Chapter One

Jamie

My name is Jaime Lannister. The first born son of Lord Tywin Lannister and Lady Joanna Lannister, twin brother of the former queen regent Lady Cersei Lannister Baratheon and elder brother of Lord Tyrion Lannister the Imp. But I was not remembered as this person, I was remembered as King Slayer. A title I famously earned by thrusting my sword through King Aerys Targaryen during the Sack of Kings Landing. But that wasn't until I was at least twenty or so. Before that I was only Ser Jaime of the Kingsgaurd. And before that I was a squire. But long before that I was Cersei's.

From the moment I was born, she was by my side. My sister, my twin, my Cersei. As far back as I can remember I have loved her. She was my sun, my moon, and my entire world. I can remember when I first realized this about my twin. We were only eight so the memory is hazy, but I have tried to fill in the empty spaces as best as I can.

The family was at Casterly Rock, and this particular night was filled with storms. Even though she was not by my side at that moment, I could feel how afraid my Cersei was. I trembled with her, feeling the doll she hugged tight. As I lay in the dark I prayed to the gods that I could help her be brave, that I could tell her it was only a storm and she didn't need to be afraid. How I wanted to sit by her side and tell her that the thunder was not a monster coming to devour her, that the heavy rains were only droplets of water and how the lightening could not possibly harm her.

In the room next to me I could hear my father weeping, weeping for the wife he had lost over two months ago in childbirth. Though she had given him a son, he saw that child as some kind of monster and my father refused to see him as his own. "This creature is no child of mine," he had said when he first saw my brother. Thus far Cersei and I had only seen small glimpses of our brother, always swaddled and carried by a nursemaid. So neither of us had no idea what our father meant by the word "creature".

The slow burning logs in the fire place cast a warm, orange glow over my bed chambers. In the dull light I saw my twin standing at the foot of my bed. Her golden hair was in a braid that had been tangled by a night of tossing and turning. She trembled, her eyes fearful with small tears. In her hands she held a small doll, the last one our mother gave her before she passed.

"Jamie," she whimpered. "I'm afraid. May I sleep with you?"

I nodded and motioned for her to join me. She scurried into the bed and clung to my side, as if I was the one thing that could save her from the storm outside. And for a girl only eight years old, maybe I was.

"Are you scared too, Jamie?" She whispered.

"Of course not," I answered. "I'm going to be a knight one day and knights can't be afraid of anything, especially a silly storm."

"Then why are you awake?"

"I was just thinking."

"About what?"

I answered her, though she already knew."Our brother,"

It was all we ever thought about since our mother died.

She sat up, careful to keep the covers wrapped around her. "I saw him today!"

"No you didn't."

"Yes I did!" She argued. "And I can prove it!"

Now I sat up in my bed. Her lips were drawn in a smug grin, her eyes were bright with a confident sense of mischief. I crossed my arms. "Oh really? And just what did he look like?" Cersei turned her eyes, eyes which were identical to mine, away from my face. She bit her lower lip with her dainty front teeth, something she did when she was unsure of herself. I was right, she was lying about having seen him. "HA! I knew you didn't see him!"

"No! I did see him! Well...part of him." She paused. "I saw his hair. It's golden just like ours!"

"So he has hair?"

"Of course he does! Why wouldn't he?"

I shrugged. "Father said he was a monster. Some monsters don't have hair."

Her eyes grew big and fearful again. "There are monsters?" I bit my tongue, I should have known better. Acknowledging the existence of anything unpleasant would only frighten her. Now she would never fall asleep.

"No, of course not." I assured her. "I just think that if monsters WERE real, that some of them may not have hair." She edged closer to me, still afraid and unsure.

"You promise?"

"I give you my vow as a knight that monsters aren't real." I said. She crawled closer and closer until she was huddled up against the side of my body, her cheek was pressed against my night shirt. "You're not a real knight," she said into the fabric. "You're only eight."

"But I'm training to be a knight. And one day I will be." She said nothing, and for a moment I thought she had fallen asleep. Convinced she was at peace, I too began to doze but a small mewing woke me. I could feel a warm moistness on my chest, I looked down to see Cersei trembling against me. "Cersei," I said. "What's the matter?"

"Me," she cried quietly. "I'm what's wrong."

I stroked her shoulder as a way to soothe her. "You're perfect."

"No I'm not." She sobbed. "I'm just a stupid girl!" I pulled her closer to me, holding her tighter as her tears graduated from a small crying into bawling. "Cersei," I whispered. "You are not stupid."

"Yes I am! All I'm good for is being pretty and marrying and having babies!" While I had often heard older men and even my own father refer to girls this way, I knew this wasn't true. Not about my sister, at least. It could never be true about her. "That's not true!" I argued. "You're wonderful! You're smart and very pretty and you paint really good and-"

"It doesn't matter!" She cried. "All that matters now is you and our brother, because you're boys!"

"So what?"

"So, you'll be a knight one day and he'll be...something! Maybe married to a princess!" She pulled on my nightshirt, using it to wipe away her tears. "And I'll get married one day and no one will even know I'm alive!"

"I'll know you're alive. I'll always know you're alive." She choked back tears long enough to lift her head and meet my eyes.

" You will?" I nodded my head before wiping away a few stray tears from her reddened cheeks. "How could I ever forget about you, Cersei?" I said. "You're the smartest girl I know and you have the most beautiful gold hair in all seven kingdoms."

"You promise you won't forget me, Jamie?"

"Never ever," I said, pulling her into a tight embrace. "Never, ever, ever."

"Thank you." She whispered. " I love you, Jamie."

"I love you too,Cersei," I said into her soft hair. "I always will."

It was not long before she fell asleep, still wrapped in my small boyish arms. I watched as the logs burned, the fire turning to embers and the embers turning to ash leaving the room in darkness. I still held my sister, I could hear her heart beat inside her chest. It was slow and rhythmic, like a song. She was probably dreaming by now, hopefully of something wonderful and nothing frightening. Perhaps she was dreaming of our mother, that she has lived. Or maybe she dreamed of our brother, imagining what he looked like. For her sake I hoped she saw him as a lovely baby with a cherub's face framed by gold curls and big green eyes. The storm had settled into a light rain and I began to fall asleep myself. But as I began to dream I held onto Cersei, making a silent vow to always love her and care for her even if no one else did. "Good night, my sister." I whispered somewhere between sleep and consciousness. "I will love you forever."