Story [Red, White, and Royal Blue]The Way She Holds Me (June/Nora)

Title: The Way She Holds Me

Timeframe: February 2021

Characters: June Claremont-Diaz/Nora Holleran, Ellen Claremont, Mike Holleran

Genre: Romance

Notes: Okay, so this was written with a much higher rating so if this does interest you the original is on AO3. This is just kinda me dipping my feet in writing fanfic for this fandom. If I write more for this fandom here I’ll explain more about the book, but you don’t have to have read it to understand this short fic. Basically, the son of the president of the US falls in love with the Prince of England. It is VERY heavily implied that the First Daughter and the granddaughter of the VP have relations.


No one ever talked about how cold the White House got. There was only so much state of the art HVAC units could do for a 200-year-old mansion. It was a quiet weekday night in February. Her brother Alex was in New York helping his boyfriend get settled in his new Brownstone, her stepfather Leo was back in Texas visiting family, so it was just June and her mother around the Residence this evening.


Wrapped in a chunky knit navy blue sweater and wearing fleece pyjama pants, June made her way to the Presidential Suite. There were two Secret Service agents posted at the door, but the door was cracked open so June went right in.


Her mother was on a couch, her greying hair up in a claw-clip, reading glasses perched on her nose. The news was on the TV in the background. She was wrapped in an off-white quilt and her general vicinity was littered with folders and briefing binders.


“Hey Mom?” June asked as she entered. “Do you have the mental space to talk?”


Ellen looked up and smiled. “Of course, Bug,” she said, clearing off space beside her on the couch. “What’s up?”


June heaved a sigh as she got under the blanket with her mom. June had been meaning to tell her mom this for awhile, and then Alex’s chaotic life blew up as it inevitably would when her disaster of a human brother was dating the Prince of England, and then it was the re-elect, and then Christmas, and then the second inaugural. But everything had settled down into an odd calm.


“I’m in love, Mom. With another woman.” June always felt like she dated men because it was expected of her. And then there had been that night with Nora (and Pez… but he had been in the bathtub the majority of the night).


There had been other stolen moments over the past few months with Nora. Admittedly, it was somehow easier to hide a lesbian relationship than Alex and Henry had hiding their relationship - it said a lot about gender roles and heteronormativity. June and Nora could slip into the same hotel room, have spa days, sleepovers, and even be physically intimate in public. No one raised eyebrows at their holding hands and hugs. They knew not to kiss where people might see them, but they probably could get away with it. They weren’t going to go snogging on the Truman balcony.


“Oh,” Ellen said in surprise, she then leaned forwards June and enveloped her in a hug. “I love you.” She raised an eyebrow. “It’s not Princess Beatrice, is it, because, I swear to god, Catalina June, if you put me through what your brother did, my ulcer is going to develop an ulcer.”


Bea was hot... “No, Mom,” June still winced. “It’s Nora. In fact, she’s telling her grandfather now.”


Ellen just nodded. “Well… I am happy for you both.” There was something unsaid; the does it have to be her lecture.


“We don’t want to go public with this, not yet anyways… but we all know we might not get a say in the matter.”


Her mom sucked in a breath. “I’m not going to lie, this all would be much easier if the woman you fell for was a roommate from university or something, and not my Vice President’s granddaughter, but we can do this.”


“Thank you, Mom. And hey, if this does get leaked at an inopportune time, I’ll just get Alex and Henry to be the hot messes they are.”


* * *


Nora had an excellent relationship with her grandfather… there was a good reason why she worked on the Claremont/Holleran 2016 and 2020 campaigns. She could have just been like her brothers or her cousins and been casual bystanders but she loved being involved.


She had texted her grandfather before coming (Mike Holleran might have been in his early 70s, but he kept up with modern technology), Nora made her way through Number One Observatory Circle to her grandfather’s private study and let herself in. The study was dark, decorated in dark blues and warm woods and lit by a desk lamp. Her grandfather was at his desk, glasses perched on the tip of his nose.


Mike Holleran had wild white hair and a matching beard. He looked like a wild-bushman from Montana, but in reality, he was a former Law professor from Connecticut. Ellen Claremont was a Texas Democrat, a centrist; Mike Holleran was as far left as an American politician could be without being considered a socialist. He looked up from his folders and smiled. “Hey, honey? What’s up?”


Nora sat in the high back chair and tucked her feet under her. “I’m in love.’


He raised an eyebrow. “Ah-Kay. And why do I care?” He cared, he just didn’t know why she was declaring it to him in his office on a Wednesday evening.


“Because it might be an issue if it comes out in the press. We don’t want it too, not yet anyway, but I wanted to tell you. I really love her and… I think she might be my forever.”


Her grandfather smiled, “Well then, who cares about the press?” He knew Nora was bi. “As long as she’s not the Princess of England.”


Well... Bea was hot. “No, Grandpa… it’s June.” The name felt smooth on her throat.


Her grandfather smiled brightly. “Well at least it’s the good Claremont-Diaz this time.”


They both chuckled. He would support her, always, he didn’t have to say it.


He clapped, “You're staying for dinner.” It wasn’t a question.


“Yes, Grandpa.”