Autumn Kiss 💋🍁 || Criston Cole

07 • BLEEDING HEARTS

Alicent had been at the sept for all hours that morning. She missed breakfast and hadn't greeted her children yet, a routine she rarely broken. She couldn't bare to face them, she had no desire to see anybody.

And yet, heavy footsteps approach her, interrupting the her mid prayer.

"Mother!"

She recognised the voice immediately. Her son. His tone had quickly given him away but the look on his face solidified it. He was angry.

Alicent swiftly stands up and faces her son.

"Imagine my surprise mother, when I took to the field prepared to spar with Ser Criston and Ser Harwin Strong was sent for me instead."

Alicent breaks her son's gaze and glances down but says nothing. 

Aemond continues. "Please allow me to understand dear mother, why did you send him away?"

The prince's tone now gentle, a rather abrupt shift of demeanor from just a moment ago.

"I no longer saw need for Ser Criston services. I am perfectly content with Ser Jorah as my sworn protector." Alicent falsely admits, shocked at her own ability to sound poised while telling a blatant fib.

Aemond scoffs, he is no longer angry but in disbelief.  "Did you think to ask me for an opinion? Or even Helaena for that matter, or Aegon?."

"You may no longer need him but we do. Ser Criston Cole is competent enough, he provides real challenge, and he is certainly confidant. I see him as an equal" Aemond pauses. "He was my friend......like a father figure.."

Hearing this, Alicent's heart shatters. She had been so caught up in her own problems with Ser Criston that she had failed to considered her own children. "I apologie Aemond, truly. I did not realize how much he meant to you." The queen admits rather sheepishly.

"Your Grace, I do not want apology. Please just ask for him to return." Aemond storms off quickly, as if incapable of bearing another second alone with his mother.

Tears well up in Alicent's eyes again, her heart bleed, perhaps she had acted too rashly. She decides her children's needs far surpass her own, she will make things right. For Aemond to admit Cole stood as a father figure, it breaks her heart a thousand times, knowing viserys was never present in their lives. Only Ser Criston.

•••••••
Ser Criston was in bed at home, two weeks since leaving King's Landing. The moment he stepped foot in the Dornish shores, he had reverted back to your old self. No longer a Knight of the Queensguard, he decided nothing he does now will matter.

He took to the brothels, drinking all hours of the day. Sleeping with every and any whore who will have him. He couldn't allow himself to think of the Queen, he felt he had to either numb the pain or die from it.

His head pounding from the night before reaching over to his bedside to grab a cup of water, gulping it down.

Soon you realize he was not alone, another woman naked in his bed. He do not recognise her, he try his hardest to recall the events of last night but to no avail.The woman turns over in her sleep and moves to wrap her arm around his torso.

Her touch felt repellent, wrong. A suffocating feeling overcoming him. He got out of bed, wore his clothes and headed towards the door. He just needed to get out.

Ser Criston found himself by the sea, the smell of the saltwater had quickly calmed you. However, solitude forced his mind to wander. Inevitably his thoughts settled on Alicent.

He did not bother to fight them this time. He found himself wondering about her. Who she's been with today, if she had eaten, if she has slept. Was she truly content now that he were away?