, he took it as a challenge. Hamilton stood up and held it his hand, determined to win at whatever contest he'd just created but also keep himself alive. Thomas smiled mischievously, took the boy's hand, and the two ran together to the water, only slowing once they got to the edge. 

"It's not going to hurt," Thomas laughed. Again, not rudely, just to provide some motivation to get in. As soon as Alexander was in the water enough for his feet to be covered, his friends started cheering dramatically. He didn't understand why, it's not like he was scared of the water, just what it was capable of. 

After an hour or so of getting used to it, Alex was in playing chicken fight with his group of friends. Whoever got knocked down had to pass to the next pair. Hamilton didn't think much of anything as he tried to knock Eliza off Herc's shoulders, or Peggy off Eliza's, or anyone that tried to go against the undefeated team. After winning five consecutive games easily, Alexander made everyone swear to stop going easy on him. After that, the games got harder. 

Eventually, Peggy ended up knocking him down. 

Alex had a split second of panic before reminding himself to take a breath and to trust Thomas to pull him back up, which he did almost immediately. It was an accidental success of a trust exercise but it was enough to make Hamilton want to get out of the water for a bit. 

"Yeah, maybe we should," Peggy agreed. "I have to do something with your chip anyway, Alex." 

"Why?" 

"I figured out how to sync different chips, I think. I might be on the FBI's most wanted list, but I think I figured it out and, when you're inside the building, you're going to need to get in touch with Thomas," she explained as everyone moved to the sand. 

As soon as they were on the ground again, she darted to their spot to get something out of her bag. 

Once she was back, she started explaining more of what she was going to do. Ultimately, it boiled down to her cutting into her friend's neck to mess with his soulmate chip to connect him completely with Thomas and Eliza until they get the system shut down, then it wouldn't matter anymore. Hamilton knew it was the only way that he'd be easily in touch with Thomas, so he agreed. 

Peggy gave him a stick rolled in a towel to bite down on since it was most likely going to hurt like a bitch when she started cutting. 

Which it did. 

Boy, was he glad when she was done. Nobody knew if it worked, so Hamilton still had the possibility of going through that for nothing, which he would have hated more than going underwater. It was a moment of overwhelming suspense as Thomas sent Alexander a mental message. Alex was almost scared to send a message, but once he did, and once he knew what Peggy did worked, it was back to celebrating. 

They were really doing it. All of them were engaging in something way bigger than themselves and nobody even knew it yet. Well, soulmate assignment probably knew, but other than that nobody knew that two girls from near prestigious upbringing, an outcast, the muscle, and two orphaned immigrants were about to change the world and, Hamilton guessed that if you told anyone that, they'd stop listening after they heard the word "teenager". 

They were going to change that. 

The group of mismatched best friends was about to change everything.