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FirstPrince, as the world has taken to calling them — a name Zahra is all but certain that if Alex didn’t start it himself, he is responsible for it spreading as quickly as it has — seems to be the headlines for every magazine cover, every news article, every social media post, at least once a week. They are the rising power couple of their generation, and everyone loves them.
Zahra, on the other hand, has had it up to her — sleep deprived, overworked and not paid nearly enough — eyeballs dealing with these two disgustingly obnoxious, overly affectionate love birds.
She yawns and presses down on the gas moving the car a little faster down the road. It is late; so fucking late that it’s technically early and she is about to go to prison for murdering the Prince of England. Henry called, literally begging her to come over, just as she was finishing her lengthy nighttime routine. (You don’t look as flawless as Zahra Bankston without extensive daily morning and night routines, alright? Otherwise, she would probably be fully grayed and have a wrinkle dedicated to every year she has known Alex Claremont-Diaz.)
She sees the Hotel Washington, where Alex and Henry are staying at while they are back in DC, and gets over into the turning lane wondering what on earth these two have gotten into this time that is so urgent Henry sounded on the verge of tears when he asked her to meet him.
If the two years since they were able to come out to the world and begin an actual relationship is any indicator of just how insane whatever this situation could be… she supposes she should go ahead and start worrying.
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One
Not too long after the Election, Zahra is walking the back halls of the White House towards her office, when she hears what sounds like giggling coming from an open window. She looks towards it and swears she sees movement, but by the time she gets there, whatever or whoever it is, is gone. She’s about to call for Amy or security when she hears the giggling again and instantly recognizes it as Henry.
“What the-” Zahra mumbles to herself, pushing aside the flowing curtain and sticking her head out into the cool December air.
“Shhh!” A second voice, Alex, says then laughs (he sounds drunk and she is going to kill him; kill them!) .
Zahra rolls her eyes so far back they almost make a full rotation. Those little shits, she thinks as she kicks off her heels and grips the window frame, climbing out onto a small balcony. She looks around and still doesn’t see them, but does see that the railing of the balcony is high enough to get onto a decorative piece of molding, that would then put you high enough to get onto the roof. Sucking her teeth she thinks about just going back through the window and forgetting about Alex and Henry and the headache that she gets every time she is in any space for very long with them.
There are footsteps moving across the roof, then what sounds like stumbling, and a soft thud. “Ooof, oh shit!” Alex says quietly, then bursts into hushed laughter. Henry follows suit with muffled giggling from him probably trying to cover his mouth to quiet it. Then one of them snorts, and it only vamps the laughter up all over again. These two fucking idiots are really gallivanting around drunk on the roof of the White House, Zahra thinks puckering her lips into a pissed off little pout. Ultimately, after the second stumble — which causes more laughter from Alex and Henry, but a near panic attack from Zahra; who takes it upon herself to let both of their lives flash before her eyes from them potentially falling to their deaths off of the White House roof… since they clearly don’t seem fazed enough for that — Zahra decides to go up after them.
After finally getting herself onto the small ledge Zahra peers over the edge of the roof and quickly spots Alex who is — to Zahra’s horror — peeling back a piece of paneling from the edge of the Solarium and pointing to something she can’t see on the board behind it. “What the fuck, Alex!” She snaps causing Alex and Henry to simultaneously jump; also causing her to lose her footing on the ledge.
Thankfully Amy had noticed her climbing through the window, comes to see what she was doing, and catches her just as she topples backwards. Zahra groans, looking up at the night sky while two heads poke over the edge of the roof. She squints her eyes angrily at them. They slowly pull back out of view, and Zahra has half a mind to tell Amy to just chuck her over the railing.
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Two
Zahra has been driving around Houston trying to find them for half an hour. Her calls are all just going to voicemail, her texts aren’t being opened. She is white knuckling the steering wheel and trying to calm herself before she gets an ulcer.
They are in Texas — an idea of Alex’s for his mother to start being more active in their home state since they see now that it is possible to flip — and his Mother has a speech she was supposed to go over with Alex on the million voters drive last year… but Alex has seemingly disappeared.
Henry is nowhere to be seen either. Zahra is positive that there is no coincidence there. She thinks if she finds them laid up in another hotel room that she can make the crime scene that will follow look like a robbery gone wrong.
Luckily — if that’s what you can call it — they aren’t laid up in a hotel. Unluckily , on her way back to the meeting, she passes Amy standing at the end of an alley about three blocks down. She pulls her car to the side of the road and gets out, crossing the street with her hands up, confused. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“I- er- well… They…” Amy turns her head a fraction and it brings Zahra’s attention to the car parked a little farther than halfway down the alley. Amy is still struggling to find words; Zahra doesn’t have enough time for this shit. “Wait! I- I wouldn’t… if I were you,” Amy manages once Zahra reaches her and promptly storms past.
Zahra ignores her, mumbling threats under her breath the whole way down the litter filled alley. About half way is when she notices the car is rocking; it’s slight, but not so much so that it’s silent, and there is a high pitched squeak from the car's frame that accompanies each bounce made. Are you actually fucking kidding me right now, Zahra thinks.
She is so thankful the car's windows are darkly tinted so she can’t see in, and they must be so lost in each other ( literally ) that they haven’t noticed her either. For a split second she contemplates turning around, speed walking out of the alley, back to her car, getting inside and driving away; out of Huston, out of Texas. She could catch a flight and be in Dc and back in her and Shaan’s bed in less time than it would take to properly dispose of two body’s so no one can ever find them.
There are reporters swarming the meeting building the President is in, and it’s so close to where they are in the alley. Not a lot of time has passed since their last sex scandal, so these two idiots definitely don’t need to start another. Zahra groans and finishes the walk to the car. She lifts her hand, breathes — once, twice, ten times — then raps on the window twice. “You two horny fucking idiots better gets your asses to that meeting this instant… or I will gladly hire a hit man to take you both out.”
Instantly the car’s movement ceases, and all the noises from inside — that she was doing her best to not hear — stop as well. She stands next to the blackened back window, arms crossed, and waits. After a few moments, and just a millisecond before she’s about to snatch the door open and snap off any (and every) appendage she sees, the window cracks enough she can see a pair of brown eyes.
“H- Hi Zah-”
“ Five minutes, Alex,” she hisses, cutting him off. “And the both of you better be out of this car and sitting at that table — on opposite ends — looking as collected as a couple pillar saints of celibacy, do I make myself clear?”
“Crystal.”
“You too, Fuckleroy!” She looks past Alex into the dark car knowing Henry is in there staring back.
“Y- Y- Yes ma’am!” Henry’s shaky voice stutters through the cracked window and with that Zahra turns on her heels and marches out of the alley.
Amy is biting her lips to stop from smiling as Zahra passes. “Oh you don’t want me to come for you next,” Zahra threatens and Amy’s face instantly slacks back to her stony serious secret service agent mean mug. “That’s what I thought,” Zahra mumbles, pulling her sunglasses off the top of her head and pushing them onto her face.
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Three
Zahra storms into the small police station, vibrating with anger. “ Where are they!” She seethes at the first officer she finds.
“I don’t-”
“Oh don’t give me that crap!” She continues. “I have been so graciously tasked with bailing out the absolute idiot of a First Son of the United States, and his equally idiotic boy toy His Royal Highness, Prince Henry!” She pauses to regain some sort of composure before she lands herself in a cell, too. Deep breaths, Zahra. She exhales slowly and flips back a strand of hair from her face. Licking her lips she smiles at the man. “Alex Claremont-Diaz, and Prince Henry… er- whatever his ridiculously long last name is… please .”
Twenty minutes and two, three thousand dollar, bonds later, the three of them are walking out of the station and towards a black SUV surrounded by PPO. Zahra climbs into the passenger seat, and after a hesitant pause, Alex then Henry gets in the back. “Zahra I’m sor-” Alex tries but she is already turned backwards and facing — or rather glaring — at him.
“Don’t you ‘ Zahra, I’m sorry’ me,” she snaps. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to not strangle you both right now?” Her eye twitches; these two are driving her into an early grave. “I mean… you got yourself arrested, Alex! Aggravated assault! Over what? Some- some stupid misunderstanding in a bar?”
“It wasn’t some stupid misunderstanding!” Henry snaps. Zahra scoffs and opens her mouth to speak but Henry is already half shouting, “No! No, you can listen now.” Zahra is shook by the Prince’s tone, and Alex looks like he might faint. “God, do you really think so little of him that you honestly believe he would do something so ridiculous as start a bar fight over nothing ?!”
“Baby,” Alex says softly, laying a hand on Henry’s arm. “Calm down.” The Prince is visibly shaking with anger. Typically the back talk would not be tolerated and Zahra would have shut it down immediately, but then again usually the back talk is from Alex.
“I will not calm down, Alex,” Henry all but screams. “This is absolute—” He makes a noise resembling a mixture of a growl and a snort. “—absolute bullshit! The only misunderstanding is that Alex even has done anything wrong!”
“ H… ”
“ I started the fight.”
“ You what ?” Zahra gasps.
“I did,” Henry says — the little shit has the audacity to sound proud… fucking royals. “And I would gladly do it again.”
Now Zahra’s interest has peaked. “Ok… ok fine! I’m listening. What really happened?” Then she sits quietly — at first — through a story so full of homophobia and racism that by the time Henry gets to the part where he punched the guy, she was internally cheering for him.
“Like I said,” Henry says, winded from getting worked up over the incident again. “I would gladly do it again.”
“My hero,” Alex practically swoons and Zahra has to turn around in her seat because she refuses to let them see that she is mildly impressed.
She crosses her arms and sighs, “I’m still pissed at you two for having to come bail you out…”
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Four
Sometimes Zahra feels like the only peace she gets from the ever more age inducing FirstPrince is when she’s at home. Then again, her fiancé is the Prince’s equerry so… yeah.
After having to play referee for hours on the stupidest pissing match she has ever witnessed — in which alcohol, past height disagreements, and a measuring tape all came into play — she was finally home. Her heels have been discarded at the door, a bottle of wine is snagged from the fridge, and she is fully undressed by the time she reaches the room. All that’s left is to lie down and let Shaan do all those fancy little things he does that relieves all her tension.
“Hello gorgeous,” Shaan says, not even the slightest bit surprised when she steps into the room completely naked. “Long day?”
“Is it ever not with those two?”
Shaan chuckles. He reaches out a hand to her and gently pulls her onto the bed beside him. Hands roam over her body, tracing patterns into the smooth skin. “What was the problem this time?” He asks, a smile ghosting over her neck, before he presses a kiss into the crook where it meets her shoulder.
“ Ughhh ,” she groans. “Just their stupid childish disagreement about Henry’s height.”
“His height?”
“Alex swore he wasn’t really 6’2.” She sighs and a trail of kisses is made over her shoulder and down her arm.
Another chuckle, “But the Prince is 6’2.”
“Well yeah, measuring tape doesn't lie.” Shaan pulls back and looks at Zahra with a look of utter disbelief. “Yep,” she says, dragging out the ‘y’ and pops the ‘p’.
“Good lord,” Shaan sighs. “Well, at least Mr. Claremont-Diaz has his answer now.” Zahra arches her back, bringing her stomach up to meet with Shaan’s lips. “I doubt it went without any pouting, however.”
“Of course not, it only made it ten times worse!” Zahra scoffs. “I swear that kid lives to make my life so stressful.”
“Oh, you’re telling me! Henry may seem charming and collected from the outside, but out of the public’s eye, the Prince is quite a handful.”
Somehow the night shifts from the lovely place Shaans hands and lips were taking them to and nosedives into a night spent sharing stories of Alex and Henry as children, then teens, and ending with the months, weeks, days leading up to the Royal Wedding. It seems Shaan is driven just as crazy by the two as she is… and that he cares about them just as much. Something she doubts they will ever admit aloud even to each other.
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Five
It’s Ellen’s second year into her second term, and Alex has been living in Brooklyn with Henry for a while; but they are back in DC for the weekend. Still, when she hears Hall and Oates — music she hasn’t heard in what she didn’t realize has been too long — coming from his old room, it’s a shock at first.
She knocks on the door, but the music is loud and she doubts it was heard. “Alex?” She says questioningly, cracking the door, and peeking inside. Sure enough he’s in there. Laying on his side, on top of the bedding curled around a pillow. His eyes are unfocused, staring at a blank spot on the wall near the door. “Hey kid,” Zahra says before stepping inside.
“Hey…” Alex says with a slight smile.
“You ok?” Zahra asks, feeling like she knows the answer already, as well as the one he’ll give. Alex sends her a look that screams no even as he nods. “ Really ?” Another nod. And she’s tired. So fucking tired . The last thing she needs is to have to deal with FirstPrince nonsense, she already has to deal with them all day tomorrow.
(Ok, to be fair tomorrow is his birthday, so dealing with him then is expected and understandable.)
“Well… alright then,” she says and steps back through the door, pulling it almost closed with her. It’s bait. Bait he usually takes when he has something he wants to say but refuses to say it.
“ G’night ,” he mumbles quietly.
Zahra snarls. “Dammit kid! Spill!”
Alex pushes himself up onto an elbow to look at her. “Spill what?”
“Oh cut the crap. What’s wrong with you?”
“I—” Alex fiddles with the pillowcase, folding the fabrics into a point and running his hand over the tip in a way he has since he was little; just a little stimulant he does when he needs grounding. She wonders why he needs grounding right now. “It’s just…”
“Are you and Henry fighting?”
“No. He was tired and stayed at the hotel, I just came to see mom…” Zahra is waiting, waiting , getting tired of waiting for a ‘ but’ that is definitely there but doesn’t seem to be coming willingly.
“ But…” she says for him.
“But, nothing? I came to see her… that’s all.”
“So you decided instead of going back to the hotel, to come curl up into the fetal position on your old bed, looking like a fatally kicked puppy… for no reason whatsoever?”
Alex blinks at her like he honestly can’t believe she can see right through him. She knows she barely has to pry now and the floodgates containing whatever he is thinking will crumble. “W- Well…”
Zahra closes her eyes to hide that she is rolling them at him. She walks to his bed and perches herself on the edge, folding her hands together in her lap and doing her best to put on a genuinely caring, you-can-tell-me-anything smile. He looks at her quizzically. Zahra groans, he’s really going to make her say it. “Alex, you know that you can tell—”
“I’m fine… it’s silly and you were already heading home… I’m probably going to head back to the hotel soon anyway.”
“Alright,” Zahra says. Alex lays back down; she kicks off her heels and climbs up the bed to his side.
“What are you—”
“Here’s the deal, kid. I am too tired and out of coffee—” she says, holding up her big thermos to show it's true. “—and I swear to god if you don’t tell me why you are lying here looking like your whole world is imploding, I will use this as a weapon to bludgeon you to death… then smile — finally at peace — in my mugshot. Got it?” She lays the thermos on the bed in front of her, for good measure and waits.
Alex takes a deep breath. “Fine. I—” He pauses to fiddle with Henry’s signet ring. “Do you think me and Henry are gonna last?”
The question catches Zahra off guard. She fumbles with her words, flipping the question. “Do you not think you will?” Part of her is already worrying that something bad has actually happened.
“I want - no, I do. I do think we will.”
“Then what’s this about?”
“But do you think we will?”
“Why does it matter what I think?”
“You’re not afraid to tell me like it is. Everyone else just tells me what they think I want to hear.”
Zahra sucks at her teeth. Damn this kid for making me be sentimental. “Alex,” she says, turning in the bed to face him better. She takes one of his hands and squeezes it. “What you and Henry have is… beautiful. Yes I think you will last.” Alex’s blinks quickly, clearly trying to hold back tears. “Besides, In Touch has already run an article on the impending wedding!” They both laugh as she digs into her bag and pulls out a copy of the magazine with Alex and Henry together on the front page, with a smaller way too blurry to confirm the image of an assumed Henry coming out of a jewelry store. FirstPrince Heading Towards ‘I Do’? It says in bold red white and royal blue letters. (Alex is certainly the one that initiated that as their color scheme as well.)
The two talk for way longer than Zahra intends the god forsaken bonding moment to be, but ultimately Alex feels better and goes back to the hotel and Zahra is finally able to go home.
Which only leads Zahra to the lobby of the Hotel Washington.
The Prince meets her there and has been pacing without a word for five minutes. “I have thought of speaking to anyone else,” Henry finally says. “I honestly wanted to avoid bothering you, but…” He is fumbling with something in his hands that Zahra can’t quite make out through the haze of tiredness she is no longer able to blink away. She yawns, unintentionally, letting it out with an added apology. “Oh god, Ms. Bankston, I’m-”
“Zahra,” she says, giving Henry an exhausted look. He blinks. “Please, just call me Zahra,” she clarifies.
Henry clearly fights back a smile at the offer to use her first name. “Oh- er, well- Zahra. I'm so sorry for bothering you so late. I shouldn’t have I just- I just…”
Zahra is zero-point-two seconds from snapping on Henry to just spit it out when Henry subconsciously opens the object she couldn’t make out in his hand. It’s a small velvet box, and the silver band inside, embezzled with dozens of tiny diamonds, is hit by the lights from the lobby’s massive chandelier and gleams brightly. “Oh my god,” she gasps, connecting the dots. “Oh my god! Henry!?” She looks up at Henry who still looks like he might be sick. Her mouth hangs open in shock, although the corners are clearly turning up into a smile. She is overcome by this ridiculous urge to squeal and jump up and down happily, and swallows the words finally to instead ask — as calm and collected as she can — “When?”
“T- tomorrow night,” Henry manages to answer. “After dinner — I… I- I- I am so sorry to even be burdening you like this— and you already deal with so much and Alex and I don’t make things easy, I know that. But…” Henry breaks his misting eyes from Zahra’s — thankfully soon enough he misses hers also filling with tears. “But you’re the only one that I know will tell me like it is, and not just what you think I want to hear.” He pauses and flicks his eyes back to Zahra’s, who has managed to pull herself back together and it gives him her trademark, puckered lip, serious look. “Do- Do you think I’ve gone too fast? Is this a mistake? Am I backing Alex into a corner he may not-”
Then Zahra is hugging him. She didn’t really intend to hug him ; she was going to slap him for being stupid enough to think Alex isn’t going to lose his shit in only the best way when Henry pops the question. She raised her hand and Henry just looked so pitiful that she lost her mojo and went soft, wrapping the arm around the Prince and pulling him to her instead. He is stiff at first; rigid, like he’s waiting for her to pull out a knife and plunge it into his back, ending her FirstPrince headache then and there.
She can’t help but to laugh, and runs the arm around him over his back in an attempt to be comforting. It takes a moment longer for it to click that the embrace is genuine and then Henry is hugging her back. It’s like he melts down to meet her height and is clutching her like he has never been hugged before; she wonders if he has ever truly been hugged before, besides by Alex. The thought is like a punch to her gut and she has to disarm this emotional weapon before he realizes she cares.
She gives him another few seconds, though.
“Hey,” she finally says, moving her hands to his arms, pushing him back enough to look up at him. “This didn’t happen.” Henry blinks, and she smiles softly enough he knows it’s not being said with venom.
“Of course,” Henry replies.
“So,” Zahra says, squeezing Henry’s arms once before letting them go and flipping some loose hair back behind her shoulder. “Tomorrow?” Henry swallows hard, pushing down what Zahra suspects is a lump filled with nerves and doubts, and nods. “Henry,” she says, widening her smile. “Alex — that reckless, hard headed, extreme pain in my ass — loves you more than anything. What you two have is more—” She pauses to clear her throat because, dammit, she was not expecting to get emotional. “—genuine, and pure , and — god I can’t believe I’m saying this but — more fairytale-like than most people will ever find in their whole lives.”
Henry inhales, it sounds more like a gasp, and is followed by a stifled sob. Zahra reaches up and swipes under his eye where a tear has started to fall.
“You are going to make him the happiest man in the world tomorrow.”
“Do- Do you really think so?”
(Zahra thinks back to Alex after they read the — now apparently accurate— article on their soon to be engagement. Afterwards, Alex went on an hour-long rant about marriage proposals. Whether, since Henry is a prince, is it like some law that he must be the one to propose. Or does the fact that he is a prince mean that it is below him to propose to someone that’s not royalty. Is it selfish, or ridiculous, that Alex wants it to be Henry that proposes.
Did she think he would? Did she think Alex just should do it? Would the crown even let them get married? Could the crown actually stop them from getting married? Would they have to have a giant royal wedding, like Philips, complete with their own $75,000 cake. Alex thought it would be a fun way to come full circle if they not-so-accidentally took it down as well.)
“I really think so.” Zahra says without a single doubt.
Henry lets out a breath Zahra is certain he has been holding since he met her in the lobby. “Thank you,” he says, giving her that big bright smile he usually reserves for Alex. “I- I am so sorry I had you come all this way just for a silly pep talk.”
“Don’t,” Zahra says, throwing a hand up to his face to silence him.
“Alright,” Henry laughs. He looks down at the ring box in his hand and closes it. “Well, I better get back before Alex thinks I’ve run off back to the palace… again .”
“That would be god awful for everyone, so you get your ass back up there, now!”
Henry nods, takes a step backwards, waves goodbye, then turns and walks toward the elevator. Zahra waits until the doors close and he can no longer see her to let out her own long held breath. With it comes tears she has been fighting back and there is a definite pep in her step as she walks back to her car.
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Six
Zahra has been staring at Alex staring at his left hand for about five minutes straight. The smile on his face is so big she knows his cheeks have to be hurting, as the smile she has given up on fighting is hurting hers. “I just- I still can’t believe it,” he says for the upteenth time.
Zahra rests her chin on her hand and continues to watch Alex gawk and blush and smile at the diamond embezzled ring Henry had slipped onto his finger less than 24 hours earlier. It was maybe the sappiest proposal ever — it included a heartfelt speech, gallons of tears, and Alex nearly fainting from lack of oxygen due to a mixture of all the emotions and the multi person bear hug he received from everyone (including herself) after.
She has never been so happy to be a part of the Claremont-Diaz — soon to be Claremont-Diaz-Hanover-Stuart-Fox ( whew, talk about a mouthful) — family.
“Zahra?!” Alex says loudly, in a way that tells her he has already called her name a few times and she hasn’t heard any of them.
“Mmm,” she responds, blinking a few times and making a note to dust her office, because it’s clearly irritating her eyes. “What?”
“Well… I was thinking.”
“You should probably stop before you burn out the last of your brain cells,” she quips back with a smile.
Alex stares at her with that goofy cheesy grin that reminds her of when he was little and she was tasked with chasing him around Ellen’s office attempting to prevent him from getting into trouble. “ Anyway… ” He rolls his eyes, his right hand still rotating the new ring on his finger. “I was thinking , because I don’t know anything about weddings… and mom and dad eloped… and Henry and I would elope as well before we follow in his family’s royal ceremonial footsteps…”
“What are you getting at, kid?”
“It’s just— You and Shaan’s wedding was amazing! And you planned it all yourself… cause well you’re amazing.” Alex’s voice trails off, and he’s back to full blown fidgeting with his ring, and the signet ring, and looking everywhere in the room but back at Zahra. (Which is good because she doesn’t think she could handle eye contact with him right now, as she battles the tidal wave of emotions he just unlocked.)
They sit quietly for a moment, then Zahra opens a desk drawer and pulls out a fresh portfolio. Alex finally looks back at her and watches as she scribbles onto a sticky note, pulls it from the pad and presses it onto the black leather cover. It reads FirstPrince’s Wedding Plan. “Let’s get started, shall we?” She says flipping the cover open and readies her pen, looking at Alex to start listing things he wants.
Alex smiles, and scoots his chair closer to the desk.
Zahra smiles back as she listens to him go on and on; and she definitely doesn’t get paid enough to add wedding planner to her list of the services she carries out for the first family… but she wouldn’t have it any other way.