Your Body is a Machine
A/N: Hello there GoT fandom! I was really nervous about adding a fic to Game of Thrones, since I'm not 100% comfortable with my grip on the characters, but this one-shot wouldn't leave me alone! It's based on this lyric from 'Your Body is a Machine' by the Good Natured:
Narcissism's overwhelming
Vanity is quite exhausting
Self indulgence, hedonistic,
Blame it all on your upbringing
Spoilers: This takes place after Jaime and Brienne's scene in 4x01, so there are some spoilers if you haven't seen the new series.
Disclaimer: If I owned Brienne and Jaime dolls, I would make them fight then put them together and go, "Now kiss". Alas I don't own the dolls, or the characters—that honour belongs to George R.R. Martin.
~0oOo0~
Deep down, Brienne knew that Jaime could be right—She knew next to nothing about the politics in King's Landing, and now that Catelyn and Robb were dead, Sansa could very well be safer under the protection of her husband. Brienne of Tarth was an honourable woman, loyal to a fault—she would never shirk her duty, never break an oath. But what did one do to fulfill an oath when the one it was sworn to was gone?
She shook her head angrily as she walked away from the shore, away from Jaime. The predicament with Sansa Stark… Sansa Lannister was only partly responsible for her foul mood. For one thing she couldn't help but resent the fact that she and Jaime had spent those months on the road to get to the Stark girls, only to find one married to a Lannister and the other missing. And then there was Jaime. Brienne tried to push aside her traitorous thoughts and concentrate on finding Arya Stark, but the "Kingslayer" was still on her mind.
The time she and Jaime spent making their way to King's Landing would stay with her forever—she woke sweaty and panting every night from nightmares—but Jaime reverted back to "Ser Jaime Lannister, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard" seemingly the moment they'd cleaned him up and got him back into his armour. She woke screaming, and she had both her hands. The fact that their ordeal seemed to have left him unaffected annoyed her. He never could take anything seriously.
Though she wished it were different, the part about her life in the capital that made her angrier than anything else was Cersei. It was clear, to her if not to Jaime, that he didn't want to appear any different in front of his family. In front of his twin. The amount that he seemed to rely on her did not surprise her—they were twins after all, they'd come into the world together—but knowing what she did about their relationship tainted every one of their interactions.
Everything about Cersei Lannister was nobility personified; long golden hair, angelic features, proud green eyes, luxurious dresses in Lannister red, the best jewels and furs draped around a willowy frame with perfect proportions. Brienne wouldn't say she was jealous, but it was fairly uncommon to meet someone who lived up to the hype about their beauty.
From what she could see, Cersei was glad to have her brother returned to her, not her lover. She certainly didn't watch Jaime's movements with the same want that he watched hers. It sickened her, and it wasn't just because of their twisted love. Her heart hurt when she saw the way he looked at her.
He was a Lannister, through and through—and she was unfortunately in love with him.