command [joffrey baratheon]

[15] the things we do for love

"Who said you could leave now. We're having so much fun at the moment!"

His words echoed in my head. Why would he not let me go? What was wrong? I only wanted to excuse myself because I needed to 'powder my nose'.

"I didn't want to leave.", I replied. I still sat next to him calmly.

"Don't. Lie."

"My king, I aint-"

"SHUT YOUR MOUTH.", he screamed at me.

I held my breath. Every little mistake could have had a bad effect back then. Nothing what he did was predicatable.

"You get up, when I tell you to. You sit, when I tell you to. You-", he interrupted himself letting out a sigh "You even kiss me, when I tell you to. You will do whatever is told to you by me. Do you understand? Behave like my lady, reflect me well in front of others."

"I.. I always tried to do this already."

"And this better shall not end now. I just reminded you so you don't make other plans, pretty rose. Until my last day we will be together. You'll be the mother of my son's and daughter's.", he reminded me, staring into my eyes. I felt uncomfortable talking about this with him right now.

I would have to sleep with him in our wedding night. Just speaking about it as a child it seemed a great thing to provide your husband with sweet babies. But now that I knew how it would work I felt insecure and wished the war would not be over as soon so the bedding ceremony was a while away.

He eased his grip a bit.

"Why?", I asked.

"What are you asking?"

"Why are you acting like this?", I had suddenly lost all my fear to speak to him, even though he was the king. I needed to know.

"Like what. Are you trying to fool your king?"

"First you are kind. Then you treat me like I am some whore you can control the way you like. Why are you...changing? I think it's time you decide which side of you you're showing to me..."

He kept staring at me without replying. I couldn't find any emotion on his face, so I was hard to guess how he would react.

"I tell you what."

"I'm listening."

"I like you. And the king does whatever he wants to. I'll marry you. So you're mine. I own you now. You're learning fast how to deal with people of lower social ranks, I heard. And I want you to do me a favour...", he went and stood up.

"What kind of a favour?", I asked again.

"Come with me. Unless you're still hungry."

I wasn't, that's why I shook my head and followed him. What kind of a bad joke was all of this here? He sometimes seemed like he was loving me back and then he treated me with a cold heart. I was so confused and didn't know what kind of a favour he meant.

With every step into a certain direction I slowly started to panic. We went to his bedroom. No guards in front or behind us. I wasn't ready for anything but kissing yet. We weren't even married.

He opened the door and let me enter his chamber first.

"It brings bad luck to...", I looked over to the bed before I continued, "before marriage."

"No, you're not here for that. Something better.", Joffrey awkwardly smiled at me while he walked around a corner of his room and disappeared. "We have that up for our wedding night."

I swallowed.

He came back with the crossbow in his  hands. "Come here."

I followed him behind the corner and was horrified. That clumsy handmaiden who I told to leave the castle and run as far as possible was tied up on a pillar. How did she get here?

"Lord Varys has been told by his birds everywhere in the castle, that this little bitch has firstly tried to kill you and secondly tried to escape.", Joffrey started to explain and I stared at the girl in front of us.

"My lady, please! You told me to run as far as possible so you'd never see me again, please, I'm not lying!", she begged and started to cry.

"Is this true?", Joffrey accusingly eyed me.

"No. She is a liar. She tried to kill me first and left afterwards.", I lied. My voice felt to foreign even though it was my own.

Joffrey smirked at me and started to point at her with his crossbow. "Now it's becoming interesting."

I felt so terrible for the handmaiden back then. But I had to do it. He needed to trust me. He needed to accept me.

"Lyra, take the crossbow.", he commanded. I took it.

"Good. Now shoot her.", Joffrey continued with an easiness in his voice that scared me. Was I going too far?

The girl cried out loud once more. I hesitated.

"What are you waiting for m'lady? She gets what she deserves. She lied about you to me. She tried to kill you.", Joffrey whispered standing behind me.

My hands were shaking a bit as I pointed at her. "It's easy. You pull something here and watch it die over there. Are you scared, my lady?", he kept whispering and gave me goosebumps.

"No.", I lied again, "I'm not."

I knew I had to kill her or Joffrey would think I wasn't strong enough. Or boring. Or both.

"Do it.", he roughly put his arm onto my shoulder once, before he walked over to a long chair, where he sat down to watch me.

"Please don't I...I will do anything! I have a lot of strenghts, I don't need any special food, water and bread will be enough. Please my lady. I beg for mercy. I know you aren't heartless, you have proven it one time already!"

I wasn't able to hear all these things anymore. I felt worse than terrible.

"Please...", she sobbed.

"Lyra.", I heard Joffrey's voice interrupting my thoughts.

The girl, who used to be my handmaiden had folded her hands to pray. She looked at me with her bloodshot eyes and the candles in the room were reflected on her tears.

And then I shot.