"The Hound is gone, my King." A random knight knelt at my feet. His words stabbed through me. Gone? My dog, my most faithful man, could not be gone. He wasn't a fucking craven. He couldn't be gone.

"Where is he, you bloody fool? Find him and bring him to me." Sandor would pay. He couldn't leave me. I had just won a victory! He should be proud. My Father wouldn't have cared. Sandor always noticed when I did something well.

I had never looked at my Father as a father. He was always drinking and whoring. And some said that Uncle Jaime was really my father, but he didn't do shit. He was no father. He just sat around and did anything and everything my bloody mother asked of him. No man should be so controlled by a woman. It made him weak. I used to be controlled by her, but not any more. I glanced at my hand. The same hand that I had struck my mother with.

Everyone was squawking and fluttering to and fro, trying to find some sort of command, some sense of normalcy in the chaos that ensued after my stupid little imp of an Uncle set on fire the entire Blackwater bay. I could still see the evil green fire. I could still see the way it lit up the night sky, how it consumed anything and everything it touched. I wanted to turn to Sandor and ask if that's what happened to him. But he wasn't bloody there. He wasn't there to laugh with me at the people's panic. He wasn't there to intimidate them for me. My most loyal servant was gone. My vision blurred.

I stood quickly, the blades of the Iron throne cutting into my arms. I could barely feel the blood soaking into my sleeves as I hurried away, seeking solace. The cuts were nothing. Not after the betrayal I had just experienced. A sob escaped my lips. I couldn't have anyone see me. A prince, no, a King, shouldn't cry. Yet, that is exactly what I did. I cried. Running into the nearest room, I screamed at everyone to get out. After their departure, I barred the door and slumped to the floor, shoulders shaking.

"Sandor, where are you?" I sobbed. My best friend. My father, in a sense. He didn't plant me in my whore mother's womb, although from the rumors circulating about her, he could very well had opportunity to. Actually, no. He would never soil himself with the likes of her. Filthy whore, throwing her cunt at every able bodied man that crossed her path. Sandor would have laughed and declined. Sandor always knew what to do and he taught me these things. He taught me how to wield a sword, how to tell if a wine was good quality or not. He taught me the difference between loyalty and fear. He taught me everything. Sandor had always been there by my side, ever since I was a small boy, younger, even, than Tommen. I could feel his arms around me, teaching me the proper grip on a lance.

"Lean with the horse, away from the opponent at the last minute." His gruff voice permeated the empty room. No, it didn't. He wasn't really there. If he was, no one would have second guessed any command I made. He did everything I asked. No, no he didn't. He would never strike the fucking Stark girl. Fuck her. Fuck him.

"Fuck the King." I have never felt pain before, not even when that wolf bit my arm. Not when I found out about my mother and Jaime. Not when my father made a mockery of me for letting a girl disarm me. Sandor was supposed to me my sworn shield. My right hand. He was more though, he was my best friend. I laughed quietly to myself. A dog is a man's best friend, right? But, it seemed this one had sided with the wolves after all.

Fuck the king.

She was behind this. I knew it. Ever since the run in she had with Ser Illyn, the Hound had been quite smitten with her. I knew, even though he didn't. I saw the way he looked at her, the way he looked away after I had the bitch disrobed in front of the court. I only did it for him. Maybe if she'd been drug through enough dirt, the Hound would stop slobbering all over her and run back to me instead. She stole him from me.

He quit taking my orders so readily. He quit telling me how much better I was getting at shooting the cross bow. He didn't teach me new sword fighting like he had promised me on the Kingsroad. He didn't do shit, anymore. Not after that pretty red headed cunt had paraded herself by him, taking his attention. Taking him from me. She didn't know. No one knew. I had no one. Just him. My mother didn't do anything but dote and treat me like her fucking infant.

I wiped my eyes. Fuck the King. I didn't want the Sansa girl anymore. I would get rid of her. I couldn't marry her. Fuck, if Sandor wanted her so badly, why hadn't he just taken her when he turned into a bloody craven? If he had asked, I would gladly have given her to him. I didn't want her. I would have given him anything. Why didn't he just tell me that she was all he wanted? Then he could have her, fuck her, and then I would have him back.

But he was gone. And she was still here. Standing up and stretching my cramped legs, I began formulating a plan. I would marry someone else. I didn't want the Hound's little slut. A king shouldn't need to marry the daughter of a traitor.

Fuck the King.

Striding out of the room, I sought out the company of my mother. She sat on the iron throne.

"What are you doing?" I snarled. Tommen sat in her lap. Tommen was bound to be a fucking craven, I knew it. Especially if Mother continued to coddle him like she was. He didn't have a Sandor to teach him how to be a man.

"I'm keeping it warm for you, my sweet," she said. Honeyed lies. She wanted my throne. I knew that. Sandor told me all of Westeros knew that. That bitch.

"Get up," I barked. "We have matters to discuss about my marriage to Sansa Stark."

My Mother smiled that infuriating smile of hers. "Of course, my love. What is it?"

"I don't want to marry her. Tell the High Septon that I command an annulment to our vows on the terms of her father being a traitor. I can't marry the blood of an enemy of the Kingdoms."

My Mother simply kept that stupid smile on her face. I wish Sandor was there, so I could command him to slap it off of her. I don't know why that had never occurred to me. He was so strong it would stay off.

"Well, who are you supposed to marry then, Joff? Have you thought of that? A King needs heirs."

Fuck the King.

I gritted my teeth. "Find me some other highborn maiden that wants to be queen then! I don't give a damn who it is, just make sure that on my wedding night, Sansa Stark is not the one in my bed!" With that, I stormed out of the throne room.

I jogged up the halls of Maegor's keep. Halls that I had roamed with my Hound at my side. He would have laughed himself sick if he could see the way that the servants scurried and scampered from my presence. "Flee, you bloody rats," he would cough, in that gravelly voice of his. There was nothing I wouldn't give to hear that voice again.

Finally, back in my bedroom, I took off my clothes. Even though I felt disgusting, I didn't want to bathe. I didn't want to see another person until someone told me where Sandor Clegane was. I didn't want him running around making the Lannisters look like they couldn't control their own canines. I also didn't want him beheaded, as useful as he was. I didn't want him killed. I just wanted him back.

I wished I had a memento of him. Something to remember his horrible, manky mug with. I didn't know who would replace him, the man without a knighthood, on the King's guard, but I didn't care. I didn't trust any of them half as much as I trusted Sandor. I didn't even like them a quarter of as much as I liked Sandor.

"Where are you?" I whispered into my pillow. There was no answer, except the one that echoed through my skull.

Fuck the King.

Hey, guys! This is Raynie. I know I'm deviating from my usual SanSan stuff, but I was on tumblr and there was this picture that was supposed to be Sandor's e-mail. There were all these funny e-mails from Tyrion and Sansa and things like that. E-mails that documented his last few weeks in King's Landing, before the Battle of Blackwater. One of them caught my eye and it was from Joffrey titled "Where are you? Why did you say those mean things? I miss you. L" It broke my heart. Thus this fic was born.

Read and Review!

-Raynie