'Running from the start and here we are again.'


It had truly been an exhausting twenty-four hours and it was leading to Jon walking around in a dreamlike state, because how could this be his new world now?

Firstly his CEO had died and funnily, as funny as death could be, this was not the most important thing that had happened to him. Sure, it was now on the news as Tyrion had promised, not really due to the fact that she was a CEO, but was also known for her days of being a model, but written on paper this seemed like a pretty big deal for Jon's life.

However being told that you may get the most major promotion that you would get in your life, but you had to first compete with a girl who looked like she wanted to grind you up and spit you back out… Well, that was certainly more monumental.

Yesterday had been a blur of training and warnings and violet eyes staring at him with curiosity over how he was going to react under the stress of it all or whatever she was trying to achieve with that gruelling stare.

Jon promised himself he would not get stressed over this, he couldn't let himself. This was something he had worked so hard for. He had started from the bottom of the company and now it seemed like he was finally being recognized for the intensive work he had put into this job. Daenerys though… She had the fancy education and the charisma, not to mention her sheer determination – could he compete with that?

"Hello?" His phone had buzzed him out of his half-awake, half-asleep state on his forty-five minute train commute. He wasn't even quite sure who was calling.

"Hey, mate," The welcoming voice of his cousin, Robb, woke him up properly. "Did I wake you up from your beauty sleep?"

"Kind of?"

"Nah, you're beautiful just the way you are." Jon let out a soft laugh at this as Robb did too.

Robb was like Jon's brother more than anything else; in fact all his cousins were like siblings. After his difficult and strange start in life, he appreciated the family he did have more than anything. He probably had a stronger bond with them than most people did with their own immediate families and that made him feel very lucky indeed.

"Listen, I was just ringing, because I heard something about a dead CEO? Yours, right?" Jon nodded before remembering he was on a phone. Vocal communication was actually necessary.

"Yeah, it was."

"Some scary shit. Bet work is fun, eh?"

Jon realized in that moment that he had to tell Robb about what was going on at work now otherwise when he eventually did tell his whole family, he would never hear the end of 'how he should have fucking told everyone sooner' a rant by Robb Stark (along with all other Stark members).

"Uhm… Yeah, I might be getting a promotion." The news sounded heartbreakingly bad when Jon uttered the words that it was no wonder there was a laugh that came down the other end of the phone.

"Why do I feel like I shouldn't be congratulating you on that?"

"I might be. It's between me and this other girl who is…"

"Hot? Yeah, that's got to be tough." Jon gave an almost exasperated laugh at that. Even if that was something he even remotely felt, it wasn't something he could possibly think about right now or ever.

"Determined. It's going to be a difficult road to getting chosen."

Determined was, of course, putting it lightly. He knew she had games and mind tricks up her sleeve and that wasn't the way he was used to playing. His mind refocused on the fact that he was due to have a meeting with Daenerys first thing that morning – he needed to be very prepared.

"Jon, you're determined too." The sudden turn in seriousness took time for Jon to get adjusted to. "If anyone deserves this break, it's you."

"Thanks, Robb."

"Now… Arya has amazingly chosen to go to a London university. I'll be taking her -," Jon had to interrupt that bizarre piece of information.

"Hold on, hold on. Arya moving down South? I don't think London is ready for her." Jon commented with a chuckle. He couldn't imagine the most northern by nature cousin of his getting by with the accents of the southerners and general way of doing things. It had been enough of a challenge for Jon, let alone Arya.

Sansa was in her final year of university at Oxford, so she visited London quite frequently and her and Jon would meet up sometimes. Sansa had been dreaming of coming down to London for years, so this was always expected. Jon had just moved down here when he first started working for Lannister Enterprises, so there wasn't much of a choice there. Arya moving down was just shocking though.

"Yeah, we'll see how long that fucking lasts. Sansa's excited, even if she's acting like she's not, but I'm sure Arya'll need to escape to yours as often as possible." Jon was continuing to laugh at that image, but getting a little distracted by the fact he knew he was approaching the train's final destination being his own stop as well. "Anyway, I'm taking her down, so we need dinner and drinks. Do you have time for us anymore?"

"I should be able to fit you in." Jon retorted with a smile, as he stood up to get to the train doors to beat the mad rush that was inevitable in London. "No, I look forward to it. When are you coming?"

"We'll be down next weekend; I'll keep you posted." Jon was happy he had something to look forward to now, because the next few weeks at work were bound to be torturous. "Anyway I better get ready for work now. Text you later."

"Yeah, see you later."

Jon hung up the phone, feeling more grateful than he would ever be able to tell Robb for that phone call. It was the pinch of relaxed reality he needed before he walked right into the Dragon's Den that was his meeting with Daenerys.


Of course she had to make a point by already waiting for him in the meeting room. He was always early for work and today was no exception; he was fifteen minutes early for his meeting with Daenerys, but she had sent him an email five minutes before he arrived to say that she was in the conference room waiting for him.

He hadn't booked this room for their meeting today, but looking in to the window he knew that it was far too large a room for a meeting between just two people. He could see Daenerys through the blinds that were half open; it contorted her image slightly, but he could see that her hair was pushed off her face again today and she was wearing the blue blazer that she seemed to wear whenever there was a big multi-departmental meeting. Not that he really paid attention to what people wore or her in particular.

He took a deep breath and re-positioned his notebook so that it was underneath his arm. And then he illogically knocked on the door. This was his meeting as well, he shouldn't be knocking as if he needed permission, so he went in right after knocking. She looked up in surprise as if she was about to call out 'Come in'.

Of course she was sat at the very far side of the long table, so that he would have to walk all the way across the room towards her. He knew she was attempting to show how much more powerful she was than him by having him do all the walking. He cleared his throat, returning her stare before closing the door behind him.

"Hello, Jon," She said in her overly polite, smooth voice, gesturing to the chair to her right. He began to approach her, taking long strides to get to his chair as soon as possible.

"Daenerys," He said in an attempt to return her greeting. He was sure it came out as a gruff and probably showcased how little he wanted to be in this room right now.

He took his seat, all the while being watched by Daenerys. She had this natural upward turn to her lips that made her look like she was constantly smirking by Jon, like his whole part in this competition was incredibly amusing to her. And, Jon knew, to her it probably was quite amusing.

"Right," She finally looked away from him to start shuffling the pages of her own binder. "I have been looking at some ideas for the task we have been set. Have you brought any with you?"

She looked back at him expectantly. Jon would have rolled his eyes if there was a way for him to avert her gaze. Of course he should have expected that coming. They were told yesterday by Tyrion that they have one group task for the next month whereas the rest of the time they would be alternating between individual tasks to get them up to speed with the day-to-day life of the Managing Director.

They had till the end of the week to come up with an idea that would showcase the new direction the firm wanted to take and present it to the board at the end of the coming week. This was supposed to be something they worked on today – Jon was sure of that.

"Apologies, I had presumed we would be coming up with ideas together." Daenerys was rather enjoying that presumption.

"I thought I would prepare a few things in advance of this." She was trying to sound nonchalant, but Jon could not ignore the undertones of smugness that laced every word of hers. Her words were chosen with the utmost care – 'prepare' to show that Jon was so not prepared for this.

"Perhaps we just go through some of mine now and then we'll see where we stand." Jon clenched a fist underneath the desk and nodded his head. "Perfect. Being from a Marketing background, I thought we could change our branding completely – logo, motto, strategic alignment – everything -,"

"That seems like an impossible task to be completed in the next month." Daenerys glanced up from her notes with a momentarily stunned expression. She did not expect to be interrupted at all clearly, but Jon already felt like he was on the bottom of this see-saw and he needed to be back on equal footing.

"It would be a challenge." Daenerys responded, resting her face again after being thrown for a mere second. Obviously it was a challenge she wanted to take on.

"You need a team bigger than two people to do that well." Jon said, feeling comfortable in arguing her idea which made him feel like he was stronger footing already. He leaned forward more as he continued to speak. "The chances of Tyrion approving a complete brand reimaging that we develop on Friday is slim unless you would be that confident in a rushed decision."

She contemplated this for a second. He knew why she was suggesting this, because he wasn't stupid. It was all to do with marketing and this was something he had no expertise in. She would be able to take full credit for this if it went ahead successfully and she would easily snatch the promotion from him. However he didn't think she would take such a risk.

"Okay," She finally said, her eyes narrowing almost unnoticeably as she looked back down at her sheet. "We can prepare our ideas for the future and invite all the retailers we've wanted to be involved with, but haven't been able to work with due to them not liking Cersei's business methods… This could be a brunch or -"

Daenerys was still speaking, but Jon was zoning out as he planted on that good idea – there was just something missing. Lannister Enterprises was a retail distributor with many businesses in UK, but Cersei was very strict on minimizing costs and had many suspected unethical practices in the operations side that some corporations didn't want to be involved with. Daenerys was definitely on to something there.

"A charity function would surely work better."

Daenerys placed her pen down carefully and sat back even straighter in her chair before turning her eyes to Jon. He knew when she looked up at him that this was a sign for him to continue on. Giving a lick of his lips, he continued, and despite the intensity of her eyes, he chose to stare right back into them. It was difficult not to lose sight of his ideas as he got lost in the violet mirage that were those eyes, but he kept on going.

"I think they've been done before by the company -,"

"Yes, I've been to them." She was looking down her nose at him again as he hadn't been one to before and she was clearly always on the invitation list.

"I think a brunch or just inviting them over is too forward. It's better to show people how we're changing rather than telling them. A charity function allows us to choose something relevant to us like the environment and how we plan to change to support the charity's work. If retailers want to know more and are interested in joining us then we can have a more formal talk with them at a later time."

He was surprised Daenerys had let him speak for so long. His eyes hadn't left hers and she hadn't even glanced away until now. Something subtle had changed behind her eyes, but he couldn't say if it worked in his favour or not. She remained still for a moment before leaning forward and picking up her pen once more.

"It would definitely need to be for the environment that way we can join a government scheme. It shows we're more serious." She was busily writing as she spoke. If this was her way of saying 'good idea' then he would take it.

Maybe he grew too comfortable in that moment and his stupid mouth opened up with this.

"I'm starting to see why we were both chosen for this." It was just meant to be a silly something to compliment the two of them and that they were both respectable competitors, it wasn't meant to open a battlefield.

"I'm not." Daenerys replied very quickly, not even looking up from the notes that seemed to be flowing out of her now. Jon let out an awkward and short laugh causing Daenerys finally to look up at him.

"Jon," A sigh escaped her lips, as if it was painful for her to continue on. It clearly wasn't. "I have been waiting for this opportunity since I finished university. I have been trained to take on a management role, whereas you," Her voice delicately paused here and Jon felt himself shrinking for a second. "Haven't. I worry that this is out of your depth and you failing here could screw us both up."

What on earth was Jon supposed to say to that? How was he supposes to react if not with full, pent-up rage? Daenerys was not even done with her undercover attack on his suitability for the role and Jon was close to being done with biting his tongue.

"I have a lot of respect for you making as much progress as you have in the company, but you still have more to make. I have been in a high position since I left university and -,"

"Like your brother." The words left him easily. You wouldn't be able to tell that he was angry when he said it. His eyes simply flickered up from his clenched fists to see her reaction. He knew it was a sore patch and that's why he said it. She was gripping the side of the table now, giving the most controlled answer she could to the still healing wound of her brother.

"My brother was a bad man. I am nothing like him." Jon noticed the use of past tense in her sentence and he wondered if she had done that deliberately. She now stood up from her seat and loomed over him as her words were leaving her more vicious than she had ever sounded to Jon. "Tyrion said he wants to take the company in a different direction and is changing the wheel. I want to break the wheel and I have the means to do it. You might in a few years with more training and preparation."

Jon stood up then as well, not wanting to be talked down to. Her eyes had to move up with him as even though he wasn't that much taller than her, it was still a decent few inches. Her mouth was no longer turned upwards and her eyes were fiery as she waited for him to speak.

"You're trying to make me step down and it's not going to work, Daenerys."

"I just think that would be best -,"

"For you and that's a load of shit." "You think of me as so beneath you due to where I started in the company. If you see me in such a shit light then how do you see everyone else in a lower position than you in the company? You think you're going to make a difference – you're just like everyone else in this company – same shit, different person. I know what change the employees want to see here, because I've been them. A change in a company starts within."

Daenerys didn't have an immediate response, but it seemed that in the time he was talking they had moved closer to each other. Their faces were practically inches from each other and with Jon breathing heavily from his heated speech, it didn't seem like a necessarily comfortable position for Daenerys to be in, but she remained unmoving. Jon felt like he had to say something else to close his argument.

"Something you should think about before you start disregarding me so strongly."

That suddenly sprung Daenerys into action, but it was too late.

"That isn't -,"

"We can pick this up later."

Jon knew that he was interrupting her far more than he should be considering they still had to work together, but he couldn't take this meeting anymore. He turned around and walked down the still terribly long route out the door and didn't hear her try to stop him.