Oh my gosh thank you guys so much for 2k reads that is absolutely insaneee!!!!!

It's October 21.

That gives Alexander one week to find the absolute best gift idea ever imaginable for John's birthday. He had a few ideas, but he wanted to make sure whatever he went with would be perfect.

Alexander took birthday gifts very seriously. He didn't particularly cherish getting them, and he couldn't help but feel guilty whenever somebody did get him one. However, if you ever needed advice on giving a gift then Alex was the guy to go to. His gifts were always incredibly sentimental. He was a good writer, and took pride in his ability to write tear-provoking letters inside of cards.

But John... well, John made his life a little bit difficult. He was not an easy person to shop for. He was stubborn and refused to give ideas for gifts, insisting he didn't need one. That's what was taking Alexander so long. For the first time in a long time, Alex didn't know if his gift was good enough. He made a resolution to snoop around John's apartment sometime soon. But for now, he would just have to try and come up with something.

A couple days later, Alexander found his chance. He was staying the night, and John had decided to shower that evening. Alex took it as his chance to look around John's room. John really didn't care when Alex did this. After the nail polish situation, John had realized this was something that Alex had a tendency to do. And in all honesty, Alex wasn't very good at finding things, so John never had to worry.

However, tonight Alex did find something. Inside John's nightstand, Alexander found something that caught him off guard. Art supplies. Obviously John was an art teacher, but Alex didn't realize he did personal art. He had never mentioned it. It was cheap stuff, nothing very nice, and all of it looking very worn out and well used. Next to them was a small sketchbook, that also looked worn. It was probably originally black, but at this point was a dark, dusty grey. Alex gently picked up the book, knowing it was not fragile, but treating it as if.

He opened the book and started to page through it. The drawings and paintings inside it were amazing. There were drawings of turtles, Alex believed them to be soft-shelled turtles. There were painting of flowers, and leaves, and birds, especially woodpeckers on trees. Each and every one was signed by John Laurens. Alexander tried to keep his mouth from dropping at the pure talent of his boyfriend, which had been completely hidden from his knowledge. Alex got to one of the last pages, where a list fell out.

It was a list of art supplies.

Specifically, a list of art supplies that John wanted to buy. Judging by the state of his current art supplies, he wouldn't be buying any supplies anytime soon. Alex took his phone out and snapped a picture of the list, then quickly put the list back into the book where it had fallen out. He put the book back into the spot where he found it and closed the drawer. He walked back into the living room and sat onto the couch. Just in time too, for the second he sat down he heard the shower stop running. A couple minutes later John came back out, unsuspecting of anything. Alex simply smiled to himself.

He had a gift idea now.

I just looked up today why everybody associates John with turtles, and when I found out why I knew I had to incorporate it into the story

Also, sorry if these updates are a little less frequent. I'm writing another story right now, but the chapters are a long longer, so it's pretty time consuming