Seven Levels Below

VIII

Mitch is propped up on his couch, trying to finish drawing out the dimensions of this stupid dress without smudging it again so he has something better to work with tomorrow in the studio while the news played quietly in the background. He's finally managed to correctly capture the exact curve he wanted when he hears Scott's name and flicks his attention up to the TV for just a second. That one second is all it takes to have his hand brush the still-drying ink though, and now he's cursing and groaning as he resigns himself to having to redraw it again as he rips the ruined page out of his sketchbook and tossed it onto the coffee table.

Why did he need to be born left-handed?

He takes a minute to calm his irritated nerves and refocuses on the news for a minute.

The lady is still talking about Scott and some program that he's signed into place or whatever, (Mitch didn't really know how it works, and if he was curious, all he had to do was ask Scott to explain it sometime), and then it cuts to a video of Scott standing in what Mitch recognizes vaguely as the interior of the Senate chamber. The audio switches over from the news lady and now Scott's talking about some financial aid system he's asking for approval on. He's standing behind this fancy wood podium in front of rings of seated senators, and then people are whispering and looking at each other while Scott continues. Mitch is confused for a second before it cuts back to the news lady explaining how the prince is facing mixed opinions on his "education funding bill". While the lower-Asdrian senators don't hold many seats in the Senate, they are apparently causing quite a stir as they argue to support Scott's program against the more hesitant upper-Asdrian senators. The lady reads a statement from one of the upper-Asdrian senators about how they don't feel like they need to be helping people from the lower levels afford their own higher education, and then reads another counter statement from a lower-Asdrian senator about the low rates of lower-Asdrian citizens being able to attend colleges, especially since there's none located below the fourth level.

Mitch pauses the TV for a second to try to absorb everything he's just heard. Luckily for him, guess who just happens to choose that very time to knock at his door?

He's greeted with the smell of a fresh pizza when he swings the door open and a gleeful, "You're gonna love this so much, you aren't even ready", before Scott's sweeping in and kicking his shoes off, crossing the kitchen and sliding the pizza onto the kitchen counter, all whilst discussing, in depth, the wonders of one of the chefs in the kitchen, some guy named Avi who apparently is Scott's personal vending machine--according to the pizza that he can make at short notice for him--and the several stories about Scott getting whacked by him for sneaking into the kitchen at night and stealing some food.

"Bitch, you'd better be saving some of that pizza for me too!" Mitch gasped as he wriggled his way between Scott and the grabby hands reaching towards the gift he'd just deposited. When plates and slices had been distributed between the two, they took their usual spots in Mitch's living room.

"Oooooo, did someone miss me?" Scott's eyes landed on Mitch's frozen TV, news lady still trapped midway through a sentence and the image of Scott in the Senate standing in the corner.

"You wish." Mitch figured now was as good a time as any to ask. "So what is this bill thing? I swear I tried to follow what she was saying, but I clearly don't remember enough about how anything works to keep up with all this fancy political talk."

Scott hummed and leaned back in his chair. "Well, you and Kirstie were talking, like, two weeks ago or something, about how you had planned to follow music into college when you were younger until there were too many barriers making other careers more appealing, and it gave me an idea."

Mitch nodded along. They had planned to go into the music field, Mitch in production and recording technology and Kirstie in songwriting and maybe performance someday, but eventually a lack of funds and actual colleges in the lower-city had convinced them to take different paths before they could trap themselves under a lifetime of debt.

"Well," Scott continued, "I realized that I could probably create a funding system to at least help encourage more students to pursue a higher education. I know you're not interested in the boring political details, but long story short, I researched a bunch, wrote a bajillion reports, presented it to a small advisory council, wrote a formal proposal once I got their approval, and presented that to the Senate meeting for them to discuss official approval or denial. If they pass it at the next meeting in a week, then I can sign it into place and start the system functioning. If they deny it, I'm gonna pout about it for a while, and then start rewriting a new proposal to try again with more support, hopefully." Scott sat back, pleased with his explanation.

Mitch was fairly stunned. "That's the long story short, huh? Is that basically your job, then? Writing a shit-ton of proposals and trying to get people to approve them?"

"Yeah." Scott grimaced. "There's a lot of stuff that doesn't require a full Senate approval, though. Including signing a bunch of papers and making occasional media appearances to keep people happy and invested in the functioning of their country."

"How the hell do you have time to come here almost every day?"

He shrugged. "There's a bunch of smaller councils that can usually take care of writing the boring reports and doing the research, so a lot of the time I just have to approve and sign them before either I or someone else presents them to the corresponding board. So I can usually get away with free nights as long as I put the work in all day."

Mitch shook his head. "Wow, I'm glad I just draw clothes."

"Speaking of which," Scott's face lit up, "I know you don't like it when I talk about your work, but damn Mitch."

He reached down to point out the torn page still sitting out in the open at Mitch's confused expression.

"Noooooooo," Mitch buried his face in his hands. "You're not supposed to look at them." He can't really blame Scott for sneaking a peak this time though. It was his own fault for leaving it there. "Especially not the screwed up ones. Curse my left-handedness."

Scott just fixed him with an accusing glare. "You call that screwed up, I call it a unique masterpiece from the great Mitch Grassi, the most incredible artist who ever lived. Seriously, can I hang it up on one of the palace fridges?"

Mitch pretended to consider it for a minute. "Nope." Then he snatched it and dodged the flailing noodle arms as he catapulted himself over to his bedroom door, where he could quickly lean around the corner and reach around to the top drawer of the desk sitting next to the doorframe. He shoved the wrinkled paper inside next to his other sketch books (which may or may not contain sketches other than just clothes... hehe) and triumphantly turned back to the living room.

"You're evil, I swear." Scott pouted and slouched back down in his chair.

"And you're just the sweetest little angel on the planet," Mitch smirked as he batted his eyelashes and flopped down onto his couch again. "No, but seriously. I really hope you can get that education funding proposal thing passed. You could make a lot of kids really happy, really fast with that."

Scott sighed. "I sure hope so."

The proposal did end up being passed the next week, but even after the massive number of speeches and press meetings Scott had been stuck in all week, the vote was still really tight. Mitch sat on the edge of his couch with his hands balled in nervous fists as he watched the live Senate meeting on TV, eyeing the numbers warily and glancing at Scott sitting tensely in a fancy chair, which Mitch now recognized as the seat for the royal speaker, as the meeting dragged on. When the proposal finally passed, Mitch cheered, scaring Wyatt back out the window, and watched as Scott let out a slight sigh of relief on the screen, before Mitch jumped up to make plans to go find a bottle of wine for the next time Scott came over to celebrate.