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This DNC should be better for Alex. His mother’s passing off the President to someone else and he has Henry, in public, to support him. No more secrets, so it should theoretically be good. Perfectly fine, if a bit annoying.
There’s just one problem.
That person that his mom’s handing the Presidency off to is his dad. Well, provided he gets elected, but he’s got the support and after what the Republican party was okay with for the election in 2020 (and Richards’ asshole attempt to discredit his mother by exposing his and Henry’s relationship), no one wants a party that’s okay with that in charge.
So, instead of being able to be in the shadows and just show up for the event, he has to introduce his dad the way that he did for his mom, and he has to deal with it alone because for some reason it was believed that Henry shouldn’t be at a political event and … he never imagined hating this, but he does.
He’s so stressed. He misses his home with Henry, and he misses Henry.
There’s a part of him that would love for Henry to pull what he did last time and show up unnuanced. It’s what Alex needs, but the last time that happened…
“Don’t look so disappointed, little bit, I thought you liked this stuff,” June says, jarring his attention in the hotel elevator to her.
They’d stopped at the bar for a drink, but now, were headed to bed.
“I do… enjoy this stuff. Maybe less than I did last time, but I do enjoy it,” he says as they move down the hallway towards their room. “I just it’s harder now than it was before. The last time we were at a DNC, a picture was taken from a security cam and helped start us on the worst September of my life.”
He’s not just referring to the Leak at the end of the month, but the fake-dating nonsense that he still thinks about sometimes. How wrong it was – how different his mother’s reaction was … oh the FDOTUS and Prince Henry are star-crossed lovers and June was all over the campaign versus Alex being fired and forced to stay in his room except to fake-date Nora.
There’s a part of him that thinks that Richards was putting him out of his bearded-situation misery, but he wished that it hadn’t come at the cost of the bigger invasion of privacy of exposing their emails and private thoughts to one another.
“If you told dad…”
“I can’t do for mom and not for dad,” Alex states as he reaches his door and presses the key card to unlock his door. “And I’m fine, I just miss Henry, that’s all.”
“Well, then, it is a good thing I came to surprise you,” Henry says as he appears in the doorway with the door swung open.
“Henry!” Alex doesn’t even care that he’s abandoning his discussion with June because he gets to hug Henry.
He vaguely hears her laugh and say good night as the door closes behind him.
“Hello, love,” Henry says, a smile evident in his voice as he lets Alex hang onto him like a koala. “I thought you might need a hug today after our conversation this morning when you left and well… I’m here.”
Alex pulls back to kiss him all over his face. “I love you so much.”
“I love you, too,” Henry says, reaching up to grab his face so that he can kiss him on the lips.
“You’re amazing, baby.”
“You needed me and I’m more than happy to hide out in your room and be here for you this week.”
“You’d really do that for me?”
“Of course, love, I’d do anything for you.”
Alex grins. “I’m so fucking lucky. I’ve got the best fiancé in the world.” Alex lets go and then pushes him back towards the bed. “And I’m going to show you that you’re fucking lucky, too.”
Henry laughs as he says, “You don’t have to prove anything to me, love, but I’m definitely not going to stop you.”
“Good.”