Lafayette knocked on the door to their left. Hercules stood awkwardly on watch to make sure Washington didn't see his new tenants' bloody face and John held Alex steady.

The door opened to reveal a man their age too, holding coffee in one hand. "L-Laf?"

"Aaron, we need the assistance of James."

"He's sleeping... What's wrong?"

"Urgent things?"

The man looked around Lafayette and his jaw dropped open at the sight of Alex in John's' arms. "C-Come in, I'll wake him up now!" And he ushered them in.

John assisted Alex to a sofa, sitting him down. Hercules and Lafayette hung awkwardly as the man with the coffee disappeared into a room. After a few minutes, a small man with curly hair ran through the door the previous man had entered, looking thoroughly pissed.

"Do you three know what time it is?" The man said angrily as he pulled out a draw in the coffee table Alex hadn't noticed.

Lafayette hesitated. "One in the afternoon?"

"10:30 am. On a bloody Saturday!" The man shouted crossly as he pulled out a medicine kit. He coughed into the crook of his elbow as he opened it up. "Do you know why I like Saturdays, Marquis de Lafayette? I don't need to get up early for college. Do you know why I hate you so much sometimes?"

Lafayette thought for a moment and smiled nervously. "I'm prettier than your boyfriend?"

"You always want to ruin my Saturdays." The man corrected.

"Oh." There was a moment of silence as the small man pressed cotton wool against Alex's' bloody nose. Then Lafayette spoke again. "That's a different answer from last time, James."

The small man, James, sighed loudly. "And what was the last answer?"

"That I was prettier than your boyfriend."

"I was drunk, Laf. Am I not allowed to drink-?" His sentence was interrupted by vigorous coughing and Alex recoiled.

John put an arm around his new roommate's' shoulder. "Don't worry. Jimmy boy here can do everything except cure his own cold. It's not infectious, trust me. I saw him accidently cough into Hercules's' drink a few months and watched him down it and he's not ill yet!"

"You what?" Frowned Hercules.

Suddenly, there was a loud bang and a dramatic gasp. "Oh, Jemmy! My heart cannot withstand this! Why must you do this to me, my sweet agony? Four men at once while I was only in the other room?! How do I stand against this pain as you hurt me so?"

James sighed, padding the final bits of blood from Alex's' nose. "A simple 'Good morning' would have done, Thomas."

Alex tried to turn around but James hit his knee and he jolted back again. Everyone else, however, seemed to grin and wave, chorusing, "Hi, Thomas."

"Sweet agony?" Mouthed Alex with a snigger at James.

The man glared up at him. "You know, I could just as easily break your nose even more if you say another word."

Footsteps from behind him, and suddenly a frizzy afro of black hair entered Alex's' vision. "Damn, your face is hella fucked up, man! How'd that happen?" Laughed the man who Alex assumed to be Thomas.

"John slammed his door into this guy's' face," Hercules explained, his voice a little distant as if he were in the kitchen. The smell of peeled banana confirmed that, along with the sound of Hercules munching away on something.

Alex glanced about and opened his mouth to say something when James spoke over him. "Remember exactly what I said about breaking your nose, kid. It's nearly fixed and I really wouldn't like to start all over again. So please: shut up."

And as his new roommates laughed, Alexander felt like he was in very good company.