Hope for Our Ass After All

f o u r t e e n

[did you guys know that Aaron Burr once spent $40 on a coconut?]

lafayette

The day dragged on. Lafayette and Hercules had been getting on fine, but the salty Frenchman couldn't get yesterday out of his head.

What did Hercules think of it? Was he stupid to go through with it?

Maybe Herc hadn't thought of it like that. Maybe he thought it was just a bro thing. Like, a thing the French did—kiss on each cheek, maybe kiss on the lips?

Lafayette frowned and sighed into his bed, hugging his knees. He was on his bed in the dorm. Alex and John were arguing with Hercules, who was aggressively trying to get them together.

Lafayette was alone.

What made it worse was the fact that the large baguette shared a room with the tailor.

Finally, he decided, that he needed to stand up and face his fears.

"Hey, Herc?"

Hercules swung his head to face Lafayette. "Yo, Laf, these two are really bad at this flirting thing," he snorted, motioning at the two next to him.

"Haha." He snorted, laughing lightly, and then motioned toward him. "Can I talk to you?"

Immediately, an "oooo" erupted from John and Alexander, and Hercules stuck his tongue out at them and flipped them off before nodding in Lafayette's direction and tugging him into their room.

Lafayette flopped onto Hercules's bed and the tailor relaxed next to him. "What's up?"

"I... uH... remember the zoo...?" Lafayette murmured, suddenly very nervous.

Hercules nodded, furrowing his brow. Something seemed to light in his gaze—like he'd realized something—but it was gone in no less than a heartbeat and Lafayette barely caught it.

"Well...I, um, I did something there... and... uh... je veux savoir ce que tu penses?"

"What? Laf, I don't speak french," Hercules snorted, his laugher filling the room.

"I know," Lafayette mumbled. He took a deep breath. "I said, I want to know what you think. But, of course, if you don't remember what it was, I could just, how you say, end the conversation here." He plastered on a too-fake smile that Hercules easily saw through.

"Lafayette... you mean... the thing?"

Despite the circumstance, Lafayette couldn't help but giggle at this. "Hard to know what thing you mean, mom ami, when you don't say what it is."

Hercules visibly sighed and sunk into the bedspread. "Hey, no sweat, Laf. It's fine. There isn't a problem with it."

Lafayette flinched at his words. It was comforting, sure, but he wanted Hercules to say something more than that. He knew Hercules wouldn't, but... it didn't hurt to hope, right?

"Of course, mon ami. Thanks." And then he stood.

—
hercules

Hercules frowned. He wanted to say so much more, but he knew that it wasn't appropriate for the situation.

He thinks.

Quite frankly, Hercules had no idea what to do. Did Lafayette feel for him like Hercules thought he did?

Dammit.

The two left the room, and as the exited, they stumbled across Peggy Schuyler standing in the living room.

"Oh, hey Peggy. What are you doing here, mon ami?" Lafayette questioned.

Peggy burst out laughing and nudged John before composing herself and going, "Me and the sisters want to take the crew out tonight, you know, the Revolutionaries. We were asking about it."