If there's a fire

9.

James Madison woke up to a pencil scraping on paper. It was six am, not too early to be up, but too early for James to want to be up.

"Thomas?" James asked sleepily, rubbing his eyes and sitting up. Thomas was in his Pajamas, his hair pulled up into a tight bun and his eyes nearly red. He obviously hadn't slept much.

"I had some ideas. For bass line, for the beat, for lyrics." Thomas said, still not looking up from his paper.

"When did you wake up?" James asked, concerned.

"Uh- you'd just fallen asleep and I had a really good idea. Don't worry, I'll go to bed soon." Thomas said. He obviously wasn't aware that they had school in one hour.

"You're gonna get like ten minutes of sleep then." James retorted. Thomas's nose crinkled in confusion. He looked at the clock- just as he did this, James's morning alarm went off.

"Oh no." He said, setting his pencil down.

"You literally wrote all night?" James asked. Thomas nodded.

"Well- I wasn't satisfied with what I had, then I'd rewrite it, then I'd just... I don't know. I sound like Alexander." Thomas said, rolling his eyes at himself. James just chuckled.

"You should take a cold shower. It'll help you wake up." James said. Thomas nodded, agreeing.

James sighed as Thomas left, and grabbed the notebook that Thomas had been working in the whole time. The lyrics were amazing- rhymes, metaphors, and the flow was incredible. But there were so many words.

How was Jefferson going to rap this much?

Maybe he was a better rapper than he let on.

James got dressed and ready for school, packing his things quickly.

He stopped in front of the broken mirror that Thomas 'accidentally' broke when throwing stuff at it out of boredom- he wanted to see how hard he had to throw something for it to break.

James sighed, adjusting his appearance. He fidgeted with his sweater, and felt that unsettling feeling coming into his stomach.

"Not now..." he whispered to himself.

His own voice shouted deprecating comments into his mind, and he shivered- in disgust and in an attempt to get the thoughts from his head. He rubbed his eyes, trying to wake himself up. Jame was exhausted, and this feeling just made him want to crawl back into bed. He sat on his bed, falling back before crawling into a ball.

You useless fuck.

James just shook the thoughts aside, and heard the shower turn off. Fifteen minutes till class. Thomas walked out in boxers, his hair wet.

"Hi." He said, smiling at James. James nodded. "You okay?" He asked. James just nodded again.

"Sorry- tired. Stomach hurt. Do I have to go to school?" James asked. Thomas sighed, walking up behind James and rubbing his back softly.

"I'm sure you could stay home..." Thomas said. He was kind of shocked by Thomas's behavior. Thomas was really only nice to one person- and that was James. Not that he was even nice that often towards James anyways.

"I can't. We have that science test." James frowned. Thomas sighed, and James sat up.

"I'll make an excuse for you? You can take it later today, or tomorrow. I'm sure it won't be a big deal." Thomas smiled at James. James blushed as he was right against Thomas's chest.

"Ah- I'm going to go. I don't even feel sick. Just- very-" James made a noise that could only be described as blegh. Thomas chuckled.

"Maybe breakfast will make you feel less bad? I'll buy. We can go to the cafe and get coffee and bagels. It'll be great." Thomas smiled. James nodded.