@thriceheaded : marrying for love is a delusion. / u know
A DELUSION SHE'S HARBORED FOR MANY YEARS. lyanna feels silly in the wake of his words, like a child caught fantasizing about things that will never be, too fearful of reality to face the truth. if she had been younger and less marred by experience, she would have argued it possible. she would have smiled more genuinely and held on to the belief, undaunted by doubt. but perhaps, even then, she knew. the deconstruction of her idealism was as gradual as rain eroding a stubborn rock. being betrothed to robert was the beginning, everything else that happened thereafter, the undoing of it all. lyanna stark knows better now. she would be a fool to expect love here; this marriage is an insult to him, that much she knows. war and death are strange things to preface a union, and that's all they have between them.
❛ i hold on to no such delusions, my lord. ❜ is it reassuring for him to hear her say that? the she-wolf hopes so. she finds it difficult to read this husband of hers, she hasn't truly tried. part of lyanna is scared to see what she might find, written on his face. contempt, disgust, judgment. his brother is dead fighting a war in her name, and countless others with him. duty compels him to tolerate her, and duty compels her to accept whatever cold reception he has to offer. the she-wolf straightens her spine, imagines herself a hardy weirwood tree, persisting against the elements. ❛ i will do as a wife should do, as is my obligation. you need not worry that i'd expect more from you. ❜ he is already doing her a favor, unaware of it as he may be. the best she can do is to not be a burden any more than she already is. there is an urge in her to start pacing the room, to do something with her hands aside from keeping them clasped together on her lap. instead, she dares to ask him a question: ❛ is there anything you expect from me? any preference you have that you'd like me to keep in mind? ❜
