Author's note: I do not own Bleach or its characters. This is AU and draws inspiration from The West Wing. Some of the dialogue is almost directly quoted from the show.

What Good Sons Do

Shunsui Kyoraku buried his head in his hands and gripped his hair. He had no clue what he was doing. Here he was, a world class political operative, working on the presidential campaign of Senator Szayel Aporro Granz, and he didn't really know what he was doing. He didn't know what they were for or what they were against, except that they seemed to be for winning and against someone else winning. This was not how he had expected running for president to be like. There wasn't the excitement or hope that he had thought there would be. And he had just gotten himself scolded by his candidate.

"Shunsui?"

He looked up to find Shigekuni Yamamoto-Genryusai, the former Secretary of Education standing in the doorway. Shunsui smiled and rose to his feet.

"Mr. Secretary, it's good to see you."

"I hope you don't mind that I didn't make an appointment. I'm trying to keep under the radar some."

"Of course, I don't mind." Shunsui ran a hand through his hair; his ponytail was a loss for today anyway. "But the senator just went down for a vote."

"Actually, I came to see you."

"Really?"

Yamamoto nodded. "Yeah."

"What can I do for you?"

"Do you mind if we take a walk?"

And that was how Shunsui found himself strolling the mall with one of his father's best friends. He still wasn't really sure what was going on.

"How's your dad doing? I heard he was in the hospital again."

Shunsui shrugged. "He's fine. They think they got it all this time."

"Is he taking it easy?"

He had to laugh at that. "No. He goes to the office every morning at six and comes home at eight in the evening like always. On the weekends, he gardens and yells at the squirrels."

"Why does he yell at the squirrels?"

"Because they eat the seeds out of the bird feeder."

"You know," Yamamoto stopped in front of the reflecting pool, "they make this thing now--"

Shunsui sighed. "He knows. He just prefers to admonish them. Look, I have to get back to this meeting."

"Shunsui, I want you to come to Nashua, New Hampshire, on Thursday and hear Kisuke Urahara speak."

Shunsui blinked at the man. "I work for Senator Granz."

"Yeah." Yamamoto just smiled at him.

"Mr. Secretary--"

"I'm not in the cabinet any more, Shunsui. You can call me Yama-ji like you used to."

"Look, Granz has the nomination all sewn up."

"Yeah."

"If Urahara wants to be Secretary of Energy or is looking for a slot at the convention, this really isn't--"

"Come to Nashua Thursday night."

"Why?" Shunsui couldn't see the reason behind this.

"Because that's what good sons do for friends of their fathers." Yamamoto turned and started to walk way.

"Mr. Secretary." Shunsui's curiosity was eating him alive.

"Yama-ji." He turned back around.

"Yama-ji, the Democrats are not going to nominate another liberal, academic, former governor from New England. I mean, we're dumb, but we're not that dumb."

Yama-ji smiled at him. "Nah, I think we're exactly that dumb."

Shunsui watched as the man walked away. With a sigh, he flipped open his phone. Time to make some travel arrangements.