The Lives We Choose

Affection

The night of Robert Baratheon's party was fast approaching. Petyr was rushed off his feet all day at work; borrowing money, hiring essential party features, helping the small council plan... It seemed as though the whole party was Petyr's responsibility, even though it should have been Robert and Ned taking charge of the whole thing.

Thankfully it was Varys who was in charge of invites. He'd always had a way with words, whereas Petyr was often blunt and straight to the point despite being a master manipulator. Varys had successfully managed to get most of the major houses in the country to attend. Yara Greyjoy, on behalf of her father, Balon Greyjoy (which may cause some tension between her and the Starks, but nevertheless they would still be able to strike some business deals with her); Oberyn Martell to represent his brother's Dornish company, as well as his nephew Tristane (Petyr had learned that Tyrion Lannister was trying to make a couple out of Tristane and his own niece, Myrcella Lannister); some of the Freys would be attending too, although no one really knew what purpose it served to be on good terms with the Freys-they were essentially powerless aside from being a good transportation service for the big companies; the Tyrells mustn't have taken much convincing (mostly from Renly to Loras, Petyr assumed. Although if Renly would be there, then surely Loras would follow.); Stannis Baratheon agreed to attend too, much to Petyr's surprise, along with his wife, daughter, Vice President and... 'Business associate'.

Varys had even invited Viserys Targaryen and his sister Daenerys Targaryan, although everyone very much doubted that they would attend. There was very bad blood between the Targaryens and the Baratheons and Lannisters. The Targaryen children had fled to somewhere in Western Asia after Robert Baratheon (it was actually Jamie Lannister, but Robert just took the credit) had bankrupted their father's company, which led to Aegon committing suicide, and their brother Rhaegar getting thrown into prison for life due to some exposed illegal deals and money schemes that he had pulled to help his father's company in trying times.

Viserys was now attempting to build up his own company wherever he was, and an alliance could actually be mutually beneficial to both of their companies.

Petyr had conversed with Sansa a lot more since he had first added her on Facebook to keep his stress levels to a minimum. He liked this girl a lot. She wasn't naïve like most girls her age, and-something that Petyr really liked about her-she was smart. Making clever jokes and observations about the things he said and the people they  knew. Petyr often found himself chuckling at the banter that they would toss back and forth-she was just a delight to talk to. He found himself wanting more and more to tell her about what he really did. The deals and the blackmail and the manipulation. He wanted to show all of it to Sansa and teach her how to play the game. Despite her intelligence though, he knew she wouldn't be able to control and manipulate people like he could. She could not play the game. But she could. If she let him teach her then she could. And Petyr wanted nothing more than to teach her.

He thought back to the conversation he'd had with Lysa a few nights back. It was late at night after he'd spent a long day at work and he was finishing up that days tasks in his home office. Robin was in bed and Petyr was just finishing up his work for the night. Lysa had come in a few minutes prior, babbling on about some nonsense that Petyr wasn't paying attention to; giving an occasional grunt or head nod to signify that he was listening-much like he had done to Robin a few days back. He would have shooed her out if she hadn't said something that caught his attention.

"...Oh, and you don't have to worry about that Stark bitch anymore, I had firm words with her the other day,"

Petyr was confused. He didn't know what she meant. He didn't have to worry about 'that Stark bitch'?

"I'm sorry Lysa I'm not sure I follow," he told her.

"Sansa, Petyr! I know she's been bothering you. Trying to... Seduce you,"