Chapter Three: Wallet

"Father! Are you alright?" his children asked as they went to his side.

"No I am not." He replied as his children helped him to his feet and guide him back inside.

"I'm sorry father." His teenage son apologized. "It was me."

They did not hear a reply, but Tyrion sat by his side and handed him the book, he immediately placed it on his bedside table.

"Are you hurt?" asked Tyrion softly.

"Just shaken." Tywin replied.

The children looked around the room, it was simple but elegant. The drapes were in Lannister gold and crimson, and so was the carpet. There were no photographs of their mother or them for that matter, in fact here were no photographs at all. The twins had not been in here for seven years while this was Tyrion's first time in his father's room.

"Get out." He said cold and distant. "All of you." He added and the Lannister children filed out of their father's room.

When they went down the stairs they were immediately in conversation.

"There were no pictures of her," Tyrion said. "Why?"

"There were no pictures of us either." Said Jaime.

He and Tyrion both waited for Cersei's reaction.

"I don't understand, father loved her very deeply…" She wanted to cry but did not want to so that Tyrion would not feel as though it was all his fault. "I know, I have a brilliant plan!"

Her brothers gave each other the 'Oh-oh' look.

Cersei rushed to her bedroom two floors down that Jaime had to carry Tyrion in his arms so they could both keep up. When they entered her room she was looking at pictures that their uncle Gerion took of her and Jaime and their mother, she handed it to Tyrion.

"Tyrion, look at mother isn't she pretty?" She still used the word isn't instead of wasn't.

"She really was, she's beautiful!" he replied smiling at the picture but also he was sad.

The box was full of old photos from almost a decade mostly with the twins but it was the sweet photograph that he really loved of their parents in casual clothes, their arms around each other and they were smiling. Tyrion wondered what would have been if she was still alive.

"Cersei, what would mother always say to you and Jaime?" he asked, still looking at the photograph as though she would suddenly come to life.

"She used to say that we were very lucky children because we have clothes on our backs." It was Jaime who replied.

"She used to say how much she loved us, she said that she loved us so much that even if the sun exploded, the eight minutes that takes for the light to travel to us would be extend to eternity and that her love would still feel warm." She explained but she had no idea what it meant at that time.

There was silence. Tyrion positioned himself in the middle of the bed while the twins sat up on both his sides.

"and what would she say to father?"

"She would say that she loved him deeply, she said that if she was never around father would be a very miserable man." She was crying now, and trying to hold back the tears only made her brothers follow her lead. There was a long silence when someone suddenly burst into the room.

"Cersei, Jaime, Tyrion why all the tears? Your old man is perfectly alright." Uncle Gerion said, as they wiped their tears. "What is the matter?" he looked at all the old photographs that he had given them when they were younger. "Oh" he said as he examined all the pictures that he had taken back then. "Why don't you make your father a collage? Of your mother of course and don't tell me that it's a bad idea, he misses her very much too but he can't show that side of himself to anyone." He said clearly as though it was a story.

"Why?" Asked Tyrion, while the twins already knew why.

"Because he has to be strong, and brave for you and he doesn't want to worry you. I know that your father doesn't seem like the kind of man to give you a hug everyday but he is trying by gods old and new he is trying." Gerion explained as Wuffles showed up and hopped up on the bed.

"It was really nice of father to give Tyrion a dog for his birthday." Said Cersei as she patted the dog on the head.

"I know, have you ever heard of the story of how he got the idea of getting Wuffles as a present?" He sat on the floor and looked up at the children, he began by clearing his throat while the three of them sat upright to hear him. "Well, somehow your father desperately needed to do something and when I asked him what it was, he said he did not know but that this something was coming soon." The children smiled in amusement. "I said 'brother tell me what it is? Let's take a walk to Lannisport so you can remember.' And so we went out and walked and walked and walked some more for almost four hours until we passed by this pet store. He turned to me and said 'I've got it!' and he dashed inside the quiet pet store and found a pen full of white scotty dog puppies being fed by their mother. I didn't understand it at first because when he found them, he still looked unhappy, and tired but he turned to me and said. 'Gerion, three weeks from now is Tyrion's birthday do you think…' 'Of course brother! He would like one! That's very sweet of you.' I wanted to hug him but he wouldn't let me. We bought the smallest one, but your father instructed the clerk that he would be fetching Wuffles on the day of your birthday."

"But he didn't give Wuffles to me himself, it would have been very nice if he did." Tyrion said as he hugged the dog. "He wrote a letter saying that it was time for me to learn how to be responsible."

"And indeed you learned to be responsible."

"Maybe we should make a collage for father." Said Jaime. "It's a good idea."

"I agree." Said their uncle with a very approving smile.

"Okay." Said Tyrion and Cersei.

That night…

Tyrion was still looking at the picture that Cersei had given him, but he was now in his own room. He was under the sheets with a flashlight when he could hear a creek of the floorboards just outside his bedroom door. Tyrion hid the picture under his pillow and turned off the flashlight, just as the door opened.

The sound of the shoes made it clear that it was his father. He could feel the man sitting on the edge of the bed. He was quiet while Tyrion tried hard not to make it known that he was pretending to be asleep. The man ran a hand through his son's golden locks and sighed.

"I know you're not asleep." He said, the seven-year old had no idea how on earth he knew. "and I know that you know about the book I've been reading." His voice rich and sophisticated.

"Why do you need a book to tell you what to do?" Tyrion suddenly asked as he finally opened his eyes to face his father, but within just a second he looked away. "Why can't you just say I love you?" he desperately wanted father to love him, not just say it but also show it. Tyrion sat up and gazed up at Tywin's eyes and there he saw a tear roll down his chiseled face. His father showed a lot of self-control that even crying was not a sudden uncontrollable emotion.

"Go to sleep." The older man said Tyrion sat up and gave him a hug. A real hug and it felt good.

"Good night father." Tyrion said still hugging him just as Wuffles entered and approached the bed.

"Good night Tyrion and go to sleep." His father replied and placed Wuffles on the bed and tucked in his son.

"Father?" he said. "What would mother think of my being responsible at seven years old?"

"She'd have been very proud, just like I am." He ran another hand through Tyrion's hair. "Go to sleep." With that he left his side and went out the door.

Hehehehe…tricked father into telling me the truth! He thought to himself with a smile as he made himself comfortable. Wait till the twins hear about this!

A few days later…

"Brother, do you know that the children love you very much?" asked Gerion in one of their late walks.

"I'm not aware of that." Tywin replied. "They seem to try very hard at breaking every rule I tell them to obey."

"That's because they want your full attention." Said the younger Lannister. "Jaime needs someone to show him how to be a man, a man who's strong, Cersei needs a father who can tell all the boys to wait until she's nineteen and Tyrion just wants you to love him brother, he tries very hard because he's never gotten it from you." Gerion said to his brother's face. "It hurts me to be the one to tell you but you are a terrible father!"

"Don't start this again Gerion."

"I'm telling you this because I've got to! And you need to listen to what I'm saying or those children will turn themselves against you when they get older!"said Gerion, this was a sudden brilliant plan. He wouldn't even know what hit him! "Think about it." Then he left.

A few more days later…

"Is it ready?" asked Cersei, excited for what they were about to shoe their father.

"Yes it is!" Said her brothers in unison.

It was not a collage, but a recycled book that they pasted on many pictures of their mother starting from her childhood. Uncle Kevan and Aunt Genna had given them pictures of their late mother. It was beautiful because Tyrion had made pop-up like pages.

"Do you think father will like it?" asked Tyrion who tied the strings on the front of the book.

"Of course he will." Said the twins together.

"I hope you're right." Said Tyrion as they made their way downstairs to father's office where he mostly stayed even during the nights.

Jaime knocked on the half open door.

"Father?" He asked. "We have something for you, may we come in?"

"Just leave it on my desk." Tywin replied, busy studying the figures.

"No we want to give it to you personally." Said Cersei, she signaled Jaime to bring it in.

What Tywin saw was a book of old photographs of his late wife lady Joanna, there was an old photograph of them just before the twins were born.

Before the Lannister children knew it, their father clicked his teeth like there was something he regretted doing many years ago. Were they too much in a rush?