Waste Of Gift
This is a Hamilton tickle fic that is wayyy too long. Prompted by an anon,
Summary: Jefferson and Hamilton have a sour relationship, until one interaction changes everything.
Platonic Jamilton
Saturdays were Thomas Jefferson’s favourite day of the week.
No woking nine hours a day, no cabinet meetings. The fate of a Saturday was entirely in the hands of Jefferson himself.
Yet for Alexander Hamilton, it was a very different story.
See, Hamilton worked Non-Stop. He worked form the crack of dusk till the break of dawn. He wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote. He tried to make time for his wife and son, but it never really worked out. Hamilton was sure that after three more weeks of working this hard, he would finally have enough time to bond with his family again. The day of the week made no difference to Alexander, he just worked and worked.
It was a Saturday morning, and Hamilton was, of course, writing furiously at his desk. He heard a knock at his door. He groaned softly: “Yes dear?”.
Eliza stepped into the room, “Good morning Alexander. You have a strange visitor-”
“Who are you calling strange?”, Hamilton heard a sour voice interrupt, which was coming from the outside of his office. He groaned more audibly: “What is it Jefferson?”
The tall, skinny man walked in, “Look Alexander, I’m not looking to pick a fight. I’m just here to pick up something that I left here a few months ago, when we had that meeting”.
Hamilton snickered: “If a possession as vile as yours were to be in my office for such a period of time, I would have noticed by now. Go looking somewhere else, but not here”.
Jefferson chuckled, “Man! As I said, I’m not here to pick a fight! It is just a small notebook, coloured green, it had nothing in it”.
Alexander opened his mouth to blurt something in response, yet Eliza widened her eyes from the office doorway, gesturing for him to not pick a fight with the man. It just wasn’t worth it. He sighed: “Fine Jefferson, look, but be quiet!”. Thomas smiled and ventured further into the small room, Eliza staying by the doorway just incase. Suddenly, there was a pounding of feet charging towards the two men from the hallway,.
“Pops! Your office door is open!”; Philip came charging towards his dad like a rhino, jumping into his lap. Alexander was a little annoyed, but still, Philip was too bright and sweet to be mad at.
“Sorry Philip, pops is working”. “But the door was open!”, Philip stated, “You said that if the door was open, it meant-”.
“Sorry son”, Hamilton interrupted him, “These are different circumstances”.
He leaned down to kiss Philip’s forehead, “Please leave my office my love”. Philip smiled up at his father and kissed his nose, which was when the small boy noticed the presence of: “Jefferstupid?”
Hamilton gasped, embarrassed at what his son had just blurted out. Philip just giggled from the side of his father’s chair.
Jefferson raised an eyebrow: “So, is that what you told him my name was, Hamilton?”. Alexander opened his mouth to speak. “It’s okay”, Jefferson interrupted dryly, “He’s just a kid. And I must admit, I can be stupid at times”.
Hamilton grumbled, “Just leave my damn office please. The notebook your looking for isn’t here”.
Jefferson rolled his eyes, “Five more minutes please, Hamilton?”.
Hamilton snapped, “Fine! But if your not out by five I’ll, I’ll...”
“He’ll tickle you!”, Philip exclaimed, a huge smile on the freckled boys face. Hamilton and Jefferson both blushed at the mention of the word, which only made Philip grin wider.
“You know what”, Hamilton said with a smirk,”I don’t think Philip’s idea is such a bad one”. Philip clapped his hands together: “Yayyy!”
Jefferson tilted his head to the side, “You can’t be serious Hamilton”.
Hamilton grinned, “Oh, I am serious. If you are not out of here in five minutes, I’ll tickle you while you make a speech”.
Jefferson thought for a moment, “But if I find it in this room before that time is up, I’ll tickle you while you make a speech. Yes?”
Hamilton grinned, he knew his office like the back of his hand, if he had a green blank notebook stuck in it for months, he would have known.
“Fine, but if you don’t find it in five minutes, I tickle you. Deal?”
Jefferson extended an arm, “Deal”.
Eliza tilted her head down from the doorway, shocked at how childish the two boys were being. And as for Philip, he was just grinning the whole time.
So for the next five minutes, Alexander tried to stay concentrated on his work as Jefferson made loud hunting noises from all ends of the room. Philip watched from the doorway in awe and excitement, wondering who would win the deal. Eliza had long since left, feeling like this was a boys event.
Suddenly, Philip started counting.
“Ten”
“Wait, ten seconds already?!”
“Nine”
“Wait, no”
“Eight”
“Come on it has to be some-”
“Seven”
“Oh-”
“Six”
“Fuck!”
“Don’t swear my son is right-”
“Five”
“Shut up Hamilton!”
“Four”
“Shitshitshit”
“Three”
“Looks like you’ve lost”
“Two”
“Get out of the damn way Hamil-
“One”.
Hamilton and Philip both smirked at Jefferson, who was frozen in the middle of the room.
“I told you that it wasn’t here”, Hamilton said, “Now please leave before I make you”.
Monday morning. Jefferson’s speech was about to start. No sign of Hamilton. Good.
Jefferson stood above a small block, addressing the towns folk: “Uh-hum”.
They all looked up at him, and he cleared his throat. It was so cold, he thought, perhaps he should have worn something warmer.
“Good morning New Yorkers. It has recently come to my attention that, AHAWHA-”.
Jefferson jumped in the air, somebody had poked his sides from behind. He turned around, crap. Hamilton. Jefferson, blushing, cleared his throat.
“My apolahahahaha nohoho Ahalex!”
Hamilton had started tickling under his arms, “Yohohohou stohohohop thihihihis!”.
“I won the bet Jefferson!”, Hamilton exclaimed, digging into the other’s stomach.
“SHIT- AHAHA NOHOHHO MY TUHUHUHUMMY!”
“You tummy?”, Hamilton teased, “What about it?”.
A larger crowd had gathered, which included Philip, who watched with the biggest grin on his face.
“ALEXAHAHAHAHNDEHEHER NOHOHOHO PLEHEHEHAHESE YOHOHOHOUV’E PROHOHOHOVED YOHOHOHOHOUR POHOHOHOHINT!”
Hamilton chuckled and stopped, taking pity on the other man. Plus, he wasn’t very fond of tickling being used in this way. Tickling was something sweet and bondy, and he wanted to keep it that way. Why waste such a gift on Jefferson?
Thomas eyed Hamilton for a moment, hoping that he wouldn’t start again, before continuing as if nothing had happened.
Hamilton disappeared into the crowd, finding his son and giving him a high-five. “Now”, he said, tugging at his son’s arm, “Lets get out of here”.
A week later, another Saturday morning had arrived, and snow began to fall outside Alexander’s office window. He sat at his desk with a cup of warm chocolate milk beside him, and scribbled across a piece of parchment. He heard a knock at the door.
“Come in”, he gestured for his wife. Eliza opened the door slowly and stepped inside, “You have a visitor darling”. Alexander looked up from his work and groaned; not again.
“Ah” Jefferson said, scratching a bit at his lion mane, “Do you mind having a small discussion?”.
Hamilton sighed, “Jefferson, I do not even make time to have discussions with my wife and son. Have you stopped to consider that your offer may be a little selfish?”.
Jefferson sighed back, “Look Hamilton, I’m not looking for trouble. Any trouble at all. In fact I, uh...” he trailed off, his face going a little red.
“You what?”, Hamilton asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I, uh, I wanted to thank you”.
Alexander looked up at his husband, gesturing for her to leave the room. She closed the door behind her.
“For what, Jefferson?”, Hamilton asked.
“For making me laugh when I was in a bad mood”, Thomas replied hesitantly.
Hamilton thought for a moment, before coming across what he might have been referring to. Suddenly, he shared the same blush as Jefferson. “You, you mean the, uh, ti- um, ti-”.
“ckling”, Thomas finished his sentence,”Yeah, uh, that”.
“I, uh, thought you hated that”
“N-no, I was having a rough day and it was, uh, nice”
“Okay...why exactly are you telling me this?”
“Because”, Thomas began, inhaling, “Because this feud we have, this hatred for one another, it has to end. It just has to. Can’t we at least just tolerate each other, please?”.
Hamilton was shocked. He had never before seen this side of Jefferson. Was this a trick? No, it looked sincere. Though Jefferson was prone to fibbing.
“Why suddenly the change of heart Jefferson?”, Hamilton said with a chuckle.
Jefferson shook his head, “Look, I get that you don’t want to take me seriously, but...when you did that thing to me...it kind of made me feel like I had...a friend.”
“A friend that humiliates you in public? Surely you’ve lost your mind Jefferson. And lets not forget that I only did it because you lost a deal”.
“Just please”, Thomas said. Both men were sweaty. Both were blushing. Yet Alexander was better at hiding it. Jefferson extended a hand, “For the end of our rivalry”. “Not our political rivalry, but our relationship rivalry. I wouldn’t be against that”, Hamilton extended his arm. And just like that, they were both shaking.
When Jefferson shook Hamilton’s hand, he noticed how red it was.
“Maybe”, Jefferson began,”As our first act of friendship, I could write for you. Just because your hand looks a little red, and I think your son is missing his daddy’s cuddles”.
So just like that, Philip was sitting on Hamilton’s lap as he embraced him and directed lines to Jefferson, who was sitting at the other’s desk and scribbling them down with his quill. Philip had a huge smile on his freckled face. Alexander stroked the young Hamilton’s bushy hair tentatively.
After a few minutes, Hamilton offered to take over, and Jefferson smiled at him. “Thank you Thomas”, Alexander said, still hardly believing what had just happened. Jefferson chuckled at the other’s semi-shocked expression. He crouched down beside the boy in his father’s lap.
“You father works a lot, doesn’t he little one?”.
Philip giggled, “Oh yeah. Pops works all the time. That was the first time he’s had a break in ages! Thanks Jefferson!”.
Jefferson grinned at him, “Your father did take a little break the other day, did you know that? Remember our bet, well he carried it out”.
Philip smiled, “Yeah, I was there watching”.
“Ya think I should get him back, little one?”
Philip grinned and hopped off his dad, “Yes”.
Thomas pounced on top of him, and grinned down at the shocked man.
And in a matter of seconds, he was digging his hands under Hamilton’s arms. Said man let out a scream before bursting into loud, strong laughter.
“JEHEHEHEHEHEFF NOHOHOHO!”
“No what Alexander? This is simply in the name of revenge”, Thomas smirked, drilling his thumbs into Hamilton’s hips. The other man’s laughter quieted down a bit.
“Phihihihilip, hehehehelp”
Philip ginned, “Sure thing pops”. He dug his little fingers into Jefferson’s sides from behind. Jefferson squealed. Philip giggled and tackled him over. And soon, the little boy was tickling two men at once.
“Wait-Philip-nohohohoho!”, Jefferson laughed as Philip scribbled the fingers of his right hand into his belly.
“Sohon nohoho”, Hamilton giggled as Philip used his left hand to attack his neck.
“Wow, look at me!”, Philip cried in triumph, “I have successfully gotten two men more than double my age begging below me!”.
He started squeezing both of the mens stomach’s. They shrieked at the same time, before they stated thrashing almost identically.
“PLELELELHEASE LITTLE OHOHONE!”
“NOHOHHO NOHOHOT THEHEHEHERE!”
“HEHEHELP! SOMEBOHODY!”
“PIHIHIP NOHOHO!”
“SOMEBODY?!”
“EHEHEHLIHIHIHIZA!”
Eliza was just reading peacefully from the other room, and was very confused when she heard two shrieks of laughter. She walked into her husbands office and was shocked by the sight that greeted her. Philip turned his head, the biggest smile on his face.
“Look ma! They are both so ticklish!”
Eliza glared at him, “Philip, not the right time”.
Philip whined and stopped, “But maaaa, they’re friends now”.
Eliza just shook her head, “There is a time and place for tickling Philip. And now is not the appropriate time”.
Philip sighed as the two men sat up, panting.
“Uh, thanks Eliza”, Jefferson said, a little puffed out, “Now I should go”.
Jefferson left the room, closing the door behind him.
Alexander smiled up at his wife: “Why such a bad mood honey?”
Eliza groaned, ”You know why. Both of you. Stop acting so childish”.
But when Alexander and Philip smiled, Eliza couldn’t stop herself from smiling to. In fact, she chuckled. “Well, I’m glad you boys are having fun”.
Hamilton kissed his son’s nose and smiled at both of them, “I feel like life is looking up for all of us”. And it was.