Requested by: Fandom-Geek

"I'm really cold, can we please go inside?" John huffed, rubbing his hands together. From living in South Carolina his whole life, he disliked the freezing weather in New York. The skies were gray, with occasional wind gusts that knocked him off his feet.

Pulling out his phone, he checked his texts to distract himself. When he found that no one had texted him within the last hour, he shoved it back in his pocket and crossed his arms.

He suddenly felt someone embrace him from behind. "We'll only be a few more minutes, John. If you're that cold, take my coat." John blushed profusely at the boy behind him.

"No, you don't-" But he had no chance to protest, as he felt the other boy put his heavy winter jacket on top of his shoulders. Letting out a sigh of defeat, he mumbled, "Thank you, Alexander."

Alexander stepped up beside the younger boy to walk with him. "My pleasure." The way he said it made the freckled boy grin.

Their moment was disrupted by their two other friends, who came up behind them, laughing loudly. Lafayette, with his hair a messy wreck, started chanting a song he had heard earlier that day. On the other side, Hercules wrapped an arm around Alexander, swinging them back and forth cheerily.

"Those girls a block back were just whoa. The things I would do-" Lafayette started to talk, but Hercules cut him off.

"Nah, they only wanted you because you have that accent." He poked fun at the other boy, only to receive a disappointed pout. Lafayette shrugged a few times, before breathing loudly.

Pointing a finger at Hercules, he muttered under his breath, "You know they wanted more than just this accent in their life." Both boys made noises, clearly sharing an inside joke.

Sick of the noise, Alexander interjected, "You two, all you do is flirt. What are you going to do when you want a serious relationship?" There was a pause of silence. Whenever Alexander spoke up, it took the boys quite some thinking to respond.

Hercules cleared his throat before saying, "We are sophomores, Alex. I don't think any of us are worried about real relationships."

Before Alexander could say something, he was cut off. Lafayette made a noise and smirked to himself. "Well, we know you were making eyes at Eliza today." He paused. "And she was flirting right back with you. Care to tell us what that was about?"

Alexander felt his cheeks turn red. When his friends caught him without anything to say, he became anxious. "I-I was just trying to make conversation, she's a nice gi-"

Shaking his head, he stopped himself. "Why do you guys even care? It doesn't affect you." With a threatening tone he said, "But don't you go after her, okay?"

Lafayette chuckled. "I would never do that to you, Alex. If you really want her though, you gotta do something epic." Alexander looked eagerly at his friend, as if asking for some sort of suggestion. Lafayette made him frown when he said, "But don't expect me to give you an ideas."

All the while they had been talking, John had been walking in silence. He had no idea that Alexander was interested in Eliza Schuyler. It would be stupid to say it aloud, but he thought that the two of them had something.

They were close friends. Sometimes it felt like they were more, and John guessed he just misjudged that. But it still broke him to hear his friend was chasing some girl.

Trying to shake that off, he looked up at the sky. To his surprise, a few flurries of snow was starting to fall. He shouted, "Guys, look!" As the flakes began to fall, he heard Alexander beside him gasp.

John looked over at his friend. There were tears in his eyes. A little startled, John placed a hand on his shoulder. "Are you alright?"

When he heard him speak, Alexander wiped his eyes. "Oh, I'm fine. It's just..." He trailed off, looking back up at the sky.

Hercules noticed and pulled out his phone, taking a video of the sky and then his friend. It was something he did quite often, capturing the moment on a screen.

"I've never seen snow before."

All three of his friends gasped. Hercules spun the camera towards Alexander, while Lafayette laughed in surprise. John stood with his mouth agape, watching his friend. "What?" They all cried out the single word in shock.

Alexander clutched John's hand all of a sudden. It surprised both of them. "Yeah, I haven't ever seen...snow." There was silence, and the four of them stood in the middle of the street, looking up at the white flakes.

When he felt himself getting more emotional at the sight, Alexander tightened his grip on John's hand instinctively. Neither of them stopped the interaction, as it comforted them.

The flakes fell to ground almost too elegantly with a grace that astonished the boys. Hercules whooped with laughter, jumping around all of a sudden and opening his mouth to catch them.

Taking a chance, Alexander let go of John's hand and opened his mouth as well, in an attempt to catch the snow. At the first touch of the icy flakes, he shut his mouth and swallowed. He barely got a taste, for it evaporated in the warmth of his mouth.

Smiling to himself, he opened his mouth for more. The other boys were encouraged to see his excitement.

For what felt like hours, when it only was a few minutes, they twirled around, occasionally gasping and laughing. Not even a text message from a pretty girl could stop their fun.

John placed a hand on his forehead as the storm began to pick up. He grabbed Alexander and said, "I think we can all agree it's freezing out here." The boys nodded but didn't say anything. John nudged his friend, who was still mesmerized in the snowflakes.

Remembering that he was wearing his coat, he took it off and wrapped it around Alexander. It made both of them link hands again, trying to conserve warmth.

Lafayette raised an eyebrow at the sight of his friends holding hands. He knew they weren't unfamiliar with the comfort of each other, it just seemed a little too much at times.

Putting on his beanie as the flakes began to stick to his curls, Lafayette urged them all along. "Yeah, let's get going. Soon we'll be knee deep in this sh-"

Hercules shushed his friend, nodding to make him quiet down. The moment was peaceful, and if one person ruined it, it would be gone in the blink of an eye.

With a grumble of disapproval, Lafayette kicked his feet against the pavement. But he managed to smile, feeling at home in the weather and being with his friends.

And so the four schoolboys walked home, to wherever home might be. Two of them linking hands, while the others poked fun at each other like they usually did. The snow was picking up, practically blowing them around.

But none of them minded. It was a moment each of them would secretly keep close to them for the rest of their days.

. . . . . . . . . .
A/N: Thank you Fandom-Geek for the request! This was kind of my first time working with a AU, and modern for that matter. I quite liked it, especially getting to make their characters similar but different in a modern universe.