Duty

IV

CHAPTER WARNINGS: Uncomfortable sexual themes, emotional abuse, vomiting, mentions of violence towards animals, and hints of an eating disorder.

Never in your life growing up in the Hills did you believe that you would one day find yourself sharing a meal with the Royal Family.

Prince Tommen is sitting beside you, the Queen Regent opposite you, and her daughter, the Princess Myrcella, beside her. The two youngsters are quite fond of you, constantly complimenting your hair and your dress. Whenever he sees you walking the halls of the Red Keep, Prince Tommen runs up to you and holds your hand. It's very sweet.

The person you can't read is Cersei Lannister. She has never spoken a mean word to you — always perfectly polite. But there's something in her tone. The way she speaks to you in short, clipped sentences. You catch her looking at you sometimes like she wants you to shrivel up and die. A part of you hopes that it's just her being a protective mother. Still, she leaves you with an uneasy feeling.

But the King? There is no doubt in your mind where his affections lie. He has constantly showered you with gifts and compliments from the moment you arrived in King's Landing. The day your engagement was announced, he gifted you a golden necklace embedded with rubies.

"A token of my love," he said. You have worn the necklace everyday since.

He's sitting beside you now, at the head of the table where a King belongs. There's been polite conversation all night long around the table, except Joffrey has been a bit irritable. It's to be expected though, what with the stress of being at war.

Joffrey looks disinterested as you tell him the story of your sixteenth name day and how disastrous it was. Right in the middle of the story, something leaps onto your lap causing you to spill a cup of wine on the table and down your dress.

You look down in shock to find your kitten, Bells, staring up at you with big green eyes. Almost immediately, you burst into laughter and start stroking his dark fur as he purrs in your lap.

"What is that thing doing in here?" Joffrey snaps, as he stares daggers at Bells.

"Oh, it's alright. No harm done," you say with a smile, briefly glancing up at him.

He eyes both you and the cat then stabs into a slab of pork with his fork. "We shouldn't have beasts like that at the table," he says curtly as he sticks the pork in his mouth.

"He's hardly a beast," you chuckle, "He's only excitable because he hasn't learned yet."

Tommen reaches over to pet Bells as Joffrey eyes the two of you.

"You know they say black cats are cursed," he says, "Perhaps you'd be better off with a bird or a dog."

You frown as you look up at him, completely bewildered by his harsh response to Bells' playfulness. And that's when you see it. The way Joffrey flinches every time Bells moves, his eyes wary of the animal.

A smirk spreads out on your lips as you look up at Joffrey. "Your Grace, don't tell me you're afraid of cats," you tease him.

Cersei's head immediately snaps to Joffrey and fixes on him. The King doesn't say anything, simply glancing between you and the cat. You giggle — completely unaware of the rising tension — making Tommen and Myrcella laugh too.

"Don't worry, I won't let him hurt you," you say, "I promise."

You put Bells down on the floor again and watch him scurry off somewhere before returning to the food on your plate. Myrcella asks you questions about your home with Tommen hanging on to every single word.