It didn't take long after his royal escapade for Clay to fall back into the almost motion sickness-inducingly fast-paced life that was that of the First Son Of The United States, and also a law student. After the initial humour had worn off of seeing blown-up pictures of him and George in the Interview, him and George with kittens - hell - even him and George hugging plastered on every magazine and newspaper under the sun, paired with the most ridiculous headlines ( "A Transatlantic Bromance? Prince George and FSOTUS Clayton's unconventional relationship revealed!" and "International Relation(ship)s - We're jealous of The Prince and FSOTUS's friendship, and you should be too!" being Clay's personal favourites) the trip was forgotten about as quickly as the media got bored of it.
After finally escaping the tight grip of boresome classes that the day had held him under, he approached the Dirksen Building. The guard shot him a poisonous glare as he made his way through security, he remembered her being the one who was convinced that he had vandalised one of the... less popular members of the senate's door sign, something he neither confirmed nor denied, but he gave her a large, sarcastic smile as he made his way past her, something he had become much accustomed to doing, having managed to piss an incredible number of personnel off in his past 3 years of residence in the White House. He ambled along familiar corridors, almost automatically pressing the wrong button in the lift. Ever since his father was elected to the Senate, he had practically memorised the entire layout of the building. Almost every afternoon after school he used to make his way to his father's office, where they talked about many topics, both political and - less so, and it was where he learned many of the skills that he utilised to this day, skills he needed to survive being the FSOTUS. But today, Senator Adrian Diaz was in California speaking at a gun control rally. He reached for the button for the 5th floor instead.
On the fifth floor lay the chaos which was Senator Johnathon Schlatt's office. After Clay's father took him under his wing back when he was just some young attorney from New York, he had watched him, the youngest member of the senate, and an Independent at that, grow into the title which was the Darling of National Politics, both because of how many people he somehow managed to upset in his bid to get his Senate seat, and also because he was an undoubtedly handsome 32-year-old which all the ladies just loved to swoon over. That made up for all the votes he lost from his use of rather unsavoury language and the fact that he was gay.
"What the fuck are you doing here."
Clay ignored the senator's words, opting to walk right past his desk, on which his feet, clad in his favourite worn-down Timberland boots, were propped. His glasses were balanced rather precariously on his nose as he peered through them to some print out he was reading. He slumped down on the armchair in the corner of the office, the senator sending him a dubious eyebrow raise, his face quickly settling into an expression much closer to satisfaction as he eyed the packet of peanut m&ms that Clay had produced from his pocket, quickly chucking them his way.
"Whatcha doing?" Clay watched Schlatt rip the packet open with his teeth, popping one into his mouth.
"You already know more than you should about - this ." He gestured to the mess of papers that littered the desk to the extent that not even an inch of glossy mahogany wood could be seen on the surface. "But what do you actually want?"
"Hmm," Clay started, reclining back into the armchair and crossing his arms. "Do I really need an excuse to visit my dear old pal?"
"That's bullshit and we both know it." Schlatt laughed drily, turning the page he had been scanning.
"How rude of you, I really thought you valued our friendship."
"Friendship? You're just one more law student who idolises me." They both knew this wasn't true, of course. After spending the summer of 2018 with Schlatt in New York, they built their rather dysfunctional relationship on M&Ms, all-nighters, last-minute drafts and obscure Wii games they had found in the charity store.
YOU ARE READING
International Relation(ship)s
FanfictionAlthough life as the First Son Of The United States was admittedly strange, Clayton was pretty well suited to the role; his charisma worked perfectly on the old prestigious characters he had to charm, him, his sister, Niki, and best friend Floris we...