Marquis de Lafayette could only be described as a stereotypical bad boy; Whether he was wearing it or not, he was always adorning his signature leather jacket, his skin was littered with black tattoos, he was tall and strong, his hair was always tousled in that 'yeah, I'm sexy without trying' way, he could ride a motorcycle (not that his parents would ever approve of him doing so, but he could), and everybody in the school pined over him.

John Laurens wasn't. He was almost exactly the opposite, as a matter of fact. John was small, in every way. He was shy, on the honor roll, only 5'3, a mess of curls adorned his face; If you looked up the definition of soft in a dictionary, a picture of John Laurens would show up.

They went to a small school, less than 300 people, so everybody knew everybody. You could hate somebody, but you would still know their entire life story.

Everybody knew who John was for more than one reason, the main one being his family was rich. His father, Henry, was a big farmer and knew how to play the stocks. The Laurens had by far the nicest house in the town along with the next like ten town over, John's mother only let him and his siblings dress in the nicest, newest clothes, and they had the only luxury cars in the school parking lot. It was almost as if they were the Cullen children, if you will. People chased after all of the kids, but many aimed for only John. He didn't mind, but it wasn't something he appreciated. He never dated, wanting someone to like him for him and not for his father's money.

Lafayette had had his eye on John since they had met. It had been a brief introduction, but it had stuck with the boy. The first day of freshmen year, Lafayette had just said goodbye to his group of friends before turning a corner. At the same time, John had been talking to his sister, completely oblivious to his surroundings as he rounded the same corner, running straight into the other. John was knocked backwards, seeing as he was almost a full foot shorter than Lafayette and weighed only half of him. Before he could stop himself, Laf reached forward and pulled John up before he had the chance to fall. By the time he was upright again, John was as red as he could get.

"Than-Thanks," John managed to stutter out, his eyes diverting to the ground.

Lafayette finally let go of the other before simply nodding, "Uh, yeah, no problem," He replied, accent piling on thick, "Maybe one day you can return the favor," He had joked before nodding again and walking around the siblings.

John's face didn't return to the normal shade for the rest of the day.

Fast forward to their senior year, and Lafayette still had his eye on John.

Of course, Lafayette had had many significant others over the years, after all he was a teenage boy, but nothing made him forget about John.

However, knowing fully well that John didn't date, Lafayette never acted on this crush.

And then one day in chemistry, everything changed.

Lafayette had been half-asleep while their teacher called out lab partners for the next semester.

"Laurens and Lafayette," She said before moving onto the next pair.

Instantly, Lafayette was rejuvenated. He tried not to make his stare obvious as the small boy slowly gathered his stuff and walked over to where Lafayette was sitting.

"Um, hi," He said as he sat down.

Lafayette just gave him a small smile, trying to remain nonchalant while bursting inside.

Their first experiment is whenever Lafayette's life changed.

Hydrochloric acid was what they had been messing with that day. They had it measured out whenever Laf reached to get something, knocking the beaker over. Before anything could spill, however, John had the beaker upright.

"Thanks," Laf stuttered out, one of the first words he had said to John that hadn't been about chemistry.

"No problem," John replied, patting Lafayette on the shoulder, "Now we can consider my debt paid."

It took Lafayette a moment to register what John meant, but once he did he thought he could die from happiness; John had remembered!

Caught in an awkward tangle of words, Lafayette just cleared his throat and shut up while John went to grab something else for the experiment.

"Don't spill anything," He joked as he walked away.

Lafayette laughed to himself, raising his hand onto the desk as he watched John. He shifted and before he knew it, hydrochloric acid was everywhere. This, of course, had ended with him in the emergency shower, soaking as the bell rang.

"I told you not to spill anything," John joked as he met Lafayette by the door, "Do you want to maybe go get some dry clothes?"

Lafayette flushed red, looking down at his soaked posterior, "Um, yeah, that'd be nice."

With that, the two boys left an hour early. John led Lafayette to his car, leaving the other boy with wide eyes, "It's a lot, I know," John mumbled, opening the drivers door, ducking inside.

"It's amazing," Lafayette replied, running his eyes over the leather interior.

John flushed red again, turning the key in the ignition, "Mercedes C-class," He replied, "It's supposed to be like the best of the best."

They chatted about the car for a little while before John interrupted.

"Do you want me to take you to your house o-"

"No," Lafayette interrupted, louder than he had expected to, "Just preferably not," There was nothing wrong with his house, but after seeing just John's car he was slightly embarrassed by the little house his parents had bought ten years prior when they first moved to America.

John was slightly startled by the eagerness in Laf's voice, but he passed it off, "We can go back to my house then, I'm sure one of my brothers owns something that'll fit you," He said, turning onto one road after another until they finally arrived at the house.

For the second time that day, Lafayette's eyes went huge. In all of his life, he had never seen a house as big. It was easily five floors, an iron gate adorning the permitter.

"Everything you're going to see in the next ten minutes is going to be a lot," John warned as he parked his car, taking the seatbelt off.

Lafayette followed him into the house, eyes never returning to normal size until they were in John's bedroom. The room was huge, but it was more modest than the rest of the house. Laf sat in a chair by a desk while John went to search through his brother's closests.

Whenever he returned, he had a fresh set of clothes in his hands. He handed them to Laf, sitting on his bed, "You can keep those," He said quietly, "James won't notice if they're gone," He pointed to a door close to where Lafayette was sitting, "That's the bathroom so you can change now if you want."

Laf nodded as he stood, going to the door, "Thank you," He said as he walked into the room where he swore every surface was marble. He ran his hands over the countertop again and again before finally changing, leaving his soaked clothes in the shower to dry, "This house is gorgeous," He informed John as he walked back out.

John shrugged, looking up at Lafayette, "You get used to it," He admitted.

"I never would," Lafayette said as he sat back down, putting his hands behind his head.

"What's that," John asked, nodding to the black ink that adorned Laf's tricep. He had never seen it before, and it seemed to be something John couldn't read.

Laf barely glanced at it before responding, "Intrépide," He responded, his native tongue flowing easily from his lips, "Fearless," He translated, seeing John's confused expression.

"How- How many do you have?" John asked, moving closer to look at Laf's arms.

Lafayette shrugged, "Too many to remember," He tugged down his collar a bit to reveal his collarbone, "You are your only limit," He told John, "Vous êtes votre seule limite."

"Are they all in French?" John asked, eyes pouring over Laf's skin.

Lafayette laughed, and John's heart fluttered, "Most of them, yes," He replied with a shrug, "It's one way to remember my homeland, not that I could ever forget." He turned to the side to reveal an Eiffel Tower behind his ears, adorned by the French flag.

John's face lit up as Lafayette turned back around, "Come with me," Is all he said.

"Where?" Lafayette asked, titling his head.

"Wherever you got all of those done, I want one," John said as he stood, grabbing his keys.

Lafayette just went with it following John to his car, giving him directions to his tattoo parlor.

Once the car was parked, John gripped the wheel, hesitating before getting out.

"Wait," Lafayette said, stopping John right by the door, "You're sure you want to do this?"

John nodded, taking a deep breathe, "Yeah, I'm sure."

Lafayette didn't argue more as they went inside. Once situated, John explained what he wanted.

"It's something my grandfather taught me," He explained, "No puede llover para siempre; It can't rain forever," Taking in Laf's face, John laughed, "You're not the only one with the ability to kind of speak another language," Laurens teased.

"But I don't 'kind of' do it, I can do it," Lafayette reminded him as they walked back into a booth.

As the man started to prep John's skin, the realization of what they were doing hit him, "My dad's going to kill me," He whispered to nobody in particular. Not that he minded, it's not like he could back out now; He had already paid and he didn't want to look like a complete loser in front of Lafayette.

Nobody replied, instead the buzz of the tattoo gun filled the silence. John's nerves finally got the best of him, and before he could register what he was doing his free hand shot out and grabbed Lafayette's for comfort.

Lafayette stilled at the movement, not sure what to do, so they just sat like that through the entire process of the tattooing. Lafayette didn't even notice it was done until John let go of his hand, that brought the other man back into reality.

John was standing now, admiring the new ink that adorned his forearm, "Are you hungry?" He asked as they walked through the doors, not waiting for an answer, "Let's get dinner."

Laf didn't argue as he followed John to his car again, trying to make a plan in his head. He had to tell John, he had to. He couldn't keep it in anymore.

The car ride was mostly filled with silence, John not talking again until they pulled up to a cute little French cafe outside of town, "Thought you might want to feel at home," He teased as he undid his seatbelt, getting out of the car.

Lafayette chuckled as he followed behind, "Ah, thank you, but it's nothing like home."

"Well maybe one day you can show me what it's really like."

Lafayette could have swore his heart rate doubled as he uttered one word, "Maybe."

They absentmindedly chatted for a while before ordering. Whenever silence filled the air again, Lafayette began to talk.

"So, um, there's something we need to talk about," Lafayette started to say, "It all started the first day of highschool an-"

"Oh, we don't have to talk about that," John said, face flushing red, "But thanks for coming over today. I would have never done this without you," He looked down at his arm before speaking again, "I've always wanted one, but I've been too scared."

"If we're doing things that scare us then I guess I should do this," Before the words could register with either of them, their lips were crashed together in a heated flurry. After a moment, Lafayette pulled back to hastily apologize, "I'm sorry, I just couldn't, I don't k-"

John's mouth was on his again to shut him up, before he pulled back to look up at Lafayette, "Maybe you should spill hydrochloric acid on yourself more often."