To all of you wonderful people who have reviewed or favourited or alerted - THANK YOU SO MUCH. You have seriously made my month, and I'm not exaggerating - 51 reviews, WOW! You guys are the best.

There is no better tonic when you're stuck on a story than the knowledge that people are enjoying it and want to read more! I've finally barrelled through this chapter and there will be another one imminently - probably tomorrow :) Things get a little bit steamier in this chapter, but not too much - don't worry, there will be some Jaime-lovin' coming up for all you deserving readers.

RJM - You're right, she did idolise Jaime a little too much, but as you'll see, he's falling from his pedestal pretty swiftly. She's dealing with things quite well at the moment, I agree, but we'll see how she manages with the backstabbing and viciousness of Jaime's courtlife when they finally get there! Thank for your review my lovely.

Bluefish - Hehehe, I welcome all geeks and avengers fans! Well spotted. So pleased you're enjoying it, and here is your update for you! Enjoy.

Guest - Well, I aim to please! Glad you're so excited, thanks for your lovely words :)

Annii - Don't worry! Small blip over, subsequently, I will force myself to be much quicker so that you can have your fanfic feels :) I'm flattered you're enjoying it so much. Thanks for the lovely review sweetie, and who doesn't want a jealous Jaime eh?

Happy Reading Folks.

.

Chapter Nine

Found Wanting

'I've heard she's the most beautiful woman in the Seven Kingdoms.'

He laughs at that. 'Then for the sake of my manhood, as much as my dignity, I shall say yes - but grudgingly, mind, because I can see you have taken against her. And I should not want to upset such a lovely face as yours.'

Ada flushes.

Across the room, Jaime fumes.

•

They have been a week with Dane and his men. If Jaime permits himself to think it, the rest has been welcome. The hours of sun are noticeably shorter, day opening late and casting long shadows across the snow smudged ground and then scurrying away quickly to leave long and cold nights in it's stead. There's been no fresh snowfall so the frozen earth shows beneath the white ice, like the sores of a bedridden man, dark and oozing from the meltwater. Grass is sparse, poking up here and there through the forest floor leaving little for the horses to forage. By day they set them roaming, letting them graze on what they can in the area round the camp. There is little more for humans to eat. Dane and his men had a store prepared, but the weather had come on so fierce and unexpected that supplies are dwindling. They will be forced to move on soon, or press their guests to leave. Jaime prays one of the two will come soon - he feels the road calling him. But Ada will stay as long as they are welcome, and Jaime knows he cannot leave her. Not after his promise to take her to Harrenhal.

He's come back from an unsuccessful hunt, having following Dane and Ada into the deeper woods and then marching off on his own path, trailing what he had thought were deer tracks and unwilling to follow the two and hear their close, easy conversation. Soon, however, the trail had disappeared and the rabbits he had caught tearing up what grass there was to offer had scarpered before his preoccupied mind could respond.

Now he enters the clearing empty handed, save for the bow he had been leant and the short blade at his hip.

Idan, the man who speaks little but seems to know more than he is letting on, sits by the fire, legs stretched out and peeling some indistinguishable root with obvious concentration.

Jaime hunkers down beside him on the frozen ground and puts his palms out towards the flames.

'No luck then?' Idan asks after a moment.

'No, nothing.'

'Perhaps Ada and Dane will be luckier.'

Jaime's mind turns to things dark and muddy. 'Perhaps,' he says, picking up a loose twig and poking it into the embers to watch it crackle and burn.

They sit in a companionable silence for a moment, the sound of Idan's knife scraping over the roots and the drip from the trees above setting up a strange rhythm in Jaime's mind. He lets his haunches drop down until he's seated beside the other man and crooks his knees with his elbows twitched round them.

'How do things fare in Kingslanding, do you know?' Jaime tries to make it sound offhand, casual.

Idan shrugs, scraping. 'Badly, so I hear. They say there have been riots, Stannis Baratheon was coming in by sea last thing I heard, hoping to take the city by force.'

Jaime's heart quickens a pace, worry for his sister building. He must ask. 'And the King, his mother?'

'Joffrey? Hiding I should think!' Jaime does not doubt it, or at least playing at war and then letting other men do the dying… 'As for the Queen, they say she has taken comfort in the arms of other men since the death of the King and then the capture of her brother by the Stark boy.' Idan illustrates his point by jabbing the short knife north into the trees, in some demonstration of where Robb Stark might be.

Jaime stiffens, nose flaring. Other lovers… 'Oh yes?'

'They say she chooses them for their likeness to her twin. Lancel Lannister, for his hair and his eyes. Kettleback is said to have the Kingslayer's arse, and Moon Boy makes jests the way her brother did-' Idan pulls up his shoulders and laughs. 'But it is just rumours, prattle from village women. Truth be told I have not set foot in Kingslanding for nearly two years. Could be a ruin for all I know, or the queen could be as pious as a priest. But 'tis unlikely.' His boots retrench their heels into the soft ashy ground surrounding the fire and he leans forward over his knees, conversation complete; returning to the consuming task of peeling tough, woody roots.

Jaime feels a real, sudden sickness at the thought of anyone else in his sister's bed. He has been more loyal to his sister than he has ever been to anyone in his long career as Kingsguard and she repays him by taking other men between her lily-white legs. Osmund Kettleback? Moonboy…

A shiver of righteous outrage, which he swallows heavily. She has been his prize for all these long months, he reminds himself firmly. He will deal with the lovers when he has sated himself with her skin once more, he won't take away the one thing that keeps him walking. Harrenhal is almost within reach, Kingslanding just a little farther. But there's something in his belly that has gone sour at the memory of his twin's sweet flesh, the thought of Cersei arouses something other than lust. He can hear Ada, that soft angry voice resonating about his head. I think I will go mad with it! Fuck your sister all you want, throw as many boys from towers as you like, I don't care. I just want to go home. And his own mad, forceful thoughts of grabbing her and kissing her.

She cared then, surely? He thinks, as he narrows his eyes against the stinging smoke guttering across from the fire. She cared enough to be upset about him doing something so abhorrent. That must count for something? But it's a small reassurance, which dwindles even farther when he looks up at the sound of crunching footfalls and catches Ada's steely glance as she and Dane enter the clearing.

Jaime's head is a turmoil. He remembers vividly - as though her hand had left some kind of burning imprint on his skin - the way she had grabbed his shoulder for support when they first met Dane on the road. The desperate clutch of her fingers dug into his muscle. She had needed him… He wants her to need him.

He decides to stare stonily at Dane who, ever successful, has a deer carcass slung over his left shoulder. Jaime scowls and stands.

'No luck then Jan?' Dane asks. Jaime stings from the question, fixes him with a look.

'I would have thought that was obvious,' he says flatly, letting his eyes linger disparagingly on Dane's broad features.

Dane pulls a face. 'This should suffice for today and tomorrow. Better luck next time.'

Jaime pulls a wretched smile, so sharp and white that even Ada, who knows his temper and his moods well, feels chilled. 'Thank you,' he tells Dane and stalks away towards the trees above the camp.

At first he thinks he's made it out alone. Starting to sense the settlement and the human trace of the clearing fall away behind him. Leaving just the crunch of the ground and snow beneath his boots and the chill breeze through his rotted shirt. But his ears soon pick out the crack of puddles breaking underfoot and the huff of laboured breathing as someone tries to catch up with his long strides.

He knows who it is before she calls him back.

'Jaime!'

He doesn't turn, but he slows his pace a little, the steeper slope causing him to grab for a strong, young birch just above him so that he can steady himself on the hard ground.

'Jaime, stop.'

She sounds angry. Good.

He hears her swear and then the heavier crack as she starts to scramble up to catch his retreating figure.

She reaches him sooner than he had anticipated and the wrench on his elbow finds him a little off-guard. He whips round, towering over her even more than usual with the slope so much in his favour.

'What?' He raises a blond eyebrow.

'I can't believe how rude you're being!' she tells him, bright eyes glaring up at him from the folds of her cloak hood. Dane's cloak, he thinks sourly. 'These men took us in when they had no obligation to. They've fed us and kept us from getting killed or strung up by any of Robb Stark's men and you decide now is the time for a stupid feud of some sort!' She shakes her head. 'Arrogance I expect from you Jaime, but not rudeness. Not purposefully.'

Jaime draws up his lip into a sneer. 'I'm sorry, did I embarrass you in front of Dane?'

Her eyes, usually soft and smiling, are steely. 'No Jaime, you embarrassed yourself.'

He looks off to the side, into the deep dark of the trees and draws his brows into a heavy scowl. 'I don't give a damn what people think of me.'

Ada snorts. 'Pull the other one Jaime, it's got fucking bells on it.'

Jaime, unaware of the expression, lets it pass by and just picks up the general gist of her angry retort. 'You think I care what these outlaws make of me? Once we've moved on from here, do you think we'll ever see them again? What do you plan to do Ada, stay here forever holed up in this forest with Dane? Eating roots and scrabbling in the dirt for your food, fucking like animals in a dingy little wood cabin-'

He almost hears the slap before he feels it.

His cheek pulses where she's struck him, angry and stinging. He can actually feel the outline of each slender finger, the pads and the firm heel of her thumb. He forces himself not to bring a hand up to his face, instead his nose flares and he turns a furious gaze down on her.

'You know what, Kingslayer?' Her voice is little above a whisper. 'I think I'd rather spend the rest of my life with him than go another step with you.'

And she whips around with such violence that on the hard, icy ground of the steep slope she skids and starts to fall. Jaime grabs her about the waist unthinkingly, fingers tight in her shirt and hauling her upright. He can feel the warmth of her skin through the thin material of her clothes, his palms pressed against her ribs and the thin skin covering them. Her back is flush to his belly and chest, the scent of her hair - spice and musk and scalp, playing over his senses like alcohol.

It is in that moment, even as she wrenches herself from his grip and stomps off down the slope without a backwards glance, that he wants her. He wants her.

•

Dane is cautious. It's Ada who meets their lips first, chapped skin catching a little as their mouths brush. But she's been hungry for too long to let him go and her fingers twine into his short hair quickly, his square, warm palms coming up to cup her cheeks.

He breaks off, pulls back, breathing heavy. 'What about Jan?' he asks, fingers deep in her hair.

She looks at him, at his blye eyes and his warm open face. No secrets. No painful past. Nothing. 'What about him?' she breathes and kisses him again.

The hut is soon full of heat and warmth and the press of skin on skin. Ada will not think of Jaime. Not once.

Dane is soft and sure, undressing her reverently and setting his mouth in open kisses to each inch of skin revealed. But he makes a blunder. His sensitivity loses her. He pauses, gives her time to breathe. Asks her if she wants him to go on.

Ada stares, eyes wide, at him set between her legs. Brown and stocky and sincere. But he's not lean enough, not tall or snarky enough, not bearded or scabbed or beaten. Not Jaime. She hates herself for it. What is wrong with her? Here is a man, a kind, sweet man who reminded her of Phil in so many ways. Who never made her want to kick him in painful places, or drove her mad with annoyance. Never said stupid, arrogant, brash things or forced her to feel emotions she didn't want to feel. And yet here she is, about to tell him that she can't go through with this. Because someone else is too much in her mind.

She falls back a little, onto her elbows, feeling suddenly too bare. Naked under his gaze in a way that she doesn't want to be. There's nothing to cover her up, so she has to lie open. Exposed.

'You want me to stop.' He says flatly, sensing her unease. 'Tell me Ada, you want me to stop.'

She's warm in the bed, the two of them skin to skin. The night outside is cold. 'I do.' She whispers, drawing him down onto her chest, folding her arms about his broad shoulders. 'Stop, lets stop this.'

Dane settles heavily against her, huffing slightly. 'What are we doing?'

'I-'

'You love him don't you?' he murmurs into her skin, breath hot. 'Jan.'

Ada closes her eyes and imagines that it's Jaime pressed close to her, against her. In her. She wants him so much it burns and she hates herself for it.

'But I can't have him.' She tells Dane's scalp, threading her fingers through his hair.

'Does he not love you?' Dane turns them over in the furs, curls round her, strong arms about her waist and his legs spooned up behind hers.

Ada tries to ignore his question, pretend she's drifting, sleeping.

'Ada?' he presses.

But she does not answer and so he falls silent. His breathing deepens into a rasp in his throat, his body easing out behind her until he's asleep, wrapped tightly round her in the warmth of the cabin. In the morning, she knows, Jaime will come looking for her in the hut she usually shares with Sasha. But the boy will be snoring on the floor and her pallet will be empty and then he'll know. And when she sees him next his eyes will be dark with some kind of understanding. And that will be that. Even though Dane is asleep behind her and all Ada can think about is Jaime.

•

See y'all again tomorrow! Until then