Work Text:
Alex was the only one awake when his phone went off, the little ding! noise had sounded at full volume, distracting Alex from his work just enough so that he would look to see what event he had that was so important.
TIME CAPSULE TIME CAPS...
As soon as Alex saw the calendar event, he had to keep himself from screaming. He had forgotten about that time capsule. He kept staring at his phone screen, working himself into a properly excited frenzy while somehow remaining silent. Lafayette opens their bedroom door and pads out of their room and into where Alex is in the living room.
"Mon cher, come back to sleep. We have work in eight hours and you're going to fall asleep at your desk again if you don't get some sleep now," Lafayette says. They rest their head against Alex's shoulder, leaning against his head.
"Lafayette," Alex whispers cautiously.
"Hmm?" Lafayette kisses Alex's neck, half asleep.
"It's time capsule day," he tells them, leaning back to kiss Lafayette's temple.
Then, as if Alex's lips had electrocuted them, Lafayette's eyes widen and they are suddenly very, very awake.
"Time capsule day!" They squeal, tip toeing into their bedroom and coming back out a few moments later, this time with the locked metal box in their hands.
"Time capsule day," they both whisper dreamily.
They stare at it for a few seconds before Lafayette comes back to their senses.
"No, no. We can open the box tomorrow after work. Right now, you are coming to bed and we can all be our fully completed cuddle pile and John won't have any room to squirm around in the space between me and Hercules like a worm and wake me up."
Alex groans just quietly enough for Hercules and John not to be disturbed by it. He saves what he was working on, shutting his laptop off. He lets himself be dragged by the hand by Lafayette to their bed and he carefully settles in between Lafayette and John, resigning to the sleep that has been calling him for what seems like days.
Alex wakes up last, but he's not alone. John is laying across from him, staring at him from where he is next to him in bed. His hair is strewn across his face, but he doesn't seemed to be bothered by it. Alex smiles at him, kissing his forehead.
"It's time capsule day," Alex informs him, and John all but pounces out of bed to go to the kitchen and inform his other significant others.
"It's time capsule day!" Hercules exclaims to John when he first gets to the kitchen. Lafayette giggles from where they're sitting on the kitchen counter. Alex comes out into the kitchen later, pillow draped around his shoulders.
The metal time capsule is sitting on the coffee table, staring at them just as they stare at it.
"You know," John starts, "We still have like one hour before we go to work."
"John, no," Lafayette says.
"Lafayette, where is the key?" He asks, turning to Lafayette on the couch, batting his eyelashes. Lafayette shakes their head, not succumbing to John's charm.
"Nope," they speak. They're taken aback and all three of their boyfriends turn to them, begging looks on their faces. They sigh and look down into their lap.
"It's in my jewelry box, top drawer where my rings are," They tell them. John squeaks, sliding over to Lafayette and kissing them quickly before going to get the key.
John is back in record time, handing the key over to Lafayette, who kisses both him and it before going over the capsule. They sit on the middle cushion of the couch, John and Alex on either side and Hercules leaning over the back of the couch. They look at Alex, Hercules, and John before they fit the key in the lock and twist it. The lock opens effortlessly, and all four of them take one collective gasp. Lafayette scrambles to take the lock off, throwing it on the couch next to them.
Inside are the four letters they wrote on the day after Easter five years ago, one whole year before they got together.
John stands up and grabs Alex's before Alex could, somehow ripping the tape off of it with one hand and holding the other out in front of him to stop Alex from the attack that he knows is coming. He backs up against the wall, preventing Alex from sneaking up on him.
He predicts right. His hand comes in contact with Alexander's chest, Alex flailing his arms and trying to get the letter, but John keeps him from succeeding.
Meanwhile, Hercules and Lafayette are standing across the room chanting "Read it! Read it! Read it!" at the top of their lungs at eight o'clock in the morning.
John pushes Alex as hard as he can, causing him to stumble backwards until he hits the arm of the couch, toppling over it and collapsing on the cushions. He moves for his second attack, but Hercules grabs him by the shoulders and pulls him back down on the couch. Alex grumbles and tries to escape again, causing him to shift himself so he's laying fully on the couch.
Unfortunately, this gives him leverage to be able to stand up, but Lafayette is quicker than him. They rush over and sit on Alex's stomach. Alex coughs, not used to someone sitting on him.
"Read the letter, John! We don't have all day!" They say, wiggling around on top of Alex's writhing body. John is already laughing, eyes scanning the page.
"Alexander of the future, listen to me right fucking now. If you aren't dating John, Hercules, and Lafayette by this time in five years and you're still friends with them, build a time machine and come back here so I can beat your ass I swear to god. I would write this eloquently but fuck it who can even do that this is a letter to myself," John reads, wheezing in between each sentence from laughing so hard.
"Oh my god, Alex," Hercules says, cackling.
"Wait, there's more!" John interrupts.
"John, Lafayette, and Hercules are the greatest people you have ever met or will ever meet, so you better not wreck things with them or else I will kill us. If you are dating them however, I have some questions/date ideas because let's face it when you're not working which is never this is what you're thinking of. Don't let them know you know that you overwork yourself though, that might make them more concerned. Bye Alex, watch yourself," John finishes.
"That was adorable!" Lafayette tells Alex, poking his cheek. Alex huffs. John is silent, turning over the extra piece of loose leaf that accompanies Alex's letter. The smile on his face is growing wider and wider the farther down the page he gets.
"What is it?" Lafayette asks, trying to see what Alex had written.
"It's a ton of cute date ideas! Alex you fucking sap," John tells him. Alex is bright red to the point where he looks like he is about to explode.
"You know, we actually haven't done most of these. I'm going to cross out the ones we have done and then put it on the fridge for future reference," John remarks going to sit on their loveseat, sitting cross-legged taking a pen out a cup on the end table and scribbling out a few things on the page.
Lafayette waits until John is focused on the paper to take his letter out of the safe.
"John, this is John," they pause, snorting. John is immediately snapped out of his concentration, blushing, but not trying to take the paper. He sits back on the couch, refusing to be a hypocrite in this situation. It's also why he pointedly avoids his blush creeping up into his ears.
Lafayette continues, "John, this is John, telling you to get your shit together. I'm going to go on for two seconds now to tell you what you need to do before we both delve into the barren desert that is your love life. Switch shampoos, go hiking once in your life, or maybe leave the city for the first time ever. Go see a broadway musical, do whatever the fuck you want to do. BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY:
FUCK. LAFAYETTE. ALEX. AND. HERCULES.
I DONT CARE HOW IT HAPPENS, CRY IF YOU HAVE TO, BUT AS LONG AS YOU HAVE THEIR CONSENT, FUCKING DO IT.
THIS CONCLUDES OUR PEN PAL PARTNERSHIP FUTURE ME, GOODBYE."
"That's what mine is like," Hercules tells them, making a face that basically embodies the word yikes. Alex inches over on the couch close enough to that he can grab the safe, pulling out Hercules' pink taped paper and his extra piece.
"Don't judge me for what I wrote when I was 21," Hercules says, look at the papers in Alex's hand.
"It can't be that bad," Lafayette tells him. Alex bursts out laughing, spitting on Lafayette's elbow.
"HERCULES MULLIGAN'S PLAN TO SEDUCE THREE PEOPLE AT ONCE IF YOU STILL FUCKING HAVEN'T AFTER FIVE YEARS WHAT THE FUCK YOU'RE LIKE 25 OR SMTH NOW COME ON," Alex reads, howling with laughter.
"You got the math wrong!" John laughs.
"I said for you not to judge me!"
"Read the rest of it!" Lafayette demands.
Alex wheezes. "It's a bullet list! Okay so, in order, it goes:
1. CRY A LOT OVER THEM LIKE YOU ALREADY DO BUT FUCK IT DO MORE OF IT
2. GET IT TOGETHER
3. GATHER ALEX, JOHN, AND LAF TOGETHER IF THEY'RE UNMARRIED
4. IF THEYRE MARRIED DO NOT ENGAGE DONT BE THAT KIND OF MAN PLEASE
5. ANYWAY GATHER THEM
6. CRY E V E N MORE
7. TELL THEM HOW YOU FEEL AND STOP BEING A WIMP FOR GODS SAKE
8. IF THEY REJECT YOU SAY YOU UNDERSTAND AND LET THEM LEAVE YOU
9. IF THEY SAY Y E S THEN MAKE OUT HARDCORE
10. how do you even kiss three people at once
11. YOULL KNOW WHEN IT HAPPENS"
Alex reads the list out loud, struggling to choke out each word. Hercules is pouting on the loveseat, John going comfort him by kissing him on the cheek and leaning against him.
Hercules gets frustrated, taking Lafayette's purple paper out of the save and opening it.
"I thought this would be all in French," John admits, staring at the pretty cursive writing that could only be Lafayette's.
"Ah, yes. Read the letter to me," Lafayette says, turning so that they're laying on their back on top of Alex. Alex grimaces, not being able to turn anyway to avoid Lafayette's hair getting into his mouth.
"Dear Lafayette, love them. Love them and never let them go and if they don't love you than keep them for as long as you have them.
They're probably expecting some long ass letter, one that truly rivals theirs, but we are in no mood for them to disrespect us like this."
"You're heartless," Hercules accused.
"I wasn't going to profess my undying love to you so that I could be judged when we weren't together," Laf defends themselves, heaving themselves off of Alex. Alex takes a deep breath, his first one in a while. Lafayette takes the letter from Hercules and scrunches their nose at him. Before they can move away, Hercules kisses them on the nose, smiling at the surprised reaction he got.
"So, now the all the letters are read and we have resolved all of the immense sexual and romantic tension from those days, I think it's time for us to go to work," Hercules remarks, getting up. Lafayette groans, wrapping their arms around Hercules.
"Do we have to? I mean, it's time capsule day! We should be like having sex or something," Lafayette says, swaying with Hercules. Hercules laughs, pushing Lafayette off of him.
"We can do that when we get home, come on! We're gonna be late!" Hercules calls. He kisses eache of them and then skips down the hall to their bedroom.
They all stare at the four letters on the table, written by people who are very much alike but also very different from the people who read them today. The three of them sigh, trudging down the hallway to get dressed for work.
They leave the letters there, secretly feeling proud that they all got what they wanted in the end.
Or rather, who they wanted.