if there's one thing alexander hamilton can't stand, it's everything. waking up every morning and going to school only to be beaten to a pulp. the only foothold he has is his brain; the only thing keeping him afloat in the world trying so desperately to make him drown. for the last five years of his life, alex felt like everything, and everyone, was against him.

well, fuck everything.

today was another average morning. alex would wake up, eat breakfast with eddie and the others. he'd go to school and try to be invisible for as long as possible. he was starting to get good at it; if he could keep his mouth shut. which was never. then he'd head home, do his homework, eat dinner with eddie and the others, go to sleep.

wash, rinse, repeat.

except, today turned out to not be another average morning. as eddie wiped the sleep from his eyes and bounced down the stairs, he noticed the overwhelming quiet. usually, you could hear alex tapping away on that laptop of his. but this morning was eerily quiet.

at first, the note scared the small boy. eddie knew what had happened to alexander and not seeing him but seeing a note made his breath catch. he rushed over to the kitchen table to read the letter, which turned out to be a note three-pages long that could be summarized as "i'm running away." eddie sighed of slight relief, although he couldn't shake the feeling that this was going to end absolutely terribly.

alexander, on the other hand, was feeling confident and joyed as he skipped down the highway, his backpack firmly on his shoulders. he might've only been 14, but he was actually pretty strong, despite his skinny figure. And he was anything but tall.

"just you and me, ghostie." alex mumbled, his eyes hovering to his pack, where his laptop hid. miss and mister stevens, after adopting him, had quickly discovered his talent and almost need for writing and provided him with a laptop to 'do whatever you like with'. he hoped they didn't mind that he took it with him.

he didn't honestly know what he was doing; there was a youth home he could hide out in if he wanted, but he knew how those worked and that they'd try to find his parents. or at least, his adoptive parents. and he really didn't want to do that.

the thing that worried him most was eddie. he really liked eddie and he was sweet, it made alex ache to know that all he left was a short note(in the form of a long note). eddie and him had grown close over the few months that alex had lived in his household, and the two young teens looked shockingly similar. the same dark, thick hair and gray-green eyes. some people even assumed they were biological brothers. but it would be much to easy of a life for alexander if they had been.

he jumped slightly as a rumble sounded in the distance. a warning of a storm on its way. shivering slightly, alex quickened his pace. he needed to find shelter; being out in a storm was not his idea of a good day. at all.

it took a while, but alex had managed to find an unoccupied bridge at an exit just as the rain started to fall. the soft pitter patter of the rain didn't soothe alex, however. in fact, it seemed to only make him more anxious. his breath sped up and became ragged as thunder rolled overhead. the top fell from the sky as a downpour began, so thick that alex could barely see more than a few feet out onto the roads. he desperately clutched onto his knees, shrinking and trying to be as small as possible.

"th-they said it wasn't going to r-rain..." he mumbled, looking out into the endless sheets of dark rain. usually when it rained, he would go hide in the basement. but there was no basement in his little bridge, and there was no way he was heading back home in this weather. the panic swelled up inside him as a bolt of lightning crackled, and the thunder was deafening. it was all too much, too soon.

as his vision swam, the last thing alex remembered seeing was a boy about his age, dark curly hair and freckles like the starry sky. big brown eyes, tanned skin, simple clothes. and alex knew it wasn't an angel, but he thought so all the same.

little did he know, he was right, in a way.