January 20th
April Asher looked in the rearview mirror of her car, taking a moment to just look at herself. This was the start of everything new. She was going from the daughter of the Governor of Pennsylvania to the daughter of the President of the United States. How the hell was that transition supposed to go?
She put off going to college immediately after graduating high school (much to her father's protests) to be there with her family during the campaigning. Now that her father had won, they were moving into the White House and she was starting at Georgetown in the summer semester, missing the start of the spring semester while moving. With all the craziness that was going to surround her family, she decided the best thing for her to do was to stay at home while attending classes. Plus, why would she skip out on living at the White House?
They reached the gate seeing hundreds of people waiting outside, cheering for them as they pulled into their new house for the first time. There were tons of secret service agents around their cars, pointing for where they had to park. April parked behind her father before unbuckling her seatbelt, finding herself sitting there for a moment. This was it, the start of everything new in her life.
With a deep sigh, she got out of her car, greeted by more applause. She was still freezing from the inauguration speech earlier that morning so she had settled on changing from her dress to a cozy Patagonia, leggings and Ugg boots. Her mother begged for her not to, knowing something like this was going to happen when they arrived, but this was April they were talking about. If you told her not to, she just wanted to do it more.
They waved to the people for a few moments before stepping into the house for the first time. April took it all in, wanting to explore the entire place already. She wanted to take Conner and find all the hidden rooms the most. Actually, she wanted to call the Lincoln Bedroom as her bedroom the most.
She looked to Conner, both of them sharing an excited smile before looking back to the house. "I call the Lincoln Bedroom!" She yelled before darting towards the front door, ready to move all of her stuff into it before anyone could.
Her father was already prepared for this, though. He stuck his arm out, blocking her from running out of the house. "No one gets the Lincoln Bedroom." He spoke in a tired voice, knowing this was going to be the argument of the day for his children.
"Oh, come on." April complained as Conner began complaining over her.
"She always gets the bigger room!" Conner spoke with a bit of a stomp of the foot.
"I'm a history major. I'll be the only one who will actually appreciate it!"
"No one gets the Lincoln Bedroom," a voice came from behind the two, causing them to both turn around at where it had come from. "And that's final."
April looked this guy up and down, pinpointing exactly what he was and why he was saying this. Secret Service. The soon to be bane of her existence. This particular secret service agent had dark brown hair clashing with the extremely light brown hair she inherited from her father. They actually looked like the exact opposite. He was tall, she was short. He was toned and muscular, she got winded after climbing up half a flight of stairs. He had a foreign accent while hers was purely American. In fact, the only thing that matched about the two was their bright crystal eyes.
"And who would you be?" April asked in an almost accusing voice, making her father cringe. She was too much like her mother. Blunt.
"Mike Banning." He spoke without a beat, not impressed with her even a little bit. "In charge of you."
She scoffed before looking him up and down again. He was not like the other secret service men she had met. He actually had emotions. If you could call his cockiness an emotion. "No one's in charge of me." She whispered a little bit.
"Yeah, okay." He spoke, giving her a bit of an eye roll before moving past her to go straight to her father, making his acquaintance.
April's mouth dropped a little bit, a tiny smile growing from that. No one talked to her like that. It was actually kind of refreshing. She wasn't anyone special in his eyes. She was just his job. His way of making money. That's how she wanted to keep it. Maybe she did like secret service agents. Well, she liked Mike as a secret service agent.
"Mr. President," Mike spoke while moving to shake his hand. "My name is Mike Banning. I'm in charge of your family's security detail. It is very nice to meet you sir."
"It's nice to meet you as well." Her father spoke while April moved to stand behind Mike, ready to have more communication with him. She wanted him to do it again. Treat her like she was nothing. "This is my wife, Margret." Margret leaned forward to shake his hand while sharing a small smile with her daughter, knowing what she was doing. "My son Conner." Conner moved forward, excited about just moving into the White House, he didn't catch what was going on with his big sister. "And," Ben looked to his oldest, giving a bit of a sigh at her earlier behavior. "You've already met my daughter, April."
Mike turned around to look at her again, April catching her father giving her a stern look to be nice to this guy, but then again, this was April. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Banning." April spoke as she leaned forward to shake his hand.
Mike watched her as he grabbed her hand to shake, knowing already that this girl was going to be the reason he would get grey hairs. He had to admit though, he liked it just as much as April did. He loved a good challenge. And she was definitely going to be a challenge. "Nice to meet you, April." His tone was condescending, doing his best to mimic her tone, making her smile spread just a little more.
They were both dicks and they were going to love being dicks to each other. "Let me show your family around, President Asher." Mike spoke, lingering with his gaze on April before turning to look at the President once he said his name.
"Sure." Ben spoke with a shrug, pushing Conner forward as he held an excited face. Once Ben reached Mike, he placed a hand on his shoulder. "And it's Ben, Mike."
Mike nodded respectfully letting the group walk ahead of him, but April just continued to stand there and look at him. "You know," he spoke, looking her up and down again. She turned her head at that. This had to do with his training. Why else would he do it? "We have to come up with custom nicknames for the President's family." He chuckled a little bit while shaking his head at her. He had never met a daughter of the president like this before. They were usually so respectable and good. She was something else. She was trouble. "Why don't we call you 'Trouble'?"
She sighed with a shrug before moving to follow the rest of the family. "If the shoe fits."
Mike watched her walk off, shaking his head at her. Yeah, this was going to be a fun one.
April had retreated to her new room after all of the stuff was unloaded from her car. It was a lot to take in. A new room, people doing the unloading and unpacking for her. She was even told she could practically say goodbye to driving a car. The secret service was there to eliminate any kind of threat from the outside world. Driving was apparently one of them.
Dinner was going to be up shortly as well. She could say goodbye to Mom's home cooked meals too. Her mother wasn't going to have time to do all of that now that she was the First Lady. She had new responsibilities now. One's she didn't have to worry about when she was the Governor's wife. April honestly thought that being the President's daughter was going to be a lot more fun, but it was the first day and she had a knot in her stomach.
She was sprawled out on her bed, just staring up at her pink ceiling. She really did hate that they gave her the pink room. Blue was her favorite color and she was mad Conner got it, but mostly that the secret service played into gender roles.
There was a knock on her door, but she didn't have the energy to get up and answer it. After a while, the door opened and Mike poked his head in. "Dinner's ready." He reported. "Your mom wanted me to get you."
"I'm not hungry." She spoke, her eyes still fixed on the ceiling, her voice as bland as Mike had ever heard it. Sure, he only knew her for a few hours, but he already knew her so well.
"Come on." He spoke in a complaining way. "This is my first order from the First Lady, I really don't want to not do it."
She rolled her eyes at how many negatives he used in that sentence. "Sucks to be you."
Mike decided that if he was going to deal with someone like this for at least four years, he had to lay down the law now while walking into her room all the way. That made her sit up. "What are you doing?" She asked, but he just kept walking toward her. "Mike?" She questioned again. That's when he picked her up by her waist, throwing her over his shoulders. "What the hell?!" She screamed at him. "Put me down!"
"Nope." He spoke immediately while carrying her out into the hall.
"Dad!" She called instinctively. He was always the one she called out for when she was in trouble.
Mike finally sighed, knowing he had to put her down so the President and First Lady wouldn't think that he literally dragged her to dinner. When he put her down, she looked to him with wild eyes. "I think you forget that I could get you fired." She spoke with a half laugh even if she was completely serious.
"You wouldn't do that." He spoke while shaking his head with a smile growing on his face.
April began to smile. This was going to be the best part of living here for her. Her and Mike would be able to do this all day every day, and she needed a new person to have a sass-off with. "And why wouldn't I?"
He looked around at the place. "Because you need someone here who can show you all of the hiding places."
April's face got serious. That was the most exciting thing to hear about moving here. "Really?" She asked excitedly.
He moved closer to her, wanting to keep her anticipation levels up. "Only if you tell me what's really going on."
She took a deep sigh, looking right to Mike. She didn't want to tell anyone what was going on with her in fear that it might somehow get to her dad that she wasn't totally happy here, but she trusted Mike. She couldn't put her finger on it, but there was just something about him that made her trust him over any of the secret service agents around. He was just…different.
While studying Mike, she shrugged. "It's just not all I thought it was cracked up to be."
He gave her a slight smile, understanding what she was going through. He had seen it before. "You don't think everyone else is going through the same feeling right now?"
April looked up at him, blinking a couple of times, not thinking about it that way. "Really?"
He laughed at the way she asked. It was like she was ashamed of her own feelings. He would knock that out of her real quick. "Yeah, you should have seen your dad earlier. He was on the verge of a panic attack." She chuckled a little bit at the thought of her dad actually scared of something. "He told me the only thing keeping him sane right now is his family."
She looked up at him, meeting that gaze. Those crystal blue eyes met again and all April could think to do was stare into them. "I can be strong for my dad." She told him with a nod.
Mike smiled as he continued to look at her, finding himself doing the same thing April was doing. Looking into her eyes. "I know you can."
April began chuckling, thinking of something she had been dying to tell Mike at the right time. "I think I picked out a good nickname for me."
He smiled at her, ready to hear what she had picked out. He loved it when they picked out their own nicknames. "I'm all ears."
"Showers." She spoke as a simple shrug which made his eyebrows scrunch. He didn't find the connection at all. April bit her lip, looking around before deciding to confide with him about this. "Promise you won't tell me dad?" He just looked at her, not totally sure if he was going to keep that promise causing her to roll her eyes. "Whatever, I'm gonna show you anyway." She pulled her Patagonia to the left side, showing a bare shoulder with a storm cloud tattooed on her body near her collar bone. "I was...inebriated." Mike began laughing, hardly believing she did this. "And it's like April Showers."
Mike continued to laugh as he leaned forward to touch the tattoo. "Oh, that's definitely gonna be your code name now." He looked back to her as she covered it back up, a thinking look on his face. "Thunder Showers." He spoke with a nod. "So it still references your troublesome attitude."
"Oh." She spoke with a joking smile as his just grew bigger while she began walking past him. "You're not going to let that one go, are you?"
Mike watched her as she walked off, smiling. He had never connected with one of the family members so fast before. She was a great girl and he was going to do everything he could to keep her safe. "No I am not."
When April finally got into the dining room, her mother gave her a bright smile. "We were wondering when you were going to join us."
She gave her a bit of an eye roll before leaning in for her mother to give her a kiss on the cheek. Mike smiled at the family as soon as April went to sit down, the four of them just falling into this natural conversation as they began serving themselves with the food on the table. Their conversation was filled with laughs and constant joking. They really were happy all together. That was something he knew they didn't have to pretend because it was like they were the only ones in the room. The secret service didn't bother them one bit.
As Mike looked back and forth at them, he knew, he was going to get really attached to this family.
So with the new movie coming out soon, I thought now would be a good time to put out this idea that has been swimming in my head for a while. I know there's a couple of stories with Ben's daughter having a relationship with Mike so I'm trying to make this story as original and unique as possible so we'll have a couple in the mix. I will try to update as best as I can and will be focusing a lot on April in the first chapters. It will probably take me a while to actually get to the events in the movie considering I'm going to be setting up a base for April and Mike since this will eventually become a Mike/OC story. I hope you all like it and remember to review!