Streaks Of Silver (Game of Thrones)

Chapter Thirty-One: Proving...

That night, following the wake, Litha would go to bed with Jaime. Holding him, telling him she loved him and that she would do what she could to find out what really happened. The Kingslayer eventually finding rest in her arms...

And the next morning? Jaime would start forcing distractions on himself...

Every morning, he trained his left hand with Bronn as a sparring instructor. Working himself to the bone before midday, when he'd sit in on court business in the throne room at Litha's side. Then, by evening, everyone would gather for supper in the dining hall after Litha finished training with and feeding her dragons.

Then, a week away from the wake, a ship would be spotted headed for the island with their banner and as it neared the shore? According to her guards on the beach...? Direwolves could be heard howling on the top deck...

Waiting in the throne room while Tavio went down to the beach to greet the new arrivals, Litha was more nervous than she believed she'd been since leaving Winterfell, "You haven't seen them in almost two years, have you? Either of you?" Tyrion would ask as he stood by with Jaime. The throne room cleared save a few Dothraki guards, Brienne, Jaime, Tyrion, Sansa, Bronn and Podrick.

"No," Litha answered, "I was a bastard when I left Winterfell, with no prospects and no intention to marry," she described who she used to be while Jaime snickered a bit.

"Now, you're a Targaryen Queen, with five dragons, your own castle on an island and you slapped my sister in the face. Twice," he listed the positives while Bronn hummed.

"That last bit on its own should earn you something," the ex-cutthroat remarked while Litha groaned in her seat. Wearing a red Dornish gown with threads of red, orange, brown and black woven into her hair to match the down. Along with her mother's wolf head pendant hanging around her neck.

"Perhaps things will be different now that she knows the truth?" Brienne suggested staying positive. Meanwhile, Sansa was practically vibrating with excitement and anxiety at Tyrion's side.

Taking a deep breath then, the girl looked up to the rafters where her children played. Hopping from strut to strut and crawling along the frames mounted up there for them. Searching among the nooks for hidden treasures in the form of dried beef liver, chicken jerky and pork cracklins.

Then, the doors of the throne room opened and in walked Robb, Talisa, Catelyn and Rickon. The King in the North at the head of them as he came to a stop in the middle of the room. Unsure of what to do with himself, at least until Sansa took off running to grab up her brother in a bone-crushing hug he returned.

A teary-eyed reunion taking place until an overjoyed and overwhelmed Catelyn made the mistake of turning to Litha, "You've saved us, your Grace!" she beamed until the uneasy expression on Litha's face gave her pause enough to cause her smile to falter with a hint of fear as the young Queen spoke bluntly.

"Do...take time to relax after your journey and enjoy your stay here in my realm, Lady Catelyn," she said as the room quieted and everyone knew better than to speak up. Meanwhile, Litha sat trying to swallow the fact that the woman who nearly let her brother die of pox as a baby had just called her "your Grace."

Jaime watched her reaction to Lady Stark, gaging whether or not she was okay and he found it was the ladder. Litha was most definitely not alright. Something Tyrion noticed as well, given that he had eyes in his head. Though, not before Jaime did.

"My Queen?" Jaime approached her side to offer some semblance of comfort and Robb didn't like this one bit. Litha rising to her feet to meet him with a grateful smile.

"Dragonstone is open to you, as is the Royal Sept below it. Please, take the afternoon for rest among family and we will speak later," she dismissed them, and with her hand finding Jaime's, Litha would depart in favor of the war room.

The Kingslayer hurrying along after his betrothed. Closing the doors of the war room behind him as he watched her walk with breath increasing in pace. Fire licking her knuckles as she tried to calm herself down. Pacing before the end of the table as Jaime studied her posture.

"Catelyn's Stark doesn't have to be the mother you never had and you don't need her acceptance," he declared and she stopped in her tracks.

"I don't want a mother and I don't hate her, I...just don't like being near her," she tried to explain what she was feeling, "It's ridiculous, to still feel this way...now that I'm a Queen and I saved her life, but I still feel that pit in my stomach I knew every day when she'd wrinkle her nose at the sight of me or Jon," she scoffed at herself, shaking out her hands as the fire died and Jaime knew it was safe to come to her.

"I knew Catelyn Stark before she married Ned...she wrinkles her nose at everyone," he mused as she leaned her hands on the war table. Examining the pieces, staring down the model of Winterfell so far down at the other end where the North was on the map.

Then, as Jaime reached her side and he reached around her waist, resting a hand on her hip, she'd only relax when he pressed a kiss to her shoulder, "You are the most remarkable, compassionate and intelligent woman I've ever met...you have nothing the prove to anyone," he whispered to her as he pushed a loose strand of her hair back to see more of her face.

Looking up then to meet his eye, she frowned, "Not as a Snow and not as a Targaryen...you, as you are and have always been, are marvelous," Jaime spoke with words that rang like a promise. One that was sealed when she leaned up to kiss him.

Jaime returning it as his golden-handed arm wrapped around her waist. Lifting and sitting her upon the table while her own hands worked on the buttons of his tunic, "Someone could walk in," Jaime mumbled between gasping breaths against her mouth. Losing all sense of self when he pulled back to see her looking up at him, like a starving animal...

"If they do, they'd better applaud," she declared her lack of shame and that was that. Jaime believed he'd died and gone to heaven. Pouncing on her as pieces from the table flew and she undid the buckle of his belt...