Tattoos (Lams coffee shop AU)

Mistake (IV)

When John woke up, it was dark outside and rainier than ever. He glanced at the brightly shining green clock on his stove. 3 AM. But he was wide awake now, probably because he had fallen asleep so early in the evening. Alexander was still cuddled up against him and, to his horror, he was holding him tightly.

"No homo." He muttered sarcastically and unwrapped his arms from Alex. Slowly he made his was out from under him and went into his bedroom without waking the shorter man.

He wasn't sure what to do, so he decided to draw, but all of his attempts worked out poorly. He tried to fall back asleep, but that didn't work either. There was a particularly loud crack of thunder that even made John jump. He heard a faint whimper from the living room, and walked back out.

"J-John?" Alex whispered.

He sighed and sat back down next to his anxious "friend." Really he was just a coworker, and never would be anything more. Alex was cuddled up to him in a second and he allowed it. Then he was looking up at John, and John was looking down at Alex. 

'Damn, his eyes are beautiful.' John thought for a fleeting moment, before reminding himself that he wasn't gay.

But what happened next should've been enough to tell John he was, in fact, gay.

The two's lips met for just a moment. Alex had leaned in first. John quickly pushed him off.

"What the hell, man?!" He yelled angrily.

"I- sorry, I- I thought that-"

"Well you thought wrong. I'm not gay, I never will be, and you're just going to have to deal with that!"

More thunder rumbled through the sky, but Alex was focused on something else now. "Just the- The way you looked at me! That's not how you look at someone who's 'just a friend', Laurens."

Last name. He couldn't deny that stung a little. "Get out!" John snapped, filled with fury and some other emotion that he tried to ignore.

"Where am I supposed to go?! I can't drive, and it's pouring rain." 

John just huffed and stormed off into his bedroom, slamming the door behind him. Alexander sank back down onto the couch, crying for a different reason than before.

The next morning was painfully awkward as they got ready and drove to work in silence. They made orders for the customers, carefully dodging each other's eyes. Laff and Herc seemed to notice something was off.

"Yo, what happened between you two last night?" Herc asked Alexander as he pulled him off to the side.

"Oui, you two are acting very queer." Agreed Laff as he came up next to Hercules and put an arm around him.

"For the last time, queer doesn't mean weird anymore, Laffy." Herc sighed as though the mere fact Lafayette had said that exasperated him.

"Maybe I did not mean it as 'weird'." Laff raised his eyebrows at Alexander.

"Uh... yeah, so, we kissed..." Alex shifted awkwardly.

"That is great mon ami! I will plan the wedding!"

"I'll be the flower girl!" Exclaimed Herc.

"Guys! I kissed him, then he pushed me off and got mad at me for it."

The two men's expressions quickly darkened.

"There is no way John is straight. I can't believe he's still in fuc-" A woman walked by with a small child, and Hercules quickly cut himself off. "Uh, I can't believe he's still in denial! This is getting ridiculous."

Alex shrugged. "Or maybe he just really is straight."

"Impossible. I catch him checking out the guys all the time! And when the women flirt with him, he always is annoyed." Laff pointed at John, who was obviously being hit on by a pretty girl wearing a blue dress who had long, black hair down to her waist. John did look very much annoyed with her.

The girl said something else and turned to leave the shop. That's when she saw Alexander. She quickly walked over.

"Hi! I'm Elizabeth Schuyler, it's a pleasure to meet you." She held out her hand for Alex to shake, and he did so tentatively.

"Wait- Schuyler?" He had definitely heard the name before.

"My father is a senator." She explained quickly "Anyways, I am here to interview a few employees, we want to write an article on this shop."

"Mhm. Who do you work for?" Asked Hercules, sounding suspicious.

"The World." Replied Eliza, beaming. "I'm so excited to work with them, this is my first job as a writer." Her fair skinned face turned a light shade of pink. "I probably shouldn't have told you that. Anyways, can I interview you?" She was obviously asking Alexander.

"Sure." He shrugged, and they sat down at a nearby table together.

In the meantime, Herc went over to John. "What the fu-" What's with all of these women with young children? "What the heck did you do?"

John glanced at him, annoyed, as he adjusted a knob on the espresso machine. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Herc snorted indignantly. "Don't try to lie to me, Johnathan."

"You realize John is my actual name, right? It's not Johnathan."

"Zat is weird, mon ami." Laff came up besides his boyfriend and gave him a random and quick kiss on the cheek. "You have been named the name of Nick."

"What?" John shot him an extremely confused look as he began filling up three large coffee cups.

Herc laughed softly. "Are you trying to say he's been named a nickname?"

"Oui, name of Nick, nickname. It is really the same thing." Laff laughed. (Laffed.)

Hercules became focused on John again. "So are you going to tell us why you kissed Alexander and then insisted you're straight?"

John's arms moved almost unnoticeably closer to his body, and he straightened his back slightly. It was fascinating, you could almost see him mentally building walls and preparing to push everyone away. "He kissed me. I'm straight. The end."

"Mon ami, you ne-"

"Don't call me mon ami. I'm not your friend. We're coworkers, we just happened to be hired at the same shop. That doesn't mean you two have any right to hear about or mess with my personal life. So casse toi, as Gilbert would say."

Laff and Herc weren't very surprised, John often snapped at them like this. But that didn't mean the words didn't sting a little, especially him calling Laff 'Gilbert'. Nobody called Lafayette 'Gilbert.'

"Fine. We'll leave you alone, but you need to stop hurting Alexander, mkay?" Herc growled.

"If he also leaves me the hell alone, I'll have no reason to."