Reputation to Protect out now!
Aelsa needed distance. She did her due diligence and was an effective and efficient hand. She was a good mother and a good wife. She only saw otto as a friend... biggest lie she ever said.
Aemond and Ollivander were in the courtyard. Aemond had been trying to learn how to fight again with one eye. He didnt realize how much fighting relied on both eyes, being able to see his opponent. He had to keep moving his head around to see where Ollivander was swinging.
Of course Ollivander did temper his speed when he swung. Otto watched from beside Aelsa on their balcony perch outside the hands office. Aelsa remembered how easily they had done this before and now it all felt... messy.
Aelsa felt ottos hand on her back and she leaned into his touch for a moment before her brain clicked back into her sense. She cleared her throat leaning forward on her forearms.
"Your boy reminds me of me when I was younger." Otto remarked. Aelsa smiled despite herself. Ollivander ducked under Aemond's swing and smacked his sword against Aemond, they heard the smack of the swords, the sliding of metal as they dueled for dominance.
"You were skilled with a sword Otto?" Aelsa pondered.
"I was very skilled." Otto agreed. "In everything I did and do."
"Everything you say?" Aelsa purred. Gods stop, she demanded herself. She forgot how easy it was to flirt with him.
"You tell me." Otto agreed holding her gaze as her cheeks slowly heated. She pulled her gaze away when she heard a knock at her door, she moved from the balcony and turned back to the door, little heels clicking on the ground as she walked. She needed to put some space between them or else she would do something she was going to regret.
"My lady hand, are you ready for the meeting?"
"Otto, come along, be of use, let Olli train. He has plenty time to outshine you in council meetings." Aelsa decided.
+
"Aelsa stop!" Otto begged chasing after her after the meeting. "Do you want me to leave? is that it? Do you not want me here?"
"What? No, I wouldnt have invited you for this position if I didnt want you here." Aelsa countered.
"You keep undermining me." Otto countered. "It's like you are trying to get me to quit, to lose me. I'm that easily lost."
You were though, Aelsa wanted to shout. You were lost for ten years and it broke her heart for a long time but not anymore.
"I wasn't trying to lose you. I just had too much going on in my head and I'm not used to... I just want..." Aelsa sighed.
"Well, I'd love to crawl into your head sometime." Otto offered. "Maybe I would- could figure you out, Aelsa."
"No. You wouldn't. It's a dark hole with blundering ideas. It's where good intentions go to be suffocated." Aelsa hissed out. Otto chuckled. "It's a rabid horse with no control. It's a million scenes from real life observations, all trying to find where they fit into my own life." Aelsa ran a hand over her head then pinched her nose, all those scenes and ideas that ran through her mind that she was trying to keep a hold on were all waiting to be acted out at the right time right with Otto, but she wouldnt. Yet it was all those incessant moments replaying of missed cues and misspoken words, all those moments in this office where he claimed her. She shook her head from the thoughts.
"Its not a pretty place in my mind. Its brilliant but messy." Aelsa offered. He narrows his eyes. She looked away and shrugged. "I have to go home. To my husband," Aelsa added, she grabbed her bag and headed out. Otto's eyes drifted to the floor.
YOU ARE READING
Bad Idea Right? / Otto Hightower / Larys Strong (2)
FanfictionAelsa Lannister was hand of king, the first woman hand in history and she couldnt let anything get in her way of her success. So when she got pregnant her plans shifted. She needed a husband that didnt care that she was carrying another mans child...
