Different Kind of Beautiful / Larys Strong / Vaera Targaryen

19. Marry Me

Dress / Gregor Clegane / Davina Targaryen out now!

"You keep saying the same thing and it doesnt make any sense." Lyonel declared.

"What doesnt make sense about it?" Larys countered.

"Vaera Targaryen, the princess?" Lyonel asked incredulously.

"Yes." Larys agreed. "She is perfect. I have admired her from afar and then these past years... especially these past moons I have gotten to know her. Really know her. I love her."

"The king will never agree to this." Lyonel corrected. "Vaera is his favorite. His world. He wont-" lyonel stopped himself. It wasn't larys fault he was born with clubfoot. Wasnt his fault he was a second son. 

"She likes me... she loves me." Larys corrected. "And... and I love her. I love her!"

"You love her?" Lyonel repeated with a huff. "Larys her father will never allow it. She is the princess-"

"And she loves me." Larys countered. "We are friends and more than that, we are meant to be I know it."

"No. He will say no." Lyonel cut him off.

"The king wants her wed to a man she chooses. Why not wed her to me? Someone that loves her. Someone that will treat her like a queen." Larys declared.

"Larys, the king, he will- will never agree." Lyonel corrected.

"Father." Larys begged.

"I may try to talk to the king...  of course, I can try, Larys I can speak with him... but I will be honest with you, you must understand that there are very small chances he could accept such a union". Lyonel reminded Larys.

"Are you talking about my disability?" Larys pondered innocently but he grit his teeth. Lyonel sighed heavily as he forced his gaze away from Larys, as though it hurt to remind him that the world was cruel, as though Larys didn't know that enough already.

"The king loves Vaera more than anyone in the world, more than his other children combined, more than his wife, more than anything!" Lyonel declared. "He wouldnt agree to just anyone marrying her, you know that. Even if you were..." Lyonel stopped himself.

"Whole." Larys offered. "Even if I was whole and like Harwin, a knight. He still wouldnt consider me a strong enough suitor for Vaera."

"And!" Lyonel added desperately. "and you are a second born son. But yes, you are also a cripple". Lyonel had spoken in a soft voice, almost cautious, and yet to Larys's heard every word as brutal and heartbreaking as though his father shouted he would never be good enough. He would never truly have Vaera Targaryen, his own father didnt believe in him. It was as though Lyonel had screamed it in his soft words that Larys was broken. Larys forced a smile as he turned to leave but he stopped, he didn't face his father, he had to be strong. He didn't think he could look at his father confidently and say the words.

"Then I will have to convince him otherwise. I dont need your help, I was simply informing you of my plans for wed Vaera."

"Larys-" Lyonel reached out but Larys marched off slamming the door behind him. 

Vaera was going to say yes, he already knew it because she had basically jumped at the question at the statement really saying he needed to ask for her hand officially. 

Vaera was in her best red dress when Larys found her. 

"Larys what a surprise!" Vaera mused. 

"Is it?" Larys countered. "You look beautiful." He added kissing her cheek. 

"Oh this old thing? Just had it tailored, actually. You know I like to linger in my best dresses in case anyone wants to ask me life changing questions." Vaera batt her eyelashes back at him. "Wink, wink," She added as he chuckled. "I'm bad a winking."

"Vaera," Larys began. 

"Yes?" She agreed eagerly. 

"Vaera Rose Targaryen... You're the person I think about when I'm not thinking at all. You're also the person I think about when I'm thinking too much. You kind of just live in my thoughts when they are calm and wild. Like, some people have thoughts, and I have Vaera Targaryen circling my mind constantly." Larys declared.

"You do?" Vaera questioned, a blush creeping up her cheeks. She didnt realize, she hoped of course, she wanted her future husband to be thinking about her always. 

"Your body, mind, and spirit, I want it all. You're the most beautiful person I've ever met, Vaera and I'm in love with you. You're the kindest, funniest, most caring person in this world, and I'm in love with you." Larys informed her. "You have the most stunning eyes I get lost in, and forget how to speak, how to breathe just getting lost in your eyes. You have a smile that I dream about constantly, and I'm desperately in love with you. You're gentle and strong, and I'm so in love with you, Vaera. You are the most incredible person I've ever met, and I'm in love with you, not just for a year, not for ten but until my last breath, I will love you and protect you."

"Oh, Larys," Vaera didnt know what to say. She expected, marry me, along those lines, short and sweet but now she was tearing up and this wasnt the look she wanted for saying yes, a blubbering mess.  "I love you." Vaera barely got the words out before he was kissing her. 

"You will marry me?" Larys rasped. SHe nodded and he was kissing her again. Sometime in the second between his lips touched hers and his tongue sweeping across the seam of her mouth, everything changed. She loved him too. That glorious kiss morphed from a declaration to a plea, from a protective action to a promise to a need that went marrow deep. He held her face in his hands and she clung to him. 

"Did you talk to my father?" Vaera questioned when he pulled back. Shit.