Growing up in New York City meant that one was long used to the constant sights and sounds of the city, the availability of resources, and the frigid winters. Someone who grew up in the Caribbean had no such luck, and though the city was his adoptive home, Eliza pitied her boyfriend, she truly did.

"Oh come on," Angelica implored as said boyfriend sat stubbornly on their couch, his hair and outline of his eyes the only parts of him visible beneath his amassed heap of blankets he had tightly wrapped around himself. "It's not that bad. You should've seen this past winter-"

"Papa fell down so many times he lost count!" Peggy interjected with a grin across her youthful face. "And Mama always had it so hot in here that we couldn't freeze if we tried! Besides, it's only November. What're ya gonna do when it's January?"

"Perish slowly, I reckon," the older boy mumbled around his layers, pulling them tighter if it was possible.

"You're just being a baby!" Eliza's younger sister announced, turning her attention away from the trio of older children to readdress piling on her own gear to head outside.

"I didn't even know temperatures could drop below 0," Alexander grumbled unhappily. "You can't possibly expect me to be thrilled about freezing to death. I came all the way from across the sea just to die in the city that was supposed to save me. Thanks, Martha, George, you really did me a solid."

"If you'd get up and get dressed properly, you wouldn't be so miserable!" Angelica reminded, reaching behind her head to unleash her curls from where they'd been trapped under her scarf, coats and headgear. "If you don't hurry up, we're going to leave both of you behind. Riverside Park waits for no one!"

Riverside was relatively new to the Schuyler children; their younger days had been spent on much tamer slopes across their home city, or even on their own property. As they grew older and more experienced in sledding, however, it became their parents' mission to find a suitable place for their offspring to occupy and not complain of boredom, and they'd found it this past winter in Hippo Park. She herself would have had no issue staying on the tamer courses- she found the families and ease of it all quite relaxing- but her sisters were absolutely persistent. Now she was dressed head to toe in proper attire, and the only thing left was to somehow convince her partner to do the same.

"Sledding is fun," she told him with a fond smile. "Once you get started, you'll never stop."

"Maybe I don't want to get started," Alexander grumbled, pulling one of his layers over his head entirely. "I'm not going to mess up your house. Hell, I'll ever get George to come get me, but I refuse to- HEY!"

Before the middle sister could process it, the eldest sister had unceremoniously dumped their guest into the floor, having seized the ends of most of his blankets and yanking up with gusto to rival the strongest of men. Alex glared at her from his position on the floor, waving off his girlfriend when she tried to help him up with a burning red face, but Angie simply smirked and dropped the linens into a heap on the couch.

"Now you don't have an excuse!" She announced smugly. "Get your lazy butt up before it gets too crowded out there!"

"What a shame that would be," the immigrant scoffed, but his expression softened slightly when his girlfriend gently took his hands despite his earlier protests.

"It will be fun," she reminded with a patient smile. "Come on now, Papa and Mama didn't buy you those clothes for them to go to waste."

She was well aware he never asked for them to do so before he said it, and simply dismissed it with a shake of her head and fond eye roll while corralling him into one of their many guest bathrooms. Moving countries mere months earlier had to be extremely difficult to get used to, especially when having been adopted by the prestigious Washington family was his unwelcome ticket in, but she'd been smitten with him throughout all of his temper tantrums, his occasional roughness and cruelty, and his constantly short fuse. Of course it may be silly to expect she'd found "the one" at the tender age of fifteen, but she couldn't imagine herself with any other young man for the rest of her days. As she stood attentively outside the bathroom he was now (hopefully) changing in, her heart panged for reassurance that he felt the same, which he never gave without being prompted. She didn't blame him, not really- Mama had taught her boys were always dense in matters of the heart before being trained by a woman- but it still festered as the door swung up and he waddled out, looking quite skewed and very breathless.

"They really want me to wear three pairs of socks?" The fifteen year old boy demanded, a look of pure disbelief on his face. "What's wrong with just one? I won't fit into those boots with this many!"

"You definitely will," she assured easily. "They're made to accommodate more clothes, which is what makes them winter boots. You somehow have all your clothes on crooked, and your hat is backwards...Surely it got a little cold in the Caribbean, Alexander!"

"We have two very different definitions of cold, my dear," he retorted with a bashful grin, and her heart fluttered with hope at the pet name he reserved exclusively for her.

She straightened his clothing with renewed confidence, her thin fingers gracefully pulling his wild hair away from all of his new protection and making him look worthy to be in the presence of her prestigious family. Her parents hadn't been displeased when she first began bringing him around- he was the Washington's foster, after all- but they certainly grew tired of his constantly unkempt appearance and abrasive, blunt nature that had their mother blushing and throwing fits when he left. As she admired her handwork, she self-consciousnessly reached to tuck in and smooth out her own appearance, a natural instinct to the middle daughter of one of the richest families in all of the country, much less simply New York. Before she could groom herself, she found her small hands brought into Alexander's larger, more calloused ones that were deeply colored compared to her own.

"You look beautiful," he assured as if he could read her mind. "You're always flawless, Betsey. I don't know why you preen like you don't know how stunning you are."

A warm blush coated her cheeks, his fingers curling inside his own and taking great comfort in the way his eyes were intently trained on her own. "It must be force of habit."

He smiled kindly and planted a sweet kiss on the tip of her nose right as her mother strode in, looking at her wits end as she was trailed by Eliza's younger brothers. "Hurry along, you two, we're already late for when we wanted to be there!"

"Yes Mama," Eliza replied politely at once, keeping one of Alex's hands firmly in her own as she made her way toward the exit.

"Don't be upset with her, ma'am," Alex said with a good natured grin toward the matriarch. "She was making sure I didn't look like the Caribbean rat I am."

"Alexander!" The middle eldest sister proclaimed, but before they could dwindle on his comment, they were rushed out the door by Angelica and a very impatient Peggy and herded into the carriage their father had insisted they all ride in to look proper and eloquent against the falling snow.

Just as she'd expected, Alexander absolutely loved sledding, even if he was no good at it. He wiped out far more than he glided gracefully, which amused his close friends who'd also happened to this spot in New York- southern hailing charmer John Laurens, the determined French immigrant Gilbert de Lafayette, the rough and tumble sweetheart Hercules Mulligan, and the ever-poisoned and rigid Aaron Burr- to no end along with her closest sisters. This was merely fuel to his fire, of course, and soon he was sweaty, scarlet-faced and shivering from head to toe. It took Lafayette's tackling and Laurens' prodding to finally get him over to the blanket her mother had set up to talk with the other parents. Eliza, who had retired just before to drink some hot chocolate they'd packed, offered a mug of the same to her partner, who happily took it and began drinking it in long swigs.

"It's so sweet!" He proclaimed, a childish grin breaking across his rosy face. "God, this is the stuff of dreams where I come from!"

She tucked her legs to the side and leaned against his chest, shivering contently as his body heat reached her through their clothes. "Tell me more?"

Alex didn't talk about his home too often- he'd only recently come around to doing so- but she could listen as long as he'd be willing to explain and recount. She listened with the utmost attentiveness as her siblings came and went, and as his friends continued rough-housing and snowball fighting with the other teenagers and children in the area. He was just describing a traditional dish his mother loved to make when a clump of snow came from seemingly nowhere, clocking him right in the nose and sending him reeling backwards from shock of impact.

"Alexander!" She yelped at once, leaning over her bewildered boyfriend. "Are you alright?"

"Direct hit!" Laurens was screeching in delight, kicking up the snow around him. "And there's nothin' you can do about it, Hamilton!"

"Wanna bet?!" Her companion roared, his content smile immediately traded for a wild grin.

As it turned out, he had no idea how to snowball fight at first, and his idea of revenge was wrestling his friend to the ground while shoving ice down the others shirt. Eventually the game continued as it should, and she put all of her questions aside for later as she joined in the festivities, which of course became a competition between both girls and boys. Elizabeth Schuyler was far from the bragging type, but the ladies completely wiped the field with the boys, and despite their complaints if they went again the roles would be reserved, everyone's parents insisted it was time to call peace and head inside to get warm.

"That was such a blast!" Her Alex was puffing as he stripped out of his layers, all of his clothes finding their way in a crumpled heap at his feet once they'd returned home for lunch. "When can we go back?"

"Once everybody has eaten and napped, I reckon," her father replied with a small smile, casting at the youngest members of the family and her very exhausted mother. "Make yourself comfortable in the meantime."

Happy to oblige, she prepared both of them servings of soup and sandwiches from their servants' work, allowing them to sit in content silence as they ate and later retired to the couch, where Alex broke out his cell phone to start come kind of argument on the Internet. The sight of Peggy, who'd stuffed her face minutes before and who was now sound asleep on one of the beanbags, inspired the middle sister enough to lean heavily into her romantic interest before dozing off herself .When she woke once more, she was surprised to find him unaffected by the lull across the mansion, his piercing eyes still intently watching his screen as he fingers flew across the keyboard.

"Why don't you take a break?" She implored softly.

"Hm?" He only now seemed to take notice of her again, his face coloring slightly. "I can't, Betsey, that asshole Jefferson is trying to humiliate me in front of everyone and I won't let it stand!"

She sighed softly; the older student at their high school was going to the bane of both of their existences. Begrudgingly, she decided she ought to stay awake if he was to do the same, but this opened her mind up to the insecurities that had been plaguing her all day.

Of course Alexander insisted he usually used his Internet to argue with people, but he could just as easily be chatting up a million other girls, ones that were far more 'homegrown' or even from his homeland than herself. She'd not missed the way he looked to her beautiful, confident older sister, or even the way he seemed to take every opportunity he could to touch his best friend. He'd also insinuated they thought of him like a Caribbean rat, and though he may joke like that often, it was rarely so bluntly and in front of her parents. It was quite possible that is how he honestly felt they regarded him- it was no secret he was convinced his foster parents kept him as an 'act of self-righteous charity' so why would she or her family be an exception to his flawed logic? What if he was only with her to make himself feel like someone important, someone who could boost his image and make him fit in more with the elites, and as soon as someone more meaningful came along, he'd bail?

"Betsey?" Her beloved's voice brought her back to the present, but it was too late to stop the tears of fear from budding in her eyes. "You're being awfully qu- Oh my God, are you crying? Eliza, what's wrong?"

She looked onto him with sad brown eyes, her face flushing with shame. "I-it's stupid, I'm sorry, g-go back to your argument."

"I already got him to log off," Alex assured with a soft voice she rarely got the pleasure of hearing, his hand cupping her face gently as he brought her closer to him yet. "Even if I hadn't, I'm worried about my pretty girl in blue. What's got you so upset?"

With a shy sniffle, she pressed her cheek into his palm and confessed, "I just…You get so wrapped up with all the things you have to do, and I support you, but…Well, sometimes I worry you really think we think of you like some project from overseas, or that I'm just a placeholder until you can find someone more like you."

For a moment, the other fifteen year old was quiet, and she felt her heart drop to her stomach. Then she was pressed into his slightly sweaty, very Alexander-scented shirt, and all of her fears began melting away when he squeezed her tightly and planted unmistakable kisses wherever he could reach on her head.

"I'm not so good with words," he finally said. "I mean, I can write until my fingers bleed, but I'm a lost cause orally. I know you and your family love me- okay, well, you love me and they enjoy my presence enough to keep allowing me over- and me going on somewhere else? Where did that even come from? Is it something I said? I make people cry all the time, it's probably my bad-"

"It's my own insecurities!" She quickly corrected, her hands covering his own. "Goodness, now I've got you second guessing yourself."

With a crooked grin, he planted a final kiss on her forehead. "You seem to be the only girl who has that effect on me. Trust me, I'm not going anywhere until you finally kick me to the curb. What kind of fool would I be to step down and accept a moldy snack when I've already scored the prettiest, smartest, kindest seven course meal in all of this country?"

She giggled helplessly and pulled him into a hug of her own, ever so conscience of where his face landed against her chest and smiling shyly when he nuzzled closer for reasons not entirely innocent. He may not think he was the best with words, but she found herself breathless by his speeches and ideas like it was the first time they'd met, and as they held each other with the snow falling down and her family quietly asleep, she was certain there was no one else for her.

"…I love you, Alexander."

Her breath caught in her throat of her sudden murmur of affection. They'd never said those three words out loud before, and here she was, making the first move and saying it casually. It wouldn't be so strange imagining Angelica saying that, but was she sure it'd come from her lips? Yes, it must have been, because the fondness in her heart told her that nobody, not even her gorgeous sister, could have what she cradled now.

With the lack of hesitation that would sweep her off her feet for years to come, Alexander replied with sincerity, "I love you too, my Eliza."