#rafael luna

[arse-crack-thistle]

rip to the real ones 🙏

june claremont-diaz

rafael luna

agent cash

stepdaddy leo

liam (shoutout to bf spencer too)

onscreen catherine

waspy hunter (eh)

queen mary

cornettos (and glasses)

silk kimonos

star wars references

wimbledon

powerpoints

official courtship photos

henry’s j-14 spread

“you are the thistle in the tender and sensitive arse crack of my life” (obvs)

“cornbread knows what i have done, and he is here to make me atone”

bigger bisexual spirals

longer grief talks

more emails (feat. queer couples in history)

“fucking eyelashes”

“your song” by elton john

“dear thisbe, i wish there weren’t a wall. love, pryamus”

“i want you—” “then fucking have me.”

“two homes side by side”

“AN INCOMPLETE LIST: THINGS I LOVE ABOUT HRH PRINCE HENRY OF WALES”

“sería una mentira, porque no sería él”

“history, huh?” t-shirts

“i love him on purpose”

“the truth is, also, simply this: love is indomitable”

and anything else i (they) missed…

#rwrb #rwrb movie #alex claremont diaz #henry fox mountchristen windsor #firstprince #june claremont diaz #nora holleran #pez okonjo #princess bea #president ellen claremont #zahra bankston #shaan srivastava #oscar diaz #rafael luna #liam dear #stick up his arse philip #amy chen #agent cash #casey mcquiston #taylor zakhar perez #nicholas galitzine #uma thurman #matthew michael lopez #sarah shahi #red white and royal blue

[christopherlightwoodchasm]

this is absolutely young ACD showing up at Raf's offices with his Five Guys order

#red white and royal blue #rwrb #taylor zakhar perez #rafael luna #firstprince #casey mcquiston #cmq #red white and royal blue movie #icarly

[happiness-of-the-pursuit]

Six Sentence Line Sunday

Hi, I'm late again. I did a lot more beta reading than writing this weekend, and also did myself dirty by drinking way too much coffee today which resulted in a stomach ache in a big way. Once the nausea receded and the fics were betaed, I finally wrote some words. Like five minutes ago, so, you know, not edited.

Here's six lines from Working Title: Daddy Issues:

“It’s lovely to meet you as well,” Henry says. “Now I know who to contact for embarrassing stories and the like.” Raf grins as Alex scoffs. “Please, June’s already got that covered.” “You can never have too many,” Raf argues. “Plus, there’s that time you called me asking about STD test centers—" “Fuck off, that was fucking terrifying,” Alex complains, though his smile still stretches across his face. Raf ignores him. “I was about to start the Ave María. I just knew Oscar was going to put some kind of curse on me for being a bad Gay Guide for not talking to you about testing earlier. Gracias a Dios, we both learned about allergic reactions to flavored condoms—” “O-kay, that’s enough,” Alex says, laughing. He looks to Henry, his face slightly bashful, as if to check that he’s not completely horrified. 

Tags and thanks below the cut :)

Thanks for the tags @littlemisskittentoes @suseagull04 @benwvatt @nocoastposts @itsmaybitheway @hgejfmw-hgejhsf @magicandarchery @getmehighonmagic @leaves-of-laurelin @kiwiana-writes!!

In case anyone wants to slide in late (or use this for another day this week, honestly pick one, especially if you posted and I missed it) I'm tagging @affectionatelyrs @cactusdragon517 @cultofsappho @eusuntgratie @gayrootvegetable @gay-flyboys @jackzimmermemes @juloviz @leojfitz @msmarvelouswinchester @read-and-write- @rockyroadkylers @rmd-writes @ships-to-sail @sherryvalli @user-anakin @welcometololaland @whimsymanaged @xthelastknownsurvivorx @zwiazdziarka :)

#red white and royal blue #rwrb fanfic #rwrb #fanfiction #rwrb fandom #firstprince #henry fox mountchristen windsor #alex claremont diaz #rafael luna #six sentence sunday #rwrb wip #happinessofthepursuit writes #wip: daddy issues

[ninacarstairss]

friendly reminder that sería una mentira porqué no sería él

#this just lives rent free in my head #and it’s high time it starts paying the rent #rwrb #red white & royal blue #red white and royal blue #alex claremont diaz #henry fox mountchristen windsor #prince henry of wales #rafael luna #alex x henry #firstprince

[jaxlightstairs]

June Claremont Diaz and Rafael Luna always alive in our minds ☝️

#i missed alex's conversations with them #but i understand why they changed #june claremont diaz #rafael luna #red white and royal blue movie #red white and royal blue #rwrb #alex claremont diaz

[henry-fox-biggest-stan]

RED, WHITE & ROYAL BLUE HENRY’S CHAPTER SPOILERS!!!

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

So MANY things happened and I want to scream about all of them, but like, im going to make a list (Alex would be proud of me rn)

-June and Nora kiss!! IN CANON!!

-Bea is married???

-Shaan and Zahra have a kid!

-And Shaan is a househusband

-THEY’RE MOVING TO TEXAS

-Pez you will forever remain iconic

-COWBOY HAT! SCREAMING CRYING THROWING UP

-DAVID IS CANONICALLY A THERAPY DOG. LIKE, WE ALL KNEW IT BUT ITS CANON.

-Henry learnt how to cook omg

-Also, 12 year old Henry microwaved a sausage until it exploded. Slay.

-ANGUS

-Pez is lactose intolerant!

-Alex broke his two front teeth when he got his first bike

-8 year old henry wanting a journal and sea view for Christmas!!

-Arthur taking little Henry to Rome for 2 weeks to go to the set of his movie omg

-“Alex child-of-divorce anxiety” me too Alex, me too

-“Whoever you marry, Henry, make sure they think your mum is a laugh, because she is. She really is.”

-Rafael Luna has a partner. An “astonishingly fit” partner. AND THEY WEAR MATCHING SWEATERS.

-HENRY’S COLLECTION OF “POETRY-ISH, SHORT-FICTION-ISH, ESSAY-ISH” SCRIPTS.

-Henry shook the hands of all 5 Spice Girls. As he should.

-Henry grew out his hair and cut it all off???

-Henry canonically has PTSD

-Alex’s childhood quilt!!!

- “A quieter life” SOBBING

#rwrb #red white and royal blue #casey mcquiston #firstprince #alex claremont diaz #henry fox mountchristen windsor #red white & royal blue #pez okonjo #june claremont diaz #bea fox mountchristen windsor #nora holleran #zahra bankston #shaan srivastava #rafael luna

[xthelastknownsurvivorx]

so you know how oscar basically sent alex to luna's campaign thinking that he might not be completely straight and thus luna's guidance might help maybe move along the process? i'm just thinking about how oscar was probably waiting the first time he saw alex after the internship to see if it worked. like he's waiting for alex to come out and is trying to drop all these subtle hints that he'll be supportive. but of course alex is oblivious and still hasn't figured it out. and oscar wouldn't want to assume so he thinks well maybe not after all. then come to years later alex brings henry to the lake house oscar is probably like ah there it is, fucking finally

#rwrb #red white and royal blue #alex claremont diaz #oscar diaz #rafael luna #rwarb #rwarb spoilers

[missesmckinnon]

a few days late, but can i talk about the red white and royal blue movie for a sec?

im so happy i decided to buy and speed read the book before the movies release, because the book was very good, but the movie was disappointing for a few reasons. it wasn’t bad, it was a good movie, but is was kind of a let down. does that make sense?

sorry if this is incoherent, i just need to get all my thoughts out.

!! SPOILERS AHEAD !!

first, let’s talk about my biggest issue: june. where the hell was she? she was such a big part of the story, and she is apart of the [??] six, and before that the white house trio. there is no white house trio with only two people. i thought that june showed an interesting contrast to alex, not wanting to pursue a career in politics like he does. she became my favorite character instantly, and it was really upsetting that they cut her out.

second: powder princess bea. i know it wasn’t a big part of the story, but it irked me when they cut that part out. bea didn’t have a lot of character in the films, and the parts of her they did show she was basically there to show that henry had a sister that he liked. in the books, bea had a strong personality and a complicated past.

third: rafael luna. oh my god, why cut him out. alex looked up to him as a young, and openly gay, politician. him leaving to work for richards upset alex deeply, and when raf returned, they had a conversation about richards’ advances toward raf and why raf needed to leave in order to bring richards down. alex and raf had such a sweet relationship, and who tf do they think they are, replacing the rafael luna with some dude named miguel.

fourth: philip. in the movie, philip was kind of shown as some guy who values the crown and the traditions it has, but in the books, he’s a dick. it got so bad that bea and henry didn’t talk to him and turned him away when philip offed to help them. if they’d kept his personality the same, i think it would’ve given more depth to henry’s family and the pressure he’s under.

fifth: liam. liam wasn’t a big character, but, if i remember right, alex called liam when he was having his lil gay crisis, and liam showed up at an event at the end of the story. that’s how alex and henry got the bikes to go to alex house in texas.

sixth: henry’s mum standing up to the queen. considering that henry’s mum being emotionally absent was a big part of henry’s story, when catherine (henry’s mum) stood up to the queen and threatened to have her dethroned for suggesting that henry had to hide was a big moment. it showed that she really cared for her kids but was too consumed with her loss to be there for them.

seventh: pez love interest. in the movies, pez and nora had a romance, but in the books it was pez and june. pez and nora don’t make sense to me at all. junes personality was brought out in the best way by pez, and they complimented each other beautifully. but, since june was cut out, they had to do something i guess.

eighth: dialing down richards. richards is a very bad man, and that’s a theme throughout the book. the book is extremely political, so i understand not going too far into that, but richards made advances on luna and his team leaked the footage and emails between henry and alex. it was really dialed down in the film, which upset me.

let me know what you guys thought of the movie, though. the actors who played alex, henry, nora, and ellen were perfect, and taylor/nicholas had amazing chemistry.

#red white and royal blue #rwrb #rwrb book #rwrb movie #june claremont diaz #alex claremont diaz #prince henry of wales #nora holleran #princess beatrice #rafael luna #pez okonjo #percy okonjo

[ad-astra-per-aspera-1389]

Okay...okay, as important as I, personally, feel June is to the narrative, I can (begrudgingly) accept that she isn't in the movie.

But RAFAEL LUNA??? He's the reason they find out who leaked the emails! His relationship with Alex is vital to the story. Alex figuring out who he is is directly tied to the way he looks up to Luna.

(Apparently also cut Alex realizing he's bi?? But I digress.)

It is SO satisfying in the book when Luna, Nora, and Alex combined cracked the case at the end.

Luna was a role model for Alex, and I just feel like the plot will be missing something without him in the picture.

#sorry not sorry for the rant #rafael luna #alex claremont diaz #rwrb movie #rwrb #red white & royal blue #red white and royal blue #rwrb book

[constantly-chaotic-and-confused]

Everyone’s so annoyed that June isn’t in the film, and like fair, but why is no one talking about Rafael Luna? Like I get the whole side plots need to be cut for time bla bla but like I can’t be the only person who had that as one of their favourite storylines?

Like as someone who likes romance but prefers it as a subplot most of the time I really loved the whole journey it took Alex on, the whole idolising him as his future and as a part of his hope and idealism and ambition, and like realising he always knew he was queer from how much he saw himself in him.

And then to me the whole journey where he got let down cos he put him on a pedestal and had to work through that and extricate his view of himself from this real life, messy human was one of the best written parts of the book. For me it was really relatable, and to be honest maybe resonated with me more than any other storyline I’ve read ever.

Is anyone heartbroken about this too?

#rwrb #red white and royal blue #red white and royal blue movie #alex claremont diaz #rafael luna

[quoteablebooks]

"I resent the idea I can't come visit a dear family friend without ulterior motives." "Bullshit." He clutches his chest. "You wound me." "You exhaust me." "I enchant you." "I'll call security." "Fair Enough."

Alex Claremont-Diaz and Rafael Luna Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

#alex claremont diaz #rafael luna #red white and royal blue #casey mcquiston

[queer-book-character-tournament]

#Tsukiko #The Night Circus #erin morgenstern #Rafael Luna #Red White and Royal Blue #rwrb #casey mcquiston #Kieran Kingson #The Shadowhunter Chronicles #cassandra clare #Andrew Minyard #All For The Game #aftg #tfc #nora sakavic #polls #lgbt books

[bidoofenergy]

little cousin of a friend

Rafael doesn’t know what words to use, how to explain what he feels for this kid that’s basically half his age, but he does know he would douse himself in the rest of the Scotch and light himself on fire for Alex.

also on AO3 (1990 words)

2018

The kid has a crush on him. Rafael can tell, even if Alex can’t. Alex stares at him from across his tiny office and picks up Skittles for him on coffee runs and blushes when they argue. He complains and whines and hounds him over the most miniscule details, but when it’s 12:30 and Rafael doesn’t have a lunch meeting, Alex is halfway to Five Guys already. He had memorized Rafael’s order within the first few weeks, waving off Rafael’s offer to text it to him with a “yeah, yeah, I know what you get.” Rafael is emotionally constipated, like any other gay man in his late 30s, but he knows what a crush looks like on the face of a young brown boy.

And now Alex is lying on his office floor, both of them drunk off their asses on Scotch nicer than 20-year-old Alex has any business drinking. But it’s been a bad week, so Rafael orders pizza and tries to lighten the mood with good stories, hopeful stories about why they’re having this shit week in the first place. Alex is only in this town because he’s working for Rafael, and it feels like the least Rafael can do for his… employee? His friend’s kid?

They have a weird relationship. Alex is some fucked up combination of annoying little cousin, mentee, and friend. Rafael doesn’t know what words to use, how to explain what he feels for this kid that’s basically half his age, but he does know he would douse himself in the rest of the Scotch and light himself on fire for Alex.

Rafael is slumped in one of the chairs, because he knows how to handle what he drinks, holding up his phone so Alex can see the pictures from the floor. There isn’t much he’d critique the President for, but she’s kept Alex so close to the center of it all, had him running the race before he was fully grown—Alex is at a real risk of burning out young. Rafael can see it in him, because it’s in himself. At least Rafael had to muscle his way into political spaces first—Alex is in the thick of it, all day, every day, and it’ll wear him out if nothing changes.

But Rafael isn’t his dad, even if he’s old enough to be and, Christ, that makes him feel old. He’s not Alex’s dad and all he can do is remind Alex why he’s there, why they’re both there.

Alex isn’t looking at the pictures. He’s pretending like he is, like he’s listening to Rafael talk, but he’s got a far-away, dreamy but determined look on his face and Rafael gets a sinking feeling in his gut.

“Pick someone else,” he wants to beg, would beg if it wouldn’t just encourage Alex. “Pick someone else to admire, please.” He doesn’t know if he can bear the weight of Alex’s admiration. He’s so open, so bright, so young and Rafael…

There’s at least one senator with a binder full of Rafael’s secrets, holding it over him like a guillotine blade, and Rafael wants to take down as few people as possible when he falls.

On top of it all, on top of the admiration or crush or hero worship, Alex doesn’t even know that’s what’s happening. Initially, Rafael thinks he’s just good at staying closeted, but he’s too good—too eager to talk about girls on Tinder, too genuine as he listens to one of Rafael’s friends talk about growing up trans and black.

Rafael’s mentee-slash-annoying-little-cousin of a friend has a massive crush on him, and he doesn’t even know it. It’s not his place to say anything, to Alex, who needs to figure this out on his own, or Oscar, no matter how many bathroom bills he blocks, or June, who doesn’t even like that Alex is here, or Ellen, the goddamn President. It’s not his place to say anything, to anyone.

He exhales this secret on little puffs of cigarette smoke—Alex is queer too Alex is queer too Alex is queer too—on his smoke breaks, the only time Alex is willing to leave him alone.

What’s one more secret to carry?

2020

Richards outed Alex and Rafael can’t even prove it. It’s 6 in the morning and Rafael woke up with a horrible feeling in his gut, so bad he thought he had appendicitis again even though his appendix ruptured seven years ago. He grabs his work phone and there it is, the Google alert he had set up for Alex: FSOTUS And Prince Henry Are Totally Doing It!! It’s all so ridiculous he could laugh, but all he can think about is Alex, his little cousin of a friend, forced out in such a humiliating fashion, and he nearly cries.

For one horrible, terrifying moment, he remembers the night before and that horrible gut feeling is back. Is this because of that conversation? Did somebody hear them— “Sería una mentira, porque no sería él.”—and manage to put it all together?

But no, there’s photos of Alex and Henry kissing and, worse than that, emails. Pages and pages and pages of emails, between Alex and Henry, more than he could possibly read—more than he ever wants to read—and that’s when Rafael knows this is Richards. In that moment, it’s nothing more than a gut feeling, but it’s more actionable than any of his other thoughts have been so far.

The Daily Mail broke the story, but it’s easy enough to feed a newspaper anywhere in the world a story like this. The Daily Mail would run it with a single out-of-focus picture, and they got a treasure trove. The emails were dropped on WikiLeaks, which means they might as well have been dropped out of a helicopter in terms of Rafael’s ability to trace them.

He wastes nearly an hour trawling through forum boards he remembers from his teenage-hood and Reddit pages he’s kept an eye on in recent years. Most people are mean and homophobic and varying levels of racist, but he manages to find a pocket of sympathetic queer anarchists, seriously discussing possible sources of the leak. He lurks and watches as, again and again, people ask “Richards?” and throw around phrases like “politically motivated” and “right to self-determination”.

Rafael’s skills might be 20 years out of date, but it’s laughably easy to gain access to an email server he already has an account on. But there’s so much data and only so much time before Richards knows he has it. There’s no time for him to work through all these emails to find anything of substance. Selfishly, he wants to fix this all himself; swoop in and save this horrible, horrible day for Alex.

There’s only one person he can trust with this—one person that will be able to parse this data and cares enough about Alex to do it properly. With any luck, there will be other things Richards has done for Nora Holleran to find in this pile of data.

Making a sockpuppet account is a given—he’s old not stupid—but he hesitates before he sends the email. They’ll need verification for any worthy newspaper to run the story. Thousands of emails mean nothing if there’s any chance it’s all made up. He stares at his cursor, blinking innocently at the end of probably the most important email he’ll ever send. He trusts Nora to do right by Alex, but he doesn’t know if he can trust her to do right by him.

And in a flash, he’s thinking about Alex two years ago, when Rafael got to know him for him, not as Oscar Diaz’s youngest kid. He’s so sad and mad, thinking about that kid getting his hopeful, caring, enthusiastic ass crushed under Richards’s heel all for the Presidency, that kid he got to know over Skittles and scotch and Five Guys.

Five Guys. He has to laugh. For all Alex’s complaining about not being there to play delivery guy, he had memorized Rafael’s order in the first few weeks.

2021 SCB. BAC CHZ GR ON A1.

Alex will get it, and know that Rafael trusts him—and that’s all that really matters. Rafael won’t kid himself. He’s never earning back Alex’s trust; he burnt that bridge. But maybe he can earn Alex’s forgiveness.

2021

Alex swings in and throws a pack of tropical Skittles onto Rafael’s desk. He falls into his usual chair and starts talking and it’s like nothing’s changed.

Everything has changed.

There’s a weight the size of a 6-foot-something white man missing from Rafael’s back, no longer breathing down his shoulder and whispering “imagine who I’ve hurt since I hurt you,” into his ear every time Jeffery Richards shows up on TV. He can breathe, properly, fully, and he didn’t realize the pressure that was on his chest until it was gone.

It helps that he’s also stopped smoking.

The boy—the young man across from him is so open, so bright it almost hurts Rafael to look at him. Alex has been like that the whole time Rafael’s known him, since he was a stretched-out 15-year-old shadowing his dad with a notepad full of surprising insights—but it’s different now. He’s slowed down a little. He’s always been confident, always been a cocky little shit, but he’s not as aggressive about it now. It feels earned, settled into the line of his shoulders, instead of on top of them, weighing him down.

Alex is sitting across from Rafael, in the same office in the Dirksen building, the same leg flung over the armrest in a way that makes Rafael wince and then feel old for wincing, but he’s not talking about politics. He’s talking about Henry, his boyfriend, and his friends, way more than just two. He’s asking about Rafael’s life, about nicotine patches and if he’s ever going to use the Hinge profile Alex had set up and has he recently been to a party that had a single person whose office wasn’t within a seven-block radius? Alex is asking Rafael this, as if he didn’t spend most of college in the Senate building on Friday evenings, pursuing policy rumors and harassing sitting senators.

Alex pauses in the middle of a story about Henry’s dog being chased by rats to check his phone, face going mushy in a way Rafael knows he doesn’t realize. He stands up and says, or really demands, “You’re having dinner with us.”

Us, as in him and Henry, so intertwined they’re casually a single unit. Rafael loves young queer love, even when it’s sweet enough to make him nauseous. “I don’t know, kid, I’m pretty busy right now.” He says, and it’s true.

Alex rolls his eyes. “You’re always going to be busy, but I’m not always going to be here.” He says, and it sounds so simple out of his mouth. Alex has always been good at that. “I miss you; I love you; come have dinner, and we can make my royal boyfriend pay and call it “reparations”.” He’s laughing, but Rafael is still stuck in the middle of his sentence.

It’s said so casually, because of course it is, it’s Alex. Alex wears his heart on his sleeve and has no trouble saying how he feels—once he figures it out. But it still blows Rafael away to hear it said. He’s earned it back. It means more than he can ever tell Alex.

Of course, he’ll go have dinner with them, his annoying-little-cousin-friend and his boyfriend.

He shuts down his computer and starts packing up his stuff. Alex blinks, like he’s surprised he won so quickly. “Love you too, asshole.” Rafael says gruffly, clapping him on the back like the emotionally-constipated middle-aged man he is.

They leave together, an old man and a much younger, much better version of himself.

#red white and royal blue #rwrb #rwarb #alex claremont-diaz #rafael luna #god luna & alex are so important to me #red white and royal blue book #rwrb book #rwrb fic #my fic

[happiness-of-the-pursuit]

Seven Sentence Sunday

Another excerpt from Daddy Issues (rwrb dads' storylines swapped, more snippets here & here), I am finishing and posting Claremont 2008 this week so hopefully I should finally be getting started on writing more of this soon!

Thanks to @ssmtskw @kiwiana-writes @littlemisskittentoes and @anincompletelist for the tags!

“One you probably haven’t experienced–dating apps. Dating apps are the worst,” Raf sighed. “Guys always think it’s cool and sexy to try speaking Spanish with me. Nothing makes me unmatch faster than copied and pasted Google Translate.” Alex hadn’t realized Raf was anything but straight, though Oscar didn’t react, so he must’ve known. Still, Alex had to ask. “You’re gay?”

Tagging some of the usual friends and some people I haven't tagged before but I love to see y'all's work, no pressure as always :)) @read-and-write- @inexplicablymine @affectionatelyrs @daisymae-12 @14carrotghoul @tintagel-or-cockleshells @sherryvalli @leaves-of-laurelin @celaestis1 @myheartalivewrites @welcometololaland Sorry if I missed someone's who already posted! Also if you weren't tagged but want to share, consider this open and tag me :)

#rwrb fanfic #red white and royal blue #fanfiction #rwrb #alex claremont diaz #rafael luna #oscar diaz #rwrb fandom #seven sentence sunday #happinessofthepursuit writes

[writes-in-space]

any old time you keep me waiting

So, I wrote a thing? For a fandom I've never written for before but love with my whole heart, for a ship I will absolutely 100% go down with. I looked at Oscar Diaz and Rafael Luna and said to myself, "Self, there's so much potential between these two middle-aged senators." Thus, SenatorSquared, thus, this fic. Do enjoy.

Rated T, mostly for copious, canon-compliant use of the word fuck. Oscar Diaz/Rafael Luna, with a good helping of Oscar & Alex father-son interaction happening along the way. Canon divergent in that I yeeted Henry's chapter pretty thoroughly.

give it a read here: any old time you keep me waiting

#senatorsquared #oscar diaz #rafael luna #oscar diaz x rafael luna #red white and royal blue #rwrb fanfic #red white and royal blue fanfic #rwrb fanfiction #rwrb fic #my writing

[girlunionize]

so I heard a lot of people saying they missed June (I also did), but Rafael Luna's story and arc was something I really missed too, Miguel Ramos was just an petty antagonist

#rwrb #red white and royal blue #rafael luna