Barely Explanatory Author's Note: Once upon a time, there was a meme. It resulted in the randomly generated sentence "I can see Lyanna getting frisky with Brienne but I don't think Tywin would be interested. He'd be a cranky drunk. Actually I kind of like this picture. Lyanna would be flirting all over Brienne drunkenly and Brienne would be all awkward and kind of confused. It'd be cute." And then someone told me to write it. And then it turned into a series. That is my only explanation. ENJOY IT.

Brienne did not think she had ever been so thoroughly drunk. If she was entirely honest, she had not really been drunk at all. She'd never thought it would be much fun. But she was drunk now. Not that it was her fault, and it really wasn't so bad. She felt too warm and a little heavy-headed, and everything was the slightest bit fuzzy and kind of blended together, but that wasn't worrying.

"Y'know. Lots of things you don't think about much, Brienna. Brianna."

Brienne looked at her left shoulder, where a conspicuously dark head was resting on her, brown eyes peering up at her and mouth curved in a slightly silly little smile. "Brienne," she said, trying to be firm. "It's Brienne."

"You have very comfortable shoulders," Lyanna told her, and nodded, slightly, head bobbing a little. "Very comfortable. Be better if you were a little shorter, though."

Brienne blinked. "…er. Sorry?" She blinked at her cup. "You don't think they're too – big?" After the words had left her mouth, she realized that she'd said them and flushed the color of good red wine. Lyanna laughed and for a moment Brienne stiffened.

"You can't see your freckles when you blush," Lyanna informed her, "and relax, I'm not laughing at you, you're idrunk/i. Kind of the point, saying things you wouldn't – yes. You know."

"Do you do this a lot?" Brienne asked, self-consciously. Lyanna snorted in a very undignified fashion, loud enough to make Brienne start.

"Get drunk? Ha. No. Your hair always been that short?"

Brienne blinked at the sudden change in subject. "…no? I – cut it, to be more practical. You know. For fighting."

"I wonder if I could cut my hair like that. Do you think I'd look silly with short hair? I think I'd look silly with short hair. Maybe I'll do it anyway." Lyanna swung her head slightly, long, sleek, dark brown hair spilling over Brienne's shoulder. "Look at it, it's so iinconvenient./i"

"But it's pretty," Brienne protested, and then went even more warmly pink once her brain registered what her mouth had said.

"Pffft," said Lyanna. "Pretty, all right, but mostly inconvenient. "You've definitely got the right idea keeping yours short." She made a face. "I found a bird's nest in my hair once. Not a big one! But nonetheless. That's what happens with long hair."

"Were there still eggs in it?" Brienne asked, and then blushed, realizing that it was a stupid question, and Lyanna laughed, rocking back and forth a little with amusement.

"Not that time, no – you have to go in the trees if you want eggs, I did do that a couple times, and throw them at my brothers." She smiled impishly. "That was fun." Brienne was not quite sure what to make of this, so she held her peace and made the mistake of taking another long drink of her cup. The room tilted awkwardly when she shifted to the left. Lyanna had not stopped talking.

"Are you dizzy? I'm not, but I never get dizzy – not that I get drunk a lot, but when I do, I'm not dizzy, you know? I just want to talk at people, and you're really a very good listener, have you ever heard that?"

"Shush," Brienne said, frowning at one spot on the table and trying to stop the room from moving in that unnerving manner. "…and no. I don't listen because not many people talk to me." Brienne blushed as she realized how that sounded. "Not – of course I'm not feeling sorry for myself-"

"You know, Brienne," Lyanna said, lazily, swinging her legs over the bench and putting a companionable arm draped over her shoulder – if a bit awkwardly for the disparity in height. "You know…you don't always need to make excuses for everything, about what you're doing, you know – your hair or things you say – can't you ever just do or say something and tell everyone that it is what it is and they're just going to have to deal with it?"

Brienne blinked once, twice, and imagined declaring something of the sort to Loras Tyrell. She quailed. "I don't think…anyone would take it right," she said cautiously, and Lyanna made that odd 'pffft' noise again.

"That's not the point, the point is not to make excuses. People aren't going to care about your excuses if they don't like what you do, least not most of them, and people respect you more if you do things without needing to always self-justify, you know?"

Brienne shook her head, still feeling heavy and ungainly, especially next to her companion, even if she was a bit long-faced she at least looked like a lady and not a lady trying to be a man. "Like what? What do you even mean?"

Lyanna frowned a little, then turned, took Brienne's face between her two long palms and kissed her soundly on the lips.

Not that Brienne knew anything about kissing, but it wasn't a particularly bad kiss. It was, in fact, rather nice. Even if Brienne was too surprised to do anything but stay perfectly still, flabbergasted, while Lyanna's fingers tickled behind her ear and played with her earlobe, almost carelessly.

Then she pulled away, laughing a little drunkenly, and flopped over backward again, this time across Brienne's lap, where the latter stared at Lyanna Stark in utter and complete bewilderment.

"What was that for?"

Lyanna shrugged and opened one eye. "I felt like it." The eye closed.

Brienne stared a few moments. "…and that's – not justifying things?"

"No," Lyanna said, opening her eye again, and starting to smile, "That's me thinking you're adorable when you blush."

Brienne blushed, and somehow Lyanna ended up in her lap with her arms around Brienne's neck, and was laughing, and really the only way to get her to stop so her face would stop flaming long enough to reclaim at least a little dignity was to kiss her laughing mouth.

So she did.

It was really very nice, once one got used to it.