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The courtroom should have been empty at that hour.
It had become a habit of his to enter the room at 10 P.M around the writing of his debt plan, and he now used it to come up with comebacks that would outwit Jefferson’s hypothetical next argument or ridicule John Adams’ frankly idiotic views.
Bursting with ideas and inspiration, he knew today he’d be particularly efficient.
Or not.
The door opened on an unexpected tableau.
“Mr. Vice President ?” he exclaimed, forcing his eyes to stay on the man’s face.
Saying his tone held an air of astonishment was an understatement.
His eyes went from one face to another, catching James Madison’s absent, hazy gaze. And a section of skin that should definitely have been covered up.
“Mr. Madison?”
Not even the smallest reaction. He didn’t dare make hypotheses as to why he looked so dazed.
It wasn’t even the weirdest part of the scene. He'd noticed the discreet glances they sometimes (rarely on Jefferson’s part) exchanged, the worry crawling its way through Jefferson’s otherwise perfect mask of confidence whenever his… friend started coughing, so it wasn’t that surprising to see them being so intimate. Well, if you brushed off the fact they were in a courtroom...
“SENATOR BURR?!”
And here lied the senator, the first friend he’d made upon arriving in New York, a hand on the vice president’s thigh. Hamilton screwed his eyelids shut, wishing more than ever to ask a doctor to perform a lobotomy on him, no anaesthetic. He took a deep breath to calm his nerves or to fill his lungs enough for a good scream.
“What is this?”, he asked, way too composed, flabbergasted to the point of not having it in him to appear as so. “I beg of you, don’t answer that.”
“I’m sure it’s obvious enough,” Jefferson said, grabbing the nearest coat(Burr’s, to Hamilton’s dismay.) and wrapping it around his body like a robe, “even for you.” That last sentence he accompanied by raising one eyebrow at him.
After him, it was Madison’s turn to stand up. His efforts to cover himself up were mostly useless. Nevertheless, he took his breeches and turned around to put them back on as fast as he could manage to. Jefferson threw his own coat straight to Burr’s face. The man hurriedly concealed his lack of garments with the velvet, not bothering to get off the floor.
Hamilton waited, arms crossed, facing Jefferson. None of them had telepathic powers, so Jefferson couldn’t possibly have caught on with the request. He motioned in the door’s direction with his chin, still staring right in the virginian’s eyes. The answer? A condescending look. He let it go, recognising the lack of results his tactic provided, and did what he did best, in his opinion at least: talk.
“If you would please get dressed, find somewhere else to finish whatever you started here and let me work in peace, it’d be very nice of you.”
“What, did you book the place?”
“I would like to point out to you that the use I intend to make of this room is objectively more professional than… a threesome. Honestly I can’t even believe Burr is tagging along.”
“He’s better at it than you’d expect.”
“I… don’t recall asking for clarifications on that matter.”and then, turning to the senator, “There's no doubt you are incredible in court, but I wasn't referring to, well, this when I asked you to defend the new constitution. What I meant is I didn’t know you three were on good terms.”
“Having a common enemy sure helps,” shot Burr.
The only person to seem to have taken in account the compromising nature of the position they’d been caught in, James Madison, spoke at last. He had thought of a way to keep Hamilton quiet on that which he saw while the conversation had followed its course.
“We’ve noticed some anomalies in the treasury’s funds. It sounds a lot like you were trying to make profit by abusing your position as its secretary.”
“Could you be more forward with the accusations you lay at my feet? Are you implying that I speculated with government funds? Derisive! And, even if I did, which of course, I did not , you are insinuating that my ponderations would lead me to a disgraced enough situation that I’d resort to indebting myself, the secretary of treasury, to a common man, and reimbursing the previously mentioned debt using OUR money, the money from our nation, which is already herself in a financial and political abyss, that fact indeed my good fellow, is aggravated by the persistence and stubbornness of southern states. It had been a great weight off my shoulder and an agreeable compromise when you both, after the great lengths I reached to find a proposition you would at least consider… ”
“ Hamilton! You’re rambling again. Do you never let your sentences end? Anyways. We have found traces of multiple checks paid to some Mr. James Reynolds, over an elongated period of time. I’m sure this is proof enough to convince Washington, right Thomas?”
“Hm? Maybe if Hamilton wasn’t the president’s favourite. He’ll doubt our intentions before seeing how obvious the treason is,” he answered, sounding bored to death with this whole affair.
“First off, gentlemen, I’m still there. Second, if you give me a minute, I can fetch the letter Mr. Reynolds sent me around 1791. It’ll be enough, I’m certain, to make you drop these silly claims you hold against me.”
“Go ahead, just knock before entering this time. You don’t want to hurt your pretty eyes with our indecent occupations once more,” Jefferson mocked.
“Couldn’t you have gone anywhere else for that? It’s going to be difficult to remain serious during future trials,” he said, not quite succeeding in hiding a smile. “And let’s not mention how unsanitary it is to do it on a floor that gets trampled on everyday by lawyers and defendants who most certainly don’t wipe their shoes before entering a room. Out of that, I don’t care much about what you like to do with your evenings. I’d be a fine one to talk.”
“Well they’ll have to get their soles cleaned when they return home tomorrow. Maybe we should put up a sign warning them to watch their step.”
“Please stop with the weird sexual allusions. It’s exhausting. And unexpected coming from you. Then again, we never spoke much without arguing about some sort of political subject. Or just arguing, period.” Simultaneously, he fought back the images threatening to invade his mind. There were more pressing matters at hand right now, such as not being falsely exposed as a traitor.
“I’m afraid your poor sleeping schedule plays its fair part in that fatigue of yours.”
The door’s brutal slamming created a sudden gust of wind. The three remaining men stared at the spot Hamilton previously occupied.
Needless to say, it didn’t take long before coats were back on the floor and hands eagerly resumed their work, caressing every exposed bit of skin they could get into contact with. Mouths jumped from lips to lips. They didn’t really care who was who at this point, not able to think beyond pleasure seeking. Jefferson, or maybe Burr’s mouth brushed against Madison’s throat, and then pressed a kiss to his Adam's apple. Madison’s hand blindly settled on a thigh, fingers digging in the soft skin. With the other, he grabbed a fistfull of curls and pulled on it. The man’s head jerked back with the strength of the tug.
“Shit Jamie,” he moaned.
It was rather unlikely that his colleague had heard him through the passionate kiss he and Burr were now exchanging. Watching their tongues tangle accompanied by soft, arousing noises for longer than reasonable increased his desire rather than making him feel left out. He allowed himself to drown in that pleasure before going on with the tracing of his friend’ s throat, going lower, drowning him in kisses, bruises and saliva, hovering around his sternum and at last burying his face in between sweat-pearled legs. He felt him shudder on his lips and he himself let out a muffled noise as Burr moved on from Madison to him, running his fingertips on Jefferson’s back, a blazing hot touch. When the man entered him after all the teasing, he almost choked.
He heard Madison mumble his nickname. Drops of sweat ran down his forehead and his knees threatened to give out with Burr’s last thrust. He could only manage a groan, for he was basically gagged by Madison’s cock as Burr pulled away. He could still feel him panting at his side. A hand settled back in his hair, with less strength this time. Wearing out. In lieu of a moan, a wheeze shook the man.The shortness of breath that came with any kind of physical activity generally triggered one of his regular coughing fits. His eyes became glassy with tears and Jefferson felt a pang of guilt at the sight. After all the Blowing the groundsils sessions they had, he knew how to predict James’s attacks and stopped before they happened. But he had been so preoccupied by Hamilton’s little fit that he had failed to recognize the signs. The poor man trembled like a leaf in the wind. He gasped and lurched forward to grasp at his handkerchief and spat out whatever it was that came up his throat. How his friend managed to pull it out of the bundle of rolled up, intentionally discarded clothes, that Thomas didn’t know.
“Thomas, my throat feels like the burning pits of hell,” he said when he could speak again, not without a painfully strained voice.
“And you think mine doesn't?”
Madison’s chuckle morphed into a wheezing cough within seconds. Jefferson’s hand reflexively flew to his back in support, apologetic.
Footsteps echoed through the depths of the room. Approaching.
Towering over the three men stood a fairly distraught Hamilton, holding out a letter for them to read. He should have expected that the ten minutes he’d spent searching would have been more than enough for them to get back to their business.
Burr snatched the letter and began to read it out loud:
“ Dear sir, I hope this letter finds you in good health
And in a prosperous enough position to put wealth in the pockets of people like me down on their luck
You see, that was my wife who you decided to-”
“WHAAAAT?!”
“She seduced me, we had an affair for a couple months, then I received that letter from her husband. She’d told me he was beating her, see, I only intended to help her financially until she’d find a way to overcome the delicate situation she was in. She seemed so… helpless. It just didn’t exactly go as I’d expected… Can you pretend you never heard of it? Eliza would be devastated.”
“Shouldn’t have cheated on her in the first place. But fine. Don’t you go tell Washington about what you saw tonight either and we’ll keep quiet.”
“ No one else was in the room where it happened ?”
“I wouldn’t have worded it better,” agreed Burr.
If three out of four of them weren’t naked on the floor, they might have shook on it. Instead, Hamilton took his letter back and left. He’d accepted that his office was the only place where he could write for the night. What he’d witnessed in that courtroom would likely never leave his mind.
He pretended not to see them get out in line as he walked down the hallway.
“ Nobody needs to know ,” he thought.