"What the f-" John caught himself before cursing in the nice restaurant. Him and Alexander were out for Alex's birthday, but Alex wouldn't let John say anything about his birthday. They were having a casual conversation when John felt a paper airplane hit him in the side of the head. Alex stifled a laugh. Before looking around, John unfolded it, noticing some writing on it. There was a crudely written apology.

"What does it say?" Alex asked as John scanned the room, looking for a particular face. Alex grabbed the note and started searching for the same person. And sure enough, there he was, dining with his boyfriend at the exact same time as these two.

Jefferson.

Alex waved briefly, trying not to look at Thomas. John glared at the man, suddenly understanding how Alex felt when he learned about John and Thomas's past. Thomas started getting up to walk over, despite immense protesting from James. He walked up to their booth, trying to be as quiet as possible.

"Y'know, it was smart of you to talk to us in a fancy restaurant so that I can't yell your ear off," John said. Alex kicked John's shin from under the table and cleared his throat.

"What did you come over here for, Jefferson?" Alex asked. Thomas cringed at his last name, considering Alex had slowly been using his first name more and more often before.

"Since paper airplanes aren't the best way to communicate, I wanted to come over and formally apologize," Thomas explained. Alex smiled at the joke, while John tried to ignore Thomas's existence. "So, yeah, I'm sorry." Despite sounding incredibly awkward, the apology was undeniably genuine. Alex nodded.

"It's... it's okay," Alex said. He glanced over at John. "Looks like I'm not the one you need to apologize to," Alex said, trying not to smile at his boyfriend's protectiveness. Thomas sighed.

"Yeah, um, John, I'm really sorry," Thomas said, unsure of what else to say. John turned to face him and sighed.

"Why should I forgive you a second time? How many more times will I have to forgive for being a piece of shit?" John asked, voice cold. Thomas nodded.

"I deserved that... it's just, I wasn't thinking about what I was saying and I said it, but I didn't mean it, I really am sorry," Thomas continued apologizing profusely until John cut him off.

"If I forgive you will you shut up?" John asked. Thomas nodded frantically. "Okay, fine, I forgive you, but never, EVER say that shit about my boyfriend ever again," John warned.

"I wouldn't, even if you hadn't said that," Thomas assured him. He quickly went back over to his, cringing boyfriend, after a glare from a waiter who was trying to bring food through.

"I'm surprised, normally you're the first to forgive people," Alex pointed out. John shrugged.

"That's what he gets for saying shit about my boyfriend," John said bluntly. Alex rolled his eyes playfully.

"You're such a helicopter boyfriend," Alex teased.

"Guilty as charged," John laughed as the waiter came over with the food.

Oof this is bad but I needed a transition chapter where Thomas is forgiven because I like Thomas and I have been too busy/stressed to update so I needed to update quickly, but yeah the next one will be better hopefully