International Relation(ship)s

Chapter 9

As the long weeks of autumn dragged into December, what started as daily updates on the cats turned into a near-constant exchange of teasing quips and witty comments. It would be too much to say that he liked George, but he did enjoy the quick-paced arguments that they fell into, occasionally dispersed with cat pictures. Whether it was comparing George to Professor Snape instead of paying attention in one of his lectures, or his mother exasperatingly giving up after Clay not-so-subtly suppressed giggles for the third time during the PowerPoint presentation she was giving him on his up-and-coming election campaign, he couldn't deny that it was the most fun he'd had with anyone in - well - a rather long time. Aside from Floris and Niki, of course, but they didn't really count.

And it wasn't just meaningless teasings. He started to find that there was substance to George, he was by no means the shell of a person that the 'fact sheet' and the media had made him out to be, far from it. A lot of the actually interesting stuff was either omitted or straight up wrong. He learned that, although he liked Toad in the Hole, his very favourite food was from the street vendors that he would sneak out to visit on warm summer's evenings. He learned that he had always had a fascination with minerals and gemstones, the countryside, natural formations - his father had loved the great outdoors and always encouraged his passion, something he was thankful for. He almost took Computer Science out of sheer spite because his internet usage was pretty limited as a child; this was shocking to Clay. He vowed to teach him Minecraft when they got the chance, apparently, it was necessary.

They had some things in common; siblings to be one. George's brothers would often make their way into the conversations, Prince Wilbur especially, and to George's dismay Clay could often relate to Will more, seeing as he held his role as "the annoying older brother" to Niki very dearly. Someone who was brought up, even more, was his friend Alastair, or Eret, as George called him. George had spent his gap year travelling the world, visiting charities Eret had either started or very generously funded. Clay never failed to tease him about the peculiarities of their friendship - how someone so eccentric, so confident in themselves, so far from a Prince could become friends with someone who could drone on for hours about the minor details of Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets.

As much as he disliked it, he found himself rushing to check for new messages after every lecture, every class, every meeting and if none were there, well, he'd send one himself. He often reached for interview quotes, they were easy enough to twist into something humorous, as well as unsuspecting candids shot by sneaky paparazzi, they were always great to poke fun at. And of course, George would send the same back: Clay was honestly shocked at how sarcastic he was when he didn't need to have his "prince" act on. He enjoyed it.

After a while, Clay realised that George knew just as much about him as he knew about George. He shouldn't have been surprised when George brought up things he hadn't realised he talked about so much - namely Niki and Floris and other members of the White House like his mother and Darryl. He shouldn't have been surprised that, after texting more-or-less daily for a few months he had basically figured out his schedule, whether it was to tell him to concentrate in class rather than sending him memes or to go to sleep because it was almost 4 am. And he found himself doing the same with George; he knew that he generally woke up between 8 and 8:30, that he couldn't text for an hour in the evening since he was having a formal dinner with Phillip and William, that sometimes when Clay himself went to sleep George was still awake, and it wasn't because he wanted an early morning. It was strange, he thought, that texting someone he thought he disliked so much had practically fallen into place as part of his daily routine, but he didn't let himself dwell on it.

"Okay that is the fourth time in the past minute that you have made that weird - smile - face at your phone, I know my memes are good but they're not that good." Niki spoke curiously as she swiped Clay's phone from his grip before he had the time to move it away.