Chapter Text
LeAnn's heart pounds in her chest. She can feel the edge of the president's desk pressing against the back of her knees. And she can feel the hands of the First Lady trailing up and down her back.
She can't exactly remember how she got into this situation, but she knows now that the First Lady is about to fuck her in the Oval Office and she is not protesting.
Claire's lips are soft, but she is pressing hard against LeAnn.
LeAnn can feel heat as the First Lady pulls back and lowers herself down until she's on her knees.
Her hands are cold against LeAnn's thighs as she slowly parts them and--
LeAnn's alarm goes off.
She jolts upwards in bed, shocked out of sleep by the ear splitting noise.
Quickly, she smacks the clock to silence it.
Fuck.
This is not the first time LeAnn has had an 'inappropriate' dream involving the First Lady, Claire Underwood. In fact, they've been occurring on and off for the past couple of weeks; successfully driving LeAnn insane.
As if it wasn't hard enough being around Claire without LeAnn having the leftover images of her dreams stuck in her head.
Now she has to go to work with the thought of Claire fuc--
No, she won't think of it now. Now she has to work to push it to the back of her mind like she does every day.
It's not like she's in love with Claire, no, she won't even accept the fact that she finds the First Lady attractive.
Sure, she experimented in college with a few of her fellow female classmates, but she has never considered herself anything but straight.
After all, everyone experiments in college, right?
Right.
And that's what she repeats to herself when she goes to work that day.
In meetings, she tries to focus as best she can, but it's so hard when Claire's hair looks so nice and she smells sweet and her dress hugs her in all the right ways and LeAnn pretends not to notice, but they're all screaming in her head and she can't concentrate.
They're standing in a hallway and Seth is talking to Claire about something LeAnn tuned out of minutes ago when she pried her eyes away from Claire and moved them onto the tablet in her hand to check her email.
When she looks up, the First Lady is gone.
"Do you think it's a good idea?"
"What?"
Seth sighs impatiently. "The course of action that the Vice President is taking."
"Oh, uh, yeah." LeAnn stutters. "I think the Vice President knows what's best for the situation at hand and she has my full support." It sounds rehearsed.
"Good answer."
LeAnn shrugs. "Anyway, it's not like she won't be able to handle it even if it does go wrong."
"Right, well, with secrets like those she probably has; she could most likely handle most things."
"Secrets?"
"What? You don't think she has secrets?" Seth gives her a disbelieving look.
"Oh, I don't doubt in the slightest that she has secrets, I just question why you believe they would be so monumental." LeAnn looks back down at her tablet.
"I know for a fact she has got some serious shit hidden." He sounds cocky.
"Really?" LeAnn is uninterested.
"Yep, just like I know you have some serious shit hidden."
Now LeAnn looks up. "Excuse me?"
"What, you don't think I haven't noticed the way you look at the First Lady when she walks into a room? When you're around her? You're not very subtle, LeAnn." Seth shakes his head in mocking disapproval.
"Seth, what the hell are you talking about?" LeAnn ignores the butterflies taking flight in her stomach.
Seth only smiles and sighs as he turns away.
"You want to fuck the First Lady."
And then he leaves LeAnn alone to contemplate what the fuck she is going to do now that he's presented her with this information.
Because as much as LeAnn wants to deny it; he's not wrong.
That night, LeAnn finds herself at the Executive Residence of the White House.
But it's not in the way that her subconscious would like.
Instead, the reason she's there is that the President has called her and Doug into a meeting about some 'important decisions' regarding Russia.
Thankfully, they are just finishing up.
"That does it then." The President stands and claps his hands together.
LeAnn and Doug stand up with him.
"Thank you both for coming here at such a late hour." He motions towards the door. "That'll be all for now."
"It was no bother, Mr. President." Doug nods and makes his way out of the room.
Kiss ass.
LeAnn follows him out.
They're almost down the steps to leave the Executive Residence when LeAnn hears her name being called out from behind her.
She turns around to see the First Lady standing at the top of the stairs smiling softly at her.
Fuck me.
"Yes, Mrs. Underwood?"
Claire eyes Doug as he leaves and then focuses her attention back on LeAnn.
"Would you mind staying for a little while longer? I have some things I'd like to discuss with you."
What is she supposed to do? Say 'no'? Impossible.
And it's not like she has anything important to do at home anyway.
"I wouldn't mind at all, Mrs. Underwood. Are you sure you don't want to wait until morning though? It's awfully late." In all honesty, LeAnn doesn't give a shit how late it is; she would pay to stick around Claire. She just doesn't want to seem too eager.
Claire sighs thoughtfully. "Only if you need to get home. I'd rather talk while it's fresh on my mind."
LeAnn pretends to think it over.
"Of course, you really don't have to stay, I don't want to keep you up." Claire chuckles politely and tries to give LeAnn an easy way out.
LeAnn has accomplished what she wants, so now she agrees. "No, it's alright. I'll come up."
"Great," Claire smiles again with that stupid face that makes LeAnn want to die. "Thank you."
They meet at the top of the stairs.
"It's no problem at all, Mrs. Underwood." LeAnn walks with her back to the Executive Residence.
"Oh, please, call me Claire for now. It's too late at night for formality."
LeAnn doesn't want to call her Claire. She wants to keep things as professional as possible.
"Ok then, Claire," She doesn't like the way saying the First Lady's name makes her feel. "What is it you wanted to talk about?"
They stop in the kitchen where Claire opens a cabinet to grab a glass.
"Do you want anything?" She asks.
LeAnn shakes her head. "I'm fine, thank you." She especially doesn't want to drink anything that contains alcohol out of fear of what it would make her do.
Claire takes out a glass for herself. "Well, in all honesty, I wanted to talk about the Russian agreement."
LeAnn grows confused. "I thought we settled that earlier with the President?"
The First Lady takes a bottle of wine out of the fridge and purses her lips. "We did, but Francis and I still have a few concerns that we didn't want to bring up in the meeting."
Something doesn't seem right about Claire's story to LeAnn. "How come?"
Claire pours some of the dark red wine into her glass. "Only because we knew that Doug wouldn't be very happy with the changes that we want to make."
Yep, something is definitely not right. LeAnn knows for a fact that there is no one else working in the White House that Francis and Claire-- or maybe just Francis --trust more than Doug Fucking Stamper. "Changes?" She plays the fool anyway.
"Yes, see, Francis isn't so sure about the terms that we decided on." Claire sips from her glass and makes eye contact with LeAnn.
LeAnn shuffles uncomfortably on her feet, despite trying to hide her nervousness. "Why are you choosing to tell me this instead of talking it over with Doug?"
"Doug would see these changes as a loss rather than a gain." Claire shakes her head. "And we can't have him feeling poorly about this decision."
So Claire is saying that she wants LeAnn to talk to Doug about the changes and act like it's her own idea. If there even are any 'changes'. Claire could very well be making all of this up. LeAnn has seen her manipulate people before, and she would not be surprised if that's what the First Lady is doing at this very moment.
"So you want me to talk to him about it?"
"If you don't mind." Claire offers it up as if LeAnn has a choice. "Though, you will have to act as if the changes are completely your idea."
There it is.
"Mrs--" LeAnn catches herself. "Claire," She sighs. "You do know that Doug doesn't like me, right?"
Claire smiles. "Oh, I'm sure he doesn't dislike you, LeAnn."
"We don't play well together. You've seen us argue like children." LeAnn sees right through Claire's act. "I'm the last person he'll want to listen to about decision making; especially if he thinks it's my own idea."
Claire drinks more of her wine. "I suppose you're right." She pretends to think for a moment while LeAnn stands across from her on the other side of the counter. "Forget about it then," She gives LeAnn her fake, political smile and shrugs. "If you're not comfortable talking to Doug about the changes, then you don't have to do it."
LeAnn internally rolls her eyes. "It's not that I'm uncomfortable with it, Doug doesn't intimidate me at all," She chuckles. "It's just that if you want him to be on board with the idea, you shouldn't have me bring it up to him. Having someone he doesn't like talk to him about something he doesn't like won't make things any easier for you."
"True," Claire's wine is almost gone and LeAnn almost wishes now that she had accepted the drink offer earlier. "I was just hoping you could help me-- help us with this."
"It's not that I don't want to help you-- and the President," LeAnn stutters. "It's just that I don't think I'm the best choice for this."
"Maybe not." The First Lady sounds impatient now.
LeAnn wonders if she should leave.
Claire seems to wander off into her thoughts. She gazes down at her glass and squints momentarily.
"Is that all?"
Claire snaps out of it.
"Oh," She inhales deeply. "Yes, that's all. Thank you, LeAnn."
LeAnn nods. "Sorry I couldn't be of any help."
"No worries." Claire straightens up and steps around the counter towards the door. "I'll show you out."
They walk down together to the bottom of the stairs where the White House security detail usually resides. Tonight, though, the area is clear.
"I'm sorry to have kept you so late." Claire stops when they reach the floor and LeAnn knows this is as far as the First Lady will go.
"It's alright," LeAnn shrugs. "It's not like I had anything waiting for me at home."
This time Claire's smile looks almost sad.
"Still..." She trails off.
LeAnn turns to leave.
"LeAnn?"
Her name sounds like ambrosia when it passes through the First Lady's lips.
"Yes?" She turns around to face Claire.
There is silence between them for what feels like forever to LeAnn.
Claire steps forward until she is close enough to LeAnn for her to lean in and ki--
Stop.
She pushes the thought out of her mind.
Claire reaches up to LeAnn's face and for a split second LeAnn actually thinks Claire might kiss her.
Instead, Claire gently takes a strand of LeAnn's dark hair and lets it run through her hand.
LeAnn watches carefully, her heart beating faster than it did when she woke up this morning.
Claire bites her lower lip and stares at her hand where LeAnn's hair once was.
Then she seems to change completely and she steps back. Smiling with that same fake smile LeAnn has seen on her lips so many times in the past, Claire clasps her hands in front of her and acts as if nothing just happened.
Nothing did happen.
"I'll see you tomorrow, LeAnn."
She's in shock.
"Goodnight."
Without waiting for a response, Claire turns and calmly makes her way up the stairs back to the Executive Residence.
LeAnn doesn't break out of her trance until the First Lady is long gone.
"Goodnight." She whispers to a ghost that is no longer there.