manmademartyr

Perhaps he does not care for the food, he did take a full moment to complain about it before you mentioned the letter, after all.

"Does he jest...often in the letters he writes to you? Particularly of the lord who has raised him in the light of the Seven and with great effort?"

"Not as often as he once did when he was a mere boy, but he still mentions you fondly. Occasionally."

Ormund flexes his hand against the table, then his other against his thigh before straightening his spine against the chair, although it was already quite rigid. He bears good posture.

"...What else did he say, Princess? Does he say?"

You think. Ormund watches you, head tilting and lifted.

There ought not to be enough material concerning Lord Ormund Hightower stored inside that pretty little head to require consideration, sweetling.

"Well, let me see. I must admit, for me, your reputation preceded you in the letters from my little brother. There is a lot to sift through. Um..."

...Why do your eyes wander up while you search your memory? Why can he practically see you counting all the times Daeron has mentioned him to you, without praise and with insolence??

"Think hard. Take your time."

Perhaps Daeron has told you of the time his sire ordered his entire chamber stripped because he knew damn well that a mouse had died somewhere. Perhaps he told you about those oranges he has sent back because he was already softening when they were delivered.

Daeron had been three and ten, then. The little shit had sat silently at the table while Ormund informed the steward of what is common sense he should expect of an Oldtown steward---that softness always precedes rot.

Thinking of the moment now, there had been something suspicious about the boy's expression.

Had the two of you laughed at his meager desire for fresh fucking fruit?

"I do not remember anything cruel. Daeron is a kind boy---"

"Yes, I would know. But I am not asking for accounts of cruelty, Princess. I merely want to see how the young prince I have raised perceives me...and how he leads others to."

Sweetling Targaryen whore, Ormund is sure you would not know cruelty unless it threw you over its lap and began striking you across your thick ass.

From the sound of it, you might need just that.

"Oh. Well, yes." You nod and try to match his posture. Lord Ormund seems to be growing cross. It must be impatience with your poor memory. How ashamed you grow. "He said you mislike unpleasant smells."

Lord Ormund stares, lips curling before pursing slightly, eyes looking away and down at the wood of the table. That must not be enough.

"He told me you mislike them immensely---"

"I am aware of the degree to which I dislike them. It is a simple sensitivity to horrendous odors. Forgive me, Princess. I am considering why my ward considers this information worthy of dissemination throughout the royal family."

You only grow more confused.

Yes, why should you understand his...distress at this revelation that Daeron mocks him in letters? You, unfortunately, never got to be his near-daughter and watch your lord raise Daeron into something disciplined and worthy of pride, correcting his endless deficiencies from his Targaryen half until something divine emerged under his hand.

All the effort...the love he's put into raising the boy, and the boy has repaid nearly two decades of devotion with what? By...by---

"This is all very...amusing."

"Oh, it was. He drew a nose wearing a crown. To put emphasis on what he meant, I think."

Lord Ormund's eyes snap up.

By drawing crowned noses for his distant, harlot sister??

"He drew what?"

He must not have heard you. You smile at the memory. "A nose. With a little crown. Quite childish, but he has quite a talent for drawing."

Lord Ormund simply looks at you, the muscles of his jaws tensing. You suppose he is trying to imagine the drawing and finding Daeron's juvenille artistry as ridiculous as you do. You will search for the letter later to aide him.

That little nose, such detail!

"My lord, you must understand, I only laugh at the drawing," Your admission is followed by a grin you cannot help. "Daeron tried very hard to make it properly---"

You are interrupted by Lord Ormund rising from his chair. Quite harshly, you think.

Harsh enough that his chair flies behind him, striking and rattling against the floor before he slams his palms into the table.

"Lord Ormund---"

It is enough that you jump back for your own to scrape under you as it bumps your legs, and for these moments, you do not understand what has happened at all.

Men have been angry in your presence, of course. Aegon is your eldest brother. Aemond is your second eldest.

"Seven fucking helllllssssss!"

But men have never shouted at you. You are a princess! None have ever struck things with rage in your presence, at the very least!

And you cannot understand what has---what is happening, because you and Lord Ormund...

You thought you were having fun with him. As his friend. You do not understand.

"A fucking nose?!" He is no longer looking at you, but for your heart that finds your throat, perhaps that is a good thing. "A crowned. Fucking. Nose? That fucking boy! After all I have done for him---"

His voice comes crashing in volume and harshened on every other syllable.

He sweeps the plate of supper from the table and, with it, his wine. It spills all over the stone floor as the ceramic plate breaks in one blow.

"That ungrateful little shit!"

You go quiet soon after a gasp as Lord Ormund continues to rage, your hand closing around the edge of your chair and other to your throat. The door is behind him. You do not think he'll take kindly to you running. You would scream if you could be sure a guard would reach you before he could do anything.

You would run, yes? You scream, yes? If you could. You're sure of it. You just...cannot decide whether calling a guard would be unnecessary. He has not hurt you. Not yet.

He has only taken to kicking his leg through a wooden dresser.

"He will sorely be punished!"

A nose.

Daeron had sat in his household, eaten at his table, gifted great masters, toys, swords, received everything Ormund thought necessary to make a scholarly, heavenly prince out of him---and gone laughing to his sister. His sweet sister.

His beautiful harlot sister.

It must be you that infests the boy's mind, or else he has failed to snuff out his Targaryen blood!

"I can overlook observations, children are stupid and enjoy letting others know. That! Is understood. But a prince, my ward, ought eventually to acquire enough fucking judgment to know what is jesting and what is insolence! What is---what is making a mockery of your elder!"

"Lord Ormund---"

"You have indulged Daeron, I'm sure---"

"No!"

Ormund runs his palms over his coat before he flicks his hands, as if he's ridding himself of the disgust for the situation at hand. "To take a private peculiarity of his guardian and turn it into court entertainment is precisely the sort of careless familiarity that breeds disrespect. Something to give his sister a laugh!"

"I have never indulged him because he is nothing to indulge---my-my lord! And it is not court entertainment if you think otherwise. He only sent it to me---"

"Yes! Exactly!"

You flinch and grasp your chair as his voice echoes. Ormund halts his pace toward you.

He knows the look on your face. Servants have worn it. Stewards as well, along with knights and messengers who carry him displeasing news.

Daeron, when younger, before he learned that his sire's occasional bouts of anger are justified and only in need of handling. Yes, this is nothing so novel in his temper. It is swift and often productive for his mental bearings.

...But his sweetling harlot of the Red Keep has never lived with it, let alone even witnessed it.

"Princess," Ormund pulls on the end of his coat, his head lowering, his eyes small, his lips pursing once more. "I think I need to explain what has taken place here. Let me find myself. My bearings."

The cold his heart is beginning to bear isn't guilt, as that would mean his outrage itself was wrong. No, never. But he, Princess, has shown you his routine ugliness before he legally possesses the right to demand that you endure it.

That he can admit. He has never been blinded by ego.

Ormund is sure it would be easier to teach you if you were his ward or wife, bound to remain when the room becomes conventionally 'unbearable', but you are not, because, as he's said many times before, the Gods send their challenges to the strongest among the realm.

Too soon. This could surely turn you away from him, and he cannot have that.

Not when you have burdened him with your savor and beauty and potential for discipline. What fault he may have here, you would be a demonic temptress to leave him in the cold at this one harsh, premature moment.

Lord Ormund closes his eyes, and for a moment, there is only his and your breathing. You try to make yours quieter. Surely he will become angrier at being feared. In all, the spilled wine reeks, and so does the meat all over the stone beneath your feet.

You watch, with the bob of his throat, Lord Ormund reaching for his pomander. You do not blame him as he brings it toward his nose---

And your heart stops when he stops to look at you.

"What?"

You're only thinking that the silver thing belongs to Lord Ormund, your friend. He may become that man again if he keeps smelling it, as he does. It always seems to calm him.

You don't know why your eyes on it seem to put tension in his muscles again.

"Nothing, my lord."

Ormund lowers his pomander. "Why are you looking at me?"

...Even in a world where Daeron has not made the mistake of mocking the lord who has cared for him greatly, you have watched Ormund use the pomander yourself. You have witnessed his...one peculiarity.

Somewhere inside that guileless head of yours, there is an assessment of him. Perhaps you think him ridiculous or have snickered beside your ladies. All in feminine gossip about Lord Ormund's delicate nose.

"Princess, what has our Daeron precisely said about me misliking odors, save for a drawing of my lordly nose?"

He has never wanted you to be his ward so badly. You need a great spanking.

"Precisely? I can-cannot remember every word."

"You will have the lord of Oldtown in your debt if you try."

Even if his presumptions are not true, the fact that the possibility exists is enough justification for punishment! Enough for his anger to change direction, at the very fucking least!

"Well...all he has said about your mislike specifically is that you notice smells very quickly, and that you also mislike spoiled food."

This stern gentleness in Lord Ormund's voice frightens you even more so. Shouting and thrashing had at least told you what his anger looked like. You do not know what answer he wants. You know only that he wants one.

Perhaps giving it correctly will return your lord to who he was before.

"He said you prefer sweet-smelling scents when there is sickness in Oldtown, and I vaguely...I vaguely remember that you ridded your household of a servant cause he smelt of onion."

He watches your face for the sneer, for the suppressed amusement of a child, and it is your luck with the Seven that he finds none. Why do they reward you for your insolence? The answer must be in the way he'll one day be allowed to feel your belly swallow his cock whole.

Look, the filth you arise in him.

"It was as if he had eaten an astonishing quantity. Did Daeron write his account as simply that, an account? Or was there a need to humiliate his uncle throughout all his correspondence with you?"

"No, my lord!---"

"And what do you think?"

...Is this still an inquiry into Daeron's supposed misconduct?

"Of...of your habits, Lord Ormund?"

"Yes."

Oh, how Ormund despises how carefully he watches you, the anger and violence within it has left his posture taut, but he feels something near boyishness in its aftermath. He needs the answer.

Gods damn you.

"I did not think anything bad, I do not know what you want me to say."

Neither does he, really. He knows only what he does not want, but he doesn't think even you are simple enough to blurt out that you find him fussy or effeminate, and if you did, he'd rather tear the room apart once more than hear those words leave your trollop lips.

...But it is his right to know if they do, and in turn, to know that you are lying to his face.

"Do you find it...excessive?"

Your eyes widen slightly. You're not sure any answer you could give Lord Ormund would make him happy again. He turns away from you, gripping the edge of the ruined dresser, his head lifting.

"Do not be frightened, Princess. I only ask a question. Do not think me so callous to ever even think of harming a daughter of the crown. I had a momentary outburst...is all."

You take a cautious step toward him. How he can sound cross with you even now, you do know. It is why you are not even sure why you come closer to him at all.

Perhaps because he has turned his back and seems less dangerous that way, or maybe because standing across the ruined room from him makes the two of you feel like enemies, and you cannot bear not knowing when that happened.

He hears you make way to him, your slow feet against the stone. Your scent closing in.

The audacity you do not know you bear is fucking unbearable. How he has lasted this long without taking you to bed is only because of the strength the Seven have given him.

"When we were children, Daeron once wrote three whole pages detailing his anger with me because I had called Tessarion ugly. I only did so because he did not answer my last few letters, and I became cross with him...he would not make jokes about you, if you think they are jokes, if he feared you would cease loving him for them."

...This is manipulation for the sake of your brother. You are trying to say the boy from punishment.

Or do you genuinely interpret the boy's jokes not as disrespect, but as the security a child would have jesting about their good father?

Simple, simple girl trying her best, either way.

And in an attempt not to give the room another lashing and lose his head from your fear making itself known to a knight somewhere, he'll find that sweet and impressive rather than a whore thinking she can soothe him.

"You presume a great deal concerning my relationship with your brother---"

"You have hurt yourself, may I, my lord?"

Ormund looks to where his knuckles have reddened and scabbed.

The insanity of you, is this another attempt to demean him? Or to convince him that you will forget of this moment before you go running to your handmaidens? No, even if this only concerns principle, he cannot have a Princess doting on him so.

...Not with her soft, pretty hands, desperate to tend to him. Are you desperate to tend to him? That shall give Ormund a laugh.

And warmth in his heavy cock.

You will be punished for the filth you make a man bear out of wedlock one day, Princess, if the Gods are just.

"It is nothing, Princess. I do not require consilation, but I thank you---"

He turns to find that at his answer, you have taken to gathering broken pieces of ceramic. The hilarity he finds himself in.

"What are you doing? Put it down."

You obey. Good. At least there is still some order left in the realm.

"You are a princess. There are servants for this. There are...who knows you are here?"

He can tell by your trembling that you are still frightened, and servants or otherwho will return soon enough and find the wine soaking a ruined room.

They will find a scared little Targaryen princess in the middle of it, as if her blood isn't rife with cunning. But you are the expection to your savage race, are you not? Yes, it his mistake to assume you could handle his anger so immediately.

"My handmaid. And my mother. She might not be aware that I am in your guest chamber, but I did tell her that I meant to ask you about Daeron."

Of course you did. Your mama's sweet, simple grace.

Ormund's thumb pokes once into the tender ridge of his knuckle.

"And what do you intend to tell her when she asks how our conversation went?"

You glance at the broken dish. It would be easy if the answer might be lying among it. But your mother tells you often, the truth is just, and it is the best answer.

"That you became angry?"

"No, no." Lord Ormund smiles, and that is a return of joy that you enjoy yourself. His tongue makes a slight, wet smacking noise. His voice is now gentle, as it usually is. You are much relieved.

You are just not sure why he would ask you if he had an answer.

"You will tell her that we spoke privately of your brother and came to an understanding."

"...Did we?"

There is no suspicion in the question, which Ormund finds amusing, even after he's become well aware of how simple you are. It is merely hope in your voice.

Ah, sweetling whore. It is as if he was meant to guide you.

"I should like to think so."

Ormund turns your hand within his and encloses it, his palm warm over your fingers. A friendly squeeze.

Relief finds your whole face. It is almost shameful how little tenderness he must offer to produce it. But mostly concerning. Who else do you allow to steer you in such a way?

"I did not mean to embarrass you."

You squeeze his hand. Ormund allows it without much irritation, a friendly squeeze it also is. It is not like he can lift your skirts and take you by the tempting cunt if it was anything else.

"I know, nor would you wish a harmless childhood jest to become a source of discord between Daeron and me. If your mother hears I lost my temper, she will question you. If Daeron hears, he will know you repeated what he wrote in confidence. He may believe you wished to make him appear disloyal.”

Your brow creases, and your lips part in confusion. "I would never.”

"Naturally. But once a private matter is carried beyond a room, we cannot govern what other people make of it. This, my dear princess, began with a confidence between brother and sister. You are sound enough to let it end as such."

You look down at your joined hands.

"Are you still cross with me?"

Oh, how that question nearly undoes all his careful work. Ormund lifts his chin, smile growing wider.

"I was never cross with you."

You glance at the table his hand struck. He tightens his fingers around yours before the evidence can instruct you differently. Do not act as you if you have any intelligence in your head now.

"My anger concerned Daeron's judgment. You merely happened to be the one who brought it to my attention. I would not have your mother distressed by some embellished account suggesting otherwise, nor your brothers imagining they must defend you from an injury you did not suffer."

...You had not considered Daeron receiving some accusing account of what happened here and discovering the old drawing he entrusted to you has caused trouble with Ormund. All because you repeated a harmless jest.

"I will tell no one, Lord Ormund. I promise."

Not even Lord Larys, though you are sure he would understand the situation much better than Aemond or mother would.

"Good." His thumb passes once over your knuckles. "Then we understand one another, don't we?"

You smile. Everything is mended. Although it doesn't feel as if all his anger was solely for Daeron, Ormund has told you the anger was never meant for you. It seems unkind to disbelieve him after he has allowed you to understand.

It does not occur to you that Ormund has apologized for nothing.

"You will not punish Daeron for a jest he made when he was a child, will you?"

"...He will be made aware that I know of his humorous nature with his sister. I have yet to see it so...vibrant with me."

...You thought of him. While acquiring a treatise on the disgusting, savage traditions within Valyrian marriage, you thought...

Of him???

Ormund's vision grows white at the edges. He nearly swallows his own fucking tongue when his throat bobs. That would be his saving grace, would it not? Save him from saying something that would cause him to lose his head.

...Would you go crying to anyone in the first place, you whorish Targaryen temptress?

"What...caused you to think of me, Princess? I---" Ormund scoffs, and he's not skilled at hiding his vitriol with every word. "I must admit, I am quite confused."

He watches your face lighten with excitement.

Seven Hells! Has the Stranger come for him, disguised as a simple princess riddled with immense, undeserved beauty, a mind riddled with immense stupidity, and a scent that he can't bear to part from? Must be!

"You ask about it so often."

Ormund smiles, eyes small and lips thin.

"And from that," The breath your lord takes is rigid, barely there. "You concluded I desired further reading on your incestuous bloodline?"

You simply nod. "I was thinking of you, my lord. I thought you would enjoy it."

Enjoy. Ha! You...you thinking of him. There are several ways to interpret that.

Unfortunately, his cock chooses first.

It's a slow, thickening pulse beneath his breeches that he should have every right and the mind to despise you for. But no, no. His cock is mistaken. This is an insult! A provocation, certainly.

It is only that you have the talent of performing stupidity to get away with it!

He might as well play your little game. He tries to, anyway, by turning a few pages and feigning interest. He lands on a vicious chapter heading.

THE JOINING OF BLOOD WITH BLOOD.

Ormund stares.

The Seven are fucking testing him!

"Well." Ormund swallows. Smacks his lips. "Princess. You know how to pick out a gift. Tell me, what reaction are you looking from me in bringing me this text?"

They have sent you to challenge him relentlessly, with your oils blooming devilish at your throat. With a body that he can tell is as beautiful as the face that awaits his word.

With the fact that you are Daeron's simple, older sister, and how well he would've done with you as his girl of Oldtown. A ward.

His sweetling near-daughter.

But fantasy is just that, a fantasy. What sin has he committed for the reality to be that you are unknowingly informing your Lord Ormund Hightower that you have spent an afternoon reading about which men may lawfully put their cocks inside women who share their blood?

Or...is there a reward if he succeeds in cutting out the whorishness and dragonline from you? A reward in tolerating the simple mess of you?

A reality where he takes you back to Oldtown?

A daughterly bride that may think him a God for bringing her to Daeron after all these years---

"I was hoping you enjoy it, and if I am to be less than humble, my lord, I would think that you might be...thankful. But I only bring this to you in the mere thought that you could brush up on a bit of reading in a subject you seem so endeared by."

No, Ormund must not be so presumptuous. That is dangerous. But with what he has handled so far you, he is allowed to imagine, he's sure.

...Wait. Endeared by?

How dare you be so heavenly and simple---

"Do you not like it?"

Ormund becomes aware that he is now gripping the edge of his desk, just enough to feel the wood prod his palm.

The disappointment in your voice is nearly as intolerable as the last five minutes have been. He cannot even throw the fucking thing into the fire because that will wound you if it does not lead to some sort of punishment.

...He certainly cannot correct you. You are neither his wife nor his ward. What permission could he have...at the moment, to cure your foolishness with a palm to your ass?

No. Ormund must sit here. Still and polite, and that has his temper eating through the lining of his stomach even more fucking so!

"No. I do, Princess. It is very...thoughtful. Thank. You."

You should've gifted him wine. Or a fucking rock. How awful that he cannot even despise the gift outwardly. In hindsight, he'd much enjoy anything that wasn't material that can be cited in support of dragging you into his bed.

Because it is, is it not? Are you smart enough to understand that when you mark the section concerning cousins with your fingers?

"Look, I thought you would be interested in this part. As most houses and families have wedded cousins together. I suppose my Targaryen blood family bears something in common with yours."

A section concerning marriage between cousins brings Ormund a bit of relief from his pounding, raging heart. Cousins are different. Marrying cousins is not a sign of degeneracy.

Still suspect in excessive practice, perhaps, certainly suggestive of the sort of blood-hoarding arrogance for which Targaryens are notorious.

But politically, historically, outside of the Targaryen bloodline and given proper sanction...

Alicent is his cousin, and you are her daughter. Her simple creature that has walked into his chamber and placed the possibility of marriage between him and you.

You announced that you thought of him while acquiring a book on the lawful fucking of your kind.

And now you expect scholarly gratitude?

Shall Ormund laugh himself mad or throw the table across the room when you leave? The ringing has grown deafening enough that he cannot decide.

"Tarygaryen cousins or otherwise, it seems that my house barely considers marriage between them noteworthy. But I suppose it is common practice for any house."

Ormund feels his cock grow hard with hot seed. That enrages him beyond thought. Absolutely fucking not.

He will not become aroused simply because his stupid sweetling harlot has handed him a book that permits him to place himself within the category of men capable of marrying her. That should be no high honor, as he is sure Aemond and his Daeron are there as well!

"You must...keep true to your thoughtful nature, as it is much appreciated. However, for future reference, you must know that I only possess an academic interest in the habits of foreign peoples."

You nod. "Yes."

The ease of your agreement makes him feel stupid, but he must continue for his own heart.

"Particularly when such habits demonstrate the moral hazards of bloodlines permitted to govern themselves without any religious correction. My references to the Targaryen people should not be interpreted as joyful fascination. Alright?"

It takes everything in Ormund to smile and not strike the desk until it marks.

"Oh...I only thought, as I said, that you ask about it often."

Your smile weakens, and he nearly regrets the victory of you finally realizing what a little fool you have been. It cannot be regret. Guilt of that sort is too feminine. Panicked. He merely recognizes that he has possibly corrected more than necessary.

"...I do not wish to disappoint you, Princess. I. Enjoy. The. Book. Or I shall."

Ormund had thought the questioning subtle, but maybe he will allow that to be a mistake. How could he think that his questions, his jabs, to such a slight-headed girl, would sound anything other than him being a Targaryen enthusiast?

Still, the anger does not lessen. Only grows, in fact, in the beating of his blood against his scholarly flesh.

How have you gone this long without a man to guide your feminine simplicity?

"Perhaps you can tell me which customs you find strangest."

Ormund may not have the right, but he does have the mind to make your hopefully untouched cunt swallow his cock at the way your words supply many images of you naked and bouncing and startled beneath him.

"I expect I shall discover many."

"Here. There are other parts I thought you might find interesting."

You begin turning pages and reveal a chapter marked by a ribbon.

THE BEDDING OF BRIDES.

His cock would spring if it wasn't so tightly burdened, or saved, by his breeches.

"I thought this part strange because apparently some Valyrian brides---"

"That will suffice! Princess, you shall leave me to read your delightfully educational gift, as I'm sure you have more important, domestic duties to pursue. Thank you."

"...Alright. I shall see you later, my lord, and you shall tell me what you think."

You leave before Ormund can commit something that would require his Uncle to negotiate a royal incident to save his skin, and just before he begins to picture grabbing your throat and making you pay for this day on your wedding night.

Would you remember why he is so angry? Would there be too many moments of your unintentional provocation for you to choose from?

Would forcing you to obey the heavy length of his cock and stern hand even be a punishment for a girl like you?

Ormund's shaft hammers as much as the pulse in his throat does at the thought. But this is wrong! You are turning his thoughts wrong. This is exactly the sort of filthy, ancient dragon custom he has spent his life condemning.

He breathes once and heavily through his nose.

"...Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!"

Ormund slams his hands flat against the desk over and over before he pushes himself up on his feet, his chair tumbling backward as a cracking noise sounds out against the stone.

His body has been begging for this outcry for the last quarter hour, and all because of his little fucking harlot?! How dare she demean him so!

He kicks the table over, everything on it sent flying, including your gift.

"You smile, you nod, you bring a man a book on marriage! You fucking cunt! You slight-minded trollop!"

It's a shame Ormund's rage does not lessen the blood rushing to his cock. But it is no fault of his that his simple little princess accidentally presented him with the legal argument for wanting to put his seed inside her.

"She---'I thought of you'. She thought of me? The whore! The cunt!"

Ormund, after he's slammed his fist into stone, yanks at his laces and lets his cock spring free with a humiliating eagerness.

He grips it, but only after marching towards and reaching for your perfume vial that he left by his bedside. It's nearly empty from the last time he took to pumping at the thought of you.

"This proves nothing. Nothing!"

Your stomach drops, and you’re like Jack in letting the fear overtake you enough that you almost forget you’re at the cash register. 

“Cute baby.”

The cashier smiles at you. Your hands tighten on the stroller. “Thank you.”

“She’s got perfect cheeks.”

“Yes, she does.” It’s true, and as her mother, you have every right to talk about her perfect, fat cheeks until the sun explodes.

“I'm very proud of them.”

But you’re too busy trying to convince yourself that you’re a little crazy. It’s a small store. People are allowed to buy only one thing, and awkward moments where your glance catches someone else’s happen all the time. 

By the time you look back to where the stranger was checking out, he’s gone. By the time you get to the parking lot, you’ve convinced yourself that you are ridiculous. Your nervous system has just been heightened by the beauty of motherhood.

There’s a beauty in that, even if it’s the reason you’ve been googling ‘is my baby choking or discovering she has saliva?’ recently. You have to find the silver linings. 

You load the bags and buckle Chubby in. You get behind the wheel. 

Your stomach turns when you see the man in denim near the cart return area, and you don’t think it’s your fear clocking that he’s watching you. 

But you don’t…you don’t panic. You see no need to peel out or to call Jack, because that would mean him asking a million questions that could turn a relatively good day cold.

If you were to even just slightly mention being uncomfortable because a weird man has decided to stare at you, he’d probably abandon his shift, and that would mean probably abandoning a patient. Poor, hypothetical patient. 

Calling or texting him your worries wouldn’t do anything but give a gruff n’ tough fear to a beautiful, thick, freckled body.

Yeah, let’s make it about it being for Jack’s sake instead of yours. That’s much easier. 

The park’s for kids, but it really does calm you down. Compare that to Chubby, who might excite herself in the swings so much that it’s not going to be hard to put her down for her nap later.

You press your mouth into the warm, sweet smell of your daughter’s hair. Inhaling all her sweetness is enough to cancel the sourness crawling along your nerves, and you’re just so, so enamoured by the squeaky-bellied laughs she gives every time you push her.

You hope it’ll always be this easy to entertain her.

“Are you having fun, my little tax deduction?”

Chubby kicks both feet, and your smile drops when you see that one is only socked. 

“Where did your shoe go?”

Just as she grins suspiciously proud with her gums, you look past the swing set to see a car you’re not supposed to recognize.

You don’t know why you do. It’s not like recognition in the way of seeing something you’ve seen 1,000 times before.

It’s an older, dark car. You don’t know how long it’s been parked. It gives you nothing as you watch it for ten to fifteen seconds. The windshield’s reflecting a blur, you’re not even sure if there’s anyone inside. 

..But you’re sure you’re recognizing it in the way of recognizing something you’ve just seen. 

You’re scaring yourself, but pretending it’s nothing won’t stop you from being scared. Time to go home. 

The thought comes with Jack’s voice, except Jackie would never tell you you’re scaring yourself. You take Chubby out of the swing, cooing when she fusses and not giving a damn about finding her shoes. Her dad would buy her every pair if she wanted. 

“Sorry, sweetheart. We gotta go.”

You drive home while checking the rearview mirror more times than you can count, but even as every dark car becomes that one, you’re selfish in the safety you feel as you walk through the door, past the plants you keep forgetting to water.

At least Jack keeps watering them without comment. He’s against plant murder. You can only try to be.

The camera Jack installed when Chubby was born watches you go inside. You remember rolling your eyes when he kept lecturing you on home invasions and the statistically unlikely but not impossible chance of some “freaky fuck” trying to get near you while he’s not home. 

You’re certainly not rolling them now, are you?

You lock the door. Then the deadbolt. Then the chain. You set your chubby baby down in her playpen, and you can’t even give a shit about the way your hands tremble once you’re not holding her.

Your phone buzzes. It’s Jack. 

You home?

You text back.

yes ❤️all good. Chubs kept kicking off her shoes in public and i think she's taken to trying to do the same with her socks

The dots appear immediately.

Send proof of life.

You laugh despite the day. You're home. You're safe. The both of you are safe.

You enter the playpen to take a picture of Chubby on her back, both fists around her bare foot. She looks innocent, like she's never committed the crime of wasting shoes in her life.

You send it. Jack answers immediately. Duh.

Sockless and disgraceful. That's my girl. You okay?

...You know what? For the sake of you both, you can take to half-truths.

yeah, just tired.

Eat something.

You smile faintly and look down to find your daughter has managed to take off her other sock.

You hunch over to kiss her baby belly.

"I think your dada's teaching me how to be a worry wart, are you gonna grow up to be a worry wart---"

A knock on the door interrupts your tease.

You nearly drop your phone as Chubby startles. After she decides to not care, she blinks up at you with mild interest. You do not move.

The knock comes again.

"Ma'am?"

It's the voice of a man through the door.

Your blood goes as frozen as you are.

...He sounds polite.

"...Yes?"

You try putting on your nurse voice, but it's cracked.

"Sorry to bother you, but I think you dropped something. At the park. Your baby dropped something. I didn't want you to lose it."

You slap your hand to your mouth.

Oh. What the fuck? What the actual hell?

You think you might black out, everything within your line of sight stretches and blurs with the beat of your heart harsh against your bones.

"...What is it?"

"A shoe."

At that, your heart just might lurch out of you and turn you into a screaming mess.

"I---thank you," You can hear yourself becoming smaller, even though you want to ask him if he followed you all the fucking way home to give you your daughter's shoe. "You can leave it where you now."

Being harmless might make this situation easier. Maybe not. Maybe you should scream at him to leave. Maybe you should call the police.

But you don't know how many windows are locked, and making him angry might make him want to figure it out.

“I don’t want it to blow away. It's pretty windy. I can hand it to you.”

“It won’t. Please, leave.”

Leave, weirdass! Leave---

You almost drop your phone when it buzzes again. Again.

What’s going on?

Your thumb hovers over the keyboard as the man knocks again.

“You there?”

You type fast.

Nothing

...Jack's reply comes so impossibly quickly that it feels more like his fingers pinching the back of your neck than an actual text.

Nothing is the man at the door?

You freeze. Again.

Move away from the door. Now.

...You had forgotten that he'd be able to see everything through the app on his phone, the one linked to all the cameras around the house. He can see the man.

He can see your lie.

And you practically jump when you hear his voice come through the speaker outside. It's low, rough in the gravel of his beautiful throat. Too calm.

“Step away from the door and leave.”

You can hear a scuffle outside, maybe the man shuffling back as he gives a nervous laugh.

"I'm just returning something. She dropped---"

"No."

Jack's decided not to yell or get loud, which is worse. You hate the voice he uses when he doesn't want to ask people for compliance more than once. It's usually with residents. Or drunk patients.

It's funnier with them.

You can hear scraping against the porch.

“Look, man, I was just trying to help.”

“You followed my wife to my house? How else would you have my daughter's shoe?”

“I didn’t follow her.”

The man sounds genuine, at least. Like, he actually believes that. You imagine Jack at the hospital, his shoulders high and tight, and face emptied out to let rage in. He's watching the camera feed, the man with Chubby's little shoe in his hand.

...But Jack, seeing that, calling him out on that, tells you he does have her shoe. Isn't that a perfect excuse to stalk you for miles?

“...You’re on camera, fucker. Leave."

Jack's voice puts the chill in you. Chubby starts fussing.

You back away from the door and hurry to the playpen, scooping her up. She's offended by the suddenness and tells you that with another fuss, but she just presses her warm cheek against your collarbone.

Not afraid like you, thank God.

Your phone rings. Jack's name flashes on the screen. You answer instantly.

"Jack—"

"Bedroom. Lock the door."

"Jack, I’m sorry—"

His voice is now in your ear. You can hear his clipped breath.

"Bedroom. Lock it. Take the baby."

"I have her."

You hear him swallow.

"Good. Good girl. Go."

You move down the hall with Chubby clutched to your chest. She grabs a fistful of your shirt and chews on the neckline.

You get into the bedroom and scramble to lock the door.

"I'm in the bedroom, it's locked. Is he gone?"

You can hear movement on Jack's end now, the sound of the Pitt before a demand leaves him, away from the phone and controlled.

"Robby. Take my rooms." A pause, a muffle. "No, I’m not asking. I'm supposed to be leaving here, anyway."

A muffled, distant voice sounds out. Robby, probably. The sound of footsteps, Jack's, are what become the forefront of noise.

"There’s a man at my house. I have to go."

"Jack, I’m locked in. He’s probably gone. You can't just leave. I'll call the police if you want---"

Jack's voice drops when he decides he's having none of your excuses.

"You lied to me."

You feel your spit caught in your throat. Chubby nuzzles.

"You were scared, and you lied to me."

"I didn’t want you to---"

"What?" ...He's snapping. "To know? React like anyone would? Come home? Keep you alive? Pick one."

Your throat might close up on you. It makes for the rushing silence that sits between you and him, just until you hear him inhale.

"Sorry, I’m sorry. I’m not---kid, I’m not mad at you. I'm just out of my fucking mind."

His apology comes out angry, really. Ironic. Like he can still find ways to be mad at himself in this situation.

"I saw him at the store, then I thought--I thought I saw his car at the park. But I didn't know. I didn't want to be dramatic---"

"You saw him at the store. And at the park. And you came home?"

...Jack might as well be swallowing the knives in the kitchen with how he sounds. You stutter things that are barely words, bouncing Chubby.

"I didn’t know what else to do, Jack."

I did. But I didn't want to deal with this on top of everything else.

"You call me!"

"I didn’t want you to scare me more!"

That's your and Jack's talent. Escalating. You regret your words when the lines go quiet.

When Jack's voice returns, it sounds stripped. It's quiet, and you'd rather he'd yell like he just did.

"Yeah. Okay. That makes sense."

"...Did I hurt you?"

There's a breath with a hmph. That's an answer enough. You hold in your breath, only letting it go against Chubby's hair.

"You did. And that doesn’t matter right now. Stay where you are. I'm going to hang up to call the police. I'll be there soon, Sleepy."

Jack hangs up. You start crying then, and your baby lifts her head and stares at you with confusion, even more offended than before.

You don't know how long you cry, but you're finished when Jack's truck tears into the driveway. He gets home before the police do. The distance between here and the Pitt...him getting home so quickly shouldn't be possible.

But shouldn't be one to not believe in him.

The front door opens, and you think it's okay to disobey his demand and leave the bedroom.

You find him pale with a jaw locked down so hard that you want to tease him and tell him that he's going to eat his lip. He looks at you, then at Chubby, then at every window in the room.

Chubby lights up.

"Da bah bahhhhh!"

He crosses the room, and you want this to be something you can tease later so badly, even though you're sputtering and reaching for him, because he looks like he could be called Dr. Violence right about now. Violence got himself a medical degree and scrubs and beautiful, silver hair.

Dr. Violence. Papa Bear. Jackie.

"Jack."

His arms come around you and your baby. One hand cradles the back of your head as you instantly fall into his stern, stoic body. He holds you too tightly. Never too tightly. Never tight enough.

"I’m sorry I lied."

He slips his fingers to your neck, squeezing there with the rough tumble of his voice against your skin.

"Don’t apologize yet. I’m deciding how mad I’m allowed to be without becoming fucked about this.”

Call the progress, baby. He's trying.

You pull back just enough to look at him.

"You’re shaking."

"I watched a man stand on my porch with our daughter’s shoe in his hand. It's there. I can't touch it. I need to...I need to check the locks. The police should be here soon."

"Jack...let's just...let's just talk about this---"

"I need to check the locks. And the windows. And I'm getting more cameras tomorrow. And motion lights. I don't know why I didn't get motion lights before. That fucking...that fucking bastard. You don’t know what it was like seeing him there and knowing you told me nothing. Knowing there was a whole day of you being afraid that I wasn’t inside. I wasn’t there. I didn’t know. I didn’t---"

"Jack, let's get you sitting down---"

"You’re not going anywhere alone for a while."

...You should've guessed that's what would be the answer to this at some point. You swallow, voice softening carefully.

"We can talk about that."

Jack blinks. He rubs your neck. He only looks slightly helpless when he glances at Chubby.

He kisses her perfect, tubby cheek.

...You thought of him. While acquiring a treatise on the disgusting, savage traditions within Valyrian marriage, you thought...

Of him???

Ormund's vision grows white at the edges. He nearly swallows his own fucking tongue when his throat bobs. That would be his saving grace, would it not? Save him from saying something that would cause him to lose his head.

...Would you go crying to anyone in the first place, you whorish Targaryen temptress?

"What...caused you to think of me, Princess? I---" Ormund scoffs, and he's not skilled at hiding his vitriol with every word. "I must admit, I am quite confused."

He watches your face lighten with excitement.

Seven Hells! Has the Stranger come for him, disguised as a simple princess riddled with immense, undeserved beauty, a mind riddled with immense stupidity, and a scent that he can't bear to part from? Must be!

"You ask about it so often."

Ormund smiles, eyes small and lips thin.

"And from that," The breath your lord takes is rigid, barely there. "You concluded I desired further reading on your incestuous bloodline?"

You simply nod. "I was thinking of you, my lord. I thought you would enjoy it."

Enjoy. Ha! You...you thinking of him. There are several ways to interpret that.

Unfortunately, his cock chooses first.

It's a slow, thickening pulse beneath his breeches that he should have every right and the mind to despise you for. But no, no. His cock is mistaken. This is an insult! A provocation, certainly.

It is only that you have the talent of performing stupidity to get away with it!

He might as well play your little game. He tries to, anyway, by turning a few pages and feigning interest. He lands on a vicious chapter heading.

THE JOINING OF BLOOD WITH BLOOD.

Ormund stares.

The Seven are fucking testing him!

"Well." Ormund swallows. Smacks his lips. "Princess. You know how to pick out a gift. Tell me, what reaction are you looking from me in bringing me this text?"

They have sent you to challenge him relentlessly, with your oils blooming devilish at your throat. With a body that he can tell is as beautiful as the face that awaits his word.

With the fact that you are Daeron's simple, older sister, and how well he would've done with you as his girl of Oldtown. A ward.

His sweetling near-daughter.

But fantasy is just that, a fantasy. What sin has he committed for the reality to be that you are unknowingly informing your Lord Ormund Hightower that you have spent an afternoon reading about which men may lawfully put their cocks inside women who share their blood?

Or...is there a reward if he succeeds in cutting out the whorishness and dragonline from you? A reward in tolerating the simple mess of you?

A reality where he takes you back to Oldtown?

A daughterly bride that may think him a God for bringing her to Daeron after all these years---

"I was hoping you enjoy it, and if I am to be less than humble, my lord, I would think that you might be...thankful. But I only bring this to you in the mere thought that you could brush up on a bit of reading in a subject you seem so endeared by."

No, Ormund must not be so presumptuous. That is dangerous. But with what he has handled so far you, he is allowed to imagine, he's sure.

...Wait. Endeared by?

How dare you be so heavenly and simple---

"Do you not like it?"

Ormund becomes aware that he is now gripping the edge of his desk, just enough to feel the wood prod his palm.

The disappointment in your voice is nearly as intolerable as the last five minutes have been. He cannot even throw the fucking thing into the fire because that will wound you if it does not lead to some sort of punishment.

...He certainly cannot correct you. You are neither his wife nor his ward. What permission could he have...at the moment, to cure your foolishness with a palm to your ass?

No. Ormund must sit here. Still and polite, and that has his temper eating through the lining of his stomach even more fucking so!

"No. I do, Princess. It is very...thoughtful. Thank. You."

You should've gifted him wine. Or a fucking rock. How awful that he cannot even despise the gift outwardly. In hindsight, he'd much enjoy anything that wasn't material that can be cited in support of dragging you into his bed.

Because it is, is it not? Are you smart enough to understand that when you mark the section concerning cousins with your fingers?

"Look, I thought you would be interested in this part. As most houses and families have wedded cousins together. I suppose my Targaryen blood family bears something in common with yours."

A section concerning marriage between cousins brings Ormund a bit of relief from his pounding, raging heart. Cousins are different. Marrying cousins is not a sign of degeneracy.

Still suspect in excessive practice, perhaps, certainly suggestive of the sort of blood-hoarding arrogance for which Targaryens are notorious.

But politically, historically, outside of the Targaryen bloodline and given proper sanction...

Alicent is his cousin, and you are her daughter. Her simple creature that has walked into his chamber and placed the possibility of marriage between him and you.

You announced that you thought of him while acquiring a book on the lawful fucking of your kind.

And now you expect scholarly gratitude?

Shall Ormund laugh himself mad or throw the table across the room when you leave? The ringing has grown deafening enough that he cannot decide.

"Tarygaryen cousins or otherwise, it seems that my house barely considers marriage between them noteworthy. But I suppose it is common practice for any house."

Ormund feels his cock grow hard with hot seed. That enrages him beyond thought. Absolutely fucking not.

He will not become aroused simply because his stupid sweetling harlot has handed him a book that permits him to place himself within the category of men capable of marrying her. That should be no high honor, as he is sure Aemond and his Daeron are there as well!

"You must...keep true to your thoughtful nature, as it is much appreciated. However, for future reference, you must know that I only possess an academic interest in the habits of foreign peoples."

You nod. "Yes."

The ease of your agreement makes him feel stupid, but he must continue for his own heart.

"Particularly when such habits demonstrate the moral hazards of bloodlines permitted to govern themselves without any religious correction. My references to the Targaryen people should not be interpreted as joyful fascination. Alright?"

It takes everything in Ormund to smile and not strike the desk until it marks.

"Oh...I only thought, as I said, that you ask about it often."

Your smile weakens, and he nearly regrets the victory of you finally realizing what a little fool you have been. It cannot be regret. Guilt of that sort is too feminine. Panicked. He merely recognizes that he has possibly corrected more than necessary.

"...I do not wish to disappoint you, Princess. I. Enjoy. The. Book. Or I shall."

Ormund had thought the questioning subtle, but maybe he will allow that to be a mistake. How could he think that his questions, his jabs, to such a slight-headed girl, would sound anything other than him being a Targaryen enthusiast?

Still, the anger does not lessen. Only grows, in fact, in the beating of his blood against his scholarly flesh.

How have you gone this long without a man to guide your feminine simplicity?

"Perhaps you can tell me which customs you find strangest."

Ormund may not have the right, but he does have the mind to make your hopefully untouched cunt swallow his cock at the way your words supply many images of you naked and bouncing and startled beneath him.

"I expect I shall discover many."

"Here. There are other parts I thought you might find interesting."

You begin turning pages and reveal a chapter marked by a ribbon.

THE BEDDING OF BRIDES.

His cock would spring if it wasn't so tightly burdened, or saved, by his breeches.

"I thought this part strange because apparently some Valyrian brides---"

"That will suffice! Princess, you shall leave me to read your delightfully educational gift, as I'm sure you have more important, domestic duties to pursue. Thank you."

"...Alright. I shall see you later, my lord, and you shall tell me what you think."

You leave before Ormund can commit something that would require his Uncle to negotiate a royal incident to save his skin, and just before he begins to picture grabbing your throat and making you pay for this day on your wedding night.

Would you remember why he is so angry? Would there be too many moments of your unintentional provocation for you to choose from?

Would forcing you to obey the heavy length of his cock and stern hand even be a punishment for a girl like you?

Ormund's shaft hammers as much as the pulse in his throat does at the thought. But this is wrong! You are turning his thoughts wrong. This is exactly the sort of filthy, ancient dragon custom he has spent his life condemning.

He breathes once and heavily through his nose.

"...Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!"

Ormund slams his hands flat against the desk over and over before he pushes himself up on his feet, his chair tumbling backward as a cracking noise sounds out against the stone.

His body has been begging for this outcry for the last quarter hour, and all because of his little fucking harlot?! How dare she demean him so!

He kicks the table over, everything on it sent flying, including your gift.

"You smile, you nod, you bring a man a book on marriage! You fucking cunt! You slight-minded trollop!"

It's a shame Ormund's rage does not lessen the blood rushing to his cock. But it is no fault of his that his simple little princess accidentally presented him with the legal argument for wanting to put his seed inside her.

"She---'I thought of you'. She thought of me? The whore! The cunt!"

Ormund, after he's slammed his fist into stone, yanks at his laces and lets his cock spring free with a humiliating eagerness.

He grips it, but only after marching towards and reaching for your perfume vial that he left by his bedside. It's nearly empty from the last time he took to pumping at the thought of you.

"This proves nothing. Nothing!"