Tale of a Viper and a Doe || Oberyn Martell

xvii. the spider

"What the fuck are you doing up so early?" Ilyn groaned as she sat up in bed, squinting at Oberyn who stood donning one of his tunics. From the balcony the sun was just starting its ascent, distant light peeking out from behind the drawn curtains.

At the sound of her voice Oberyn shifted as he continued to button the robe, a look of guilt rising in his eyes. "Apologies, my love, I did not mean to wake you. My first small council meeting is today and for some inexplicably absurd reason your grandfather deemed it wise to schedule it at an obscenely early hour."

As she registered the explanation, Ilyn groaned again and slumped back down into her bed, pulling the covers up to shield the light from the window. "I should have made you sleep in a different goddamn room," she moaned, dramatically lamenting the lost sleep.

Oberyn's eyebrows rose as he finished putting on the tunic, nodding at Liz who suddenly appeared, a small plate of breakfast in hand. "You would have preferred I find alternate sleeping arrangements?" Oberyn chuckled as he took a bite of bread before striding forward and sitting down on the bed next to Ilyn's body. "No matter whose bed I ended up in?"

Her eyes firmly shut, the Baratheon princess nodded, her lips set in a pout as she answered, "Any other goddamn bed in the palace would have been better than here."

Oberyn rolled his eyes at the over-dramatic, joking response. From behind him, he could have sworn he heard Liz murmur, "If you really need him off your hands, he's welcome in my bed any fucking day of the week, Il."

He smirked, eyebrows rising as Ilyn giggled, obviously having heard her friend as well. "I might well take you up on that offer some time, Liz," the princess crooned, her eyes still firmly shut. From the other side of the room, the servant girl choked.

"Cheeky," Oberyn teased Ilyn, brushing a stray piece of hair from her forehead. She smiled softly at the touch, almost leaning into his hand.

"If you insist on going to the damn council meeting, I expect a detailed report when you get back," she mumbled, her voice growing quieter as sleep threatened to overtake her again. It didn't surprise Oberyn: they had after all been up rather late last night, even by their standards.

The second prince of Dorne laughed softly, the sound beautifully light to Ilyn's ears, "Should I take notes for you, little doe?" he teased, running his thumb tenderly along her cheekbone.

Ilyn nodded into her pillow. "Yes—I expect very detailed notes. No doodling or losing focus," she demanded, a yawn escaping to her lips as she finished. Gripping her blanket tighter, she snuggled deeper into their bed.

For a long moment, Oberyn merely stared at the princess, the smile slipping from his lips as he memorized every feature of her resting face, memorized the crease between her eyebrows and the slight pout of her lips.

Finally, Oberyn leaned in and kissed her softly on forehead. "Sleep, my love," he murmured as he pulled away.

Then the Red Viper stood, straightening as his tunic as he made his way out of her chambers and to the small council meeting.